Chapter 75: Secret meeting

The entire trip, Xu Shuqiao was on edge, her heart thundering. The Great Li's keju system was a bit different from previous dynasties; full authority was given to the ministers to deal with it, and the amount of involvement the emperor had was quite low. Even the final zhuangyuan, bangyan,^[1] and tanhua were all ascertained by the ministers, and only the list of names would be given to the emperor to look over before releasing the results.

According to reason, before she earned some sort of official position, she didn't have any right to meet the Emperor. Puzzled, she glanced at Qing Huai, trying to get some indication from her posture beforehand. But Qing Huai didn't pay the slightest attention to her gaze, only turning her head and looking out through the slit between the curtains.

It had already been a long time since she'd left the Palace. Qing Huai had originally been the Emperor's servant, and though she wasn't as favoured as Xun Zhu, the two's statuses were barely different, and they could be counted as on equal footing. But from the day she'd revealed Jiang Changbai's whereabouts to Song Juguang, she'd inexplicably been punished, and now, she was a level lower than Xu Zhu. Usually, she'd stand guard outside the doors, and even such a nice chance to move about freely wouldn't land on her.

She'd only earned such an opportunity with great difficulty, and so naturally she wanted to look about a bit.

Of course, Xu Shuqiao didn't know what Qing Huai was thinking, and after hesitating for a long while, she still steeled her nerves. "Qing Huai-jiejie, do you happen to know why her majesty wants to meet me?"

Qing Huai, hearing this, turned her head, and said coldly, "How could we guess at her majesty's intentions? In a bit, whatever her majesty asks, just answer truthfully."

When she finished speaking, she turned her head once more and didn't say anything further. Suddenly, Xu Shuqiao thought of something, and from her purse, pulled out an ingot of silver, pressing it insistently into Qing Huai's hands. "Qing Huai-jiejie, this is my first time meeting her majesty, and I can't help but be nervous; please, give me some suggestions."

At first, Qing Huai was a bit flabbergasted, and was about to return the silver ingot to her. But just as she was about to speak, she hesitated a bit, and after struggling for a bit, she furtively shoved the silver ingot into her sleeve to weight it, and was unwilling to press it back into Xu Shuqiao's hands. "Look at what Xu-daren's saying—now you've become a jinshi, and in the future, you'll be an official, and your prospects are boundless; how could you need to fawn to someone like me? But when this servant came out, I heard her majesty letting out her temper inside, so you should be a careful."

Letting out her temper.

Xu Shuqiao repeated these words to herself. Why her majesty was letting out her temper, she didn't know. So, she pondered it on tenterhooks the entire way there—but when she entered the imperial study, trembling with fear, she suddenly let out a breath.

The imperial study was filled to the brim with people; that it wasn't her facing her majesty alone seemed to make it not so scary.

Xie Qianbing had already stood here, waiting, for a long while, and her emotions were equally on edge. She'd never seen Jiang Changbai so furious before, and for a moment, she couldn't understand Jiang Changbai's thoughts, either. She and He Leyong bore the full responsibility of authority for the keju, and no matter what, she most certainly couldn't escape association with today's matters.

But if her majesty were to hand down a punishment, then she should hand it all down to her alone. He Leyong's age was growing older and older, and her health was growing worse and worse, and she couldn't withstand any hardship.

Just as Xie Qianbing was thinking this over here, over there, Jiang Changbai spoke as well. Her gaze swept coolly over the crowd, and she said lightly, "Everyone's here. Don't fret; We merely called you all here about the matter of the keju."

Xie Qianbing, hearing this, immediately fell to her knees. "It was all this minister's negligence; this minister ought to be punished—Bixia, please punish me."

Jiang Changbai shot Xie Qianbing a look, and indicated to Xun Zhu to help her to her feet. "Whose fault it is is of course Our decision; there's no need for you leap forward and plead your guilt. What you're thinking, We know full well—be at ease; Laoshi is Our teacher as well, and no matter what, We will always worry about her."

Xie Qianbing, hearing these words, let out a breath, and stood on her own without Xun Zhu's air, walking to the side. Jiang Changbai's gaze fell onto Xu Shuqiao's party of three, and said, "This keju allowed women to participate, and out of the hundred total jinshi selected, you three were the only three women to pass."

The three hadn't known each other beforehand, and only now, hearing Jiang Changbai's words, did they look at each other in shock. It was just a pity that this wasn't a good place to speak, or otherwise the three would most certainly have chatted with each other properly.

Jiang Changbai coughed lightly, pulling the crowd's gazes back to her. "Everyone here is intelligent, and so We will not go around in circles with you. That this keju allowed women to participate was facilitated with supreme effort by Us, and a not insignificant amount of senior ministers of the court were in opposition. We knew what they were thinking as well, and believed they should believe as they wished, that their complaints were fine and their opposition too, that as long as this matter was carried out, it would all be fine.

"But this result, We are very displeased with. Without even Our approval, these people acted on their own and released the results!"

The more Jiang Changbai spoke, the angrier she grew, and as she reached the end, she even coughed a few times. Xun Zhu hurriedly held out a cup of tea, yet Song Juguang reached out first. But Jiang Changbai, in this moment, didn't have the mind to take not of who passed tea over, and in a couple swallows, calmed her breathing, and continued speaking.

"We want to ask you three now, do you accept your current rankings on the imperial notice?"

The three looked at each other, and for a moment, couldn't understand Jiang Changbai's meaning, none of them daring to speak. Seeing Jiang Changbai's expression grow darker and darker, Xu Shuqiao resolved herself, and in a few steps, knelt before Jiang Changbai. "Responding to Bixia, this humble one doesn't accept it."

