A Flurry of Moves Fierce as a Tiger

After Qi Hongxin finished speaking, he turned to his adviser. "You stay here!"

Then he flung his sleeves and strode away. From the fury in his bearing, he looked as though he were going to kill someone.

Seeing Qi Hongxin hurry off without so much as a farewell, Su Ziji knew something serious must have happened to make the prefect lose his composure.

No investigation needed. That booklet must contain evidence of officials colluding with the Three Gangs.

Zeng Nianzhen gave me a copy too.

This is a major case implicating officials throughout the prefecture and its counties. Forget you, Qi Hongxin—even a governor-general couldn't execute them under military law. If you tried, an imperial commissioner would be dispatched at once to arrest you and call you to account.

So how will you handle it?

Su Ziji drew a wolf-hair brush from its holder, loaded it with ink, and wrote his instructions on each set of accounts brought to him. The adviser could not help admiring him. Who would have thought this young man knew how to handle official documents too?

After finishing one section, Su Ziji smiled. "Have a look. Did I miss anything? I'd appreciate your guidance."

"I wouldn't presume to instruct you, sir. You've handled it very well, with no major errors. It's just this annotation—under the conventions for official documents, it would be more appropriate to write it like this..."

Though the adviser declined to call it guidance, leaving Su Ziji a little disappointed, it did not matter. With the adviser accompanying him, he had all the confiscated spoils placed in storage. The accounts were made in triplicate: he kept one copy, Qi Hongxin's prefectural office received another, and the last was sealed and filed away.

Meanwhile, officials kept entering the reception hall, all looking uneasy.