Though he couldn’t persuade Xu Qingyang, Prince Huainan still had great trust in him, because he himself didn’t understand a thing about rules. He needed Xu Qingyang’s advice in many situations. He had been planning to bring Xu Qingyang to the New Year’s Eve banquet, but seeing him so ill that his lips were white, Prince Huainan thought it would be better to break some rules than force his subordinate to come to the palace with him in this condition.

But when he said so, Xu Qingyang became even more emotional and said that he wouldn’t let His Highness go alone to attend this Hongmen Banquet, where they were as likely as not plotting his death.

Gloom came over Prince Huainan. It was an ordinary New Year’s feast. Why call it a Hongmen Banquet? Did Xu Qingyang have a persecution complex?

But Xu Qingyang’s utter determination to crawl after him if he had to left Prince Huainan at a loss, so he brought Xu Qingyang to the feast.

In the capital, officials below the fourth rank were not qualified to attend court, while officials of the fourth and third ranks had to stand outside the doors while waiting for morning court to begin. Only the truly powerful, those of the second and first ranks, had the right to sit inside drinking tea while they waited for the session to open. In this setting, Xu Qingyang, a mere eighth-rank official, couldn’t be permitted to enter Jinluan Hall even in Prince Huainan’s company. He was stopped by guards at the area where the sedans were letting off their passengers. The guards took him to a small room along with the servants brought by the officials.

Of course, he was still a ranked official and couldn’t receive the same treatment as servants. The eunuch leading him took him to an inner room and served him a big bowl of hot jiaozi made by the imperial kitchens, explaining that these were a particular gift from Emperor Jingren, made out of consideration for the servants. The servants in the outer room were all sedan carriers or household staff; hearing that they would be able to eat jiaozi given to them by the emperor and prepared by the imperial kitchens, they were ready to send up praises to heaven! After a display of profound gratitude, each one of them ate the piping hot jiaozi and drank better tea than they had ever drunk before. Soon, all kinds of pastries and savory dishes were brought, with the explanation that these were a gift from the empress dowager and the empress. These were all fine foods that none of them had ever seen before. The servants were beside themselves with emotion, crying the praises of the wise and good emperor and the good empress. Before eating, they even performed a proper obeisance in the direction of Jinluan Hall, touching their heads to the ground three times, some hard enough to bruise.

Xu Qingyang, meanwhile, simply stood there unmoved and said a tepid Thank you, kneeling slightly and unwillingly, his manner as different as could be from that of the servants in the outer room.

To Xu Qingyang, those people were beyond naive. Emperor Jingren had given them only the tiniest grace. It was the magnanimous and thoughtful Prince Huainan who could truly do good for all the people.

The eunuch who had served the food whispered something to the head eunuch, who trotted over and said some things to another young eunuch, who happened to be Little Shunzi.

Emperor Jingren was dressing. Though outside the seats were already filled with officials, he was after all the emperor; he could only appear with the empress at the time reckoned by the Office of Astrology.

The empress was already dressed in his resplendent phoenix robe, with the nine phoenix tail hairpin on his head, a perfect match for Emperor Jingren in his dragon robe. Standing together, the two of them were imposing, exuding grandeur, making it hard to look them in the face. Such a manner belonged only to a person who had long occupied a lofty position. The average person could put on the imperial robes yet still look like a ridiculous actor. Only the true emperor could be so stately.

It was onto this scene that Little Shunzi silently intruded. He saw the emperor and empress with their gazes locked, their eyes brimming with emotion. Sneering, he gave a gentle cough and said, “Your Majesty, I just received word that Prince Huainan’s aide showed no gratitude for Your Majesties’ gifts and treated the others, who were warmly grateful, as beneath him.”

Once business was brought up, Emperor Jingren had no choice but to avert his gaze from the empress. He nodded slightly. “Understood.”

He knew how he ought to treat Prince Huainan at tonight’s banquet.

Having succeeded in breaking up the loving gazes between emperor and empress, Little Shunzi was secretly delighted with himself. He bent his head and was just about to sneak out of the room and he heard the empress behind him say, “Hold on.”

The empress smiled slightly at Little Shunzi, then turned to Emperor Jingren and said, “This young eunuch serving Your Majesty is truly clever. Was he trained by Eunuch Lian?”

“Yes,” said Emperor Jingren with a shallow nod. “He is all right.”

For an ordinary eunuch to be considered worthy of the words “all right” by the emperor was already remarkable. The previous dynasty had a precedent of eunuchs monopolizing power, so Emperor Jingren could not give one too much authority. Eunuch Lian was utterly loyal to the emperor, but he knew little of what went on at court.

Emperor Jingren was cognizant of all the pitfalls of the past, including palace eunuchs or the emperor’s maternal relatives monopolizing power, and the dangers of stressing the importance of either military prowess or academic achievement at the expense of the other. He knew that, for an emperor, balance was the priority. He had to use his might to maintain equilibrium among the officials, so that their vision would not be eroded by power, and that an excess of it wouldn’t cause them to forget who they were, forget the ideals that had carried them through years of grueling study.

Emperor Jingren’s view was that everyone could be an asset, but they must all be assigned fitting tasks. Take for example Lin Boyuan: while his father was a grand secretary whose students could be found throughout the realm and who was on friendly terms with an overwhelming majority of the civil officials, Emperor Jingren believed he was the right person to implement his new law, so he had given him this task. He had no fears that this would lead to the Lins becoming too powerful, because however well Lin Boyuan performed, Emperor Jingren wouldn’t grant him too much authority. Lin Boyuan’s future prospects would depend on his own abilities.

