The city was shrouded in mist and rain, and the new green in the city was shrouded in a layer of smoke, which was dripping and wetting the land.

Gongyuan was an important place for the imperial examinations, guarded by layers of soldiers and guards, and all the students gathered here.

After entering the venue, each person was led by a guard into a compartment: five feet long, four feet wide, and eight feet high.

There was nothing else except a desk cushion, pens brought by the candidates, and three candles distributed to each person.

Jiang Zhiyu walked back and forth with his hands behind his back.

It's not that they are checking cheat sheets. Before entering the tribute hall, everyone has to be searched. The search is very thorough and open. Moreover, the people who search the bodies are all servants of the Xu family, so there will be no mistakes.

What she was mainly looking for was the third place winner who had obsessed the empress dowager so much that she even told him about her rebellion plan.

Everyone is curious, and she also wanted to see how handsome the third place winner was.

Halfway through the journey, Jiang Zhiyu found someone.

He was wearing a green robe, with long hair as black as ink draped over his shoulders. He held a brush in his hand, pursed his lips slightly, and as if he felt the gaze, he raised his head.

The cinnabar mole between the eyebrows is bright and eye-catching, the eyes are like water, and the lips are red and the teeth are white.

He looked at Jiang Zhiyu, nodded slightly, and continued writing furiously.

She has a great appearance and a cool temperament.

No wonder the Queen Mother was so bewildered.

Jiang Zhiyu glanced at his test paper. His handwriting was neat and his name was as his name suggested: Ji Qing.

After satisfying his curiosity, Jiang Zhiyu walked back to his seat leisurely.

When Jiang Zhiyu rested at night, He Yanting would look after her.

When Jiang Zhiyu was around, no one dared to do anything, let alone now that there was He Yanting.

They all counted the time nervously.

After three days, everyone felt relieved.

Next, we will wait for the Ministry of Rites to finish reviewing the papers and copying the names before announcing the results.

Jiang Zhiyu was not confident in the people from the Ministry of Rites, so he replaced them all with people from the Hanlin Academy.

Firstly, she had warned these people before. Even if they had bad intentions, they were just individuals. If they really did something, she could just root them out.

Secondly, although some of them entered through the backdoor, most of them were selected through the numerous imperial examinations. They could more or less understand the difficulties faced by these students and would be more meticulous in their work.

The Minister of Rites was quite dissatisfied with this and submitted a memorial the next day.

His fourth son Gao Yan was once an avuncular person of Lü Daizong. After banning Lü Daizong from taking the imperial examinations, the emperor issued another decree to ban Gao Yan from taking the imperial examinations as well.

As soon as the decree was issued, Gao Yan's life was ruined. He spent all day hanging out in Qingfeng Pavilion, and the Minister of Rites no longer cared about him.

The news of the eldest son Gao Zilun running naked in public on the street naturally reached the emperor's ears, and the Minister of Rites even went to the Dali Temple several times because of this matter.

The emperor looked at the memorial presented to him, then looked at the passionate Minister of Rites below, and sighed softly.

Was he blind at the time? How did he choose the Minister of Rites?!

"stop."

The emperor's head ached from hearing him nagging. Rubbing his brow, he said, "I've handed this matter over entirely to Zhiyu. It's her business to decide how to proceed, and she'll bear the responsibility if anything goes wrong. In other words, she's relieved you of your work pressure. Such a good thing, and you're still complaining about her?"

Is this person stupid?!

"What do you mean by work pressure?" The Minister of Rites frowned.

Perhaps because she had spent a long time with Jiang Zhiyu in the past few days, she had become somewhat assimilated into the emperor's words.

When the Minister of Rites pointed this out, the emperor was stunned for a moment, and after a long moment, he said, "It's a burden. Wouldn't the Ministry of Rites be happy to have less time to review papers and copy names?"

The Minister of Rites flicked his sleeves and said, "As officials, we serve His Majesty and share His Majesty's worries. How can we covet idleness?"

The emperor was just beginning to feel a sense of relief when he heard the Minister of Rites say, "I beg Your Majesty to issue an order and allow us to take charge of this matter again."

The emperor pondered for a moment and came to his senses. What he said just now was good, but why was he so stubborn about this matter?

There had been other cases of meddling in other people's affairs before, but I had never seen the Minister of Rites submit a memorial to him.

Thinking of this, the emperor's eyes suddenly turned cold.

"Why are you so hard on me about this? I think the Hanlin Academy has already seen half of it. Sending only the Ministry of Rites now is just a waste of time. If you really want to share my worries, why not prepare for the Qionglin Banquet after the Palace Examination?"

Hearing the words "You must make things difficult for me," the Minister of Rites' old face turned pale, and cold sweat trickled down his temples.

He nodded hesitantly, not daring to stay any longer, and walked away quickly.

Seeing him like this, the emperor snorted coldly and threw the memorial he had presented on the table down: "It's an eyesore!"

Obviously, he was not talking about the memorial. Fuping quickly bent down to pick up the memorial and put it in the hands of the young eunuch beside him.

When they passed by again, the emperor's anger had subsided a bit. "Fortunately, Zhiyu was clever and changed people. If he had really been in the hands of this old scoundrel, I can only imagine what the future of my Tianqi officialdom would have been like!"

Fuping quickly followed his words and flattered him a few words.

…

On the other side, the Minister of Rites left the palace and returned home. He quickly wrote a letter and sent someone to deliver it to the Sixth Prince's residence.

Xiao Yanli looked at the letter and remained silent.

"Your Highness, this..."

The subordinate next to him whispered.

"It's okay. I expected that he wouldn't be able to succeed. Let's wait for the one in the palace."

"But she has no status in the harem, so she can't help."

If Shang Anlan had become the queen, she might be of some use in this matter, but now she is just a concubine and cannot even leave the palace.

"Who told you it was her? Besides, she's not really mine."

"Your Highness, are there others?"

Xiao Yanli looked at him with a smile but did not answer.

The subordinate immediately realized that he had spoken too much, and quickly stopped talking, looking at his nose with his eyes and his heart with his nose.

Only then did Xiao Yanli look away.

Logically, the person in the palace should have received the news.

…

In the palace, the light of candlelight flickered in Chaoen's eyes.

He stared at the letter in his hand for a long time before placing it over the candle flame and letting the flame engulf it.

He sat there blankly, thinking about what had happened in the past few days.

When he was thrown into the lake, he really thought he was going to die, but thanks to God, he came back to life.

It's just an extra memory in my mind.

In his memory, it was the Sixth Prince who ascended the throne, and he was standing beside the Sixth Prince.

He didn't believe it at first and thought he was suffering from hysteria, but when the Sixth Prince contacted him secretly, he realized how terrifying the Sixth Prince was.

He pretended to be crazy and stupid for several years, and when he was still young, he was able to open the Zuiyuelong in Beijing, which still stands today.

There are also many hidden clues.

If Jiang Zhiyu had not interfered time and again, the emperor would have valued the sixth prince the most.

He actually had no idea of ​​switching to the Sixth Prince before. After all, the emperor was looking up to him and letting him get close to the empress dowager to make meritorious deeds and replace Fu Ping as the new chief eunuch. Everything was moving in a good direction step by step.

But why was he suddenly brought back to square one?