But Cui Shifan knew that this was precisely the effect Hu Juzheng wanted.
The imperial decree granting Luo Zhao’s marriage had only just been issued, and its message was unmistakable: Emperor Luo intended to suppress Gu Chengyin.
Countless eyes at court were fixed upon the Grand Secretariat, watching to see what position it would take on this matter.
If all five Grand Secretaries voted in favor of putting Gu Chengyin on the list of candidates, it would amount to a demonstration against Emperor Luo.
The man you seek to suppress—we in the Grand Secretariat unanimously support him.
That was not a situation Emperor Luo wanted to see. Given this ruler’s deep understanding of the art of balance—
Such a one-sided configuration would only make him feel that the Grand Secretariat had lost its internal checks and restraints.
And he would then have no choice but to make corresponding adjustments.
So Hu Juzheng was making a statement to Emperor Luo.
In this way, he was telling Emperor Luo that the Commoner Faction was not part of the Crown Prince’s faction, nor was it a supporter of Gu Chengyin.
The Commoner Faction was neutral. It was loyal only to the Son of Heaven.
By opposing Gu Chengyin, Hu Juzheng was placing a piece on the board—a piece that did not support Gu Chengyin.
As for Yuan Zhengqing’s vote, that was Yuan Zhengqing’s personal view. It did not represent the overall position of the Commoner Faction.
The other Grand Secretary from the Commoner Faction opposed it. The Commoner Faction’s votes were divided. The Commoner Faction was exercising restraint.
And besides, a three-to-two split was far better than four to one.
Three against two was a majority against a minority, yet dissenting voices still existed. It still demonstrated division and balance within the Grand Secretariat.
When Emperor Luo saw this distribution of votes, he would feel that there were still people within the Grand Secretariat standing on the same side as him.
He would feel that there were still forces at court keeping Gu Chengyin’s expansion in check.
This subtle sense of balance was precisely what Emperor Luo valued most.
If it had truly become a four-to-one vote, it would have been virtually equivalent to the entire Grand Secretariat supporting Gu Chengyin.
One vote from Cui Shifan, one from Yuan Zhengqing, one from Zheng Shixing—plus, if Hu Juzheng had not opposed it—
That would have made four votes.
Four against one. Shangguan Yuan’s opposition would then have seemed utterly isolated, making him the sole dissenting voice in the Grand Secretariat.
The most absurd part was that Shangguan Yuan, who openly opposed it, was in fact wearing the same pair of trousers as Gu Chengyin.
So that would not have been balance at all. It would have been isolation.
When Emperor Luo saw such a vote distribution, what he would see would not be division within the Grand Secretariat, but unity.
Unity behind Gu Chengyin.
That was hardly a good sign, especially to an emperor like Emperor Luo, who understood the art of balance so well.
What Emperor Luo feared most was not that someone at court might oppose him, but that everyone at court might stand together.
If everyone stood together, then the Son of Heaven would become a solitary figure.
If everyone united as one, then the emperor’s authority would become nothing but an empty shell.
What Emperor Luo wanted was not a Grand Secretariat forged into a single, solid block.
He wanted one in which factions checked and constrained one another, one in which only the Son of Heaven could ultimately decide the outcome.
That was why Hu Juzheng had suddenly demanded that Grand Secretaries Yuan and Zheng also participate, and that the votes be split—to demonstrate the Commoner Faction’s position.
He first declared his opposition, making the Commoner Faction’s stance against the matter abundantly clear.
Then he had Yuan Zhengqing cast a vote in favor, making the internal disagreement within the Commoner Faction equally clear.
In this way, the Commoner Faction’s position was neither unanimously opposed nor unanimously supportive.
It had disagreements, deliberation, and differing voices.
Those very disagreements were the strongest possible statement to Emperor Luo.
See? We have not united in supporting Gu Chengyin. We have disputes within our own ranks. We are not mere appendages of the Crown Prince’s faction.
Yet this, in turn, placed the Aristocratic Faction over the fire.
The Commoner Faction had split its votes, and Shangguan Yuan had opposed the motion. That left the Aristocratic Faction as the only main force supporting Gu Chengyin.
One vote from Cui Shifan and one from Zheng Shixing—both in favor.
Only with Yuan Zhengqing’s vote added in did they scrape together a three-to-two majority.
To outsiders, it would appear that the Aristocratic Faction was giving Gu Chengyin its wholehearted support.
Once that impression took hold, Emperor Luo, when weighing the balance of power at court, would bind the Aristocratic Faction even more tightly to the Crown Prince’s faction.
And Emperor Luo’s attitude toward the Crown Prince’s faction had always been the same: use it, but guard against it.
The same was even more true of the Aristocratic Faction.
The greater the Aristocratic Faction’s power, the deeper the suspicion it would invite.
