“In autumn or winter, the Imperial Court will hold the performance assessment in order to extract talents from the officials of the vassal states. The current situation in Hebei is so terrible, and I do not know what will happen when the officials of the vassal states rush into Chang’an.” Instead of answering Song Jiao’s question, Li Ye sent out a sigh of emotion.

Song Jiao hesitated and suddenly asked, “Now that you have become an official of the Imperial Court, and the situation in the world has reached this point, not far from chaos. As a descendant of the Imperial Clan and an official in the officialdom, what are your plans for the future?”

Li Ye had thought about this question long before. Since Song Jiao asked about him, he didn’t want to conceal his ideas. “In the present dynasty, the government has been deeply corrupted, and the social roots have been broken. It’s impossible for several talented officials to change the situation. It’s useless for me to stay in the Central Government. In addition, the truth of father’s death may bring more troubles to me if I stay in Chang’an. The only way out is to take up the post of a commissioner and go to a vassal state. From there, we can observe the changes in the world and rise up at a proper time.”

Song Jiao thought and said, “It’s not easy for the descendant of the Imperial Clan to go to a vassal state.”

Li Yan smiled and said, “That’s why I’m going to help Li Yan become the next emperor. If he succeeds, it should be easy for me to get an official position of commissioner because of our friendship.”

What he didn’t say was that once Li Yan ascended the throne, Huang Chao would rise up in a few years. At that time, he would go to the vassal state in the name of preparing for the battle against Huang Chao.

Becoming a commissioner of a vassal state meant becoming a feudal prince. When Huang Chao attacks Chang’an, the situation in the world would be similar to that of when the eighteen feudal princes attacked Dong Zhuo during the late Eastern Han Dynasty. Then there would be a great struggle in the world. That was when Li Ye realized his own ambitions.

…

When Li Ye and Song Jiao returned to Prince An’s Manor, it was already 2 a.m. During the days when Li Ye left, Shangguan Qingcheng kept guard at the gate. She saw Li Ye and Song Jiao entered the manor directly from the corner gate. Shangguan Qingcheng was dismayed at first. Then she realized that the young servant in grey and the elderly man with a hanging a tobacco pipe at their waist were Li Ye and Song Jiao, so she hurried up to meet them.

After entering the manor, Song Jiao directly went to her room. Shangguan Qingcheng followed Li Ye. Li Ye asked her, “Are there any important things going on in the manor these days?”

“Many officials visited. According to Your Highness’s wishes, we declared that you were cultivating. Otherwise, nothing worthwhile has happened. Most of those officials left you gifts before leaving.” Shangguan Qingcheng responded truthfully. “Duke Wang has been here once, and Grand Prince Gong sent his people to send congratulations.”

Li Ye nodded. “You’ve been working hard these days.”

Because it had been late, Li Ye hadn’t slept. After removing his disguise, he bathed and ate some porridge. By then it was four fifteen.

Li Ye got into the carriage and left Prince An’s Manor. There was still a little time before six when he arrived at the Chang’an Office. The morning sky was just beginning to lighten. There were many carriages stopping at the gate from time to time, more of which were ox carriages and donkey carriages. Officials of different levels stepped down from the carriages. When they saw Li Ye, some of them were stunned and some were excited. Then they all greeted Li Ye. Some were polite, some were pretentious and some were concerned about his recent condition. The greetings were both warm and cold, but most were warm.

For a moment, it looked like stars were crowding the moon.

Some of the low-ranking officials or non-ranking scribes were amazed to see the important figures of the Chang’an Office surrounding a young man and they talked about them from afar. A scribe in his early twenties asked the people beside him, “Who is he? Why haven’t I seen him before? He must be valuable for all of those officials to rush to greet him.”

An elder scribe beside him said, “Look carefully, he wears official clothes of Four-class. In the Chang’an Office, office, how many people wear the official clothes of Four-class? Only two Vice Magistrates can. It’s a likely guess that this is the new Vice Magistrate. He is also Prince An!”

“He is the Prince An?!” The young scribe was shocked.

“You just arrived in Chang’an, and you already recognize the Prince An?” The elder scribe asked curiously.

The young scribe became excited. “The prestige of Prince An has been spreading all over Chang’an. Nowadays, rumors about His Highness are everywhere in the city. How wouldn’t I know? They all said that he was unable to practice for over 20 years, but achieved Qi-refining in one day. It’s rumored that he just returned from Cloud-engulfed Mountain and defeated the remnants of Pang Xun who went there to assassinate him… A few days ago, when they took part in the assessment in Niushou Mountain, His Highness saw through Li Guanshu’s conspiracy that he was going to frame Sanqingguan. Prince An is both wise and brave! Now, people in Chang’an City say that his Highness has inherited the Old Prince An’s demeanor…”

“Keep your voice down! Duke Xing died to save the youths of the Imperial Clan. That he framed Sanqingguan is just a rumor. If you don’t speak carefully, you’ll lose your life one day!” The elder scribe’s look changed as he warned quickly. Then he showed his admiration to Li Ye. Looking at Shaoyin in the crowd, he said, “As the old saying goes, when it rains it pours. Shaoyin Li was hidden for twenty years, is he going to soar up into the sky with one shot?”

After that, the elder scribe shook his head and sighed, “They are all high-ranking figures. We can’t comment on them randomly.”

Li Ye was surrounded by people as he entered the office. After registering, the Magistrate of the Chang’an Office met him alone.

Li Ye had visited the Three-class officer when he knew that he was going to become the Magistrate of the Chang’an Office. So, they already knew each other.

