"Snap."
Lin Ke set down his brush. Rather than stretching after his long, weary spell, he stood bolt upright and walked out like a robot.
As soon as he opened the door, he saw the Plum Blossom Tree outside and Ning Caichen dozing beneath it.
"Ning Caichen, did anyone deliver any letters today?"
Lin Ke raised his voice to call to Ning Caichen, who was nodding off over there.
"Huh?!" Ning Caichen's eyes flew open. "Yes! Yes!"
He hurried over as he spoke. "Master, a hundred and thirty-six officials delivered a hundred and thirteen gifts, eighty-nine letters, and sixty-two verbal messages this morning."
That many?
Lin Ke nodded slightly, signaling for Ning Caichen to continue.
"Chen An has already sent the appropriate return gifts and replies. There are only three letters left."
Ning Caichen handed Lin Ke the three letters. "He thought these three were still worth showing to you, Master."
Ning Caichen kept his eyes lowered, his manner deferential.
As various events unfolded, he had come to understand Lin Ke's standing and identity more and more clearly.
Clinging to a powerful patron's thigh was something living creatures had learned from the very dawn of life.
And so Ning Caichen had become Lin Ke's gatekeeper through and through.
Of course, there were plenty of benefits in it for him.
Leaving aside the moon essence Lin Ke used to produce while practicing the Dance Path, the people who visited him now were all figures of some renown.
And not just humans.
For instance, when the Vice Minister of the Spirit Department's Tree Spirit Division visited, the official had given Ning Caichen a few pointers in passing, and Ning Caichen had broken through to the late second realm.
Such were the opportunities that came from staying beside someone important.
At the thought,