The Legend of Concubine's Daughter Minglan

Chapter 141

According to the feudal code of ethics from the Zhou Dynasty, if a man's elder brother passed away, he should observe mourning for nine months. However, Gu Tingyu was not only Gu Tingye's elder brother, but also the formal inheritor of the Gu's family who had been ennobled. Therefore, Gu Tingyu was considered to be the head of the Gu family, and his brothers should observe deep mourning during the first three months after he deceased, which forbade them to sleep with women, hold banquets and entertain themselves.

As a result, Gu Tingye could see his gorgeous wife every day but couldn't touch or kiss her. On the other side, Zhu shi's baby bump looked more obvious day by day. Gu Tingye, with a gloomy look on his face, felt that he and the Qin family were born to be enemies.

One day, the people from Marquis Dongchang's family came to invite Gu Tingye and Minglan to have tea and taste the plums together, but were rejected flatly.

Old Madam Qin, eyes red, then went to persuade Minglan.

"Master is so sad." Minglan explained that, "The grievance in his heart is too hard to vent, and he even couldn't bear to see the white lantern. That object would remind him of his Eldest Brother... He always gets sad when thinking of Eldest Brother."

Old Madam Qin, choked with words, remembered what had happened lately. Indignant, she almost fainted again.

After Minglan comforted her 'weak' mother-in-law, she went back to the Cheng Manor leisurely. Then, she received a message from the Sheng family: Changbai will be sent to the local offices at the end of this month. Master and Madam Gu, please come back to the Sheng's mansion to join the family reunion.

Minglan had all sorts of doubts. Then she turned around and said, "I thought my dad is going to be sent to the local offices. Why my brother is going now?"

Gu Tingye leaned against the window with a book in his hand while chuckling, "My father-in-law truly is a wise man. Shen Shiqi is not the only old fox in the government."

Actually, Shen Shiqi, who was known as the evergreen in the political arena, truly was an outstanding man. He never offended anyone and was valued by the emperor a lot since Official Shen was able to read the emperor's mind and had an insight into the conflicts among the other officials.

However, lately the situation in the political circle was getting more complicated. Official Shen found that sometimes he had to take sides and by doing that he would either offend the emperor or the officials. Therefore, in order to maintain his good reputation in his later years, Shen Shiqi had submitted letters of resignation to the emperor since the beginning of this year. Of course, the emperor disagreed with that. As a result, Shen Shiqi then stayed at home on the pretext of illness for half a year(managed to escape two unprecedentedly fierce disputes on the imperial court), which could be regarded as being absent from work openly.

The emperor lost the "tug-of-war" and at last permitted Shen Shiqi's resignation.

The emperor had thought that it was better to let this old fox continue working as the Prime Minister than appointing a person he didn't like. When the opportunity came up, he would assign his trusted subordinate to that post. Right now, Official Yao whom the emperor trusted a lot had just entered the Cabinet and wasn't experienced enough. Now that Shen Shiqi had resigned, the perfect candidate to replace him in the emperor's mind was not qualified yet, and the ones who were qualified were not fully trusted by the emperor.

Shen Shiqi, the old fox, was so sensible that after he had been permitted to resign, he recommended a person to the emperor at once, who was Official Lu who always seemed drowsy among the officials on the imperial court.– 'All right, then Official Lu it is.' The emperor thought.