First meeting

Gu Yu changed the scene where she met Xu Qiu, feeling that these young ladies might not know what a mass grave was, so she changed it to a restaurant. The other two scenes didn't need to be changed.

Which one is the best looking?

After hearing Gu Yu's story, Yu Ning only asked this one question.

Gu Yu sighed inwardly. Just as the rumors said, he only liked handsome men. But in fact, all three of them were good-looking, each with their own unique charm.

Liu Xuewu replied, "I've met all three of them before. It must be Dongfang Hongyao, who is as handsome as Pan An."

Xu Chuxi always liked to disagree with people. "I think Wei Cong is not bad. The top scholar is personally selected by the emperor, but the top scholar in the provincial examination is determined by his actual talent and learning."

The implication was that she did not believe Xu Qiu could surpass Wei Cong in terms of talent and learning.

Zhang Liuying remained silent, but she was thinking about Gu Jin. Before Gu Yu visited her at her residence, she had always liked Gu Jin. However, Gu Jin was rarely in Shengjing City, and she had never formally shown her face to him.

Seeing that two of the three names had already been mentioned, Gu Yu felt sorry for Xu Qiu, who had no one to choose.

"...Xu, Xu Qiu, right?"

Liu Xuewu looked at her and sighed, "You really still can't forget him..."

"What?"

Xu Chuxi disagreed, saying, "Although Xu Qiu also likes to wear white clothes, his family background is just too different."

Gu Yu explained, "It has nothing to do with him."

But the ladies didn't believe her, thinking she was just trying to cover something up.

After hearing what everyone had said, Yu Ning suddenly smiled, her beauty breathtaking.

She rested her chin on her hand, her gaze falling on the approaching cavalry. "Interesting, they seem evenly matched. This year's imperial examinations have produced three exceptionally talented scholars. I'm curious how they'll choose."

Who would choose to be her husband?

Gu Yu quietly observed Princess Yuning. She felt that although the princess was not very old, she was much more thoughtful than other young ladies of the same age from noble families, and she did not seem to be as arrogant as those ladies said.

She carried the aloofness unique to royal children, and her indifference towards ordinary people shrouded her in a layer of arrogance that kept people at a distance.

However, if we only look at their faces, she and Dongfang Hongyao are a good match.

Two prodigies.

The procession outside the window was getting closer and closer. Only the top three scholars in the first class of the imperial examination had the honor of riding horses through the streets; the rest of the scholars could only walk along.

The three leaders were all dressed in red and colorful robes, with palace flowers in their hats, and rode royal horses. They were at the very front of the procession and were the absolute focus of everyone's attention.

The top scholar, who was the first to be selected, was particularly eye-catching. His horse was different from the other two; it was a unique "golden saddle and mane horse".

Along the way, gongs and drums resounded, banners fluttered, and the people of the capital flocked to witness the splendor of these newly appointed scholars.

This is also a good opportunity for young ladies from prominent families to find husbands through the imperial examinations.

Gu Yu looked at the three men's attire, which made them appear even more elegant and spirited.

But then she thought again, even if Wang Ermazi from East Street dressed up as a top scholar and rode a tall horse, he would still look quite impressive in this situation.

This year's top team is entirely composed of young people, which is truly an unprecedented first for Dasheng.

Does this indicate that Emperor Shengyuan desires new power? Should the old-fashioned three-party struggle in the court also take this opportunity to change?

Young people are more unpredictable.

As dusk approached outside the window, only the setting sun shrouded Chang'an Avenue.

The handsome and unparalleled scholar, dressed in a red robe, looked around and noticed a burning gaze that was not concealed. He met the gaze back without fear.

He saw a stunningly beautiful woman in a red dress, leaning against the railing, gazing at him with undisguised interest and curiosity.

The dim light of the sky could not conceal her stunning beauty; she was as radiant as a lotus and as radiant as a peach blossom. Dongfang Hongyao could not find a more beautiful flower to compare with her, for she was indeed more beautiful than any flower.

Gu Yu, standing beside her, nodded slightly to him.

That means, this is Princess Yu Ning, who had a fondness for handsome men.

He touched his face, concealing the contemplation in his eyes, and Wei Cong noticed his unusual expression.

"Brother Hongyao, what's wrong?" He asked honestly, his gaze fixed straight ahead, not looking at anyone, his only concern being for the horse beneath him.

Dongfang Hongyao murmured softly, "The title of the most beautiful woman in Shengjing is indeed well-deserved."

"What?"

Wei Cong was some distance away from him, and his voice was soft, and the street was noisy, so Wei Cong didn't hear anything clearly this time.

“It’s nothing, just things you’re not interested in anyway,” he replied.

Xu Qiu overheard their conversation clearly and looked towards the restaurant on his right. He saw Gu Yu looking bored, and Princess Yu Ning was probably beside her.

He wondered, what is she planning to do now? Dongfang Hongyao and Princess Yuning?

Is he trying to play matchmaker? He initially thought that Dongfang Hongyao and Princess Yuning were a good match; they really are so similar that they even thought of the same thing.

