Ji Xiaolan has never been used grandly in his life, and Ganlong's attitude towards Ji Xiaolan is also very subtle. On one occasion, Gan Long made a particularly heavy remark to Ji Xiaolan, that is to say, he talked nonsense about state affairs. This sentence is really quite a blow to a courtier. Ji Xiaolan also fully understood his position in Qianlong's heart. He is just a scholar who writes books for him, and may not even be a courtier.
In fact, what I want to say here is that the age when Ji Xiaolan was born was not suitable for the development of literati, because the literary inquisition was prevalent at that time, and literati had no right to speak and dared not speak.
But Ji Xiaolan can have the last laugh, which shows that he really knows the way of officialdom and is smooth enough. In contrast, the fate of small Shenyang is much worse than that of Ji Xiaolan. After the death of Qianlong, Jiaqing was the first to kill Xiao Shenyang. However, I think the life in Little Shenyang is worthwhile. He was the most favored minister during Qianlong's reign and was respected all his life. Although Ji Xiaolan's fate was better than his, Ji Xiaolan was only a poor scholar all his life.