Jiang Rao said: "Mr. Yan would accept a personal disciple every three years. Even if he occasionally saw someone with amazing talent, he would make an exception. Up to now, he has only more than ten disciples."

Yan Nanxun was the most prestigious scholar in Dazhao. Emperor Zhaowu had to give him some face, and many people were vying to become his disciple.

As Yan Nanxun's direct disciple, as long as he passed the literary examination, there was almost no chance of failing the palace examination.

"Among Mr. Yan's disciples, there is one named Pei Songyu, who is my distant cousin. When he came from his hometown to Jinling to participate in the spring examination of Bailu Academy, he had an argument with the coachman and missed the spring examination. Later, my father wrote a letter of recommendation and had a face-to-face interview with Mr. Yan. He was admitted as an ordinary disciple of Mr. Yan."

Although her father was idle, had no ambition, was dissolute and indulged in pleasure when he was young, he was not a fool without real knowledge and talent, and had extensive connections in Beijing.

Yan Nanxun was a classmate and friend of her father.

Although these two people quarreled whenever they met, Yan Nanxun criticized her father's calligraphy and paintings, and her father criticized Yan Nanxun's articles, belittling each other as worthless, but they were indeed good friends.

When she was a child, she saw the two of them arguing when they met and her neck turned red, and she angrily scolded her father Yan Nanxun. But her mother told her that people who smile at each other when they meet are not necessarily friends, and people who quarrel when they meet are not necessarily enemies.

Yan Nanxun and his father were classmates in the academy for six years and had a life-long friendship.

Yan Nanxun will definitely read the letter of recommendation written by her father, and will definitely find time to meet the person recommended by her father.

"I can find a way to ask my father to write you a letter of recommendation, but this is just an opportunity to meet Mr. Yan. Whether it works or not depends on you."

…

Jiang Rao went back to the Jiang Mansion.

Served tea and water to Fourth Master Jiang and massaged his shoulders and back.

At first, Fourth Master Jiang put on a cold face and ignored this "unfilial little daughter", thinking that she must have something to ask for since she was so attentive.

But he really fell for it, and soon he couldn't keep a straight face. He didn't want his daughter to suffer, so he said, "Okay, stop pounding my shoulders, just tell me what you want."

"I want daddy to write for his daughter."

Fourth Master Jiang raised his eyebrows slightly.

His calligraphy is worth thousands of gold to others, but his son and daughter have seen him write so many times that they are not so interested in it. Why do they suddenly want his calligraphy today?

But Fourth Master Jiang quickly agreed to this small request. He picked up the wolf-hair brush on the pen holder and tapped the brush that Jiang Rao had just ground. "What do you want to write?"

With a rustle, Jiang Rao took out a piece of letter paper with words already written on it and said, "Write these words."

Fourth Master Jiang glanced around.

He was so angry that his beard was sticking up.

This little fellow massaged his shoulders and helped him grind. His original plan was to take good care of him and then let him write a letter of recommendation to Rong Ting.

"Dad." Jiang Rao called him softly, "You have always cherished talents, haven't you?"

"I do value talent." But Fourth Master Jiang shook his head, "It's so hard for him to survive, how can he have any talent?"

Jiang Rao took out another piece of paper.

"Daddy, look at this?"

Fourth Master Jiang looked at her sleeves in shock.

How much did she hide?

"This is a poetry theory written by the Ninth Prince." Jiang Rao said.

She and her father had the same concerns.

If someone had told her about Rong Ting’s situation in the palace and that he had never received enlightenment, she would not have been surprised.

But when Rong Ting wrote a poem theory for her, her eyes lit up.

…

Fourth Master Jiang took it and looked at it. He was silent for a long time. After a while, he said, "This calligraphy is quite beautiful."

He always finds fault with other people's handwriting, and if it looks good, that's already a rare compliment.

As for the content, to be fair, Mr. Jiang Si said that no one without some knowledge could write such a thing.

I just don’t know where the Ninth Prince reads so many books.

