In the morning, it's still dark.
The cool breeze blew by, making the people who got up early very energetic.
After summer, the scorching heat at noon makes people unable to even move, and the day's work must be done in the early morning and evening.
In the east of the city, the servants of the high-ranking officials had prepared carriages, horses and sedans early. When it was dawn, the officials of each court walked out of their mansions, got on the carriages, horses and sedans, and headed towards the palace. .
Then I waited outside the palace for His Majesty to go to court. After entering the Changhua Hall, I chanted a few words of long live, and then I looked at my nose, nose, and heart, but listened but didn't say anything.
Generally speaking, the morning court lasts only half an hour. After Mu Xiang finishes saying that everything is going well and the country is peaceful and the people are safe, Luo Xiang will jump out and sing the opposite tune. After a quarrel, His Majesty would give a few words of encouragement to each party without interest, and then everyone would go back to their homes, those with concubines in their arms, and those with children in their arms.
But today in the east of the city, among the people rushing to go to court, there was a rather eye-catching figure.
Among the cars and sedans on the street, the man walked.
He was wearing a green gown, holding a meat bun in his left hand, and a bowl in his right hand, which was still steaming.
The road to the east of the city goes straight to the palace. If you want to go elsewhere in the capital, there is a shorter way. This road was built for ministers to go to court.
The people were not allowed to leave, and they did not deserve to leave.
This point will appear on this road only for officials and entourage rushing to the morning court.
But he was wearing commoner clothes, slovenly, and had a sword on his back!
What does he want to do? Bring a murder weapon to court? It's against him!
"Master Cui, who is that person? Why haven't I seen him before?" The person who asked the question was Xiao Qilun, the general envoy.
After his backer Mu Hanfei slightly lost power, Wu Sicheng, the original general envoy, became the price of Mu Hanfei's loss of power. He lost his official position and returned to his hometown to retire.
Although Xiao Qilun was only a third-rank official, he walked in front of the emperor. Memorials of all sizes in Kyushu had to be reviewed by him before being handed over to Emperor Pei.
This is no longer ordinary trust.
Therefore, even though he is only a third-rank man, sitting in his current position, no one in the civil and military dynasties dares to look down on him.
The person traveling with Xiao Qilun has a better background: Cui Yan, a second-rank official and Minister of Punishment.
"That belongs to Supervisor Tiansi, don't ask, don't take care of it." Cui Yan glanced at Lin Ji, then looked back, as if he was secretive and unwilling to talk in detail.
He had dealt with Lin Ji.
Shen Hong's case was tried by three departments, including the Criminal Department.
At that time, he was one of the chief interrogators of the case in Dali Temple, and at that time, Lin Ji was just a small servant of the Supervisor Tiansi.
Of course, for someone like Cui Yan who has reached the pinnacle of civil service, it doesn't make any difference whether you are a commander or a wandering star in Jian Tiansi, or whether you are just a headhunter somewhere.
This is Da Qin after all.
But at the same time, Cui Yan also knew very well that in the eyes of Taoist monks, he, the second-rank Minister of Punishment, was probably just a lowly pawn, and should be ignored and not worth mentioning.
But what he didn't expect was that what he said casually to deal with his colleagues would be heard by that person.
I saw him turning around, a smile on his face, and chewing a little faster.
"Isn't this Mr. Cui? We haven't seen you for a long time, and Mr. Cui's hair has turned a lot whiter."
Lin Ji approached Cui Yan with brisk steps. The guards on both sides of the car originally wanted to stop him, but in the blink of an eye, the uninvited guest in front of him had disappeared.
"No, in the car!"
The guard leader reacted, but just as he was about to make some move, he heard Cui Yan's voice.
"Nothing, just do your duties."
"As ordered." The guards retreated one after another, pretending that nothing had happened.
In the sedan, Lin Ji swallowed the meat bun in his hand and took another sip of the soy milk in the bowl.
"I still have half a pot of soy milk here, Mr. Cui, do you want to drink it? The clean bowl also has meat buns, but I can't give them to you. Although the cook in the house made a lot, Lin only brought two when he came out. Originally, he only brought two I wanted to taste it, but who would have thought it would be unexpectedly delicious? We couldn’t help but be greedy, and one of us had already eaten it.”
While he was talking, a table the size of a bed table was placed in the small sedan, and Lin Ji conjured out a kettle and a small bowl.
Before he could speak, the other party had already poured the soy milk on his face.
For a moment, he couldn't say any more words of rejection. Cui Yan could only pick up the bowl and take a sip.
"good."
Lin Ji turned his hand, and there was another meat bun in his hand.
Just as he was about to start speaking, he couldn't help but glance at Cui Yan. When he saw Cui Yan staring at him, a look of depression appeared on his face.
After much thought, he finally gritted his teeth and made up his mind, broke off a third of the bun and handed it to Cui Yan.
"Master Cui, please use it."
"this"
Looking at the steamed buns handed to him, Cui Yan didn't accept them or not.
Seeing this, Lin Ji laughed and said, "Why are you being polite to me?"
"Then I would like to thank Mr. Lin for your kindness?"
"No need to."
Seeing that Lin Ji really didn't care, Cui Yan looked at the small half of the meat bun in his hand and finally took a bite.
He always felt that it would be difficult to chat without taking a bite.
Don't tell me, it tastes really good.
"Master Lin is going to the palace to attend court today? Was it summoned by His Majesty?" Cui Yan finally asked what he was thinking.
"Lin came to the palace to have fun." Lin Ji smiled and narrowed his eyes.
Seeing Cui Yan's puzzled expression, Lin Ji asked: "Although Mr. Cui is in charge of the Criminal Department, he is also one of the people who go to the study. I cannot hide important national affairs from you, and I will not hide them from you. With the current situation in Jiuzhou in the Central Plains, I think Master Cui should Do you understand something?"
"I know something." Cui Yan couldn't laugh anymore when talking about this.
Lin Ji nodded.
"For thousands of years, Da Qin has been known as the orthodox of the Nine Provinces, but in fact there are always a few places where Da Qin's hand cannot reach out."
"Like Weizhou before, like Xiangzhou where Taiyi Sect is located, like Yangzhou in the south which is controlled by aristocratic families."
"There are always some places that Da Qin can control but doesn't want to."
"For example, Qingzhou and Yanzhou in the west. These two states are the spittoons of the nine states in the Central Plains. When your throat feels uncomfortable, you spit into it and clear your throat, throwing away all the troubles that you can't catch, can't control, or don't want to deal with."
"This is true, but after all, there is a charter, and the states will not really treat the Qin Dynasty as nothing because of this."
Cui Yan couldn't refute.
"That's what Mr. Lin said."
"What about now?" Lin Ji asked again.
Cui Yan was silent.
Nowadays, everyone in the court is reporting good news rather than bad news.
Lin Ji smiled lightly and said: "I am talking about this just to let Mr. Cui understand that even if I am a selfish person who ignores worldly affairs and only knows about cultivation in the eyes of you civil servants, I still understand the situation in my heart. And we are better than you. We see more thoroughly and know more, it’s not about wisdom, it’s about height.”
"That's why Lin went to court today. Lin wanted to have fun and keep one person alive, that's all."
"To have fun? To save lives?"
"It's fun to see if Great Qin will really fall apart because of this, and to keep a colleague with some conscience alive."
(End of chapter)
