After Being Mistakenly Taken for a Fellow Traveler by Emperor Long Aotian - Chapter 124

As the saying goes, enemies are often found on narrow roads. When Zhou Xun arrived at the palace gates, Minister Yan was bidding farewell to Yan Jia. Yan Jia remained respectful and silent in front of his father, and as Zhou Xun arrived, he overheard Minister Yan whispering, “This year, there’s a change in the palace exam. Not only will the Emperor personally select the top three, but there will also be two chief examiners and two ministers for questioning and review. But don’t be nervous; just do your best…”

Yan Jia nodded, looking somewhat absent-minded. Minister Yan continued, “As for Zhou Xun, you don’t need to worry. With Prime Minister Lu among the examiners today, he will…”

His voice trailed off. At this moment, a voice came from behind Zhou Xun, “Zhou Xun!”

Minister Yan:…

Yan Jia:…

Zhou Xun:…

“I’ve called you several times; why didn’t you answer?”

Zhou Xun said, “I didn’t hear you.”

“Didn’t hear? Do you think I’ll believe that?” Li Miao sneered, “You’re clearly pretending not to hear, deliberately showing disdain for me!”

Zhou Xun:…

“Don’t think that just because your name is ahead of mine on the list, your ranking in the retest will be ahead of mine as well.” Li Miao continued, “And why haven’t you gone in yet? Hmm? Minister Yan, Yan Jia, you’re here too?”

The atmosphere became quite heavy. Zhou Xun bypassed the three of them and said, “I’ll go in first.”

Li Miao persistently followed him, “What, are you feeling guilty? Not prepared? Afraid to face me? Scared of being surpassed by me?”

Zhou Xun:… There’s really nothing to say to this person.

Behind them, Yan Jia also bid farewell to his father. He watched Zhou Xun and Li Miao’s figures from a distance, pressing his lips together.

The palace exam’s questioning segment lasted from dawn until dusk. By evening, the exams were submitted, and the candidates stayed in a small inn within the palace. After a tense wait, the candidates finally heard the announcement calling the top three.

The first person called was Yan Jia, which wasn’t surprising given he was Minister Yan’s only son. Yan Jia showed no sign of joy upon hearing his name; his emotions seemed to be completely shut off.

The second person was Li Miao, the heir to the Protectorate’s estate, which also wasn’t surprising. Li Miao, upon hearing his name, seemed like a proud peacock, even raising his tail feathers. It was unexpected that this seemingly insignificant young master could actually write well.

But the third person was… an ordinary candidate named “Zhou Xun,” who had been relatively unknown until half a year ago, then briefly famous in the capital, and now had disappeared again.

The news brought mixed feelings. As the successful candidates left, those who remained began to gossip. They thoroughly examined Yan Jia and Li Miao, but had little to say about Zhou Xun, whose appearance and demeanor gave them no points to criticize. In the end, one candidate reluctantly remarked, “What kind of family names their child with a name like ‘Xun’? ‘Xun’ meaning inferior, lacking, falling short? What kind of family hopes their child is inferior? Who would name their child like that?”

The three people at the center of this buzz were unaware of the whispers. At that moment, they were standing in the great hall, facing the interrogation of the five gods.

Among these five gods, four were members of the Emperor’s jury—his own knowledge was insufficient, and fearing he might show weakness while questioning the top three academic scholars, he had arranged this five-person review system—comprising himself, two chief examiners, and two esteemed ministers. However, he didn’t expect this lazy approach would receive unanimous praise from the court and the public, with officials praising the Emperor for introducing a new and democratic system.

The four gods were: two chief examiners—one was the venerable Grand Scholar Gu, whose snowy beard was longer than his snowy hair, thus he always wore a hat. This scholar looked kindly at everyone, perhaps due to his age, his demeanor had become gentle.

The other was the Vice Minister of Rites. His expression was stern, and his gaze towards Zhou Xun made him feel quite uneasy. Zhou Xun recalled that this person seemed to be an old friend of Minister Yan.

The two ministers included Prime Minister Lu, who had previously maliciously speculated about Zhou Xun’s background. The other looked unfamiliar. He appeared to be in his thirties, exuding an impressive presence. People introduced him as “Prince Duan, the Emperor’s royal uncle, who usually resides in Liangzhou.”

Prince Duan Rongyu… Zhou Xun had heard some rumors about him.

In Liangzhou, where Prince Duan was stationed, and Yunzhou, where Zhou Cai was exiled, along with Xizhou, which had recently suffered from an epidemic, were all located at the intersection of the Great Liang, Northern Wei, and Jing Dynasty territories. Thus, if mountain bandits in Liangzhou allied with Northern Wei, the entire Liangzhou would be at risk. Prince Duan, in his youth, had single-handedly eliminated the most notorious bandits in Liangzhou—a group called Wanjia Village—and incorporated them into the court’s army, known as the Wanjia Army.

Li Miao beside him seemed a bit excited, showing his admiration for Prince Duan.

Prince Duan seemed to sense the curiosity from everyone and smiled, “My family has matters back in the capital, so by the Emperor’s invitation, I am here to assist.”

Oh, family matters. Zhou Xun thought it must be the Princess Consort. However, he had never been particularly interested in royal gossip, but given that the Princess Consort could accompany Prince Duan in the harsh environment of Liangzhou for many years, she must be a very gentle and virtuous woman.

After a brief introduction of the attendees, the palace exam officially began.

However, the content of the palace exam turned out to be quite different from what Zhou Xun had imagined. He had expected the palace exam to be much more solemn. Unfortunately, as the Emperor, naturally, the first to speak was the Emperor himself, as selected by the other four dignitaries. The Emperor picked up the three examination papers and continued, “To ensure the fairness of the re-examination, your papers were first copied by a scribe and then reviewed by the examiners. The top ten papers were then presented to me and my four esteemed officials for selection of the top three. Therefore, I do not know which three of you are present in the hall.”

