Chapter 96

Xiao Qi strode forward and took out a golden egg yolk pastry brushed with egg liquid from the lunch box. On the way, she almost tripped over her skirt. When Si Li asked, she pulled her complicated skirt and sighed, "Isn't it all for the flower party at the Prince of Yue's Mansion? Mother said that I still have to meet people and I have to look like a girl. She asked me to get familiar with this dress from today to avoid making a fool of myself at the banquet. I searched through the suitcases since this morning, but she didn't even leave me a set of short Hu clothing. It was really cruel. Look at me, I stumble after walking a few steps. I don't even dare to ride a horse. I almost missed the class this morning and didn't even have time to eat."

She complained, but she had no intention of resisting Minister Xiao's arrangement. She continued to walk around in the clothes she was not used to. Although the warrior's big strides combined with the skirt that required small steps and quick walking looked a bit strange, it was also a unique sight.

Hearing her series of complaints, Si Li suppressed her laughter and pointed at the girl on her lap, "Look, the host is here, you should beg the princess, maybe I can make you an exception."

"Forget it." Xiao Qi waved her hands, not noticing that the crumbs of the pastry caught in her palms fell all over her head. She quickly jumped up and slapped them. After a moment of confusion, she sat down again and continued the previous topic, "If my mother knew about my special case, she would be very angry. It will be fine when the special examination is held next year. The official uniforms for men and women will be the same, and no one will say that I don't wear a skirt."

Xiao Qi returned to the capital from the border just for the next spring examination. She had never mentioned it on weekdays, but when she suddenly mentioned it, Si Li suddenly remembered that the spring examination was approaching, and the women's special examination and the formal spring examination were held at the same time. In addition to Meng Taotao, she also had to take the exam.

"Then I wish you success in the imperial examination."

Xiao Qi blinked nervously, "Tao Tao is also going to take the exam. You two have the same blessing. If both of you do well, who do you hope will be the top scorer?"

Si Li didn't change her expression at all when faced with a life-threatening question of choosing between two options. She pointed at Jiang Shizhi who had just come in through the small door on the courtyard wall and said, "The examiner is here. If I tell you, won't that be considered cheating?"

The rescuer came just in time. Xiao Qi retreated in dismay. Jiang Hengyun only heard the last half of the sentence and took over the conversation, "Next year, the special examination may be held together with the spring examination. I am afraid that I will not be able to convince the public as an examiner. Scholar Qin also has students who will take the exam this year. It should be the last year for Liu to hold the exam, and then he will add a few people as assistants."

"I don't want to hear it." Xiao Qi covered her ears and made a noise to suppress Jiang Hengyun's words. Seeing that he stopped talking, she put down her hands and bowed in a scoundrelly manner, "Brother Jiang, you revealed the examiner so directly. Are you afraid that I, the top student in high school, will be supported by Xiao Si, and you want to send me to jail in advance for cheating?"

Si Li slapped her hand away helplessly, "What nonsense are you talking about?" Thinking of the information revealed in Jiang Shizhi's words just now, Si Li pulled over a bench next to him and asked him to sit down. The young man stretched out his long legs and did not look awkward at all sitting on the simple wooden bench. He tilted his head slightly to look at her, in a perfect and gentle listening posture.

Xiao Qi looked at the tacit understanding between the two and felt a little full for no reason. She recalled the rumor that the flower party in the Prince of Yue's Mansion was for the purpose of selecting the Crown Prince's wife. She shook her head in her heart. Why was there a need to select a wife? The candidate had obviously been decided long ago.

"You never say anything without basis. So, it is probably possible that the special examination and the spring examination will be held together?" Si Li asked in detail. Taking the examinations together for both men and women would completely challenge the psychological bottom line of traditional scholars and tear off the last fig leaf of their view that the special examination for women was just a minor official examination.

Jiang Hengyun nodded, and Xiao Qi curled her lips and said, "That's just right. Otherwise, they would clamor for preferential treatment for women, the inside story of the imperial examination, the aristocracy's power, and so on. It would be annoying. In this way, everyone will end up the same. After the muddled copying, who has the better ability will be revealed."

