At first, the junior officials guarding the gates of the Agricultural Institute were not going to let An Jing and Xiao Changyi enter, but when An Jing presented the Document bestowed by the Emperor of Xiyun, and the officials saw she was the very Seventh Grade Female Farmer who had never come to work, they immediately allowed them entry.
The Agricultural Institute, established by the government, is, as the name suggests, in charge of agricultural affairs, and it is generally where Agricultural Officials serve.
The Institute is situated relatively close to the suburbs, with designated experimental fields available for the cultivation and study of crops.
In Qilin County’s Agricultural Institute, there were originally six officials: one Sixth Rank Agricultural Knowledge Official Liu, one Assistant Sixth Rank Agricultural Official Zhou, and four Seventh Rank Farmer Knights—Official Zhao, Official Qian, Official Sun, and Official Li.
Now, with the addition of An Jing as a Seventh Rank Farmer Knight, the Qilin County Agricultural Institute had a total of seven officials.
As the Sixth Rank Agricultural Knowledge Official, Official Liu was the highest-ranking official in the Qilin County Agricultural Institute and the supreme authority. All matters of agriculture in Qilin County had to pass through his hands.
Official Liu was worldly and smooth, in his forties. Initially, when he received the news from above that a female Farmer would join Qilin County’s Agricultural Institute, he felt extremely uncomfortable at the thought of a woman becoming his colleague alongside other men, yet he did not show his displeasure openly.
Later, Official Liu was informed by his superiors that An Jing, the Farmer, could come to work at the Institute whenever she wished, and if she did not wish to come, it was not to be his concern. She could do as she pleased.
This made Official Liu even more uneasy.
After all, he was the boss of the Qilin County Agricultural Institute, An Jing was a Farmer of Qilin County, and supposedly under his management, but now he was told not to meddle...
Women were never meant to hold office, yet not only did An Jing, a woman, take an office, she did so in a manner that was entirely frivolous...
No matter what, Official Liu could not feel at ease!
Still, since it was a command from above, Official Liu was all the less likely to express his unrest. He still harbored hopes of rising further in rank within his lifetime; no matter how uncomfortable he felt inside, he would obey and carry out the orders.
And the fact that An Jing had never reported for duty at the Agricultural Institute yet, which delighted Official Liu, who didn’t want to work with a woman at all, hoped she would never come to report for duty.
However, just when Official Liu thought An Jing might never report for duty at the Institute, she arrived, nine months overdue for her reporting date.
And she brought her husband with her.
"I, the highest official here, have never brought my wife to the Agricultural Institute, yet you bring your husband on your very first visit?"
Official Liu’s face twitched uncontrollably—this was preposterous, utterly disgraceful, a complete farce!
But because he had been told to let An Jing do whatever she pleased, no matter how much he could not accept it, he had to forcibly restrain himself and strive not to show any dissatisfaction.
With such instructions from above, for all he knew, An Jing might have connections; he could not afford to lose the bigger picture over something trivial!
Official Liu had restrained himself, but the other Agricultural Institute officials, unaware that An Jing might have someone backing her, could not.
Especially the fifty-something Assistant Sixth Rank Agricultural Official Zhou, incensed to the point of bristling and glaring, he fumed, "What kind of decorum is this?! What kind of decorum is this?! What kind of decorum is this!"
Official Zhou was a stubborn old conservative, inflexible, oblivious to the importance of bribing those above him, blindly focusing solely on hard work, but this meant his rank never rose—he was still an Assistant Sixth Rank Agricultural Official well into his fifties.