The Forbidden City.
Outside the Grand Secretariat's yamen, a lone figure stood.
The surroundings were as silent as an empty mountain valley. The powerful eunuchs of the Directorate of Ceremonial hurried over at the news, every face filled with anger.
They had always fought the Grand Secretariat for power and advantage, but even when all pretense of civility was torn away, one thing still had to be preserved-
Dignity!
The grand secretaries were chief ministers of immense standing, the foremost officials in the land, and the very face of Great Qian's state and altars!
Calling him "old dog Cui" before everyone's eyes was tantamount to openly humiliating the imperial court!
This thousand-household commander of the Northern Commandant Office had grown so wildly overbearing that he had lost his mind!
The Censor-in-Chief, one of the Nine Ministers, strode forward and declared in a stern voice:
"Jia Huan, as a thousand-household commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, you have run rampant in the Grand Secretariat and abused a grand secretary. The Censorate will certainly impeach you!"
Officials from the Ministry of Rites joined the condemnation one after another. As officials of the imperial court, none could tolerate a vicious petty man abusing a dignified grand secretary in the Grand Secretariat's own yamen.
Listening to the clamor, Jia Huan remained expressionless and merely repeated:
"Old dog Cui, get out here."
In an instant, the ministers' fury blazed three feet high. The Chief Grand Secretary and the other grand secretaries were equally enraged.
Farther away, Jia Zheng had long since gone pale, his eyes brimming with worry. How could Huan'er make such a foolish mistake!
He could investigate Grand Secretary Cui. With an imperial edict, he could even arrest Grand Secretary Cui outright. But abusing him in public went too far, trampling a grand