Abandoned Woman Busy Farming

Chapter 1342: Chapter 1344 Bai Zepei’s Exam Paper_1

The monarch observed the interaction between Jiang Yichun and Bai Ruozhu, realizing that this family heeded the lady’s words. Moreover, with Mrs. Bai being an expert in both medical and mystical arts, she commanded respect.

With this in mind, the monarch became even more courteous toward Bai Ruozhu. Jiang Yichun looked very pleased; to him, showing courtesy to his wife was the same as showing courtesy to himself.

After the meal, the monarch said he would arrange for them to stay in a certain palace. Bai Ruozhu thought about it and said, ”If it’s convenient, Qingyou Hall would do.”

The monarch was taken aback for a moment, then smiled and said, ”Very well, Qingyou Hall it is. The place is spacious and not bound by convention; I’ll arrange some maids to attend to you.”

”Thank you, Your Majesty,” Bai Ruozhu did not object. If it was so inconvenient that no one would fetch meals or pass messages, and no one to clean, wouldn’t that tire out Chenfeng and the others?

Besides, Jiang Yichun had not brought all his people into the palace, as the other dark guards were waiting outside. Bringing so many people in would not only have been inappropriate but might have also made the monarch uneasy.

Subsequently, the monarch gave each of them a token. With the token, both of them could freely enter and leave the Imperial Palace without being stopped by the guards.

Once everyone was settled, Jiang Yichun left the palace to arrange some matters, and Bai Ruozhu sneaked into her room and entered her space to start organizing.

In the medicine storage, she had indiscriminately grabbed medicinal materials and seeds, stuffing them into her space without any order, leaving the ground in disarray. She hurriedly tidied up for a while, and after about half an hour, she had sorted her haul for the day.

After being busy, she began planting seeds in the fields. Although many medicinal plant seeds needed to be grown as seedlings, her gut told her that in this space, there was nothing she couldn’t grow.

However, to not waste seeds, she didn’t plant too much at once, deciding to observe first.

After planting the seeds, she looked around and then went to the pond with a scoop, giving each newly sown spot a little water.

She massaged her slightly sore back, and couldn’t help but reflect, ”Farming really is hard work; why does Dad enjoy it so much?”

Thinking of her family, her heart was both warmed and tinged with sadness. She wondered how her parents and Little Dengdeng were doing in the Capital City, whether Little Dengdeng often cried for them, how her second brother had performed in the exams, whether her parents were in good health, and if her eldest brother’s business was thriving.

As homesickness welled up inside her, Bai Ruozhu couldn’t help but wipe away her tears. She wasn’t the type of person who was delicately emotional or cried often, but this time, having been away from home so long and with the Capital in such turmoil, she couldn’t help but worry.

She took off her clothes and soaked in the hot spring pool, letting the hot spring water immerse her body, wash away the fatigue, and tried to empty her mind, not overthink. As long as they could finish the task quickly, they would be able to go home.

...

In the Capital City, the results of the Provincial Examination from a few days ago had already been released, but the Emperor had withheld them, leaving the list unpublished. It agitated those scholars who had sat the exam.

”I heard the Emperor held back the list because there were problems. I wonder who played dirty this time; let’s see who gets taken down,” whispered a candidate who had gone to see the list but returned empty-handed. They were all people who had earnestly taken their exams to earn their ranks and despised any acts of favoritism or cheating.

”Such a despicable person deserves to be drawn and quartered; is it easy for someone to dedicate over a decade to their studies?” another candidate, who hated evil as if it were his enemy, indignantly said.

”Alas, it might even implicate his family now, it’s really...”

At this point, everyone fell silent. In ancient times, families were taken as units, and the relatives of those who committed serious crimes often suffered the consequences, including innocent family members being implicated.

In the Imperial Study Room, the Emperor scrutinized a test paper for the third time when he suddenly rapped his finger forcefully on the desk, ”Wang Shun, find an expert who can identify ink. I want to know whether this smudged ink is the same as that in the other characters.”

Seeing the Emperor in such fury, Wang Shun shrank his neck and quickly said, ”Yes, your humble servant will take care of it immediately.”

Tang Yin looked at the test paper again, and anger surged within him. He had just received a secret report that Jiang Yichun and his wife, who had gone to Guangqi Town, found it truly afflicted with the plague, the dreaded disease. Jiang Yichun and his wife braved the danger, did their utmost to control the outbreak, and treated the civilians.

This piece of news made him smash a teacup. How could he not understand why a place with no previous outbreaks would suddenly succumb to the plague? It was obviously someone who knew of their plans and deliberately caused trouble to delay them.

Yet, even so, he still approved of Jiang Yichun and his wife managing the epidemic area, for if the plague spread, the civilians would suffer, and as Emperor, he could not be at ease.

Then, this morning, he received another secret report: Jiang Yichun and his wife had caught the Poisonous Insect master responsible for the outbreak, and the epidemic was completely under control. The couple had arranged affairs and already entered the Western Regions.

Calculating the time, they had moved faster than he had anticipated. Tang Yin felt both relieved and moved. He knew the dangers of the epidemic area without having to be there, and that was without the threat of the nefarious Poisonous Insect master. With this in mind, he contemplated how he could properly reward Jiang Yichun and his wife.

But before he could come up with a plan, the list of examinees for the Imperial Examination caught his eye. He remembered that Jiang Yichun’s brother-in-law was also partaking in the Provincial Examination and made a special note to check. Although he did not favor Bai Ruozhu due to her low status, he was aware of Bai Zepei’s renowned talent. However, upon inspection, Bai Zepei had fallen to the second tier, placing even as low as eighth.

Considering his performance at the Eight Academy Competition in Jiangnan, he was entirely capable of vying for the top three spots, especially after he entered the Imperial Academy, where the masters praised him highly. How could the results be like this? Could he have underperformed?

For some reason, Tang Yin thought about Bai Ruozhu’s calm eyes, devoid of any hint of panic, even when he tried to intimidate her. He couldn’t help but wonder if her brother, like her, could maintain the same calm composure?

For this reason, he ordered the test papers of the top fifty candidates to be brought for review, of course, starting with the first-placed, Tang Feng. The paper was indeed impressive, and even he couldn’t resist clapping in approval.

Afterward, he reviewed the papers of the second and third placeholders and found them quite good too, but there was still a gap compared to Tang Feng.

When he reviewed Bai Zepei’s test paper, his expression turned very ugly.

The Scoring Examiner’s comments stated that the writing was elegant and the insights unique, but the stains from the ink tarnished the overall score, particularly the concluding statement at the end, which seemed to be completely obscured by an ink stain, leaving a sense that the essay was missing something crucial.

Examinees becoming nervous, overturning ink, and staining their papers is not unheard of; some even had to submit their soiled scripts due to insufficient time to rewrite the most extensive essays. But Tang Yin felt that something was definitely not so simple. Bai Zepei’s handwriting was elegant and clean, and his character could be discerned through his calligraphy—a person of stability. How could he have made such a mistake?