Jaejoong sigh to himself tiredly as he blindly follows the lead of their troop leader along with the rest of his comrade.

They are currently marching across the courtyard of Yangzhen Hall, the Imperial Treasury Department.  The place where tributes and treasures from foreign lands will be sent to be appraised, before it continues it’s journey to the Imperial Vault.  The Imperial Vault is a highly-secured building in an unknown location that is off-limit to irrelevant people like Jaejoong.  They say, the only place that is more secretive than the Imperial Vault is the Emperor’s Palace.  And maybe the Imperial Prison where all those war criminals are incarcerated at.

Jaejoong suppress his groan when he feels his stomach growling.  They had been at duty all night and despite the hunger, all Jaejoong can think of right now is sleep, sleep, sleep.  There is another 30 more minutes before their shift ends, so all he can do right now is endure this torture.  Yangzhen Hall might look small from afar, but trust him when he says it isn’t. 

The hall is enclosed within a set of really high walls, with a fairly large courtyard between the gate entrance and the very building.  The building itself is long, and there are narrow passageways between the sides of the building and the surrounding walls.  Other than them who are in charge of guarding the area, the hall has been bustling with lady in waits and eunuchs.  Once, they even came face to face with an eerily cold-faced eunuch who is said to be serving Consort Han, one of the highest-ranked consorts in the harem. Jaejoong was awed.  He has never seen a consort before, or even anyone who is closely related to a consort.  He does have a distant cousin who manages to become a daying though, but that didn’t really count.  What is a daying when put next to a fei? 

Jaejoong yawns under his breath in a fight to keep himself awake.  Such a failure of a soldier he is.  He has been consistently scolded by his troop leader for his glaringly apparent frailness that contrast the other soldiers his rank.  He is hardworking, but sometimes, hard work is just not good enough.  You need to have natural talent as well.  So for Jaejoong, who couldn’t even march correctly, natural talent in this whole guarding affair is just something that is not there for him.  In fact, he has been consistently marked as the worst imperial guard amongst all the newbies.  As if his thin, twig-like body that is so unlike an imperial guard isn’t enough, Jaejoong also has zero ability to focus on his task.  If you happen to see one meandering, uncoordinated, lost-looking boy who falls behind from his troop, that boy would most probably be him.

Jaejoong is only lucky his father came from the fourth highest banner of the 8 Banner Families, the Bordered-White Banner (most of his fellow soldiers also came from the same banner).  Due to that fact, the troop leader couldn’t just kick him out.  Their fathers work closely with each other after all.  It’s not wise to offend each other.  If his father hadn’t pulled his strings, Jaejoong would never even be granted a second glance by the recruiting officers.  Now, all he need to do is to try not to mess up.  Even though his father is of a quite high rank, Jaejoong can still be kick out if he commit big enough of a mistake. 

But in all truth, Jaejoong didn’t even want to be an Imperial Guard.  In fact, he hates discipline that unfortunately comes with the job prescription.  So what is a discipline-hating young man doing as a guard in the Forbidden City, you ask?  Let’s kee