In the Great Sheng dynasty, aside from the imperial examinations and recommendations for official positions, common people could also sit a smaller examination at whichever government office they aspired to and take up a junior clerk position.

Junior clerks carried no official rank and no official uniform, and the work was exhausting — but the clerks of the Bureau of Works were paid quite handsomely.

And so, when Chen Baoxiang arrived at the entrance to the Construction Division, she found several rows of people already queued up stretching some sixty feet ahead.

“Looks like four or five hundred people.” She stood on her tiptoes to peer forward. “Great Immortal, how many positions is the office recruiting for?”

“One.”

“How many?” Chen Baoxiang nearly lost her footing. “This many people fighting for one spot — then why on earth did we come?!”

He found this amusing. “Why do you assume that one person definitely won’t be you?”

“Great Immortal, you really don’t understand me at all. With my luck and my abilities, I can’t even get to the steaming dung before it goes cold — let alone something one-in-a-hundred like this.”

Zhang Zhixu recoiled from her choice of words.

He said with profound distaste: “Could you not be a little more refined?”

Chen Baoxiang pretended not to hear him, and from the corner of her eye caught sight of something nearby that piqued her curiosity. “That area over there — it looks like they’re also recruiting?”

Following her gaze, Zhang Zhixu said: “That’s the Bureau of Works’ Martial Division. In the way the world is today, every government office needs a Martial Division to function smoothly.”

“That sounds impressive — but why is hardly anyone queued up there?”

“Do you think a position in the Martial Division is so easily had?” Zhang Zhixu shook his head. “To say nothing of the physical and combat requirements, the work those officers do day-to-day is the sort where one can easily lose one’s life — nothing like the safe and peaceful routine of the Civil Division.”

Chen Baoxiang recalled what Cen Xuanyue had said before — in the current state of the court, military officials enjoyed far greater favor than civil ones.

She was suddenly seized with interest, and pushed her way out of the crowd toward that side.

“What are you doing?” Zhang Zhixu said, baffled. “I can help you a little with the written examination — but the martial examination I have no way to assist with. Besides, you’re a woman, and that division hasn’t recruited a female officer in quite some—”

“I’d like to give it a try~” she said sweetly to the junior clerk at the entrance who was managing recruitment.

The clerk startled, looked her up and down, and his gaze was rather contemptuous. “This is the Martial Division.”

“I know it’s the Martial Division. I’d like to give it a try~”

The clerk looked nearly incredulous. “Our recruitment isn’t a matter of talk — you’d be tested first on strength and then on hand-to-hand combat. You’d likely leave today with half your life beaten out of you.”

“Just let me try~”

“And besides, everyone inside is a man…”

A palm came down squarely on the small wooden table before her. Chen Baoxiang’s eyes went wide with fury. “I said let me try first! Are you deaf?”

The elm-wood table creaked and tilted under her blow, sending the brush holder and brush rack tumbling from it together.

The seated clerk recoiled in fright. His brush flew through the air, then he snatched it back and hastily began writing on her behalf. “May I ask your honored name?”

“Chen Baoxiang~” She had already resumed her sweet and lilting tone.

Zhang Zhixu stared, caught entirely off guard.

He had shared her body for so long, and had always thought of her as a delicate woman of fragile constitution — but just now, when Chen Baoxiang struck with such force, he had not felt the slightest strain. Her hand was not even sore or aching afterward — it was entirely effortless.

He stepped back through his memories, going over them in reverse—

The first time she had steadied Pei Ruheng, the man was at least a fully-grown male — yet she had propped up half his body and steered him to the garden without the slightest effort.

When working in the black workshop, even with an injury on her shoulder, she had pulled up the heavy loom threads with ease.

And before that, when she had gone out to sell congee — those two enormous wooden pails filled to the brim with meat broth — she had picked them both up and loaded them onto the cart herself, without even asking for a hand.

Indeed. Chen Baoxiang was extraordinarily strong. He had simply never noticed these small details until now.

As he turned this over in his mind, he felt a fresh wave of indignation. “You’re so capable — why do you always put on that fragile-and-helpless act in front of Pei Ruheng?”

