Cao Mao woke from his dreams, feeling thoroughly at ease.
People said being emperor was exhausting, but that was simply because they had no worthy ministers around them.
With men like Jia Chong, Sima Zhao, and Sima Shi around me, every day is either amusement or feasting. What is there to be exhausted about?
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say I'm having so much fun I've forgotten Wei.
Having these worthy ministers at court truly is my good fortune.
After this bout of self-mockery, Cao Mao began going through the motions, paying his respects to the Empress Dowager.
The more contact Cao Mao had with these people, the more he looked down on them.
The Guo Family left a very poor impression on him: cowardly and greedy.
They were terrified of Sima Shi. Even the reckless Guo Jian dared not greet him in front of others.
The Empress Dowager did not dare receive his visits either. Whenever he came to pay his respects, she simply had him bow outside and left it at that.
Yet these people really were blinded by greed.
They kept their eyes fixed on the matter of Sima Wang all day long, and Guo Li had even come several times to ask him how it was progressing.
Had they been cowardly to the end and submitted completely to the Sima Family, or remained unyielding to the end and refused to surrender an inch, Cao Mao would have considered them capable.
But they insisted on straddling the fence-and being the sort of fence-sitters who disgusted their allies at that.
In any case, Cao Mao was no longer in a hurry to summon Sima Wang.
He had originally intended to contact Liu Lu and the others through Guo Jian. Now that he had made a breakthrough through