The Finals
The Jia Family became timid, and the Crown Prince was also persuaded to stay by the officials of the Office of the Grand Steward.
"I checked and found that in the recent annual examination of the Women's Academy, Fifth Miss Zhao won first place..." The official then recounted the conflict between Zhao Ruxi and Xiao Yuyue.
Xiao Yuyue never expected that Zhao Ruxi would refuse their recruitment. She only wanted to embarrass Grand Princess Shangde. So when she went to the Earl of Suiping's Residence to recruit Zhao Ruxi, she not only did not hide her whereabouts, but also made a big show of it.
This latest rumor again points directly at Zhao Ruxi, and officials in the Office of the Grand Steward quickly uncovered the reason.
"All signs indicate that Consort Jin, Princess Pingyang, and Fifth Miss Zhao have a conflict, and Consort Jin wants to use someone else to do her dirty work, which is why she had someone whisper in your ear."
Upon hearing this, the Crown Prince's first thought was that the eunuch who had spoken to him about this matter was a pawn planted by someone else.
"Check on Eunuch Deng and see who he's been in contact with recently," he instructed.
The officials were pleased to see that the Crown Prince had come to his senses after being persuaded, and respectfully replied, "Yes." Even if the Crown Prince hadn't given the order, they would have investigated anyway.
The officials of the Office of the Grand Steward had their honor and disgrace tied to the Crown Prince.
If the Crown Prince ascends the throne smoothly, they, as his original confidants from his time as a prince, will naturally rise rapidly in rank and be given important positions; if the Crown Prince is deposed, they will all meet a bad end.
Therefore, it is very important to purge the emperor's inner circle and prevent the crown prince from being misled by treacherous individuals with ulterior motives.
Before leaving, he offered the Crown Prince another piece of advice. "That Fifth Miss Zhao is Mister Kumu's apprentice, and she has a very good relationship with her master and senior brothers. Mister Kumu has always been respected by the Emperor, and their faction is a neutral and upright group. If they know that Your Highness is targeting Fifth Miss Zhao, they might change their neutral stance and side with the other princes."
"Furthermore, Your Highness has no connection with the Jia Family. However, if Your Highness continues to target Fifth Miss Zhao, and this comes to the Emperor's attention, he may think that you are taking your anger out on Fifth Miss Zhao because you lost the Jia Family an ally, thus making a false accusation. It can be said that targeting Fifth Miss Zhao will bring nothing but harm and is not a wise move. From now on, anyone who tells you to target Fifth Miss Zhao is harboring malicious intentions. I hope Your Highness will understand."
"Don't worry, I can handle it," the Crown Prince said.
Having suffered several major losses, both overt and covert, over the past few years, and now being older, he has become much more composed and less impulsive than before, no longer refusing to listen to advice.
However, once he became the crown prince, he was an open secret. Over the years, various factions and groups had planted their own people around him. The people around him were incredibly complex. He couldn't completely trust what they said. Distinguishing between the loyal and the treacherous required a real headache for him.
For example, this person in front of me says everything she means is for his own good. But I don't know if it's genuinely for his benefit, or if she's just trying to gain his trust so she can stab him in the back at a crucial moment.
Living in such an environment for a long time, it's no wonder he's suspicious, anxious, and easily angered.
Xiao Yuyue waited for several days, until the day before the finals, but neither the Crown Prince nor the Jia Family made a move.
She wasn't in a hurry, after all, only when the final rankings were announced and Zhao Ruxi won first place could the charges of favoritism against Kang Shilin and the others be firmly established. That would be the best time to expose them.
The final competition was no longer held in the Imperial Academy's teaching buildings. The talent competition was held to give talented people a chance to make a name for themselves, so it was moved to the bustling Yongning Street.
This street is quite wide, allowing four horse-drawn carriages to travel side by side. It is one of the main streets where the top three scholars in the imperial examinations paraded on horseback.
During the competition, the government sealed off both ends to prevent carriages from entering or leaving. Then, the long street was divided into six sections, with each of the six competitions (music, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry, and mathematics) occupying one section. The public could walk and watch from outside the competition area.
As for archery and horsemanship, which are somewhat martial arts-related competitions, they are held in larger, more open venues to avoid any danger.
Many participants, worried about missing their designated time, arrived at the competition venue very early.
The positions in the finals were arranged according to the rankings in the semi-finals. The first-place winner was placed in the first position on the right side of the court, and the second and third-place winners were placed vertically behind them.
Those who study painting all have teachers and often hold exhibitions, allowing everyone to learn from each other. After spending a long time in the same circle, everyone becomes familiar with each other.
The fourth-place young man, in his early twenties, noticed that the first-place table was still empty and no one had arrived yet. He called out to the third-place young man in front of him, "Brother Lin, do you know who's occupying the first table?"
Brother Lin shook his head. "I don't know."
The preliminary and semi-final results are posted publicly, but only the names that appear on the paintings are published.
The two knew that regardless of whether it was the preliminary round or the semi-final, the first place winner was someone named "Zhiwei". However, although they had met some people in the art world with their teacher, they had never seen any of Zhiwei's paintings. Therefore, they were always a little suspicious about this suddenly appearing first place winner.
The talent competition stipulates that participants must be under the age of thirty.
After all, while these talents require innate ability, they also require years of experience. If you are a sixty-year-old who has dedicated yourself to these talents for forty or fifty years, it would be unfair for you to compete with teenagers, even if you rank highly.
The person in second place ahead of him turned around and said, "I've heard about it."
"Oh?" The third and fourth place winners, along with the twelfth place winner who had already arrived, all looked at him curiously. "Who is it? Brother Zhang, please tell us quickly."
"Six months ago, Mister Kumu took on a disciple and gave her the name Zhiwei. This Zhiwei should be the same Zhiwei who came in first place," said the young man surnamed Zhang who came in second place.
"No way?" the third person exclaimed in surprise.
Because of Mister Kumu's superb painting skills and extraordinary status, many people have wanted to become his students over the years, but Mister Kumu has refused them all.
Unexpectedly, he suddenly took on a female apprentice half a year ago. As you can imagine, this caused a great sensation in the art world. Everyone was very curious about who could catch the eye of the arrogant Mister Kumu.
However, Mister Kumu had not participated in their calligraphy and painting exchange meetings for many years. After taking on apprentices, he had no interest in bringing them to such exchange meetings to exhibit their work and satisfy everyone's curiosity. Therefore, no one had ever seen the little girl named Zhiwei, let alone her paintings.
Of course, this is the official version of events.
In reality, Kang Shilin, who loved to show off his apprentices, wasn't unwilling to bring them along to demonstrate their skills. It was just that Zhao Ruxi was only drawing sketches at the time and hadn't had time to learn painting from Kang Shilin. If he brought her to this kind of exchange meeting, wouldn't Zhao Ruxi at least bring one of her own paintings for everyone to appreciate? But she was only bringing a sketch, so what did that have to do with Kang Shilin? Naturally, Kang Shilin felt embarrassed.
Later, Zhao Ruxi did learn painting from him and even created a new style of painting. But at that time, Kang Shilin felt that such exchanges were not worthy of his extremely talented young apprentice.
The young apprentice's painting skills far surpass those of the older folks at the exchange meeting, yet she still has to act like a junior in their presence; the older folks' apprentices might be jealous and say a few sarcastic things to belittle her. Wouldn't that just make things difficult for the young apprentice? Wouldn't it be better to let the busy young apprentice rest?
Therefore, despite Zhao Ruxi having studied under Kang Shilin for so long, apart from the few people who learned sketching from her, no one else knew Zhao Ruxi, let alone how good her drawing skills were.