Lou Xiaowu hung her head, saying, “The General used to be so nice to me, but lately he hardly wants to pay attention to me. I’m feeling very dejected.”
An Jiu looked at her approvingly, “You’ve made a correct decision.”
“What?” Lou Xiaowu looked at her in confusion.
“I mean, no one is better at advising me,” An Jiu said confidently. “Your choice was wise.”
Lou Xiaowu said happily, “Right, right.”
The two found a sunny spot to sit down, and Lou Xiaowu began to chatter about General Ling’s recent changes.
“He doesn’t seem happy at all after clearing his name,” Lou Xiaowu had been thinking about this the whole way here, still unable to understand.
After listening, An Jiu said, “That’s simple. Although he’s cleared his name now, his family all died unjustly. The one who killed his family was the current emperor’s father, and now he still has to serve the emperor. This situation would make anyone unhappy.”
“Family vengeance,” Lou Xiaowu understood immediately, nodding. Her trust in An Jiu grew even more. “I understand that now, but why was he nice to me before and not nice now? That shouldn’t have anything to do with family vengeance, right?”
“Well…” An Jiu thought carefully, “Because he was bored before, and now he’s not bored anymore.”
Lou Xiaowu’s almond-shaped eyes widened, “Is that really what he’s thinking!”
An Jiu glanced at her, “Why are you angry? He was good to you before, you should be grateful. No one is obligated to be nice to you.”
“What you say… makes sense, but I’m still angry. Why?” Lou Xiaowu tilted her head and asked, “What if Uncle Chu stops being nice to you in the future? Wouldn’t you be angry?”
An Jiu was silent for a moment, then asked, “Why would he stop being nice to me?”
“Oh, so you mean I deserve to be disliked?” Lou Xiaowu said angrily, puffing up her cheeks. “I’m still just as clever!”
“If he stops being nice to me,” An Jiu thought about this possibility, feeling a dull pain in her heart, “I’d die with him, or he shouldn’t have started being nice to me in the first place. Once he’s been nice, he can’t just say he dislikes me and that’s it.”
“You’re right, I’m going to find him and die together!” Lou Xiaowu scrambled up and rushed out.
An Jiu crossed her arms and looked up at the old pear tree in the courtyard, falling into thought: Would Chu Dingjiang dislike me one day? Besides having Mei Jiu’s good looks, I don’t have many other good qualities… Hmm, it seems there’s a real possibility!
Suddenly, she felt an unprecedented sense of crisis. The matter of enhancing her charm had become urgent.
Xue Sha walked over, saw An Jiu staring blankly upward, stood for a moment, and then asked, “An Jiu, are we still going to Zhending Prefecture or not?”
“Yes,” An Jiu snapped back to reality.
In the imperial palace of Bianjing, the cabinet was overwhelmed with work. Prime Minister Hua finished reviewing a memorial and placed it on a stack at the corner of the desk, then picked up another.
After quickly reading through the content, his brush hovered over the paper for a long while. In the end, he didn’t make any comments and set it aside.
Memorials from local officials were first reviewed by the cabinet ministers, who would write their opinions on how to handle them. These would then be presented to the emperor for review. If there were no objections, the ministers’ suggestions would become the final decision. However, some memorials couldn’t be directly handled by the cabinet ministers and would be presented directly to the emperor.
The memorial Prime Minister Hua didn’t comment on was from Wu Lingyuan, mixed in with a stack from Hejian Prefecture, not particularly conspicuous.
The request for a self-defense force of two thousand people in Hexi County wasn’t excessive. The Song Dynasty traditionally maintained a large military, often numbering in the tens of thousands. Two thousand was a small matter. However, Wu Lingyuan was Hua Rongtian’s protégé. He didn’t handle it directly to avoid suspicion, lest the emperor think their family was up to something in the border defense.
It was fortunate that this memorial fell into his hands. If it had been seen by someone with different political views, it might have been immediately rejected or caused another dispute.
After all the ministers had finished their work for the day, the internal supervisors exchanged the processed memorials, ensuring each cabinet elder reviewed them all. If there were no objections, they would sign their approval at the end. If there were disagreements, the matter would be left for discussion to reach a unified opinion before reprocessing. If they couldn’t decide, it would still be up to the emperor to make the final decision.
After noon, the cabinet elders gathered to discuss matters.
Half an hour before the meeting, Prime Minister Hua had quietly slipped into the Hexi County memorial.
Due to the heavy workload each day, when others saw it, they assumed they had overlooked it or that it had just reached them.
One cabinet elder came across this memorial and asked with confusion, “Hexi County wants to build a private army?”
Prime Minister Hua, as if he had never seen it before, frowned and asked, “How large a private army?”
“Two thousand,” the cabinet elder answered.
Everyone present was aware that the newly appointed magistrate of Hexi County had some connection to the Hua family, but they couldn’t suspect the Hua family of ill intentions over just two thousand men.
The room fell silent as everyone passed around and read the memorial.
“Let’s leave this memorial for His Majesty to decide,” Prime Minister Hua said.
The others had no objections.
If Wu Lingyuan didn’t have such an unusual relationship with the Hua family, the cabinet could have handled this small matter. But now it was best not to interfere, lest they offend Prime Minister Hua and incur the emperor’s displeasure, especially since border defense was of utmost importance. Another reason the cabinet elders were reluctant to speak up was that the content of Wu Lingyuan’s memorial was alarming. The entire Hexi County had barely over 400 households, with a total population of less than 3,000 men, women, old, and young. It didn’t even qualify as a lower county. As for a self-defense force, they probably couldn’t gather 2,000 people even if they included women.
In comparison, a prosperous county in the south usually had about 6,000 households, and even a lower county had nearly 1,000 households.
After the meeting, subordinate officials compiled all the memorials to be presented to the emperor, and the cabinet finally had a moment of relaxation.
Prime Minister Hua personally brewed a pot of tea, opened the window, and sat in a round-backed chair to appreciate the lush green banana leaves outside.
It was just past noon, and the sky was overcast.
Soon, raindrops fell on the banana leaves, creating a symphony of deep and shallow sounds. The stuffy air seemed to cool a bit.
After finishing a cup of tea, Prime Minister Hua returned to his desk to continue working.
It wasn’t until dusk that he looked up at the outside, then got up to leave.
The internal supervisor was surprised to see him and hurriedly took an umbrella to open it. “Prime Minister, you’re leaving so early today?”
Prime Minister Hua smiled, “Going home to see my little grandson.”
He then took the umbrella and left on his own.
Walking slowly, he passed through a palace gate and happened to meet Hua Rongtian coming out of the Privy Council.