"N-nothing!"
Xie Lang's pupils trembled. He refused to admit that he had misunderstood. The dream had had too much of an impact on him. He couldn't continue like this!
It's normal for children to have some secrets as they grow up, so Wen Hemian decided not to pry and easily let the matter drop.
The ointment on her hands had almost dried, and the little emperor finally seemed willing to let her go; she wasn't going to linger there any longer.
The sun was getting stronger, and it was getting quite uncomfortable outside. She asked, "Shall I accompany His Majesty back to deal with the memorials?"
Even though he was on leave, Emperor Xie Lang was far from idle. He had a pile of memorials on his desk waiting to be reviewed, and since he would have to review them sooner or later, he might as well review them now.
Xie Lang was eager to find something to distract him, so he readily agreed, "Okay."
Wen Heming shook her hand, belatedly realizing that a burning sensation was slowly spreading up. It wasn't too painful and was still within her tolerance range. She took the lead and headed towards the Imperial Study. Xie Lang was stunned for a moment before quickly following her.
He was overjoyed when he saw this from behind, his face beaming with delight.
Look at His Majesty and Lord Wen, their teacher-student relationship is so good.
-
It was a rare day when Xie Lang didn't have the slightest thought of keeping Wen Hemian around.
Only after the Grand Tutor's figure completely disappeared from his sight did Xie Lang's smile instantly vanish, like an overturned inkstone revealing his displeasure.
Half of the young emperor's face was hidden in shadow, and even Lai Xi, who had served him for many years, was startled: "...Your Majesty?"
Serving a ruler is like serving a tiger.
This isn't just talk.
As the young boy grew up and his aura deepened, Lai Xi truly felt the weight of those words.
"Go..." Xie Lang frowned deeply, his tone uncertain, "Go find me a fire-avoidance diagram."
Lai Xi: "...Huh?"
What is this? A fire avoidance diagram?
Xie Lang shot him a cold glare, and Lai Xi immediately jumped up: "This servant will go right away!"
He nearly jumped up, remembering that he was in front of the emperor, barely managing to suppress the horror in his eyes, and hurriedly left.
But what she was really thinking was—after so many years of the harem being empty, is the young emperor finally going to get it?
Perhaps, in due time, I, as the Grand Eunuch, will be able to play some other roles.
Xie Lang was not an inflexible person. After a whole day of calming down, he finally managed to recall that Shang Gong had said that what one does in a dream does not mean anything. What one thinks about during the day, one dreams about at night. It's just a coincidence.
He needs to learn how to comfort himself.
These things are inconvenient to discuss with the Grand Tutor; he can handle them himself, there's no need to bother anyone else.
Xie Lang reassured himself.
Lai Xi was on the edge of her seat, handling this kind of task for the first time. She was incredibly efficient, gathering a huge pile of fire-avoidance diagrams from the palace in no time and delivering them all to Xie Lang.
His eyes darted around cautiously as he scrutinized the young emperor before him, asking, "Your Majesty, is this enough?"
Xie Lang snorted coldly: "Get out."
All her sweet talk was useless. Lai Xi regretfully put aside her thoughts, obediently went out, and closed the door.
Xie Lang had prepared himself mentally. He picked up one of the books at random, took a deep breath, and opened it to read. After a while, his hand trembled, and he suddenly threw the book away.
He closed his eyes briefly: "What the hell?!"
That lackey, I don't know where he found these things to fool him!
The scene he had just witnessed haunted him like a ghost, replaying in his mind even with his eyes closed. A surge of heat rose from his fingertips to his heart, and Xie Lang was now truly unable to calm down.
Her entire ear and neck turned red.
-
Wen Hemian learned that Lai Xi had been punished the next day.
It's unclear what the head steward did to deserve being punished by having to wash chamber pots; it was quite a miserable punishment.
Xie Lang sometimes felt that her gaze was strange. Whenever Wen Hemian asked him about it, he would avoid the question. Later, he simply stopped asking, since it was harmless anyway.
She wandered around the palace for a while, but soon got bogged down in the affairs of the Ministry of Personnel, and several subordinates pulled her along to the government office.
When he was serving in the cabinet, he didn't realize it, but now that he is concurrently serving as the Minister of Personnel and has handed over all his official duties, Wen Hemian has witnessed firsthand what administrative inefficiency really means.
She had initially thought that the Ministry of Personnel was short of staff, but after taking office, she discovered that the internal division of labor was extremely unclear, all matters were mixed together, and there was even a possibility of duplicate approvals, which was extremely chaotic.
Upon inquiry, it was discovered that this situation had been ongoing for a long time.
The late emperor neglected his duties, the eunuchs caused chaos, Ning Hechu sought to seize power, and the six ministries under his command grew wildly under high pressure. It's a miracle they've managed to survive until now.
Wen Hemian rubbed his forehead.
She increasingly felt that Xie Lang had left her with a mess.
But since she was already there, she couldn't just occupy the position without doing anything. Fortunately, she had studied history before, and she spent a day rearranging the entire Ministry of Personnel, which made it look much better.
The Ministry of Personnel has so many people, but not everyone is good at handling this kind of affairs. We're just making do with them for now, but we'll need to select more people later.
Everyone has their own area of expertise, and Wen Hemian has already begun to consider having Xie Lang reform the imperial examination system to increase the possibility of targeted selection.
The road ahead is long and requires further exploration.
Wen Hemian began to have deep doubts about whether he could retire early.
She was completely unaware that after she left, the Ministry of Personnel was engulfed in a heated discussion.
"What is she trying to do? Is she trying to intimidate us as soon as she takes office? This is something we should be handling, so why is she delegating it to her subordinates?"
The person who spoke was Min Rong, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel. He had been in this position for many years and was originally waiting for the Minister of Personnel to retire and return to his hometown so that he could take over. However, he did not expect Wen Hemian to be parachuted in, and all his plans were ruined.
He harbored resentment towards Wen Hemian and had been ignoring her for the past few days. Today, her power had been delegated to her, and he reasonably suspected that Wen Hemian was taking the opportunity to retaliate against him!
Min Rong spoke his mind, but when he finished, he realized the room was silent. It seemed no one was responding to him. He frowned deeply: "...Does no one have any complaints?"
“Uh, Lord Min,” the Right Vice Minister interjected, his face full of embarrassment, “don’t you think that this makes things much easier for all of us?”
Damn it, everyone knows that working in the Ministry of Personnel means the most work and the fewest days off. You don't even have time to eat with your family.
With Wen Hemian's changes, things became much easier overall. They still received the same salary and remained as prestigious as ever. Who could refuse that?
In any case, the officials of the Ministry of Personnel, who had worked hard for more than a decade, could not refuse.
The other officials chimed in, "Yes, yes, Lord Min, didn't you say a few days ago that you had another daughter? Wouldn't it be nice to have more time to spend with your wife?"
"Yes, it's a great deal – lots of money, little hassle!"
"Lord Min, let's be more lenient."
They kept saying the same thing over and over, but none of it was what he wanted to hear. Min Rong's temples were throbbing with anger, and he almost fell backward: "You're all bowing down for five pecks of rice, aren't you ashamed!"
After saying that, he angrily turned and left.
The group looked at each other, none of them willing to give chase.
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