CHAPTER 453: CHAPTER 155: THE IMPERIAL EXAMINATION (BACK TO MAIN STORY)_4

"Alright." Song Yanqing respectfully responded.

"Don’t delay any longer, hurry along." Despite his inner unease, Song Yuanzhong maintained the typical stern father facade, showing little concern on the surface.

"Brother Yanqing, I’ll wait for you at home," Xie Ruilin said softly.

"Mm." Song Yanqing smiled tenderly at Xie Ruilin.

Xie Ruilin’s face was filled with sweetness.

After bidding farewell to his family members one by one,

he turned and glanced at Xie Ruotong in that moment.

Xie Ruotong had also come to see him off.

But she didn’t initiate any conversation.

She simply stood there, her presence purely for the sake of sending him off.

Feeling Song Yanqing’s gaze, Xie Ruotong’s eyes moved slightly as she said with dignity and grace, "Wishing my lord smooth success and topping the list."

Song Yanqing replied with a sound.

In that moment, he could sense Xie Ruotong’s perfunctoriness towards him.

In this past month, he had indeed seen very little of Xie Ruotong.

Most of her time seemed to be spent with his mother, learning how to manage household affairs.

"Hurry up and leave already," Song Yuanzhong urged again.

Song Yanqing no longer dallied, bid farewell to his parents, and boarded the family-arranged carriage to leave.

After he left,

Ming Yufang was still worried, "This exam lasts three days and nights, I wonder if Yanqing will adapt well on his own outside."

"What’s there to adapt to, never mind that, let’s go back inside," Song Yuanzhong said somewhat irritably.

Having said this, he walked away first.

Song Yuanzhong also directly entered his own study,

feeling quite heavy-hearted.

Normatively, monitoring the imperial examination and grading papers should be handled by the Ministry of Rites, but this year it was assigned to Prince Chu for personal supervision and selection.

Those in the know, understood the meaning behind this.

It was clearly the emperor granting power to Prince Chu to select his own personnel.

The Chief Scholar had given him a heads up to declare his stance immediately, otherwise, Song Yanqing’s examination would face obstacles.

He certainly did not wish to hinder his son’s prospects,

but neither did he want to simply follow Prince Chu.

Although many from the scholar mansion were Prince Chu’s people, he had always maintained a clear conscience, unwavering in not taking sides lightly, focusing solely on assisting the emperor, hence he was very close to Grand Tutor Qin who shared the same view. But now, for the sake of his son’s future, he couldn’t afford to remain indifferent to worldly affairs.

He gritted his teeth.

In the end, he still wrote a letter to Prince Chu.

Tomorrow would be the official start of the imperial examination.

Visiting Prince Chu at this time would certainly stir up gossip,

so he could only express his position through a letter.

In the future,

even if Song Yanqing becomes the top scorer,

he would be one of Prince Chu’s men!

...

At Prince Chen’s Mansion,

Ye Qichi was at home, playing with a bunny.

Another month.

Every day at home eating then sleeping, sleeping then eating, occasionally moving about to practice martial arts, life was indeed a bit too boring.

"Princess, you’re so free every day, why not go stroll around Prince’s courtyard?" Lu You couldn’t stand to see the Princess lazing around any longer.

If this continues,

Prince might even forget that he has a Princess at home.

Ye Qichi gave Lu You a sidelong glance.

She continued playing with her plump, soft bunny,

thinking about spicy rabbit head, chili rabbit pieces...

"Princess."

"Speak plainly!" Ye Qichi didn’t need to guess to know there must be something going on.

In the last month or two, Ye Qichi hadn’t heard Lu You mention Xiao Jinxing.

The incident where she got injured coming back from the last hunting conference had long left a grudge in the mind of this young girl, Lu You, so she hadn’t attempted to match her with Xiao Jinxing again. Suddenly bringing up Xiao Jinxing today definitely wasn’t just casual talk.

Having her thoughts discovered, Lu You blushed a bit,

Usually feeling like the Princess seemed indifferent and unaware of everything.

Yet it turned out to be unexpectedly top-notch.

She could never hide anything from her Princess’s discerning eyes.

No longer hiding it, Lu You said, "I just heard from the butler, Miss Bai has come to the mansion."

Ye Qichi knew it, it must be about this sort of thing.

Although Lu You no longer attempted to match her with Xiao Jinxing,

in Lu You’s eyes, even if Xiao Jinxing wasn’t worth her affection any longer, she couldn’t let him be snatched away by another woman.

Women

are indeed so petty-minded.

Ye Qichi didn’t care about Bai Mowan coming to see Xiao Jinxing.

Let them love how they wished.

However,

tomorrow is the triennial imperial examination.

It’s known that Prince Chu will personally supervise it.

And Prince Chu personally supervising is clearly a privilege given by the emperor.

This clearly meant that the emperor was letting Prince Chu select his own virtuous talents!

Xiao Zhanping, that old fellow, inevitably favors Xiao Jinsen a bit more.

Perhaps it also involved Imperial Concubine Shu’s efforts.

Xiao Jinxing loses because he lacks a good original family background.

Ye Qichi pondered these thoughts.

At that moment, what she thought most about was that Song Yanqing was also participating in this imperial examination.

According to the original script, he was to be the top scorer of this examination.

However, as there isn’t much description of Song Yanqing’s specific circumstances in the text, it vaguely seems like he followed Xiao Jinsen.

Later when Xiao Jinxing rose to power, he naturally flattened all of Xiao Jinsen’s influences, but it seemed he retained Song Yanqing because he was indeed talented.

She wasn’t worried about Song Yanqing’s outcome; her concern was if it would implicate Xie Ruotong.

Ye Qichi suddenly stood up from the ground.

"Let’s go, find Xiao Jinxing."

Lu You was still a bit unresponsive.

The moment she reacted, she burst into joyous laughter, knowing her Princess would definitely not just sit back and take this.