Gu Yu saw him and smiled shyly, which deepened the smile in Xu Qiu's eyes.

Princess Yu Ning said lazily beside her, "These three are indeed all quite remarkable. The third-ranked scholar truly seems like someone Father Emperor could have chosen..."

The others thought to themselves, "Since the princess has already said that, are we still going to pretend we don't know her identity?"

"Ah...this...Your Highness..."

"You don't need to bow. It doesn't matter whether you know my identity or not. I'm just bored in the palace, so I came out to take a look."

Yu Ning looked at the four young ladies from noble families, each with their own thoughts, and stopped them from bowing.

Gu Yu seized the opportunity to ask, "Which one does Your Highness prefer? I know them, and as far as I know, none of them are married yet."

"Judging by looks alone, let's choose the third-ranked scholar... What's his name again?" Princess Yu Ning pondered.

"Dongfang Hongyao".

"The Dongfang family? The Dongfang family from Hejian Prefecture?"

"Exactly."

Princess Yu Ning nodded. Her family background was decent. "I'm tired, I'll head back now."

The crowd bowed and saw the princess off.

On the fifth day of the fifth month of the twenty-fourth year of the Shengyuan era, news came from the north.

The Northern Di retreated a hundred li, intending to seek peace with the Great Sheng, offering ten thousand warhorses, one million taels of gold, and ten million taels of silver.

A resounding victory!

The gold and silver acquired will further alleviate the empty treasury of the Great Sheng Kingdom.

Marquis Gu Hanying of Wu'an and his heir Gu Jin are about to return to the capital.

Upon receiving the news, Chunyue frantically ran around the manor. Before she even reached Gu Yu's courtyard, the news arrived first: "Miss, it's all over the place! Master and Young Master are coming back!"

"Very good."

Gu Yu breathed a sigh of relief. She only heard good news from Zhang Liuying. She was worried that the north would only report good news and not bad news, but it turned out to be good news.

So what's the next step? If Marquis Wu'an were to advance another level, would that be enough to take down Sun Gu?

If she had the jade thumb ring and Shen Xiuwen's calligraphy in her hands, and knew all the details of Shen Xiuwen's selling of exam questions, she could completely bring down Shen Xiuwen.

What about Sun Gu?

Tang Qingning exhausted all her resources to reach him, only to be utterly defeated.

Can Gu Yu do what Tang Qingning can't?

She closed her eyes and exhaled a long breath, her still warm and beating heart telling her again and again that she was still alive.

He will not die, therefore she will not rest.

How can we kill this towering tree that has been rooted in the imperial court for so many years? Its roots have always been imperial power, while its canopy and branches have served as nourishment for other insects.

This is the question she has been pondering since her rebirth.

When Sun Gu was twenty-four years old, he passed the imperial examination with flying colors, but he was not the top scholar. He was only a third-ranked scholar who was just there to make up the numbers. He was then sent to a remote southern county as a minor county magistrate.

Even his wife was just an ordinary commoner. What made her extraordinary was that she did not give birth to any children three years after marrying him, but suddenly died of a sudden illness.

After that, Sun Gu never married again, nor did he take any concubines. He even showed extreme indifference towards his descendants, as if he didn't want any offspring at all.

At the age of thirty, due to his outstanding political achievements, he was promoted by the then Grand Secretary to Shengjing and served as the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue.

In just one night, a local official who had been famous since childhood became a high-ranking official in the central government, and even held such an important position as the Ministry of Revenue.

Then, in less than three years, he rose to the position of Minister of Revenue. When the Grand Secretary retired, he directly recommended Sun Gu to join the cabinet. By the age of thirty-five, he was already a key minister in the cabinet.

A cabinet minister at the age of thirty-five is too young, unprecedentedly young.

At the age of thirty-six, which was the twenty-first year of the Shengyuan era, he was promoted to Grand Secretary by Emperor Shengyuan.

With power second only to the emperor, Sun Gu became the all-powerful Grand Secretary.

Those who were attached to him and promoted by him were called the Sun Party.

Those who disapproved of his forming cliques, engaging in corruption and bribery, and appointing relatives and friends, and who always wanted to remove him from the position of Grand Secretary, called themselves the "pure stream" faction, wanting to establish a moral compass for the world and a destiny for all people.

But is that all talk? In reality? Gu Yu scoffed.

These officials are all the same; they only have stances and interests, and no distinction between good and bad.

*

Early summer of the twenty-second year of the Shengyuan era.

At that time, Tang Qingning was only eighteen years old. She had just seen off Yuzhu, who had been humiliated to death by Guan Yiyun. She had lost her support in Yunxian Pavilion and was back to the point where she would starve to death if she didn't entertain customers.

Feng Miaolian, draped in a thin veil, wore a mocking expression on her still charming face. "Not taking customers? You were decreed by the Emperor to be placed in a lowly position. Before, there was a more beautiful but foolish maid who was willing to take customers for you and support you, so I turned a blind eye."

