The full moon of the seventh month had passed, and the Grand Court Audience had ended.
That day, Qi Zhao had raised a flame and burned himself; Kou Yuan had beaten at the fire and been spattered with ash.
The entire court called it infighting among the upright officials.
Yet Wei Zi had supplied the fuse, and Wei Zi had directed the hound's bite against its master.
The piece called Qi Lang had long lain hidden as a lock. The lock made no sound, yet the confession would come of its own accord.
The world saw only the fire rising, not the man who had passed over the flame.
The sixteenth day of the seventh month, morning.
The day after the Grand Court Audience, the officials were still savoring yesterday's spectacle of upright officials tearing one another apart.
Some sighed; others laughed.
In the Selection Bureau's duty room at the Ministry of Personnel, paperwork proceeded as usual.
Wei Nisheng sat behind his desk. Wherever his vermilion brush fell, another document was approved, then another.
Just then, the door curtain lifted. Qiu Heng entered carrying a stack of documents and set them on the desk, but did not withdraw.
He stood beside the desk, his gaze resting on the document at the top of the stack.
It was Qi Lang's appointment as Erudite of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. The vermilion seal had already been affixed.
"My lord," Qiu Heng said quietly, "there is something this subordinate cannot understand."
"Go on."
"You approved Qi Lang's appointment before yesterday's Grand Court Audience," Qiu Heng said.
"At that time, not a soul in court knew Qi Zhao was about to act.
"Now Qi Zhao has fallen, yet Qi Lang has already been promoted to Erudite of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices.
"What