Although Xiao Qi's words were impulsive, her general idea was not wrong. Just like the segregated bus incident that Si Li had seen in her previous life, the separation of male and female imperial examinations was a form of discrimination that implicitly recognized that women needed to be taken care of, were not as intelligent or as good as men. The imperial examinations were the ladder to heaven in the feudal era, and most class mobility depended on them. Only by achieving fairness can we stop the gossip and establish a lasting foundation.

Perhaps at first the daughter’s family who has been confined at home for long periods of time will suffer, just like in her previous life when they were told for many years that “you are not smart enough” and “you should not study”. But as long as there are generations of predecessors and as long as such a system is not abolished, there is hope.

Although it seems that the trend has gradually regressed in recent years, and the historical inertia has made the constraints on women still strong, it now seems that the Crown Prince, who inherited the Queen's wishes, is a gentle man who agrees with letting women stand up from the bottom of his heart. This is different from his appearance, and he is more like his cousin who is cold on the outside but warm on the inside.

Si Li brushed off the image of the prince from her mind, but Xiao Qi in front of her had already changed the subject, "Why are there only little bugs? What did you send his uncle to buy? A good steward, running around all day, like a shopper, tsk tsk, it makes anyone who hears it sad and anyone who sees it cries."

The cold-blooded boss Si Li was unmoved. "I just need to pay him enough. He has a wide circle of friends and can easily buy anything. Naturally, I want to make the best use of him. But today you guessed wrong. He is waiting for someone in Wuweilou. If you want to ask about the style of the next batch of milk tea cups, it would be faster to go to Uncle Tang or Ah Quan."

"Waiting for someone?"

Si Li curled her lips and said sarcastically, "Yeah."

Since she had no intention of explaining, Xiao Qi did not ask any more questions. Since Liu Wuling was abandoned by the Liu family and stayed in the academy, Xiao Qi became much closer to her, and also got to know some students from poor families in the Qunying Academy. Some of them were good at painting, and it happened that the milk tea cups they passed by needed paintings and drafts on a daily basis. Xiao Qi came with the intention of mediating between them. After picking up two snacks, she went to the next door to find the shopkeeper Tang.

The moon was already high in the sky when Wang Ting entered the room. It was almost curfew. Worried about A Zhuang and A Sheng who were guarding the courtyard, they said goodbye to Si Li in a hurry and left. Wang Ting changed his coarse linen clothes and washed off the dirt on his face before going to see Si Li.

Seeing that he came back with nothing in his hands, Si Li knew that he was obedient and had no entanglement with the Si Mansion. She poured him a glass of water and said gently, "Tell me slowly."

Wang Ting smiled bitterly, "Shopkeeper, you are sitting back and doing nothing. If you offend your wife, it will be really difficult for you to get married in the future." Seeing that Si Li was indifferent, he continued, "Before I came back, my wife was still waiting far away. She cursed many times with the nanny beside her behind her back. She was urged by Shopkeeper Wu to leave. I saw them holding wooden boxes in their hands when they came in and out. They were beautifully decorated but a little old. Maybe they were your old things in the past."

Si Li lowered her eyes and thought for a while. Based on Mrs. Si's habit, she would probably play the emotional card this time. Either the things belonged to the original owner, or to the original owner's mother. It was useless to her.

"Tomorrow I will send a gift box to Shopkeeper Wu. Let's make an appointment and say that the younger generation invites him to discuss the garden party. Of course, he still has to pay for the gift box, double the amount." The conflict between her and Wu You was originally a business tactic. It was enough to let Wu You suffer a little loss. There was no need to hold on to the sale of the gift box and lose customers in vain. This time, Wu You allowed Wang Ting to eavesdrop and spy on him, showing his good intentions, so she naturally had to return the favor.

Wang Ting watched Si Li's expression change, thinking that the shopkeeper had gained some prestige now, and he gradually couldn't understand what he was thinking. "Will the shopkeeper really not give us a chance? We are sisters from the same mansion after all. It will hurt our reputation if we tell others about it."

