Shi Xiangyuan thought that if she could meet Long Yu on the street in the future, she would persuade her, but she didn't have many opportunities to go out on the street, and she never met Long Yu again. Gradually, she put it aside. She felt even more that she was better to stay in Cheng's mansion. She had food and drink and had no need to worry about favoring her. The only regret was that she had no children. She still liked children very much. After all, Qinglan had foresight and decided to be an aunt early. Now the three ladies in the mansion really respected her.

Just when she was confused about this, Zhuhua came to her. Zhuhua wanted to embroider the pattern on the gauze cloth. Qiuyun tried it several times but couldn't embroider it. Zhuhua thought of Shixiang. After trying to ask Shixiang for help, Shixiang did not refuse. Later, Zhuhua asked her to help her several times, and the two of them were familiar with each other. Zhuhua always felt that Shixiang was very good to her, and it was a bit too much. Zhuhua also thought about whether Shixiang had something to ask for her, but Shixiang didn't speak, and she didn't ask.

When Xu Mu met Zhuhua, she also went to Shi Xiang to talk about embroidery. Zhuhua also gave Shi Xiang a few Shi Xiang's new head flowers as a gift. Shi Xiang has always liked these. After chatting for a while, Zhuhua came out of Shi Xiang's courtyard. When she arrived outside the door, she saw that Xu Mu was not in place. She relaxed her expression and happily returned to the courtyard. She looked at Yinhua who was reading a book under the eaves.

Since Zhuhua proved that those ancient beauty recipes were indeed effective, Yinhua no longer spent all her time on clothes and jewelry. Zhuhua bought a lot of books over the years, and she sorted out all the ones containing the beauty recipes and gave them to Yinhua. These days Yinhua devoted all her thoughts to studying the prescriptions. Seeing that she was looking at it seriously, Zhuhua leaned over and stood beside her for a while.

"Sister, you can read books. Don't look at the light, as it can easily hurt your eyes." Zhuhua reminded him.

"Oh." Yinhua responded, turned her body toward Zhuhua, and looked up and asked, "Have you gone to see that person again?"

Although Yinhua recognized Qinglan, she did not agree with Shixiang who was climbing the bed back then. She knew that Zhuhua had been close to her these days and felt uncomfortable and often advised her.

Zhuhua nodded, afraid that Yinhua would say to her again, so she immediately turned around: "Guess who I saw on the way I went?"

"Who? Xu Mu?"

"How do you know?"

"Now there are two yards in the back cover room. Who else can you see besides Xu Mu? Speaking of which, I haven't seen him for many years. I didn't expect that he would be admitted to the juren at such a young age. When he was a child, he liked you so much and wanted to take you home as his sister." Yinhua said with emotion, and raised her eyebrows meaningfully and looked at Zhuhua, wanting to see Zhuhua's shy expression.

"Don't he likes you?" Zhuhua smiled lightly. She was used to bickering with Yinhua. She said without stopping her words. She immediately regretted it after she said that. She secretly glanced at Yinhua's slightly changed face. She sighed: "It's a pity that you don't like his sister."

Last time Yinhua returned home, Xu Mu's sister started to ask her for something, but later Yinhua refused to give it to her, so she said that Yinhua was stingy. Yinhua was angry for several days after she found out. She and Xu Mu didn't play often before. Later, after Xu Mu learned from an adult, Xu Mu's sister wanted Zhuhua to be her sister, she had no good expression on the three sisters of the Cheng family. Yinhua didn't care about a little girl's face, so she played with Xu Mu since she was a child. Later, when Xu Mu went to school, she learned calligraphy from him. She knew that Xu Mu's sister didn't like her, but she insisted on going to Xu Mu's house to play. Sometimes she would take Xu Mu to find other friends, but she didn't take Xu Mu's sister.

"His sister is really bad, and so is his grandmother, but he is still good. Also, don't talk nonsense. Now that they live in our mansion, do you still want to kiss me if you get a message?"

"Anyway, you are in front of me..." Zhuhua muttered, and saw Yinhua's cold face, he quickly smiled: "What my second sister taught me is that my younger sister knows that she is wrong and will never dare to talk nonsense again."

"It's good that you know." Yinhua nodded with satisfaction.

