Above the slightly grainy feel of the Xuan Province sapling paper, was restrained dripping calligraphy, writing out the words, “Leaping Fish in the Current Sea.”
Seeing the entire winding of ink creating the figures, the piece above them should still have a phrase below. But unknowably why, these words were written on the paper and then tiring, the writer stopped writing. The last hook of the “Sea” (海) character was clearly hanging, faintly showing a trace of dissatisfaction.
These characters made up a hint of stern bearing. If an ordinary person wrote it it could be considered pretty good, but in Ning Que’s eyes, he didn’t feel it had anything appreciable, especially since he just enjoyed esteemed authentic works. Naturally he felt even more so that these characters “Leaping Fish in the Current Sea” were simply quite poor, and even if he guessed that these characters were written by His Majesty the Emperor himself, it wouldn’t change his perception.
Thinking that today he entered the palace borrowing the excuse of calligraphy, Ning Que felt a slight stir in his heart. Thinking to himself that if in the future his own calligraphy entered the discernment of the Lord Emperor’s, then it would be like riding a cloud going straight up in clear skies; being an unnoticeable person yet an extremely well-regarded servant was pretty good.
Just as he was thinking this, suddenly he heard an extremely angry voice from far far away in the back room of the Imperial Study. That voice was deep and powerful and seemed especially irritable, but because the distance was too great, he could only clearly hear the most angry words of that cursing.
“Moron! …….Morons! …….A group of morons!”
The word ‘moron’ was yelled like rocks. .h.i.tting the floor, powerfully resonating deeply like a war drum, and sharp and clear like striking a rock.
Ning Que stood inside of the Imperial Study in a daze, listening to the word “moron” as though it had come from out of the sky. Gradually he couldn’t help but to listen to it till he had gone silly, inside he felt a great feeling of familiarity; thinking to himself whichever big bureaucrat was being scolded as an moron was actually quite towards his own taste.
The Tang Dynasty’s Imperial Palace was a kind of stately and solemn place. Even if authority relied extremely heavily on eunuchs to manage, they wouldn’t dare to use such a loud voice to curse at someone, much less the voice scolding someone as a moron came from the Hall of Political Discussion.
Ning Que wasn’t clear on the placement of buildings in the Imperial Palace. Of course he wouldn’t know that all along the Imperial Study was extremely heavily guarded, and the Hall of Political Discussion was very close to the Imperial Study, so he could hear countless sentences of “moron”, but no one could see that he could hear it. …… ……
Within the Hall of Political Discussion, dragons coiled around jade pillars, and gold curtains were embroidered with celestial maidens and flowers. Left of the Imperial Throne sat a married, beautiful woman in Palace clothing, perhaps thirty years old. With a gorgeous face looking around, she didn’t lose any of her charm. With very prominent gentleness, her slightly thick lips tightly pursed together added to her slightly firm expression. Seeing her phoenix hair ornament, this was the Tang Dynasty’s Empress.
On the Imperial Throne’s right side sat a 16 or 17 year old girl. Her eyes were slightly dropping as she used her slender finger to separate tea. With a bright and elegant bearing coupled with a quiet expression, she appeared extremely graceful. Since fleeing from the Gra.s.slands and tanning by the sun, her cheeks showed a slight tan, but now dozens of days later she recovered her fairness – this was exactly the Tang Dynasty’s 4th Princess, Li Yu.
In between the Empress and the Princess below, on the Imperial Chair sat a middle- aged man, with black hair very casually tied behind his head. Wearing an extremely loose robe, his voice though gentle and powerful, was unquestionable. Occasionally when he said that word, the tone of his voice would be like fleeting clouds attacking a mountain, fiercely rising and thundering throughout the hall.
At the floor in front of the Imperial Seat, kneeled ten-some officials. They deeply bowed their heads with their bodies slightly trembling, appearing especially ashamed and fearful, while the qualified His Highness the Prince and two old minsters’ expressions were extremely ugly.
The Tang Dynasty had never been heavy on secular customs, even if it was the daily interaction between a ruler and his ministers. Officials often wouldn’t need to kneel and kowtow, and only needed to clasp their hands in a salute – especially in a generation of His Majesty the Emperor widely known as tolerant. Ordinarily when a ruler and his ministers met in the Hall of Political Discourse, His Majesty would even brush off the courtesy of the clasping hands salute.
