Hu Shanwei feasted heartily, ate her fill and returned home, celebrating her birthday by herself. Tomorrow she would be twenty years old.

Hu Rong had also returned home. Because he came back late, Chen Shi held her belly and scolded her husband for being inconsiderate, disappearing for half the day. She even searched his person, putting his money pouch and keys in the bedroom, forbidding her husband to go out again.

“Without money, let’s see who you can go play with,” Chen Shi lectured her husband, placing the money pouch and keys under her pillow before going to bed.

Actually, Chen Shi’s wanting the money was fake—her real desire was to have her husband stay by her side. Near her due date and being her first pregnancy, Chen Shi was very frightened.

But Hu Rong would rather go without money than sleep alone in his study, not wanting to listen to the pregnant woman’s constant nagging in his ear.

Sigh, just a year ago at this time, she had been a gentle, lovable young wife. Once a woman becomes pregnant, she changes and becomes a shrew.

Late at night, Hu Rong gently knocked on his daughter’s door.

Hu Shanwei had been exhausted after a day of examinations and had already fallen asleep. When she heard the knocking, her previously calm heart immediately began to boil: her father still remembered that today was her birthday!

In that moment, the previous rift between father and daughter immediately disappeared. The glacier instantly became hot tea. Shanwei excitedly got up and dressed, lit an oil lamp—even the dim light couldn’t hide the brilliance bursting from her eyes.

Hu Shanwei opened the door. “Father.”

Hu Rong extended his right hand. “Have you spent all the five taels of silver and string of coins I gave you this morning? If there’s any left, give me some. I want to go out and have a few drinks with friends.”

The hot tea instantly froze back into a glacier.

He didn’t remember her birthday—he just came to ask for money. The light in Hu Shanwei’s eyes extinguished. She gave her father all the remaining three taels of silver.

Back in bed, the bedding was warm, but her heart was cold.

In the second half of the night, Hu Shanwei had many chaotic dreams. She dreamed that Chen Shi gave birth, and she transformed from an unpaid copyist into an unpaid nanny, squatting by the well all day washing diapers until her chilblains cracked open, exposing white bones!

She also dreamed she left home with nothing, penniless, wandering the streets as a beggar, freezing to death on the street, her corpse wrapped in torn matting and thrown into a mass grave.

She also dreamed that human traffickers sold her to a brothel, forcing her to lean against doorways selling smiles. Unable to bear the humiliation, she threw herself into the Qinhuai River. The river water was ice-cold—she didn’t know whether she froze to death or drowned…

When she woke up the next day, Hu Shanwei was covered in cold sweat, thinking that entering the palace as a female official was her only path to survival. She absolutely had to pass the examination!

In this first half of her life, love had failed her, and family affection had failed her too. Only the knowledge she had learned never abandoned her. What she could rely on was everything she had studied in her lifetime.

The day the good news arrived, Hu Shanwei was copying books in the library as usual.

During the ten days of waiting for results, her heart was like willow catkins floating throughout the city, drifting here and there. Only when she held her brush could her emotions settle down.

The sound of bronze gongs rang out on Chengxian Street. An imperial messenger holding a royal proclamation, supported by two attendants, stepped out of a sedan chair, followed by two rows of Embroidered Uniform Guards wearing large hats.

The messenger asked, “Is this Hu Shanwei’s home?”

The Embroidered Uniform Guards behind him opened the roster and checked the registered address. “That’s correct, Your Excellency. Hu Shanwei, residing at the Hu Family Bookshop on Chengxian Street, with Hu Rong as the head of household according to the registration document.”

Hu Rong behind the counter hurriedly ran over. “Yes, Hu Shanwei is my daughter. What has she done wrong? She’s young and doesn’t understand things. If there’s any matter, Your Excellency, you can just deal with me.”

The messenger said, “Take out your household registration document for us to see.”

Hu Rong nodded and bowed, having long lost the noble bearing of a scholarly family, groveling before the eunuch. “Your Excellency, please wait a moment. The keys are with my wife.”

In the library, Hu Shanwei was overjoyed. She put down her brush, tidied her desk, and prepared to go to her room to pack her luggage.

