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Chapter 123.2: The Chessboard Changing Again

Because he’d already sunk into the quagmire, Luo Pei Shan no longer held back. And in court, he also no longer acted nonchalant, aside from matters within his duties, rarely making a statement. He became active, and at this time, also made others witness firsthand the impressiveness of this Head Minister of Rites, great erudition and learning, great talent, and that mouth further was like blades, often times, all drawing blood on the first prick. And those that debated with him, nine out of ten, would all be angered by him to the point of nearly vomiting and ‘perish in battle’.

Even Le Cheng Emperor who sat high above on the dragon throne raised his eyebrows at him. He never thought, the normally seemingly refined and also somewhat carefree beloved minister Luo was actually also a ‘heroic commander’.

Le Cheng Emperor had Luo Pei Shan stay behind to speak with him, an exchange of hearts between ruler and subject. Luo Pei Shan was also rather frank, when not wanting to sink into the dispute, one naturally needed to be low-key, and when there’s no other choice, one naturally didn’t needed to hide or shy away anymore. If not for anything else, one at least needs to add some more backing for one’s grandchildren. Else, there will always be those few that want to bully them. As long as he was still alive, and still serving as an official, he definitely won’t ignore it.

Towards Jing Wan getting ‘bullied’ by the Ding Duchess, it naturally wouldn’t pass on into Le Cheng Emperor’s ears. Le Cheng Emperor just assumed that it was probably the Luo family’s younger generation getting into a dispute with others and in the end, even suffered a loss.

And Luo Pei Shan’s attitude also clearly told Le Cheng Emperor, he was precisely going for the position of the Head Minister of Appointments. As for possibly increasing Kang Qinwang’s influence, that was just something unavoidable to begin with. In order to have Kang Qinwang pushed onto the throne, he will also give his all, and now, just depend on whether or not Le Cheng Emperor want to suppress Kang Qinwang.

Just as Luo Jing Ying’s caretaker mama had guessed, near the Luo Manor, as expected, was one of Li Hong Ming’s people. By just displaying a bit of ‘looking for someone’ look, someone directly came up to her. However, the original plan for today wasn’t approved of, but rather pushed back another day, purely because yesterday, Le Cheng Emperor had requested the court officials to submit a memorandum of their recommended candidate for the Head Minister of Appointments position today. And if all go as planned, then the result will come out tomorrow. At such a time, where did Li Hong Ming have the energy to deal with Luo Jing Ying.

Just, they probably never would have thought, their every word and action all clearly fell into the eyes and ears of a third person.

Sure enough, during the morning court of the next day, Le Cheng Emperor complied with the court officials’ opinion. Luo Pei Shan was ‘where the people’s expectations lay’, Le Cheng Emperor unhesitantly stated this bit. Afterwards, he selected the Left Assistant Minister of Rites to temporarily substitute the Head Minister in managing the Ministry of Rites. If one performs well, there’s the possibility of directly taking over the position of Head Minister. But if one doesn’t perform well, then naturally it’s to select another worthy person.

And the people of Kang Qinwang’s faction finally learned, for Rui Qinwang’s side, it wasn’t because they didn’t have a candidate thus appeared weaker in influence, but rather, majority of them also recommended Luo Pei Shan. In fact, they had even more memorandums than their side.

What did this mean?

After court ended, before Kang Qinwang’s people could even say anything, the people on Rui Qinwang’s side already began congratulating one by one. Moreover, from the looks of it, they were wholeheartedly happy, not like they were pretending in the slightest.

Li Hong Yi was already someone who was relatively quick-tempered to begin with. This scene was practically just like prodding a hornet’s nest. While everyone was still present, Li Hong Yi directly glared at Luo Pei Shan fiercely, and afterwards, stormed off in a huff.

Li Hong Ming walked before Luo Pei Shan, carrying a smile on his face, “Sir Luo, congratulations. Eldest imperial brother’s temper has always been that way, don’t lower yourself to his level.”

Luo Pei Shan faintly replied a few words.

He had considered that Li Hong Ming probably won’t give up that easily. Just, he never expected that he would be this resolute, completely giving up the Head Minister of Appointments position, driving wedge between him and Kang Qinwang in such a brazen way. But because he was too open, it lead to this outcome being speechlessly good. Never mind Li Hong Yi, even quite a few of his ‘strategic advisors’ all carried a peculiar gaze towards him, suspecting whether or not this was something they’d long planned in advance, casting oneself towards Kang Qinwang on the surface, but privately, having long colluded with Rui Qinwang, precisely for the sake of having Luo Pei Shan pushed onto the position of Head Minister of Appointments?

Li Hong Ming was very satisfied with this result. It was even better than he’d anticipated. His strategy, as expected, was correct. He couldn’t be more clear about Li Hong Yi’s personality. Even if he were to let him become aware of his intentions, afraid he would still have a lump in his heart, unable to wholeheartedly trust Luo Pei Shan. Then, in that case, Luo Pei Shan’s impact will greatly decrease, or even have the opposite reaction. And as the number of times goes up, it would be strange for Luo Pei Shan to not turn cold inside. When time comes, he can just let bygones be bygones, and then express his respect for the wise. The possibility of him becoming his was just too high. In this short period of time, he has witnessed Luo Pei Shan’s abilities. With his assistance as the Head Minister of Appointments, it would definitely be like ‘a tiger growing wings’^[1].