“Ah, Great Immortal, you don’t understand.” Chen Baoxiang had her name registered and headed inside. “A man’s pride is a very fragile thing. If you’re stronger and more capable than him, how can he keep his dignity — let alone develop feelings for you?”

“If you want to attract the sons of noble houses, the willow-in-the-wind approach works best.”

He was left speechless. He wanted to argue back, but it seemed rather on point — yet to simply accept it felt as though he’d been insulted twice over for no reason at all.

All he could do was mutter under his breath: “Not all men are like that.”

Chen Baoxiang didn’t hear a word of it, and swept briskly into the inner courtyard.

Inside the Martial Division office there were only three or four men — some in the middle of lifting stone locks, others sparring in hand-to-hand combat.

Noticing a newcomer, the martial examiner looked pleasantly surprised. “This young lady looks familiar.”

Chen Baoxiang didn’t recognize him — it was the Great Immortal who reminded her: Xu Buran. You met him at Lu Qingrong’s housewarming banquet.

Ah — the only son of the Eastern Camp commander.

She stepped forward warmly. “Master Xu — what brings you here instead of the Eastern Camp?”

Xu Buran only vaguely recognized her face but didn’t know who she was. Caught off guard by her familiar and easy tone, he actually felt a little abashed himself. “The Martial Division can never seem to recruit enough people — my father sent me over to help out.”

“What a coincidence.” She grinned and spread her hands wide. “The person you’ve been looking for has arrived.”

The double meaning made his ears go red. “Miss — you also wish to become a martial clerk?”

“That’s right.” She walked over to the stone locks. “I just have to be able to lift these two, yes?”

The stone locks weighed around a hundred and some catties. Every man who had tested before her had lifted one with both hands.

Xu Buran was just about to point her toward the lighter set to one side — but before he could, Chen Baoxiang had already bent down, grasped one in each hand, and lifted both stone locks off the ground simultaneously.

“They’re quite heavy~” She gave them a gentle heft, her slender brows faintly creased. “Really is asking rather a lot of a person.”

The men waiting to test nearby: “……”

Xu Buran: “……”

Zhang Zhixu: “……”

For the standard strength test, one simply had to lift a stone lock clear of the ground and hold it for a count of three. Yet here she was — holding them both up without letting go, actually weighing them in her hands.

A man’s pride really was devastatingly fragile in her presence.

Worried she might strain herself, Xu Buran hurried over to take the stone locks from her. He looked at her with a mixture of shock and amusement. “How do you have this much strength?”

“No idea~” Chen Baoxiang turned her hands over and examined them. “Perhaps it’s simply a natural gift.”

Nodding with a thoughtful expression, Xu Buran led her directly to an empty clearing nearby, and casually shrugged off his outer robe.

“Master~” She gasped in theatrical surprise, raising both hands to cover her eyes — while peeking at him through her fingers. “What are you doing?”

Zhang Zhixu said flatly: Rein in that imagination of yours — he wants to spar with you in person.

Oh — so that’s what it is.

Chen Baoxiang was visibly disappointed. She settled into a stance with a reluctant air. “I haven’t studied any martial arts — please leave me at least half a life.”

Xu Buran clasped his hands in a gesture of invitation, signaling her to strike first.

With a great battle cry she launched herself at him.

Chen Baoxiang had not lied — she had never had the money to study under a master, and didn’t even know the basics of a proper horse stance or a straight punch. Her style was entirely self-taught from years of brawling.

But she had been fighting for territory since the age of five. Every move she made was rough and unpredictable — and Xu Buran, caught off guard by her first strike, took a solid hit on the shoulder.

The force behind it was enormous. He grimaced, then began to methodically counter.

Zhang Zhixu watched coldly from the side, judging that Xu Buran had the clear advantage overall — his dodges and counters were all precise and clean, though he was holding back his strength.

But once Chen Baoxiang got into a fight, she became like a dog gone berserk. Seven or eight strikes might all miss, but the ninth or tenth that landed — even a single one of those was more than enough for Xu Buran to bear.

Xu Buran was beginning to struggle. He steeled himself and came back with a punch.

Zhang Zhixu could actually have dodged it, but the motion required was too wide — and as it was, a golden hairpin tumbled from Chen Baoxiang’s head.

“Oh no~” She immediately reached out to catch it.