Echoes of My Heart Throughout the Court

Xu Yanmiao brought the Ministry of War Official to his home, intending to treat him to hotpot.

But the further they went, the more off-track they got.

The Ministry of War Official pretended to be terrified. “Xu Lang! What are you doing? Attacking an official is illegal!”

Xu Yanmiao rolled his eyes at him and pointed to the side. “Look, we’ve arrived.”

The official looked over and was shocked. “Is this your residence?”

How could it be so shabby and rundown?

“Yeah, the real estate in the capital is expensive, every inch of land is gold, so the rent isn’t cheap. I just rented this place.”

Xu Yanmiao stepped over some low-lying sewage, unlocked the door, and pushed it open. “But don’t worry, I’ve saved up quite a bit for the meat, so we’ll have a hearty hotpot meal today.”

The Ministry of War official carefully stepped inside, trying to walk lightly. The floorboards creaked with every step. Upon closer inspection, the boards were crooked with many gaps, some propped up with small wooden sticks, either horizontally or diagonally.

When the steaming hotpot was placed on the table, the table legs wobbled, and the clerk’s hands shook.

“How can you be so poor!” he almost broke down.

Xu Yanmiao was puzzled. “Why can’t I be poor? The monthly salary for a ninth-rank official like me is only one thousand and fifty wen. Add in the small bits for food, miscellaneous expenses, and servant fees—I didn’t even hire those two servants. Instead, I take four hundred seventeen wen per month, with a choice of two welfare options. Altogether, it’s less than two thousand wen. This broken house costs—oh, the rent is five hundred wen a month, which is a quarter of my salary. I still have to eat and buy clothes. If the court didn’t forbid it, I’d sleep at the government office with just my bedding.”

The Ministry of War official blurted out, “Haven’t you thought about taking bribes…”

You don’t have to take much—just accept a little gift. Everyone in the clerks’ office does it. After all, they’re the ones distributing documents. If someone’s paperwork gets delayed just a bit, it’s not obvious, and as long as it’s within the rules, no one can say anything.

When there was a faction dispute before, one faction didn’t give them any gifts, so they deliberately delayed their paperwork and quickly processed the other faction’s. As a result, the other faction gained the upper hand, pushing out a third of the officials from their opposing faction.

Xu Yanmiao looked completely innocent and confused. “What?”@@novelbin@@

The Ministry of War Official sighed. “Forget it.”

Seeing Xu Yanmiao’s pure and clean demeanor, he didn’t think he would accept bribes.

He decided to think of a way to help him out.

“Come on, let’s eat… that… hotpot!” The official sat down with a plop, and the chair creaked. He immediately lifted his bottom in fear.

Xu Yanmiao reassured him, “Don’t worry, I’ve been sitting on this chair for months and it’s perfectly fine.”

“Oh, okay.” The official sat back down, cautiously only sitting on half of the chair, always ready to stand up again.

Xu Yanmiao plopped down on his chair with a “snap,” and the wooden legs wobbled and squeaked. The official was worried it might collapse.

At that moment, they both heard a knock at the door.

“Duang—duang—duang—”

Xu Yanmiao called out, “Who is it!”

The voice from outside was especially loud. “Xu kid, time to pay the rent!”

“Ah!” Xu Yanmiao immediately marched over, and the ground shook beneath his feet, making it seem like he weighed as much as an elephant.

He opened the door to reveal the landlord, a thin figure wrapped in black robes. The landlord sniffed the air and smiled. “Eating meat, huh? Congratulations.”

Living in a place like this, eating meat once a year was already a great luxury.

Xu Yanmiao pulled out five hundred wen and handed it to him, smiling with squinted eyes. “Yeah, just got my salary a few days ago!”

During the Chu Dynasty, tenants who worked for the master cutting firewood or fetching water were given two thousand wen for three hundred days of work as a “reward for your labor.” Over time, “salary” became a common term for monthly allowances.

The landlord was pleased. “Well, enjoy your meal. I won’t disturb you. But Xu kid, be careful. Don’t waste all your salary right away.”

Xu Yanmiao nervously glanced at his money pouch. “Got it!”

He subconsciously calculated how many more hotpot meals he could afford this month and how much rice and flour he had left at home.

Xu Yanmiao muttered to himself, “Forget it! I’ll make do! Worst case, I’ll just bum breakfast and lunch off the court! Dinner? No more!”

He optimistically comforted himself.

Meanwhile, at the entrance to the East Market, the head eunuch stared at the area and asked his adopted son for the third time, “Are you sure this is the right way?”

The adopted son remained firm. “It’s right here. You don’t know, but at the far end of the East Market, there’s a low-lying area that someone has taken over. It’s been divided into eight hundred rooms, rented out to merchants and poor people.”

As for why Xu Yanmiao was living here, the adopted son didn’t know. He had learned long ago that appearances could be deceiving. Whether someone was genuinely incorrupt or just pretending to be clean needed to be verified.

At that point, their carriage couldn’t go any further. The head eunuch pressed his palm to his face and squeezed out a sound between his teeth. “Lift!”

The little eunuchs all shuddered.

This was three hundred thousand wen! The East Market was huge, and from the entrance to that low-lying area, it was nearly half a mile away!

With sad faces, they lifted the chest filled with money and cloth, pushing through the curious onlookers as they gingerly made their way inside.