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There was nothing important in the morning court today, and soon the court meeting was adjourned.
Empress Dowager Zhuang came out of the Emperor's audience hall and sat on her phoenix palanquin, which was carried by eight imperial experts and surrounded with muslin curtains. Outsiders could vaguely catch sight of her graceful silhouette, which wasn’t very distinct.
Gu Jiao and Xiao Liulang headed east while Empress Dowager Zhuang was going west, both were on the same central axis.
The moment the palanquin was about to turn the corner towards the harem, Empress Dowager Zhuang suddenly raised her hand as though she had sensed something, and the court lady who knelt beside her said, "Stop the palanquin."
Everyone halted their footsteps.
The court lady asked, "Empress Dowager, is something the matter?"
Empress Dowager Zhuang paused slightly, and turned to look behind to where they came from, but before she could do so, there came the voice of Zhuang Yuexi ahead, "Grandaunt!"
Empress Dowager Zhuang was slightly stunned by this call of Grandaunt. She stopped turning back and asked people to open up the curtain.
She looked at Zhuang Yuexi.
Zhuang Yuexi was wearing a dark and plain long dress with narrow sleeves today, which was also a popular style in the capital nowadays. Empress Dowager Zhuang was puzzled. Clearly, the capital had always been into beautiful and gorgeous dresses with wide sleeves.
The more prominent and high-ranking the young lady’s family was, the wider and grander their sleeves were. Only girls from poor families wore clothes with narrow sleeves. After all, it was more convenient to work that way.
Last time, when Zhuang Yuexi saw that the Empress Dowager liked the on-trend cinnabar makeup, she wondered if the Empress Dowager would also like the style of dress popular these days. In the end, she made the right bet.
Empress Dowager loved it.
Empress Dowager Zhuang's eyes softened and she said, "Come up."
Zhuang Yuexi was overjoyed.
She was actually able to sit in Empress Dowager’s phoenix palanquin?
Not even a princess had the chance to sit on Empress Dowager's phoenix palanquin.
Zhuang Yuexi was overwhelmed by the favor as she sat on it!
The palanquin’s floor was covered with soft carpet, which was said to be made of the finest snow fox fur. Stepping on it was like stepping on clouds. It really gave one a supreme sense of glory.
This was more stylish and magnificent than a carriage and a sedan chair. Zhuang Yuexi was sitting next to Empress Dowager Zhuang. From this height, the view of the palace was different.
Zhuang Mengdie was still fast asleep, completely missing the chance to sit on the phoenix palanquin.
After arriving at Renshou Palace, Empress Dowager Zhuang had the treasury opened and all the good things inside were brought out one by one. She calmly selected several gifts for Zhuang Yuexi, including the night-luminescent pearl of the east sea, the purple snuff bottle of Xisha, the darksteel dagger of Eastern Jin dynasty, the former dynasty’s deep blue ancient double-edge sword, and the armor of a former warlord...
The first two items were still reasonable, but how come those that came after made one feel something was wrong?
What dagger, what armor, was this something you gave to the daughter of your family?
A talented young lady like her surely preferred famous calligraphy works and paintings.
However, since Empress Dowager gave it to her, she was still very happy to receive them.
Empress Dowager Zhuang continued to give her presents, even jade beads, golden pixiu figurine and also carpentry knives. Zhuang Yuexi was simply at a loss.
These were all things for children to play with...
"Is this not too much?" She steadied herself and asked.
Empress Dowager Zhuang replied, "For JiaoJiao, it’s not too much."
As soon as her voice fell, Empress Dowager Zhuang herself was shocked, "What did Aijia just say?"
Zhuang Yuexi froze and said, "It's nothing. Empress Dowager said that for me, it’s not too much." Empress Dowager was really... How could she even get her name wrong? She did have a childhood name, but it was Yueyue.
……
Gu Jiao returned to her small courtyard in the medical hall, and Xiao Liulang immediately changed her dressing.
