"Yes," the page boy dared not leave the pavilion now, and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Go and invite Lord Qi Yuan here, come quickly."

Well...

Honestly, if the occasion weren't so inappropriate, Xiao Yuanshuang really wanted to strangle this pageboy with her own hands.

She originally planned to tell Qi Yuan later that Li Xuanji had accepted a silver note worth one million taels from her.

Whether the two split the money equally or less, she has something to hold against them.

Unexpectedly, the two of them brazenly wanted to divide the spoils right in front of him.

Everything was not going according to plan, and Xiao Yuanshuang felt like her mind was a complete mess.

The key point is that Li Xuanji took both silver notes without giving a definite answer.

Is this a naked psychological warfare?

Xiao Yuanshuang was both afraid and excited. The thought that she could navigate such a dangerous situation and ultimately win and sit on the throne was simply the pinnacle of her life.

Xiao Yuanshuang was trying her best to plan for herself, but Murong Yue felt that she was suffering.

Because all four candidates for the position of prefect of Suizhou came to pay their respects at the small court assembly.

Murong Yue then remembered that there was something else waiting for her.

When she was chatting with Li Xuanji before, she tried hard to remember, and then she found that she was completely wrong.

The Qing Kingdom's base is extremely large, extremely large, extremely large. Suizhou is just a small place within the Qing Kingdom's base.

This was undoubtedly bad news for her.

After all, his mother was a powerful zombie just like him, and this was the human base. If his mother wasn't in the base, it would be much more difficult to find her.

But it's okay, the little zombie has a long lifespan, there's plenty of time to search slowly.

One day, she will find it.

Moreover, the fact that she was highly respected by humans at the Qing Kingdom base made it somewhat easier for her to find her mother.

After calming herself down, Murong Yue came back to life, stared at the four people in front of her, and said directly, "Say it again."

The four people in front of him were somewhat taken aback. Zhang Bingcheng immediately stepped forward, bowed, and said, "This humble servant is Zhang Bingcheng, thirty-five years old, a Jinshi of the tenth year of Yunguang."

"The current Prefect of Jianzhou Prefecture..."

Someone took the lead, and the others followed suit, introducing themselves one by one, until it was Yan Jiu's turn last.

In fact, Zhang Yuqing put a lot of effort into selecting talent.

He not only evaluated the candidates from multiple dimensions, including their political achievements, whether they had engaged in corruption, and their personal resume, but also paid special attention to their integrity.

After all, with the example of Yang Yong, he knew all too well how serious the consequences would be for the country and the people if an official could not uphold the bottom line of integrity.

Therefore, Zhang Yuqing would not tolerate any form of corruption during the selection process.

He resolutely excluded anyone who might have problems or whose background was not clean enough. Zhang Bingcheng was proud, but he was also considered honest.

As for Yan Jiuzhi, she was selected because of her integrity.

Moreover, Dazhou also experienced development during his tenure.

In the new round of introductions, Murong Yue initially tried her best to listen carefully, but unfortunately she couldn't understand anything, not even the most sensitive place names.

What do you call this? This is what you call suffering from a lack of education.

We still need to study hard and make progress every day!

I'll go to school later!

Her eyes lit up with an idea. The previous prefect of Suizhou was a piece of trash; not only was he corrupt, but he also resold grain.

So she chose someone who cherished food and was strong.

That can't be wrong, right?

"You all, eat."

ah?

Zhang Bingcheng and the others looked at each other, unable to understand His Majesty's meaning. They wanted to ask the other officials for help, but they saw that the other officials looked on with their eyes closed, as if it were none of their business.

What are the rules for "eating"?

Nobody told them.

Soon, four small tables and chairs were carried up, and the palace servants set out the food.

Each table has four dishes, two meat and two vegetable, plus a soup, a large bowl of rice, and two steamed buns, which is considered the amount of food for a normal adult male.

Under the watchful eyes of Murong Yue and several ministers, the four of them felt extremely uncomfortable.

But since it was His Majesty's order, we had no choice but to pick up our chopsticks and start eating.

Zhang Bingcheng's eating manners were the most elegant, like that of a gentleman.

This place is a crucial area of ​​the capital, with numerous rules and regulations. He must proceed with extreme caution and cannot afford to make the slightest mistake.

He stole a glance at Murong Yue, who sat upright on the dragon throne. So young, yet so majestic, and a woman at that!

He felt a surge of jealousy, but he quickly suppressed it.

Although Murong Yue was a woman, her contributions to the Qing Kingdom over the past five years since her ascension to the throne were undeniable, and he admitted that he was no match for her.

Moreover, the retired emperor Murong Gan was a legendary figure.

He is far inferior to him.

After calming himself down, he secretly glanced at Yan Jiuzhi beside him.

Yan Jiu is tall and robust, with strong facial features and a rugged appearance. Judging from his appearance alone, it would be hard to imagine that such a person would have any delicate thoughts.

Take his eating habits, for example. His manners are utterly devoid of elegance, no different from those of a commoner.

He was shoveling food into his bowl while staring at the other dishes on the table, his mouth stuffed full as if he hadn't eaten for three days.

Sometimes, if he accidentally drops a grain of rice on the table, he will pick it up and put it in his mouth without caring, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

When the food on the plate was almost gone, Yan Jiu picked up a large steamed bun, dipped the last bit of soup at the bottom of the plate onto the bun, and devoured it in a whirlwind, leaving not a drop of soup behind.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!