Perhaps the next time Emperor Luo made a move, he would casually strike at the Aristocratic Faction.
The blow might not be severe, but it would certainly come.
Emperor Luo would not allow any single force at court to grow too powerful.
Not the Crown Prince’s faction, not the imperial princes’ factions, and certainly not the Aristocratic Faction.
Hu Juzheng’s tactic of splitting the vote appeared, on the surface, to be an internal matter of the Commoner Faction.
In truth, it was pushing the Aristocratic Faction toward the blade’s edge.
Cui Shifan knew perfectly well that this was Hu Juzheng’s little calculation, yet he could only accept it.
Because supporting Gu Chengyin was the Aristocratic Faction’s own choice.
And since it was their choice, they had to bear the consequences that came with it.
...
After leaving the Grand Secretariat, Gu Chengyin did not return directly to the Celestial Master’s Residence.
Instead, he went back to the Crown Prince’s Palace, and he did not have the female attendants announce him.
When Gu Chengyin reached the main hall, the two female attendants on duty by the front entrance were just about to kneel in salute. He casually raised a hand and stopped them.
The gesture was relaxed. He did not even look at them. He merely lifted a finger to his lips, then went around the main entrance and headed toward the rear of the hall.
The two attendants exchanged a glance, then tacitly remained silent.
The Junior Tutor to the Crown Prince had said not to announce him, so they would not.
In this Crown Prince’s Palace, Gu Chengyin’s word carried more weight than anyone else’s.
The rear entrance of the main hall was ordinarily kept closed. Only servants responsible for cleaning and eunuchs delivering meals used it.
Gu Chengyin stepped across the bluestone paving of the corridor, his boots making almost no sound against the stone.
He entered the main hall through the back door, then silently approached Luo Zhao from behind and to the side as she handled official business.
Several documents still lay spread across the rosewood desk. Luo Zhao sat at the head of it, her back perfectly straight.
Her left hand held down one corner of a document, while her right held a vermilion brush. Its tip moved across the paper, leaving behind line after line of neat, elegant annotations.
Gu Chengyin stood only three paces behind her.
Yet he did not speak. He simply focused his breath and quietly watched Luo Zhao as she worked with such concentration.
Gu Xiaoli had noticed him long ago.
She had originally been seated at her own desk, helping Luo Zhao deal with some official matters.
A pair of cat ears formed of spiritual energy twitched faintly amid her hair, while a tail of spiritual energy swayed lazily behind her.
But the instant Gu Chengyin stepped into the main hall, her spiritual cat ears snapped upright.
Their tips turned in the same direction, as precise as needles drawn to a magnet.
They locked directly onto Gu Chengyin. Her gaze cut through the hall’s light and landed squarely upon him.
Then she saw Gu Chengyin make a shushing gesture.
Afterward, he lowered his finger from his lips and pointed at Luo Zhao.
Then he pointed to his own eyes, and then to Luo Zhao again.
The meaning could not have been clearer.
I want to look at Her Highness. Don’t let Her Highness know.
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
uld barely embark on the path to immortality. Just as he was on the verge of death, his golden finger awakened. No matter whether it was poison, drained blood and vital energy, diminished lifespan, or any other physical debuff caused by paying a price—once midnight passed, everything would be refreshed. From then on, whenever someone asked what kind of person Chu Ran was, the answer was simple: Forbidden arts that other cultivators dared not learn? Chu Ran would learn them. Prices that even demonic cultivators dared not pay? Chu Ran would pay them. Lifespan that even righteous cultivators dared not burn? Chu Ran would burn it. All the blood essence in his body? Take it. Want both his hands and feet? He would cut them off and send them to you. You say he’s finished? He wasn’t built to sit idle. You think he’s gone mad? No—he was simply waiting for midnight. From that day onward, Chu Ran would respect neither Heaven nor Earth, bow to neither gods nor ghosts. He had only one wish: For midnight to arrive a little sooner.
ng to die together with you." Lin Xuan is dead, his body thrown into the river by his scumbag lover and her accomplice. She, the president of the Su Group, is decisive, ruthless, and ice-cold. For three days and three nights, she had his body fished out of the river, and without hesitation, she kissed the bloated corpse of Lin Xuan. She laid down beside him in a cold coffin, their fingers intertwined, a smile lingering on her lips as she closed her eyes. The noble and cold-hearted woman, only bending for one man—Lin Xuan. Lin Xuan, with his golden finger, is reborn and returns to the day of his wedding to the treacherous woman. Su Qiang comes to steal the bride. Lin Xuan's eyes light up, eager to pledge his loyalty on the spot, but instead, her kiss transfers a glass of drugged wine into his mouth, causing him to pass out... 【Male Protagonist with Single Female Lead】【Yandere Tycoon】【Action-Packed】【True vs. Fake Heir】
