Chapter 50

After everyone finally left, Lin Nanjie's face was already burning. Back in the Purple Palace, Li Chengqian waved his fan again and teased, "You don't blame me in your heart, do you?"

Lin Nanqie, with a face full of ink, begged for mercy: "How dare I, Your Majesty, please forgive me."

Li Chenghuan fanned himself and snorted coldly, "I think you are quite courageous. You dare to trick the prince into playing with such things."

Lin Nanjie felt that he was wronged: "Your Majesty is right. I have learned my lesson."

【If you want to accuse someone of something, you can always find a pretext. 】

Lin Nanjie curled her lips as she watched Li Chenghuan fanning the fan until it almost created a shadow.

[It's not that hot today, why are you fanning yourself with a fan? You're just being pretentious. ]

Li Chenghuan stopped fanning himself suddenly. It was not the right way to fan, but it would be stupid not to fan, so he just put the fan on the table with a "bang".

Li Chengqian finally raised his hand and said, "Forget it, get out of here!"

Lin Nanqi finally escaped as if he had been pardoned. He went back to wash his face, then left the palace and headed straight for Xishi Street.

In the Xianke Building, Lin Nanjie gulped down a cup of tea: "My job is so embarrassing every day!"

Lu Chengzhou laughed: "I heard from the old man that you walked around the palace with the emperor's calligraphy on your face, and all the civil and military officials knew about it. It will probably spread throughout the capital soon."

Lin Nanjie's face flushed red: "It would be better to work for the Princess's Mansion. I've lost face."

Si Nanhao also looked regretful: "It's a pity that I wasn't there, if I was there..."

Two faces looked at him at once.

"Whoever sees it will be arrested and sent to prison?"

"Blind their eyes?"

Si Nanhao: "Then I have to see what the emperor's calligraphy looks like."

"They are all ministers of state. How can I have the courage to do that?"

They both said in unison: "Tsk!"

Lu Chengzhou suddenly said with regret: "Speaking of which, it's a pity that you didn't get to work at the Princess's Mansion. Now I don't even have an insider."

Lin Nan looked at him: "What's wrong?"

Lu Chengzhou drank a glass of wine angrily: "I was kicked out by the princess!"

She said with grievance: "I am obsessed with the princess, but because my father is the Minister of Rites, the princess refused to let me continue to live in the mansion."

Lin Nanjie was speechless. The princess dared to stay. The censors' spit could drown her.

Lu Chengzhou recounted the whole story in a disjointed manner.

The fact that Lu Chengzhou was a male concubine in the Princess's residence was reported to the court. His father, the Minister of Rites Lu Weitong, felt that he had lost face and arrested him that day and put him in seclusion to study and prepare for this year's spring examination. Lu Chengzhou was not convinced and ran away one night, running directly to the Princess's residence.

But the Princess's Mansion wouldn't let him in and told him to stay at home and prepare for the examination. Lu Chengzhou was completely dumbfounded.

Lin Nanqi and Si Nanhao looked at him sympathetically.

Lin Nan was surprised and asked, "You are actually a prostitute?"

Lu Chengzhou put down his glass with a bang: "Didn't expect that?"

Si Nanhao directly exposed his past: "The last one."

Lu Chengzhou was extremely depressed: "My father always forced me to study. I thought he would stop worrying about me if I passed the imperial examination. I am not cut out to be an official. Besides, the imperial examination is only a month away. How can I prepare in time? Isn't this just rushing me to study?"

Si Nanhao patted his shoulder sympathetically and said, "If you really don't want to take the exam, then just go through the motions. Just don't make your ranking look too bad."

Lin Nanjie didn't know much about the ancient imperial examinations, but according to the plot of the original book, this examination was a bit turbulent and involved a lot of things. He said vaguely, "It's okay to take the exam next time."

Lu Chengzhou said sadly: "The old man disagreed. He said that even if I didn't pass the exam this time, I could just take it as an opportunity to get familiar with the exam process."

Then, Lu Chengzhou asked Si Nanhao hopefully, "Do you Jinyiwei still need someone? I am good at martial arts."

Si Nanhao leaned towards Lin Nanjie with a horrified look on his face: "Absolutely not! My father already dislikes me every day, and with your father added to the mix, how can I survive?"

Lu Chengzhou glared at Si Nanhao angrily and drank to drown his sorrows.

The dishes were served one after another, and the few people put aside their worries and started to enjoy the food. While they were eating, they suddenly heard a group of noisy people coming up from downstairs.

"Mr. Jiang, I didn't expect to meet you here. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"I have heard of Mr. Jiang's talent since I was in Jiangxi. It is worth the trip to take the imperial examination with him."

"That's right. Young Master Jiang will take the exam this spring. I'm afraid he will be the top scorer."

A group of young men walked up to the second floor of Xianke Tower in a noisy manner. Among them was a young man in blue brocade clothes. The man looked to be in his twenties, with an imposing manner. His every move exuded a noble and elegant aura, which attracted the attention of many diners.

Lin Nanqi also poked his head out to look curiously, and the young man surnamed Jiang in the middle seemed to have sensed something and also looked over here.

"These are all this year's achievements, right?" Lin Nanqi said casually, but Lu Chengzhou pulled up his sleeves. He turned around and looked, "What's wrong?"

Lu Chengzhou silently said, "You can't see me, you can't see me."

Lin Nanqi and Si Nanhao looked at each other.

Si Nanhao looked around: "Who are you hiding from?"

Before Lin Nanqie could figure out what was going on, the group of young men came over in droves. The young man in blue at the head of the group stopped in front of them and said, "Cousin, long time no see. Why are you still avoiding me?"