The student who always read for free and had paid three taels of silver for her meal came again today to read for free. Seeing the Embroidered Uniform Guards outside looking for Hu Shanwei, he asked her, “What do they want with you? You’re a young lady who copies books at home all day—how did you provoke the Embroidered Uniform Guards? The Embroidered Uniform Guards are not to be trifled with. Even high court officials avoid them. You’re quite bold, huh.”

Hu Shanwei originally didn’t want to bother with him, but having eaten three taels of silver worth of his food, she felt obligated to explain: “I’m going to enter the palace to become a female official.”

After speaking, Hu Shanwei touched the desk where she had sat for over ten years, as if wanting to engrave every grain of the wood into her heart. She turned and left, leaving behind the dumbfounded free-reading student.

Stepmother Chen Shi’s body was growing heavier day by day, and she was dozing. The sound of gongs and commotion woke her up. She came out of her bedroom and saw Embroidered Uniform Guards at the door, immediately becoming fully alert. She hurried over, holding her big belly, and said:

“I knew this troublemaker would cause disaster sooner or later! Hu Shanwei is in the library upstairs copying books. I’ll lead you there.”

Hu Rong angrily said, “Shut up! You’re talking nonsense! I’m divorcing you!”

Chen Shi thrust out her belly like a general showing off. “Go ahead and divorce me! If you divorce me, your Hu family line will be cut off!”

Hu Rong immediately wilted.

Chen Shi said to the messenger, “Your Excellency, it’s all Hu Shanwei’s fault and has nothing to do with my husband. A nineteen-year-old spinster who refuses to marry and just freeloads at home—there’s definitely something wrong with her! When girls grow up, keeping them around only breeds resentment. Look, trouble from heaven falls on those sitting quietly at home—”

“Stop!” The messenger raised his hand. “We’re here to conduct business today, not to listen to family disputes—Hu Rong, where is your household registration document?”

Hu Rong took the keys from Chen Shi’s arms, opened the lock, took out the registration document, and presented it with both hands.

The messenger and Embroidered Uniform Guards all verified the registration document. At this time, Hu Shanwei had already packed simple luggage and come out, ready to enter the palace.

Hu Shanwei wore plain clothes and simple hairpins, with a natural face. An educated woman had a different bearing, instantly making Chen Shi, dressed in silks and satins, look shabby by comparison.

The messenger’s eyes lit up. Now that her identity was confirmed, he unrolled the yellow proclamation in his hand. “Imperial decree!”

Everyone knelt to hear the decree.

The messenger read: “By order of the Ministry of Rites establishing female positions in the central palace, selecting those literate and willing to enter the palace, after preliminary selection and examination, forty-four were deemed suitable for appointment. Each is granted thirty-seven taels of silver to support their families, and the authorities are ordered to exempt their households from taxes and corvée labor. Their fathers and brothers are warned to keep their place and not use their influence to encroach upon government offices. Those not selected are each granted twenty taels of silver for their return journey.”

This meant that after examination, forty-four female officials were selected to enter the palace. To ensure the female officials had no worries, each was rewarded thirty-seven taels of silver as settlement money, their families were exempted from corvée labor and taxes, and the female officials were to admonish and restrain their family members not to use their positions to bully others.

Those not selected received twenty taels of silver each as travel money to return home.

Everyone shouted “Long live!” three times.

An attendant presented thirty-seven taels of silver on a red lacquered tray to Hu Shanwei. “Congratulations, Miss Hu, on being selected as a female official.”

Hu Shanwei transferred the tray to her dumbfounded father, Hu Rong. “I enter the palace today. Once I enter the palace gates, it’s as deep as the sea—I fear we may never see each other again in this life. Your daughter is unfilial. Father, take this silver. The court has exempted our family from corvée labor and taxes. With no burdens and relying on the bookshop, Father can surely live comfortably for life.”

Hu Rong wouldn’t accept it, murmuring, “How did you end up entering the palace? You never mentioned this to me. No, you can’t leave. Once you go, when will you ever return?”

The messenger said in a sinister tone, “Hu Rong, defying an imperial decree is punishable by death.”

