The courtyard returned to silence, so quiet it was as if nothing had happened.

The officials standing in the queue dared not even breathe loudly.

Some kept their heads down, staring at the tips of their boots, while others quietly wiped cold sweat from their temples with their sleeves.

A few clerks in the back row were deathly pale, their fingers trembling slightly under their robe sleeves.

A Vice Minister of the Third Rank—thrown out just like that.

Vice Minister Zheng Zhigan had the backing of a noble family; among these people, how many did not?

But so what? In this mansion, the Face of a noble family was worth less than a piece of toilet paper.

Zhou Ming didn't care at all about the small commotion just now. He took the thick stack of mulberry paper he had stayed up all night writing from his sleeve and handed it to Vice Minister Wu Shijun beside him:

"Vice Minister Wu, this is the newly drafted code. You take the lead and get the New Code revised as soon as possible."

After saying this, he turned around and spoke loudly to the silent officials below the steps:

"Before the New Code is officially implemented, all personnel participating in the revision are forbidden from leaving or passing any information outside. I ask that you all keep this secret."

After finishing, he turned and returned to the backyard.

Passing through the moon gate, he called for the Guard Commander and concisely explained the severity of the matter.

What was currently locked inside this mansion was the entire drafting team for the Great Ming's New Code.

Any draft leaking out of the mansion could lead to the noble families striking back prematurely.

The Guard Commander's spine chilled upon hearing this. He clasped his hands in salute to accept the order, turned, and went to arrange the defenses, doubling the sentries at every entrance and exit of the mansion.

Vice Minister Wu Shijun held the stack of mulberry paper and returned to the main hall of the front yard. He sat down behind the desk, took a deep breath, and opened the first page.

Then his fingers froze in mid-air.

The further he read, the paler his Face became. The speed at which he turned the pages became slower and slower, and his fingers trembled imperceptibly.

The handwriting on the mulberry paper was sharp as a knife.

Abolish hereditary titles and stipends; implement a twenty-rank military merit system.

Reorganize household registration: five families to a squad, ten families to a platoon; if one family commits a crime, the other nine are held collectively responsible.

Punish minor crimes severely; eliminate punishment through punishment.

Land is to be nationalized and distributed according to population.

This was no mere legal revision; this was clearly a manifesto to uproot the noble clans.

He understood the law. Chunlan had placed him in the position of Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice precisely because he was well-versed in criminal law and statutes.

It was precisely because he understood that he was sweating profusely.

Once this law was promulgated and implemented, the entire Great Ming would likely never again have the words "noble family."

The new dynasty had just been established, its Foundation was not yet stable, with warlords splitting the land outside and noble families entrenched inside. Once this law was pushed out, it would be no different than pouring a ladle of cold water into a pot of boiling oil.

He closed the draft, stood up with a heavy expression, and called several doctors and directors he was familiar with to the side hall.

Several people sat around a square table, deliberating clause by clause for more than an hour.

Some advocated for talking to the Minister first; others thought they should jointly submit a petition to Your Majesty to state the pros and cons; others just silently wiped the sweat from their foreheads.

Finally, they decided to ask Zhou Ming again.

Perhaps the Minister was just angry for a moment; perhaps there was still room for negotiation.

Led by Steward Meng, the group crossed the veranda to the backyard study.

Zhou Ming was sitting behind his desk, reading a Formation Jade Slip he had taken from his Storage Ring.

Hearing footsteps, he lifted his eyes and looked at them with a puzzled expression.

Vice Minister Wu Shijun stepped forward, holding the draft in his hands against his chest. His lips moved for a long time before he squeezed out a complete sentence:

"My Lord, this... this New Code..."

He really didn't know how to phrase it so as not to anger this unpredictable superior.

To say the New Code was too radical would be to question the superior's decision to his Face.

To say the noble families would strike back—surely the superior knew the consequences better than he did.

To say the new dynasty's Foundation was unstable and could not withstand such shock would be teaching the superior how to do his job.

Zhou Ming glanced at him, scanning the draft that was slightly wrinkled from being gripped in his hands.

He looked at the Faces full of anxiety and trepidation behind him, took a sip of tea from the cup on the table, and said in a flat tone:

"Do your jobs well and revise the law according to the draft. Other matters are not for you to worry about."

The group looked at each other in dismay.

Vice Minister Wu Shijun opened his mouth, wanting to say something more, but he saw that Zhou Ming had already returned his gaze to the Jade Slip in his hand, clearly not wanting to discuss this topic anymore.

He had no choice but to swallow the words that had reached his lips, clasp his hands in salute, and lead his colleagues out of the study in silence.

Over the next few days, the front yard of Zhou Ming's mansion was brightly lit.

Forty or fifty officials from the Ministry of Justice were divided into several squads, each taking a section of the text to draft, before being unified and integrated by Vice Minister Wu Shijun.

The boundary between day and night became blurred amidst the turning of pages and the dripping of ink from writing brushes.

Some were so sleepy their eyelids were fighting each other, so they would nap on the table for a while, wake up, wipe their Faces with cold water, and continue writing furiously.

In the entire front yard, only the rustling of turning pages, the gurgling of grinding ink, and the occasional hushed discussion could be heard.

No one dared to make loud noises, and even fewer dared to complain.

During this period, not everyone was as obedient as they appeared on the surface.

A petty official in charge of documents took the opportunity of dumping night soil to stuff a note into a crack in the wall, only to be caught red-handed by Zhou Ming's Divine Sense in less than a quarter of an hour.

He didn't alert the enemy; he simply walked to the wall, pulled out the note, and scanned it.

It contained outlines of a few clauses of the New Code, clearly intended to be passed to some noble family outside.

After reading it, Zhou Ming crumpled the note into a ball and gestured to the guard behind him: "Lock Wang Chunhua in the dungeon."

After a few days, all forty or fifty people had lost a circle of weight.

It wasn't that the food in Zhou Ming's mansion was bad.

Steward Meng arranged three meals a day with variety, with chicken, duck, fish, and meat never lacking.

Even late-night snacks were prepared, including hot noodles.

But under the dual torture of such high-intensity work and invisible psychological pressure, even the best food tasted like wax.

Although these people all Cultivate the Dushi Sutra, they could maintain their physical strength through the operation of magic power.

But the continuously high mental tension left everyone's eyes bloodshot.

The dark circles under their eyes were obvious, and a few of the older directors had visibly more white hair at their temples.

When Vice Minister Wu Shijun respectfully presented the final revised "Great Ming New Code" to Zhou Ming's desk.

He had lost so much weight that his cheekbones were protruding, and the jade belt at his waist, which had originally fit, was now a full circle loose.

But holding the legal code, although his eyes were bloodshot, his gaze carried a complex emotion that was hard to describe.

He had proofread this code word by word; he knew every clause by heart.

He knew what the promulgation of this code meant.

He also knew that from now on, he would be a thorn in the side of the entire noble class.

But things had reached this point; he was already on Zhou Ming's pirate ship. Apart from steering the ship more steadily and faster, there was no second path to take.