Emperor Mingkang placed the vermillion brush on the brush rest and pointed at the two characters “Qiao Mo” with his finger.

He had indeed said that even if Qiao Mo’s face was flawed, he would specially permit him to participate in the imperial examination as compensation to the Qiao family.

However, that was just a polite remark! Who would run to take the imperial examination with a disfigured face? Wouldn’t that frighten people?

“Oh, Qiao Mo has already recovered his appearance?” After asking Wei Wuxie, Emperor Mingkang was somewhat surprised.

If that was the case, then he didn’t need to worry about having to look at something unsightly in the future.

Emperor Mingkang thought for a moment and circled Qiao Mo’s examination paper with the vermilion brush.

In any case, he had to choose someone, so he might as well make Qiao Mo the top scholar. Qiao Mo’s grandfather was a great scholar, so his grandson becoming a top scholar was only natural—the world would surely think he, the emperor, had good judgment.

Having decided on the top scholar, Emperor Mingkang spent about as much effort as a fingernail’s worth of thought to determine the second and third place winners, then called out: “Wei Wuxie, bring me a copper coin.”

Wei Wuxie’s mouth twitched: “Your Majesty—” This reliance on copper coins isn’t good, is it?

“Hmm?”

“Yes.” Wei Wuxie respectfully presented a copper coin with both hands.

Emperor Mingkang arranged the remaining seven examination papers in a circle and spun the copper coin in the middle.

Well, after the coin stopped, whichever paper the “treasure” character in “招财进宝” (may you attract wealth and treasure) pointed to would be ranked fourth.

Soon, Emperor Mingkang, with the assistance of the copper coin, determined fourth through tenth place and had Wei Wuxie deliver the results.

The next morning, Emperor Mingkang rose half an hour earlier than usual, which greatly displeased him.

For this triennial “minor announcement ceremony,” he had to get up early to conduct morning court ahead of schedule—truly annoying.

The ten candidates, whether nervous or excited, finally had their audience with the emperor.

Emperor Mingkang quickly spotted Qiao Mo among the candidates and nodded approvingly to himself.

His appearance was even more outstanding than expected—no need to change the rankings.

After the minor announcement ceremony with no changes to the rankings, the golden list was officially written, followed immediately by the announcement and formal ceremony.

The official messengers announcing the good news came to Marquis Guanjun’s residence with gongs and drums, attracting countless onlookers. Soon the news that Young Master Qiao had achieved top scholar spread throughout the streets and alleys.

This wasn’t the end—after Qiao Mo and his fellow successful candidates attended the Qionglin Banquet, they paid respects at the Confucian Temple under the new top scholar’s leadership and erected a monument at the Imperial Academy, completing the entire ceremonial process.

Fellow examination candidates traditionally had brotherly bonds, and the network of jinshi fellow graduates was particularly significant for new scholars about to enter officialdom. The top scholar naturally became the invisible leader of this group in the short term.

Of course, this prestige would weaken as each person developed their career in officialdom, but if the top scholar developed well, he would have decisive influence over this entire cohort of fellow graduates.

Qiao Mo understood this well. After being appointed as Hanlin Compiler, he respectfully served his superiors and befriended his colleagues, handling his duties beautifully and quickly earning unanimous praise throughout the Hanlin Academy.

Those praising Qiao Mo included Li Guangwen.

“That young man Qiao Mo is good. Every time he accompanies me in chess, he never shows the slightest perfunctory attitude, and he handles affairs efficiently—not like those muddled fools who just coast through their days.” Li Guangwen, who had skipped work to come home, didn’t return to his residence but went next door instead, commenting while eating green pepper and pork belly strips that his prospective son-in-law had stir-fried, paired with some wine.

“Yes, my sworn brother is indeed excellent.” Shao Mingyuan glanced at Qiao Zhao, who was sitting nearby, and agreed with a smile.

Li Guangwen took a sip of wine, half-squinting as he looked at Shao Mingyuan, shaking his head as he watched: “What a pity, what a pity.”

