Chapter 1241: YeXi Medical fanatic (1/2)

The Grand Tutor of the Great Qin was a fourth-rank official. Gu Beiyue not only taught the crown prince classes and classics, but also politics. If Long Feiye had raised the Grand Tutor rank to first rank, Heaven knows how busy he’d be, much less extricate himself from the power struggles at court? At fourth rank, he lacked any real power and could easily refuse any offers from people to draw him to their side. He was also free of the various competition between factions and evaluate senior officials more objectively from the perspective of an outsider.

He had no power, but his words held much weight when he spoke to the emperor and crown prince.

General advice went that people should speak lightly to avoid hassles, but Long Feiye turned this reasoning on its head. He gave Gu Beiyue low rank, no power, and all the weight to his words to protect Gu Beiyue from the turmoil of court politics and maintain his neutrality when suggesting advice to him and the crown prince without favoring a certain side. Once the crown prince grew older, Gu Beiyue would be assisting Long Feiye to teach him how to look after the country. These matters would range from national policies to small memorials. Gu Beiyue’s stance there would be extremely vital.

Despite his fourth tank, Gu Beiyue’s position was unique. As the crown prince’s instructor, nobody objected to him taking one of the secondary seats.

Gu Qishao only felt jealous when he saw Rui’er clinging to Gu Beiyue. He waited until the boy was distracted before filching him off Gu Beiyue and setting him back on the seat of honor. Rui’er immediately glared at him with such hate that he mirrored Long Feiye’s glares at Gu Qishao exactly! Meanwhile, Gu Beiyue narrowed his eyes in the same way he squinted at Long Feiye in disapproval.

Since the birthday banquet had yet to officially begin and Rui’er was still too young, no one had noticed the breach. The boy looked up and asked, “Why not?”

“You’ll understand in the future when you have brothers,” Gu Beiyue replied. “Just remember that for now. Grand Tutor will tell you slowly in the days to come.”

“Okay!” Rui’er was eternally docile before his teacher.

Gu Beiyue placed Rui’er into the one seat below the seat of honor and knelt in front of him. “Sit well. Rui’er, remember: your seat is on the right hand side of your imperial father. No matter what happens, don’t change your seat for any reason without your imperial father’s approval.”

Rui’er nodded and asked again, “Why not? Grand Tutor, where do you sit?”

“Grand Tutor will explain these things to you when you’re older,” Gu Beiyue thought it over, then reached out a finger with his back to the crowd. “Rui’er, Grand Tutor will promise you one thing: as long as you don’t switch seats whenever you please, your Grand Tutor will sit behind you and never change my spot either. Alright?”

Rui’er hooked his finger with Gu Beiyue’s without hesitation to seal the promise. “I want to make a promise with imperial father too,” he said.

Gu Beiyue smiled and almost ruffled his hair, but he did not. He retreated back to his seat and sat down.

Meanwhile, Guogong Xiao An had withdrawn his gaze. He was planning to let the crown prince sit in the seat of honor for a little while longer before causing difficulties, but who knew Gu Beiyue would come just in time?! To claim the seat of the sovereign here was both a big deal and no deal at all. They could say the child was too young to know any better, or say the empress and Grand Tutor were both in the wrong for misleading him, or even claim that they had designs to usurp the throne!

Although Xiao Dong and Baili Yuanlong were preparing to impeach Han Yunxi, Xiao An felt that the situation today didn’t feel right. He hadn’t understood what any of Baili Yuanlong’s looks meant, either. For now he decided to see which way the wind blew and act accordingly.

The crown prince and Grand Tutor were now both in their seats as well as Gu Qishao, Tang Li, and Ning Jing. Only two seats were left as Tang Tang was sitting in Tang Li’s lap. As soon as Gu Beiyue sat down, multiple courtiers struck up conversation with him.

It always felt like everyone had no end of things to say to Gu Beiyue. That didn’t mean they had endless topics to discuss, merely endless questions to ask for his guidance. A discussion was two-way while questions were a one-way street. True conversationalists for Gu Beiyue were probably people with enough brains, like Long Feiye and Han Yunxi.

As the atmosphere within the hall improved, the crown stopped feeling bored. Gu Qishao started out by listening in to the conversations, but soon he felt restless. The ministers were all asking questions he didn’t understand or weren’t interested in. He wanted to tease Rui’er, but the boy was staunchly ignoring him to listen to Gu Beiyue answer the questions. Although he didn’t understand most of the meaning, he liked to hear the Grand Tutor talk. Besides his parents, the Grand Tutor’s voice was the best of all.

Finally, Gu Qishao got mad. Before the next courtier could speak, he cut in by pulling Gu Beiyue towards him to whisper in his ear. “Your Excellency Gu, did you get this prince’s wedding gift?”

Seeing this, no one dared to interrupt as they waited.

“I did,” Gu Beiyue replied calmly.

“Did you look at it?” Gu Qishao persisted.

“I looked at the cover,” Gu Beiyue didn’t even flush or speed up his heartrate, his reply absolutely honest.

Gu Qishao gave him a long look before he chuckled. “Do you like it?”

Gu Beiyue grinned back. “Thank you for the generous gift.”