In the old Duty Room in the northwest corner of the Ministry of War, dust coated the desk, and rat tracks crisscrossed its surface.
This was the Duty Room the Ministry of War had assigned to Xie Lin.
There was no brush on the desk, no scroll on the shelves, not even a decent chair.
The ministry's clerks had also received instructions to take a detour whenever they saw Xie Lin.
They would not let him see the frontier reports or retrieve the Case Files, and no one breathed a word to him about ministry meetings.
Song Yue's intent was plain as day.
Leave him out in the cold.
Leave him there until Xie Lin recognized the difficulties and retreated.
Unfortunately, Xie Lin was not Wei Zi. He pushed open the door and took a look.
Then he walked over, wiped the desk with his sleeve, fetched a pot of water himself, cleaned the desk and chairs, and set the books he had brought on the desk.
After that, Xie Lin left the Duty Room and made a trip back to the Eastern Palace.
When he returned to the Ministry of War, he carried an Eastern Palace waist plaque inscribed in gold.
"Call your Vice Director of the Office of Military Geography here." Standing before the ministry's Main Hall, Xie Lin flashed the plaque.
"And send two clerks to carry the frontier reports and Case Files from the past six months to the northwest Duty Room for me."
"M-Military Intelligence Officer Xie." The clerk's legs went weak at the sight of the Golden Plaque.
"These... these Case Files are confidential ministry documents. No one outside the ministry may retrieve them without authorization..."
"Am I not an official of the Ministry of War?" Xie Lin lowered his head and flicked his