Reading a memorial in the Directorate of Transmission, he learned the matter was as vast as the heavens

In the duty room of the Directorate of Transmission, the charcoal fire burned briskly.

Song Jing sat behind his desk, holding a cup of hot tea and chatting merrily with two colleagues beside him.

He was sixty-one that year and had previously served as Director of the Imperial College and Hanlin Academy Academician.

Ten years earlier, during the Jinghe reign, he had been appointed chief examiner for the Provincial Examination in Yingtian Prefecture.

After receiving the emperor's praise, he had subsequently been promoted to Left Secretary of the Directorate of Transmission.

The position of Left Secretary of the Directorate of Transmission was neither particularly grand nor particularly humble.

Yet it was the first checkpoint for every memorial entering the capital from across the realm.

Provincial submissions, reports from the ministries, impeachment memorials from remonstrance officials-

All had to pass beneath his eyes before they could be sent to the Grand Secretariat, then forwarded to the emperor.

Of course, what kept him secure in his position was not his backing, but his judgment.

Which memorial required urgent delivery, which could wait, and which ought to be held back-he could tell at a glance.

"Lord Song, I hear your pupil Wang Kan has been exceptionally diligent during his three years at the Hanlin Academy?"

Liu Minzhi, the Right Secretary seated opposite him, held his teacup and asked with a smile.

"Diligent?" Song Jing waved a hand, smiling until the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes bunched together.

"Zhanzheng certainly is diligent. He's just too earnest.

"He's spent three years compiling the Veritable Records at the Hanlin Academy, yet never once thought to visit the Directorate of Transmission.

"Of the second- and third-place graduates from the previous examination, which hasn't been coming here every few days to make his face familiar?

"But