Li Hong Ming’s mood was very good, extremely good.

Seeing him like this, Kang Qinwang’s people’s suspicion deepened further.

Luo Pei Shan inwardly sighed. He still underestimated Rui Qinwang. Although the saying goes, ‘one can only obtain by giving up’, but, some things weren’t that easy to give up, yet Rui Qinwang was just able to give up. Just based on this level of scheming and courage, Kang Qinwang was far inferior in comparison. No wonder Rui Qinwang was further favored. To want to give Kang Qinwang more advantages wasn’t something that easy either.

“Sir Luo…………” Head Magistrate Diwu stepped forward. Towards this ‘old rival’ of his, clearly a happy matter, yet he was unable to be happy about it. He rather didn’t believe Luo Pei Shan was someone who was ‘two-faced with three knives’^[2], can only say Rui Qinwang’s strategy was too outstanding. In addition, there was Le Cheng Emperor’s ‘arts of a ruler’ crafted to the point of perfection. Speaking of which, if Le Cheng Emperor hadn’t had all those that recommended Luo Pei Shan named out loud, majority of the people would probably just feel Luo Pei Shan was recommended the most, but no one would know that it was to such a ridiculous degree, and won’t think to go investigate either. After all, the memorandums were directly submitted to Le Cheng Emperor and didn’t go through the inner cabinet.

“Sir Diwu.” Luo Pei Shan returned the courtesy. Right now, he wasn’t in the mood to quarrel with Head Magistrate Diwu either.

“In the future, afraid there won’t be anymore opportunities to admire flowers together with Sir Luo.” One of the reasons was because the Head Minister of Appointments was much busier than the Head Minister of Rites, and secondly, as someone of the neutral faction, running to go play with someone of Kang Qinwang’s faction, this was wanting to tell everyone, you, the Head Magistrate of the Judicial Court, was also preparing to join the Kang Qinwang faction? But the thing that made Head Magistrate Diwu heartache the most was not being able to run to the Luo Manor anymore. Those darling treasures, how many times less will he have to see them, how can he live like this?

Luo Pei Shan faintly casted him a glance. Since he was unhappy, he wasn’t going to let others be happy either, “My family’s third girl’s three color peony bloomed.”

Head Magistrate Diwu couldn’t help ripping out his beard again, “Sir Luo, you really are mean.” Who enticed people like this? Too mean!

“Heh.” Luo Pei Shan put on a fake smile, “How is this official mean, merely stating a trivial matter.”

For people who didn’t love flowers, that certainly was a matter that couldn’t be more trivial, but for people who loved flowers to the point of madness, the temptation was not small. Never mind Head Magistrate Diwu, for the other few that hadn’t left yet, their hands were also all itching, wanting to ruthlessly beat him up. Who let him show off?!

“Sir Luo being appointed the Head Minister of Appointments, although was an equal transfer, but in reality, it’s a promotion, a big happy occasion, worthy of celebration. Why don’t we all meet at the Luo Manor after work to drink and chat with Sir Luo?” The Head Cabinet Minister said.

(T/N: Equal transfer because the rank and title technically stay the same, still being first-ranked, but Head Minister of Appointments is a post higher than his original post.)

“Head Cabinet Minister’s words are extremely reasonable.” They all agreed one after the other.

Among this bunch, there were people from every faction, so there was no need to worry about them gathering together to conspire about anything. They were purely just drinking together. Of course, the wine lover’s heart was not in the cup!

Luo Pei Shan’s face darkened, his eye daggers vigorously stabbed towards Ruan Rui Zhong. Unfortunately, the Head Cabinet Minister’s skin was thick, smiling brightly, completely unshakeable. In the last few days, Luo Pei Shan can be said to have destroyed everything in his path in court, but this didn’t mean that he didn’t have any opponents. A mouthful of old blood blocked his heart, “Tomorrow then.” He truly wasn’t in the mood today.

“Then it’s decided.”

The matters that happened after morning court ended, the Luo family didn’t know about, but Luo Pei Shan getting appointed the Head Minister of Appointments was something everyone all knew. In the Luo family, from the masters to the servants, very rarely was there one that wasn’t delighted. Wang-shi further made the decision to hand out an extra month of monthly salary to every servant.

Luo Pei Shan rather didn’t want to ruin everyone’s mood, thus didn’t show it on his face. However, for those that knew him extremely well, they still could tell something was wrong, “My lord, what’s wrong?” Luo Old Madam asked in concern.

[1] A rather uncommon idiom, but basically means double in power.

[2] You can probably guess what this idiom means with the context, but basically a back-stabber and double-crosser.

T/N: As you can see, Grandpa Luo is very popular with men, everybody wants him, look at the princes getting jealous over him.