“Don’t forget the mission.”

Before entering the house, Suzhen glanced at Leng Xue, her tone serious.

“After playing this for so many years, aren’t you tired of it?”

Leng Xue maintained his icy expression.

Suzhen looked at him sideways. “If Young Master Li gets snatched away, you’re responsible, understand?”

Being responsible meant marrying her. Leng Xue agreed to her request without a word.

Suzhen smiled. Actually, she was just asking him to go have tea, eat some buns, and have heart-to-heart talks with those young ladies from earlier—to give them a heads-up about why Auntie Li had failed to find concubines for Young Master Li all these years.

Because their Young Master Li had “the sovereign’s ailment”—that thing didn’t work.

But this wasn’t a big deal. As long as she and Young Master Li married in the future and she conceived a baby, his innocence would be restored.

So as the saying goes, time can prove everything.

Since she hadn’t gone home immediately after returning from her cousin’s house, but had instead gone to visit Young Master Li—behavior that was somewhat unfilial—entering through the front door now would be tantamount to seeking a scolding. Therefore, she pulled Leng Xue through the back door—

However, what greeted her were the beaming faces of her father, mother, elder brother, and the head maid Hong Xiao.

Seeing her father smiling with such spring-like radiance, Suzhen felt her scalp tingle. She jumped into her mother’s arms and reasoned with her father: “Father, a daughter about to marry is like water poured out, understand?”

Her father hummed in response, but that girl Hong Xiao pulled out a bundle from nowhere like a magic trick and handed it to her.

Suzhen looked puzzled, and her brother kindly explained: “Water poured out—you can go now.”

“Mother, they want to drive me away.” Suzhen hugged her mother. One thing conquers another—her father loved her mother more than life itself.

“Zhen’er,” her mother stroked her head, eyes full of reluctance, “this time you really have to go.”

Suzhen thought for a moment and asked her father: “Could it be that you suddenly discovered I’m not your biological daughter?”

As soon as these words were spoken, her mother immediately gave her a head full of lumps.

But Father smiled cheerfully: “Good girl, go take the top scholar examination and bring glory to our ancestors, then come home.”

Upon hearing this, Suzhen was dumbfounded. Her father was quite capable of shocking actions.

For instance, he’d taken neighbor Uncle Huang’s dog to learn the frog stroke, and taken Aunt Zhang’s bullfrog to learn the doggy paddle. Another time, when her mother was learning flower arrangement and worrying about what plant should accompany chrysanthemums, he gave her a cucumber.

But this time—damn, Dad, could you be a little more reliable? She pointed at her brother: “Brother should go.”

But her father spread his hands: “He’s practiced martial arts since childhood; you’ve studied literature since young.”

“That’s right then—let brother take the military examination to become military top scholar, then marry a princess back home.”

“But Father prefers the literary top scholar.”

Suzhen wanted to vomit blood, but having been dragged along by her brother for martial arts training since childhood, she was in excellent health. Let alone vomiting blood—she wasn’t even out of breath or flushed. She thought for a moment, then changed to hugging Feng Meiren’s arm: “Father, the Great Zhou Dynasty doesn’t allow women to take the imperial examinations. Once discovered, it’s a capital crime of deceiving the emperor that implicates the whole family. Your daughter isn’t afraid to die, but I can’t implicate Father and Mother.”

“Our whole family happens to not be afraid of death—we’re just afraid our daughter might be. It’s best that you’re not afraid. Father’s greatest regret was not achieving the literary top scholar title. Just pass the examination and find a way to resign from office.”

Her father was still smiling cheerfully.

After that, her mother, brother, and Hong Xiao pulled her along—those handling disguises handled disguises, those leading horses from the stable led horses, and those stuffing money and provisions into her bundle stuffed away.

Suzhen wanted to cry but had no tears. Leng Xue was right—there really wasn’t a single good person in her family, and not one normal person either ╮(╯▽╰)╭

She decided to go back to her room to sleep, but was blocked by Leng Xue at her father’s meaningful glance.

She then looked at him at a melancholy forty-five-degree angle: “Which little beggar was it back then who clung to me desperately, begging me to bring him back to the Feng house?”

“You said you’d provide my meals, so I followed you back.”

“…”

“Well, I’ve provided your meals for ten years at least. You can’t repay kindness with enmity.”

“The meal money wasn’t paid by you.”

“…”

And so, in the nineteenth year of Dejing in the Great Zhou, Suzhen was driven out of the Feng house by her father Feng Meiren’s sudden notion of bringing glory to their ancestors, disguised as a man to take the top scholar examination.

