Princess Qin Zhaowan was listening attentively as Lin Qiwu, the headmaster of Qingyun Academy, confirmed the entire preliminary examination process.
This was originally a plan she devised herself; now it's just a formality to ensure everything goes perfectly.
The Fourth Princess, Qin Zhaoshu, stood quietly a step behind her Third Sister, but her gaze subtly swept across the crowd and landed on the examination team fifty paces away.
She secretly admired her, thinking that her third sister was indeed talented.
This preliminary test was already attracting much attention and controversy due to the unprecedented "supplementary enrollment".
In order to silence public opinion and ensure fairness and impartiality, the third sister implemented an extremely transparent system.
Because the exam is only held for one day and the number of participants is extremely small, the practice of anonymizing and sealing the exam papers has been discontinued.
After the exam, papers are graded on the spot and reviewed publicly.
After the marking and evaluation were completed, the results and rankings were posted on the bulletin board outside the gate of Qingyun Academy, allowing the public to view and comment.
It includes the Department of Ceremonial Affairs, the Department of Astronomy, the Imperial Academy, private academies, and ordinary people.
This ensures maximum transparency and credibility of the results, minimizing any potential controversy that the "supplementary recording" might cause.
That's fine, but the brilliance lies in choosing Qingyun Academy as the location for the preliminary test.
An academy that is neither particularly good nor bad is just like a clever fulcrum.
With a gentle pry, the established order of those academies and universities that controlled top resources was shaken.
Imagine if Qingyun Academy were to use this opportunity to open girls' classes and reap the benefits, would the other top-ranked academies still be able to sit still? Would the Imperial Academy still be able to remain uninvolved?
Just as Xiao Liu said in the Imperial Study, in terms of strategic planning, the Third Sister was indeed a step ahead of the Eldest Sister.
However, the source of all this can be traced back to Xiao Liu's "willful" and unexpected act at the literary gathering.
With almost no effort, they dismantled the most stubborn resistance of the nobles and elites, completing the first step.
Xiao Liu's target, Zheng Huiyin, happened to be born into the Cui family, one of the four great aristocratic families.
Is all of this really just a coincidence?
The more Qin Zhaoshu got to know his sixth sister, the more he felt that she was shrouded in mystery.
Recalling the assessment of himself in the Imperial Study, where Xiao Liu described him as "more capable of maintaining the status quo than making progress," and the assertion that he was a "wise and enlightened ruler of a prosperous era," he was filled with a myriad of emotions.
Why……
With a soft sigh, her gaze, filled with complex emotions, drifted towards the casual group led by her sixth sister not far away, and then...
Qin Zhaoshu's calm eyes widened instantly!
What did she see?
Xiao Liu fell asleep standing up, a suspicious glint of moisture slowly and stubbornly trailing down her slightly parted lips.
This is not surprising; it was already performed once during the morning court session at the Phoenix Palace.
That was fine, but Qin Zhaoshu's gaze followed Xiao Liu's slightly backward-leaning body to find a foothold and landed on the two small figures behind her.
Xiao Qi and Xiao Ba, the two children, are currently in a standard horse stance, using their tender yet remarkably sturdy shoulders to support their sixth sister's back!
Xiao Liu leaned comfortably against his two younger brothers' backs, sleeping as soundly as a mountain!
Qin Zhaoshu felt a surge of blood rushing to the top of his head.
Have you no shame?
She made her two younger brothers stand in a horse stance as her sleeping mat? And they were even drooling in their sleep?
Where is the demeanor of a royal princess? Where is the dignity of an elder sister? Where is the bottom line of being a decent human being?
A surge of shame and indignation welled up within him, and several throbbing veins popped out on Qin Zhaoshu's forehead.
His fist clenched tightly in his sleeve, almost unable to resist rushing over to shake that shameful guy awake.
Phew... Calm down...
At dawn, as the sky began to lighten, the streets and alleys were already packed with people and scholars who had rushed over upon hearing the news.
The carriages and horses could barely move. The yamen runners of the Jingzhao Prefecture were stretched thin, and even the imperial guards that had been pre-arranged had to intervene to clear a passage through the surging crowd.
The talented women recommended by Zhongchen Dao have begun to arrive one after another.
Today is not a time for literary competitions; they are all dressed in plain cloth or fine linen gowns.
Her hair was adorned only with a simple wooden or bamboo hairpin, and her entire outfit was devoid of any luxurious embellishments.
Only the solemnity and determination between his brows revealed that this moment was extraordinary.
Under the watchful eyes of countless people, I straightened my back and walked steadily through the passage.
The surrounding discussions surged like a tide, with speculations about her talent, comments on her demeanor, and various opinions on the women's imperial examinations.
Instead of deterring them, it ignited an even stronger light in their bright eyes.
Helian Chaolu's figure appeared at the end of the passage.
He wore a dark, narrow-sleeved Hu-style robe, a matching leather belt around his waist, soft-soled leather boots, and his hair was styled in a high bun, secured only by an antique silver ring.
This neat outfit, with its distinctive northwestern frontier style, stands out exceptionally among the plain white garments.
Her appearance immediately stirred up an uncontrollable commotion and whispers among the crowd.
After all, this man's poetic talent was already renowned among scholars, and his poems were widely circulated among the common people.
Seeing it with their own eyes at this moment naturally excited everyone.
As if it had been planned, Princess Xiao Yunshuo of Shuofeng arrived gracefully shortly afterward.
Her attire was equally simple: a dark blue riding outfit with a silver fox fur collar, and her long hair braided into several braids that hung down her shoulders, with no other embellishments.
As the driving force behind this supplementary preliminary examination, and because Helian Chaolu highly praised his talent, Xiao Yunshuo's arrival instantly ignited a second, even more enthusiastic climax.
Countless eyes were focused on her, but few were kind; most were scrutinizing and disdainful.
The troops stationed in the northern border are well known to all the people of Fengjing.
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