"Good," Jiang Changbai said, looking at her, her gaze flashing with approval, and then she raised her head once more to look at the other two. "And what about you?"

How could the remaining two still be unable to tell Jiang Changbai's intentions? They hurriedly knelt alongside Xu Shuqiao, and said in unison, "Responding to Bixia, this humble one doesn't either."

Jiang Changbai repeated "good" a few times in succession, and only spoke again after pausing. "We don't accept them either. The base reason for matters having come to this point is merely that We don't have enough capable people at hand. With all these years, We couldn't trust more in Qianbing, and Laoshi's abilities exceed Ours even further.

"How is it that with these two people in charge of the exams, it came to this? Because there were too many matters they had to attend to."

Jiang Changbai wasn't wrong. Though she hadn't cultivated an insignificant number of people in secret when she'd been in the Prince's residence, when facing the massive Great Li, they still paled in comparison. She wasn't at ease with Song Juguang's people in charge of every region of importance, and most certainly wasn't at ease with the ministers the Tai Emperor had left behind being in charge of those areas. As a result, the people she'd cultivated in the Prince's residence had been sent to all reaches of the Great Li, and in the capital, there only remained barely a dozen.

The capital wasn't like regional areas, and the central court was filled even more with prodigies. Among these dozen or so people, there were scholars and those of martial talent, and that they could keep an eye on every corner of the capital was already a difficult task. Each of them held countless responsibilities at once, and there really wasn't anyone who could be sent to grade the keju exam papers.

It was only because of this that they had been given to the the influential scholars that Li Zihe had recommended, who had taken advantage of the loopholes in the keju. It was this that had led to this farce.

"Bixia…" Xie Qianbing suddenly spoke, face full of remorse. "It was this minister's deficiency in capability, in failing to meet Bixia's expectations."

Jiang Changbai looked at her, a bit of exasperation flashing in her eyes. "We've already said it wasn't your fault, so why do you insist on taking all the guilt onto yourself? It's enough that you've said such things here, but you absolutely can't say them during tomorrow's morning court. Those people already long to splash dirty water on you; if you say something like this, perhaps not even We could protect you, and you'd have to take a beating."

Xie Qianbing stilled, her heart warming, her expression filled with emotion. From the time Jiang Changbai had ascended the throne, she'd been cautious and careful, humbling herself like a dog with its tail between its legs, leaving early and returning late, fearing she'd make a mistake somewhere. She'd felt like the distance between Jiang Changbai and here was growing larger and larger, that the imperial prestige on Jiang Changbai was heavier; if it could be said that, before, the two of them could barely be counted as playmates, now it could only be said they were ruler and subject.

But these words she'd just spoken right now had made Xie Qianbing faintly see the Jiang Changbai of Prince Ling's residence of before. At that time, she hadn't been so severe; there wasn't any princess in the capital who treated those around her better than she did.

She seems not to have changed, Xie Qianbing thought.

At this moment, He Leyong suddenly raised a hand, pulling herself up by Xie Qianbing's arm; He Leyong was getting on in age, and had been convalescing the entire time recently, having only gotten a bit better today. Just now, when everyone had been standing, only she'd been given approval to sit. Xie Qianbing immediately knew that He Leyong wanted to stand, and hurried to lean down to help her up. He Leyong slowly spoke, asking, "Bixia, what do you mean?"

"The list of names released today will be made invalid, and the papers will be graded once more to determine the rankings. With Qianbing grading them this time, We don't believe that there will be such a polarised list of names."

He Leyong, hearing this, startled, and only after thinking a moment did she say, "But if Qianbing is to go grade exams, then who will carry out the matters she has at hand right now?"

Jiang Changbai smiled, as if having long since anticipated He Leyong would ask such a question. "That's why We called for the three of them to come."

Having finished speaking, she looked towards the Xu Shuqiao and the other three kneeling on the ground. "That the three of you could manage to earn a jinshi under such unfair judgement must mean that your abilities aren't lacking in the slightest. In this period of re-grading, We want you to help Xie Qianbing to deal with all other matters besides grading the exams—are you willing?"

The three had just now felt that, having heard so many things they ought not have, they most certainly wouldn't be able to leave alive. Who knew that, when Jiang Changbai spoke again, it would actually be to place such an enormous opportunity before them? How could there be any sense in hesitating—they hurriedly kowtowed and thanked her for the favour.

But Jiang Changbai added, "There's just one matter—We will speak of the unpleasant matters first. With a re-grading of the keju exam papers, it means that everyone will have a chance to be succeed, and the possibility to fail. If, after the re-grading, you fail, We won't secretly manipulate things to give you the rank of jinshi."

The three startled, looking at each other in dismay and not daring to speak. Xu Shuqiao's eyes flickered, and she said, "If this humble one may be bold enough to ask, if we fail, then what ought we to do?"

"That would depend on your performances in the next few days. If you perform well, and manage matters in a neat and orderly manner, even if you fail, We will give you a position in the court. But if your performance is subpar…"

She didn't finish the sentence, but how could the three of them not understand Jiang Changbai's meaning? Each of their expressions were happy, and one after the other, they expressed their devotion. But the next moment, He Leyong's words doused them with a bucket of cold water. "Bixia, this minister believes this matter isn't yet done being discussed. If the already released list of names is invalidated so carelessly, I fear that not only the court, but even the common people will be shocked."

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Translator's notes:

[1]: 榜眼, the second place scorer of the exams.