Uh… Yu Qing’s hand gesture stiffened from what was said, and he did not dare to write easily.
He was only a ninth-rank minor official, quite far from the fifth rank. Signing this document was indeed not easy. Could there be some trap waiting for him?
Lin Chengdao could not help but laugh and cry as he said, “Yin Jizhen, oh Yin Jizhen, you are such a stubborn person who does not know how to adapt. What kind of person is the top scorer in the imperial examinations? He is the secretary serving beside the Censor-in-Chief, handling official business for the Censor-in-Chief. He must have come to run errands for the Censor-in-Chief. Could it be that the Censor-in-Chief has to come in person for such a small matter?”
With that, he asked Yu Qing again, “Did the Censor-in-Chief instruct you to come verbally?”
“This…” Yu Qing hesitated a little. He did not know if it was appropriate to borrow the name of the Censor-in-Chief on his first day of reporting for duty. Although he had always been bold, he still felt some concern about openly telling a lie at this moment. The key was that he had just arrived and did not know the depths of the situation, so he worried there might be a trap.
Who knew that Lin Chengdao would still speak boldly, “Ah, it is fine. Just treat it as the Censor-in-Chief’s instruction.”
“Ah?” Yin Jizhen was shocked.
Yu Qing looked at Lin Chengdao with a complicated expression and said, “Uh… Sir, this might not be appropriate, right?”
Lin Chengdao replied, “There is nothing inappropriate about it. I have been sitting on this cold bench for several years, and I know the matters here very well. Do I not know whether it is appropriate or not? You just sign your full name, and write ‘for warehouse inspection’ in the record. Even if someone checks later, they will not say anything when they see your name.”
“Is it really okay?” Yu Qing confirmed once. He really wanted to go inside to look for things.
Lin Chengdao said, “Do not worry. If I trap you, would I not be trapping myself? I am the one who let you in. You are new and do not understand the rules. If anything happens, I will be the one to suffer first.”
That made sense. Yu Qing immediately felt relieved. After all, he would not stay in the Censorate for long. He promptly picked up the pen and signed.
After he put down the pen, the watching Lin Chengdao clicked his tongue twice and said, “As expected of the top scholar who scored full marks in all four subjects. This handwriting is indeed beautiful. It is clear that hard work was put into it!”
Yu Qing smiled and laughed. On this point, he was still quite confident. As his little martial uncle had said, it was forced out by his master. As the person who would inherit the position of head of Linglong Temple, his handwriting had to look proper, or it would lose face for the entire Linglong Temple.
“Yin Jizhen, you stay here and watch. I will accompany the top scorer inside to have a look.” Lin Chengdao gave an instruction to Yin Jizhen, then gestured with his hand to invite Yu Qing to go inside together.
Yin Jizhen stood stunned in place. He had not expected that on his very first day of reporting for duty, he would personally witness an act of bending the rules for personal gain.
There was a young man’s sense of uprightness in his heart, and he had the thought of reporting it. However, his self-interested reason told him that if he reported someone whom the Censor-in-Chief had specifically named on his first entry into the Censorate, it would probably be very difficult for him to get along in the Censorate in the future…
“Are you the only one on duty?”
“Is it not Yin Jizhen? Hehe. There were originally three people. Someone felt that I was too comfortable here, so they borrowed the other two away. If there is something to do, they call them back. If there is nothing, then it is just me alone.”
“Oh, it is quiet. It is a quiet place.”
The two of them talked as they entered the inner room. Lin Chengdao took out the warehouse door key, opened the mechanism lock, and opened the door just wide enough for one person. He squeezed into the pitch-black warehouse first. Then, the inside suddenly became bright.
Beams of light refracted and illuminated the interior. Lin Chengdao had adjusted the light-collecting mechanism of the warehouse to gather light from outside.
He called from inside, “Top scorer, come in.”
