Empress: Your Majesty, please respect yourself, I don't want to be promoted

Ziji City, Taiji Hall.

morning.

The Empress was absent-mindedly listening to the report of a court official below, but her gaze was vaguely on Lu Chen, who was standing at the back of the civil line.

When she first went to court, she noticed that Lu Chen's face was a little sluggish, as if he hadn't rested well.

He even couldn't help yawning several times.

Seeing his haggard face, constantly rubbing his eyes in order to cheer up, the empress could only feel a surge of anger rising from the bottom of her heart.

She didn't send anyone to monitor Lu Chen, and she took it for granted that Lu Chen must be so tired because he cared too much about Xia Yan's case.

As for the Chief Judge of the Tribunal, except for Fang Ping who really did his best, the other two judicial chiefs simply didn't take this matter to heart.

Don't talk about reviewing the dossier like Lu Chen from Qipin's work. As chief judges, they probably didn't even read the dossier carefully, let alone carefully check whether there are doubts in it.

Otherwise, how could they be as energetic as they are now?

Didn't you see that Lu Chen was so tired that he almost fell asleep standing up?

Although Fang Ping seemed to be in good spirits, he could still clearly see a little fatigue from his old face, which was obviously caused by overwork yesterday.

An old official who is over 60 years old is still so dedicated to his duties. On the other hand, Qian Yiqian, Secretary of the Ministry of Justice, and Zhao Bingliang, Minister of Dali Temple, two "important officials" who are only in their destiny, are not even qualified for their duties compared with Fang Ping, let alone with him. Lu Chen compared.

At this moment, Qian Yiqian and Zhao Bingliang, the two so-called famous ministers who were sent back from the place of exile or relegation by her personally to give them important positions, the sensory impression in her heart plummeted.

I even regret that I believed too much in their fame before.

She wanted to let Lu Chen go back to rest, but the Empress thought that Lu Chen had put in so much effort just to clear Xia Yan's innocence, and today is the day of the tribunal trial, he must not be absent, so she gave up the idea of ​​letting him go back .

After going to court, Lu Chen wandered to the public room in the Sixth Section Corridor, walked to his seat and sat down, ready to deal with official business.

Generally speaking, each court official's office will have a special servant who collects the latest official documents that need to be processed and puts them on the corresponding table before the next court, so that the court officials can start processing as soon as possible.

However, due to the low position and authority in the six departments, the official duties have always been heavy, and it is a relatively busy department. Therefore, each department has to deal with quite a lot of official duties every day.

Even if everything goes well, at least half an hour a day should be devoted to the desk.

Lu Chen is no exception.

However, when he habitually reached for the official documents, he found nothing.

"Um?"

Looking up, I saw the pile of official documents that were always piled high in the past, but now there are only a few scattered official documents, which is extremely shabby.

"What's going on? Where's today's official document?"

Hearing his question, a man who was older than Lu Chen replied with a smile: "The lower official asked the official who passed the document, and he said that the Ministry of Industry has nothing important to do in the past two days, and there is no official document." It needs to be delivered to us, so there shouldn’t be much business to attend to today.”

Hearing this, although Lu Chen felt a little strange, he didn't think much about it.

Since you can catch fish openly, why bother so much?

There are still more than two hours before the trial of the third department. If there is no official business to deal with, it is just time to catch up on sleep and let the eyelids that are fighting at this time be a little more peaceful.

Before I knew it, the whole morning passed.

After a hasty lunch, Lu Chen couldn't wait to go outside the Xuanji Gate.

According to the usual practice, the joint trial of the three divisions is usually held outside the Xuanji Gate. After the chief officer in charge of the case finishes the trial, he will order the eunuch to send the trial results to the emperor, who will make the verdict himself.

When Lu Chen came outside the Xuanji Gate, he only saw some court ladies and eunuchs setting up the trial scene, but none of the others came.

It's not that the others came late, but that he came too early.

Some eunuchs and maids with sharp eyes noticed Lu Chen's existence immediately, and hurried over to bow to him.

"Lord Lu."

Lu Chen waved his hand.

"You are busy with your work, don't care about me."

After finishing speaking, he walked to a cool place and took a short rest.

After an unknown amount of time, Lu Chen suddenly felt someone pushing him slightly.

"Lu's business, Lu's business..."

Lu Chen slowly opened his eyes, and then saw Fang Ping looking at him kindly.

"Master Fang!"

He stood up unhurriedly, and Fang Ping bowed slightly to salute.

Fang Ping noticed the dark circles under his eyes that hadn't disappeared, and immediately said with concern: "You don't look well, Lu Geshi. Did you not rest last night?"

Lu Chen shook his head, and repeated what he said about Xiao Yu.

As he said that, he looked around again, and found that the Ministry of Punishment, Dali Temple and Yushi were coming one after another.

Obviously, the joint trial of the three divisions is about to begin.

Seeing this situation, Lu Chen suddenly lifted his spirits, and the excitement that tortured him so much that he couldn't sleep yesterday surged out again.

As for his random excuses, Fang Ping is an old man who has eaten more salt than Lu Chen has eaten rice, how could he be as easy to fool as Luo Xiaoyu?

"Lu Ge doesn't need to frame the old man like this. Although the old man is old, he hasn't reached the point of being old and confused."

As he spoke, Fang Ping sighed inexplicably.

"Presumably Lu Ge's work was for Xia Yan's case, and he was so tired after looking through the files overnight at home last night."

Hearing this, Lu Chen could not help but twitch his eyes slightly.

This old man can make up his mind.

Forget it, whatever you want.

Shaking his head, Lu Chen was too lazy to explain, with a noncommittal look.

At this time Fang Ping said again: "But don't worry about Lu, the old man has a clue about Xia Yan's case. I will wait for the old man to interrogate carefully later. Maybe there will be unexpected gains. There may be something else hidden in this case. .”

Um? etc!

Hearing Fang Ping's strange words, Lu Chen was stunned.

What the hell?

Windfall? Another secret?

Still reassuring Lao Tzu?

What do you mean?

An ominous premonition rose from the bottom of his heart, Lu Chen suddenly widened his eyes and looked at Fang Ping.

However, just as he was about to ask, a "Dang" gong suddenly sounded not far from him.

The trial of the three divisions is about to begin.

Fang Ping also heard the sound of the gong, but he didn't go to the presiding seat right away. Seeing Lu Chen's "surprised" face after hearing what he said, he couldn't help but smile.

"Speaking of this, the old man would like to thank Lu for helping you."

Lu Chen asked subconsciously: "Thank me? Why?"

Fang Ping nodded, and didn't hold back anymore, and said bluntly: "Thanks to Lu Geshi's unwavering persistence, the old man checked the files several times, and found an unusual suspicious point in this case at the last moment. "

After a pause, he suddenly felt a little emotional.

"This also made the old man understand a truth. Some things seem to be obvious on the surface, but in fact there may be a universe inside. You can't look at things superficially, otherwise you may be blinded by the obvious and ignore the real important things. things. Master Lu taught this old man a lesson."

Hearing this, for no reason, Lu Chen suddenly felt a chill in his heart.

Before he could open his mouth, Fang Ping suddenly laughed out loud, leaving behind a sentence of "Don't worry, Lu, let's see what the old man does!", then stepped forward and walked towards the chief judge.

Looking at his back, which seemed to be ten years younger, Lu Chen felt an inexplicable pain in his heart.