Transmigrated into a Grandpa, Embracing the Laid-Back Life

Chapter 440: Visiting Liu Wenyuan

These words left the entire court gasping in shock.

The Minister of Revenue, a second-rank official, managed the empire’s grain and finances, standing as a true core of the Six Ministries. Bestowed with the title of Junior Guardian of the Crown Prince and granted the privilege of riding a horse within the Forbidden City, this was the pinnacle of imperial favor!

Xu Qing had laid low for five years, and now, with a single burst, he had ascended to the peak!

Yet, on Xu Qing’s face, there was no trace of ecstatic joy.

He still wore that expression of being unmoved by honor or disgrace, performing the grand ritual with flawless precision:

"Your humble servant thanks Your Majesty for your boundless grace. Long live the Emperor, ten thousand years, ten thousand years, ten thousand years."

His heart was as calm as still water. He knew that behind this seemingly splendid reward lurked the Emperor’s deeper scrutiny, along with countless eyes fixed on him, waiting for him to stumble. But so what? He was ready to measure the breadth of the Great Xing nation in his own way.

In the evening.

Xu Qing finished handling the complicated handover affairs at the Ministry of Revenue and returned to his residence under the glow of the setting sun.

At the gate, craftsmen from the Imperial Household Department had already hung the imperial plaque inscribed with "Upright and Incorruptible" high above, its dazzling gleam shining in the sunset’s rays.Xu Qing merely glanced up at it before walking straight into the manor.

He declined all visiting officials and congratulatory cards, heading directly back to his study.

Pushing open the door, the study’s furnishings remained unchanged, yet the air seemed a little less oppressive than in days past.

He walked to the desk and personally ground the ink.

Then, he lifted the goat-hair brush, its handle worn smooth from use.

His gaze once again fell on the scroll inscribed with "Self-Examination in Solitude" hanging on the wall.

wrist, and beside those two forceful characters, on the large expanse of blank space, he added a line of small, highly meticulous

yet carried a calmness born of

Su, to

the final stroke, Xu Qing gently set the brush down on the

leaned down and softly blew out the candle flame on the

"Puff—"

blue smoke curled upward, vanishing into the

Qing turned around, pushed open the door, and walked

poured over him like water, casting a long, slender shadow

steps were steady

seemed as lonely and hunched as it had over the past five years. Instead, it radiated a sense of complete

new day had

.......

mist had

dressed in an inconspicuous gray cloth coat, wearing a bamboo hat pulled down extremely low, slowly walked to an old house at the end of a secluded alley in the southwest corner of the

there was not even a plaque on the lintel. This was the residence of Liu Wenyuan, the Vice Director of the Imperial College. This great Confucian scholar, who had once had students and protégés scattered across both court and countryside, had been marginalized to this state after

few strands of weeds poking through the crack in the door. He took a deep breath of the cold morning air, then raised his hand, bent his index

Thud, thud, thud.

dragging footstep came from inside, accompanied

door cracked

his hand. The old man’s eyes were extremely cloudy, his face covered in deep furrows, as

bamboo hat outside the door, and asked in a hoarse voice: "Our master has closed his doors to visitors for a

slowly took off his bamboo hat, and

moment, initially confused. But gradually, an incredible

accompanied him for many years clattered onto

is it

put in shackles and