Jinghe Year Fifteen, fourth month, seventeenth day, two quarters past the midpoint of Mao Hour.
West of the Thousand-Step Corridor stood the Ministry of Personnel, facing the Ministry of Revenue across the street.
What was called a transfer of office meant passing from this gate to that one, no more than a few dozen steps, yet the gulf between them was as vast as heaven and earth.
With this move, the cold backwater of the Revenue Bureau became the blazing hearth of the Selection Bureau.
Where once he had overseen accounts, silver, and grain, now he held the scales that weighed appointments throughout the realm.
At the third quarter of Mao Hour, a solemn hush filled the Duty Room of the Selection Bureau.
The Selection Bureau had a Principal Fifth Rank Vice Director in charge of official selection, assisted by one Subordinate Fifth Rank Director.
Two Principal Sixth Rank Department Secretaries divided the bureau's administrative work.
Under them served one chief clerk, six record clerks, and twelve registry clerks, jointly managing the promotion and demotion of civil officials throughout the realm.
At that moment, Qiu Heng, a Director in his early thirties, sat upright behind his desk.
A neatly stacked pile of Case Files lay beside his hand, all prepared for the new official's inspection.
The other subordinate officials remained at their stations.
Some read documents with their heads lowered; others held brushes and marked entries. No one spoke, and no one looked up.
They were all waiting.
Waiting to see how the young Vice Director-who had taken charge of the Selection Bureau at seventeen, with first place in all three examinations and distinguished service as an Imperial Envoy-would light his first stick of incense.
A quarter-hour later, boots clacked along the corridor.
Qiu Heng set down his