Li Tong stood before the Yihe Palace, holding several memorials in his arms and walking with hurried steps.

Around the great hall stood guards wearing imperial guard uniforms with sabers at their waists, while eunuchs waited in attendance under the corridors.

The sun was at its zenith, and not a sound could be heard.

Li Tong couldn’t help but swallow hard. This was his first day on duty, and his heart was about to jump out of his throat.

For a moment, he stood at the bottom of the steps for quite some time without moving.

A eunuch saw him and beckoned him over.

Li Tong steeled himself and walked forward trembling.

“The memorial Your Majesty requested about the Dongyang disaster relief…” he said in a trembling voice.

The eunuch looked at him.

“New here?” he asked, seeing the beads of sweat covering the man’s face and couldn’t help but want to laugh.

Where did this rookie come from?

His smiling, squinting expression made Li Tong shudder. Remembering his family’s instructions, he hurriedly fumbled in his sleeve and produced a red envelope.

“Please trouble Your Excellency to make an announcement,” he said, extending it with shaking hands.

Well, not bad at all. The eunuch smiled and smoothly accepted it without any change in expression.

“Wait here,” he said, then turned and went inside.

Li Tong’s heart pounded, and he felt his back clothes were completely soaked. It seemed like a lifetime had passed before the eunuch came back out.

“Please enter,” he said with a smile, gesturing with his hand.

The eunuchs on both sides immediately pulled open the doors together.

This moment would come sooner or later. Now that the time had arrived, Li Tong actually calmed down, lifted his foot, and entered.

The great hall was spacious and broad, with incense smoke curling about.

Li Tong didn’t dare raise his head. He stood at the entrance for a while and swallowed hard.

“Your Majesty…” he raised the memorial and bowed as he spoke.

His voice was somewhat hoarse after all.

“Over here,” a somewhat languid voice said.

Li Tong boldly raised his head. The dragon throne directly in front was empty, and he was momentarily stunned.

“Over here,” the voice said again.

Only then did Li Tong look over. On the right side of the great hall, behind hanging silk curtains, there was a figure seated.

He boldly walked over, lifted the silk curtains, and entered. This was the second time he had seen the Emperor since that day.

The Emperor sat on a luohan bed, surrounded by piles of memorials. At this moment, he was looking down at one and didn’t stop or look up because Li Tong had entered.

“Your Majesty,” Li Tong bowed and raised the memorial.

“Just put it down,” the Emperor said.

He read memorials very quickly. In the time of this brief exchange, he had finished one and switched to another.

Looking at the memorials in front, behind, left, and right, Li Tong didn’t know where to place the one in his hands.

Only then did the Emperor look up.

“Oh,” he said, squinting as he looked him over. “New here?”

Li Tong hurriedly bowed and confirmed that he was.

The Emperor had probably forgotten him. How should he introduce himself? He had rehearsed this many times at home, but now that he was actually in the Emperor’s presence, his mind went completely blank.

“Your grandfather is feeling better, isn’t he?”

A voice drifted down from above his head.

Li Tong was stunned for a moment.

“Yes, yes, he’s better,” he hurriedly answered in a stuttering voice.

The Emperor smiled. He put down the memorial in his hands and looked at him.

“Your grandfather’s mind is fine, isn’t it?” he asked. “Looking at how you respond before your sovereign, he really dared to send you here? Is this loving care? Or is he planning to harm you?”

He had practiced various conversations, but this kind… this kind…

Li Tong was dumbfounded.

The Emperor looked at him with a slight smile, tapping the memorial in his hand rhythmically, saying nothing. He seemed to be waiting for an answer.

The great hall suddenly became quiet.

“Thank Your Majesty for your great kindness,” Li Tong suddenly knelt down and kowtowed.

The Emperor was somewhat surprised and shifted his sitting position.

“Thank me for what?” he asked.

“It is because of Your Majesty that your servant has today,” Li Tong said, prostrating himself on the ground.

The Emperor laughed.

“Oh. How is it because of me?” he asked.

“Your servant is dull and incompetent, and being a concubine-born son, originally couldn’t even stay in the capital, much less have today’s opportunity to respond before Your Majesty. All of this is because your servant was fortunate enough to exchange a few words with Your Majesty. Therefore, everything your servant has today was bestowed by Your Majesty,” Li Tong said in a trembling voice.

