CH 93

Chapter 93: The Past

On the 28th floor of the Xi Group headquarters, Tang Lin saw Special Assistant Gou carrying a thick stack of books and asked curiously, “Since when are you interested in these history books?”

These “Tianjin History Manuscript”, “Tianjin Secret Records”, “Ten Secret Stories of Tianjin”, “Surprising History Records”, and “Biography of a Famous Minister” were basically all related to the Tianjin Dynasty. Did the company intend to develop projects related to the history of Tianjin?

“How could I be interested?” said Special Assistant Gou. He was holding the stack of books with some difficulty, and couldn’t help but lift them higher so that they wouldn’t fall down. “The boss asked me to find them.” After saying this, he didn’t care what Tang Lin thought, and walked straight towards the president’s office.

Tang Lin stood still and thought for a while. Somehow she thought of Gongxi Qiao’s paintings. It was rumored that most of Gongxi Qiao’s paintings carried the style of the Tianjin period and were very much admired. Could it be that the boss was looking for these books in order to have a common topic with his lover?

“Boss.” Special Assistant Gou put the books on the shelf. He turned his head to see the boss holding the “Biography of Famous Ministers” and said, “The founding emperor of the Tianjin Dynasty was really ruthless. Many people fought alongside him, but none of them had a good end.”

Xi Qing flipped through the table of contents. His eyes fell on Minister Gong and he slowly said, “Not everyone ended up miserable. Prime Minister Gong had a great life until his death.”

“Actually, that’s right.” Special Assistant Gou shrugged. “In TV shows, Prime Minister Gong often never marries a wife in his life for the sake of some woman, earning tears from countless female viewers. In my opinion, Minister Gong didn’t marry for life and had no descendants in order to eliminate the suspicion of the emperor. A man who had no descendants and no wife and family had to be more trustworthy than other people. Otherwise, how else could he have been given the national surname?”

Xi Qing turned to the page number marked on the table of contents and saw the opening paragraph introducing Minister Gong.

Gong Shaoqiao[1] (1321~1360 A.D.), courtesy name Zhiliang[2], pen name Kongyun Jushi. His ancestral home was in the area of present-day Furong Province, and he was a famous politician and literary scholar in history.

“Unfortunately, his life was too short. He was only about 40 years old when he died. When he died, Jin Taizu[3] cried like a fool and allowed him to be buried in the imperial tomb, so he had great success until his death.” Special Assistant Gou arranged the books, talking while he did so. He turned his head and saw that his boss was reading a book about Gong Shaoqiao, so he said, “Boss, if you’re interested in him, why don’t you read the book ‘Kongyun Chronicles’? I heard that the content of this book is more reliable.” After that, he pulled out a beautifully packaged book from the bookshelf.

Xi Qing paused for a moment and took the book handed to him by Special Assistant Gou. He saw that the cover of the book depicted a young man with a feather fan and a silk headdress, who looked like a refined literati.

The content of this book was all related to the famous Minister Gong in history. The descriptions were all historically verifiable, rather than the author’s own forced conjectures or specious historical legends to prove his arguments.

What surprised Xi Qing even more was that the book also listed several historical consultants on the inside pages, and Gongxi Qiao’s name was listed first.

The name Gongxi Qiao was definitely not common, so Xi Qing deliberately looked up the first print date of the book. It was a year ago.

A year ago …… Gongxi Qiao was filming. How did he have time to serve as a historical consultant for a book?

Looking at the contents of the text, Xi Qing, who was usually only interested in economics, couldn’t help but continue reading.

He didn’t know if it was because this Minister Gong’s name was similar to Xiao Qiao, but he felt like he was inexplicably more curious about this historical celebrity.

Seeing that his boss seemed to be particularly interested in the history of Minister Gong, Special Assistant Gou left the president’s office and purposely searched the Internet for information related to Minister Gong, only to find that the online search rate for this Minister Gong was quite high.

Then he found a post on the Cape Forum that had a high number of hits and replies.