"I don't know if Xu Mu will be able to win the Jinshi this time. If he wins, maybe a senior official in the capital will recruit him as his son-in-law."

"How could he be a Jinshi at such a young age?" Yinhua said lightly. Xu Mu in her memory was not of amazing talent and looked ordinary. If he had any worry, he would just be serious and hardworking. But he passed the imperial examination at the age of fifteen, which shows that he was still a bit talented, and maybe he could really become a Jinshi.

Even so, Yinhua didn't care much about Xu Mu.

A few days later, Yinhua went out to the bookstore. She thought Zhuhua's books on beauty recipes were too complicated, and many of them seemed to be edited, so she wanted to pick a few books by herself. After staying in the bookstore for a while, she saw a young lady and a young man entering the bookstore. Yinhua was working hard, but she didn't look up and see who the person was. Instead, the man recognized her.

"Isn't this Miss Cheng Er? Why don't you go to the cloth shop and change to the bookstore today?"

Yinhua looked up at her, but after a while he didn't recognize who she was, so she smiled and glanced at her and the young master beside her, and said, "You are the same, it's so elegant."

"This is my brother." The woman said unhappy, then turned her head and said to her brother on purpose: "Brother, this is Miss Cheng Er, who was famous with the Jia family's young master last year."

Yinhua pursed her lips after hearing this, and then sneered, "You don't need to be envious, you are the most famous now."

"What do you mean?" The woman's face changed and she asked her angrily.

Yinhua smiled but did not answer, and put the selected one by Xia Bai, who was Qiu Bai, who had previously asked her to pay the bill. Xia Bai deliberately looked at her and smiled at her and helped Yinhua support the venue.

"Tell me clearly..." the woman stepped forward and asked.

"Yi'er..." His brother called her, and he felt a little sorry for Yinhua owing her body.

Yinhua remembered who she was now. She seemed to be the daughter of the Minister of Rites. She was surnamed Si Niang, and everyone called her Si Niang. The brother beside her was probably Si Sanlang, a talented and famous Si Sanlang. In the past, Yinhua had checked the unmarried young master of the civil servant family in Beijing. Si Sanlang was the best choice, even if she had never chosen her before, let alone now. Since that was the case, Yinhua did not pretend to be knowledgeable in front of him. Xia Bai just paid the money and came back. Yinhua bowed a little and took Xia Bai away. When he went out, he heard Si Niang stomping her feet in anger.

Although she smiled secretly, she felt a little sad. As expected, if her reputation is bad, it is bad. It is probably not easy for her to find a good marriage again.

"Miss, are we going home now?"

"No, we'll walk on the street for a while before we go back."

After hearing this, Xia Bai followed her respectfully, leaving a distance to avoid attracting Yinhua's eyes. Yinhua walked aimlessly for a while, and finally she felt better. There were many scholars on the street, and many girls stood on the side of the road in groups, looking around. Yinhua was a little conspicuous when she walked alone. When Yinhua noticed it, she happened to walk to a teahouse. Just as she was about to get on the carriage, she heard someone in the teahouse talking about Jia Zechen and mentioned her a few words. She didn't want to be too much, so she got on the carriage. As soon as she sat down, she heard the noise in the teahouse.

Xia Bai leaned out and took a look, and replied, "It seems like Mr. Xu, who is staying in the mansion, has a conflict with someone."

"Xu Mu?" Yinhua couldn't help but smile and ordered: "But are people from the mansion following you? You can't let our Cheng Mansion guests be bullied outside!"

After leaning out and looking for a while, Xia Bai shrank back and said, "It's nothing wrong. Those who are gossiping are not good people."

"That's good, go back."

When the carriage left, Xu Mu didn't know that Yinhua had passed by the door. He thanked the young master who rescued him, and then met Zhang Liang hurried over. Zhang Liang suffered the loss of offending noble people in the early years, and was afraid that his nephew would commit the same crime, so he couldn't help but say he harshly, thanking the young master who helped, which made Xu Mu feel particularly embarrassed. The young master didn't care. He disliked him, and after a few greetings, he left with a middle-aged man.

Zhang Liang was curious about the identities of the two, but he didn't dare to ask more questions. As soon as they left, he glared at Xu Mu again.

"I'll talk to you carefully when I go back."

"Yes." Xu Mu responded dissatisfiedly. It was not his fault, so who told them to say that Yinhua.

