It was just a cold—a cold, nothing more. I was almost better, and updates would resume in the morning tomorrow.
Helping Xu Furen enter the Grand Secretariat had naturally been nothing more than a wild notion that had suddenly occurred to Sun Shaozong.
Leaving aside whether he had that kind of influence, even if he did, with Xu Furen's cunning and prudence, he would never have come knocking so openly at such a time to forge connections.
Then what exactly had brought him here?
Faced with Sun Shaozong's doubts, Xu Furen did not beat around the bush.
Once host and guest had taken their seats, he placed an official document on the tea table and gently pushed it toward Sun Shaozong. "I came today to ask Vice Minister Sun to look over an official document."
Sun Shaozong hurriedly accepted it with both hands. He first skimmed through it, then could not help sighing inwardly. Xu Furen's chances of entering the Grand Secretariat were indeed completely dead!
For this document was actually an Imperial Certificate of Appointment. Its general contents stated that the retired official Xu Furen was being recalled to serve as Vice Minister of Rites.
Going from Deputy Grand Secretary to Vice Minister of Rites was not merely a world of difference; they were simply incomparable.
It seemed that the higher one stood, the more cautiously one had to choose sides!
After his moment of reflection, Sun Shaozong was about to offer Xu Furen a few words of comfort when suspicion suddenly arose. Had Xu Furen made such a conspicuous visit merely to let him know that he had failed to enter the Grand Secretariat and had instead become Vice Minister of Rites?
No matter how he considered it, that did not seem right.
So Sun Shaozong held back