Even though the red ranking list had been posted for most of the day, the crowd in Wanping City remained restless and surging.
“Young master, about that bet of one hundred taels of gold earlier… if the Master finds out about it…”
“Shut up,” Hong Yongwang snapped in irritation. “I know what I’m doing. Qingshan Academy only manages to get one or two names on the list each year. Even Zheng Yuan, the son of the Minister of Revenue, is studying obediently. Them? Not worth mentioning.”
The attendant’s unease deepened. Ever since their young master entered Qingshan Academy, one humiliating incident had followed another.
The scout at the front wiped sweat from his forehead as he pushed through the crowd.
“How is it? What rank is the young master?”
The scout lowered his head, his hands trembling slightly, standing off to the side without a word.
“Speak!” Hong Yongwang lost his patience. “All of you act like servants but don’t even behave like them!”
“Young master… my eyes haven’t been well recently. The light is dim, I really cannot see clearly,” the scout stammered.
Hong Yongwang kicked him. “Useless! I’ll see for myself!”
He forced his way forward, his folding fan nearly poking someone’s eye. The passerby cursed at him in fright while his attendants hurriedly apologized on his behalf.
Standing on tiptoe, Hong Yongwang stared at the red list, muttering, “First place must be from Yucai Academy…”
“Not them? Murong, Shangguan? Never heard of them.”
He urgently searched for his own name, scanning back and forth, but could not find it anywhere.
“Come here! Find my name!” he barked.
The scout exchanged a subtle glance with the other attendant. A silent understanding passed between them.
“Yes, young master!”
Sigh, better prepare themselves. Tonight they would likely receive a beating.
Moonlight emerged faintly as panic began to rise in Hong Yongwang’s chest. “How could I, a son of the Hong family, possibly fail the exam?”
Just then, a cool voice came from behind him.
“Brother Hong, stretching your neck so far, what rank are you looking for?”
Hong Yongwang turned around and met Murong Yun’s faintly smiling gaze. She wore a coarse blue robe, the jade pendant at her waist glowing softly under the moonlight.
At that moment, Murong Yun looked like a grim reaper come to claim his life, making Hong Yongwang’s legs weaken.
“Brother Hong, if you cannot see clearly, I can read the list for you,” Shangguan Xuan said, standing with folded arms beside Murong Yun.
They looked like a pair of black and white impermanence spirits.
Hong Yongwang’s face flushed red. Then he forced himself to stay calm. “You two may not have even made it onto the list!”
Murong Yun paused, tapping her temple with a finger. “Shangguan, I almost forgot to introduce us to Brother Hong. How rude of us.”
She smiled. “I am Shangguan Xuan, and this is Murong Yun.”
The moment he heard this, Hong Yongwang’s mind flashed to the top of the ranking list, and his body stiffened.
His two attendants immediately became excited.
“Zhuangyuan! The top scholar of the imperial exam! Murong Yun actually became the top scorer!”
“The first and second place are even friends!”
Hong Yongwang shoved through the crowd. “Impossible! Impossible!”
He stared at the very top of the list, his eyes fixed on the bold black characters. His hands trembled as he counted down the names again and again, but he still could not find his own.
By the time he reached the bottom, his vision went dark. He staggered and collapsed to the ground. People walked past, some stepping on his hand, but he had no strength left to react.
“Brother Hong, when will you send that hundred taels of gold to Qingshan Academy? I’m waiting to buy meat,” Murong Yun said, crouching beside him. She sighed dramatically near his ear, then patted his shoulder with a sympathetic smile.
Hong Yongwang nearly vomited blood from rage.
Three days later, in the bamboo forest behind Qingshan Academy.
Murong Yun leapt upward, lightly cutting through a bamboo stalk. With internal energy, half the bamboo forest rustled violently.
She stopped in time and turned to Shangguan Xuan. “How is it?”
Shangguan Xuan nodded in approval. “You learn quickly. No problem for self-defense. If you meet a real master, just run. I trust your ability to escape.”
Murong Yun lifted her chin. “Being good at running away is also a skill.”
“That’s true,” Shangguan Xuan said, picking up a food box. The small mole at his neck stood out beneath his pale robe.
“This outfit suits you,” Murong Yun said, pausing. “As expected of my taste.”
After receiving the one hundred taels of gold, she had used part of it to buy them better clothing and daily necessities, mainly so they could look presentable when out.
The rest had been donated to the academy.
Before they went up the mountain, Granny Wei had specially prepared chicken soup for them, saying they needed nourishment after sword training.
The soup was rich and fragrant. The two sat in the bamboo forest eating Murong Yun’s bowl piled with far more meat than Shangguan Xuan’s food box. She kept placing more meat into his bowl.
“You eat too little. Eat more.”
He was still growing at sixteen. He was already a head taller than her now.
“You haven’t taken the donated gold to Teacher Zhao yet. Are you sure you don’t want to keep some for yourself?” Murong Yun asked, glancing at his plain clothes.
“I have no family. I can survive anywhere. As long as I can earn a living with my own hands, it is enough. If this money can help future students of the academy, that is also a kind of merit.”
“It is your merit,” Shangguan Xuan said seriously.
