"What is it?" Yang Juyuan flared up. His lifelong dream was on the verge of being put into action, only for someone to disturb him at such a critical moment. If he had not previously issued a strict order that no one was to interrupt him unless it was an emergency, and guessed that his subordinate truly might have urgent business, he might have drawn his blade and cut down the person outside.
Sensing the anger in his voice, the person outside hurriedly replied, "Shen Xiaolong, Commander of Xingzhou's Central Army, wishes to see you, sir."
"Shen Xiaolong?" Yang Juyuan frowned. They were both officials in Xingzhou, so naturally he knew who Shen Xiaolong was. The man was considered something of a celebrity in Xingzhou. Though a military officer, he fancied himself a scholar and had even given himself some overly refined nickname, something like "Daoist of Three Loves." All day long, he recited some lousy poem: "Fate comes and goes like water; love gathers and scatters—where does it return?" His origins were rather mysterious. Some said he had once been a wanderer frustrated in love; others said he had been an impoverished licentiate who repeatedly failed the examinations and thus abandoned literature for the military. Some even claimed he came from the Shanyin Shen Family, though as far as Yang Juyuan knew, there should not have been such a person in the Shen family genealogy.
Sometimes, Yang Juyuan even maliciously wondered whether this fellow, always muttering about love, had once been a flower thief.
Still, this man was one of the most important figures in Xingzhou's military, second only to Yang Zhenzhong. He had mentioned before that he would come looking for him soon, so Yang Juyuan did not dare neglect him. He instructed his subordinate outside, "Have him