Arrogance

Seeing that Zhang Ling was still seated, the leading eunuch gave two coughs to remind him. Observing that he still lacked basic decorum, the eunuch said bluntly, "Zhang Ling, Right Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, hear the imperial decree!"

Zhang Ling remained seated, tapping his fingers against the scabbard of the *Guoshang* sword resting in his arms with a leisurely demeanor. He smiled casually, "His Honor may speak directly."

The leading eunuch's expression turned ugly. Although he was routinely looked down upon by such high-ranking officials, whenever an imperial decree was delivered, whether one was a tiger or a lion, meeting the true dragon required kneeling. The leading eunuch said in a deep voice, "My lord, one must kneel to hear the decree. Otherwise, it is an act of disrespect toward His Majesty."

Zhang Ling chuckled lightly, "You can just read it. His Majesty is not here anyway, so where did all these rigid rules come from?"

Raising his voice, the leading eunuch warned, "I advise my lord to kneel, or else this humble servant will have to report the whole story to His Majesty. By then, losing your official hat over such a small matter would be minor, and you might even forfeit your head."

Sensing that the situation was escalating, Shu Qing was about to step forward to persuade them otherwise, but he was pulled back by Ren Pingsheng, who loved watching the spectacle. Together with the Left Censor-in-Chief, they moved aside, and Ren Pingsheng casually pulled over a stool and sat down leisurely. Seeing this, Shu Qing could only think that these two newcomers were bolder than one another. When Ren Pingsheng had first arrived, before even obtaining His Majesty's written warrant, he had ignored all advice and insisted on breaking into an official's residence to search it. If they hadn't actually uncovered evidence of that official secretly trafficking people in the end, Shu Qing wouldn't have known how it would have all wrapped up. At the time, Shu Qing thought Ren Pingsheng was simply bold due to extraordinary skill. After a few subsequent times when they truly found nothing, he finally understood—he wasn't sure if the people from the academy possessed extraordinary skill, but they were certainly bold enough to defy the heavens.

Seeing that Lord Jin was still standing, Ren Pingsheng kindly fetched a stool for him as well. Seeing his subordinate act with such audacity, Jin远盛 (Jin Yuansheng) figured that if he, a superior, acted like a coward, he would never be able to hold his head high around him again. Besides, Zhang Ling was at the front taking the blame anyway, so Jin Yuansheng simply followed suit and sat down. As for the other colleagues from the Censorate, upon seeing this, they gave the area a wide berth and dared not linger for even a moment.

Only Shu Qing remained standing, at a complete loss. He had always strictly observed his duties and devoted himself wholeheartedly to his work, but ever since these two arrived, they had added vibrant color to his once-monotonous life.

Seeing that none of the three maintained a respectful attitude, yet constrained by their status and unable to vent his inexplicable anger on them, the leading eunuch could only focus on the matter at hand. Facing Zhang Ling, his face flushed with anger, he sharply and reproachfully said, "My lord, I call you 'my lord' to give you face. Don't wait until things truly reach the point of no return before you are begging me to intercede with His Majesty on your behalf!"

Zhang Ling let out a disdainful chuckle, "What? When all is said and done, can you only resort to appealing to the throne? If you're a man, use your fists to speak. Oh, that's right! You don't even have testicles, so you certainly can't be counted as a man."

Twisting his hands in a delicate orchid-finger gesture, the leading eunuch lacked the capabilities of Zhao Weizhong, the chief eunuch. He was merely someone who had been castrated in his youth and had floated through the political currents of the imperial palace for many years, earning himself the title of "gonggong" rather than just "little eunuch." People like him were looked down upon to begin with; if he started a physical altercation and made a fool of himself, he would lose even his last shred of dignity. Therefore, he had to suppress the anger burning in his heart and made a motion to turn and leave.

Zhang Ling called out, "Gonggong, are you going to read the imperial decree or not? If not, leave it here for me to read myself."

The leading eunuch turned back, speaking in a sarcastic, mocking tone, "Since my lord dares not kneel before the imperial decree, what is the point of reading it? Just wait for His Majesty's punishment!"

