After that day, Qi Ying became truly busy and could no longer spare time to return to Fenghe Courtyard to see Shen Xiling.

This was because the spring examinations were about to begin.

In the past, the metropolitan examinations were usually held in the second month, but since Great Liang’s southern migration, they had been moved to the third month. The examinations consisted of three sessions, each lasting three days: the first session on the ninth day, the second on the twelfth, and the third on the fifteenth. The three sessions tested the Four Books essays, five-character eight-rhyme poetry, Five Classics essays, and policy questions. Besides the chief examiner, there were also eighteen associate examiners, mostly served by Hanlin scholars. The scale was grand, demonstrating the flourishing of civil governance in Jiangzuo.

Before the examinations began, a response from Lu Zheng, Lord Lu of the Court of Judicial Review, arrived first.

This lord was also quite efficient. The day he received instructions from his superior, he immediately turned around and thoroughly investigated the weaving guild, and while he was at it, also investigated Yang Dong completely.

The Court of Judicial Review was no toothless office. They only needed the courage and will to investigate—once they truly set their minds to it, they could uncover any trace of evidence. This investigation even revealed Yang Dong’s true identity. Upon seeing this, Lu Zheng felt the matter was of great importance and naturally didn’t dare act on his own authority, so he hurried to the Privy Council again to seek Lord Qi’s instructions.

Qi Ying was also greatly shocked upon hearing this news.

When the Shen family had collapsed so dramatically back then, many cases had been hastily concluded in the aftermath of such upheaval—otherwise Shen Xiling wouldn’t have been so smoothly protected by him.

But he hadn’t expected that there were still surviving male members of the Shen family.

Shen Cheng…

He truly had some cunning, to be able to attach himself to the Fu family, that great tree. It seemed his control over the various forces left behind by the Shen family had shown the Fu family profit potential, which was why they had risked saving him and even given him a new name and identity.

By calculation, he was still Shen Xiling’s uncle, yet he had almost…

Had he seen Shen Xiling before? Had he recognized her?

Qi Ying’s gaze became even colder and more somber.

Seeing Lord Qi’s expression, Lu Zheng thought he had some previous grudge with the Shen family and immediately became cautious, tentatively saying to his superior, “My lord, this matter has some difficult aspects that require your decision.”

Upon hearing this, Qi Ying restrained his sharp aura, eased his expression, and said to Lu Zheng, “Please speak, Lord Lu.”

Lu Zheng bowed to him and continued, “Although the guild has many unsavory cases in its record, it’s not easy to pin them on this Yang Dong. If he finds someone to take the blame, this matter will be difficult to handle. It would be better to directly reveal his identity as a Shen family remnant, but if we do that…”

Lu Zheng paused, finding it inconvenient to continue.

Once Yang Dong’s true identity was exposed, he would naturally face certain death with no escape, but the implications for the Fu family would be much greater. This matter could be big or small—if His Majesty truly decided to investigate, it would inevitably stir up bloody storms in the court, and the situation would not be easily controlled then.

Qi Ying naturally thought of this point as well, but beyond that, he thought more of Shen Xiling.

She was also a descendant of the Shen family. If Shen Cheng’s affair angered the court and made His Majesty think of thoroughly investigating Shen family descendants, then Shen Xiling would face one more degree of danger—he couldn’t let his little girl also be touched by risk.

However, upon hearing Yang Dong’s true identity, Qi Ying was momentarily uncertain whether to tell Shen Xiling the truth.

He was her uncle, perhaps the only remaining male member of the Shen family. She had been deprived of family affection since childhood—having an elder by her side might make her feel better. But that Yang Dong was no good person, having harbored such filthy thoughts toward her, and had too many entanglements with both the Shen and Fu families. Such a person was too dangerous… he couldn’t allow him near her.

Once this thought was settled, Qi Ying’s killing intent deepened, and he became even more determined not to inform Shen Xiling of this matter.

She was soft-hearted and too pure at heart. He was different from her—Lord Qi’s heart had always been extremely hard toward outsiders. To kill someone who deserved to die, he wouldn’t even blink an eye.

“No need for such trouble,” Qi Ying’s expression didn’t change as he looked at Lu Zheng and said mildly, “It would be better if you handle it simply, Lord Lu.”

Being fellow court officials, there was no need to speak so clearly. Lu Zheng understood—his superior didn’t want to expose the fact that Yang Dong was actually a Shen family remnant. He only wanted this person to die, to die openly and clearly, to die in such a way that no one could say a word of criticism. Even if Yang Dong had many tricks, the Court of Judicial Review could think of some less clean methods to make him guilty—this would be the most “simple” approach.

Lu Zheng understood and immediately went to handle the matter.

On the ninth day of the third month, the spring examinations finally began.

Jiankang City had reached the most beautiful season of the year, with willows and flowers blooming everywhere like brocade throughout the imperial capital. Jiangzuo’s examination candidates all gathered here. They would sit one by one in those small compartments in Jiangnan Examination Hall—five feet long, four feet wide, and eight feet high—writing brilliant essays stroke by stroke, thus achieving court positions and bringing glory to their families in a single morning.

The candidates were both nervous and excited. Upon entering the examination hall, they saw eight colorful flags on both sides with large characters: “Selecting Scholars Through Classical Learning,” “Seeking Talents for the Nation,” “Rising Straight to the Blue Clouds,” “Heaven Opens Literary Fortune,” “Passing All Three Levels,” “High Promotion Within Sight,” “Ten Thousand Li Journey,” and “First Place Success.”

Passing through the thorn gate and ascending the Flying Rainbow Bridge, they finally reached beneath Mingyuan Tower of the examination hall.

