The Chief Examiner holds supreme authority; as the Chief Examiner, the Prince of Jing possessed the ultimate power to judge examination papers and interpret all matters.
She realized, in a daze, why the Prince had frequently left early and returned late around the time of their wedding; it seemed he had had his own official business to attend to. She had viewed him through the crack in a door, mistakenly assuming him to be nothing more than a blind, idle prince who went out only to fish or, like some spoiled fop, indulge in wine, song, and entertainment.
Ji Mu sensed the shift in her tone. “Are you surprised? Does this Prince not seem fit to be a Chief Examiner?”
“No.”
It wasn’t a question of being fit or unfit.
Shen Lizhuang did not know how to describe it. The Emperor had entrusted the task of the women’s academy examinations to the Prince of Jing, likely with the deliberate intent of isolating him and pushing him away from the whirlpool of power.
One must know that this year was the very first examination for the women’s academy. The registration process for candidates was simple, attracting people from all walks of life—like Li Zhao, that butcher girl, who could obtain eligibility as long as she possessed some learning and passed the preliminary screening. Many people, whether in the imperial court or among the commoners, maintained a wait-and-see attitude regarding the women’s academy and whether these women were truly capable of serving as textile supervisors. There were others who, despite being moved, still maintained a high-minded, disdainful attitude—holding their noses at the mere mention of the women’s academy—just to conform to the crowd.
For the literati, the Prince of Jing serving as Chief Examiner was not exactly a glorious achievement worth shouting from the rooftops. It only made the sycophants believe that the Prince of Jing’s faction had already fallen silent, with no hope of resurgence. Where should one cast their lot? Certainly not at the withered and lush alleyway outside the West Gate of Yujing.
Ji Mu gestured for Long Zhou to turn the horse’s head, changing their direction to detour into narrower alleys with fewer pedestrians.
Inside the balanced carriage, the fragmented shadows from the hanging curtains rolled layer upon layer over his long, thick lashes. Beneath the dense, upward-curved fringe, faded golden sunlight filtered down.
Shen Lizhuang heard the sound of him gripping the handkerchief he used to wipe his collar. “This Prince will say it again: the Imperial Court’s decision to promote the women’s academy is a shallow plan implemented in haste. Leaving the selection of the Chief Examiner to a blind, disabled person like myself is enough to prove the bleak and lusterless future of the academy. For you, it is also a narrow, dead-end road that is difficult to squeeze into.”
Shen Lizhuang did not care. “Even if, as Your Highness says, the women’s academy is the narrowest of narrow roads—a grain of sand dropped from the gaps between a man’s fingers—it is still a golden path to the heavens for the learned but unrecognized women across the Nine Provinces.”
At the very least, it was a path that would allow them to get a whiff of the scent of power.
Strangely, the Prince of Jing did not refute her statement.
However, Shen Lizhuang was still worried that she had been a bit reckless and touched upon his taboo, so after speaking, she lowered her head and remained silent.
Ji Mu calmly wiped the residual tea foam from his collar, the corners of his lips curling in an imperceptible way. “Will you take the exam next year?”
Shen Lizhuang was not certain. This year was the best opportunity, but she had already missed it.
She lifted her eyes. “Will Your Highness still be the Chief Examiner next year?”
Ji Mu smiled in a way that left her bewildered. “I should be.”
Shen Lizhuang bit her lip. “Then I should go, too.”
Next year, I am afraid I will become a student whose life or death is decided by a single stroke of your pen.
Ji Mu smiled faintly once again.
His fingertips, which had wiped his collar, still bore a trace of warm, moist dampness as they probed beneath her veil. Amidst Shen Lizhuang’s panic, that long, bony hand pressed its palm against her cheek, gripping lightly and covering her right cheek to rub it repeatedly. Outside the veil, a low chuckle followed.
“If my Princess comes to take the exam and passes, I will inevitably be impeached for showing favoritism. If she fails, I will be criticized for having a wife who was poorly taught by her pillow-talk companion.”
Shen Lizhuang was simpler than he. By this time next year, she would certainly no longer be his Princess. She hoped to stay far away from him by then. In any case, as a blind man, he wouldn’t be able to catch her.
