Jinghe Year Sixteen, Second Month, Twenty-Fourth Day, at the Ministry of Justice offices.
Wei Nisheng did not use the main entrance. He entered through the West Corner Gate, crossed two courtyards, and reached the Duty Room of the Guangdong Office of Clear Governance.
Case files covered the desk, stacked halfway up the wall.
Shen Yi sat behind the desk, his scarlet robe's sleeves rolled up. Seven or eight confessions lay spread before him. With a brush in one hand and the other holding down the papers, he marked them one by one.
The "Treatise on Punishments" in the Old Book of Tang recorded: "Each bureau of the Ministry of Justice had its assigned duties. Official documents accumulated in heaps, and work continued day and night without cease."
Shen Yi, sitting behind his desk with sleeves rolled up and brush in hand, marking confessions, embodied the daily routine of the Ministry of Justice's Office of Clear Governance.
Hearing footsteps, Shen Yi looked up. When he saw Wei Nisheng, he hurried to his feet.
"Zi'an, you're here."
"No need for that, Wenhao." Wei Nisheng waved a hand and sat opposite him. "Busy?"
"Reviewing testimony." Shen Yi rubbed his eyes, dark circles beneath them.
"Luo Wenjin's testimony, from last night through this morning."
Shen Yi was steady by nature, without the slightest airs of a Chief Minister's grandson.
Not to mention that he was Vice Director of the Guangdong Office of Clear Governance in the Ministry of Justice.
He oversaw cases from Guangdong's Three Bureaus-the provincial administration, surveillance commission, and military command-as well as affairs concerning the two princely houses of Rui Prefecture and Hui Prefecture.
Even reviews of cases from the Southern Capital's Ministry of Personnel, Ministry of Justice, and Censorate fell under his office. It was a post that could