The Concubine in the Palace_The Feast of Masks【Complete】(159)

Especially a place like the Ministry of Works, which is the lowest-ranking among the six ministries. Because the Ministry of Works is not like the Ministry of Revenue, which is in charge of money, nor is it like the Ministry of Rites, which is in charge of ceremonies, sacrifices, and imperial examinations, nor is it like the Ministry of Personnel, which is in charge of the promotion of all officials. To put it bluntly, the Ministry of Works is in charge of various constructions, civil engineering and water conservancy projects, and all the dirty, tiring and undignified work is done by the Ministry of Works.

Among the four classes of scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans, the word "workers" ranks third, which shows its status.

Moreover, there are many officials here, most of whom were promoted from "workers" to "officials", and the Minister of Works Hong Qi himself is a silent and pragmatic person, so since entering the Ministry of Works, King Jin has not seen any enthusiasm.

Most officials came and went in a hurry with their heads down, and seemed to be very busy. Many people showed up and disappeared.

The person who came to greet King Jin was a small official named Zhou. The order for King Jin came down the day before, and the place he was going to take office was the Ministry of Works and Cleaning Officials, which was in charge of work. In fact, it is for repairing and building houses.

The Yingshan Qinglisi has one Langzhong and two Yuanwailang. There are four small chief officials like the King of Jin, and the King of Jin is just one of them. Under the department, there are also subsidiary institutions such as the Yingshan Office, the Imperial Wood Factory, the Wood Warehouse, and the Glazed Kiln.

The public office of the Yingshan Qinglisi is located in a row of houses at the innermost end of the government office, and officials like the chief can be assigned a duty room for office and rest. The duty room of the King of Jin has been prepared in advance, and the lighting and orientation are excellent.

The reason for this conclusion is that the King of Jin saw the duty rooms of several other chief officials later.

The chief official surnamed Zhou led the King of Jin to the duty room, took out some neatly bound documents and gave them to him, and left respectfully. Today, the King of Jin’s task is to read these documents, which will help him understand the Ministry of Works. It is said that this is the intention of the Shangshu.

Fortunately, when the King of Jin governed his fiefdom before, he was not unfamiliar with this kind of thing, so it was not difficult.

After reading several books in a row, the King of Jin stopped to rest his eyes. He wanted to order tea, but found that this was the Ministry of Works, and he had no servants with him, so he had to do it himself.

He looked around the duty room and found a teacup and tea leaves in a cupboard near the corner. But there was no water or stove in the room, so he had to go out to look for it. Just as he opened the door of the duty room, a man came out of the duty room next to it with the door wide open. It was the head of the office named Zhou.

His name was Zhou Wu, and he was also a head of the Ministry of Works and Cleaning Officials. He had been watching the King of Jin doing this for a long time. Although before the King of Jin came, Shangshu Hong Qi had greeted the people below, saying that they didn't need to treat them as princes, but just ordinary officials. This was the order of His Majesty.

Even so, the people of the Ministry of Works and Cleaning Officials were inevitably a little nervous. They all understood what these princes were doing in the six ministries, and they didn't dare to please them openly, let alone offend them easily. How to get along with them has become a big question.

Zhou Wusheng had a long face, a pair of slightly drooping eyebrows, and looked a little unlucky, but he was a very versatile person. When he saw the King of Jin, he showed a smile that was neither too enthusiastic nor impolite, and cupped his hands: "I wonder if Master Zhao needs any help?"

Hearing this address, the King of Jin was stunned, and then realized that this was to address him.

This person was also bold, daring to call the King of Jin by his surname without a honorific. But if you think about it carefully, this is really not an exaggeration, because if the King of Jin was just an ordinary minor official, he would indeed address him like this.

This Zhou Wusheng had a very smart heart. When he was assigned this task yesterday, he thought about it all night at home. In fact, not only this night, ever since he knew that the fifth prince, the King of Jin, would be assigned to the Ministry of Works, he had been planning how to climb up the ladder.

Climbing up the ladder also requires strategy. If you climb well, everyone will be happy; if you climb badly, you will be annoying. So he did his best to collect a lot of information about the character, hobbies, etc. of the King of Jin, and also collected some news about the Eight Kings entering the court.

During this period, he spent a lot of effort and spent a lot of money. Fortunately, his efforts paid off. Not only did he figure out something, but he was also lucky to be assigned such an errand.

Based on these premises, Zhou Wu stood in front of the gate of the Ministry of Works this morning. He saw the King of Jin in a blue official robe from a distance. He came neither on horseback nor in a car. He understood what this gentleman meant, so he took the risk of calling the King of Jin in this way.

It is obvious that the King of Jin acquiesced to this title, or it may be that the other party was well-mannered and didn't want to argue with him. In short, Zhou Wu took the first step very well.

Since the first step was taken, there are naturally the second and third steps. He took the King of Jin to the tea room in accordance with the customs and introduced him to some basic affairs in the office.

The tea room is located in the corner of this row of houses. It is not only a tea room, but also a place where colleagues usually drink tea and joke together. It was also a coincidence that when the King of Jin and Zhou Wu arrived, several officials were just gathering together to drink tea and talk, and they were just talking about the princes entering the six ministries.