Only then did Yu Qing squeeze in. Looking around, it was a rectangular warehouse with an area of nearly two hundred square metres, half underground and half above ground, with high space, and rows of document scrolls piled up.
“We cannot let rats in.” Lin Chengdao closed the door, turned around and led Yu Qing down the steps. He waved his hand to point at the large arrangement in front of them and introduced, “It looks like a lot, but it is actually the accumulation over six hundred years since the founding of the country. All the documents filed by the Censorate are here. During this time, some things were also destroyed in accordance with imperial decrees. I do not know what the top scorer wants to find. Some high-level documents are stored separately in special boxes, and I do not have the keys to those boxes either.”
Yu Qing still wanted to look around casually. However, seeing the scale in front of him, if he did not say what he was looking for, he was afraid he would not know when he would find it by searching blindly. He immediately asked, “Are there things like resignation letters?”
Lin Chengdao was stunned for a moment. “Resignation letters? Why are you looking for this?”
Yu Qing replied vaguely, “To check some things.”
The two had already walked down the steps. Lin Chengdao stopped and pondered, “There are some, but it seems not many. After all, not many people resign from office. Let me think where they are.” He stared at the left side for a while, then stared at the right side for a while.
Yu Qing did not disturb him. He stood quietly beside him and let him think slowly.
After a good while, Lin Chengdao finally said hesitantly, “It should be in the category for officials retiring due to old age. Come, let us go and have a look.” He waved his hand to call him.
Hearing that it was this kind of non-confidential thing, he felt even more at ease.
They walked past rows of cabinets until they reached the farthest corner. Only then did Lin Chengdao find a box, bring it down, blow off the dust on it, lift the unlocked lid, revealing a pile of documents, and then rummage through them.
Yu Qing waited on the side and habitually looked around. His gaze suddenly paused when he saw an old-style wall cabinet embedded in the stone wall at the very edge. The style of the cabinet door was very old, clearly different from the storage of other items.
“Found it.” Lin Chengdao shouted, pulling back his attention. He saw Lin Chengdao take out a stack of documents, count them briefly, and then inform him, “Over six hundred years since the founding of the country, there have only been about thirty or so people in the Censorate who resigned from office. I do not know which one the top scorer wants to check. Shall I help you find it?”
“No need. I will look myself. I will just flip through and see.” Yu Qing took the stack of documents and placed them on the ground, then squatted down to flip through and check them one by one.
Lin Chengdao did not disturb him either. He waited quietly beside him, but he was clearly a bit puzzled. He was indeed curious in his heart. It was the first time he had seen someone flip through these things. Why did this person come to look at this? It could not be that he also wanted to resign, right?
On second thought, he felt his own idea was funny. The other party had just stepped into the court, clearly had connections protecting him from behind, and was at a time of boundless prospects. He had not suffered any setbacks, so how could he possibly resign? It was more likely for someone like himself who sat on the cold bench.
Yu Qing did not look at too many either. After looking at five or six, he roughly had an idea of the format of resignation letters in his mind. The specific content still had to be written by himself. He could handle this level of narration and did not need to copy. The key was that the reasons for others’ resignations were all different, so copying would not be appropriate. He could only make it up himself.
“That is enough. Just like this.” Yu Qing stacked the things back neatly and personally returned them.
Lin Chengdao took the things and was surprised. “You are done looking just like that?”
Yu Qing nodded.
Since that was the case, Lin Chengdao had nothing more to say. He put the things back, closed the box, and moved it back.
When the two were about to leave, Yu Qing still remembered the wall cabinet on the wall. Sometimes eye affinity for things was really hard to explain. He was also quite interested in secret room items. Generally, specially placed things were quite valuable, right?
He could not help but point and ask, “Lord Zhang, what is the matter with that wall cabinet embedded in the wall? Why does it feel so out of place with the other things in this warehouse?”
“That one?” Lin Chengdao smiled, turned around and walked over, blew off the dust on the cabinet door, picked open the metal buckle with one finger, casually opened the cabinet door, and gestured with his hand to invite Yu Qing to come over and view it.
