The entire hall clamored, its voices surging like a tide, each wave higher than the last.
Just as that tide threatened to engulf the imperial steps...
A man suddenly stepped out of the ranks, pushing past the others.
His footsteps thundered; a flash of red, and he stood beneath the imperial steps.
"Absolutely not!!!"
Wang Kan's shout rang out like metal striking stone, cleaving through the waves of noise in the hall.
He lifted the hem of his robe and strode into the center of the hall, first bowing toward the Imperial Throne, then turning to stare straight at Zou Mo.
"Vice Minister Zou!" Wang Kan's voice was a blade drawn from its sheath.
"You keep claiming you are recommending talent for the nation.
Ha! Yet who in this entire Court does not know that you and Vice Director Wei have a feud over the chief's seat?!
You lost the struggle for the seal of the Ministry of Personnel, and now, with the nation facing calamity, you spring out to 'recommend' him...
Are you recommending talent, or squeezing him out?
The Analects says: 'The gentleman is open and untroubled; the petty man is forever anxious.'
Vice Minister Zou, search your own heart. Is this memorial today open and untroubled, or... forever anxious?!"
A buzz swept through the entire hall.
The label Wang Kan slapped on him was both vicious and precise.
Everyone at Court knew that Zou Mo and Wei Nisheng were as incompatible as fire and water.
Yet Zou Mo did not panic. He even smiled.
"Censor Wang," he said, "you are mistaken."
"Precisely because I have a feud with Vice Director Wei, my recommending him today all the more demonstrates my selflessness."
"To speak on behalf of someone with whom I have a feud, solely for his talent...