Once inside the carriage, Heiluan cautiously asked, "Master, what has angered you so much?"
Having been together with him for so long, how could Heiluan not see it right away. Even more, he was quite shocked that their composed master was so unusually angry.
Yunyin closed his eyes, only uttering a single sentence, "The emperor is old."
Heiluan's eyes widened in shock, his head fell, not daring to look up nor ask further.
The emperor's age… was a forbidden topic…
…
The drive from the court to their courtyard was one of silence and contemplation.
Only after leaving the carriage again did Yunyin's eyes no longer have various unspeakable images.
"We'll go out right away," Yunyin told the driver before turning around and walking into the courtyard.
Bailuan was sweeping the front yard when he heard the sound of the yard being opened from outside. Looking over, he saw Heiluan opening the gate.
"Master?" he asked confusedly as Yunyin came in.
"We'll go out right away, you don't have to order breakfast today." Yunyin said as he walked right past him, going into the courtyard to switch into his casual outer robes.
Bailuan looked over to Heiluan, who only shook his head in confusion. His master had said such a thing, he couldn't repeat it, but he also didn't know what lead to this, so he could only stay quiet, hoping the matter would be solved as soon as possible.
Soon, Yunyin came out with a bright green robe, a relaxed smile on his face, "Let's go. I'll have breakfast with the assistant minister! Heiluan, I want you to go through the books and all the information we have about the Yueling Province's Ministry of Revenue and tell me about their common cases every year."
"Yes, master!" Heiluan was somewhat confused but only bowed in agreement.
Yunyin smiled and walked out. Since he was going to stay in this ministry for a long time, he should know their general course of action, how they behaved, what their priorities were, and so on. He only wanted Heiluan to give him a general overview for now, the rest will have to be personally determined by him.
He didn't wait any longer and went out right away, telling the driver outside his destination as he went in. Just because he usually had an attendant didn't mean he didn't know how to open his own door…
His mood calmed down a lot on his drive back to the courtyard, and now going out with a relaxed attitude, he gradually fell into mood too, no longer carrying a great stone on his mind.
The matter of the plague will be handled by the Qingling Ministry with the help of the Grand Minister himself, so he really didn't need to think about doing anything. In fact, just the thought of being able to do something is a bit… arrogant.
Such a serious case, how could he solve it? It's not that he didn't know a few things, but the approach of solving a plague relied more heavily on the help of the Ministry of Land, Ministry of Households and the Ministry of Works.
Unlike the case of an earthquake with vast financial difficulties, a plague is a serious issue where the court doesn't have to save any budget. Instead, they should use as much silver as possible to they could solve the issue right away.
Since everything was planned and there would even be a council meeting of the ministries of revenue, probably to discuss how much financial aid each province could provide them with. After all, solving the plague is an extremely costly matter, and it might even go so far that one or two prefectures pay no taxes for a whole year!
A single prefecture's tax is already more than how much gold the Ministry of Revenue can save up each year…
The carriage drove and Yunyin's thoughts winded until he finally focused back to the meal he would have with the assistant minister. He was quite curious about the invitation but didn't mind. Though considering it would be a private meeting, and that this one was no longer the testing phase, he could bring up the matter he had thought of before.
"Master, we have arrived," just as he was thinking about it, the driver opened the door for him.
"Oh thanks, you didn't need to do that." Yunyin thanked him as he left the carriage.
"It's part of my job! I shall wait here for the master!"
"No need, you can go and grab a bite before coming back. Just park the carriage somewhere the guards can see." Yunyin remarked as he walked off.
Arriving in front of the guards, the guards only bowed to him and said, "The assistant minister has already informed us. We were told to tell you that the breakfast would happen outside in the pavilion where the master has discussed matters yesterday."
"Thank you for informing me then," Yunyin thanked them and walked right into the opened gate, thinking to himself that the assistant minister was serious when he said he could walk right in.
At this time of the day, there were more servants that usual. Combined with the fact that the assistant minister was going out, it's understandable why these servants rushed around the courtyard so hastily, the appearance of casually chatting while walking nowhere to be found here.
Yunyin arrived at the pavilion in a short time, where he saw a person already seated while the servants were serving breakfast already.
"Official Jie!" Miss Ying stood up right away, cupping her hands in greeting and looking at him confusedly, "No one told me that you would come today!"
As she said this, she gestured to a servant to get something.
"The assistant minister has called for me to have a meal together and probably to discus something." Yunyin wasn't sure why this miss wasn't told about it, but he didn't ask.
"Please sit down," she said, sitting back down.