Jiang Rao was relieved, thinking that it was a sure thing to ask her father to help write a letter of recommendation, and then she heard Fourth Master Jiang say, "I can write the letter of recommendation."

It's a pity that such talent is buried.

He had been traveling abroad for a few years, and he felt more and more sorry for those students who had no chance to be appreciated. It was not because they lacked talent, but because they had bad luck. They had no chance to make a name for themselves, and they were inferior to others and wasted their lives. It was really sad to see them like that.

"My father is truly a man of great talent and a good eye for talent." Jiang Rao immediately began to praise her father.

"But don't be too happy, you have to agree to one condition of mine."

Fourth Master Jiang felt that his daughter's attention had been almost entirely on the Ninth Prince in recent days.

If we continue like this, even if we don't have any feelings for each other, we will have to develop them.

He glanced at Jiang Rao.

Even if I don't want to admit it, my daughter is growing up day by day and is almost at the age for marriage.

It's time to find her a husband.

But as soon as the word "daughter's husband" popped up in his mind, if he didn't know who it was, he would want to roll up his sleeves and beat someone.

When it comes to blind dates, you have to take it slow.

At least he has to wait until he takes Jinling

He investigated all the bad boys in the city, found the one he thought was suitable, and then let his daughter take a look at him.

The blind date for his daughter was not arranged, as Mr. Jiang Si blocked it himself.

He thought that it would be better to think of a way to make his daughter so busy that she would have no time to take care of the Ninth Prince.

He had an idea and looked at Jiang Rao, "Niannian, you have grown up now."

Jiang Rao didn't understand, but nodded.

Fourth Master Jiang said, "We own several shops along the Qinhuai River. During the years I was away from Nanjing, we have entrusted them to your uncle to help manage. Now that we are back, it is time to take control of the shops. Since you have nothing to do every day, why don't you manage the shops and make some money for the family?"

After saying this, he was extremely pleased. He let his daughter run the shop. He didn't care whether she made money or lost money. The most important thing was that he must make sure his daughter had no time to take care of the Ninth Prince's affairs!

Jiang Rao: Why is it that her father looks so relieved that his daughter has grown up and can finally earn some money for him?

But his eyes were bright, and he said in a money-grubber tone, "Dad, does the money I earn belong to me?"

Fourth Master Jiang was like a landowner who spent money to love his daughter. "If you lose money, ask the housekeeper to take money from the treasury to make up for it. If you make money, just put it in your own small treasury."

Hearing this, Jiang Rao's eyes smiled into crescents, and she said happily, "Then I'll go check out the shop, Dad."

If you want to make a profit, you should do it.

There is a lot of information along the Qinhuai River, and maybe she can find out some unexpected and useful information.

…

Three days later, Rong Ting left the palace late at night and had a long talk with Yan Nanxun all night long.

When leaving the palace and returning to it, Jiang Rao asked her aunt's prestigious old maid to use silver to make arrangements. Although the people guarding the palace gate recorded Rong Ting's whereabouts in the entry and exit book according to the rules, they would not easily reveal his whereabouts to anyone else.

The leaves were slightly frosted, and in the dim and slightly cool light, Rong Ting came out of the academy.

In the distance, the Jiang family’s carriage was parked.

He looked deeply over there and took a look.

Slowly, his brows relaxed. When she smiles faintly, the world becomes pale in comparison.

Inside the carriage, Jiang Rao, who had been waiting anxiously while holding the heater, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

…

In the Seventeenth Prince's palace, Empress Jiahe stood beside the Seventeenth Prince's desk, holding a ruler in her hand.

After she had dealt with all the affairs of the harem today, she had been staying by the Seventeenth Prince's side, watching him read and write.

It can be said that she was worried about the seventeenth prince's studies.

At the end of March, the spring exam of Bailu Academy was held.

Seven is old enough to take the exam. Concubine Xian's son, the third prince, entered the Egret Academy at the age of twelve. She couldn't let her son lag behind others.

Although she felt somewhat uneasy about Emperor Zhaowu's recent attention to Rong Ting, after Rong Ting moved to Shouhuai Palace, Emperor Zhaowu resumed his previous attitude of not caring about her.

