Taking Office

Though he was said to be guarding the Heavenly Prison, that white elephant actually occupied a separate courtyard of its own.

Since it was a place for raising elephants, the building was naturally constructed to be exceptionally tall and grand. Yet the true luxury was the constant-temperature underfloor heating system laid beneath it.

The room was roughly twenty-seven or twenty-eight degrees. After staying inside for only a moment, Sun Shaozong had sweated all over his forehead and could only bid "Lord Warden" a reluctant farewell.

A genuinely reluctant farewell, in the literal sense.

Perhaps because no one but the handlers usually dared approach and feed it, "Lord Warden" had taken quite a liking to Sun Shaozong. It kept chasing after him, trumpeting, "Rumble, rumble," without pause.

Had the elephant handler not stopped it, it might well have followed him all the way out.

"My lord."

Yang Zhiming wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and forced a smile. "At this hour, Lord Wei should have finished handling his official duties. This subordinate will take you to him at once..."

His sweat was not from the heat, but from the fright he had received when the elephant had pressed close to him earlier.

"No hurry."

Sun Shaozong waved a hand and pointed at several military and official guard posts not far away. "Since we are already here, we may as well go inside and have a look. I heard that my former colleague, Wei Ruolan, is now being held in there?"

The matter of Sun Shaozong taking charge of Wei Ruolan's case had long since spread throughout Dali Temple.

Thus, Yang Zhiming was not surprised. As he led the way, he explained, "He has been locked up for over two years. At first, they feared he might collude with others to