There were several Three-class officers in the Imperial Court. Most of the One-class and Two-class officers only had honorary titles and had no real power. Fuyin of Chang’an had real power and was in a Vice Three-class position. It was almost the same with these Primary Three-class positions such as the Heads of Six Departments. It was not necessary to say how much weight this position carried.

The Magistrate of the Chang’an Office, Xu Shaomu, was a man of Wei Baoheng. But, it had been said that Li Ye was appointed Vice Magistrate of Chang’an Office by the emperor. Therefore, Xu Shaomu wouldn’t dare to embarrass Li Ye. He just told Li Ye about some of the administrative matters.

Among them, the most important thing was the matter of the cultivators in Chang’an City.

Two Vice Magistrates were assistants to the Magistrate. They had their own powers nominally. But, in fact, the powers they have depended on the Magistrate’s allocation. It was easy for the Magistrate to suppress the Vice Magistrate from giving them real power and let them do menial work. However, if two Vice Magistrates possessed extraordinary talents, there was a possibility that they could take away the Magistrate’s power. But, that would be very difficult.

Although Li Ye wouldn’t specifically manage military and political affairs, the real power was in the hands of the cultivators. It was an indisputable fact that the chief officers, at all levels, were cultivators. Also, those cultivators occupied most of the wealth and most of the disputes directly involved cultivators, so he held the real power.

In a nutshell, Li Ye’s business was doomed not to be an idle job, but, dependent on him. He decided whether his role would be dispensable or indispensable.

It had been said that this might be a result of Wei Baoheng’s obstruction. He had left the space to suppress Li Ye for Fuyin on the premise of not disobeying the emperor’s will.

This satisfied Li Ye. If he had been sent to take charge of the Six Institutions, he would be busy with documents all day. He did not have enough energy to do that. After all, for him, the two most important things, presently, were to help Li Yan ascend the throne and to avenge Li Xian and his Last Life. So, he wouldn’t have the time to spend on documents.

Under the Vice Magistrate, there were two inspectors of Primary Seven-class and four scribes of Vice Nine-class. After meeting with Xu Shaomu, Li Ye started to get into the swing of the Chang’an Office, accompanied by an inspector.

The name of this inspector was Wang Li, who had passed the age of sixty. But, he was still a Seven-class officer. Normally, he wouldn’t achieve any might work. The person who Xu Shaomu sent to show Li Ye around the office was, naturally, the person he hated most.

For the rest of the day, Li Ye was busy with meeting officials of all levels in the Chang’an Office. This was etiquette, and also for the sake of following how the place worked.

After returning, Wang Li personally brought tea to Li Ye and asked with a big smile, “Vice Magistrate, is there anything else?”

“That’s all. You can rest.” Li Ye sat down and took a sip of tea.

Wang Li stood in front of Li Ye, rubbing his hands and smiling with embarrassment. “It’s a great joy that you came today. After work, I would like to invite you to have dinner. I hope that you can come.”

Li Ye looked up at Wang Li, a man who looked his sixty years. His face was wrinkled, which showed he was very old. It must be hard for him to live in Chang’an, where everything was expensive. He was just a Seven-class officer. If he didn’t know how to make money by other means, there is little possibility for him to live a rich life.

Li Ye asked Wang to sit down and chat with him. “How many years have you been in the Chang’an Office? How many people are there in your family?

Wang Li wouldn’t dare sit down. But, he wouldn’t be able to persuade Li Ye. So, he reluctantly sat down, but only touching the corner of his chair. He was extremely respectful. “It has been sixteen years since I came to the Chang’an Office after I became an Imperial Scholar.” Speaking of this, he was somewhat ashamed. Sixteen years later, he was only a Seven-class official. It was totally unreasonable, “I have a wife and two sons.”

Li Yewei nodded his head slightly. He had basically understood Wang Li’s situation and had outlined Wang Li’s life trajectory in his mind.

He had become an Imperial Scholars in his twenties, so there was no doubt that he was outstanding. But, it was also likely that because of his arrogance, he offended the senior officials when he first got to the Chang’an Office. So, he has been intentionally excluded. Meanwhile, he also did not know the way of flattery. So, he ended up in his present situation.

Wang Li’s appearance was older than his actual age, and he had no precious accessories. With one look, Li Ye knew that jade on his waist was cheap. It was obvious that, despite being poor, he had never accepted bribes.

However, he hadn’t been promoted for sixteen years. Inevitably he must have been nagged by his wife. Now he might have lost his ambition. He just wanted to live better and hoped that his wife and children could live a good life.

Li Ye coming to the Chang’an Office to work was a lucky thing for Wang Li. So, he wanted to flatter Li Ye. But, his behaviors of flattery were quite strange. It could be seen that he hadn’t done this kind of thing before.

In short, Wang Li had ambitions when he was younger but lived a bad life and now he was good-hearted. But, it was unknown how many talents he had now.

Li Ye intended to inspect Wang Li. After all, the Chang’an Office was in charge of Xu Shaomu and Wei Baoheng. If he wanted to stay here, he had to draw in these people who were not close to Xu Shaomu. Bringing them over to his side and cultivating his own power. Suddenly, people from outside rushed to report, “There are cultivators making trouble in Kang Fu Lane!”

There were many brothels on Kang Fu Lane and there were frequent disputes. So, it was not unusual that cultivators were making trouble there. Li Ye did not say much. He took Wang Li and several of the police to Kang Fu Lane.

After arriving at Kang Fu Lane, Li Ye was stunned when he saw the rioter who was surrounded by people in front of the brothel, Xiangling Pavilion.

Was the man, who looked arrogant and bossy as he was being scolded by others, Duke Xing’s son, Li Yao?