What amazed her most was that the scoundrel Feng Meiren had actually made thorough preparations, even forging identification documents for her.

Examination permits.

Each dynasty’s imperial examination system differed in both form and content. The Great Zhou established county, metropolitan, and palace examinations, progressing level by level from counties to prefectures to provinces, and finally to the capital.

This examination permit was proof of identity, uniformly produced by the government with special patterns, listing the candidate’s hometown, name, county examination ranking, and bearing official government seals on the documentation. In other words, you had to achieve a ranking in the county examination to participate in the metropolitan examination.

Of course, money makes the world go round, and official stamp approval was just a matter of payment.

So although this was forgery for Suzhen, the permit wasn’t actually fake—it was a real permit bought with money.

However, regardless of what irregularities might exist in county and metropolitan examinations, the final palace examination, personally overseen by the Son of Heaven, required real ability.

Back to the examination permit.

Suzhen sighed. She’d thought Feng Meiren had only prepared this much, but she’d really underestimated him.

He’d prepared multiple documents for her to choose from: Wu Jilong, Liu Kaiwei, Lin Shuhao… She found these names quite impressive and had a premonition they’d become famous in the future, so she truly didn’t dare use them randomly.

Seeing this, Feng Meiren pulled out another pile of documents—Li Shizhen, Li Shimin, Li Guang… all with the surname Li.

She knew her father was deliberately teasing her, but still reluctantly chose one from among them.

The name on it was: Li Huaisu.

This name might have millions of meanings, but in her view, it simply meant “Li Zhaoting, you should miss Feng Suzhen.” Using my name to make a wish—so simple.

Little did she expect that later, after becoming an official, she would vigorously combat fraud.

She even took on a proud disciple, Little Zhou.

That child surpassed his teacher, with each generation surpassing the last. The rising tide lifts all boats, and he nearly got this old wave killed on the beach.

At first, he only exposed gossip about the powerful—like a certain noble lady’s miraculous makeup techniques, looking ghastly after removing makeup; or a certain Martial Marquis’s academic research achievements, saying you study martial arts, you’re just a sports recruit, so how can you write such eloquent and fluent articles?

Later he actually targeted her, saying she’d cheated in the imperial examinations and had someone else write for her. This made her so angry she grabbed his collar and asked, “How do you prove you didn’t cheat in the Hanlin Academy civil service examination?” The boy actually calmly countered: “If I prove my innocence, will you admit your fraud?”

She was thus completely defeated.

This incident caused a citywide uproar, making scholars and literati everywhere feel insecure.

Literati have always both pitied and looked down on each other, but this actually had benefits—everyone started socializing more, no longer admiring themselves in isolation. Writing poetry and prose required witnesses and evidence after all. Those who originally stayed home writing and establishing theories also moved to wine shops and restaurants, to some extent stimulating economic consumption and development.

This incident later exposed a batch of fake food and furniture cases—sauced pork became sauced beef, sauced beef became sauced mutton, sauced mutton became sauced tiger meat, and furniture advertised as red sandalwood and rosewood were all artificial wood.

In her anger, besides cracking down severely, she ate only vegetables for a whole month and changed to using the thinnest, worst, cheapest board materials for furniture, absolutely refusing to let any unscrupulous merchants earn her hard-earned money.

Thus people competed to spread the word that she was an honest official >_<

Later the Son of Heaven flew into a rage and issued new laws severely punishing those involved.

The Son of Heaven advocated protecting people’s interests and vigorously upholding the law—this deserved praise. Governing a nation starts with fundamentals, which is never about silencing those gossiping voices, but truly putting people first.

This incident gave officials, merchants, and common people a warning. It wasn’t entirely harmful, but catching wind and shadows and excessive exaggeration was certainly no good thing either. That troublemaking Little Zhou created panic everywhere. The Son of Heaven finally blamed it on her, fining her three months’ salary, forcing her to mooch meals from other colleagues every day until later, when people saw her coming, they’d immediately close their doors and release the dogs.

Of course, those were all later stories.

Since every tragic story about scholars going to the capital for examinations includes a book boy, Suzhen was also equipped with a burden by her father: Leng Xue. She’d originally wanted Hong Xiao, but Hong Xiao refused, saying the journey would be arduous. Suzhen expressed understanding—being a young miss wasn’t easy these days.

Before leaving, she thought it over and wrote a threatening letter to Young Master Li, telling him if he dared take concubines she’d show him what for, and asked her brother to spread the secret of Young Master Li’s ailment throughout the county.