The maid Biyu hurried forward and half-knelt in front of the princess's bed.
Princess Changping stretched out her armored hand and gently hooked her chin, her eyes tracing Biyu's face that was as real as jade. "Biyu, I have kept you by my side for so many days and treated you so well. You also know why, right?"
Biyu felt a chill in her heart when she heard the princess' gentle tone. "Biyu knows."
"Eunuch Xu who serves the Emperor is from the same hometown as you, and you have a fellow villager friendship. I'm sure you know very well what he likes."
Jade nodded again.
"Go to the accounting office to withdraw some money, dress yourself up nicely and then enter the palace."
"yes."
——
Spring is fleeting, and after May the weather changes completely and becomes exceptionally hot.
But in such weather, these students from academies all over the country came to Beijing to take the imperial examination. Yang Xiucai had a family in Beijing after all. Before the exam, Yuelu Academy released him. After entering the examination room, he could not leave for more than ten days, and all he ate and drank was watery soup.
At home, Liu and A Xiu fed him chicken and fish soup every day, but Yang Xiucai didn't gain weight, but Shen Qingqiu's baby fat reappeared.
On the day of departure, the weather was extremely hot, and a group of people came in a horse-drawn carriage to take Yang Xiucai to the examination room.
The imperial examination system was strict, and every candidate had to be carefully checked before entering, so there was a long queue. Liu and Shen Qingqiu wanted to get off the carriage, but he stopped them, "Girls have delicate skin, and you're getting married soon, you can't hide your dark skin with makeup." With Mother Chen also pulling them, Liu sat in the carriage and lifted the curtain to look.
Shen Qingqiu was also hot and listless. Fortunately, Jin Cai had dug a bucket of ice and put it in the carriage before leaving.
Now, she fanned her and wiped the sweat off her neck with a handkerchief. She saw that her neck was covered with red spots. "This girl was like this last summer too. She gets a rash easily when exposed to heat." Liu also opened her daughter's clothes and took a look. "I'll go back and buy some plasters and apply them on you."
"The weather is really hot. We are outside like this. I wonder how hot it is for my uncle. Only a talented person can do well in the exam in this kind of weather." Mother Chen said.
Jin Cai looked at Ah Xiu, who was wiping Yang Zhengwen's sweat with a smile on her face, and said, "That's not necessarily true. I see that my uncle is studying hard now... It's hard to say..."
In such a hot day, Yang Xiucai kept persuading Ah Xiu to go back, but Ah Xiu just wiped his sweat and blew his wind.
"It was hot inside too. You couldn't get any wind."
Ah Xiu didn't listen either, "Master, just study hard, I will do the rest if I can."
Yang Xiucai sighed. He was about thirty years old, and with his wife's affairs, he had long lost the thought of romantic love. But Ah Xiucai was only sixteen or seventeen years old.
"A Xiu, you and I both come from humble backgrounds. You were forced into a brothel, but you are an innocent girl who can embroider and sew. But I am a man in my thirties with no career or house. I only have two sons in my hometown and a wife who is on the run from a lawsuit. It turns out that I am not worthy of you."
Ah Xiu didn't expect him to say this suddenly, and was stunned for a moment. Yang Zhengwen continued.
"At my age, I don't dare to monopolize a good girl like you, but you have taken good care of me for a year. I am not a plant or a tree, so I am not heartless. If I am lucky enough to pass the imperial examination this time, I am willing to take you as my concubine." Yang Zhengwen hurriedly explained, "It's not that I don't want to marry you. My original wife and I have not broken off the engagement. I can't marry again. She is now on the run. I don't want to divorce her without reason. I need to explain to our two children."
"If you don't want to..." Before Ah Xiu could answer, it was Yang Zhengwen's turn.
He was roughly pulled over and searched by the officers and soldiers, and after his identity was checked and found to be normal, he was pushed into the examination room.
After they waited for a long time in the carriage, Ah Xiu finally came back. Jin Cai quickly pulled down the carriage curtain to block out some of the scorching sun. But Ah Xiu had been keeping her head down since she came in. Liu felt something was wrong and forced her to look up, only to find that her face was covered with tears.
"What's wrong?" Liu quickly wiped her tears.
Ah Xiu choked up and said, "Master, you have agreed to marry me."
"Is this a good thing?" Mother Chen said, "It's a great thing. When Uncle comes out, we will buy red cloth and red lanterns to celebrate. Why are you crying?"
Ah Xiu said: "I just want to cry."
She originally thought that she would be like many prostitutes, living on sex, but she was lucky to meet the master, and it was okay for him to despise her. He treated her as a girl from a respectable family and treated her seriously... For a moment, she couldn't say anything, but the person who used to study hard seemed to suddenly come alive.
——
Yang Zhengwen said that he would only dare to marry Ah Xiu if he was lucky enough to pass the imperial examination.
Ah Xiu was originally a timid person, but seeing that he treated her so seriously, she directly used her own private money to buy fabric to make a wedding dress. She also told Mother Chen to prepare for her marriage with Yang Zhengwen. No matter whether he could pass the imperial examination or not, she would marry him.
