Everyone's breathing unconsciously grew much quieter.
Their eyes, too, involuntarily drifted toward Chu Jiaxu at the center of the storm, some openly, others more subtly.
Curiosity, sympathy, excitement-the emotions mingling in their gazes were so complicated that even Chu Jiaxu felt his heart tremble!
Enough!
You tedious lot-I hardly recognize you anymore!
But the little girl couldn't hear his inward roaring, and after pulling up his information, she seemed to have discovered yet another...
"Treasure," her favorite kind.
Her inward gossip commentary never stopped, and the deeper she dug, the more delighted she sounded.
[Wow-]
Chu Jiaxu gave a very visible shudder.
His air of compassion for all living beings vanished at once, and the tips of his ears twitched twice, furtively.
The sorrow in his heart was as long and vast as the Moat that wound halfway around the Capital City-
Judging by past experience, whenever the little girl reacted like this, it usually meant she had stumbled across some past incident he would rather never tell anyone about...
I rushed in too recklessly!
He thought.
If only I'd waited for a colleague to test the waters before making my petition-
Then the poor soul whose secrets she was about to gleefully expose would be my colleague, and I could happily enjoy the gossip with everyone else!
Regret!
Oh, how I regret it!!
[Ahahahaha, brewing tea was only the beginning! While applying for the New Year's Banquet funds, Uncle Chu even rolled up his little bedding bundle and went to lie down at the Ministry of Revenue's offices every day. He told his subordinates to deliver any official business straight there. He wasn't leaving until he got the money!]
The officials were dumbfounded.
What...
What dedication!
No wonder they could never get any money out of that iron rooster,