After a thousand reminders and ten thousand instructions, they still stepped with the wrong foot!
Heavenly Feather Guards beneath the Jade Steps, civil and military officials within Heavenly Chen Hall.
As if thorns were at their backs! As if sitting on needles! As if fishbones were lodged in their throats!
Gulp!
Xiong Yiheng's Adam's apple bobbed, his pupils contracting to pinpricks. Murky sweat seeped from his temples, as though what he stood upon was not gold brick, but lava!
Trembling, his feet numb, his mind racing madly, his senses abruptly magnified without limit. Everything around him slowed; the breeze wrapped fine dust around his damp nose tip.
"Hm—mm."
A faint sound of clearing phlegm rose, then swiftly vanished.
The Censor's brow furrowed slightly. His wrist turned, and the tip of his wolf-hair brush scraped over a bamboo tablet.
Among the civil officials, an elderly minister caught in the ranks looked displeased. Wasn't it just clearing his throat? He had been quiet enough, and he hadn't even spat anything out.
The Imperial City was like spring all year round, with pollen often drifting through the air. Your Majesty had always been lenient toward ministers over a hundred years old.
Yet, as fate would have it.
Xiong Yiheng, whose attention was wound tight, had his hearing and smell almost completely shut off. He could neither hear nor smell; only his vision had expanded to its very limit. He clearly saw what the Censor was doing!
Or rather, he had been watching him all along!
He might never have eaten pork, but he had seen pigs run. On the way here, he had questioned Senior Brother Liang until everything was crystal clear.
Within Heavenly Chen Hall, civil officials stood east facing west, while military officials stood west facing east. The Censors responsible for