Chapter 59

Translated by boilpoil Edited by boilpoil

So that he doesn’t get distracted, every time Bai Lianhua assembles the court he would ignore the system’s wronged expression and blocks it directly. Instead, he would focus all his attention on dealing with the court officers.

Thanks to the basis he has in Meng Yanbai’s world, Bai Lianhua didn’t particularly have a hard time dealing with the court.

At first, there was quite the number of people looking forward to seeing the new emperor embarrass himself in front of court. They saw that the young man sitting atop them all looked beautiful and delicate, appearing completely honest and clueless, easy to bully… Yet, as the end of the assembly approached, everything went orderly without a single hiccup.

Bai Lianhua always maintained this soft, fluffy smile, but he could inconspicuously shove aside any trouble directed at him.

This would have been unexpected enough, but then in just several months time, as the new emperor made himself comfortable on his throne, with his unchanging warm smile, he would issue these absolutely mind-blowing orders which grossly shattered the existing power factions that were already well-defined. Then he also made military transfer orders that overall increased border defences against the neighbours.

He did the first act by appearing to promote people but in fact has stripped them of crucial authority, each and every single one of those barely within the acceptable limits of several powerful players in court, and they seem to be quite frustrated but worked out it would be in their best interest to take it as is each time… When several of these are analysed together, only then would they discover that they have conceded again and again on their interests.

As for the second act, it managed to sway the military to his side, as it is quite apparent that it changed the dynamics of the court officers dominating over the military officers. He used his support from these long-suppressed military officers to stifle any opposing opinion from the court officers’ side.

It can even be said that, after these months, an instinctive reaction has been formed. When Bai Lianhua sits on his dragon throne, and shows his little dimples with a gentle, seemingly positive smile, before he says anything, all the officers’ hearts would skip a beat… Gods, were they sane when they had the ludicrous delusion that this person is pure, harmless, manipulable? He’s definitely a wolf in sheep’s skin.

They’ve been forced to realise that this imperial prince found halfway out in the wilds is no mere pushover. It’s uncanny how quickly he’s settled into the pace of everything, appearing as if he’s had years of experience dealing with situations like this. He feels even more like a true successor than our current ex-emperor who’s actually been a crown prince. Without further complications, he would perhaps stay there and not budge an inch for quite a while.

Not to mention there’s the State Oracle’s open, clear support——Yang Chongyin isn’t required to attend court assembly every morning, but for Bai Lianhua, he’s changed his usual schedule and he had no absent days for almost half a year’s court assemblies now.

Speaking of which, there are odd developments as well. Since Bai Lianhua started sitting on the throne, not only did he give a complete makeover to the imperial court, but even news from the borderlands are saying stuff like the barbarians that were getting restless have fallen to internal strife and are now too busy to care about anything else.

Compared to Bai Yanze’s reign where despite the prosperous scenery across the land, there’s always tids and bits of freak weather and things. They’re not unusually intense nor small in scale——Without anything to compare against, it wouldn’t have raised any alarms, but since this new emperor succeeded, nature itself hasn’t thrown any more tantrum and looks to be continuing that way.

Considering all that, this whole thing is definitely a curious phenomenon that they shouldn’t lay their hands on.

…

When the imperial court has stabilised, Yang Chongyin moves into the State Oracle’s annexe in the imperial palace as per the deal, and he devotes himself solely to changing how the national fortune is continuously declining.

This is something he has already started when Bai Lianhua ascended, but now he is able to focus all of his efforts on it.

——Changing the person on the throne is just one side of it. If national fortunes decline, even if the current emperor is some miraculously sagacious saint, it would have taken god-knows how many years to reverse the trend, and it might be that the rate of its deterioration would yet remain higher than one person’s effort alone…

During this period, he has stopped worrying that Bai Lianhua would lose control of the situation. In fact, Bai Lianhua is much more excellent than he thought he would be… Still, if disasters struck due to the declining fortune, even if this were Bai Yanze’s fault, it would end up getting attributed to Bai Lianhua.

Which, of course, Yang Chongyin would not want to see.

Now, he has gone back to his shut-in lifestyle, only making a promise with Bai Lianhua that he would come see him every day.

Mostly, it’s in the night. And every time he went, Bai Lianhua could see turtle shells and carved spell circles scattered about the place… making Bai Lianhua curious how Yang Chongyin could tolerate such messiness given his personality. Though it’s just an idle thought that he doesn’t pursue further.

Every few days, Yang Chongyin would also dismiss the servants and personally cook in the attached small kitchen… Bai Lianhua tried to dissuade him from exhausting himself even further, but Yang Chongyin told him he is relaxing.

He would extend his finger out and touch where the dimple would appear when Bai Lianhua smiles, “rather than telling me that, why not smile at me more? Or give me some more praises that it’s delicious.”

Bai Lianhua “…”

So he makes a smile, but the system decides to inform him inappropriately, “host, that smile is unnatural. You’ve managed to eliminate your dimples like that.”

So Bai Lianhua tells it, “shoo, shoo.” Yang Chongyin himself hasn’t said anything, you know.

And then Bai Lianhua just decides to decree that those servants from the Residence itself enter the imperial palace to serve Yang Chongyin where he lives now, since there’s no problem with how tight these peoples’ lips were given they would not allow Yang Chongyin to be troubled with rumours. What’s making Bai Lianhua facepalm a bit though is that soon there’s another rumour arising that this new emperor has gone too far putting the State Oracle in house arrest after he has ascended to the throne.

It’s known that successive State Oracles were all quite free-spirited and were quite annoyed with all the dirtiness and restrictions inside the imperial palace, which is why they always chose to settle down in the Residence of State Oracle. That annexe built for State Oracles in the palace has always been a decoration, and Yang Chongyin has been no exception to this before… In fact, no State Oracle had ever continuously resided in the imperial palace.

Bai Lianhua could only explain by saying that, following up from Yang Chongyin’s assertions earlier, declaring that under the State Oracle’s diligent work, the great misfortune to befall the dynasty has started being resolved, yet its potential shocks remain. To deal with this, the State Oracle has tirelessly divined every day to search for a way to completely eliminate it. Living inside the palace where he would be closest to the imperial aura is naturally helpful to the State Oracle in his divination wizardry. Meanwhile, he’d also drag Yang ‘the Shut-in’ Chongyin around outside for a stroll for everyone to see.

The system can’t help but stroke its chin casually.

Tch tch tch, its host and antagonist wanted to lay low, but these people all forced them to show their public ‘ruler-officer’ affection towards each other.

Read only at Travis Translations