She said, “Your Highness, when promoting from within, one does not avoid relatives; when promoting from without, one does not avoid enemies. I do not want special treatment, but I also hope that if one day I truly take the exam, Your Highness will not trip me up and cause all my previous efforts to be wasted.”
As she spoke, the carriage came to a stop.
Shen Lizhuang was startled. “This is not the Prince’s Manor.”
Ji Mu’s fingers slid down, landing on her soft hand. His large palm closed effortlessly, trapping her slender hand within his grip, maneuvering it as if he were turning a teacup. He whispered, “The Tribute Hall.”
The Tribute Hall. The Imperial Examination Tribute Hall!
Shen Lizhuang rolled up the carriage window curtain in surprise to look outside. Indeed, after the detour, the carriage was still passing by the road in front of the Tribute Hall.
The style of the ancient, eerie buildings and the atmosphere of the academic institution—filled with literary spirit—intertwined there.
Stepping over the threshold of the Tribute Hall and onto the heavy stone bricks, the surge of excitement and passion was indescribable. Shen Lizhuang pressed her palm against her chest, unable to curb the pounding of her heart, and her eyes beneath the veil could not help but scan her surroundings. This was her first time entering the Tribute Hall. She was not in the Shen family genealogy and lacked the qualifications to participate in the imperial examinations. Previously, to pass the preliminary screening, she had been forced to fabricate a fake identity as Li Ruozhi, but unfortunately, she was exposed before even stepping foot inside the door.
Even now, she was merely a visiting passerby, not a high-spirited candidate. The hand she held was not a fine goat-hair brush, but the Prince of Jing’s broad, warm, and fragrant palm. The immense sense of disparity was like a layer of soft gloom, enveloping her salty, damp heart.
Behind Ji Mu, Li Mao and Long Zhou waited for orders, serving at his side. His Highness suffered from an eye ailment, and sometimes his blind cane could not detect danger, requiring them to step in and assist.
But His Highness now… seemed to have found a more convenient blind cane.
The two men exchanged a glance, looked at the fingers of the Prince and Princess tightly intertwined, and quickly looked away.
Arriving at the study where Ji Mu handled affairs, Ji Mu said in a deep voice, “Go to the Juying Room and bring the examination papers.”
Li Mao and Long Zhou went to find the candidates’ papers, leaving only Shen Lizhuang to assist Ji Mu in sitting down.
“Tea,” he said.
In consideration of the fact that he was investigating fraud, Shen Lizhuang temperately handed over a cup of warm, not-too-hot tea.
The tea leaves steeped here were also Jade Guanyin. Over these past few days, Shen Lizhuang had grown accustomed to this quiet, ethereal, and faint scent—so familiar that she could distinguish it without even leaning in close.
“Does Your Highness believe Li Zhao’s report is true?”
“Not certain.”
“Your Highness is upright and self-possessed, with a noble and forthright spirit. You certainly have never taken bribes, been corrupt, or lined your own pockets. I believe in Your Highness.”
Ji Mu’s thin lips curled, his emotions unclear. “Although I am the Chief Examiner, the matter of grading papers is handled by the inner-curtain officials. They review the articles of the selected students. If they decide a paper is worthy of a top-tier ranking, they have someone read it to me.”
“Read to me” meant that the Prince of Jing only listened to the papers being read. That left far too much room for manipulation. The Prince of Jing was only responsible for evaluating the quality of the articles; he was not responsible for selecting specific individuals. Moreover, the names on the papers were all obscured. If his subordinates were insincere and acted behind his back, deceiving the Chief Examiner by treating him like a blind man, who could say otherwise?
Shen Lizhuang had not participated in this year’s exams, but at this moment, her back could not help but feel slightly damp. A huge sense of regret and the shadows in her heart seemed to dissipate a little. The inner workings of the imperial examinations had reshaped her understanding.
Even if she had successfully passed the preliminary round this year and entered the academy for the final exams, she would likely have ended up nameless because she did not know how to flatter or curry favor.
Ji Mu lifted his chin slightly. A beam of oblique light shone on his porcelain-like jade skin, making even the fine, soft hairs on his jawline appear clear and distinct amidst the floating dust.
Ji Mu gripped Shen Lizhuang’s delicate wrist and pulled her into his embrace on the long bench. When Shen Lizhuang leaned down and bumped into him, the rim of her veil knocked against Ji Mu’s collarbone. His expression did not change, and he pressed her against his chest.
