Shen Biwei's body stiffened instantly. The ecstasy on her face froze in an instant, turning into a look of disbelief and shock. Unable to believe her own ears, she rushed forward and grabbed the officer who was rolling up the list.
"This is impossible. Did you miss his name? My husband is Lu Yanzhu, the son-in-law of the Marquis of Pingyang. Lu Yanzhu. How could he fail to make the list? Even great scholars praised the essays he wrote. He should be the top scorer. He has the talent to be the top graduate."
Her sharp screams sounded exceptionally grating in the crowd. The officer stumbled after being grabbed by her. Furious, he shoved her away.
"Where did this madwoman come from? The names are clearly written in black and white on the red list. If your husband thinks there is an error in the grading, he can go beat the drum at the Ministry of Rites to plead his case. Why act so wild here at the gates of the examination compound? Don't get in the way of our official duties."
Shen Biwei was pushed and fell to the ground, her hair becoming messy. She felt no pain. Acting as if she had lost her soul, she scrambled on all fours toward the red list that was not yet fully rolled up. With her fingers, she traced each character, searching for his name on it.
"It isn't here. It is really not here."
Her voice trembled, tears hitting the ground like broken strings of pearls. She felt completely drained of strength, slumping onto the ground.
This is impossible. In my past life, Lu Yanzhu clearly won all three top imperial exams in a row and was appointed directly to the Hanlin Academy by the Emperor. He was clearly the future Grand Secretary of the Great Xuan Dynasty. Why can't he even pass the provincial exam in this life? Why? Where on earth did things go wrong?
As Madam Lu cursed, she completely disregarded her image and went up to grab Shen Biwei by the hair. If this were the old Shen Biwei, as the high and mighty legitimate daughter of the Marquis's manor, she could have pulled out a handful of loose silver to slap this shrew's face until it swelled. But now, all of her dowry had been spent over the past six months or so, cheated away under the pretext of buying rare, out-of-print ancient texts for Lu Yanzhu, bribing examiners, and smoothing things over through connections, leaving her with absolutely nothing. Even her very last gold hairpin was snatched by Madam Lu to trade for wine and meat.
"Mother, please stop hitting her. This has nothing to do with Biwei. It is those examiners who are blind, and there is something fishy about this exam."
Lu Yanzhu, whose face had turned pale from the blow, finally snapped back to his senses at this moment. Not only did he fail to reflect on his own absolute garbage of an essay, instead he blamed everything on the unfairness of the imperial exams. He cast a disgusted glance at Shen Biwei, who was pinned to the ground and beaten, and did not even stretch out a hand to pull her up. Instead, he turned to the surrounding crowd and shouted loudly, "Fellow scholars, I, Lu, possess immense talent, yet I was pushed off the list by those sycophants. There must be cheating in this imperial examination. I am going to the Shuntian Prefectural Office to lodge an imperial appeal."
His sore-loser and arrogant attitude instantly drew bursts of laughter from the surrounding scholars.
"Give me a break, Lu Yanzhu. Earlier at the poetry gathering, you couldn't even compose a single complete quatrain, with your chicken-scratch handwriting and mistake-ridden essays. How dare you claim to have immense talent? Stop being a sore loser and making a fool of yourself here. Hurry home and reflect on your actions."
Amidst the mockery and insults, Lu Yanzhu's face turned from pale to green, and from green to purple. In the end, he was so choked with rage that he couldn't catch his breath. Spitting out a mouthful of fresh blood, he collapsed right at the gates of the imperial examination hall.
"My son."
Madam Lu was scared out of her wits. She didn't even care about beating Shen Biwei anymore. She rushed forward, throwing herself over Lu Yanzhu and wailing loudly.
Watching this farce unfold, I sat inside the carriage and finally couldn't help but burst into laughter. In my past life, Lu Yanzhu had indeed coughed up blood because others mocked his background. But that time, I was the one who, regardless of everything, carried him on my back through the heavy rain to find a doctor. I was the one who pawned the last jade pendant my mother had left me to buy him ginseng to keep him alive. And it was I who, after he woke up, spent the whole night comforting him to help him regain his confidence.
In this life, I stood by and watched. Without my painstaking efforts and planning, he, Lu Yanzhu, is nothing but a useless piece of trash. Even his failure in this autumn exam is merely the beginning of his ruin.
"Have you laughed enough?"
A deep, raspy voice sounded by my ear. Without my noticing, Xiao Jingyan had already stepped out of the medicinal bath barrel. He had casually draped a loose black robe over himself. His long hair was damp with moisture, and he was staring at me with a chilling, deep gaze. His gaze was no longer purely testing me, but carried a hint of scrutiny and a trace of hard-to-detect admiration.
"Does Your Highness think this play is entertaining?" I suppressed my smile and met his gaze without any evasion.
"Very entertaining." Xiao Jingyan suddenly leaned in close. His rich medicinal scent and distinct masculine aura instantly invaded my senses. He extended his long, cold fingers and gently pinched my chin, forcing me to look up. "But this prince is even more curious. Since you had the ability to predict his failure on the exam, did you also predict what the Crown Prince's next move would be?"
Just as his voice fell, from the far end of the street outside the carriage there suddenly came a rapid and orderly sound of galloping hooves and the clatter of armor. I peered through the gap, only to see a troop of Eastern Palace guards dressed in official attire brutally pushing their way through the crowd, heading straight toward Lu Yanzhu and Shen Biwei, who were collapsed on the ground. The leader was none other than the Crown Prince's most favored head eunuch.
The head eunuch held a roll of bright yellow imperial decree in his hand, his shrill voice suddenly cutting through the noisy street.
"An oral decree from His Highness the Crown Prince. Shen Biwei, eldest daughter of the Pingyang Marquis household, receive the decree."
And so it began to drag Shen Biwei uncontrollably toward the abyss.
I felt Xiao Jingyan's fingers, which were pinching my chin, tighten slightly. His gaze became extremely dangerous. "Take a guess." Xiao Jingyan's thin lips brushed against my ear, his voice as cold as a demon crawling out of hell. "Why is the Crown Prince reaching out to that fool at this of all times? Whom is he trying to disgust?"
I did not shrink from his touch. Instead, I grabbed his wrist in return, a cold smile curving up the corners of my mouth. "No matter whom they want to disgust, Your Highness, they are getting desperate. As long as they dare to stretch out their claws, we will chop them off."