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"Oh. Good job."

"Huh?" No, he wasn't scolding her? He was even praising her for pissing in the Peony Garden? Did this Prime Minister's Son also approve of her using all-natural, zero-cost fertilizer to nurture and process the gorgeous peonies?

She looked up at Li Chenjing to see his wide sleeves brush across the table as he casually flipped a page, his attention remaining entirely on the book without spare glances for her. She had expected him to trip her up, but it seemed the Prime Minister's Son had inherited his old man's capacity, being broad-minded enough to let a boat sail through!

She rejoiced inwardly, heart bounding with glee, but hearing him clear his throat, she hurriedly suppressed her smug expression and lowered her head. A cool question swept down from above her head, proving to be yet another bizarre query that had nothing to do with the Four Books and Five Classics.

"A tub filled with hot water and an empty bucket. You have two tools in your hand: first, a wooden ladle; second, a small wooden basin; third, a large porcelain bowl. To transfer the hot water from the tub into the empty bucket, what must you do?"

"...Do you take me for a lunatic? What would I need those things for? Pour it directly, of course!"

Hm? Pour it directly. Such a clean and crisp answer. Compared to those previous blockheads who turned red-faced and couldn't think of an answer, choosing the wooden ladle, wooden basin, and porcelain bowl one by one, this fellow didn't even require time to think, hurling out the answer right off the bat. Hm... not bad.

"Captain Yuchi went out to sea a total of six times in his life, and died on one of those occasions. Which time was it?"

"A history question? I'm not all that great with history." She rubbed her face in a feigned display of distress, supported her jaw as she racked her brains in hard thought, then suddenly snapped her fingers, parted her pink lips, and stuck out her tip of a tongue. "Well, whether it's history or geography, a person can only die once, so it's definitely that last time he kicked the bucket, right? Examiner, sir?"

"...You still have time to play the trickster with him?" Li Chenjing put down the book in his hand, making his first formal appraisal of this year's test-taking students.

A teal-green tunic, a white jacket, a small vest, and a pair of cloth shoes still trimmed in pink—she radiated a rather girlish aura. He hadn't paid attention to her appearance earlier, but right now he saw it clearly: a fair-skinned face, large and expressive eyes opened wide and sparkling, clear dark pupils carrying a hint of mischief that would occasionally wink knowingly. Her pink-bright lips were thick yet small, dotting beneath her nose, twitching upward one moment and slightly pouting the next. The whole person exuded an overflowing vibrancy; while it lacked the decorum expected by an official, it was free of pedantic, narrow-minded pedantry and carried a trace of undeniable cleverness.

"Examiner, sir, do you have any more questions?" Seeing that he delayed in presenting a new question to test her, Zhu Bafu blinked her eyes and prompted him.

Li Chenjing withdrew his gaze, the pad of his finger tapping against the tabletop, and asked indifferently, "If you are selected, where do you wish to take up an official post?"

"Qingzhou! Qingzhou Warden!"

"...Qingzhou, that place of exile where every examinee dreads to go? That position of Warden where every examinee refuses to serve? This fellow... though she passed his test, it didn't mean her skull was truly free of trouble."

"Why do you wish to go there?"

"Why?" Her eyeballs rolled in a circle and she grinned in response. "Because there are plenty of perks! If someone wants to visit a prisoner and needs a convenience, couldn't I... mm-hehe..." She couldn't possibly say that her old man had just been exiled there, so she wanted to open the back door to take care of his elderly self, right?

"Oh, oh! My household is poor, but I am very worldly. I'm never stingy or petty. If you can appoint me to Qingzhou, I'll definitely not forget to honor you with a tribute when the time comes, after all... I'm considered your disciple, too!"

Unprincipled and of poor moral conduct, yet... lacking the affected airs of those pedantic scholars, barely qualifying as honest. A mountain of crooked and bizarre reasoning didn't equal substance. Frowning, he posed another test prompt. "Compose a poem within half an incense stick's time, with the title 'Cold Window'."

"Writing poetry..." Hearing the prompt, she lowered her head to ponder it closely.

Li Chenjing simply discarded the book in his hand and stared at her with rapt attention. He watched her occasionally shake her head and mouth words to ponder verses, sometimes raise her head to look at the ceiling, and even rise to pace back and forth across the hall, spinning around to run toward the doorway, where she squatted on the ground and peered through the door crack at the spring scenery outside to draw inspiration from her surroundings.

By rights, a person with even a modicum of talent would treat a topic like this as a piece of cake. Who among those with scholarly mastery in their bellies hadn't experienced ten years at a cold window? Weren't such sentiments brought to the lips simply by opening the mouth? Yet the simpler the topic, the more it tested what kind of novelty one could answer with; that was where the difficulty lay. What sort of assignment would this fellow hand in to him? He suddenly felt a trace of anticipation.

The time of half an incense stick arrived, and Li Chenjing curved his fingers to tap against the desk.

"Are you ready?"

Zhu Bafu took a deep breath and nodded.

"Please." Li Chenjing raised his sleeve in gesture.

Opening her mouth and swaying her head, Zhu Bafu chanted, "Departed souls hum parting sorrows, red peonies sigh over painted makeup. Drooping willows bend their bodies, wishing to make people stay, lotus leaves unfill their faces to gather moonlight..."

"Stop. I know those lewd and passionate verses are your forte, and I didn't stipulate that love poems couldn't be written, but my title is 'Cold Window'. You strayed off the topic."

"Examiner, sir, I haven't finished reciting yet. I guarantee I haven't strayed off topic!" She patted her chest and took a step forward.

Li Chenjing crossed his arms and leaned back against the chair, raising his chin to gesture for her to continue.

Zhu Bafu cleared her throat and recited again, "Departed souls hum parting sorrows, red peonies sigh over painted makeup. Drooping willows bend their bodies, wishing to make people stay, lotus leaves unfill their faces to gather moonlight. Drizzling rain wishes for grasses to grow, red sleeves await the cold window. Ten years of bitter study render fame an illusion, ask not what land the shadow of love resides in."

With the recitation of the poem finished, she looked rather smug, raising her eyebrows with sparkling eyes at Li Chenjing on the hall. Utilizing metaphor and personification with neat parallelism, she not only accurately captured the theme but also hummed out the heartfelt thoughts of female compatriots. It was quite simply a literary work of breath-taking brilliance.

Without waiting for the expected praise, Li Chenjing suddenly fell silent. His satin wide sleeves drooped past the desk, and his deep-in-thought gaze turned toward the burning incense beside his hand. He pinched and twitched it slowly, steadying his breath, acting as though he didn't care at all about her metaphor, personification, elegance, and neat parallelism, yet seemingly stirred by something deep within his heart as he gazed far into the distance outside the window.

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Historical Romance