As he spoke, thinking of the earth-shaking changes in his situation at home these past few days, thinking of how his sister had finally escaped that nightmare marriage, and how he not only didn’t have to leave the capital to seek survival but had leaped into the inner cabinet and could walk before the sovereign, and how those who previously wouldn’t even glance at him now fawned over and flattered him…

His nose tingled with emotion. Ever since the incident occurred, he had been surrounded by happiness at every moment, smiling wherever he went. He hadn’t expected that here in the Emperor’s presence, under this incomparable quiet, with all the noise and clamor fallen away, he would actually feel heartbroken.

“Your servant, having gained this once, would die without regret,” he said with a sob.

The Emperor looked at him and laughed with a “puchi” sound.

“Put the memorial here, these are the ones I haven’t read yet,” he said.

The topic had shifted, and Li Tong didn’t react for a moment.

“Put it down. Is the duty roster very idle?” the Emperor said again, glancing at the bed.

Li Tong hurriedly got up and placed the memorial where the Emperor had indicated.

The Emperor lowered his head again and continued reading memorials. He didn’t use a brush, but dipped his finger in the ink beside him and dotted here and there on the memorials.

It was said this was the Emperor’s new favorite way of reviewing memorials recently, which had even caused the four duty ministers to kneel at the palace gates and cry in protest.

Li Tong stood quietly for a moment, confirming that the Emperor was already seriously and wholeheartedly reading the memorials with nothing to say to him, then slowly withdrew.

Just as he withdrew from the silk curtains, the Emperor spoke again.

“That…” he began to say.

Li Tong hurriedly stopped. The Emperor’s voice also stopped.

The great hall was quiet for a moment.

“Never mind. You may go,” the Emperor said again.

Li Tong responded affirmatively and withdrew.

The Emperor propped his head on his hand, looking at the silk curtains, smiled again, then lowered his head to continue reading the memorials.

But this quiet moment didn’t last long before it was interrupted by commotion outside.

There weren’t many people who dared make noise here…

The Emperor frowned.

Then he heard a eunuch enter.

“Your Majesty, Imperial Physician Zhou requests an audience.”

This old thing is back?

The Emperor raised his hand.

Through the curtains, the eunuch could also see the Emperor’s gesture clearly. He immediately turned and announced, but before he finished speaking, someone came tumbling and crawling in, then tumbled and crawled to prostrate on the ground.

“Your Majesty,” he called out with a crying voice.

The Emperor was startled. Looking at the person kneeling on the ground, travel-worn, disheveled, and dirty, this crawling about immediately left a layer of dust on the clean floor.

“Zhou Maochun, were you robbed?” he asked with a laugh.

“Your Majesty,” Zhou Maochun raised his head, his face also streaked with dirt, looking like he really was about to cry. “Your servant’s Lady Qi…”

“Dead?” the Emperor asked, shaking his head with some schadenfreude, yet feigning comfort. “My condolences…”

Zhou Maochun wiped his nose with his sleeve.

“No, she’s gone,” he said.

“That’s why I’m telling you to accept my condolences,” the Emperor said with a laugh.

“No. Gone means gone,” Zhou Maochun shouted.

“You old thing, that’s why I’m telling you to accept my condolences,” the Emperor also shouted, casually throwing a memorial at him.

Zhou Maochun raised his hand and slapped his face.

“Not dead gone, your servant couldn’t find Lady Qi! People say she came to the capital!” Zhou Maochun said.

The Emperor laughed heartily, looking at Zhou Maochun’s appearance and imagining how embarrassed he must have been on this journey back and forth.

“Serves you right!” he laughed loudly. “Who told you not to listen to me and insisted on going to curry favor yourself!”

Zhou Maochun felt wronged, annoyed, and had nothing to say.

“Alright, coming to the capital is even better. Go quickly and find your Lady Qi,” the Emperor said. “Before you go, wash up a bit. Looking like this, you’re disgracing my Imperial Medical Bureau.”

It would have been better not to mention this, but once he did, Zhou Maochun really started crying.

“Your Majesty, Lady Qi has left again,” he prostrated himself and pounded the ground as he shouted.

The Emperor was stunned, then burst into even louder laughter.

The eunuchs outside exchanged glances.

“His Majesty hasn’t laughed this heartily in a long time,” one said in a low voice.

