Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Chapter 1051 – Cutting Off the Hand (I)

“It was me who agreed to let this teacher and those students return.

“As for the Xue clan’s child, he reported to me.

“If there is blame to be placed, the blame lies on me. I request Your Holiness the Pope to forgive me.”

This succession of statements caused the gaze Chen Changsheng aimed at this bishop called Mei Chuan to change.

Bishop Mei Chuan had a very gentle conversational style, a graceful bearing, a perfect etiquette. Even when facing the Pope, he gave off an aura that was neither servile nor overbearing.

Chen Changsheng felt a sort of familiarity about this person, but there was an even more crucial question—when did the Orthodox Academy get an education overseer?

Su Moyu said, “You are the education overseer, so why is it that when the teacher permitted those students to commit wrongdoings, not only did you not punish him, you even protected him?”

Bishop Mei Chuan calmly replied, “The Orthodox Academy is a holy ground, so how can the child of a treasonous minister be allowed to profane it? My actions were out of consideration for the academy.”

Chen Changsheng gazed at Mei Chuan, the familiarity growing clearer and clearer.

Mei Chuan faintly smiled, preparing to continue explaining his thinking.

He appeared very calm, but he was actually rather nervous. After all, his actions were highly likely to offend the Pope.

More importantly, he was preparing to use this matter and his following words and combine them with the relationship between him and the Pope in an attempt to gain even more benefits.

Regrettably, Chen Changsheng did not give him the chance to continue speaking.

Chen Changsheng had this vague feeling that if he continued to speak with this bishop, he would end up with a result that he would not be willing to accept.

To put it another way, this Bishop Mei Chuan had already prepared the course and tempo of this conversation before showing himself.

Those people most skilled at breaking the course and tempo of a conversation were often the unreasonable and reckless.

Chen Changsheng could not do this, but the Orthodox Academy had never been lacking such an individual.

He asked Su Moyu, “Where is he?”

Su Moyu pointed at the back and said, “He drank too much last night, so he’s sleeping inside.”

“Wake him up. I recall that this is a matter that should be under the academy superintendent’s purview,” Chen Changsheng noted.

The Orthodox Academy’s superintendent was Tang Thirty-Six.

With regards to ‘unreasonable’, who was more skilled, and who had more money than him?

Rubbing his eyes and still in his pajamas, Tang Thirty-Six walked into the room. After listening to Su Moyu’s summary of the situation, he yawned.

And then he turned to that teacher who allowed the students to beat up and humiliate Xue Yejin. He said one word: “Scram.”

It wasn’t a very loud voice, and it was certainly no thunderclap, but it was very crisp, like biting into a radish after soaking it in water for an entire night.

Sweat instantly began to gush from the teacher’s pores. A single glance to Bishop Mei Chuan was the only delay he permitted himself before quickly retreating.

Three years ago, he had been a teacher of the Orthodox Academy, so he was well aware of the superintendent’s temper.

If he did not quickly leave now and flee the Orthodox Academy, he probably wouldn’t have a chance to flee for the rest of his life.

Mei Chuan slightly raised his brows, apparently surprised to see that the young master of the Tang clan had such renown in the Orthodox Academy.

Tang Thirty-Six turned to him.

Bishop Mei Chuan had already prepared himself. Upon being told to scram, he already knew how he should smile in order to appear like he didn’t mind.

However, Tang Thirty-Six did not say ‘scram’, but instead asked, “Who are you?”

It was quite a while before Mei Chuan gathered his senses and replied, “I am the education overseer for the Orthodox Academy.”

Tang Thirty-Six asked, “When did the Orthodox Academy get an education overseer? How come even I didn’t know?”

Since he could be dispatched by the Bureau of Ecclesiastic Education as an education overseer for as important a place as the Orthodox Academy, Bishop Mei Chuan undoubtedly had an unusual background.

So Tang Thirty-Six was not prepared to ask about his background, nor did he intend to give him a chance to say it.

This was precisely the reason Chen Changsheng had him appear.

But Mei Chuan’s reaction was faster than had been imagined.

He ignored Tang Thirty-Six, turning to Chen Changsheng and saying, “The deceased Archbishop Mei Lisha is my uncle on my father’s side.”

He was Mei Lisha’s nephew.

As expected.

Chen Changsheng’s speculations had received proof, and he naturally understood why Su Moyu had been in such a difficult situation.