Empress Jiahe was relieved at this point. It was impossible for Emperor Zhaowu to allow a disabled person to inherit his throne.

It was true that Rong Ting had crippled legs, and the newly bribed young eunuch Si Ying, who had served him for such a long time, also said so.

She had secretly stopped Rong Ting from entering Bailu Academy for several years, so this year, he had no chance of entering.

Thinking back to when the Grand Tutor once praised Rong Ting for his intelligence and photographic memory, she always felt that letting Rong Ting enter the Egret Academy was like letting a tiger return to the mountains.

Instead, there is a strong sense of unwillingness.

Why? Rong Ting's mother was just a lowly palace maid, and Xiao Shiqi's mother was from a noble family. Why was Rong Ting born smarter than Xiao Shiqi?

Thinking of the charming face of the palace maid, Empress Jiahe could recall the disgust she felt when she heard Emperor Zhaowu nominate a palace maid as a noble concubine.

Even if she was born in a humble family, she could become a concubine because of her son's status.

The previous competition in the martial arts arena allowed Emperor Zhaowu to see Rong Ting's abilities. If Emperor Zhaowu could see that his ninth son was a talent in both civil and military affairs, that would be a great change.

If possible, she really wanted to kill Rong Ting directly, but every time she fell just a little short!

When the day comes when he has grown up, how could that child who has been cold and private since childhood, who watched servants being beaten to death and people dying in front of him without any reaction, let her and her little Seventeen go?

Empress Jiahe felt uneasy.

"Mother, please look at what you have written." Queen Jiahe, who had been sitting next to Little Seventeen with a sullen face, suddenly spoke.

Upon hearing this, Xiao Shiqi's body tensed up and his hands trembled a little. He nervously handed the paper on the table to Queen Jiahe.

Queen Jiahe took a look and her face darkened. She took a deep breath and said, "You..."

The poems and essays written by the seventeenth prince are much better than those written by his peers.

But Queen Jiahe was comparing him with the best students in Bailu Academy.

"Stretch out your hand." Empress Jiahe raised the ruler and hit the palm of the Seventeenth Prince's left hand three times in a row, until his palm turned red. "Compare your poem with what the Confucian scholars in Bailu Academy wrote when they took the exam. How much difference do you see?"

She was so disappointed with you, "Last year, I asked you to take the White Egret Academy exam, but you gave me a headache and did worse than the students in the village. This year, are you going to embarrass me, your mother?"

"If you fail the exam this year, not to mention that I will be outdone by Concubine Xian, you will even be worse than that cripple!"

"That cripple..." Xiao Shiqi muttered softly, with a hint of indifference in his eyes, and asked, "Will he go to the spring test?"

"Won't."

"Why not let him go? If he fails the exam, won't he be embarrassed in front of everyone?"

Queen Jiahe gritted her teeth in anger.

When Rong Ting was a child, he was too smart, so smart that it was frightening. So she often asked the palace maids to ask for leave from the Grand Tutor, saying that he was ill. She locked him up in the harem and did not allow him to go out to study.

But no one expected that he would often sneak out of the palace during the day and at night, and run to the library that had been abandoned due to a fire, hiding there for the whole day and stealing a lot of books to read.

For a precocious child, the complicated and messy books in the library helped him learn more and faster than being taught slowly by a teacher in the school.

By the time she found out, it was already several years later.

…

If Rong Ting was a useless idiot, she would naturally take advantage of this opportunity to embarrass him.

But she was afraid that if he got this opportunity, he would hold on to it and rise straight to the top.

That kid always has a ruthless spirit that will not let go once he gets a chance.

Empress Jiahe glared at Little Seventeen fiercely and became more and more angry. He used the best pens, ink, paper and inkstone, but the words he wrote were not as beautiful as those written by Little Rongting who practiced by scratching on the dirt with a wooden stick.

She said viciously, "You study your books. You need to study for two more hours today. You will go out to practice archery later. You must not fall behind in any of your studies. If you perform well, Mr. Yan will accept a disciple for himself this year. Maybe you can do it. As for that cripple..."

