Inspector, Ninth Royal Uncle Is an Upright Judge

If you're not in that position, don't meddle in that business. Prince Nolan is a royal, not the Emperor. The Emperor can order the punishment of corrupt officials and stop the gift-giving trend, but as a subject, Prince Nolan has no intention of doing something that both offends people and steals the Emperor's thunder.

The officials below offer gifts and pay respects to curry favor; it's also a way to gauge the political winds. Through the gifts presented, Prince Nolan can tell which are the Emperor's confidants and which officials might be drawn to his own side.

Prince Nolan holds great power in the capital, but his influence in the provinces has grown extremely slowly due to his status. This time, he's making a show of himself partly to win over local officials. In such circumstances, how could he possibly refuse their gifts?

He didn't want to spell all this out to Serena. Some things are better done than said—it's enough to understand in your heart; putting it into words just spoils it.

Serena couldn't accept him taking gifts from subordinate officials, so he decided to show her the consequences of refusing them.

When Prince Nolan and Serena sneaked into the Liaosburg inspector-governor’s mansion, it was already past dinner, but the place was still brightly lit. Even though Prince Nolan hadn’t arrived, none of Liaosburg’s officials had left—they were all staying at the inspector-governor’s mansion.

Of course, they weren't there drinking and making merry. In fact, none of them were even in the mood to eat.

"Do you think Prince Nolan is dissatisfied with us Liaosburg officials? Not only did he refuse our hospitality, he wouldn't even accept our gifts."

"Yeah, I heard Prince Nolan isn't like this in other places. He usually accepts gifts from subordinate officials as he sees fit."

"So what do we do now? How did we end up offending Prince Nolan?"

"Did we not do something right? Was our gift too modest?"

The officials kept tossing words back and forth, their voices full of unease and fear. In the end, everyone looked to the inspector-governor, faces drawn: "Sir, just tell us—are we out of favor with the Emperor, or is it Prince Nolan who’s dissatisfied with us?"

"Exactly, sir, what should we do? Prince Nolan is leaving tomorrow. If we can't think of a solution and let him go just like this, what’s going to happen to us?"

"Sir, maybe we should try to find out if we somehow offended Prince Nolan. Should we increase our gifts by thirty percent?"

"I heard Prince Nolan has a confidante—a lady. Is it possible that when we welcomed him today, we failed to flatter her, and the gifts we prepared didn't include anything for her, which made Prince Nolan unhappy?"

Uh... The more they talked, the more ridiculous it sounded. Serena’s expression grew increasingly strange.

How did this get pinned on her? What did any of this have to do with her?

The Liaosburg inspector-governor’s face was dark and frightening, all trace of daytime authority gone. After hearing the officials’ discussion, he spoke heavily: "I’ll have someone look into it. You all go prepare as well—raise the value of your gifts by fifty percent. If that still doesn’t work, there’s nothing I can do but wait for someone from the capital to come and strip me of my post."

To him, if Prince Nolan refused his gift, it meant his career was over. The rest of the officials, hearing this, grew even more anxious.

After another round of discussion, Serena lost all interest in listening. She signaled to Prince Nolan to take her away. Once they’d left the inspector-governor’s mansion, Serena glanced at Nolan’s calm, unreadable face and asked, "You saw this coming, didn’t you?"

"Mm." For something like this, you don’t even need to think about it.

"What if you never accepted any gifts?" Serena asked seriously.

If Prince Nolan never accepted gifts, people would probably get used to it over time. Eventually, they'd stop offering him gifts altogether.

"Officialdom has its own circles. If I never accept gifts, I can't integrate into that circle. Serena, I'm a prince, not the Emperor." Your role determines your actions; since he's not the Emperor, he can't stand outside the system.

He needs support from officials to get things done. Even the Emperor is the same—if you offend all the officials, they’ll just pretend to obey but actually work against you. Even the Emperor can’t do anything then.

"Alright, I get it." Serena sighed, frustrated.

She understood the darkness of officialdom, but couldn’t accept Nolan going along with those corrupt officials. Still, thinking it through, she realized: no perfectly clean official ever climbs high. Such people can't blend in and are quickly pushed out.

If Nolan wants to win over officials, he can’t act all aloof and self-righteous. That would only alienate them.

"It's good that you understand. Some things aren't optional, Serena. If you want to change the rules of this world, you need enough power. The rules of officialdom have been passed down for centuries—you can't just change them at will. The late Emperor hated these corrupt officials too. He once made up his mind to purge them all, but nearly cleared out every official in Eastlyn and almost shook the foundation of the state."

The Emperor does have supreme power, but when all his officials stand against him, even he must compromise. There have even been cases of ministers dethroning the Emperor in previous dynasties.

Serena fell silent for a long moment before finally asking, "So what do you plan to do about today’s events?"

"Nothing. Tomorrow, I’ll refuse their gifts again as usual. Then I’ll send a memorial to the Emperor, asking him to investigate the inspector-governor of Liaosburg." Since he’s already refused, he’ll see it through to the end—and take down all the officials in Liaosburg while he’s at it. It’s easy enough to dig up dirt on a couple of them.

"Ah... isn’t that a bit much?" Serena felt a little uneasy about causing the inspector-governor’s downfall over this.

"What’s too much about it? Once you’ve offended someone, you have to eliminate the danger. In officialdom, no one is truly innocent—only those who’ve chosen the wrong side. If you stand with the wrong faction and offend the wrong person, you lose your right to stay in office."

The fate of the Liaosburg inspector-governor was sealed the moment Nolan and Serena discussed it. The next day, when Nolan and Serena left, the Liaosburg officials did indeed present gifts worth fifty percent more than before. Nolan still refused to accept them.

Officialdom has its own rules. If Nolan accepted the gifts after refusing them before, word would spread that he was insatiably greedy.

From then on, if any official made a mistake and tried to approach Nolan, all they had to do was increase the value of their gifts after being refused. If he still refused, people would say he was just too greedy.

There are principles for accepting gifts. Nolan refused Liaosburg to the end, so everyone just assumed the officials there had offended him and were doomed. No one blamed Nolan.

After leaving Liaosburg, Nolan did things exactly as before, which reassured the other officials. Less than ten days after he left, news came that the Liaosburg inspector-governor had been arrested for seizing peasant land and killing innocent villagers.

Every official close to the inspector-governor in Liaosburg was also jailed for various crimes...

Nolan made it clear: Liaosburg officials had oppressed the common people—they deserved death!