Chapter 665: Who Could See It Clearly?
Chen Changsheng did not know whether to laugh or cry. "Lord Ji, your path has truly been incredibly rocky."
Ji Xingsheng said, "What happened next was even more bizarre."
"In the beginning, I served merely as a principal under the Ministry of Revenue's Director of Public Expenditure. It was a junior eighth-rank position, considered one of the lowest official ranks within the ministry."
"Naturally, I didn't despise the role. I simply put my heart into the work."
"Who could have expected that barely a year later, Prime Minister Wen would fall from power? His faction was swept up in the aftermath. At the time, several officials in the Ministry of Revenue had been closely tied to the prime minister. His Majesty wanted to make an example of them, so disaster struck the ministry. Of the four directors—Revenue, Expenditure, Treasury, and Granary—three fell. Because my record was clean, I wasn't implicated. In fact, I was promoted because of it! I went straight from a junior eighth-rank principal to the Director of Public Expenditure, reaching the Junior Fifth Rank!"
"After that..."
Ji Xingsheng opened his mouth, pausing for a moment. "The Ministry of Revenue was in turmoil for quite a while before it finally settled down. I thought that, at my age, being a director was the absolute peak I could reach."
"Then came a coincidence."
"One day, while reviewing the accounts, the emperor discovered some discrepancies in certain areas. As the Director of Public Expenditure, I was summoned to the Imperial Court."