The ceremony lasted for two hours.
Offering sacrifices to heaven, reporting to ancestors, receiving seals, issuing edicts... The complicated etiquette was layered on top of each other, as if to put a heavy shell on the new king. Li Chenghao cooperated throughout the whole process. He knelt when he needed to, bowed when he needed to, and recited the prayers when he needed to say them word for word.
It was not until noon that the ceremony was completed.
The officials dispersed, and the huge Yonghui Palace suddenly became empty. The smell of incense has not yet dissipated, mixed with the smell of sweat and incense left by the crowd, floating up and down in the empty hall.
Li Chenghao didn't move.
He sat alone on the dragon chair, watching the sunlight move inch by inch from the door to the center of the palace, looking at the exquisite dragon caissons and gold lacquer paintings. Finally, his eyes fell on his own hands - these hands had held the jade seal and the sword just now, but now they were empty.
He suddenly chuckled.
"Your Majesty?" Feng Jin didn't know when he had quietly returned to the palace and stood in the shadow at the foot of the stairs with his hands down.
"Feng Jin." Li Chenghao didn't look at him, still staring at his hands, "Tell me, what was Liu Wenzheng thinking on the day he hit the pillar?"
Feng Jin's breathing stagnated almost imperceptibly.
"Slave... I don't dare to make any assumptions."
"Are you afraid or don't want to?" Li Chenghao finally turned to look at him, with no expression on his young face. "You are the chief of the ceremonial supervisor, the head of the twelve inner court supervisors. All the records, testimonies, and disposal records of the incident three years ago will eventually pass through your hands."
Feng Jin slowly knelt down and touched his forehead to the ground.
"Your Majesty has learned clearly. Liu Yushi... Is indeed a strong man."
"Strong." Li Chenghao repeated the word with a playful tone, "Then tell me, are there any such 'strong' people in the civil and military circles of the Manchu Dynasty today? Dare you use it?
