Ministry of Personnel, the vice ministers' Duty Room.
The corridors ran deep, snow piled on the eaves.
In the winter offices, thick paper covered every window. At the corners, traces of the recent replacement were still visible.
Warmth washed over anyone entering the door. A brass brazier stood in one corner, its silver frost charcoal burning smokelessly, leaving only a faint red glow.
A hand warmer rested on the desk beside the brush stand.
The writing implements lay neatly arranged on the black-lacquered desk.
At one corner stood a tidy stack of dossiers, their subjects marked with ivory slips.
Along the wall stood document shelves as high as a man's shoulders, their compartments holding correspondence between the Six Ministries.
This was the Ministry of Personnel's stock in trade, and the balance upon which appointments throughout the realm were weighed.
Outside, several subordinate clerks sat or stood beneath the corridor beside an adjoining room, not daring to raise their voices.
When the Selection Office's transfer order reached the vice minister's desk, Zou Mo was holding his cup and sipping tea, so slowly that he seemed not to have heard.
Only then did he leisurely pick up the document to read it.
Every word of the transfer order was solemn and precise: Xie Lin, promoted to Reader-in-Waiting of the Directorate of Classical Studies.
Two vermilion seals marked the end of the document: one the seal of the Selection Office, the other the seal of the minister.
The Selection Office's seal was already in Wei Zi's keeping. Its use followed ministry procedure and was nothing unusual.
What was strange, however, was the minister's seal, which ought to have belonged to Shen Duan!
Looking at the Seal of the Heavenly Offices, Zou Mo set his cup on the desk, his expression abruptly darkening.