Sui Chunsheng spent twenty years working his way up from a nobody in rags with just three copper coins to a third-place palace graduate, riding through the streets on horseback with a flower in his cap.
He could have been the top scholar, but the tyrant personally issued an edict: "Sui Qing is so handsome, he must be named the Flower Seeker."
So be it. The Flower Seeker was still one of the top three among all the talented people of this vast empire.
Having traded his ragged short jacket for a brand-new robe, Sui Chunsheng thought he was satisfied. But then the tyrant said, "Sui Qing, you have won my heart. A single day apart feels like three autumns."
And so Sui Chunsheng's career took a sharp turn, from a newcomer in the bureaucracy, a compiler at the Hanlin Academy, to a favorite of the tyrant, a lecturer to the emperor.
Since no one has to reason with his subjects when he rules as a tyrant, Sui Chunsheng rose smoothly through the ranks, going from a lowly seventh-rank official to a fifth-rank one. His main duties were reading storybooks to the tyrant and translating the flowery memorials written by civil officials into words the tyrant could understand.
Flattery, scorn, and exclusion came at him from all sides. Sui Chunsheng, who had always kept to himself, didn't care. He only cared whether the monthly salary from the court was enough to feed his mother and younger sister, and whether the Great Xia could survive a little longer with internal troubles in the form of a tyrant and external threats in the form of wolves.
But the tyrant, whose writing skills were poor, didn't understand the worries of this pleasingly handsome official. He was in the habit of admiring beautiful people, then recreating the immortal lifestyle he'd read about in storybooks.
For example: "Sui Qing, I order you to build a forest of wine and a pool of meat within three days. The wine should be Mongol mare's milk, sweetened with sugar and no salt. The meat should be pork, seventy percent fat and thirty percent lean."
Or: "Sui Qing, my harem is missing a beauty who can bring a kingdom to ruin. You'd be perfect."
Theme: Going crazy can solve anything
