Taking Office, Part Two

Same old rule: around one in the morning at the Third Watch. If you don't stay up late, don't wait for it.

Dali Temple.

Situated between Shichahai and the Imperial City, with the bustling streets to its south and water surrounding its northwest, everyone in the temple usually used the side gate on the eastern side for convenience.

But Sun Shaozong was taking office today, and as the dignified second-in-command, he naturally could not enter through a side gate.

Thus, early that morning, more than a dozen officials and yamen runners stood at the eastern street corner, craning their necks and widening their eyes. Whenever they spotted a carriage or horse from a wealthy household, they hurried forward with obsequious smiles to welcome it.

Operating on the principle that it was better to make a hundred mistakes than miss the right person, they had no idea how many misunderstandings they had caused. The leading clerks had smiled until their faces went stiff, yet they still did not dare relax in the slightest.

After all, a man's reputation was like a tree's shadow. The "Three-Eyed Divine Judge" was no frail scholar like those of old. If they truly slighted him, they might not even know how they died.

After yet another false alarm, Left Temple Justice Tang Weishan slipped aside with a bitter face and let the clerks below step forward to explain.

This had already become standard procedure. More than twenty carriages before this one had been handled in precisely the same manner.

Who would have thought that Tang Weishan had not even gone far when a commotion broke out behind him?

It was a maid draped in gold and silver, standing in the carriage with her hands on her hips as she berated them. She declared that the Young