Chapter 62: He in the eyes of those who knew

As expected, how could master possibly not care about Miss Luo. Although not sure why he’s just distancing those gentlemen and young masters away from Miss Luo and not directly killing them, but he probably has other arrangements in plan. Eunuch Mu has never felt that his master was suddenly being compassionate, not involving the innocent. Those that dared to have delirious thoughts towards Miss Luo deserved a thousand deaths. And those that get entangled with Miss Luo, similarly can not be pardoned from their sins. Even if they don’t die, they will at least shed a layer of skin.

“This prince doesn’t wish for the Luo family’s third branch to be too peaceful, yet also don’t wish for the Luo family rear court to be in chaos.”

“Master, rest assured, even if some scandalous things get out, it will only be on the Luo family’s third branch. It won’t implicate the others.” It further won’t disturb the future Wangfei in the least either.

“As for Luo Rong Ping’s ambitions, we can still let him grow some more. His relationship with that eldest brother of this prince, go help him pull some strings.” With his capabilities that weak and his climbing speed that slow, it’s not even easy to find an excuse to sort him out.

“Yes.”

“Recently this prince feels rather weary and needs to recuperate at the White Dragon Temple for a period of time.”

Eunuch Mu slightly blanked. How did it suddenly turn to this? “Yes.” Regardless of the reason why, there was no need to think too much, and further mustn’t hesitate. Just need to properly have the matter taken care of for master.

A moment later, Li Hong Yuan once again opened his mouth. “Mu An, you’ve become increasingly careless in serving this prince.”

Eunuch Mu was so startled that his soul nearly left his body. He hurriedly knelt down, “Master, please forgive me.” Facing Li Hong Yuan’s questioning, don’t try to explain, and further don’t try to retort, you only need to humbly apologize, and afterwards, beg for his forgiveness. If you can still live, then quickly reflect upon yourself, and find your mistake, and then make up for it. While his own master still haven’t flared up yet, Eunuch Mu’s mind turned with all its might. Just where has he been careless, what has made master discontent? Under what circumstances, did master say he was careless? Seemingly……in an instant, Eunuch Mu thought of a certain possibility, “Asking for master to give this servant another chance.”

Li Hong Yuan faintly swept him a glance, “Still not hopeless after all.”

Eunuch Mu was in fear and trepidation.

All say, one must not carelessly guess a master’s intentions. However, Li Hong Yuan just happened to be the opposite. He didn’t mind the people below guessing at his thoughts. If you can guess his thoughts nine times out of ten, to the point where you can have things taken care of beautifully without him even having to open his mouth, he would even generously reward you. Unfortunately, his thoughts have always been strange and difficult to perceive. Sometimes, it would appear to be very obvious, but no one would know his inner thoughts. This was even for people who understood his inherent nature. If it was those who completely didn’t know anything, they would further be ignorant and unaware like an idiot, unintentionally offending him, then later get secretly sorted out by someone, and wouldn’t even know what had happened.

Eunuch Mu can be considered to have grown up together with him. Out of ten times, to be able to correctly guess once or twice was already pretty good. Of course, these were usually all personal matters. As for other things, it wasn’t Eunuch Mu’s place to interfere. And in these few years, master’s most important personal matter was Miss Luo. As long as you can take care of that one’s matters well, mistakes in other places can be forgiven. That’s why, not only just Eunuch Mu, but it can be said that all the people serving close by Li Hong Yuan’s side, all wished for that one to be able to marry into the Jin Qinwang Manor as soon as possible, so that she can keep a hold on this living Enma of a master of theirs.

If you make the future Wangfei happy, even if you don’t have any abilities, you can still live very carefreely. This was practically the publicly known secret among them.

“Qin Tian Ming still hasn’t come? His arrogance sure is getting increasingly big, even this prince can’t invite him to come.”

Eunuch Mu inwardly let out a breath in relief, “Sir Qin has already arrived, he’s been waiting outside.”

Have to say, Qin Tian Ming really was wronged to death. After he learned of Jin Qinwang’s summoning, and seeing that the skies have darkened, he secretly came over, because for the most part, they’ve always met at night. Today, he kept sensing his eyelid twitching, so he came much earlier than usual, and has been waiting outside the study for Jin Qinwang this whole time. However, when he wait till Jin Qinwang appeared and paid his respects, he was completely ignored by him.

Like a wooden pillar, he’s been standing there for nearly two hours. There wasn’t any pastries, no water, and he couldn’t randomly move about either. His two legs have nearly stiffened. Yet, in the end, turns out the living Enma forgot he was still outside. What a grievance.

When Eunuch Mu called him to enter, he let out a breath, but at the same time, he also tensed up even more. While he was rejoicing for not needing to continue standing there, he also simultaneously felt very nervous as well. Under normal circumstances, this master wouldn’t summon him. For the most part, he would only summon him when encountering important matters. But pondering for half a day, he couldn’t think of anything major that happened recently. Could it be that the large fire that happened during the day at the flower market actually had something to do with this one?

