After returning from his two assignments last winter and this spring, which had taken him through Jiangdong and the Huai Region, Zhang Xing's outlook had changed noticeably. No one knew what he was thinking; even he might not have been able to explain clearly what he wanted to do.
Close companions such as Bai Yousi and Qin Bao had clearly noticed this, and each had expressed it in their own way.
As for that fellow Li Ding, he was a middle-aged man from a great lineage, an assistant director coasting through his days in the Ministry of War, with both his career and his clan flourishing. Even with a beautiful wife, he had no time to spare for others, so he had said nothing on the subject.
Whatever Zhang Xing was thinking, however, its outward manifestation was perfectly clear: he increasingly watched the affairs of court with the cold eyes of a bystander, as though enduring something, or perhaps waiting for something.
This did not change despite the dazzling succession of events at court.
In late March, as the spring breeze grew balmy, a jaw-dropping drama unfolded within the central organs of power in Great Wei's Eastern Capital during the month's final ten days.
The drama had three protagonists.
The sovereign Cao Che, Imperial Uncle Cao Lin, and Master Zhang Han, whose position was difficult to define by an official title.
Zhang Han was in his forties that year. Although his surname was also Zhang and his ancestral home was also Hedong, he really had no connection to the Hedong Zhang Lineage. Instead, like the deceased former Minister of Justice Zhang Wenda, he was a thoroughly southern man: his father and grandfather had both been high officials of Southern Chen... only he had been rather more capable. He had recognized