“Brother Huang, meet the new arrival, Mei Qing, also known as Brother Mei. Starting today, Brother Mei will be working here in the Bureau of Experience. Show him around the compound later and let him get familiar with the place,” Qiuming said, after briefing Mei Qing on some basic matters, and then called over a fat, round-faced fellow to accompany Mei Qing on his tour.
The fat man with the surname Huang nodded eagerly, grinning as he led Mei Qing outside, chatting along the way. “Brother Mei, to be honest, I’ve been waiting for you for almost half a year. Finally, you’ve arrived. Phew, it’s been tough!”
“Waiting for me?” Mei Qing asked, puzzled. “Did we know each other before, Brother Huang?”
Brother Huang shook his head vigorously. “No, no, I only learned about your arrival today. It’s just that I’ve been handling this job alone, and it’s been quite tough. I’ve asked my superiors several times to assign more staff. It took half a year, but now you’re finally here, so I’m naturally thrilled.”
As they walked and talked, Mei Qing learned that this chubby Huang was named Zhongman, courtesy name Shouying, and came from a family with considerable background. His ancestors had followed Emperor Yongle, and his grandfather had married a county princess, making him genuinely related to the royal family. However, as the second son of the family and someone who disliked studying, Huang had managed to secure a military post before transferring to the Embroidered Uniform Guard to get by.
Truth be told, Mei Qing found it hard to reconcile the presence of such a stout figure in a place as secretive as the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
“I’m not much of a man, just scraping by as a deputy commander, carrying this Embroidered Uniform Guard badge, which is handy when going out. But this place has strict rules, so I can’t really act up, which gets a bit boring. Now that you’re here, Brother Mei, we’ll make a great team, and I’ll rely on you heavily.”
“Nonsense, Brother Huang, you’re the veteran here. I’m sure I’ll need your guidance on many things,” Mei Qing replied humbly, cautiously probing.
Huang Zhongman grinned and led Mei Qing to the northernmost room of the eastern row of side rooms. “This is our territory. Unfortunately, Commander Yu has been away these days, so you won’t get to meet him for now. Let’s go check out the record room first.”
Apparently, all the rooms here were labeled according to the sequence “Heaven, Earth, Xuan, Huang,” each responsible for different archival tasks. Huang Zhongman led Mei Qing to the Heaven Room, shouting even before entering, “Old Zhang, don’t fall asleep again! We’ve got a new guy here, so don’t let him see you drooling all over the desk!”
Mei Qing almost tripped over, unable to fathom how someone like Huang Zhongman could work in the Bureau of Experience of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
A voice from inside responded, “Your mouth never utters anything decent, you fatso. When have I ever fallen asleep? With all the busy work, only you, the fatso, have the luxury of running around everywhere.”
Huang Zhongman led Mei Qing inside, and the sight within left Mei Qing astonished. The room was empty except for a few official documents on the desk, covered with a thin layer of dust, indicating they hadn’t been touched for quite some time. Inside was a thin man with large eye crusts at the corners of his eyes, blinking constantly as if he had just woken up.
Huang Zhongman chuckled. “Don’t pretend. Once the boss is away, what work do you really have? Come on, this is the new guy, Brother Mei Qing. From now on, he’ll be working with your humble fat friend. Let’s get acquainted.”
Old Zhang chuckled and didn’t argue, giving Mei Qing a brief greeting. After a few exchanges, Huang Zhongman led Mei Qing out and moved to the next door.
As they visited each room in turn, Mei Qing was greatly surprised to find that each room seemed extremely idle, with hardly any documents or even paper. Especially the Xuan Room they had just left, where two men were actually playing chess.
“Down below is our Huang Room. Pretty good, right? It matches my surname perfectly,” Huang Zhongman laughed.
“Brother Huang,” Mei Qing couldn’t help but ask, “since our Bureau of Experience is in charge of confidential archives, why do all these rooms seem so empty and inactive?”
“Oh, you don’t know. We have different divisions of labor. Old Zhang’s Heaven Room handles royal secrets, so how many confidential documents do you think come in? The two guys in the Xuan Room handle the northern barbarians, but we barely have any spies, let alone messages coming back. Lucky them, so they just sit around doing nothing,” Huang Zhongman said with a wry face.
“Ah?” Mei Qing asked cautiously, “How are the divisions assigned among the different rooms?”
