CH 46.1

Chapter 46.1 – Rong State’s Envoys (1)

People have their similarities, and there was no shortage of coincidences in the world. Meeting someone who looked similar to you on the street was not a big deal, but if that person was obviously paying attention to you, it was a different thing.

After sending Qi Yang back, Lu Qipei probed some answers from Qi Bo.

There were no loopholes in Qi Bo’s answers, but Lu Qipei was still uneasy after she thought about it again, so she sought out some contacts that she got to know in the past few months for help. Unfortunately, they couldn’t find the little boy after searching for him, and it seemed that she might have been overthinking it.

Time flew by quickly, and half a month passed in a blink of an eye.

Lu Qipei’s official rank was very low, and she didn’t have the title of the number one scholar this time. As Qi Yang expected, the others didn’t think much of her. It was a great honor for a minor sixth-rank official with no family background to speak of to be able to marry the princess.

But for Qi Yang, this wedding really was far too lowly for her station, and even the Emperor couldn’t turn a blind eye anymore. So, her official rank was promoted after she was granted Qi Yang’s hand in marriage.

From a lower sixth-rank Compiler of Hanlin Academy, she was promoted to a lower fifth-rank Director of the Court of Judicial Review. Not only did she jump out from Hanlin Academy, a talent reserve, to a department with real power, her official rank was also increased by two levels1. It was now at an appropriate rank for a Prince Consort.

As soon as the news came out, her colleagues who were still being jealous of Liu Chen immediately became jealous of her again. But, there was no way to be jealous either.

Setting aside how Liu Chen did it, Lu Qipei was going to marry the princess. If they also married a princess, they could also get promoted, but could they marry one?

Since it was impossible, being jealous was also useless. It was better to make friends with her while she was still around.

Lu Qipei became very busy for a while, and was finally relieved after the handover was done. She didn’t know why the Emperor transferred her to the Court of Judicial Review, but she had received a letter from Qi Yang before telling her to stay calm. She though that this official position was probably also something that she arranged.

As a naturally easygoing person, Lu Qipei didn’t really care about this. Moreover, the Director position is actually one of the more relaxed positions in the Court of Judicial Review. There’s the Chief Minister and Vice Ministers above it, and below it was the Assistant Minister in charge of prison sentences.

The Director only needed to deliberate on the punishment based on the criminal law. Only when the Assistant Minister did not hand the correct sentence would she need to rectify it based on the law.

In other words, she just needed to read more books. Usually, she wouldn’t need to bother with investigating and solving cases.

Lu Qipei adjusted well to the Court of Judicial Review, and with her identity as Qi Yang’s Prince Consort, the others didn’t dare to treat her lightly. But less than half a month was only enough time for her to adapt, and by then Rong State’s envoys had arrived in the capital.

Liang State had only existed for a few decades, while the barbarians had occupied the north for hundreds of years. During that time, they also had their share of talented people who gathered the many tribes into a strong force, proclaim themselves the ruler, then eye the rich lands of the central plains.

But after hundreds of years passed, this was the first time they established a country. After they established a country, things would inevitably be very different than it was before.

Although the members of the court did not like the barbarians establishing a country, they didn’t dare to take them lightly. When the envoys entered the capital, the Bureau of Ceremonies and the Ministry of Rites sent a lot of officials to greet them.

As someone from the Court of Judicial Review, Lu Qipei did not go for the greeting. But she was dispatched on an official business by the Vice Minister, and happened to see the group of people entering the capital on the street. They were dressed in hufu2, will tall nose, deep eyes and curly hair. They looked very different from the people of the central plains.

The people watching what was happening on the street were also talking about it, because not only did these people from Rong State look different, two or three of them even had different colored eyes. Those blue-green eyes of theirs contained a kind of ferocity, and they looked just like demons to those watchers.

Lu Qipei was well-read, and knew that there were a lot of people with mixed-blood among the barbarians. It wasn’t strange to see those kinds of hair and eye colors, and she didn’t care about it. But this was the first time she saw the people from Rong State, and what drew her attention was their tall nose and deep eyes, and she stared at them as she fell into deep thought.

Eventually, the subordinate next to her reminded, “Lord, the people from Ministry of Rites are gone. We should go too.”

The procession with the Rong State envoys had left, and the crowd that was watching the scene had gradually dispersed. The street was suddenly deserted.

After returning to her sense, Lu Qipei did not stay for long, and she led her subordinates to do their job.

The next time she saw the envoys again were on the third day of the big court meeting, after the Emperor deliberately left them hanging for a day. Lu Qipei who had been promoted to the fifth rank was now finally qualified to participate in the big court meeting, but since her level was still lacking, her seat was only the one near Xuanzheng Hall’s gate.

When the Rong State’s envoys came for an audience, Lu Qipei turned around and saw a group of people coming in with their heads held high. As she had seen before, they were wearing Hufu and looked very different from the people of the central plains. All of them looked tall and strong, showing a kind of valiance unique to the barbarians.

But different to the last time she saw them on the street, this time she saw one additional person…

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