Near the end of the Hour of the Monkey.
Wei Yongzhong, the personal eunuch serving in the Imperial Study, accompanied the Attendant Eunuchs of the Directorate of Ceremonial to the Capital Camp at Desheng Gate.
At the Nine Gates Commander's offices.
Wei Yongzhong whispered to Wang Ziteng, who pondered for a long time before nodding his agreement.
They left the offices, passed beneath a row of eaves, and entered a courtyard farther inside.
A wooden couch stood in a corner by the wall. Jia Baoyu lay quietly upon it, saliva trickling from the corner of his mouth.
The pain from the wounds covering his body paled beside the torment in his heart.
With a single word from the Chief Grand Secretary, his ninth-rank post had vanished. His path to office had been severed completely; he had even lost the right to sit the Imperial Examination again.
Most devastating of all, that beast had become the Dingguo Duke!
The Kirin Child had fallen. He would never surpass that beast for as long as he lived.
"Baoyu." Wang Ziteng approached slowly. The sight of his nephew lying there in a daze filled his heart with anguish.
Jia Baoyu glared so fiercely that the corners of his eyes nearly split. He struggled to roll over, refusing to look at his uncle again.
His uncle had sworn that if that beast survived, he would twist off his own head and use it as a chamber pot. He had even declared that if the beast found any way out alive, the Nine Gates Commander would drown himself before the eyes of All Under Heaven.
It was precisely because that confidence had infected him that he had resolved to undertake the Coffin-Bearing Remonstrance. Instead, the Chief Grand Secretary had thrown him into the Ministry of Justice