"A man like my cousin deserves a good woman like Ah Xiu." Liu helped them to get married and said, "I am happy to see them getting married."
Mother Chen smiled and nodded, "Yes, we have been in Beijing for more than a year, and everything is going well. We can finally settle down with a wedding."
A few people laughed, bought some red lanterns and hung them high on the walls everywhere, waiting for Yang Xiucai to come out of the examination room so that they could put on the groom's clothes and get married.
The imperial examination lasted for more than ten days, but Yang Xiucai was thrown out by the soldiers on the fifth day.
The clothes he wore before entering the examination hall were stripped off, leaving only his inner shirt, with whip marks all over his body, and his face was covered in blood. He was slapped to the ground, with countless blood foaming from his mouth. The man pressed him to the ground, one leg pressed against his back to prevent him from getting up, and the other hand pulled his scalp.
"You are blatantly cheating in the imperial examination. Are you really that crazy?!"
As soon as Yang Xiucai opened his mouth, blood foamed out of his mouth. The officer didn't want to let him speak. He held his hand and made him sign on a piece of white paper covered with black words. Then he stood up and said, "Take him away and detain him." He folded the paper with the signature and put it in his arms, then went to the government office in the capital to report.
There were also people who cheated in the imperial examinations over the years, but these scholars did not become officials. If they were caught on the spot, they would either be imprisoned for a few days or not be allowed to take the exam in the future. It would not involve anyone's life. But Yang Xiucai's case was obviously pushed by someone behind the scenes. He had only been in prison for a short time, and the news that he was the future brother-in-law of Marquis Gu had already spread.
In this situation, Liu would naturally be caught by others if she went to visit her cousin, and it would alarm the palace, so even Gu Yong would not be able to take action.
It was only because Shen Qingqiu relied on the title of "Gu Qingqiu", the master of the textile factory, that he brought Ah Xiu into the prison of the Jingji government office to see Yang Zhengwen.
As soon as she saw people coming, Ah Xiu couldn't help but covered her mouth and started crying.
Although Yang Xiucai was not a heroic man, he was handsome and full of Confucian spirit. However, he was now huddled in the corner of the cell like a lost dog, and the blood on his body could be smelled from a distance. Hearing Ah Xiu's sobbing, Yang Zhengwen also turned around and saw Ah Xiu and Shen Qingqiu beside her.
“Uncle,” Shen Qingqiu looked at his festering wounds, thinking about how well he treated him. He felt his nose ache, and asked with red eyes, “Who hit you?”
Yang Zhengwen struggled to stand up and walked to the door, "A Xiu, take Qiu'er back. How old is she? How can she come to a place like this - cough cough"
"Uncle, it's already this late and you're still saying this," Shen Qingqiu frowned, "We don't have much time, tell me what happened that day, and we'll always find a way to get you out." Shen Qingqiu didn't believe that her uncle would cheat at all. If he really did cheat, why would he have studied so hard for more than a decade?
Yang Zhengwen held the wooden door, "It's not me who cheated. I heard clearly that the candidate named Wang was selling the answers to the imperial examination questions in the examination room. I told the examiner, but I was kicked out the next day for no apparent reason--" Yang Xiucai said, "I know that I have implicated Lord Gu in this matter, and I regret it very much. But the imperial examination concerns the officials and people of our dynasty, so I cannot help but speak out."
Shen Qingqiu nodded, "It's none of my uncle's business. Lord Gu was implicated so quickly. It's obvious that someone is behind this. Even if you, uncle, didn't say that someone cheated in the imperial examination, it would have ended like this." It wasn't Lord Gu who was implicated by my uncle, but someone was using him to deal with Lord Gu.
Shen Qingqiu clenched her hands. She didn't have many enemies in the capital, so it was easy to check them out. However, Gu Yong had blocked too many people. With so many political enemies, it was hard to say who was the culprit.
"It's time to come out."
The jailer reminded.
Shen Qingqiu could only put on his hat and prepare to go out. Ah Xiu wiped her tears, put the lunch box inside, told Yang Zhengwen to eat well, and then followed Shen Qingqiu away.
——
Early the next morning, in the court.
After all the ministers were called up, the emperor really asked, "Lord Gu, the big imperial examination cheating case that happened the other day, I heard someone say that the scholar who committed the crime is your future brother-in-law."
There was nothing to hide about this matter. Gu Yong clasped his fists and stepped onto the stage, saying honestly, "Your Majesty, Yang Zhengwen is the cousin of my future wife, Liu."
The emperor made an expression of understanding and said, "It's not a big case. Minister of Justice, how were the imperial examination cheating cases sentenced in the past?"
The Minister of Justice stepped out and answered honestly: "Sentence to two or three months in prison and be banned from taking the imperial examinations one to three times."
"Hmm? Is the sentence so light?" asked the emperor.
The Minister of Justice didn't know how to answer.
Soon someone wrote a letter saying, "Your Majesty, the court loves talents, and it is understandable that some candidates did such things out of confusion. It is not right to let their ten years of hard study go to waste because of a moment of confusion."
The emperor nodded and said, "Minister Lin, do you also think that the sentence should be light?" He glanced at Gu Yong again.
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