While she was lying on the soft bed, Xiao Liulang gently lifted her clothes. This time, there weren’t any heart-fluttering thoughts in his mind because she was so badly hurt. Treating the Emperor made her wounds torn open. Several scabbed places were cracked, and blood seeped into the gauze, which made the gauze stuck to her wounds after drying up.
Xiao Liulang took a deep breath, fixed his mind, and told her, "It may hurt a little. Please bear with it."
There was no movement on the bed.
Xiao Liulang leaned over and saw that she had fallen asleep. Her eyes were tight shut and her long eyelashes cast a thin shadow on her cheeks; the tip of her nose was also sweating slightly. She must be suffering from pain in her sleep.
It wasn’t that it didn’t hurt, she just didn’t care about this pain.
Was it because there had been times where she suffered even more pain?
Xiao Liulang frowned and his movements as he changed her dressing became even more gentle.
In Bishui Alley, the family sat together for dinner, without Gu Jiao, without Xiao Liulang and without Grandaunt who always asked them how their day had gone.
They felt that the meal wasn’t so appetizing.
……
On the tenth day of the fifth month, the results of the court examination came out. Du Ruohan was on the list, ranking seventh, as well as Feng Lin and Lin Chengye who ranked eighty and seventy-nine respectively. A total of eighty people passed the exam.
Among the Jinshi who participated in the court examination, seventy-two were second-class Jinshi while the rest were all third-class Jinshi.
Feng Lin and Lin Chengye were both third-class Jinshi, and beating many of their colleagues in the court examination had been very difficult for them.
Therefore, although the two of them were technically at the bottom of the list, Feng Lin still cried in excitement and joy.
He had seen too many people who had been left behind while taking these exams. Everyone started from their hometown together, but every exam they took, a few would fall behind the others. At times, no one could even reach the end, or only one among them could go to the end alone.
It was rare that all of them were able to stay in the capital. This was truly a blessing from Heaven!
From today on, they would all be Hanlin bachelors of the imperial court!
Hanlin bachelors were not officials in the formal sense. A more accurate title should be preparatory officials of the court. They would study in the court hall of Hanlin Academy for three years, and three years later, they would leave the court hall and those who had outstanding achievements would become real Academicians.
Back then, the admission rate wasn’t as high as 80 out of 200 or so. In previous years, only three people were admitted, and the rest were sent to become local officials or teachers in different areas based on their results and daily performance.
Although the court examination was cruel, fortunately, they passed and had three more years to stay in the capital.
Xiao Liulang wasn’t too surprised by this result. Feng Lin and Lin Chengye were both hard-working people, and they had also received a lot of guidance from Old Chief, the number one scholar of this dynasty, so it wouldn’t make sense for them to fail in the exam.
On the eleventh of the fifth month, Xiao Liulang went to Hanlin Academy to report, along with the Bangyan, An Junwang, and Tanhua, Ning Zhiyuan.
According to the law and tradition of the State of Zhao, all new Zhuangyuan would be granted the post of Senior Compiler in Hanlin Academy, which was a sixth rank position. Hanlin Academy’s Senior Compiler was mainly responsible for keeping compiled records, recording the Emperor's words and deeds, making lectures on the history of scriptures, and drafting ceremonial manuscripts.
The Bangyan and Tanhua were granted the post of Junior Compiler of Hanlin Academy, a seventh rank position. Junior Compilers were mainly responsible for drafting imperial decrees, compiling history books, and conducting lectures in places where the Emperor could listen on.
However, as the newest members of the Hanlin Academy, these important tasks weren’t something for them, novices, to do for the time being. Their main duty at present was still to learn. In addition to continuing to study the original books of classics, they must also familiarize themselves with laws and decrees, court affairs, regulations, agronomy, arithmetic, history, astronomy, and so on.
It could be said that they needed to learn more and more complicated things than when they were taking the imperial examination.
Raz P.'s Thoughts
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