Men are no worse than women when it comes to gossip, and I don’t know where they heard these rumors from, but they sound very convincing. It just so happened that the King of Jin was being discussed, and Zhou Wu deliberately made some noise to avoid saying anything bad, angering the King of Jin and making him unpopular.

When they saw the handsome young man in the green official robe beside Zhou Wu, the officials of different ages all stood up, with an expression of "I am a very serious official, you just saw it wrong." When they heard Zhou Wu address King Jin as Zhao Zhushi, they also lost their awkwardness, exchanged a few words with King Jin, and then found excuses to leave.

"These adults are really too idle. When we are idle, we are so idle that we can kill mosquitoes, and when we are busy, we are so busy that we don't touch the ground. Unlike other places, there are probably few people in the duty room at this time, and they are all busy everywhere." Zhou Wu smiled awkwardly.

King Jin just listened and didn't say anything.

The boiling water in the tea room is continuous, and it will not stop until everyone is off duty. It is supervised by an elderly tea servant. King Jin made himself a cup of tea and returned to the duty room with the tea. Zhou Wu did not follow him in to get close to him, but just told King Jin that the public kitchen would provide food at noon, and asked King Jin to remember to come out on time.

At noon, it was suddenly much busier outside, as if everyone who had been hiding in the duty room earlier had come out.

As soon as the King of Jin stood up, Zhou Wu knocked on the door of his duty room, and the two of them went to the public kitchen together.

This public kitchen is a general term, which refers to the place where food is provided, and also refers to the free meal provided by the court to the officials in the office every day. After all, during the duty period, you cannot leave the office without reason, and you have to solve the problem of filling your stomach for everyone.

As before, the whole hall was silent when the King of Jin came, but the King of Jin has always been an arrogant person, so he didn't take it as an offense at all, and took his own food and went back to the duty room.

The dishes are one meat, one vegetable and one soup, which are uniformly equipped, that is to say, as long as you come to the public kitchen, from the Shangshu to the Jingcheng, you will have this kind of food.

One is stir-fried pork with cucumber, one is shrimp and tofu, and the soup is the simplest vegetable and tofu soup, which can be said to be extremely simple. Each person was responsible for his own bowls and chopsticks. Since the King of Jin could not predict the future, the tableware was borrowed by the errand boy in the public kitchen of Zhou Wu Guanren, and he had to return it after use.

The King of Jin tasted it, and it was not delicious, but not bad either.

He ate a bowl of rice with two dishes and drank some soup, which was half full. After dinner and tea, he looked around this ordinary duty room. On the east wall hung a painting with the words "tranquility leads to far-reaching" written on it.

The painting was ordinary, and the words were also ordinary, but it made the King of Jin feel a kind of spiritual tranquility.

Maybe the next days will not be difficult to endure, and may be very interesting.

Just as the King of Jin was sitting in the duty room of the Ministry of Works, eating the food provided by the public kitchen for free.

In the King of Jin's mansion, Yao Niang was also having a meal with Xiao Bao.

Yao Niang's appetite has always been good, but today, I don't know what happened, she didn't pick up her chopsticks.

"Your father must be eating now. Mother saw that the booklet mentioned the lunch service. I wonder what the food in the Ministry of Works' public kitchen is like. Is your father used to it?"

What can Xiaobao say? He can't answer such questions at his age. Anyway, he is a child, and he just needs to eat.

Well, the eight-treasure tofu is well made today, smooth and tender, and the green bamboo shoots stewed with meat are also good...

Now Xiaobao eats by himself. He can't use chopsticks yet, so he uses a spoon. A jade spoon specially made for him, with a short handle, and the spoon head is just enough for him to eat a mouthful.

In order to eat by himself, Xiaobao also spent a lot of effort. Every time someone feeds him, he will fight with others for the spoon. At first, it was to comfort him and let him play. As he played, he took the spoon and fiddled with it himself.

Seeing that he fiddled well, Yao Niang also gave him a small half bowl of rice for him to eat. At first, he would spill it everywhere, but later he got better. Now, as long as it is not the kind of food that is too soupy or too watery, Xiaobao can do it by himself without spilling a drop.

He can't pick up the dishes by himself, but he knows how to command. Every time he eats, he is specially assigned a little maid. He points his fat finger and the maid will serve him the dishes.

In fact, Yao Niang didn't point to her son to answer her, she just said it to herself.

Although Yao Niang's vision is not high, she is not stupid. She has been in the capital for so long, and through some of the things she has seen and heard, she can see some things.

Now the situation is like what she once heard from her mother and those gossipy aunties in the neighborhood, the gossip about the sons of the rich man Mao fighting for the family property.

The rich man Mao has four sons, and each of them is not a good person. They have been thinking about their father's family property for a long time. These sons are born by the eldest wife and raised by the younger wife. There is only one share of the family property, which is difficult to divide.

One year, the rich man Mao fell ill, and the sons gathered a group of people to fight for the family property. You cheat me, I hurt you, all means are used. But the key problem is that Mr. Mao is not dead yet, he is just sick, and now these sons think he is dead.