"Now that the person is gone, you still want to play the role of an innocent white lotus emerging from the mud? What a pipe dream! If you don't receive guests for a day, you won't have food or water. Do you think you're some kind of immortal? Let's see if you can survive these three days."

Tang Qingning's face was pale. She knew what she had to do; she knew it better than anyone else.

It's just about chastity; only those without chastity can survive in this world.

If a man values ​​this kind of thing so much, is she going to use it to curry favor with someone powerful enough to help the Tang family overturn their case?

“Aunt Feng…”

She swallowed the nausea rising in her throat. "I will entertain guests. Which important figures will be coming these days? If I can get on the good side of one of them, it will also benefit Yunxian Pavilion."

Feng Miaolian carefully examined Tang Qingning from head to toe. She wasn't a stunning beauty, but she was a girl from a modest family, and more importantly, she was clean. Perhaps someone would actually like someone like her.

"Yes, if you're willing."

She pondered for a moment, thinking that he was still the same tough guy she had been when she first arrived a year ago. But then again, he was really stubborn and should have just smashed his head against a wall.

"Prepare well these days, go to Yiren and learn as much as you can. I'll arrange everything for you, and I won't let you lower your status. After all, you're from an official's family..."

Feng Miaolian swayed her body and walked away gracefully.

Tang Qingning gritted her teeth, suppressing the nausea churning in her stomach, and walked back to her residence.

She still lives with her maids, sleeping on a large communal bed. She sleeps on the innermost bed, which is very stuffy in the summer.

When Yuzhu was still alive, no maid dared to bully her, but now that Yuzhu is gone, anyone can come and ridicule her.

She didn't care about other people's sarcasm or their insults that she was a young lady who survived by selling herself as a maid, because that was the truth.

If she had known it would come to this, she would never have let Yuzhu do anything foolish. Perhaps she would never have let Yuzhu come with her to Yunxian Pavilion in the first place.

But it's too late to regret it now; what's done is done.

She wanted to overturn the case against the Tang family and avenge Yuzhu. She couldn't die; if she did, she wouldn't have the face to face them.

Two days later, Tang Qingning put on the thin gauze sent by Feng Miaolian and went to the guest's room for the first time with Hu Chuchu and the others.

Hu Chuchu stroked the guqin, her head bowed, not daring to look at anything else. She simply poured wine for the two guests beside her, without revealing their identities to Feng Miaolian.

However, Tang Qingning guessed their identities from the way they addressed each other.

One was a Grand Secretary, and the other was surprisingly the Chief Grand Secretary.

Feng Miaolian did do a good thing.

Tang Qingning tried to relax her stiff body, pretending to accidentally knock over the wine cup, the wine soaking Sun Gu's light-colored brocade robe. His sharp gaze swept over her.

"No, I'm sorry. This is my first time doing something like this, and my hands have been shaking."

Her voice was trembling with tears, as if she were terrified.

Tang Qingning hurriedly grabbed her handkerchief to wipe the wet area, but it was grabbed by a hand with calloused skin.

"Hmm..." he mumbled in refusal, "No need to wipe it, I'm going to change my clothes."

"Prime Minister Sun, this is a beauty throwing herself into my arms!" The man looked at them with a hint of mockery. "She's still a greenhorn, tsk. If Prime Minister Sun likes her, then Miss Chuchu will keep me company tonight."

He nodded almost imperceptibly, and the man led Hu Chuchu out of the room.

"May I have your name?"

Sun Gu scrutinized her carefully, as if examining an object, his tone devoid of any emotional fluctuation.

"Tang Qingning," she murmured, her head bowed.

"Oh? Why are you here?"

"My father, Tang Simiao, was convicted last year..."

As she spoke, tears streamed down her face uncontrollably, one after another, like pearls from a broken string.

"Um......"

He pondered for a moment, clearly thinking about who the name belonged to; he obviously thought of something but said nothing more.

"You resemble an old friend of mine."

Who does she resemble? Tang Qingning wondered, but she didn't show it. She felt this was an opportunity.

"This is Qingning's good fortune, and it can ease your longing, sir." She stopped crying, her eyes slightly red.

“It’s not that I’m lovesick…” He reached out and lifted her cheek. “If you come with me, don’t take any other clients this year.”

A year? She looked at Sun Gu through teary eyes.

He was nearly forty, but he was very well-maintained, with regular features and no beard, making him look younger than his current age.

He could see right through Tang Qingning's intentions, so he didn't mind keeping her by his side; it was just a pastime.

What would she do if one day she discovered that he was also the culprit who destroyed the Tang family?

That's hilarious! Like a mantis trying to stop a chariot, or a mayfly trying to shake a tree.

Tang Qingning reached out tremblingly to unbutton his clothes, "Qingning will help you change, sir..."

He didn't reach out to stop her again, looking at her as if he were looking at his former self.

There was no gentle breeze or bright moon, no effortless ease, only being mired in the mud, struggling to move forward. But he was unwilling to give up, unwilling to give up, wanting to chase after that last ray of light.

He held her as if he were holding his own past desires.