Overstaffed and Underworked

After being delayed by something, it was already past one o'clock—time for lunch!

Leaving the Dali Temple Main Hall, Sun Shaozong pulled out his pocket watch and glanced at it. It was nearly the Wu Hour, and he could not help sighing inwardly.

He had already noticed over the past two days that the Dali Temple was riddled with idle officials, but today's round-table meeting still managed to shatter Sun Shaozong's expectations.

The three chief officials of the Dali Temple had gathered to deliberate for half the day, only to discuss whether they should bring that white elephant into the palace for the Longevity Festival.

Could they possibly get any more boring?!

Of course, the matter was not entirely undeserving of discussion. There had been no precedent, after all—the year the white elephant had been granted First Rank, it happened to coincide with Emperor Guangde's tenth birthday. The guests had been elderly men from the capital, and civil and military officials had not been involved.

Then, because of the solar eclipse, the Longevity Festival had been canceled for two years in a row.

Only this year had the court restored the rule requiring fourth-rank and above civil and military officials in the capital to enter the palace on the Longevity Festival to offer birthday congratulations.

That gave rise to a question—should the white elephant, which held a First Rank official title, also be brought along according to its rank to offer congratulations?

But even if there was a question, was there really any need to devote an entire morning to quoting classics and arguing endlessly over it?!

Why not simply submit a memorial to the Emperor and ask?

In the final analysis, they just had too much damn free time!

Feeling both contemptuous and stifled, Sun Shaozong went straight to