The full name of this post was: Let’s talk about who the owner of the empty seat in the “Palace Banquet” picture is.

The owner of this post should be a history buff. First, he posted the full text of the “Founding Speech” as recited in middle school textbooks to show the liveliness and prosperity of the founding banquet of the Tianjin Dynasty. Then, he used various sources to prove the status of the people seated in the foreground of “Palace Banquet” and the order of their seating.

Ever since Gongxi Qiao’s “Palace Banquet” amazed the world, there were endless debates in the country about what the painting contained. However, Gongxi Qiao never came forward to explain it, so some history lovers argued with each other.

“At the beginning of the founding of Tianjin, all the famous officials who accompanied Jin Taizu to conquer the empire were present. This empty seat is the second on the right, which means that this person’s status is definitely not low, and must be someone who followed the founding emperor to conquer the empire and was trusted by the founding emperor. Let’s look at the corner again. There’s a man led by a palace maid holding a lantern. Although they came late, the palace maid’s pace and expression aren’t the least bit anxious. Instead, she’s smiling, indicating that he was not only liked by the emperor, but perhaps even the palace maids loved him very much.”

Special Assistant Gou clicked on the “Palace Banquet” picture posted on the main post, and took a closer look at the figure that was obscured with only a small part of his body in the large picture. He thought to himself that the man who could make the palace maids like him should have a good appearance.

“In ‘Biography of a Famous Minister’, it is written that Gong Shaoqiao was seven ancient Chinese feet[4] tall and had an extraordinary appearance. Wherever his carriage passed by, they would throw enough flowers to fill a cart. When he died of illness, countless women wept and burned poems to mourn him, lamenting that there was no more Gong Shaoqiao in the world. When Jin Taizu remembered him, he sobbed several times to all the officials and said, ‘Zhiliang is gone. I feel like I have lost an arm’, which showed how influential Gong Shaoqiao was ……”

“Although Gong Shaoqiao didn’t live long enough, he was the best of the famous ministers who worked with the emperor to win the empire. After his death, he was so successful that Jin Taizu asked the prince to personally bury him with the status of a nephew because he never married a wife. As a minister, being able to achieve this level of success can be considered explosively amazing.”

The original poster’s words were witty and well-reasoned, and Special Assistant Gou read it with great interest. He was also in agreement with the other person’s viewpoint when the original poster came to the conclusion that the owner of that empty seat should be Minister Gong.

Because, although Gongxi Qiao was trusted by the emperor, in the founding days of the country, due to his status and age, it was absolutely impossible for him to sit on the first chair. However, the emperor particularly liked to trust him, so the second seat on the right was more appropriate.

As a modern person, Special Assistant Gou couldn’t understand the difficulties of interdependence and mutual suppression between the imperial authority and aristocratic families during the pre-modern feudal period, but Gong Shaoqiao, a man of humble origins, was able to succeed and get the state surname and become prime minister at the age of only thirty, which was really a miracle.

However…… why didn’t he just go and ask the creator of the painting? Other people had to argue with reason and logic, but he might as well find time to ask Great Young Master Qiao, the creator.

After closing the webpage, Special Assistant Gou came to the president’s office and saw that the boss had already put away the books and started to deal with business matters, so he was embarrassed to mention the “Palace Banquet” picture.

“What is it?” Seeing Special Assistant Gou come in, Xi Qing stopped writing and looked up at him.

“Nothing,” Special Assistant Gou said with a dry smile. “Seeing that it’s almost time to leave work, I want you to ask something for me, boss.”

Xi Qing looked at Special Assistant Gou and gestured for him to continue.

“I just want you to ask Qiao Shao if the owner of the empty second seat in ‘Palace Banquet’ is Minister Gong?” Special Assistant Gou was a little embarrassed, “I’m just curious, it’s okay if you don’t ask.”

Xi Qing was taken aback for a moment, then nodded and said, “Okay.”

After Special Assistant Gou went out, Xi Qing looked at the documents in front of him with little emotion, put pen to paper, and sighed.

T/N: