Clear Stream? No, I'm Muddying the Waters

In the spring of the third year of Yongchang, a "little sparrow" flew into the officialdom of the capital. Yun Ting, the newly appointed censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, had a harmless smile. He was very sweet when he saw people, and he was not soft-hearted in accepting gifts. Everyone in the capital knew that this seventh-grade patrol minister, who was born as an orphan of an embroidered lady, was a simple-minded beauty who was keen on clinging to others and proficient in enjoying himself. Wang Shilang recognized him as his adoptive brother, Governor Du invited him to drink wine, and even Qingliu leader Zhou Jijiu smiled and accepted his "filial piety" - after all, who would guard against a beautiful fool who drunkenly chanted "We are all one of our own"? Only Xie Wujiu, the cold-faced King of Hell from the Ministry of Punishment, felt something was wrong. He saw Yun Ting's rock-steady fingers when he was toasting, saw Zang Feng's handwriting when he wrote limericks, and even saw the old jade button on his waist that was a close mirror image of his own jade pendant. So Xie Wujiu began to write an observation diary: "On March 21st, Yun Qizhi pretended to be drunk again. His acting skills were exaggerated, and his flaws were as perfect as a trap." A storm sweeping across the government and the public was quietly brewing amid the banquets. The "ghost ships" at the water transport terminal sank one after another, but what rolled out of the mezzanine was the northern ordnance; the fragrance of ink in Qingfengzhai concealed the flow of ten thousand taels of gold, and a calligraphy and painting cost half the city; the sound of books in Qingyun Academy was loud, and the future of poor students was clearly marked... Yun Ting was still acting, but the audience gradually changed. He accurately laid a trap at Governor Du's celebration banquet, allowing corrupt officials to make a fool of themselves in public; he sneaked into a bribery den and used a hand of fake antiques to make the "clean streamers" dog-eat-dog; he even laid a dragnet in the imperial examination room and dragged the "grandmaster" who manipulated fate off the altar.