The entire continent knew of Mei Lisha’s relationship with him and the Orthodox Academy.

The room was quiet for a very long time.

“I only want to ask one question.”

Tang Thirty-Six looked at Mei Chuan and asked, “Why did you agree to the return of those teachers and students?”

Mei Chuan’s expression did not change. He calmly replied, “The decisions of the Bureau of Ecclesiastic Education must comply with His Majesty’s decrees.”

This statement was not wrong.

The Orthodox Academy was one of the Six Ivies, under the direct administration of the Li Palace. However, it was still in the capital, on the territory of the Great Zhou.

But anyone could tell that this was not simply the emperor’s decree. It could only be Shang Xingzhou’s intent.

“I understand.”

Tang Thirty-Six appeared very calm. He said to Mei Chuan, “Might I trouble Your Excellency to leave for the moment so that we might discuss?”

Mei Chuan smiled. “Of course.”

He bowed to Chen Changsheng and left.

The room once more welcomed a protracted silence.

Tang Thirty-Six looked at Chen Changsheng.

Chen Changsheng said nothing.

Mo Yu had never mentioned these matters in her letters. After all, she was not a member of the Orthodoxy, so it was impossible for her to know of the undercurrent lurking beneath its waters.

But all of them understood that the problem lay within the Bureau of Ecclesiastic Education.

The Bureau of Ecclesiastic Education administered the Six Ivies and was the most important of the Li Palace’s Sacred Halls, possessing an exceptionally unique status in the Orthodoxy.

Its last two administrators had been the most experienced and most honored of archbishops, Mei Lisha and Mao Qiuyu.

The Bureau of Ecclesiastic Education had always belonged to the Orthodoxy’s conservative faction, locked in a struggle with the Orthodoxy’s new faction, led by Linghai Zhiwang and Daoist Siyuan, for many years.

In the rebirth of the Orthodox Academy, the Bureau of Ecclesiastic Education and the deceased Archbishop Mei Lisha had played extremely important roles.

In the view of the common people, the Bureau of Ecclesiastic Education should have supported the Orthodox Academy and the now-Pope Chen Changsheng, just like they had done in the past.

Yet Chen Changsheng knew that this was not the case at all.

The reason the Orthodoxy’s conservative faction had supported the Orthodox Academy was not him, but his teacher.

Put bluntly, they had always supported his teacher.

To them, the Orthodox Academy had never been Chen Changsheng’s, and certainly not Tang Thirty-Six’s or any of those other youngsters’.

From start to finish, the Orthodox Academy was Shang Xingzhou’s and their martyred friends’.

In the three years that Chen Changsheng was gone from the capital, the Li Palace had sealed itself away, making it hard for anyone to stretch a hand inside.

But the Bureau of Ecclesiastic Education was outside the Li Palace, under the jurisdiction of Shang Xingzhou’s renown and methods. The control the Orthodoxy’s conservative faction wielded over the Bureau of Ecclesiastic Education grew stronger and stronger.

They naturally wanted to take back control of the Orthodox Academy. At worst, they wanted to at least regain their influence over it.

It was no easy feat for Su Moyu to last until now.

Tang Thirty-Six asked Su Moyu, “Principal Mao?”

This was the problem he was most concerned about.

Su Moyu replied, “Principal Mao has already been in seclusion for some time. These matters probably have nothing to do with him.”

At this answer, both Tang Thirty-Six and Chen Changsheng sighed in relief.

But the problem facing the Orthodox Academy was still very difficult to address.

The strategy of the Bureau of Ecclesiastic Education, of Shang Xingzhou, was very shrewd, the person that they had chosen very difficult to handle.

Not even Tang Thirty-Six could order that person to scram.

After all, Mei Chuan was a relative of Mei Lisha.

Tang Thirty-Six looked at Chen Changsheng and declared, “But this place is the Orthodox Academy.”

Chen Changsheng thought for a very long time. Finally, he said, “Yes.”

Tang Thirty-Six added, “I didn’t have him scram because I knew that there would be no meaning to it.”

Chen Changsheng silently thought some more, then said, “Yes.”

Tang Thirty-Six turned and walked out of the room.

Su Moyu had an inkling of what Tang Thirty-Six planned to do. His expression suddenly changed and he rose, preparing to stop him.

But Chen Changsheng said nothing.

In a trembling voice, Su Moyu asked, “Is this really necessary?”