Lu Chengzhou let go of Lin Nanqi's sleeves, crossed his arms, and sat still: "It turned out to be my cousin Hanwen. I'm sorry, there were too many people and I didn't recognize him for a moment."

Jiang Hanwen was not angry either, and said elegantly: "This year, my cousin will also take part in the Spring Examination. How are your preparations?"

Lu Chengzhou looked unhappy: "I'm sorry to bother you, cousin."

Before Jiang Hanwen could say anything, the other people around him were already unhappy.

"How can you talk like that? As Mr. Jiang, you are almost certain to pass the imperial examination. You might even be the top scholar this year. How can you be so rude?"

A man from the capital said, "You don't know, this man is the son of the Minister of Rites, Lord Lu, so of course he has a big mouth."

"Tsk, so there is a backstage, and he relies on his dad."

Lu Chengzhou looked unhappy: "How can you talk like that? What do you mean by having a backstage?"

"Hey, don't let anyone tell you. Don't lose any rank and embarrass the Shangshu."

The words became more and more unpleasant, and even Lin Nanqie and Si Nanhao frowned.

Si Nanhao frowned and asked, "Have you said enough?"

Who knew that the man had sharp eyes and his words were even more harsh: "I didn't expect that Lord Lu's son would be so self-degrading that he would hang out with the Jinyiwei barbarians and the eunuchs in the palace. It's simply a disgrace to the civilized world!"

Only then did Jiang Hanwen realize that the two people sitting with Lu Chengzhou were a member of the Imperial Guard and a eunuch.

He immediately took a step back, frowned, and said disapprovingly: "Cousin, you are wrong. As the saying goes, a red plum is red, and a black plum is black. You hang out with these people, aren't you bringing shame to your uncle?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Lu Chengzhou stood up, holding the hilt of his sword: "Is this the end? Just because you are good at reading, you are superior to others? Pah!"

Jiang Hanwen snorted coldly: "My cousin, there is no need to be so angry. If you still want to get a good rank in the exam, you'd better go home and study harder."

"You!" Lu Chengzhou simply couldn't control his temper and wanted to draw his sword, but Lin Nanjie held him down.

Lin Nanjie looked at Jiang Hanwen calmly, speaking in a normal tone: "Mr. Jiang is a humble gentleman with extraordinary talent. He will definitely gain something from this trip to Beijing to take the exam. We are just having a small gathering here. Why did Mr. Jiang bring a group of people to be aggressive? Isn't this a loss of gentlemanly demeanor?"

"Mr. Jiang is well-known and admired by many scholars. I hope Mr. Jiang will live up to the original intention of scholars."

Jiang Hanwen frowned slightly: "What do you mean?"

He saw that the man was young and looked immature, but he didn't expect that the words he said would be difficult to deal with and there was something else behind his words.

Jiang Hanwen immediately disliked Lin Nanjie.

It is said that the eunuchs in the palace are more difficult to deal with than villains, and their behavior is even more sinister. They are best at making false accusations and framing loyal officials. Jiang Hanwen is a scholar and he is unwilling to say a word to such people.

He looked at Lu Chengzhou coldly: "You take care of yourself. I just can't bear to see your uncle working so hard for you."

Having said that, he left in a mighty manner with a group of people.

Lu Chengzhou slammed his sword on the table: "Why can't he bear it? People who don't know would think my father is his father, ugh!"

Si Nanhao said quickly: "How come you have such a cousin? He is a good student? How come you make him sound like he is sure to win the first place in the imperial examination?"

Lu Chengzhou took a sip of wine in a depressed mood.

"My father has been comparing me to him since we were little. Now, he has come to the capital to take the exam and is staying at my house. If he wins the first place and I fail, my father will beat me to death!"

Lin Nanqi was puzzled: "Is he really that powerful?"

Lu Chengzhou poured another glass of wine: "You don't know, my cousin lived in our house for a while when he was a child. My father invited a teacher to teach us. He can recite articles faster than me and write better than me. He can speak fluently at a young age. My father always praises him."

"Later, he returned to Jiangnan. He was also known as a child prodigy in Jiangnan. In recent years, his reputation has spread far and wide. He has passed the imperial and provincial examinations in succession, and is now even more popular for the imperial examinations. He now lives in my house and asks my father for advice every day, which makes me look even more useless."

Lin Nanjie comforted her, "It's already amazing that you can pass the Mid-Autumn Examination."

"you do not say!"

Si Nanhao took a sip of wine and said, "If I pass the imperial examination, my father will recognize me as his father."

Because of this incident, the three of them did not enjoy their meal very much and went back to their homes with gloomy looks on their faces.

When the sun set, Lin Nanjie hurried to the Zichen Palace to take up his post.

The Spring Examination is approaching, and Li Chenghuan has been busy with this matter recently. The planned examination process for this year has been submitted and is placed on the desk in front of Li Chenghuan.

Lin Nanqi was waiting on the side. He caught a glimpse of the contents of the memorial out of the corner of his eye and his mind drifted away.

The Spring Examination, also known as the Joint Examination, is the most important and rigorous of all the imperial examinations except the Palace Examination. There are two chief examiners and more than ten co-examiners in each session. There are dozens of officials in other links, including patrol officers, search officers, file-holding officers, sealing officers, and transcript officers.

Each examiner is carefully selected.

The most important thing is the selection of the examiner.

[The Spring Examination is coming soon, but this time... it's not peaceful. It's going to be a big fuss. How should I tell the dog emperor? ]

Li Chenghuan looked at the letter in his hand, and his mood suddenly became complicated.

Is something going to go wrong in this scientific examination?