Chapter 44
Chapter 44: Father and Son
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The Qing Kingdom had entered an age of prosperity . The past ten years had seen fine weather for crops, and peace and stability for the people . The nation had the wisest ruler in its history, who received a great many accolades for his management of state affairs . But strangely, it also had the most corrupt bureaucracy in its history, and its most wicked Prime Minister .
This was Prime Minister Lin Ruofu . Lin Ruofu was born in poverty - he was by no means the son of a noble family . He entered the bureaucracy after passing the imperial exams, starting as an evaluator in Suzhou before being transferred to the capital to work as an administrator for palace affairs . He later moved on to being responsible for the imperial army, before returning to lead the Overwatch Council in the capital . He also held a degree from the elite Hanlin Academy, and during the last government reforms, he was responsible for specific affairs of the six departments, rising from an assistant minister to minister in the Ministry of Appointments, before rising to head of the bureaucracy . He was subordinate to only the Emperor, with thousands of people underneath him in his role as Prime Minister .
People who paid cautious attention to the posts he had held discovered that he had he had experience with civilian affairs, military affairs, literature, and the Auditors . Although his career had had ups and downs, he had experience in every area of the bureaucracy, and had made slow but steady progress climbing the ranks throughout his life .
There were rumors that Lin Ruofu was not trusted within the palace . His ability to move throughout the complex bureaucracy despite his lack of deep connections left many feeling astonished .
The Prime Minister seemed a principled man on the outside, but his exterior hid a treacherous spirit, and he accepted countless bribes . His plotting and scheming within the bureaucracy and the nobility had caught the ire of many people, and so he was loved neither by officials or by the common people .
But his efforts over the past decade had granted him a control over the bureaucracy that could not be toppled . Occasionally an official would accuse him of misconduct, but lacking any concrete evidence they would have no choice but to drop the subject . The upstanding officials of the capital hated him to the bone, but did not dare to cross him .
Only the Emperor could strip him of his power or his life - every official knew this . Only the Director of the Overwatch Council could spit in his face . No one else among the nation's most powerful people had the courage .
And when the Director had spat at him in the street, he was fined three years' salary; the punishment was personally ordered by the Emperor .
. . .
. . .
People found that the Emperor's trust in his Prime Minister would never waver . Officials who considered themselves uncorrupt began to despair . No one could have foreseen that, at that moment, a scandal would emerge in the newspaper, accusing the Prime Minister of having fathered an illegitimate daughter .
In noble houses, it was normal for the master of the house to have a number of concubines; to only have one woman was seen as rather embarrassing . But parentage and etiquette were seen as extremely important in society . Everyone knew that the Prime Minister was cunning and ruthless, but he had always appeared uncorrupted . To have an illegitimate daughter outside one's household showed a great lack of morals . And that daughter was now a teenager . She was not permitted to live within his manor; she lived outside, alone . It was proof that, when he came to fatherhood, he lacked even the slightest compassion .
Because the news had come from the imperial palace, it caused a great stir within the capital . People debated whether the Prime Minister had angered His Majesty, and whether the Emperor was preparing to replace him with someone else . The imperial censor Master Tai later gathered a petition on the matter .
To everyone's surprise, the Emperor personally intervened to put an end to the matter . The affair gradually settled down, but the Prime Minister's illegitimate daughter became the center of attention .
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