With that, the leading eunuch shouted to the two accompanying young eunuchs, preparing to head back. Zhang Ling leaped to his feet, instantly darted forward, and kicked the leading eunuch sprawling to the ground. Snatching the imperial decree, he walked back and sat down on his chair.

The two young eunuchs hurriedly stepped forward to help him up. After getting to his feet, the leading eunuch glared fiercely at Zhang Ling. He flicked his sleeves without uttering another word, then turned to the two young eunuchs and snapped, "Let's go!"

After they left, Zhang Ling unfolded the imperial decree. It clearly detailed the rewards bestowed upon the four of them.

Zhang Ling was awarded fifty mu of fertile land, one hundred bolts of brocade, twenty oxen, thirty sheep, and one hundred taels of silver.

Left Censor-in-Chief Jin Yuansheng's reward was similar to Zhang Ling's, except that it lacked one hundred taels of silver.

Shu Qing was awarded ten mu of fertile land, forty bolts of brocade, five oxen, ten sheep, and three hundred taels of silver.

Finally, Ren Pingsheng was directly promoted by one rank to Right Assistant Censor-in-Chief. As for the material rewards, compared to his promotion, they were practically negligible. This showed that Chen Liuren truly intended to make heavy use of Ren Pingsheng, finding every possible justification to promote him. It was hard to tell whether this was simply making good use of talent, or if the internal structure of the Chen State was genuinely rotten to the core. When Zhang Ling traveled from Luochuan County to Jingyu City, he had merely crossed a single province, and the sights in both provinces seemed quite peaceful—certainly no one was dying of starvation or freezing on the streets. However, of the six provinces in the Chen State, the true conditions of the remaining four remained unknown.

Zhang Ling looked over at Jin Yuansheng beside him and asked, "Lord Jin, should this imperial decree be kept with me or with you?"

Having navigated the bureaucratic waters for years and dealt primarily with the impeachment of officials, Jin Yuansheng had seen his share of storms and remained quite calm about today's events. He said softly, "According to ritual, if an imperial decree contains rewards for multiple people, it should be placed in the main hall. However, Zhang Ling, you are truly audacious. This was supposed to be a good thing, yet you insisted on creating complications. You had better start thinking about how to reply to His Majesty."

Zhang Ling remained completely unconcerned, offering a calm smile, "It's fine. Neither this official hat nor my head is going anywhere."

With that, Zhang Ling shoved the imperial decree into Jin Yuansheng's arms and handed the two official memorials from the desk to their respective subordinates. Ren Pingsheng took his memorial with casual ease and turned to leave. Shu Qing, still somewhat shaken, did not snap back to reality until Zhang Ling shoved the memorial into his hands, causing him to give a slight start.

Patting him on the shoulder, Zhang Ling smiled faintly, "You're a dignified senior official of the third rank now; why are you still so timid? In the future, you'll inevitably end up confiscating the estates of other officials—you cannot afford to lose your imposing aura."

Stretching his limbs, Zhang Ling concluded what should have been a busy day in a matter of moments, and swaggered out of the Censorate. Along the path to the exit, those who had previously witnessed Zhang Ling refusing to kneel upon receiving the decree—and who used to greet him warmly as "Lord Zhang" simply because they had pocketed the leftover silver he left for official business—now all trembled, spoke with extreme caution, and gave him a wide berth, terrified of getting entangled with this new official and having nowhere to seek justice if trouble struck.

Zhang Ling did not mind. Nothing would go wrong anyway, and his official post was merely decorative to begin with. Once Ren Pingsheng achieved another major feat, this position would likely be suppressed under some pretext or another. Rather than that, he might as well take this opportunity to stir up some trouble—even if Chen Liuren was furious, he would just have to swallow his anger.

Suddenly, Zhang Ling mused to himself: having wealth, power, and the opportunity to attain the realm of a martial grandmaster—something most people in this world could only dream of—made him gradually wonder if all of this was merely a dream.