589 Scheming (Third Update)

Night had fallen, and the candles in the Zhuang family residence began to light up one by one.

The servants took down each lantern along the corridor, lit them and hung them back up high.

Zhuang Taifu sat in the study, flipping through the documents presented by Xu Cifu and others.

Recently, there had been significant unrest at court, with Minister Xing and Empress Dowager Zhuang being vindicated and their status and power restored. Yet the behavior of Zhuang Taifu during the Empress Dowager's entrapment had drawn mixed opinions. Some ministers thought him ungrateful and indifferent to sibling bonds, while others argued he was an insider, merely collaborating with the Empress Dowager and others in a charade.

Opinions were diverse, and it seemed the civil officials utilized their eloquence for such debates, lest they find other displeasures to dwell upon in their idleness.

Zhuang Taifu was actually not concerned about the squabbles at court, but rather—