Yuxiu Palace.
Lin Miaoyi stood by the lotus pond and looked up at the starry sky. The expression on her face was sometimes nervous, sometimes flustered, and sometimes expectant. It was very complicated.
“Dong, dong! Dong, dong!”
“The sea is calm, and the river is clear! Tonight is a peaceful night!”
Hearing the shouts of the watchmen in the palace, a woman in a red palace dress behind Lin Miaoyi said, “Sister, it’s almost midnight. Do you think Emperor will summon us today?”
Lin Miaoyi lowered her head and elegantly turned around to look at the woman. “How can we guess Emperor’s thoughts?”
She looked around and saw that there were no patrolling eunuchs passing by. The woman dressed in palace clothes moved closer to Lin Miaoyi’s ear and whispered, “I saw Emperor’s expression when he saw you today. I guess His Majesty will definitely summon you to serve His Majesty in bed.”
Lin Miaoyi shook her head. “Don’t spout nonsense. Be careful not to be heard by others. You can’t criticize Emperor.”
“Yes.” The lady in the maiden dress responded, but she quickly said worriedly, “Sister, if Emperor doesn’t like us… What will happen to us?”
Lin Miaoyi shook her head and replied, “Don’t think so much. Just wait patiently.”
Lin Miaoyi could not help but sigh in her heart after she finished speaking. She recalled the way Emperor looked at her in the afternoon. There was admiration in his eyes, but there was no desire. It was as if he was admiring a beautiful piece of jade.
If it was any other time, Lin Miaoyi would have liked this kind of gaze. She liked this feeling, but now she did not have the right to hope for such feelings. If Emperor did not like them, they would end up horribly.
While feeling apprehensive, Lin Miaoyi once again looked at the bright starry sky, wanting the beautiful night to suppress the uneasiness in her heart.
On the other side, in the Serenity Hall, Jiang Beiran was sitting on the dragon throne and flipping through a book called “Book of Xin Ci”.
Jiang Beiran liked to read books when he had nothing to do. However, what he usually read were books like formations, medical scriptures, and literature. He did not have much interest in history or governance. Of course, he could not find any related books.
However, most of the books in Serenity Hall were history and governance books, that he usually did not read accounted for the majority. At first, he was a little disinterested, but after flipping through a few books, he found the content was quite interesting and was drawn to it.
For example, the “Book of Xin Ci” in his hand was written by a prime minister called Xin Ci. However, he was not the prime minister of Sheng Kingdom, but a dynasty way before Sheng Kingdom.
In this book, he wrote a large number of his theories on “Controlling the People.” Some of them amazed Jiang Beiran, while others made him despise them.
For example, in the “Weak People” article, there was a method of controlling the people called “using the weak to defeat the strong, using evil to control the good.”.
In simple terms, if a king used the strong to defeat the weak, then the remaining people in the country would be the strong. However, if the weak were used to defeat the strong, then the strong would be destroyed.
Xin Ci’s suggestion was to use the weak people to attack the strong people. If they used the strong people to attack the weak people, the remaining strong people would be hard to deal with, and it would make the Imperial Court weaker.
Hence, it was better to use the weak people to kill the strong people. The remaining people would be the midgets, and the Imperial Court would naturally be able to deal with them easily.
Killing the elites, keeping the stupid people, and eliminating the weak. This was indeed convenient for the ruler to manage the country, but the country would become a pool of stagnant water.
If the “Weak People” article only focused on “using the weak to defeat the strong” , Jiang Beiran would still think that this was a choice made by the ruler. However, the “using evil to rule the good”article was extremely disgusting.
The article described that if the good people were used to rule the evil people, the country would definitely fall into chaos. If the evil people were used to rule the good people, the country would definitely prosper.
The reason was very simple. Let the bullies who represented the evil people rule the country. If they could train the people to be able to tolerate such bullies, they would naturally be able to tolerate the rule of the imperial power.
Thus, the hooligans were the first line of defense for the imperial power.
“D*mn it, this Xin Ci definitely has no b*tthole…’
Holding his breath, Jiang Beiran read the “Book of Xin Ci” to the end. After all, only by knowing oneself and the enemy could one survive a hundred battles. If one wanted to change a country, one had to first understand how this country had become like this.
“Hu…”
Putting down the book, a sentence suddenly popped up in Jiang Beiran’s mind.
Flipping through the book, the era name was not stated. On every crooked page were the words “benevolence, righteous, justice, morality”. After reading carefully half the book for a night, Jiang Beiran could not fall asleep. He also found out that this book was all about suppressing and exploiting people.
The knowledge of ruling people was really filled with darkness and oppression, making Jiang Beiran feel a little nauseous.
Putting down the book, Jiang Beiran rubbed the bridge of his nose. He had a conflicting feeling of being the successor for a moment.
“Jiang… No, your… Your Majesty.”
Just as Jiang Beiran closed his eyes to rest, Mu Yao suddenly spoke from the side.
“What is it?” Jiang Beiran asked with his eyes closed.
“Can you give me somethings to do? I don’t want to waste my time like this.”
Jiang Beiran could tell that Mu Yao’s personality had been smoothed out. Although there was some unwillingness in her tones and she didn’t want to call herself a maid, Jiang Beiran didn’t plan to force her. After all, even though her father gave him special privileges to train her, he didn’t want to push her too hard.
Therefore, Jiang Beiran opened his eyes and asked, “Did you go to a private school?”
“Of course I have.” Mu Yao replied.