After court adjourned, Fang Yun returned to the Left Prime Minister's Office, still looking sickly and listless.
The officials of the Left Prime Minister's Office immediately came out to welcome him, even more warmly than before.
Fang Yun had not visited the Left Prime Minister's Office for several days. Although he had handled affairs through message transmissions, some matters had inevitably slipped through the cracks, so he called people in one after another to ask about the office's business.
The officials of the Left Prime Minister's Office fell into two main categories. The first consisted of those with powerful backing, who came to the office to gild their credentials.
As long as they did not become embroiled in factional struggles, experience serving in the Left Prime Minister's Office would become an important factor in their promotions.
The other category consisted of capable officials connected to the Left Prime Minister, such as Li Zhixiao and Xu Changgeng. They had no powerful forces behind them, yet their ties to the Left Prime Minister were not particularly deep either. They were needed to keep the Left Prime Minister's Office running and prevent problems from arising in the Jing Kingdom's highest bureaucratic institution.
Barring unforeseen circumstances, within three to five years at most, these men would be assigned to backwater offices to coast toward retirement. Fang Yun's arrival, however, had saved them.
Even the best-connected among them were, at most, relatives of the Empress Dowager by marriage or scions of great houses. They amounted to little beside an ordinary Fourth Realm Great Scholar, much less a Void Sage like Fang Yun. Thus, they were more cautious than anyone else, because if they offended Fang Yun, their fate would be worse than that of ordinary officials.
Ordinary officials would, at worst, lose their posts and