Actually, this was the first time Minglan observed mourning for someone else so seriously. Not only were the maids in the mansion not allowed to wear colorful clothes, but Rong needed to wear the clothes in plain color which had been just made for her. As for Minglan, she kept to an even stricter dressing code from head to toe.

Today Minglan wore a Beizi in four plain colors embroidered with branches, a full set of pure white silver jewelries and a pair of shoes on which the coral ta.s.sels had been removed. After she turned around in front of Gu Tingye to show him her outfit, she asked him about his opinions.

Gu Tingye, mouth twitched, said, “Perhaps you"ll wear the same thing when I die.”

All the lanterns in Marquis Ningyuan"s mansion were covered with white cloth, so Minglan proposed to hang two white lanterns in front of the gate of the Cheng Manor to express their condolences, “Hanging the lanterns for three months should be enough.” However, Gu Tingye only retorted, “When father pa.s.sed away, we only hung the white lanterns for a hundred days. Why it has to take so long this time? Others might a.s.sume that I have died.”

Minglan could only sigh.

All right, this guy was not in a good mood lately and always spoke in a cynical tone and gave sarcastic remarks.

It was like someone had gathered all his strength to take revenge, but before he could launch a fatal attack, his enemy had already died and was given a decent and solemn funeral. What was more, the people who wanted to fawn on him knew nothing about the past grudges between him and the dead(He didn"t have the chance to publicize his grievances) and wished to show how grieved they were in front of his enemy"s memorial tablet. However, it was impossible for him to tell them, “My brother is my deadly foe, you guys don"t have to work so hard on crying at his funeral.”

In fact, Minglan was also very upset. She thought it was fine to hold a funeral for Gu Tingyu. However, as she thought of all the gift money which had been presented to Marquis Ningyuan"s mansion… she couldn"t help but get a sharp pain in the heart. Since the family property of the First family hadn"t been divided yet, all the money would be collected into the storeroom. However, the one who should pay those debts of grat.i.tude was her and she didn"t know how much money she and Gu Tingye would get when the property of the First Family was divided.

Still, she coaxed him with a generous att.i.tude, “We should always respect the dead. Don"t bear a grudge against him anymore.”

“Ever since I could remember things, I knew that he wouldn"t live a long life.” Gu Tingye said that with no expression on his face, “But he has also played lots of tricks on me.”

The deepest impression he had for his brother was that this man always lay on the bed weakly while waiting for others to serve him medicine. In the meantime, Gu Tingyu still had time to speak ill of Gu Tingye in front of their father with an evil look in his eyes. Therefore, Gu Tingye who had been set up many times by that sick man since his childhood held the view that Gu Tingyu"s sickness couldn"t offset the bad deeds he had done. Meanwhile, the sympathy he had for his brother couldn"t reduce the hatred. The one who had done bad things should be punished even if he was lying on the sick bed.

Gu Tingye"s thought sounded quite modern, and Minglan expressed her appreciation right away, “Honey, you truly are a real man who could clearly distinguish your love from hate.”"

Gu Tingye rolled his eyes to her, feeling much better now, and then taunted her, “You glib-tongued girl! It"s such a pity that you can not argue with those scholars in the imperial court!”

Lately he also had a lot of complaints about the scholars. Well, that was the second reason for his depression.

Since June, he started to serve as the vice commander of the Commandery of the Five Armies and commander of the Left Army concurrently and also had been enn.o.bled with the t.i.tle "Prince Shaobao". The result of his promotion was that he was able to partic.i.p.ate in the discussion of the military and political affairs directly. As the current political situation became steadier, the conflicts between each interest group which had simmered under the surface gradually turned to fierce quarrels. The main hall in the royal palace became the battlefield for all the political forces where a bunch of officials sputtered to each other every day.

They quarreled about the posthumous t.i.tle for the former emperor, the difference between the treatments for the two Empress Dowagers and the change of personnel. When discussing the issues about the administrative arrangements and the national policies, they would even skip the meals to quarrel with each other. According to the tradition of this dynasty, the civil officials had jurisdiction over the military officers. Most of the duties of the military officers were reporting their jobs, and the civil officials were in charge of arguing and discussing.