Yu Qing was already curious, so he naturally wanted to see what was inside. He leaned forward for a look and found that it was divided into three layers inside, all filled with some daily life items such as clothes, shoes, combs, bowls and chopsticks. They all looked quite old.
After looking, he could not help but be surprised. “Why would the document warehouse of the Censorate store such things?”
Lin Chengdao asked in return, “Guess whose things these are?”
Yu Qing observed the items inside a little. They seemed to be quite refined things, not like ordinary people’s items. His gaze suddenly fixed when he found that one piece of clothing seemed to belong to a eunuch. He immediately pointed and said, “Could it be from the palace?”
Lin Chengdao replied, “Good eyesight. That is right. They are indeed from a palace eunuch. However, this eunuch was not simple. He was a figure from almost six hundred years ago. When the founding emperor of this dynasty rose among the many powers, cut through thorns and brambles to establish the Jin Kingdom, this eunuch followed by his side. It is said that later he was not favoured by the new emperor and was impeached by the Censorate for some matter, so he was demoted by the new ruler to the Censorate to watch over the warehouse.
It is said that this large stone-built document warehouse of the Censorate was constructed during the lifetime of this eunuch. After five hundred years of wind and rain, and several repairs, it is still durable. It seems this eunuch died of old age in the Censorate. He is said to have watched over the warehouse in the Censorate for more than sixty years. No one knows at what age he entered. In short, after the second-generation new ruler demoted him here, he never cared about him again. When the second generation passed away, the third generation probably did not want to change the previous emperor’s decree for such a eunuch either, so he was also left alone.
The reason why this old eunuch’s things have been left until now is because he did not bring much when he left the palace. What he could carry with him seemed to be things bestowed by the founding emperor. So what could be done with these things? They are basically daily items that are not valuable, but after all they are things bestowed by the founding emperor. It is not good to mistreat them, not good to throw them away, and not good to take them for oneself. So they have just been left here. Everyone understands the reason. It is better not to touch things that are difficult to handle, otherwise it is easy to be labelled.
“Oh, so that is how it is.” Yu Qing scanned the placed items again and found that one scroll did not look like a daily item. The problem was that the scroll did not have the kind of aged feeling of the other items, so he reached out and took it in his hand.
Lin Chengdao said, “This one is not an imperial bestowal. It is said to be a long scroll of calligraphy and painting drawn by the old eunuch. The paper material is cicada-wing paper from the palace, which lasts for a long time. The person is already dead, and the things are left behind. No one wants to invite bad luck over one more item, so it has just been left like this.”
Yu Qing blew off the dust on it, opened the scroll for a look, and the first thing that met his eyes were two large characters: Sealed Dust!
What did it mean?
He pulled it open a little more and looked further. As soon as he glanced at the subsequent unfolded part, he was stunned. It depicted a small figure holding a sword, and there were accompanying word explanations.
This was exactly something he understood at a glance.
He thought he had seen it wrong, looked at it a few more times, and confirmed it was correct. He then turned his head and asked Lin Chengdao, “Have you seen this thing?”
Lin Chengdao replied, “Of course I have seen it. When I took over from the previous warehouse manager, I was also curious about this wall cabinet and asked what it was about. Later when I had time, I opened it and looked.”
Yu Qing asked again, “Do you not think what is drawn and written on it looks like some martial technique?”
Lin Chengdao laughed heartily and said, “What high-level martial technique could an old eunuch have? He just drew some things for strengthening the body and health. Things for a eunuch to strengthen the body and health. Which proper man would still ponder and learn it? If it spread out, would it not become a laughing stock!”
“…” Yu Qing was speechless. Looking at it again, the more he looked, the more he muttered in his heart. Was this bullying him for not having read much? How was this for strengthening the body and health? This was clearly a set of sword techniques, okay.