"Women gaining Literary Hearts... There's never been such a thing since ancient times..." Chief Clerk Yu also felt this was a thorny matter. To be safe, he made up an excuse to take Yu Zi out of the tent, intending to get to the bottom of it. "...Before this happened, were there any strange signs? Unusual dreams, or anything around you that defied common sense? The sun rising in the west and setting in the east, or a rooster laying eggs and giving birth?"
Chief Clerk Yu clasped his hands behind his back, his brows furrowed tight.
"No, I don't think so..." Yu Zi furrowed brows much like Chief Clerk Yu's as she carefully recalled the day she condensed her Literary Heart. The weather had been fine, and everything had been normal. The omens her great-uncle had described couldn't possibly have happened, could they?
"Really nothing?"
"Really nothing!" Yu Zi said firmly, though she felt a little aggrieved inside. Pouting, she complained, "Besides—I'm not some extraordinary big shot. I've only got an ordinary Fourth Rank Upper-Middle Literary Heart. Why would anything strange happen for me?"
She knew that the higher the rank of a Literary Heart, the rarer it was.
But she had once dreamed of attaining Second Rank Upper-Middle.
After all, there were two living examples right beside her.
One was her mentor, Chu Yao; the other was her senior fellow disciple, Lin Feng. Though she had passed the golden age for beginning her studies, Kang Jishou had still said she was talented, among the better Literary Scholars. She might not reach Second Rank Upper-Middle, but Third Rank ought to be possible. Yet when she condensed her Literary Heart Sigil, she found that she had only achieved Fourth Rank Upper-Middle. The gap between expectation and reality had been a