Chapter 238 Urgent Matters at the Academy

The rain had not yet stopped.

The maid who came to deliver the message was still holding an umbrella.

"Granny, is it someone from home? Didn't we already send someone back to deliver the message?" The ethereal Lin Daiyu immediately transformed into the steward Lin Daiyu.

"They're not family members, they're from the academy."

Yuan Hongqu took the token, and her heart tightened.

These are bookmarks used by the teachers at the academy. They even went out to look for her in this heavy rain. Could something terrible have happened at the academy?

"Granny, I'll go with you to take a look." Daiyu noticed that Yuan Hongqu's expression changed and became somewhat worried.

"You're all settling in. It's getting late, you should go to sleep. I'll go check on you, and we'll go home for dim sum tomorrow morning."

Daiyu's eyes lit up. She had long wanted to experience morning tea, but her nanny had always refused to make it for her.

"Granny, let Lan Su go with you." Although she had agreed to go back to sleep, Daiyu was still worried about Yuan Hongqu.

"No need. Lan Su can't be too far away from you when we're out here."

As Yuan Hongqu spoke, she casually grabbed an umbrella and followed the maid into the rain.

Inside the small reception room at the second gate, Mi Ling was feeling extremely uneasy. As soon as she saw Yuan Hongqu appear at the door, she hurriedly came over to greet her.

"Mi Ling, has something happened at the academy?" Yuan Hongqu dismissed everyone around her and asked immediately.

"Hongqu, this time we're in trouble!" As soon as Mi Ling said this, Yuan Hongqu inexplicably thought of the same words she had heard before she was imprisoned.

Yuan Hongqu frowned. Times have changed. If she were still the same person now, she could still be easily bullied. She would have wasted the last few years of her life.

"Explain yourself clearly," Yuan Hongqu said in a low voice.

“One of our female officials who has already graduated has had an accident in the palace.” Mi Ling looked very anxious.

Hearing this, Yuan Hongqu felt a little relieved.

"If something happens in the palace, there are palace rules to handle it. You coming to me in this heavy rain won't help."

Although Mi Ling knew about her relationship with the Empress, she always despised those who relied on power and therefore disregarded the rules, and she herself was no exception.

Therefore, when something happened in the palace, Mi Ling never thought of going to the Empress.

"The news I heard is that the female official's father committed a crime and her whole family was exiled. Only she was spared because of her master's protection. Last night, on the Mid-Autumn Festival, she was given a message that her family members were all brutally murdered on their way to exile. So last night, after the banquet, she secretly went to the road where the imperial carriage passed by to plead for her father's innocence and beg the emperor to thoroughly investigate the truth of her family's tragic death."

“It’s only human nature, especially since she’s so close to the center of power. It’s naive to assume that the Emperor will definitely uphold justice for her.” Yuan Hongqu said, then suddenly asked Mi Ling, “Before she entered the palace as a lady-in-waiting, didn’t you give her any lessons on palace survival?”

"You've probably forgotten. Our palace survival course is only for girls from families of officials below the fifth rank. We only offer this course after it's been decided that they'll become female officials." Mi Ling's eyes were complicated.

“Hongqu, her father was a salt commissioner.”

Yuan Hongqu paused for a moment before speaking, "That female official came from the former Yangzhou Women's Academy?"

Mi Ling sighed.

"Her father was a third-rank salt transport commissioner, and she didn't follow the procedure for becoming a female official in our academy. She went through the selection process and entered the palace in the same batch as the Empress. She originally came for the Empress's position, but unexpectedly, something went wrong during the selection and she was eliminated."

"Given her family background, she should have gone home to await marriage, but her family told her that she had to stay in the palace no matter what and could not return to Yangzhou... Therefore, she has been serving the Dowager Consort ever since."

"Her father's death wasn't entirely unjust, but the rest of her family was implicated. Especially her younger brother, who had just turned fifteen..."

"Yesterday she stopped the imperial carriage. The Emperor originally wanted to punish her severely, but the Empress, considering it was the Mid-Autumn Festival, only gave her five strokes of the cane. Who knew that after just one night, she suddenly insisted that she came from the girls' academy and that the academy had to be responsible for her behavior. She is someone close to the Dowager Consort, and the Dowager Consort is backing her up. Now it's not easy to get out of this mess."

The reason Mi Ling came in the rain was to inform Yuan Hongqu in advance so that she could be prepared.

“Hongqu, after you and Her Majesty the Empress came out yesterday, you are still on holiday today, but many people from the academy have come to inquire about temporarily enrolling in the academy, even if it means paying the full year's tuition. Although the academy doesn't have such a rule, admission is always based on registration and examinations in the first month of the lunar calendar.”

"But if this matter is not handled properly, it may damage the reputation of the academy... It may be difficult to enroll students next January."

"Since it wasn't recommended by our academy to become a female official in the palace, what does it have to do with us? I don't remember such a rule. The students have been graduated for several years, and the academy is still being implicated by her."

Yuan Hongqu understood that this matter actually had little to do with the academy; the real fear was that someone was using the academy's name to try and bring down the Empress.

I just reunited with the Empress last night and we've put aside our past grievances. And today, someone can't stand to see us doing well and is determined to tear us apart.

“Mi Ling,” Yuan Hongqu pondered for a moment, “you’re being too cautious. We’re an academy, not a wishing well. Do you expect a student to have a smooth and successful life after studying here?”

"However, you did a great job of nipping any public relations crisis in the bud," Yuan Hongqu praised.

"The rain has stopped." Outside, only raindrops were still falling from the eaves from time to time. "There is no curfew in the capital during the three days of the Mid-Autumn Festival. Let's go to the academy first."

Yuan Hongqu got up; she was afraid she would have to work overtime tonight.

"Sister Yuan, are you going to the academy so late?" Wang Xifeng, lifting her skirt, walked in, surrounded by maids and servants.

"Yes, there are some things to attend to at the academy. Daiyu will be staying at Rongyue Courtyard tonight. Please keep an eye on her. I'll come over first thing tomorrow morning."

“Let Jia Lian take you there.” Wang Xifeng was still worried. “Don’t worry about Lin Daiyu. I’ll have someone bring her bedding over in a bit. Tonight, Ping’er and I will stay in a side room in Rongyue Courtyard.”

"Thank you for your trouble."

"Sister Yuan, don't be so polite with me. If you need Jia Lian to run errands or anything, just tell him to do it. He's good at running errands, to say the least." Wang Xifeng directly used Jia Lian as a favor.

Yuan Hongqu didn't stand on ceremony with her either.

Inside the academy, all the teachers who had taught the female official came over, each with a brush, ink, paper, and inkstone in front of them, and wrote down all their impressions of the female official and their interactions with her.

However, several years have passed, and many memories have become blurred.

"Dean, this is Liu Qiongshuang's report card from back then. As for her exam papers, they were destroyed in Yangzhou."