At three quarters past the Yin Hour, dawn had yet to break.
The court waiting rooms outside the Meridian Gate were already ablaze with lamps and crowded with people.
Today was not a grand court assembly. By custom, it was merely a Regular Court Audience, with officials of the Fifth Rank and above in the capital taking turns attending.
Yet today's attendance was fuller than that of a grand assembly.
The ministers of the Six Ministries, the left and right censors-in-chief of the Censorate, the Directorate of Transmission, the Court of Judicial Review, the Hanlin Academy, and the remonstrance officials of the Censorate...
Overnight, every official had learned the news.
Those who ought to come and those who ought not-all had come.
Shen Duan arrived earliest, dressed in a purple robe with a sable fur coat over it, his expression unchanged and his steps unhurried.
Several Ministry of Revenue officials gathered around him, and he nodded to each in turn.
He even made a joke to the vice minister of works.
He said that with the cold today, the Ministry of Works ought to put up a few more wind shelters for the officials waiting outside the Meridian Gate.
The vice minister repeatedly agreed, a smile on his face.
Song Yue and Kou Yuan entered the Eastern Court Room almost simultaneously.
Song Yue removed his cloak and casually draped it over a rack.
His gaze swept, seemingly by chance, over Shen Duan's seat opposite him. Then he exchanged a glance with Kou Yuan.
Only a few hours had passed since the Grand Secretariat submitted its memorial drafts last night.
The news that Wang Cheng had gone to the Palace of Heavenly Purity overnight had already spread among those paying attention.
Everyone knew perfectly well what the emperor intended to