“Imperial Physician Zhou is still impressive. No wonder His Majesty likes him so much,” another said quietly.

Zhou Maochun was quite displeased that the Emperor was building his happiness on his pain and raised his head to look at the Emperor without regard for propriety.

The Emperor tried hard to suppress his laughter.

“Well then, go chase after her quickly, lest you miss her again,” he said with a laugh.

“Your Majesty, I can’t catch up. I can’t find Lady Qi,” Zhou Maochun said, wiping his nose again.

The Emperor was very curious.

“How can you not find her?” he asked.

“I don’t know, I just can’t find her,” Zhou Maochun said, crawling forward a few steps. “Your Majesty, your servant especially came to request that Your Majesty lend me the Imperial Guards and issue an edict for all the prefectures to help your servant search together…”

Before he could finish, the Emperor threw a memorial at him.

“You old thing, you really dare to think big!” he laughed. “To find your sweetheart, you actually schemed your way to me. I haven’t even used these to find…”

He coughed and stopped mid-sentence.

“Find what? Does Your Majesty also need to find someone?” Zhou Maochun, though old, had keen hearing. Forgetting his own sadness at being refused, he asked with concern.

“Get lost,” the Emperor waved his hand. “Go wash up quickly and stay away from me. You stink.”

Zhou Maochun had no choice but to leave dejectedly.

Where on earth had Lady Qi gone?

Many people were puzzled.

“She must have gone traveling,” Fan Yilin said without thinking, while pouring wine for Li Tong.

“What a pity, I didn’t get to thank her personally,” Li Tong said, also offering a drink to Fan Yilin.

“Lady Qi doesn’t care about such things,” Fan Yilin said with an expression as if she were his own family.

Li Tong smiled.

“Are you getting used to the Ministry of Personnel?” he asked.

It would have been better not to mention this. Fan Yilin’s face wrinkled up.

“I estimate in another ten days or half a month, you won’t see me anymore,” he said.

Li Tong was puzzled.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“I’ll die of exhaustion,” Fan Yilin said. “I’m busy at the ministry, and when I get home, I have to report everything from the day in detail to my father, then get lectured. Finally, when that’s done and I return to my own courtyard, I have to report everything again to my wife. I find it strange – why doesn’t my wife just wait at my father’s place and listen together? Doing it twice like this is just tormenting me, isn’t it?”

Li Tong laughed heartily.

“Being tired is good, being tired is good,” he said with a laugh.

Fan Yilin held up his wine cup and looked out the window.

“What’s good about being tired… Mother of God!” he suddenly shouted.

Li Tong was startled.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, following his gaze out the window.

At this moment, they were sitting in a second-floor private room, and the window faced the main street, which was currently bustling with people.

Li Tong had just asked when he saw Fan Yilin smash his wine cup down with lightning speed.

“You bastard! Finally fallen into grandpa’s hands!” Fan Yilin shouted loudly, his whole body pressed against the window.

Li Tong was so frightened he hurriedly reached out to hold him tightly, seeing that Fan Yilin looked like he would jump down at any moment.

What on earth was happening?

He looked down as well. The street was filled with people coming and going, men and women in colorful clothes, old and young, all bustling about. He couldn’t tell which unfortunate person had been hit by Fan Yilin’s projectile, but three or four people were looking up at them.

Clearly, none of these were Fan Yilin’s target, because he turned around and frantically grabbed wine cups and wine pots from the table.

“You bastard, stand still for grandpa!” he shouted loudly, hurling everything in his hands down viciously.

The street finally erupted in chaos. The crowd screamed and scattered in all directions, revealing a tall, imposing man. He looked up, his face cold and stern, thick eyebrows slightly furrowed.

Their eyes met across the distance between upstairs and downstairs.

Li Tong saw the man’s lips move slightly, and he raised his hand to point lightly. Immediately, five or six people beside him looked up, then walked over. They seemed very experienced – two automatically guarded the entrance while the rest rushed inside.

There was quite a distance between upstairs and downstairs, but Li Tong could still feel this man’s fierce aura. This was no ordinary person!

Li Tong suddenly grabbed Fan Yilin and dragged him down.

“Brother Fan, you can’t joke about this. This man is not to be trifled with,” he shouted urgently.

Heavy footsteps were already coming up the stairs with thunderous noise.