The disgraced official I took care of was actually Zhu Houcong's childhood friend.

Zhu Houcong naturally cherished such a capable minister.

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your kindness."

Zhou Chu thanked the emperor.

"Between you and me, there's no need to say these things."

Zhu Houcong laughed.

Zhou Chu listened to these words, but between a subject and an emperor, the emperor could say many things, such as what he just said.

But if a subject takes this seriously and becomes arrogant because of the emperor's favor, then he is not far from death.

Throughout history, countless people have been arrogant and self-important, relying on favors to become complacent, which led to discord between rulers and ministers, resulting in their gradual alienation and even execution.

Regardless of how Zhu Houcong treated him, Zhou Chu always remembered one sentence in this era.

A ruler is a ruler, and a subject is a subject; there must be no overstepping of these boundaries, otherwise, it will lead to disaster.

"Lord Zhou, please come with me."

Huang Jin approached Zhou Chu and said respectfully.

In fact, Huang Jin's respect for Zhou Chu went beyond mere respect; he was utterly astonished by his talent.

The Lord Zhou in front of me is about ten years younger than me, but he is far superior to me in both speech and action.

He is even much stronger than Lu Bing.

This made him put himself in a very low position in front of Zhou Chu.

When facing other people, Huang Jin would refer to himself as "our family," since he represented the emperor and Zhu Houzhao's face in public, and he couldn't lose in terms of prestige.

But it was different when facing Zhou Chu. Zhou Chu was entirely his master's man. In other words, Huang Jin felt that the current situation was all orchestrated by this young master Zhou.

Huang Jin was unaware of Zhou Chu's previous schemes, but after Zhu Houcong became emperor and things settled down, he told his attendant everything that had happened and advised him to be more respectful when he saw Zhou Chu in the future.

Upon learning of this, Huang Jin was awestruck by Zhou Chu and filled with awe. Without Zhu Houcong's instructions, he knew exactly what to do.

"Thank you, father-in-law."

Zhou Chu smiled.

Zhou Chu then followed Huang Jin out of the palace and arrived at the Imperial Horse Administration, one of the twelve administrations of the Ming Dynasty, along with the Directorate of Ceremonial.

In addition to training and raising horses for the royal family, the Imperial Horse Administration was also responsible for managing royal estates and operating shops, making it essentially the royal family's internal steward.

They wield great power.

However, in this era, the so-called function of managing imperial estates and shops was no longer of much use; otherwise, the emperor would not have been constantly short of money.

To put it bluntly, too many people in between took bribes and demanded favors, and very little actually reached the emperor.

"Eunuch Huang."

Upon entering the Imperial Horse Stables, the eunuchs there all bowed to Huang Jin.

Huang Jin was, after all, Jiajing's chief advisor. Even though his position was not high at this time, he was still someone that these eunuchs could not afford to offend.

Whether they were imperial guards or eunuchs, their power originated from the emperor; all they needed to do was submit to the source of that power.

Therefore, even though many of the eunuchs in the Imperial Horse Administration were seasoned veterans, they dared not be disrespectful when facing Huang Jin.

Otherwise, if Huang Jin were to say a bad word about them to the Jiajing Emperor, they would at best lose their official positions or at worst lose their lives.

For the emperor, killing a eunuch was as easy as crushing an ant.

No one will even care.

Whether it was eunuchs or the Embroidered Uniform Guard, they were all part of a different system from civil officials.

Although many eunuchs and palace maids were placed among the civil officials, on the surface, those civil officials had no reason to interfere.

Moreover, compared to eunuchs, there were more problematic palace maids.

Most eunuchs had no ties to their families, and those who could survive would not enter the palace to become eunuchs. They only thought about climbing the ranks, so most of them thought about how to please the emperor.

But palace maids are different. Many of them came from decent families before entering the palace. Although they couldn't compare to high-ranking officials and nobles, they weren't from ordinary poor families either. These people had the most constraints and were the easiest to manipulate.

"I have been ordered to lead Commander Zhou to retrieve the Snow-Treading Black Steed."

When faced with these eunuchs, Huang Jin immediately changed his demeanor, adopting a haughty attitude.

In this palace, the eunuchs around the emperor cannot be too easy to talk to, otherwise problems will arise.

"You two, please come with me."

Upon hearing the words "commander," the eunuch in front of him glanced at Zhou Chu in shock, unable to comprehend how this young man had risen to such prominence.