Hu Shanwei placed the tray on the bookshop counter, knelt down, and kowtowed three times to her father, bidding farewell to her family.

Chen Shi’s shrill voice rang out: “I wondered why she kept refusing to marry—turns out when girls grow up, their hearts grow big too. She looks down on us common folk and is set on climbing high branches.”

Chen Shi blocked the doorway. “Leaving just like that? You kowtowed to bid farewell to your parents, but you haven’t kowtowed to me yet.”

Hu Shanwei said, “My mother is buried in yellow earth. You’re not worthy of being my mother.”

“I’m your father’s lawfully wedded wife.” Chen Shi lost face in public and laughed coldly, pointing at Hu Shanwei’s shoes and bundle. “Those shoes were made by my own hands, and this bundle cloth came from my dowry fabrics. You eat mine and use mine—how am I not worthy of being your mother?”

When Chen Shi first married, she truly was a virtuous wife and good mother, an exemplary Ming Dynasty stepmother, caring for Hu Shanwei attentively to deceive Hu Rong.

Hu Shanwei simply abandoned even her luggage, took off her shoes right there, and walked out of the Hu Family Bookshop in her cloth socks without looking back.

“You poisonous woman! It’s all because you tormented Shanwei at home, forcing her to leave home and enter the palace. I’m divorcing you!” Hu Rong pushed Chen Shi toward the room and turned to chase after his daughter.

Chen Shi couldn’t stand steady and sat down hard on the ground. A warm flow gushed from below her.

Chen Shi clutched her abdomen and screamed, “I’m giving birth! Hu Rong, do you want a son or a daughter?”

Hu Rong’s left foot had already crossed the threshold, but hearing this, he froze.

Hu Shanwei sighed softly. With no more attachments in her heart, she got into the horse cart and said, “Let’s go.”

Everyone says life’s greatest joy is having one’s name appear on the golden list, seeing all of Chang’an’s flowers in a single day. But Hu Shanwei, whose name had appeared on the golden list, felt only desolation at this moment.

The horse cart stopped at West Peace Gate of the Imperial City. The forty-four selected female officials lined up to enter the city. Hu Shanwei had no shoes—she had loosened her waistband in the cart and lowered her skirt, using her wide pleated skirt hem to cover her feet that wore only cloth socks. She deliberately stood at the very back of the line to hide her embarrassment.

White snow and willow catkins flew, red rain and cherry blossoms fell. In the cries of cuckoos, spring returned again. Hu Shanwei entered the palace to become a female official in such spring scenery.

But she had no mind to observe the Imperial City’s scenery. To conceal her bare feet under her skirt, she tried her best to take small steps to keep up with the group, unable even to stride normally, letting white catkins and red cherry petals brush past her face.

At this time, she didn’t know that through five dynasties of emperors in the future Great Ming Dynasty, she would be the Imperial City’s chief administrator, controlling the courts of five Ming Dynasty generations.

Who would have thought that the famous Hu Shanggong, when first entering the palace, didn’t even have a pair of shoes?

From West Peace Gate to the Inner Palace required waiting at the Wet Nurse Bureau for body searches before entering the rear palace.

Hu Shanwei stood at the very back. Her feet hurt terribly. The distance from West Peace Gate to the Inner Palace was equivalent to one Chengxian Street, and her cloth socks had already worn through, with blisters forming on the balls of her feet.

Someone threw pebbles at her. The pebbles hit her skirt hem. Hu Shanwei looked over and couldn’t quite believe her eyes: it was that student in the scholar’s robe who always read for free. He stood under the corridor, waving at her with a pair of boots in his hand.

This was the Imperial City—how did he get in?

Hu Shanwei didn’t dare move. The free-reading student picked up a large stone and was about to throw it this way.

Hu Shanwei had no choice but to quickly walk over.

The free-reading student placed the boots on the ground, said nothing, made a gesture of putting on shoes, then left.

Hu Shanwei put on the boots, returned to the back of the line, thinking this student entered the palace like entering his own vegetable garden, and could even bring her a pair of shoes along the way. Who exactly was he?