But today the tolerant king suddenly exploded in thunderous anger – the group of Tang Dynasty ministers once again found that His Majesty didn’t ordinarily want them to kneel because he was happy; when he wasn’t happy, the Hall of Political Discourse became terrifying.
On the Imperial Seat the middle-aged man naturally was the Tang Dynasty’s Emperor – on secular things in the Hao Tian World, he was the most powerful in the world. He gazed at the ministers kneeling on ice cold gold bricks in front of him, calmly showing a trace of a mocking gaze slowly as it brushed over everyone’s face – Commander of the Middle, of the Frontier, and a general Huai Hua – these were all military chiefs. The Right Deputy Minister, a.s.sistant Minister of the Center, the old and young of the Ministry of Revenue, Magistrate of the Capitol, a.s.sistant Minister of the Yellow Gate, ChangAn City’s Two Statues, and also his own younger brother sitting in a chair, and also those fellows so old they didn’t look human. In the end, in regards to this matter, how much did they know?
“One gang that is able to take over the river transportation business, and able to transport grains under guard, so what? You are all high officials in the Court, and can handle official matters with one word. Who knows how many people would tremble frightened? So what if some Chao XiaoShu dares to not listen to you? Are you all truly a group of morons? Could you have never thought of the reason?”
It was like the Tang Dynasty’s His Majesty the Emperor looked at the group of grandchildren mixed up in a mosquito net as he looked at his own ministers. Using his right hand, he stroked the slight pain on the back of his head, because he was so angry and disappointed he even had the urge to laugh out loud. He glared at the group, using strength to strike the gavel, and reprovingly said, “You all want to see who the backing of the ChangAn’s number one gang is? And now you know, know that it is Us. Do you feel that you have become the world’s biggest morons!”
“Fish Dragon Gang! Fish Dragon Gang! You all have extensively read books your whole life, and are officials used to seeing wind and rain. That actually not a single one thought of the four words, ‘fish dragon concealed dress’? If it wasn’t My intent, who in ChangAn City would dare to use this name as their gang name? We are very disappointed at you all. Not disappointed that you disregarded the laws and bullied the common people, but disappointed in your stupidity! Morons! Such a simple matter, yet to actually not understand it after watching for so many years, if you all aren’t morons, who is!”
With the chaotic battle of a rainy spring night in ChangAn City, indeed at the very end, success forced out Chao XiaoShu’s cards. However once this card was revealed, suddenly the wind and rain disappeared without a trace – because this card simply was too powerful; powerful till it only needed one word, and could define everyone as a moron, and then begin to settle the scores.
The ministers kneeling on the Palace floor feeling wronged and aggrieved didn’t know what to say. Silently thinking of the years gone by, no one had discovered the Fish Dragon Gang and the Palace had any kind of connection. Moreover, you are the unspeakably n.o.ble true dragon, the Son of Heaven, while the Fish Dragon Gang was just a little carp in a dark gutter of ChangAn. The distance was hundreds, thousands of miles, completely not an existence of the same world. Who would’ve thought that these would actually be connected?
This was like a county clerk’s teacher wanting to trouble a small worker of the back kitchen. As a result of the noise in the end, the clerks unexpectedly discovered this office was covered by the Ministry of Revenue! But the problem was, a fellow covered by the Ministry of Revenue, how could he become a little worker of the back kitchen!
If Chao XiaoShu was a friend Your Majesty had met among the common people years ago and had become friends, then why in all these years would he always be soaking in the JiangHu, this smelly gutter? With just one word, how could they not be able to find 4 or 5 shortages of officials in the Empire and give the position to him? This was the stupidity of the king’s ministers. This was purely Your Majesty treating us as idiots and playing with us.
Kneeling onto the ice cold gold bricks, and restlessly sitting in the chair, the powerful ministers of the Tang Dynasty were entirely with bellies full of discontent, but right now no one dared to jump out and argue a few words with that man in the Dragon Chair.
For these influential people of the Empire, fighting or speaking of subduing Spring Wind Pavilion’s Old Chao was a small matter, and the result was coming across the biggest mountain under Heaven. Inside they were clear this would inevitably end badly, and more importantly was that their subordinates in charge of these matters used the Court like they were a military strength – this already touched His Majesty’s limits. What bureau should handle this?