“Well, in this eastern row, Heaven Room handles the royal family, Earth Room the princes, Xuan Room the foreign barbarians, and as for our Huang Room—”
“What does the Huang Room handle?”
“Everything they don’t handle, we handle it all,” Huang Zhongman said, opening the door to the Huang Room.
Inside, stacks of documents reached over a person’s height, leaving almost no space to step. Mei Qing stared in shock.
“This… this… how long will it take the two of us to finish all this?” Mei Qing exclaimed, sweating.
“It’s not just us two, Brother Mei. I’m afraid I can’t help much with this,” Huang Zhongman said, looking embarrassed.
“What do you mean, Brother Huang?” Mei Qing asked, slightly surprised.
“You can’t blame me for this. Look at what’s written here,” Huang Zhongman picked up a report, scratching his head. “I can’t read it…”
“What? You can’t read?” Mei Qing was shocked.
“Who said I can’t read? I just can’t read much,” Huang Zhongman grumbled. “We’re all from military backgrounds. How many of us are literate? That’s why it’s so hard to find someone for the Bureau of Experience. They need someone with a clean background and no local connections, so they end up with people from the military. Where can you find so many literate people?”
“Bureaucratism indeed…”
Thinking that someone like Huang Zhongman, who was practically illiterate, could end up in the Bureau of Experience handling document organization was truly a rare occurrence. However, Mei Qing had no time to worry about such matters for now. After finally completing all the procedures, he hurriedly asked Huang Zhongman if it would be convenient for him to go home first since he had been temporarily assigned here and hadn’t had a chance to return home yet.
“Oh, you didn’t even know you were being assigned here? The guard unit must have kept it pretty secret. My bad, I didn’t ask earlier where you were working before. Don’t worry, Brother Mei. If you want to go home, just let Qiutou know. Anyway, our work isn’t something that can be finished in a day or two. Honestly, I’ve been here for over half a year and haven’t been in a rush either,” Huang Zhongman said with a cheerful smile on his fat face.
Eager to leave the small courtyard of the Bureau of Experience, Mei Qing found that the alley wasn’t too far from home and decided to walk back. As he approached the front gate, he saw Old Zhang, the gatekeeper, sitting glumly on the doorstep, his ever-present dry tobacco pipe in his mouth without a wisp of smoke, clearly long since extinguished.
“Old Zhang, why the long face?” Mei Qing approached the gate, but Old Zhang remained lost in thought, so he had to call out to him.
Old Zhang slowly looked up, and upon seeing Mei Qing standing there, he sprang to his feet, his mouth opening wide, the pipe falling from his lips with a clatter.
“Ah? Master, it’s you—it’s Master! Master has returned, Master has returned!” Old Zhang snapped out of his daze, shouted loudly, and hurriedly ran into the courtyard to announce the news.
At Old Zhang’s shouting, several servants and maids rushed out from the courtyard. Seeing Mei Qing return safely, they were all overjoyed, their faces beaming with smiles, with some even shouting loudly, “Master has returned!” creating quite a lively scene.
“Enough, Master wasn’t in any danger, so why the fuss? I told you all earlier, but you wouldn’t believe me. Now you see, right? Disperse now and get back to work,” Zhongshu also came out upon hearing the commotion, seeing the crowd getting too excited, and hurriedly spoke up.
At this, everyone gradually dispersed. Zhongshu approached Mei Qing and said, “Master has returned. Although I always knew Master would be fine, I couldn’t convince Doyun. Master had better go see her quickly.”
Mei Qing had a lot he wanted to say to Zhongshu. When he was taken away, everyone had been in a panic, except for Zhongshu, who remained calm and assured everyone there would be no problem. Everyone knew how formidable the Embroidered Uniform Guard was, and even Mei Qing himself had no idea what would happen. He couldn’t fathom where Zhongshu’s confidence had come from at that time.
As it turned out, just as Zhongshu had predicted, the situation took a turn for the better, clearly due to someone rescuing him. Mei Qing had wanted to ask Zhongshu if there was some mystery he didn’t understand. However, upon hearing about Doyun, he couldn’t wait to ask further questions and, with a few quick steps, hurried toward the inner courtyard.
As he turned into the inner courtyard, he saw in the distance, behind the bamboo grove, Wuer supporting Doyun, who still had traces of tears, coming out to meet him. Doyun’s clothes were disheveled, her face pale and worn, as she stumbled forward. When she saw Mei Qing, her gaze was fixed on him, tears streaming down her face, yet she wore a broad smile.
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