Where Do You Want to Serve as an Official?

Seeing Zhao Ruxi in a daze, Wu Zong gritted his teeth and said in a somewhat sharp tone, "Did you hear what I just said? Just tell her that. Let's leave it at that. I'll pretend I didn't hear anything."

With that, he turned and walked away quickly.

Zhao Ruxi watched his retreating figure and tilted her head.

She couldn't understand why Wu Zong should be Gao Xing to hear that someone liked him, especially a beautiful and talented woman like Xiao Ruotong. Even if he felt the two weren't a good match, shouldn't his expression have changed immediately? He wasn't the kind of person who would look down on Xiao Ruotong or be angry because she couldn't have children.

She touched her chin, unable to understand it at all.

"Miss, it's cold, let's go back quickly." Qingfeng called out when he saw Wu Zong leave and his young lady was still standing in the cold wind, lost in thought.

"Oh, you're here." Zhao Ruxi finally snapped out of her daze and quickly walked towards the art studio with Qingfeng.

Forget it, if she can't figure it out, she'll stop thinking about it. Anyway, she knows her senior brother has no feelings for Xiao Ruotong.

Her current concern should be how to explain things to Xiao Ruotong, not dwelling on why Wu Zong was Gao Xing.

She stopped worrying about it. But when she returned to the studio, she could clearly sense that Wu Zong was in low spirits.

Wu Zong used to be a talkative and cheerful person. Among the four fellow students, he and Zhao Ruxi were the two most lively and always had something to do with each other. With the two of them around, the atmosphere in the studio was always cheerful. Even if Wu Huaisi was scolded by the master, the two of them would quickly lighten the mood with their jokes.

But Wu Zong was unusually quiet today, so quiet that his master and senior brother glanced at him several times.

After only a short while in the studio, Wu Zong excused himself, saying he had something to attend to at home, and left first.

Gong Cheng was not a talkative person, and he disliked gossip even more, but he couldn't help himself and quietly asked Zhao Ruxi, "What did you do to offend your third senior brother?"

Just now, Master was busy scolding the eldest brother, who was bowing his head and taking the scolding, so neither of them noticed. But he saw it clearly from the window of the painting room: the two of them left the courtyard together and disappeared. When they returned, Wu Zong had a sullen face and seemed distracted.

Zhao Ruxi shook her head, then nodded again. "Isn't my father working at the Court of Judicial Review? Someone's making things difficult for him. My senior brother found out and just called me out to ask him. He was very Gao Xing after hearing what happened. He's gone to deal with it now."

Although this is a cover-up, it tells the truth.

Although Zhao Yuanxun entered the Court of Judicial Review, Zhang Changshen and Wu Zong were not his direct superiors, and their duties were completely different. Zhang Changshen and Wu Zong not only had to manage their subordinates, but also had to personally handle cases, so they were often too busy to even stay in the yamen. Therefore, they could not provide much support for Zhao Yuanxun.

Zhao Yuanxun had a colleague of similar rank who, for some reason, would occasionally make things difficult for Zhao Yuanxun.

Zhao Yuanxun was transferred from a military position to a civil position, and was promoted directly from a nobody to a sixth-rank official. He was always worried about what others would say, so he worked particularly hard. When this person made things difficult for him, he was unwilling to ask Zhang Changshen and Wu Zong for help, and wanted to resolve the issue himself.

To avoid worrying his family, he started not even telling them.

Later, Zhao Ruxi noticed something was wrong and asked him about it. He then told Zhao Ruxi what had happened and asked Zhao Ruxi not to tell Wu Zong.

Zhao Ruxi also preferred to solve problems herself whenever possible. After all, this was working in a government office, and getting along well with colleagues was a reflection of ability. Constantly asking for outside help would only make her look bad and earn her the label of incompetence.

She used her points to inquire with the system and discovered that the person was one of the Crown Prince's men, and his reputation wasn't clean either. Speechless, she immediately instructed Zhao Yuanxun to set a trap, exposing the person's problems. After Zhang Changshen found out, he severely reprimanded the person and transferred him to another department.

Wu Zong only then realized that Zhao Yuanxun had been made things difficult for him, and he was furious. He then berated Zhao Ruxi.

But that all happened during our last meeting.

Last time, Wu Huaisi and Gong Cheng were both busy and couldn't come. Wu Zong also scolded her after leaving the Kang Residence. Zhao Ruxi took advantage of Gong Cheng's Gong Cheng of the matter and used this incident to brush him off.

The explanation made perfect sense, so Gong Cheng didn't suspect anything. After inquiring about the situation, he discovered that the person had been transferred, and only then did he feel relieved.

"If there's anything, just tell your senior brothers. Don't treat them like outsiders," Gong Cheng said earnestly to Zhao Ruxi.

"Putting everything else aside, your sketches have been a tremendous help to me and your third senior brother, for which we are grateful. You can't be so polite with us for such a small favor, otherwise I'll get angry just like your third senior brother."

Putting aside the painting techniques, just look at how much money the junior sister made from that safe; Gong Cheng was truly grateful to Zhao Ruxi.

Gong Cheng's situation was quite different from that of Wu Huaisi and Wu Zong. His father came from a poor family and became an official in the capital after passing the imperial examination. Only then did he have the opportunity to become Kang Shilin's student. He himself passed the imperial examination and, with the help of his master and senior brother, he was able to obtain his current official position.

His family wasn't wealthy to begin with, and his father had taken two concubines who had a bunch of children. His grandmother was still alive, and the whole family of dozens of people lived in a small house, and they were unwilling to separate.

Although Gong Cheng also sold paintings, he sold them too frequently, so they didn't fetch high prices and he was looked down upon. He couldn't hide the sale from his family either; he had to hand them over to the public treasury.

He currently has no private property, and he has to hand over most of his monthly salary to his family, so he is not well-off.

With Zhao Ruxi's share of the profits, he was much better off financially. Since the money was obtained through clandestine means, he didn't honestly hand it all over to the public treasury. Instead, he secretly saved it up to buy houses and land when the family divided the property later.

Therefore, the tens of thousands of taels of silver he received in installments were of great significance to him.

"Okay. If I encounter any difficulties, I will definitely tell my second senior brother," Zhao Ruxi said with a smile.

"What are you two talking about? You're not talking badly about me behind my back, are you?" Wu Huaisi suddenly spoke up, startling Zhao Ruxi, who had a guilty conscience.

She quickly explained, "What you meant by my father's matter was just a small thing, and it's already been resolved."

Wu Huaisi nodded. "If Junior Sister has any difficulties, please ask Senior Brother. Don't be shy."

"Okay, I won't stand on ceremony with you guys. I'm going to bother you to death. I'm a real troublemaker," Zhao Ruxi said cheekily.

Along with Wu Zong, she was responsible for enlivening the atmosphere, and she was quite mischievous in front of her master and fellow disciples.

Gong Cheng and Wu Huaisi both laughed.

"Junior Sister is the most sensible; she never causes trouble," Gong Cheng said.

Wu Huaisi walked to a chair and sat down. "You're going to participate in the imperial examination, right? I've read your essay for the provincial examination, so you should have no problem with the metropolitan examination, and the palace examination should be even less of a problem. Come, come, tell your senior brother where you plan to serve as an official after you pass the imperial examination. Your senior brother will put in a good word for you with the emperor and help you achieve your goal."