“This lower official greets Wangye, may Wangye live for thousand years.”

Li Hong Yuan didn’t tell him to get up either, and just stared at him like that. Whether it was a quick death sentence or a slow death, he was just not gonna give him a straight answer.

Qin Tian Ming wasn’t Fu Yun Ting after all. Never mind that his age belonged to Fu Yun Ting’s father’s generation, he’s even led troops into battle before, experienced the baptism of blood and death. Even if Fu Yun Ting, because of the misfortunes of the Fu family, had wisdom and unwavering determination that far surpassed his peers, compared to Qin Tian Ming, he was still much inferior. Although he felt uneasy inside facing Li Hong Yuan, in actuality, he also wasn’t overly worried either. He believes that he has never done anything detrimental to this one before. At most he would get tormented by him, but he definitely won’t take his life.

This one in front of him, although frequently said by others to be moody, malicious and ruthless, and aside from that face, there was practically nothing good about him, but, those that have interacted with him in private will know, his methods may be ruthless, his mood may be unstable, but he definitely wasn’t someone who couldn’t control himself and casually treated human life like grass. As for having no good points and whatnot, that was furthermore a joke. He possessed a level of steadiness, his thoughts meticulous, devising strategies. His learning was profound, and what was even more inconceivable was that he even was proficient in the art of war. And if the occasion occurred, he always felt that this one wasn’t just good at military on paper. Regardless whether it was arranging troops, or deploying an army, all kinds of stratagem, not one didn’t manifest his outstanding talents like a commander that has gone through countless wars.

Jin Qinwang, Li Hong Yuan, from birth, has never left the capital city before. Since childhood his temper has been violent, doing things as he pleased. His learning was average, and was the most headaching target of all the imperial tutors. Him learning things like military strategies and tactics was further unheard of before. But in reality, the truth hidden underneath the surface made those that came in contact with this truth all startled by the huge waves.

—–Just when and also how did he learn these things? Moreover, after their careful observation and contemplation, they learned that this side of him, even his Majesty didn’t know about. Before the age of 16, he had entirely lived in the palace. But to be able to do this many things without his Majesty knowing, just what level of ability was this?! It can be understood that he hid this for the sake of self-preservation, after all he lost his birth mother at birth. But to be able hide this deeply, then it can’t just be described as being intelligent.

Although his Majesty can’t be praised as an eternal wise monarch, his abilities weren’t considered lacking either, falling short of the best but better than the worst. Towards taking care of the major affairs of the country, not everything went smoothly, and not everything was to satisfaction either, but seven or eight times out of ten, he could still receive the official’s acknowledgement. This was an Emperor that has been on the throne for nearly thirty years. But outside the imperial court, in private, Jin Qinwang, who for the most part has never spoken in court, towards the matters of the world, he was usually able to hit the nail on the head, pinpointing the crucial point. Towards matters that they would debated over till their faces flushed red, he could settle with just a few words, letting certain crafty old foxes all admire him tremendously. And through them, he would have the most optimal solution presented to the court, this time letting this person fall in the limelight, and next time it would be another person, very adequately balancing the court’s state of affairs.

They all didn’t know just how many people were controlled in Jin Qinwang’s hands, but, they faintly felt that even if he didn’t control half the officials, through his various arrangements, perhaps he essentially controlled half of the Qi Yuan country.

He wasn’t the monarch, yet long have been doing the things that a monarch did. And moreover, had the tendency of a great emperor throughout the ages. This was wisdom and farsightedness that far surpassed his age, and far surpassed the efficiency and ruthlessness of an ordinary person. To have been able to come to this point, it still made them very much feel it was inconceivable, yet they still willingly followed him, and assisted him. They never doubted that this country wouldn’t be his. After all, comparing him with the other princes, that was essentially just like the light of a firefly competing for glory with the vast moon. Thus, even if in the future, his Majesty were to pass the throne to one of the other princes, they probably all didn’t mind becoming traitorous rebels for once, and help Jin Qinwang snatch the throne.

Li Hong Yuan more or less knew what these people were thinking. In actuality, they’ve all overestimated him. His imperial father although wasn’t considered that impressive, to want to secretly and seamlessly get in contact with many things in the palace and not get noticed by him, the difficulty was still very high. Moreover, in his surroundings, he(LHY) still had other people constantly watching him. Under this kind of circumstances, for him to still be able to do whatever he wanted, just how useless would his imperial father have to be, and just how stupid would those imperial concubines have to be? If that was the case, afraid the imperial palace would be comparable to that thousand hole sieve, and the country would have long been tossed about by the wind and rain.

T/N: Eunuch Mu reminds me a lot of the eunuch in ‘Eight Treasures Trousseau’, which I think is also called Eunuch Mu lol. His inner dialogues are always fun to translate.