The hall was still, everyone holding their breath.
Wind passed beneath the eaves and stirred their sleeves, rustling like silkworms eating leaves. The faintest stir arose, then subsided into silence.
Lu Bing and Han Yu exchanged a glance. Their eyes met and parted, and both lowered their gazes.
Zou Mo's hand paused around his cup. A ripple rose on the tea and vanished.
"The second matter." Wei Nisheng picked up the old draft of the "division of departmental duties."
He slowly unfolded it, the paper swishing like a sword leaving its sheath.
"Vice Minister Zou said this draft was never implemented, and that you never acted according to it."
He paused, then said just one word:
"Good."
Wei Nisheng turned the draft toward the assembled officials. "Gentlemen, look here. At the end of this draft is a line of vermilion endorsement.
"The two words [Proceed accordingly], written with a vermilion brush.
"You are all men of the Ministry of Personnel. You recognize whose handwriting this is."
"Please pass it around and examine it."
The draft passed from Sun Bonian's hands to Lu Bing's, then to Han Yu's.
All three held the paper as though clutching red-hot iron.
The Book of Songs said, "Who can hold something hot without first washing his hands?" Yet the heat scorching their hearts was fiercer than that of the paper.
The whole hall fell silent. A falling pin could have been heard.
For though these two words were not written with the judgmental brush of the Spring and Autumn Annals, their severity surpassed axe and battle-axe.
No one dared speak.
But all three pairs of eyes understood those two words.
Wei Nisheng retrieved the draft and looked at Zou Mo again. "Without approval from above, you endorsed it yourself: 'Proceed accordingly.'"
"Vice Minister Zou, who