In the following year, the court of the Great Zhou Dynasty was still undercurrent with turbulence, but on the surface, it was spent in relative peace.
Luo Wei’s status in court increased bit by bit, and he was soon brought to stand at Emperor Xing Wu’s side. He participated in all matters, big or small. Luo Wei was not interested in the issues of farming and water conservancy, and Emperor Xing Wu forced him to learn these things. For this reason, he specially asked Luo Wei to work in the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Revenue. In other people’s eyes, Emperor Xing Wu was training Luo Wei to succeed his father, Luo Zhiqiu, but Long Xuan knew that Emperor Xing Wu was teaching Luo Wei the way of being emperor.
During the past year, Long Xuan did not cultivate his own power. Perhaps because the Liu family had been destroyed, and there were no powerful relatives backing him. Long Xuan was earnest and serious about his work, and he was able to get along well with the officials below; the work he did was quite satisfactory. In this way, Long Xuan was no longer in contention, and the court's evaluation of him rose. Long Xuan himself also had the opportunity to work with Luo Zhiqiu quite a few times. After working with Luo Zhiqiu, Long Xuan realized that unlike his uncle, Liu Shuangshi, Luo Zhiqiu was an altruistic and honest person with little selfishness. This person's heart weighed more than anything else. For Luo Zhiqiu, who is dedicated to the people, Long Xuan had no choice but to respect him, conceding that Luo Zhiqiu's reputation as a good minister was not obtained by fishing for fame.
The relationship between Long Xing and Luo Wei became closer this year, which made the vicious eyes of the court see something wrong again. Luo Wei’s and Long Yu’s relationship was polite, but not intimate, and certainly far inferior to his relationship with Long Xing. This made Prince Long Yu’s father-in-law, Zhou Ningwen, very anxious. Long Xing’s wife was of the Luo family, while Long Yu’s was a daughter of the Zhou family. Although they are all nephews and uncles, the relationship between Long Xing and the Luo family is certainly much stronger. It was not guaranteed that the Luo family would not want the next queen to come from their Luo family.
Zhou Ningwen’s power in the court was not comparable to that of the Luo family, and he did not want to quarrel with them heads-on, so he had to turn his mind on Luo Wei again, thinking that if Luo Wei also became the son-in-law of his Zhou family, the relationship between Luo Wei and Long Yu would also be one step closer. The Zhou family’s wish to marry, through the mouth of the Crown Princess, had come to Empress Luo Zhiyi’s attention. Emperor Xing Wu had asked her to find a wife for Luo Wei. Luo Zhiyi also cared for her little nephew’s life-long affairs. After listening to the princess, she ordered the seventh daughter of the Zhou family to enter the palace. After she was satisfied, she invited Fu Hua to the palace to discuss. Fu Hua had always liked the seventh miss Zhou, and now that Luo Zhiyi also took a fancy, Fu Hua agreed on the spot.
After Fu Hua returned to the mansion, she called the three men in the family and Xie Yu together, and then raised the matter of letting Luo Wei marry the Zhou family.
Xie Yue nodded first and said that the seventh miss Zhou is a famous beauty, and that there was no reason she would not be a good match for Luo Wei.
Before Luo Zhiqiu and Luo Ze could speak, Luo Wei shook his head and said no.
Fu Hua patiently told Luo Wei that Miss Zhou was good. When all good words were exhausted, Luo Wei still shook his head, and both their tempers flared up. Fu Hua asked Luo Wei if he needed a fairy to be satisfied.
Luo Wei’s had been dealing with the farming and water conservancy issues tirelessly during these days, and he was already very annoyed. When he heard that the Zhou family wanted to send him their daughter, he became even more impatient. He saw that Fu Hua couldn't understand the Zhou family's thoughts, and his tone when speaking to her became worse. He didn't bother explaining anything more, and told Fu Hua directly that he didn’t like the seventh lady of the Zhou family.
The two people bickered with each other, and seeing that they were about to quarrel again, Luo Zhiqiu had no choice but to interject, saying: "This matter depends on His Majesty's will, it is useless for you to talk more at home."
