The Lin Family, renowned for several decades, collapsed in a single day.
The news of Master Lin's gold-swallowing suicide, reached the ears of Emperor Huian that very night as he waited for word in the Imperial Shangfang. Upon hearing it, Emperor Huian remained silent for a long time.
In the end, Emperor Huian personally took up the brush to issue an edict, posthumously conferring the title of Duke Wen Zhong upon Master Lin. He ordered the Ministry of Rites to arrange a funeral with the honors due to a duke, and decreed a day of court mourning as an expression of his sorrow. Having done all this, he hurried out of the Imperial study with Liang Gonggong.
In a secluded and desolate palace within the Imperial palace, the guards had raised their hands by now.
Liang Gonggong stood sternly outside the palace gate, allowing no one to approach. Listening to the fragments of sentences emanating from inside, he sighed inwardly.