"Chance?" Si Li sneered. Why should she give her stepmother and Si Tang a chance? In the past, they had never given the original owner a chance. A noblewoman like her stepmother, who had been in a high position for a long time, thought she was a master at playing with people's hearts. Now that she had something to ask of her, she still put on airs and refused to bow her head. She also thought that she could solve the problem by bringing up the old matter again. She wanted to complete the stepmother's apology in the mandatory mission, but she couldn't do it to this extent.

Fortunately, she didn't expect them to give up and apologize in one go. There was still more than half of the mission time left, and she could always force them to bow their heads. She was now known as the best daughter of the Si family, and she was about to become an adult. There would be more things that she needed to deal with in public. As long as her stepmother didn't bow her head, their reputation would be in jeopardy under the influence of public opinion.

Just like the original owner in the past, under the restrictions of the Sifu, unless they did things according to their ideas, no matter what they did, it would be wrong. Now the situation has reversed, and their good reputation has become their constraint.

This was a veiled conspiracy on her part, but the three people in the Si family, who were pretending to be good mothers, good sisters, and good fathers, were powerless to do anything about it.

"There is no affection between them to begin with. If I am nice to them and go to the appointment obediently, will there be no problem in getting married? Since they are not welcome inside or outside, it is better to do it according to my own ideas. Besides, with the words of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince in the academy as a guarantee, it will not be me who will be embarrassed anyway."

Thinking of this, Si Li's heart moved slightly. As the stall of Wanglaiju grew bigger and bigger, she would occasionally miss something, and this was one of them. She heard what the prince said outside the door last time from Xiao Qi, who told her about it from Liu Weiling. Even if it was just a piece of cake for the prince, it was a great gift for her, and it would be unreasonable not to give something back. However, if she went to the East Palace to give a gift to his brother without Jiang Shizhi, she would definitely be kicked out, and for some reason, it always felt a little strange.

I'll wait until I meet Jiang Shizhi tomorrow and ask him if he can help bring it with him. Anyway, he, the messenger, will not be short of food.

Si Li made up her mind and opened the system panel to look for a suitable gift. She slipped her hand and opened the tasting module that she hadn't used for a long time. Then she remembered that there was a bowl left in it. Looking at the previous records of the tasting system, the scorpion pot was rated as B-level and was awarded some achievement points. No wonder it felt like the achievement points increased dramatically for a while. The scorpion that was put in last time had disappeared, and the note fluttered into her hand.

"May we live long and share the beauty of the moon together even though we are thousands of miles apart."

The note was not a mockery, but a poem. Si Li recalled the content of the note that was inexplicably generated by complaints last time, and her heart, which had been wandering all along, suddenly settled down.

At that time, she was thinking of Jiang Shizhi and wanted to eat hotpot with him, but meeting is a fate. Even if she and Jiang Shizhi never said it out loud, even if they could not be together for a long time in the future, as long as they had been happy together, it would not be in vain for the meeting.

Si Li relieved her worries and bought a two-star recipe from the mall. The achievement points she had accumulated so far were reduced to single digits. Since she couldn't afford the super expensive dishes at the top, she might as well spend the money directly.

Well, I'll make some delicious food for Jiang Shizhi tomorrow, and give it as a thank-you gift to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. It'll be the same for both of them, so it's fair.

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The author has something to say:

Prince: "What should I do if my confession of love is interpreted as a peaceful breakup in the future?" "My tool person and I have the same status, should I be jealous?"

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Segregated bus incident: everyone should know about it? I won’t say much about the racial discrimination incident against black people on buses in the United States. In fact, there are many such discriminations now, such as the college entrance examination admission score line, lowering the score for boys or admitting more people, which is very helpless. But things will always get better little by little, and I am also holding such expectations.

The poem quoted is Su Shi's "Song of Water Melody"

The cutie in today's comment has captured it! I quietly added a new one (?