She frowned and said hatefully, "Don't worry about anything, just focus on your studies. I will protect the road behind you. I will definitely not let that cripple block your way."

Now the officials should cooperate with her from inside and outside.

Don't give Rong Ting any chance at all.

…

The day before the spring exam.

Before dinner, Si Ying waited at the place where the palace maid who came to deliver the meal must pass by. When she came, he stopped her and walked back with the meal himself.

He walked to a corner where he could not be easily seen, checked that there was no one around, and quietly sprinkled some colorless and odorless powder into each bowl of food.

Then he carefully added some powder to the chopsticks.

When Rong Ting picked up his chopsticks for dinner, he paused for a moment and looked at

Sweep it over the tip of the chopsticks.

Si Ying was standing by, his nervous breathing slightly stagnant.

But Rong Ting just took a look, then picked up the chopsticks and put the food into the bowl without any suspicion.

Si Ying finally breathed a sigh of relief.

…

The next day, when it was time to leave for the exam, Rong Ting was still in a deep sleep.

Si Ying looked at it and realized that the medicine he had given her last night had taken effect. A slight smile appeared on his face, and he hurried to inform the palace maid under the Queen.

After receiving the reward, he was very happy and went back with the silver in his pocket.

After returning to Shouhuai Palace, unexpectedly, Rong Ting had already woken up.

Half leaning on the bed, she supported her face and looked at him.

There was a hint of anger in her long eyes, and her cold face was eerie and almost enchanting. When she glanced at him, her eyes were sharp, but they still made him feel uneasy.

Sometimes, he would feel that this master did not care about things. He had also tried to test the waters by deliberately running out and not coming back for a long time. The Ninth Prince did not arouse any suspicion, so he became more bold.

But sometimes, like now, he felt that his eyes were sinister and could make people tremble.

Being stared at by a ghost is more comfortable than being stared at by him

Si Ying's heart sank. The drug was clearly effective in making Rong Ting sleep for a whole day, so why did he wake up so early?

Fortunately, it was too late to rush to the examination hall at this time.

He had prepared a cold towel in his hand, rushed forward and said: "Master, you finally woke up. No matter how I called you, you wouldn't wake up. I really have no choice but to go out and find you an ice towel..."

Huai Qing was standing by and was also sweating.

Rong Ting usually got up very early every day and was restless when he went to bed. He would get up at the slightest noise, even the slightest movement, and stay in the yard all night, suspicious of everything, as if he was afraid that someone would harm him if he fell asleep.

But today, for some reason, no matter how hard I called, I couldn't wake him up.

But I just can’t get up on such a big day like today…

Looking at the red sun hanging high in the center of the sky, Huai Qing's heart sank to the bottom, "Master, you finally woke up, but this spring exam... you can't make it in time."

Rong Ting was silent for a moment.

Afterwards, anger arose.

…

The palace maid who rushed back said that Rong Ting was furious because he missed the spring examination of Bailu Academy.

A smile appeared on the queen's face.

She asked Yuying, "Is Xiao Shiqi back? How did he do in the exam?"

"The young prince has returned, but..."

Yuying said worriedly, "The palace servant who went with me said that this year, Mr. Yan has found a disciple for me. Unless the performance of the spring exam is extremely outstanding, Mr. Yan will make an exception and accept one more disciple. Otherwise, it is impossible..."

Since the beginning of spring, for several months in a row, no matter how dizzy or tired she felt after dealing with the affairs of the harem every day, she had to accompany Xiao Shiqi to study his homework.

The purpose is to fight for the position of Mr. Yan's personal disciple.

The Third Prince entered the Egret Academy at the age of twelve, and her son could only surpass Yan Nanxun when he became his personal disciple at the age of twelve.

Seeing that she had paid so much for this matter, she was told today that Mr. Yan had found a close disciple?

The Queen clenched her fingers, full of jealousy, "Who is the new disciple that Mr. Yan accepted this year?"