However, if just in Qiongrong Prefecture she had encountered masters like Li Zhaoting and Si Lanfeng, then in a place like the capital where dragons and tigers lay hidden everywhere, how could she—without powerful backing—defeat her opponents and ascend to the Golden Hall?
Because she had been constantly pondering this impossible task, she appeared normal on the road, neither crying nor making a fuss, showing no awareness whatsoever of having lost her entire family plus suffering heartbreak. This actually made Leng Xue restless and anxious.
However, this had one benefit: he bought her many snacks and changed from his usual perpetual ice-block expression. Sometimes he would steal a glance at her and suddenly smile, smiling in a way that made her hair stand on end. Sister just got her heart broken—what are you so happy about?
The metropolitan examination was in two months. The two traveled day and night, arriving in the capital ten days later—that vast, prosperous place under the Son of Heaven’s feet that was so dazzling one couldn’t look away. However, matters took another major turn.
It was probably because her past eighteen years had gone too smoothly. When extremes meet, they reverse—when her streak of bad luck erupted, it was equally unstoppable.
First, just a few days before they reached the capital, Uncle Jingshu’s entire family had been imprisoned, charged with colluding with the Feng family’s treason. For the first time, she felt respectful awe toward government officials’ efficiency in investigating and handling cases. Thank goodness we fled to the most dangerous place. Of course, later facts proved that the most dangerous place was still the most dangerous—sometimes the sayings in books are complete nonsense.
They wanted to visit the prison, but for serious criminals, without connections, even money couldn’t open doors. In the prison under the Son of Heaven’s jurisdiction, she absolutely dared not let Leng Xue risk a nighttime infiltration.
Second, with no other options, she decided to set aside her resentment toward the blue-robed man and try to seek help at the Murong residence, only to be thrown out by the Murong household’s steward. The reason was that General Murong’s nephew had been steadily in the capital all month and had never left.
She vehemently demanded that he bring out his young master for a confrontation. The steward looked at her with particular contempt, and his few words nearly struck her like five thunderbolts. These words boiled down to: nowadays fraudsters are increasingly unreliable—they don’t even do their homework before attempting their swindles. General Murong did indeed have several nephews, but they were all female.
She suddenly felt her life had reached a certain realm of tragedy. She had been deceived by her father, deceived by her fiancé, and even a man she met while eating was a fraud.
She swore that if she ever encountered that man again, she would first castrate then kill him. After Li Zhaoting and the Emperor (who was either her father’s killer or the son of her father’s killer), she now harbored bone-deep hatred for that man. It wasn’t just because she had saved him and thus couldn’t make it home in time—he had actually deceived her too. Leng Xue said he probably feared she would ask him for favors at the time, so he made up an excuse on the spot.
Based on the principle that the friend of my enemy is my enemy, since Li Zhaoting was allied with Quan Feitong, Quan Feitong was also on her blacklist.
For several consecutive days, while she was racking her brains over how to rescue Uncle Jingshu—as others studied intensively for the rankings while she sat in a daze—the only thing that brought her comfort was a major incident that spread throughout the imperial city.
When the previous emperor was alive, he had arranged a marriage for Quan Feitong with the daughter of the current Hanlin Academy Grand Scholar Gu Nanguang—Gu Shuangcheng. On the eve of the wedding banquet, Shuangcheng had gone to the palace according to protocol to pay respects to the Empress Dowager, the Dowager Consorts, the Emperor, the Empress, and all the ladies of the harem, but was detained in the palace.
The reason was that the tea and refreshments presented to Imperial Consort Wei Wuyan contained poison.