Looking up, the candidates saw nineteen examiners seated above on Mingyuan Tower, with the central figure being their examination master—the young second-place scholar who had once shaken Jiangzuo, now the renowned Privy Councilor of Great Liang, Qi Jingchen.

Seeing such a legendary figure appear before their eyes, the candidates naturally couldn’t help feeling excited and stirred. They heard their examination master say with lowered brow, “The rules are as strict as frost, our aspirations as bright as the moon. I hope you gentlemen will illuminate virtue and think carefully. Today heaven opens literary fortune; in future your writing shall illuminate heaven and earth.”

After the examination master finished speaking, all the examination hall chambers opened wide, bronze gongs sounded in response, and the candidates sat down and began writing their answers.

During the nine days Qi Ying sat atop Mingyuan Tower supervising the examination, Lu Zheng had already efficiently arranged charges for Yang Dong and quickly arrested him into prison. Before the spring examinations were even finished, the man was already on the execution platform. The thoroughness of the handling and swiftness of action were truly rare throughout history.

When Yang Dong was first arrested by the Court of Judicial Review, he remained calm in his heart, thinking that Fu Zhen would surely ask the Fu family elders to rescue him. The Fu family was also one of the three great surnames—no matter how formidable that Qi Jingchen was, surely he couldn’t challenge the Fu family elders? He was still useful to the Fu family; those old foxes would never watch him die.

But as he waited and waited, news from the Fu family never came. He waited until his neck grew long, which conveniently helped the executioner—with a “crack” on the execution platform, his life was taken. Even in death, his eyes remained wide open, refusing to close, as if he couldn’t believe that having escaped even the great catastrophe of the Shen family’s downfall, he would lose his life simply from carelessly touching a little girl he shouldn’t have touched.

While Yang Dong’s head fell on one side, Fu Zhen naturally felt indignant on his behalf on the other.

Although their relationship was illicit, they had been entangled for many years, and she wasn’t completely without feelings for him. When Yang Dong had come to tell her about this matter, she had already spoken to her third uncle Fu Hong about it, and Third Uncle had promised to protect him. Who would have thought that in just a few days Yang Dong would be arrested by the Court of Judicial Review? In her shock and anger, before she could even seek help from her uncles again, she heard he had already been beheaded.

…How could there be such absurd business!

What kind of place was the Court of Judicial Review? They had countless accumulated cases under their jurisdiction, with many old cases they couldn’t handle in time. Without someone applying pressure behind the scenes, where would they get such efficient hands to deal with Yang Dong? And where did they get the audacity to oppose their Fu family?

Qi Jingchen was truly going too far!

Fu Zhen was filled with rage and immediately went to find the Fu family elders to demand an explanation, asking them to certainly give that Qi family brat a lesson, or else wouldn’t the Qi family think nothing of the Fu family in future?

Fu Zhen came in anger, but unexpectedly found that her usually domineering family elders all adopted an attitude of not getting involved in this matter.

Even her third uncle, who had the most violent temper, advised her to set this matter aside for now, saying, “Zhen’er, it’s not that Third Uncle doesn’t want to help you, but that Qi Er currently holds the position of spring examination master. How many of our family’s children can be selected this year depends entirely on his thoughts. At such a critical juncture, to make difficulties for him—wouldn’t that be asking for trouble? Better to endure for now and discuss this matter after the spring examinations.”

Indeed, many Fu family members were taking the examination this year. Besides the collateral branch children, Fu Zhuo and Fu Rong’s half-brother Fu Ran was also among the candidates. If they truly offended Qi Ying, all these children’s futures would be in jeopardy. Abandoning one Yang Dong in exchange for their own descendants’ bright futures—wasn’t that too worthwhile?

Although Fu Zhen showed no objection on the surface, she felt quite indignant in her heart.

She knew that to the family she was already a useless person. The Fu family valued profit above all; toward useless people like her, they were only polite on the surface, but in reality no one would truly share her sorrows or feel her pain. Yang Dong was dead—they could only feel humiliation and contempt from the Qi family, but wouldn’t truly feel grief and anger.

Ha, this was reality, wasn’t it?

Discuss this matter after the spring examinations? Given the Fu family’s character, what wouldn’t they do for immediate benefit? Would they still remember Yang Dong’s death by then?

Fu Zhen returned to her nameless little building, sitting before her mirror in sorrowful contemplation.

After nine days passed, the spring examinations concluded. The candidates walked out of their narrow compartments, bid farewell to their testing cells, and began dispersing back to their homes or inns. After enjoying good food, drink, and sleep, they began nervously waiting for the results to be announced.

This process revealed the differences among the candidates: descendants of scholar families remained relatively calm and composed, as if already confident about their futures; while candidates from humble backgrounds couldn’t help praying to gods and Buddha, and even after praying, most still looked worried, seeming to hold little hope for passing.

The nineteen examiners graded papers quickly, producing results in just three days. The golden list was hung outside the examination hall. That day, carriages, horses, and pedestrians surrounded that small announcement in three layers inside and out, all craning their necks to see if their names were on the golden list, and incidentally to see what kind of immortals these successful candidates were.

But this look didn’t matter—everyone was simply dumbfounded:

The first rank of three people—the top scholar, second place, and third place—were all unknown names, none from scholar families; the second rank graduates, including the herald, were also from commoner families, with few of the rest being from noble houses; the third rank had over a hundred “advanced scholars,” and here there were more people from great families, but what use were mere “advanced scholars”? They still had to undergo palace examinations to be listed as junior court scholars—what difference was there from not passing at all!

Roughly counting, seven out of ten successful candidates on this spring examination list were from humble backgrounds! This was extremely absurd, unprecedented since the southern migration!

Author’s Note: Note: The eight phrases on the eight flags are researched from Jiangnan Examination Hall materials, not original creations.