Jinghe Year Sixteen, Third Month, Twenty-Fourth Day. The Song Residence, at night.
These past few days, as soon as Song Yue finished his duties, he shut himself in his study and refused to see anyone.
The servants throughout the residence all said his temper was growing worse...
The day before yesterday, he had smashed a teacup. Yesterday, he had cursed a young servant out of the room and had him sold off.
It was at just such a moment that Zou Mo came calling.
He had taken no sedan chair, bringing only a lantern-bearing attendant as he entered through a side gate.
Song Yue's study was unlike those of other civil officials.
A territorial map covered half the wall, stretching from Liaodong all the way to the Western Regions, with passes marked in vermilion so densely that they crowded together.
There were no books on the desk, only an old saber laid across it, its scabbard wound with a leather strap worn to a shine.
Song Yue sat behind that saber. When Zou Mo entered, he did not even lift his eyelids. "Vice Minister Zou, what brings you to my door so late at night this time?"
"To see you, Grand Secretary." Zou Mo found himself a chair and sat down. Looking around, he said with a smile:
"Grand Secretary Song, I could smell the fire in this study of yours from three gates away."
Song Yue gave a cold snort and said nothing.
Zou Mo was in no hurry either.
Instead, he poured himself a cup of cold tea, took a sip, and only then drawled, "That brat Xie Lin was running his mouth at the Grand Secretary's Assembly again yesterday?"
Bang! Song Yue slammed a palm onto the desk. "Don't mention him! A mere Reader-in-Waiting, leaning on