Reading Fate

The Golden Horse Gate was a palace gate named for the bronze horse placed beside it. Beyond the gate lay the Golden Horse Court.

The post of scholar-in-waiting at the Golden Horse Gate was not particularly high, and held no real power at all. Yet it could hardly be called lowly, either.

The Golden Horse Gate was an institution for palace attendants, housing people talented in literature, the classics, divination, medicine, Buddhism and Daoism, calligraphy and painting, and board games.

It was somewhat like Liang Garden, and somewhat like the Hanlin Academy of the Luofu Empire.

Anyone who became a member of the Golden Horse Gate could be said to possess a special talent.

Quite a few mid-ranking officials were selected from among the scholars-in-waiting at the Golden Horse Gate. Their prospects could be called fairly bright.

Zhang Xuezhou had just changed posts, so he naturally had to go and see how things stood.

He went to the Office of the Commandant of the Guard to hand over his duties to Du Rui, his former superior, and also asked for a set of winter clothes for Song Dongjia and the others. Only then did he head to the Golden Horse Gate to report for duty.

What Zhang Xuezhou had not expected was that the Golden Horse Gate would be so deserted that he found it a little hard to get used to.

"Lord Dongfang, you really are the only scholar we have here at present!"

"Where is everyone else?"

"They've all gone off to become officials!"

Zhang Xuezhou had asked the patrol officer guarding the Golden Horse Gate and learned what was going on.

The Golden Horse Court was empty. Apart from chairs, stools, and tables, there was nothing else.

If there was any convenience to the place, it was