Want to know how to land that great job you always heard about in the civil service? You’ve checked the job requirements for the hottest and most highly paid job in the government and it basically says “Need to be able to read and write.”
Now let me tell you. It’s really easy to get this job. You do not need to get the best tutor in the entire country, nor do you need to study some fancy titled course at university. You also do not need to study twenty hours a day and get that first class honours degree or become your cohort’s Valedictorian. You just need to know the right people who are willing to recommend you to the job.
Sure, one of two people who studied under the best tutors or that fancy course in a top university might get the job, but it’s only to give the common men hope of being able to get the job. This is because if you ever get the job, you will find yourself surrounded with people whose father is so and so, or uncle is so and so, or maybe their mother is the god daughter of so and son and you will be enlightened like how Buddha was when he achieved nirvana.
For me, that person who would get me the job is my father.
“Okay, I will join the riding circuit and be the travelling judge,” I say reluctantly to portray the fact that my true aim is still to be strong, stronger than everyone else. Do I know anything about the law?
Of course not! I have not even heard or read anything regarding the law in this world! You know what gives me the right to be a travelling judge and decide what is wrong and right? The answer is simple. It is my birth, my birthright! As a member of the Shang family, I am already in the upper echelons of society. I am already of higher birth and class than the majority of people. This is how the world works!
Do you want to know what the laws are in this world are? Let me tell you, there are no laws! The laws are a tool that the powerful and influential use to govern the common men. Nobody has made clear what the law is and even the villagers’ just use “what is right” as the foundation for their complaints! In this world, the law is basically “Morality”, and it is only applicable to the weak.
If you are strong, you can do whatever you want. If you know the right people, similarly you too can do whatever you want! If you are strong enough, you can even make the royal palace your personal toilet!
How do you expect the guards and constables to catch and punish someone who can send their heads flying off their body with a flick of their finger? It is impossible!
“Good, from next month onwards, you will accompany me to work every day so you can get to know the rest of the people who will be joining this riding circuit. We should also tell your mother about your decision to join the riding circuit later.”
…
In the evening when my father returned from work, my father and I decided to tell my mother about my decision to join my father at work.
“Ma, I’m going to work with my father. He got me a position as a travelling judge. That means I will be away from home.”
“Noooo! Big brother is my horse! He can not go away without me!”
My sister objects vehemently and she starts throwing a tantrum like little children.
“I want to go with big brother! I will beat up the bad guys and protect him! Mummy help me make a cape! I want to wear a cape!” My brother tells my mother. It’s weird how one wants me to stay at home and play house with her while the other wants to go with me and play hero.
My mother looks at me and gives me a face as if she already expected that I would agree to work with my father. “That’s fine. When are you leaving? When you return from the riding circuit, you need to go and see your fiancée at least once.”
“Noooooooooooooooo I don’t want big brother to go awayyyyyyy!” my sister starts crying. She must think I am going to die or something
On the other hand, my brother is excited and he is already playing with his food. My mother has no choice but to coax my sister and tells her “big brother is just going to work with daddy. He will be back at night like daddy.” She lies to my sister.
“Really?” My sister stops crying and believes my mother.
“Yup! Now go play horse with your brother.” my mother says and she releases the krake…releases my sister, who climbs onto my lap, then pulls my shirt and climbs on to my shoulder and sits on top of them, pulls my hair and shouts “giddy-ya!”
Of course, I hold her so that she will not fall off me when she’s climbing.
…
The next few weeks pass as normal. I spend more time playing with my brother and my sister and they think that I will stop playing with them soon. My sister keeps on TELLING me to play house with her, and she will pretend to be the wife who is angry at her husband for not coming home every time while my brother keeps on asking me to teach him more martial arts so he can beat up the bad guys…
But I have never taught him or my sister any martial arts…they were just copying everything I did while I was training…
…
Time quickly passed and soon the date where I would accompany my father to his workplace came. My mother barged into my room in the morning excitedly with new clothes for me. These are formal clothes that I have never worn before, so my mother helps me wear the uniform and then takes a good look at me and smiles.
“So handsome! You look better than your father when he was young!” my mother says with a proud smile. If she had a camera, I am sure she would take at least a hundred photos of me right now and show it to all her friends.
My father then calls out from downstairs “We are going to be late if we do not leave soon!” he yells. Only then did my mother finally let me go. As I and my father leaves the house, my mother, brother and sister watch us leave from the entrance of the house and they wave until we are out of sight.
…
After leaving the Shang family’s estate, we take a carriage to the governor’s office, where my father works. He is the biggest shot in the governor office since he is the governor. As we near the governor’s office, I open the cloth window of the carriage and take a look at the building. The office is huge. It is a huge building with tall, thick walls surrounding it. At the entrance, there is a drum. This drum is used to inform the governor that someone has a case for the governor and as the governor office, we only take on cases that involve the corruption of a magistrate or the mishandling of a case, which often leads back to corruption.
