Gusu Prefecture
"Brother, you're absolutely right." Zhao Jing'an nodded vigorously.
He raised his head, looking at his own black gate, at the small house, no bigger than a corner of the Earl of Suiping's Residence. His gaze slowly hardened, his eyes filled with fighting spirit. "Brother, we have to learn from our fifth sister. We're not much less intelligent than her; what we really lack is effort."
"Yes." Zhao Jingli nodded.
The two entered the house together and saw Zhao Rurui standing under the eaves of the hall scolding the maid. Zhao Jingli frowned and was about to speak when he saw Zhao Ruyu, with exquisite makeup and new clothes, enter from outside.
Zhao Jingli turned to Zhao Jing'an: "You take care of Sixth Sister, I'll take care of Fourth Sister."
Then he said to Zhao Rurui, "Fourth Sister, come inside, I want to have a good talk with you."
On the other end, Zhao Jing'an, his face also grim, said to Zhao Ruyu, "Sixth Sister, where have you come from? Come on, let's go to my study, I want to talk to you."
Meanwhile, the Earl of Suiping's Residence couldn't afford to worry about how the second branch of the family disciplined the two girls.
Among the various stages of the imperial examination system, the provincial examination had the most candidates and was the most difficult. By the time of the metropolitan examination, the number of participants had decreased significantly. As a result, the examiners had one day less time to grade the papers compared to the provincial examination.
So another day passed, and it was time to release the results.
Since it was Xiaole who checked the list several times, and he always brought back good news, the superstitious old lady and Lady Zhu naturally refused to send anyone else, and the responsibility of checking the list still fell on Xiaole's shoulders.
Because of his lack of knowledge, which led to a big blunder last time, Xiaole even went to the home of a fellow scholar in the clan and asked the servant who was in charge of checking the results for some advice, which was a kind of pre-job training.
The night before, he went to the examination hall early again with his bedding.
"What place do you think Miss Xi will get this time?" Lady Zhu asked the old lady.
"Didn't you ask Miss Xi after she finished the exam? She said passing the imperial examination was no problem." The old lady was calm and composed, not worried at all.
She's become quite superstitious about her granddaughter. Her granddaughter's words are absolute; she never speaks nonsense and everything she says is true.
If Miss Xi says she can pass the exam, then she definitely can.
As for the exact number of places, there's no need to pursue that.
Haven't you seen many men who spend ten or twenty years studying diligently, only to waste their time trying to pass the imperial examinations? Their daughter, Miss Xi, is not even sixteen years old yet. Not to mention girls, even boys rarely pass the imperial examinations at this age.
Isn't this glorious enough? Even if they only achieved the rank of Tongjinshi, it would bring honor to the entire Great Jin for the Earl of Suiping's Residence. Didn't you see that the Ministry of Revenue came to snatch Miss Xi away even before her results were released?
Looking across the entire capital, who else could achieve this level? Who else?
Seeing her mother-in-law like this, Lady Zhu felt much relieved.
Yes, she's obsessed too.
"You should still secretly make some preparations for Miss Xi. See what servants and luggage she should bring if she really gets sent to a post outside the capital. The luggage is easy to arrange; we still have people here in the capital. If she needs anything, she can send someone back to get it. If not, we can buy it there. Our family isn't short of money. It's the people who are difficult to arrange."
At this point, the old lady became worried.
It's incredibly worrying for her, a young girl, to be sent to a strange place to serve as an official.
Back in the capital, with the protection of the elder Kang Shilin and the Grand Princess Shangde, no one dared to say a bad word about Miss Xi. Even if they did, given the protective nature of Mister Kumu and the Grand Princess Shangde, along with their three senior brothers, they would immediately slap them in the face.
But once they arrive in that unfamiliar little place, those people are ignorant and arrogant, unaware of who Mister Kumu is, Grand Princess Shangde's influence doesn't extend there. If that happens, his Miss Xi will not only refuse to do anything, but whatever she says will be ignored, and in the end, they'll even be ridiculed and humiliated. Wouldn't his granddaughter suffer greatly?
Thinking about the old lady keeps me awake at night.
But she didn't dare tell her daughter-in-law these thoughts. Her daughter-in-law was already very worried about Miss Xi, and if she continued to think about these things, she was afraid that she wouldn't go to her husband and son's place, and would insist on going with her daughter to take up her post.
Thinking of this, the old lady sighed again.
She herself wanted to go with her granddaughter to take up her post. But she knew it wouldn't work. Not only would she not be able to help Zhao Ruxi, but she would also have to make Zhao Ruxi spend time taking care of her.
Even though Lady Zhu was worried and anxious, she couldn't offer any real help.
Feeling anxious and troubled, she longed to confide in someone, hoping they could offer her some advice.
However, looking across the entire capital, there was no suitable candidate. Although the Old Madam of Duke of Wei's Residence was a good person who did not look down on their fallen relatives and was quite knowledgeable, they were far inferior in terms of status and relationship. Moreover, the Duke of Wei's Residence was full of gossips, and his words might be spread and cause trouble.
Therefore, the old lady could only worry about it by herself, and only talked to Matron Jin about it, but neither of them could think of any good solutions.
Not only were the old lady and Lady Zhu worried about Zhao Ruxi in the capital, but Zhao Yuanxun was also troubled for his daughter in Gusu Prefecture. He was even somewhat absent-minded while doing his duties at the yamen today.
Zhang Shun, the prefect of Gusu Prefecture, had already learned from his wife that Zhao Yuanxun's daughter was participating in the imperial examination when Lady Zhu left Gusu to return to the capital, and he fully understood Zhao Yuanxun's feelings.
Seeing that it was time to leave the office, he offered, "Lord Zhao, it's time to leave the office. Would you like to come to my residence for a drink?"
When the Earl of Suiping's Residence investigated Zhao Ruxi's background, Zhang Shun did not meet Zhao Yuanxun, but met with Zhao Yuanxun's brother-in-law Zhu Heyu. However, he was still quite familiar with the matter of Zhao Yuanxun and Zhu Heyu exchanging their daughter Zhao Ruxi.
When Zhang Shun received the notification and discovered that the person appointed as the Vice Prefect under him was Zhao Yuanxun from the Earl of Suiping's Residence, his feelings at that moment were incredibly complex.
This former marquis, later earl, was truly shrewd; he brought down Wei Qiu, a high-ranking official of the third rank. This was something Zhang Shun, an official who rose from humble beginnings through the ranks, could never have imagined.
So when he first saw Zhao Yuanxun's name, he was extremely worried. He wrote to his mentor in the capital to inquire and found out that Zhao Yuanxun had no official rank, but had directly entered the Court of Judicial Review as the Right Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, Subordinate Sixth Rank; in less than half a year, he was promoted by half a rank and came to Gusu, such a good place, to serve as a Tongpan, a powerful official on equal footing with him.
This is incredibly powerful and influential.
He felt even more apprehensive.
If this Earl were a domineering and power-hungry individual, how would the Prefect (his brother-in-law) manage to conduct himself? His brother-in-law still possesses evidence of his own embezzlement in the grain transport.
Zhang Shun had already imagined a hundred and one miserable ends for himself.