He whispered, “I had them bring the unmasked essay drafts as well. You look through them and find the examination papers of the Li and Xu families.”
Shen Lizhuang felt dissatisfied with the way the Prince of Jing referred to the candidates as “so-and-so Li” and “so-and-so Xu,” but she did not voice it and simply complied.
Vaguely, uncontrollably, she wondered if one day she would be the nameless “Shen” among the masses in his mouth. Actually, this was originally a good thing; not being special or eye-catching was the only way to possibly muddle through. But her heart still felt a little uncomfortable.
The papers were brought. Huge, thick stacks of essay drafts were piled high like mountains on the Prince of Jing’s desk.
Li Mao and Long Zhou dropped the papers and, not daring to take a close look at the pair intertwined behind the desk, silently retreated, standing back-to-back on either side to keep a serious watch.
Ji Mu’s long fingers rubbed over the neatly cut papers, his thin lips curved as he said to Shen Lizhuang, “Help?”
Shen Lizhuang was dumbfounded. There were so many; this would take until nightfall! She remained stuck on the long bench like a wooden bird, her limbs stiff as she fidgeted. Thinking of how the Prince of Jing directed her so naturally, she felt very disgruntled.
“Why is Your Highness certain that I will help?”
“I guessed.”
Fine, he guessed correctly.
She understood the deep waters of the women’s academy only in pieces, but now she was anxious to find the truth. If Li Zhao’s words were true, then there were indeed people in the Tribute Hall forming cliques and engaging in fraud. If Li Zhao’s words were entirely groundless, then it was a case of students framing each other out of jealousy and splashing filth. Either way, it seemed to point to the dangers of this narrowest of narrow paths.
Yet Shen Lizhuang could only force herself to calm down, stand up, and patiently remove the paper masking the names from the papers, flipping through them from the top stack downward.
Fortunately, she did not have to flip to the very end; she actually found it. Shen Lizhuang’s face lit up with joyful luck.
“Your Highness, I found Xu Tangdi’s examination paper.”
“Read.”
With one arm wrapped around her slender waist, the Prince of Jing—the hand wearing the plain silver ring fiddling with a transparent porcelain cup—spoke in a voice that was half-floating and half-sinking, like the Guanyin tea leaves drifting in the cup.
Shen Lizhuang held up the paper, just about to raise her voice to read, but her eyes had already scanned the short-answer paper ten lines at a glance. The words at the beginning stuck in her throat. She held the two-foot-long paper, bewildered, and bit her lip. “This paper seems to be different from what Li Zhao said.”
“There are no incoherent sentences, no shallow mistakes in wording. On the contrary, it seems to be quite a decent article, and the handwriting is… rich and full, like a forest of spears and halberds. If it is true that ‘the calligraphy is the person,’ then this candidate Xu is a person of upright and arrogant integrity.”
To be able to write such an article and possess such arrogance, she likely disdained to bribe the examiner or engage in sordid, dog-eat-dog affairs.
Ji Mu did not comment, only urging his Princess: “Keep looking. The essay/policy question paper of the Li family.”
Seeing her sluggish and not moving much, Ji Mu applied some force with his palm, which was cupped against the hollow of her jade-like waist, giving it a gentle yet firm pinch.
That segment of jade-like waist reacted like a carp, slipping away and springing back. A breath of annoyed, rapid breathing fell upon his ears.
Ji Mu was repaying her for making fun of him in the carriage earlier, his brows and eyes slightly curled.
“Your Highness, I found Li Zhao’s examination paper.”
It didn’t take long before Shen Lizhuang pulled Li Zhao’s paper from the stacks of drafts.
However, her brows soon furrowed deeply.
“This is not quite right. The words are incoherent and the meaning is muddled. This looks like the article Li Zhao claimed Xu Tangdi wrote.”
Author’s Note:
Little Pear Flower hasn’t fallen in love yet! Her discomfort with “so-and-so Li” stems from the fact that they worked so hard to take the exam, yet in their eyes, they are still just a group of people who are hard to even leave their names behind. She knows that wanting to leave her name in history is too difficult. As for Ji the Scoundrel, he is truly a bit in love; the man who loves to feign indifference just wants to bully his wife and tease her.