Bo Yi noticed that the Jie Sect disciples serving at court all sat in one row. The others were still unaccustomed to mingling with disciples of the immortals.
Because Wen Zhong was the Grand Tutor and a veteran minister who had served three reigns, all the court's most influential ministers sat near that row.
Yet not a single person in that row had received a reward. All those rewarded so far had been minor officials of little consequence.
This left the senior ministers somewhat embarrassed. The collection of land tax at the Laji Festival marked the reckoning of a year's harvest, and its banquet ought to mark the reckoning of a year's service by the ministers.
Surely the greater a minister's contributions, the greater his reward should be?
Bo Yi could not help recalling the stories about Lü Yue circulating in Chaoge.
That walking disaster really was someone to stay away from.
Up on the dais, Fei Zhong, who excelled at reading expressions, took in the senior ministers' reactions and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
All the rewards just now had truly been random, yet not one senior minister had received anything.
Fortunately, His Majesty had anticipated this and left secret marks on the senior ministers' bamboo slips. The richest rewards at the banquet were certain to go to them.
Before long, Fei Zhong read out the rewards for Wen Zhong and the others.
Their recess days ranged from a month to half a year. Every last one of them was sent off on leave.
Bo Yi's tightly furrowed brow suddenly relaxed. It was just as he had thought.
The reforms championed rewarding merit and punishing wrongdoing. If things really were as King Zhou had said, would these random rewards not undermine the very purpose of the reforms?