Silence settled over the hall. Li Jin departed.
Only the sunlight shifted across the steps.
Zhang Zai had stood silently in a rear corner of the hall throughout, his blue robe unmoving, like bamboo in a secluded nook.
Only after Li Jin's figure vanished beyond the corridor did he approach the desk, lift his robe, and sit. He poured himself a cup of cold tea, tipped back his head, and drained it.
Setting down the cup, he raised his eyes to Wei Zi.
The two held each other's gaze for a moment without a word.
"He's gone?" Zhang Zai asked.
"He's gone," Wei Nisheng replied.
"Li Jin has played out his move." Zhang Zai set down his teacup and looked at Wei Nisheng.
"But while he lives, he remains an uncertainty.
"A man of the Inner Court need not face execution. A single decree is enough for him to rally his forces and return."
At this, Wei Nisheng finally spoke, his voice quiet.
"Whether he is guilty is not for me to judge.
"Whether he lives or dies, only His Majesty may decide.
"Li Jin is an inner-court servant. His honor and disgrace, his survival and destruction, are not entered in my ledgers. They hang upon a single thought of His Majesty's."
Having said this, Wei Nisheng turned his gaze back to Zhang Zai and continued.
"I will submit a memorial reporting the entire course of this case exactly as it happened.
"Nothing concealed, nothing evaded, nothing added, nothing taken away.
"That Li Jin handed over the original ledger and cooperated with the investigation is a fact.
"That the temples' private accounts differ from the Imperial Silk Bureau's procurement figures is also a fact.
"With both facts laid side by side, the ruling is not something a subject should presume