After hearing several “what a pity”s in a row, Shao Mingyuan finally couldn’t help asking: “What does Father-in-law mean by ‘what a pity’? Are today’s food and wine not to your taste?”

“What a pity that I only have Zhaozhao as an unmarried daughter. That fine young man Qiao Mo, tsk tsk—” Li Guangwen had already drunk a pot of wine, and with alcohol in him, he couldn’t keep his thoughts to himself.

Shao Mingyuan broke out in a cold sweat.

What did Father-in-law mean by this?

Among his many love rivals, surely he wasn’t going to include his brother-in-law, too?

Qiao Zhao looked embarrassed, reaching out to snatch the wine pot from Li Guangwen’s hands, chiding: “Father, you’ve had too much to drink.”

Shao Mingyuan gloomily rubbed his cheeks.

It was precisely because Father-in-law had drunk too much that he was speaking his true thoughts!

“Have I had too much? No, I just like speaking the truth. Quickly give me back the wine pot.” Li Guangwen was bleary-eyed and burped.

Qiao Zhao coughed twice and helped Li Guangwen stand up: “Tingquan, I’ll accompany Father back.”

Her father was so straightforward—she was quite helpless about it, too.

Shao Mingyuan nodded silently.

It was rather heartbreaking—he didn’t want to talk.

A hand reached over and squeezed his hand tightly, the young woman’s voice lowered: “I’ll come back over later.”

A certain someone whose face had darkened immediately cleared up like clouds dispersing after rain.

Let Father-in-law regret all he wanted—he was marrying his wife.

In the blink of an eye, it was July. The weather became hot, the leaves hung listlessly with a white glare, and the cicadas’ calls disturbed people’s peace of mind.

Prince Mu paced back and forth in his study. After several circles, he kicked over a chair.

His advisor bent down to right the chair and advised: “Your Highness, don’t be anxious—”

“Not anxious? How can this prince not be anxious? The plan was to have someone get rid of the child in Fifth Brother’s concubine’s belly, but after several failed attempts, it made Fifth Brother vigilant instead. Now that the concubine is far along in her pregnancy, it’s even harder to succeed.”

“Your Highness, please calm down. We still have one trump card we haven’t used.”

Prince Mu sat down, leaning against the chair back and squinting: “If this doesn’t work either, those useless fools shouldn’t bother coming back.”

In Prince Rui’s residence, it was a quiet and peaceful afternoon. Except for the noisy cicadas, the entire prince’s residence was silent.

Suddenly, a scream echoed throughout the residence: “Something’s wrong! Come quickly! The concubine has fallen!”

Prince Rui, who had been resting in Li Jiǎo’s courtyard, practically flew out, his face pale: “Who fell?”

The maids knelt in a group, trembling as they said: “Concubine Jiǎo rolled down the steps…”

“Outrageous! If anything happens to Concubine Jiǎo, this prince will have you all buried with her!” The usually gentle-tempered Prince Rui kicked the maid closest to him hard, then hurried over.

“Jiǎo, are you all right?”

Li Jiǎo was conscious but clutched her belly in pain: “Your Highness, my belly hurts so much…”

Prince Rui instinctively looked down and saw a patch of deep red on Li Jiǎo’s light-colored skirt.

“Blood!” Prince Rui swayed and shouted, “Quickly summon the head physician!”

Soon after, the head physician emerged from the room where Li Jiǎo was placed and shook his head gravely at Prince Rui.

Prince Rui staggered and nearly fell, shouting hoarsely: “What about the imperial physician? Hasn’t the imperial physician we sent for arrived yet?”

The head physician stepped aside and lowered his head without speaking.

A maid ran out from the room: “Your Highness, the concubine requests your presence!”

Prince Rui immediately went in and half-knelt beside the bed, grasping Li Jiǎo’s hand: “Jiǎo, how are you? You must hold on—the imperial physician will be here soon.”

Li Jiǎo weakly shook her head and used all her strength to squeeze Prince Rui’s hand back: “Your Highness, please… please call my third sister… She is Physician Li’s disciple. Right now, only she can save our child…”