Because the new law had appealed to all the wealthy merchants in the country, these people had become supporters of imperial power. Through Emperor Jingren’s machinations, merchants who had formerly backed State Chancellor Li had now changed sides. Chancellor Li had power, but money and power could not be separated; once he could no longer provide benefits sufficient to draw other officials to him, his clique and his support would gradually diminish. What if, at such a moment, someone used money to inveigle Chancellor Li’s former followers to betray him? Those who had been brought together by self-interest could easily be divided by self-interest.

Bit by bit, Chancellor Li would find that his word carried less and less weight at court and that his goals were increasingly hard to accomplish.

This was the first step. Emperor Jingren had used the new law to achieve it.

The next step was to improve the legal system. In addition to handling affairs of state, Emperor Jingren had lately been making a thorough study of Xia’s laws. These laws had been formulated during the early period of the dynasty and were no longer applicable to the current era. Going forward, Emperor Jingren wanted to refine the laws, and to compel the officials to understand and enforce them.

Of course, this step would be harder than the first. Emperor Jingren would need to consult everyone’s opinions on potential improvements before he could create laws that would be good for the nation and the people.

He knew that it would be forever beyond his personal capacity to ensure that everyone in Great Xia remained happy all their days, but Emperor Jingren had set himself a goal: as few people as possible would starve to death in Xia, as few unjust decisions as possible would be handed down, and as few corrupt officials as possible would hold office. He had no specific bottom line for any of these: Emperor Jingren’s bottom line was to do as much as was in his power.

With these goals in mind, Emperor Jingren could restrain his adoration of the empress and hold a harem selection solely for the sake of producing an heir and giving stability to the realm. His resolve made him incapable of holding too many individuals in his heart. However well Little Shunzi performed, to Emperor Jingren, he could never be more than “all right.”

“Is that so?” the empress said, smiling. “I happen to lack a clever errand runner. Would Your Majesty be so kind as to transfer him to my palace?”

“You are short of servants?” Emperor Jingren asked in concern.

“Yes,” said the empress with a faint smile. “With the selection coming up next year, the harem will begin to bustle again. I will need all the help I can get. Each girl selected might be a future ranked consort or concubine, so it would not be fitting to slight any of them. Having a clever person on hand to assist will lighten my workload tenfold.”

Emperor Jingren’s heart tightened at the mention of the selection. He couldn’t help feeling that though the empress was smiling, in reality he was very hurt. So he nodded automatically. “Very well. From now on, Little Shunzi will take his orders from you. If you need any more help, you are free to choose from among the palace servants. Apart from members of the empress dowager’s retinue, who cannot be reassigned without her consent, you are free to transfer anyone who catches your eye to Kunning Palace.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty.” The empress smiled in satisfaction, but the smile wasn’t aimed at Emperor Jingren. Its target was Little Shunzi.

The auspicious hour had now arrived, and representatives from the Ministry of Rites came to remind Emperor Jingren that he ought to make his appearance. He took the empress by the hand, and together the two of them entered the main hall, leaving Little Shunzi alone and unsteady on his feet. His legs folded and he sat down in a heap.

He’d never imagined that all the time and effort he had spent waiting upon Emperor Jingren would turn to nothing at a word from the empress!

When he had first heard the empress say that Emperor Jingren was a ruler above all, Little Shunzi had thought that he understood. Rather than fighting over his affections and putting on displays of petty jealousy that made the emperor’s life more difficult, they ought to prioritize lessening his burdens. His own best course of conduct wasn’t to ingratiate himself with Emperor Jingren by any means possible but to make sure by subtle gestures that the emperor felt he had someone at his side to lighten the load. He needed to make Emperor Jingren find him useful in household matters and political ones alike, until he felt that anyone else in that role wasn’t as handy; once he reached that goal, he could commence the next step of his plan.

But…after all that work, he still meant less to Emperor Jingren than a careless request from the empress.

While waiting upon Emperor Jingren, Little Shunzi had come to understand that many things weren’t as simple as they had once appeared. The reason that the empress had succeeded so easily in having him transferred wasn’t because he had just shared a tender moment with the emperor, but rather because he had mentioned the harem selection! As soon as that subject came up, Emperor Jingren recalled that he would inevitably neglect the empress on this account. To make up for the pang of guilt he felt about his treatment of his wife, giving up a eunuch was no obstacle!

Having thought this through, Little Shunzi sat hopelessly on the floor. He knew that from the moment the empress had opened his mouth, he had fallen out of the running.

In contrast to Little Shunzi’s despair, the empress felt triumphant as he joined Emperor Jingren in making offerings and praying to the heavens, in receiving the well wishes of the officials, and in raising a cup.

“This first cup celebrates the plentiful harvest and the happiness of the people in the year gone by. It celebrates the favorable weather and prosperity granted to this dynasty. A toast!” Emperor Jingren solemnly raised the first cup of wine of the year and drained it.

The kneeling officials also raised their cups and as one threw back their heads and drank. As the empress drained his cup, he looked out from behind the cover of his wide sleeve and shot a look at the slouching Prince Huainan.

One more.