After listening to their words, he realized that Yinhua's life in the capital was very difficult. People who spoke with a straight temper and harsh words would definitely attract people to hate. Look, isn't it that someone has arranged her bad words to ruin her reputation? I wonder if she is sad about it?

Besides, after the young man who rescued Xu Mu left the teahouse, he walked quietly on the street with the middle-aged man who was walking with him for a while until he walked on the road without students on the street, the man who was walking with him spoke.

"His Highness Ping and that student know each other?"

"No, I just see that they are both students and hope that they will get along well and not cause trouble before the exam." Ping Wang Qianhe said.

"Your Highness is kind, and I admire you."

"You are kind to you, Lord Zeng."

The two chatted for a few more times, then got on the carriage at the intersection and separated.

This year's scientific examination is still under the responsibility of the Ministry of Personnel. The emperor specially transferred the crown prince as the chief examiner and appointed three deputy examiners, including Wang Ping and Lord Zeng as one of the deputy examiners.

When the New Year began, four adult princes took office. King Ji went to the Ministry of Justice, which he had always been very interested in. These days, he was addicted to strange cases in the old file and vowed to solve a shocking case that could not uncover the mystery of the skeleton of the Prince Ping's Mansion. The fourth prince, the King of Chu, went to the Hanlin Academy, and the fifth prince, King Jiang, went to the Ministry of Rites. In addition, His Highness, His Royal Highness, who was originally in the Ministry of Revenue and King Huo, who served in the Ministry of War, had several adult princes, and he paid attention to it for a while. Especially when King Ping and the Prince jointly presided over the scientific examination, it seemed to give the court officials a hint. They all thought that even if other princes were adults, the prince that the emperor valued the most was the prince.

The position of King Ping was in the Ministry of Rites, but the emperor intended to change the imperial examination from the Ministry of Personnel to the Ministry of Rites, so he asked King Ping and another official from the Ministry of Rites to come to serve as deputy examiners. The previous few scientific examinations had two deputy examiners. This time, he added one because he was worried that King Ping would miss his son if he was not experienced enough. King Ping also knew that he would just be named after him, and according to his temperament, he would not rush to come up with any ideas. He would go to places where there were many candidates gathered everywhere, and he would do his own job and might even find out some special news.

He didn't expect to meet Mr. Zeng here today, maybe this is the real gain.

Seven days later, the exam began. The exam was divided into three sessions, each session was three days and two nights. After one session, I went home to rest for a day. Despite this, during this period of warm weather, the examination in the ventilated test period also had a great test for the physical strength of the candidates. The Gongyuan has only been newly cultivated for five or six years, and it is still clean, but the food provided is a bit unpalatable. The weather in Chang'an at the end of February was still very cold, and the food was already cold when the food was assigned to the candidates. Some of the pampered candidates could not swallow it at all, but these sufferings were nothing to students from poor families.

But there is one kind of hardship that is even more unfavorable to poor students, that is, cold. It goes without saying that the things that poor students use to keep the cold are nothing more than quilts, unlike the noble children who have fur and clothes, and some even prepare charcoal basins.

Neither Zhang Liang nor Xu Lin had these things. Before the exam started, the people from Cheng's family went outside to inquire and bought some basic supplies for them. As for the brazier, the people in the house did not expect to take them. No one mentioned them in the previous exams. The two of them were not envious. It was already very good for the Cheng's family to help them so many. Before leaving, the lady in the house asked the servants to prepare two pairs of finger-exposed gloves for them. Unfortunately, when the inspection was in the tribute court, the person who inspected them said that they could not bring them and were confiscated.

Xu Mu was very sorry for a while. He always felt that the glove was made by Yinhua himself.

The day before the exam, he had seen Yinhua in the yard, and the two of them said a few words from afar. Yinhua had not changed at all. It was the girl who looked so powerful that she was actually timid and easily deceived. She must not know that he had believed that she would be his wife since he was very young.

At that time, he clamored to want Zhuhua to be his sister, so he wanted a quiet sister. As long as the sister stopped crying, grandma would not scold people in the yard and gave birth to a money-losing product, mother would not cry secretly, and father would not be in a dilemma. But the family members did not agree to let him change his sister. Yes, how could he agree? Later, my mother secretly told him that when he married Yinhua as his wife in the future, Zhuhua would be his sister, so that he would have a sister who would not cry. At that time, he thought this was really good. He and Yinhua became a family and no longer had to stay in the noisy family. How great is the Cheng family, everyone in the family always smiled, as if there was nothing to worry about.

