On that summer morning, thin mist lingered over the river. Beneath the corridor of the public offices at Sikou Pass Ferry Crossing, the three parties, about to go their separate ways, were taking their customary corridor meal alongside many chiefs and officials from the Eastern Territories.
Now, dining beneath the corridors of public offices was an institution handed down from Great Zhou. Common in the army and the various offices of the Eastern Capital, it counted as a basic benefit of serving as an official or soldier; the expression "eating the government's rice" was said to have originated here. Supposedly, the reason Duke Niu had been beheaded by Dragonhead Zhang in Liang Commandery was that, back in the Eastern Capital, the bastard had skimped on the Crouching Dragon Guard's corridor meals, earning the lasting resentment of Dragonhead Zhang, Wang Zhen, and the others.
A joke was naturally just a joke, but it showed how much ordinary clerks and public servants valued their corridor meals.
As for the Exorcising the Dragon Gang, probably because it had retained large numbers of Great Wei's local officials and public facilities from the beginning, it had continued this institution early on and developed it further-because of Zhang Xing's own insistence and habits, the various senior officials and chiefs followed his example and generally joined the corridor meals themselves, forming a habit of discussing affairs before and afterward.
In fact, the Exorcising the Dragon Gang had a saying: "No Taboos Under the Corridor." It meant that things normally awkward to say, too frightening to say, or impossible to find an opportunity to say could be voiced at this time with the understanding of superiors and colleagues. Those in high positions could also use it to float ideas and gauge reactions.
Returning to the present, the atmosphere