When Gu Tingye only needed to care about his own business, he could turn a deaf ear to all those discussions on the imperial court, because all the important affairs would be written down and the copies would be sent to the high-ranking officials for them to discuss. However, now that he could be considered a half civil and half military official, he had to listen to those arguments carefully because every time the emperor was at a loss about replying to the civil officials, he always asked, “My dear Official X, what do you think of this?”

— The Official X would normally refer to Shen Congxing, Official Yao and Gu Tingye, and other officials occasionally.

"Why the h.e.l.l did you ask me?! If I am capable of making polished speech, why do I serve in the army and earn a living by fighting b.l.o.o.d.y battles?!" That"s what Gu Tingye was thinking when called by the emperor.

In Gu Tingye"s view, it really didn"t matter if the word "Wen" should be added to the posthumous t.i.tle of the former emperor. However, a trifle like this was enough to let the two forces which had feud with each other a.s.semble all their men to fight the verbal battle from dawn till dark. They made the cla.s.sical expressions and cited from the ancient works, covering the affairs from ancient times to the remaining years of the former emperor when he had made a mistake by favoring Consort Rong.

This kind of quarrel was one of the gentle ones. Luckily, the emperor had no opinions about it and was even interested in watching them fighting each other.

Clearly, as a new emperor, he was still not experienced enough and knew nothing about how dangerous the political arguments could be on the imperial court. When neither group could convince each other, they asked the emperor to arbitrate the dispute right away.

If the emperor disagreed with adding the word "Wen" to the posthumous t.i.tle of his father, he would be considered as an unfilial son. "The former emperor has brought you back to the capital from that wasteland and given you cultivation, support and the throne. How can you regard your father as a bad guy?! You don"t have a conscience!"

After that, a group of officials would quote from the cla.s.sics to prove their point.

If the emperor agreed to that, he would be considered as an unwise emperor. “The former emperor has delayed appointing a crown prince for over ten years, which put the whole country in b.l.o.o.d.y battles. Even the capital has gone through a bloodbath. So many righteous governors have died in the two mutinies. Shouldn"t he be held responsible for all those? Your Majesty, why can"t you sacrifice your reputation of a filial son for justice, for all the citizens in the country?”

After that, the other groups of officials would quote from the cla.s.sics to prove their point.

The new emperor was almost about to faint. "Eh… Why do I have to suffer the collateral damage?" He thought.

Luckily, he had helpers. After the officials had quarreled about this for half a year, the emperor finally put this thing to an end with a lot of efforts.

Recently, the officials started to argue about the issues concerned with the treatments towards the two Empress Dowagers.

The emperor naturally wanted to treat his blood mother better. However, the civil officials didn"t agree with that by stating that before the former emperor died, he had given a verbal instruction that the Imperial n.o.ble Consort should be treated with respect and receive the same worship as the Empress."

Actually, the former emperor was already muddleheaded due to his sickness and about to breathe his last. In a daze, he was only able to recognize Consort De who had accompanied him for many years. According to the modern law, the words that had come out of his mouth under certain circ.u.mstances could only be considered as a nuncupative will, which didn"t count at all.

After the officials had quarreled about this for half a month, the emperor could only gnash his teeth in anger. However, not only did those officials not budge an inch, but they even proposed that according to the seniority of the two Empress Dowagers, Empress Dowager Sheng De should live in a bigger and more luxurious palace on the east.

Old General Geng who was absent-minded at that time was suddenly asked to speak by the emperor. Then he had a slip of tongue, “Of course the blood mother should be treated more respectfully than the stepmother.” Those words of him stirred up a hornets" nest.

In no time, the fierce abuses that Old General Geng brought on himself were even able to cover the sky like the volcanic ash, which included "having neither learning nor skill" "knowing nothing about the etiquette", "absurd", "ignorance"… Those were the mild ones, and some tougher ones even said he was "harboring evil intentions" or "hatching a sinister plot."