The commoners who had spent most of the day at Yuan Prison only left after Zi Shou and Li Jing withdrew.
Zi Shou was in a terrible mood. Looking at Li Jing's gleaming bald head, he could not laugh even if he wanted to.
What could he do? Li Jing had made an enormous sacrifice. Lady Yin might not even let him share her bed anymore, and Nezha might well refuse to acknowledge him as his father.
Not that Nezha had acknowledged him much to begin with, but now he would certainly have even firmer grounds.
And what about his foolishness value?
Zi Shou remained optimistic. As things stood, only his plan to bend the law for personal favoritism had failed. Surely it would not go so far as to earn him lavish praise from the commoners and cost him points!
Besides, to force the nobles to pay their land tax, the Ministry of Punishments had ruled on one case after another. As long as a few of those were miscarriages of justice, his foolishness value would be secure.
A few days later, on the Nine-Dragon Bridge, before the Nine-Chamber Hall.
Court officials normally had to wear official hats when attending court. Li Jing alone wore none. Since he had promised the commoners that he would no longer grow any hair or beard, he had to let everyone see it openly. There was no need to conceal his bald head-the only one of its kind in all of Chaoge.
As he walked across the Nine-Dragon Bridge, confidence was written all over Li Jing's face. His hair was gone, but the new law could now be fully implemented. Was that not worth it?
His colleagues were broad-minded, too. Lu Xiong greeted him, saying, "The people petitioned to have you released from