The bamboo forest was quiet except for their voices. His tone was gentle and refined.
“Mine?” Murong Yun looked up from her bowl.
Sweat from training clung to her lashes, and a faint flush colored the corners of her eyes. Her features, sharp yet softened by loose hair, appeared unexpectedly gentle.
Shangguan Xuan brushed a strand of hair from her temple. “Have you heard of Mulan going to war?”
Murong Yun coughed slightly at the sudden touch. “Yes. She even won the war afterward.”
Shangguan Xuan asked, “Why was no one able to discover that she was a woman? Could disguises really be that perfect?”
Murong Yun puffed her cheeks slightly. “Maybe it wasn’t that the disguise was perfect, but that people around her were careless and underestimated a woman’s courage.”
No one expected a woman to risk execution and join the army.
“I see,” Shangguan Xuan said, looking at her. “Lately, I keep thinking about you when I am alone.”
Murong Yun choked on her breath and coughed repeatedly. After recovering, she laughed. “Then I’ll go to Jiangnan alone. Don’t come.”
“I’m afraid you’ll be so fascinated by my charm on the road that you’ll think of me every day.”
She spoke without hesitation, completely natural.
The faint hope in Shangguan Xuan’s heart dimmed slightly. She still did not like him.
“Then I must go with you. If I see you too often, I’ll get tired of it,” he said.
On the Jiangnan road, Murong Yun lifted the carriage curtain and took a deep breath. The air was moist, filling her lungs.
Willows lined both sides of the road. Beside them flowed a green river, where painted boats drifted and faint music floated across the water, overlapping with her memories of Jiangnan.
This was the same road she had once fled along after waking up in the Murong household.
“What is it?” Shangguan Xuan noticed her faint sigh.
“If I go home dressed like this, I’ll probably be chased out,” Murong Yun said jokingly.
Her mother was tolerant, but would her father really risk offending the court just to accept her actions?
The carriage stopped outside a secluded manor in Jiangnan’s misty rain lanes. Murong Yun hesitated for a long time.
“Afraid?” Shangguan Xuan asked with a teasing smile, fanning her lightly.
Murong Yun glared at him. “I am the legitimate eldest daughter of the Murong family. At most my father will smash a teacup to scare me. He won’t actually break my legs.”
“You don’t need to get down,” she added. “Take this silver and stay at a nearby inn for two nights. Come find me after that. Do not let the Murong family notice you.”
Shangguan Xuan took the silver and watched as she walked unwillingly toward the gate.
“Guard the area carefully for the next two days,” he told the coachman. “Report anything unusual immediately.”
“Yes, young master.”
At the entrance, a servant dozing beside the stone lion suddenly saw a handsome young man approaching step by step.
“Y Young lady?” he stammered, falling backward in shock. “Why are you dressed like this?”
Murong Yun stepped forward. “From now on, call me Young Master when I dress like this.”
“Is my father in the main hall? Are there guests today?”
Her demeanor shifted the moment she entered, full of momentum.
“Yes, yes, the master is inside. There is a family banquet today,” the servant replied nervously. “Aunt Ruan is also here.”
Murong Yun paused.
If she was here, then even more reason to meet them.
“I haven’t figured out how I died last time,” she thought.
According to the wet nurse, the original Murong Yun had been gentle and kind, never offending others, unless Aunt Ruan crossed the line first.
“Father.”
The main hall was filled with the scent of greenwood incense. Murong Chong reclined in his chair, the sound of his teacup clinking echoing softly. When he saw her, his hand trembled.
“You still dare come back? Where have you been these past two months?”
He looked her up and down, unharmed, but her clothing made his anger flare.
“Change out of those clothes immediately!”
Murong Yun straightened her posture and bowed slightly. “In these past two months, I disguised myself as Murong Gongzi and became the top scorer of the imperial examination. I have returned to report the good news.”
“Top scorer…?” Murong Chong suddenly stood up, his chair sliding back loudly.
The people outside the hall were startled by his anger.
“Do you think the court is full of fools? This is treason! You are dragging the entire family to death!”
Murong Yun knelt down. “Father, close the doors. Call Mother, Aunt, and my younger siblings in.”
“You—”
But seeing her calm expression, Murong Chong forced himself to suppress his anger. “All of you, come in!”
The result had already been reported to the court. What mattered now was how to respond. Blind punishment would only lead the Murong family to ruin.
Aunt Ruan stared at Murong Yun in shock, then quickly showed a trace of hidden delight.
A well-dressed woman rushed in, her hair pinned with a white jade hairpin. Her features resembled Murong Yun’s.
She took Murong Yun’s hand. “Why have you become so thin?”
Murong Chong: “…”
“A loving mother spoils the child!”
Madam Zhou immediately turned cold. “Then I’ll leave.”
Murong Chong immediately shut up.
“Father, even without me, the Murong family would soon face destruction anyway,” Murong Yun said quietly. “Last year during the grain transport business, you intended to cooperate in moving a large shipment of cloth, but withdrew due to court involvement.”
“However, the people behind it will not let the Murong family go. Once they find an opportunity, they can destroy us overnight.”
Murong Chong’s face turned pale. “How… how do you know about this business matter?”