Chapter Twenty-Five: Organizational Investigation

At this moment, a eunuch from the Palace of Eternal Longevity arrived to deliver good news: "Congratulations, Commander! Your poetry has won the top prize again today! The lines, 'The landscape of the Heavenly Palace enters the imperial mind, moving the depths of the Penglai gardens,' and 'Winding streams fall from the heavens, while strange peaks are truly sought toward the moon,' have been singled out by the Emperor as verses imbued with the spirit of the immortals!"

Though Emperor Jiajing was an elderly man with a penchant for the arts, his aesthetic taste was straightforward and crude—if he felt it had the "spirit of the immortals," it was good.

Xu Jie, looking utterly astonished, remarked to Lu Bing, "First the memorial for the lion cat, then the three-thousand-character ceremonial prose, and now this—you have won the top spot three times in a row recently. It is truly impressive."

Everyone knew each other’s background well; who didn't know who? Lu Bing’s sudden rise in literary prowess surely meant he had found a talented new ghostwriter.

Lu Bing laughed triumphantly, "You flatter me! It is only because you gentlemen were gracious enough to concede!"

Xu Jie asked curiously, "Which famous scholar did you hire to write for you? I haven't heard of any notable masters entering the capital recently."

When the conversation turned to this topic, everyone turned their eyes toward the men of letters within the capital. No outsider would ever guess that the ghostwriter was merely a low-ranking soldier of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

To Xu Jie’s inquiry, Lu Bing smiled and offered no answer, unwilling to tell even his own confidants. How could such a thing be broadcasted? If someone targeted him or poached the talent, would that not be inviting trouble? Although he expected it would eventually come to light, he wanted to keep it a secret for as long as he could.

The target of the high-ranking officials' speculation at the West Park, the young Embroidered Uniform Guard soldier Bai Yu, was forced to skip work today. The reason was filial piety: the Li family had fled, and Bai Yu was left behind to look after his father. Fortunately, the guardroom at the Meridian Gate was a place of leisure where soldiers spent their days playing cards, so there was no strict attendance policy; one person missing made little difference.

After a day of exhausting care for his father, Bai Yu lamented that he truly had no talent for serving others. Faced with a son forced to skip work just after starting his job, his father finally showed a sliver of guilt and sighed, "It is my incompetence and this injury that drag you down. I wonder when I will ever recover."

Bai Yu, who was practicing calligraphy, put down his brush and comforted his father, "Don't say that! The timing of your injury is actually perfect—you should keep resting and not recover at all!"

His father, lying on the heated brick bed, was outraged. "You bastard! What kind of nonsense is that?"

Bai Yu analyzed the situation calmly, "You are the only one in our family registered as a military household with active duty. As long as you are injured, you cannot serve. My status remains that of a substitute serving in my father’s stead; only in this way can I continue my studies for the imperial examinations without interference. Therefore, it is best if you keep resting."

His father, unconvinced and believing he still had value, retorted, "If I recover and go out to take over the post, wouldn't you be freed?" He had heard the family's duty had been upgraded from a common laborer to a captain, and he wondered what it would be like to taste the life of an officer. He didn't know exactly where his son worked, only that he served on the imperial street at the Right Gate of Chang'an.

Bai Yu shook his head repeatedly. "No, no, that’s not how it works. First, the waters in this job are very deep; you couldn't handle it. Second, the big shots have taken a liking to me personally, which is why they gave our family the captaincy. If I were to step down and let you take my place, the big shot wouldn't allow it and would definitely assign me some other official duty, which would be even more troublesome. Thus, the best scenario right now is for you to stay injured while I continue as a temporary worker until I earn an official rank."

His father: "..." Was his greatest value really just to be an invalid? Was there no father-son affection left?

After pacifying his father, Bai Yu found two families in the tenement courtyard who had helped him scold Old Man Li and asked them to look after his father for a month. Both households were hesitant and gave vague answers. They had helped scold the old man only because they saw Bai Yu’s star rising and wanted to curry favor—it cost them nothing to curse a few times. But helping care for the father required actual labor.

With no other choice, Bai Yu called in Mr. Yan to act as an intermediary, writing IOUs for one tael of silver for each family, with the two rooms of the Bai family as collateral. In return, the two families were to take turns caring for his father for two months.

Having escaped the duty of nursing his father, Bai Yu returned to the Meridian Gate to report for duty. The commander on duty was still Captain Qian, who said nothing about Bai Yu's absence the previous day. He knew well that Bai Yu was a "special literary talent" recruited by the Commander himself, unlike the average guard.

However, Captain Qian instructed, "Today, you will stand guard at the Left Auxiliary Gate. Since you missed your shift yesterday, you should work a bit harder today to cover for others." Compared to playing cards in the guardroom, standing guard at the palace gate exposed to wind and sun was certainly a "bitter task."

The Left Auxiliary Gate was the smaller gate on the east side of the Meridian Gate; since the main gate was reserved only for the Emperor, others had to use the auxiliary gates. In truth, the palace gates were guarded by the Imperial Guard, overseen by the Directorate of Imperial Horse. The duty of the Embroidered Uniform Guard at the gate was merely to monitor, not to ensure the gate's security.

As a complete newcomer, Bai Yu found everything fresh. He wandered in and out of the Left Auxiliary Gate, not feeling bored at all. When he encountered officials registering for entry, he would look at their names and wonder if they would be remembered in history books, which he found quite interesting.

Past the Meridian Gate and to the east lay the Left Proper Gate, where memorials were received, and beyond that was the Wenyuan Pavilion, home of the Grand Secretariat. To the west, one could reach the West Park, where the Emperor resided. Thus, many officials and eunuchs passed through the Meridian Gate, making it a well-deserved hub of the inner court.

In the afternoon, Captain Qian walked from the guardroom to the Meridian Gate and stood before Bai Yu with a complex expression. Bai Yu asked, "What is it? Is the officer worried about me and here to inspect personally?"

Captain Qian said gravely, "The imperial court has sent men to investigate you regarding the resignation of Ouyang Bijin, the Minister of Works. It seems this matter has escalated and alarmed the highest authorities."

Bai Yu was unconcerned about the investigation and asked directly, "What does the Commander say?"

Captain Qian replied, "The Commander likely finds it inconvenient to express an opinion publicly. He only sent word for you to undergo the investigation as usual."

Bai Yu asked, "Who has the court sent?"

Captain Qian said, "Left Vice Censor-in-Chief Yan Maoqing, representing the Censorate, and Thousand-Man Commander Yan Hu, representing the Southern Division of the Embroidered Uniform Guard."

"Damn it!" Bai Yu couldn't help but curse. "What kind of investigation is this? Aren't they all from the Yan faction?"

Captain Qian was speechless. In all his decades of life, he had never seen such a thing. A fifteen-year-old newcomer, on the job for only three days, was facing such a high-level organizational investigation. It was truly bizarre. Was it his exceptional ability to cause trouble, or was the court simply bored, using a cannon to kill a mosquito?

He comforted Bai Yu, "Stay calm for now. Since the Commander values you so much, there shouldn't be any major disaster."