Luo Ze also persuaded from the side, so that the mother and son pair could not say a word.
Fu Hua was not willing to let Luo Wei go this time. She must at least hear an explanation from Luo Wei.
In the end, Luo Wei slammed the door and left, leaving Fu Hua to lose her temper in the room.
No matter how noisy the Luo mansion was, the marriage was in the hands of the emperor. Emperor Xing Wu’s decision did not disappoint Luo Wei; he only said that he had to take another look, and he specifically confessed to the queen that if he finds a suitable girl, Luo Wei must like her.
The Zhou family failed to get married this time, and so they provoked a lot of ridicule for nothing. Although the Zhou mansion did not say anything special, only that Luo Wei and the seventh Miss Zhou did not agree on the eight characters [1], everyone watching from the sidelines could see that there must be a dispute between the two families. Those vigilant ministers could only await what would become of the future; if the Luo family backed Long Xing, Long Yu’s succession would become uncertain again.
Junior Chancellor Qiu Che was for the Ninth Prince, and Li Hou for the Tenth Prince. Among the princes, except for Long Xiang, who was still living in a daze, the others were all planning for their future. Long Xuan looked at all this coldly. He knew very well that they were just making wedding dresses for others while exhausting all their efforts to get ahead. Emperor Xing Wu did not approve of the marriage between Luo Wei and Seventh Miss Zhou. In Long Xuan’s view, it’s not that the Zhou family is not worthy of the Luo family, nor that Miss Zhou was not good enough. The only reason was that Luo Wei doesn’t like her. Discord between the emperor and the empress was a big taboo in the royal family. Emperor Xing Wu paved the way for Luo Wei to succeed to the throne, so it is impossible not to consider this.
Luo Wei’s marriage was not mentioned for the time being. Meanwhile, Xie Yu won first prize in the imperial examination this year. He was the number one scholar and joined the ministry as an official. Soon after, he married a wife from the Luo family, and tied himself tightly with the Luo family.
In the blink of an eye, it was the Spring Festival again. This year, the Spring Festival was spent in rain.
Luo Wei and Wei Lan stood in front of the moon window in the study, watching the heavy rain outside. Luo Wei handed the official document in his hand to Wei Lan, and said sadly: "It’s raining like this. In the south, there has been a continuous rainstorm since January. If this continues, no one will be able to live peacefully."
Wei Lan quickly flipped through the official documents, all disaster reports from government offices in various places in the south. "Didn't your majesty order people to repair the river embankment?" Wei Lan asked Luo Wei. He has been by Luo Wei’s all this time, and knows a little about the affairs of the court.
"It’s only half done," Luo Wei had been busy with farming and water conservancy for a year, and hated the floods in the south. "This year’s rain is like a crack in the sky. How can we prevent it? We haven’t gone to inspect the river bank. Who knows whether the embankment was well repaired or not?"
"There seems to be floods in the south every year," Wei Lan said, "Is there really no cure for all this water?"
Luo Wei took the documents from Wei Lan’s hand and threw them all on the ground. "All officials in the south should be damned!"
Wei Lan hurriedly squatted down to pick up the papers, at the same time coaxing Luo Wei: "It's useless for you to be anxious about this kind of thing here, you can only seriously think about what to do."
"What can I do?" Luo Wei said: "It’s not me who made it rain."
"You didn’t make it rain," Luo Zhiqiu came in and said: "But this is the suffering of the people, you can't think of what to do?" [2]
Luo Wei looked back at his father, but saw Long Xuan walking in front of Luo Zhiqiu. "Why are you here?" He immediately asked. Luo Wei blurted out the question so suddenly, he didn't have time to hide his emotions. The hostility in his tone was evident.
Translator Notes:
[1] horoscope
[2] “you can’t think of what to do” – as it is often the case with Chinese, this passage was originally more open-ended, 你就想不到？“you can’t think/imagine it?”. Zhiqiu may have implied “can’t you think of their suffering?”
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