Gradually, his sister grew up a little less crying, and there was no more noise at home. However, this was not because his sister stopped crying, but because his uncle opened a private school to teach and let him go to study for free. Grandma saw his uncle's face and no longer made things too difficult for his mother. Perhaps if he wanted to live a quiet life in the future, he had to study hard like his uncle. Only by studying hard can he go to the capital where the emperor lived and meet Yinhua, who became a lady in the official position, again.

But he still didn't learn well enough and he barely passed the Juren. It would be difficult to win the Jinshi again. Yinhua is already at the age of engagement. Should he watch her marry someone else? He has to work harder, and Xu Mu stared at the questions on the paper and wrote quickly.

After the three exams, Zhang Liang and Xu Mu were as haggard and sloppy as other candidates. When they walked out of the tribute school, they were frivolous. Several candidates couldn't even stand and almost rolled down the steps. Xu Mu's physical strength was still acceptable, and he grabbed a slippery candidate beside him.

"Brother, be careful."

"Thank you, brother." The man came to his senses and bowed to Xu Mu. At this time, the sharp-eyed servant in the crowd saw him and hurried over to help him. He asked Xu Mu's name and made friends. Unfortunately, the door was not a place to talk. He really had no strength, so he could only watch Xu Mu get on a carriage from Cheng's mansion and leave.

"Cheng Mansion?" He thought about it carefully, but he couldn't figure it out. His mind was so swelling that he could not have any thoughts.

The same was true for Zhang Liang and Xu Mu. After returning to Cheng Mansion, they took a hot bath and ate a bowl of hot noodle soup and fell asleep. They lay down until the next morning. They heard from their own book boy that the entrance of the Gongyuan was in chaos after the exam. There was an old juren with a gray beard and fainted and had not woken up yet. When Sun found out, he felt very moved that seeing this path to Congwen may not be easier than Congwu.

During the exam, several candidates in the tribute school fell ill after failing to take the exam. They had been placed in the tribute school room before and were carried out after the exam was over. The onlookers counted at the door, and a total of twelve were carried out. Well... the twelve unconscious candidates were four fewer than the previous class, and the people seemed to be quite disappointed.

Even though the weather in February this year is warmer than last year, the people still feel that more candidates will be unconscious this year than last year, because this time, there are King Ping. Who is King Ping? He is the owner of the Ghost King's Mansion, which means that his evil spirits are heavy. Didn't you hear that Miss Shen's family who went to the palace died of evil spirits? It is said that in order to calm the resentment of evil ghosts in the palace, King Ping specially built a yard to support them. The craftsmen responsible for building the yard were either sick or their family members were sick. Only King Ping stayed in the palace without any accident.

On the first day of the New Year, when I heard that the Pingwanghui will be the deputy chief officer of this conference, some people who are interested in the incident would discuss whether something might happen. As a result, not only did nothing happen, but there were fewer candidates who fell ill? Could it be that the fortune of Pingwang has changed?

Just when the people were thinking this way, the first large-scale imperial examination fraud case in Kangchao's history was exposed. When they heard the news, the people of Chang'an were so excited. But the candidates started to make trouble, and a few thorns were stuck in the official department every day to ask for an explanation. The officials were also worried, afraid that this would affect them. You should know whose family has no candidate in the household, and even new military officers like Cheng's house live in the house. If these two candidates did something privately, this matter would not be involved in them.

The cause of the incident was that when the reviewer corrected the case, he found that some people's answers were similar, and even two people's answers were almost the same. They thought this was wrong, so they asked someone to check these people on the grounds and found that one of them had spent a lot of money and said that he would definitely win. They quickly reported the matter. When His Royal Highness knew about it, he did not dare to hide it. While reporting to the emperor, he went to check it himself. As a result, Lord Zeng was found.

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I found that the little cutie on the bookshop was leaving a message. Let me explain that I can see the message book on the bookshop, but I can't reply. Only Xiaoxiang can reply. I hope you can forgive me~
Chapter completed!