He mentioned this casually, but Zhou Xun felt somewhat reassured. The Emperor was informing everyone that Zhou Xun’s palace exam was conducted in a perfectly proper manner.

The Emperor asked the three of them a few casual questions, such as their age, the books they had read, and their future aspirations. The three answered appropriately. The Grand Scholar then asked them questions related to the Four Books and Five Classics. Li Miao hesitated slightly, while Zhou Xun and Yan Jia answered fluently.

It was not surprising that Yan Jia answered fluently, given he was Minister Yan’s son. However, Zhou Xun, standing next to him, was equally competent, which surprised him a little.

Then it was the turn of the Vice Minister of Rites. The Vice Minister seemed to harbor a strong dislike for Zhou Xun, and his questions carried an undertone of deliberate difficulty. He only asked Yan Jia and Li Miao a few questions but kept pressing Zhou Xun, seemingly intent on finding faults in his answers.

But Zhou Xun remained unperturbed and answered fluently. Finally, when the topic turned to whether the Northern Wei should be at war or peace, the Vice Minister seemed to have found a mistake in Zhou Xun’s responses. He stroked his beard and said with a smile, “War? Such a young and naive child, lacking understanding of the greater world.”

He continued listing the drawbacks of war, not giving Zhou Xun a chance to interject. In the end, he said, “Back in the day, Scholar Zhou…”

“And he has since been exiled to Yunzhou,” Zhou Xun interjected calmly.

“You!”

“Today, Vice Minister Yang seems to be more like a candidate, talking more than the Emperor himself,” a gentle voice interjected, “Vice Minister Yang has spoken enough. Perhaps it’s time to turn the questions over to Prime Minister Lu?”

Zhou Xun was surprised that Prince Duan would speak up for him. For a moment, he was taken aback. The Vice Minister, upon hearing this reprimand, immediately felt his hair stand on end. He glanced at the Emperor, who maintained his usual expression, and then he relaxed a bit.

He had vaguely heard rumors that the Emperor had some private connections with a person named Zhou Xun, but since he was aligned with Minister Yan, he had temporarily overlooked the matter. Now that the Emperor had not commented or interrupted, it seemed the rumors might not be true, and there might be no special relationship between the Emperor and Zhou Xun.

Thinking this, he awkwardly exchanged pleasantries and handed the questioning over to Prime Minister Lu. The Vice Minister, knowing Zhou Xun had some past conflicts with Prime Minister Lu, thought that although he wasn’t speaking now, Prime Minister Lu should complete the unfinished task.

To his surprise, Prime Minister Lu, sitting there, appeared to be in a daze, staring intently at Zhou Xun.

“Prime Minister Lu? Prime Minister Lu?”

Prime Minister Lu then came to his senses. He apologized and began questioning the three candidates with his usual demeanor, as if the earlier distraction was just a figment of imagination. However, when questioning Zhou Xun, his questions seemed unusually sparse.

Zhou Xun was also puzzled by this. When Prime Minister Lu asked him questions, he was fully attentive.

He hadn’t forgotten what Prime Minister Lu had said to him in the palace that day.

Prime Minister Lu had called him an illegitimate child, lamenting his short-sightedness and accusing him of staying close to the Emperor to flatter him and covet wealth and status. Zhou Xun remembered his reply had been rather sharp, resulting in a complete falling out.

Zhou Xun didn’t care about Prime Minister Lu’s opinions of him. Seeing Prime Minister Lu’s intense gaze earlier had made him uneasy, but it was not unexpected.

What he didn’t expect was that Prime Minister Lu’s questions seemed quite distracted. He appeared as if something had suddenly cut his throat, and his questions had a feeble and strange sense of urgency.

Zhou Xun couldn’t understand the reason. The next person to question them was the seemingly gentle and good-natured Prince Duan. Prince Duan only asked a few simple questions and then let them go.

As it was time to announce the top scholar, according to the rules set by the Emperor, the rankings of the top three would be decided after discussion among the five officials. After some deliberation, they heard the Emperor speak first, designating Li Miao as the third place.

Li Miao showed a hint of disappointment but understood that with his performance, being named third was quite normal.

Then came the competition for first and second place. The Grand Scholar was very impressed with Zhou Xun and supported him for first place. The Vice Minister of Rites, however, was adamant about Yan Jia. The Emperor remained silent. After thinking for a moment, Prince Duan said with a gentle smile, “Zhou Xun is a good child.”

“Prince Duan, you…!” The Vice Minister of Rites wanted to seek additional support.

In fact, he had shot himself in the foot. Whether Zhou Xun or Yan Jia was superior was actually uncertain. No matter how talented Zhou Xun was, Yan Jia had been nurtured in a scholarly family, and their abilities might be quite similar. During the questioning, Yan Jia’s demeanor was more composed, while Zhou Xun, though appearing calm, was sharp and uncomfortable during disputes, not quite fitting the usual definition of a “gentleman.”

But the Vice Minister of Rites had deliberately asked difficult questions to make things hard for Zhou Xun. Instead of failing, Zhou Xun had shone brightly, surpassing Yan Jia, which led to the Grand Scholar’s support for him.

Although it was clear to everyone that Zhou Xun performed better, the Vice Minister of Rites was unwilling to accept it. If he could get Prime Minister Lu, who was known to be at odds with Zhou Xun, to speak up…

He looked at Prime Minister Lu.

For some reason, Prime Minister Lu, who should have supported him, seemed to be in a daze. He stared at the distant pillar, not saying a word from beginning to end.