Chapter 63

Chapter 63

After the Palace Examination ended, officials from the Ministry of Rites and Honglu Temple led the candidates out through the palace gates.

Swallows skimmed over the green-tiled roofs. Palace halls stretched one after another into the distance. Dusk was falling, and along the long palace road, the setting sun drew everyone’s shadows out thin and long, casting them over the white jade steps.

The Imperial Guard stood in ranks on both sides, their black armor gleaming with a cold, dark light.

Below the long flight of steps, the eaves cast a swath of shadow. Half-hidden behind a stone pillar, two figures stood one before the other, shoulder to shoulder. The man in front had graying hair at his temples. He wore a crimson robe, a jade belt at his waist, and a peacock embroidered across the fabric, accented by brocade cloud patterns.

“Another year of the Palace Examination,” Li Ji sighed, his voice tinged with emotion. “I wonder who will seize first place in the First Class this time.”

He turned to the person beside him and asked, “Teacher, is there anyone you favor?”

That slightly clouded gaze fell straight toward the middle of the palace road.

The group of tribute scholars emerging in a great procession from Taihe Hall filed out in the same order in which they had attended audience at dawn.

At the very front of the line, beneath a plain brocade robe, that person’s posture was straight, the figure slim from behind. Beneath the partially hidden collar, a glimpse of a long, slender neck could be seen.

“Is that the Huiyuan of the Spring Imperial Examination?” Tao Song asked, his voice deep and aged, with a trace of hoarseness.

Li Ji followed his gaze and looked toward Sheng Zhaoning’s back.

“Yes.”

Entry to and exit from the Palace Examination were guided by the Ministry of Rites, with the candidates arranged according to their rankings in the Metropolitan Examination. The one walking at the head was naturally the first-ranked candidate of that exam.

“Teacher thinks highly of him?” Li Ji asked.

A light breeze tugged faintly at the hem of the figure’s robe as that silhouette on the palace road slowly receded into the distance.

Tao Song did not answer directly. Instead, he said, “I have read his essay.”

At once, Li Ji thought of the ink-written examination paper that had spread through court and country, stirring up a towering wave.

After the Spring Imperial Examination, the Crown Prince had presented Sheng Zhaoning’s handwritten examination paper before the throne in open court. The many abuses laid out in it implicated countless court officials.

For years, the Imperial City had lain beneath a veneer of peace. Those high officials seated above the imperial hall, or the civil ministers and scholars in vermilion robes and purple belts who pointed out the affairs of the realm, how could they step down from the throne hall and see through the layers of administration stretching from Capital City to every province, where everyone, for the sake of selfish gain, deceived those above and concealed the truth below?

That examination paper was like an answer gazing up at the mortal world from beneath the earth. It laid out every failing one by one and became a heart-piercing question no one could ignore any longer.

Recalling the words written on that paper, Li Ji let out a long breath. “It was indeed astonishing.”

At present, the court had already begun quiet purges and reforms. The Censorate, the Ministry of Justice, and the Court of Judicial Review, the Three Judicial Offices, were run ragged, and many people had already been called to account one after another.

Who knew how many pairs of eyes were now fixed on her?

“On the matter of rule by law, he has deep attainments. This was not the work of a single day.”

As Chief Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, Tao Song was upright in office and judged men first and foremost by talent.

Sheng Zhaoning’s deep understanding of legal governance made her precisely the kind of capable talent he cherished.

Li Ji rarely heard him praise anyone. After a moment’s thought, he understood what Tao Song meant.

“You wish to ask for him directly for the Court of Judicial Review?”

Among those who placed on the Palace Examination list, it was not unprecedented for various departments to take an interest in a candidate and request a worthy talent directly before the emperor.

But Tao Song shook his head. “Without becoming a Jinshi, one cannot enter the Hanlin Academy; without entering the Hanlin Academy, one cannot enter the Cabinet. He is not limited solely to the path of legal governance. If he is appointed without first passing through the Hanlin Academy, would that not delay his official career?”

Li Ji had not expected him to consider Sheng Zhaoning’s future so thoroughly. Surprise rose in his heart, yet he also knew that Tao Song truly held great hopes for her.

As they spoke, the figures on the palace road had already gone farther and farther away.

That slim silhouette was hidden among the crowd and could no longer be seen.

Tao Song withdrew his gaze. After a brief moment of thought, he said, “After the imperial appointments are made, I will observe his character and learning. If he proves to be a worthy man, there will be no need to wait three years while he observes governance in the Hanlin Academy. I will petition before the throne myself and select him into the Court of Judicial Review.”

“Teacher thinks far ahead,” Li Ji said with a nod.

…

Sheng Zhaoning naturally knew nothing of this conversation.

The results of the Palace Examination were released very quickly. Under normal circumstances, the rankings would be arranged by the second day, and on the third day, all the newly ranked Jinshi would gather before Taihe Hall to await the Roll Call of the Rankings.

The only difference was that the top ten candidates in the Palace Examination were not included on the public list. Instead, they would all be summoned into the hall, where the emperor would call their names one by one and personally decide their rankings.

The top three would enter the Hanlin Academy directly to take up posts.

The Zhuangyuan would be appointed Hanlin Academy Compiler, while the Bangyan and Tanhua would each be appointed Compiler at the Hanlin Academy.

Sure enough, at daybreak on the third morning, all the new Jinshi were summoned in Confucian robes to gather outside the hall.

Dawn broke, and the morning dew dispersed.

Sheng Zhaoning was summoned to wait before the doors of Taihe Hall.

As she stepped onto the long staircase of Taihe Hall once more, an inexplicable melancholy rose in her heart.

The path of the imperial examinations had been fraught with danger at every level. Zhenbei Prince’s Mansion had not dared to have the slightest connection with her, for fear that those in the capital would notice. Along the way, she had relied entirely on herself, step by step, to reach this radiant and majestic Taihe Hall.

Could she be counted as a scholar? Perhaps.

Yet the books of the sages and the principles of governing the age were not things she had studied from the heart. For someone destined to become a rebel and a traitor, even holding a scroll in her hands felt like it might stain the name of the ancient sages.

And yet what she had written on that examination paper had not been empty grandiloquence.

What she truly hoped was that no matter who ascended the imperial throne in the future, the many ills within the court and beyond it could be thoroughly purged.

This was the last trace of clarity she held to, shamelessly defining herself as a “scholar.”

“Summon Sheng Zhaoning, Wang Zhuo, Bian Hetong, Long Yuanhua, Yu Hongzhi… ten persons into the hall for audience with His Majesty!”

Before the doors of Taihe Hall, the eunuch delivering the decree stood on the steps and called out in a high voice.

The ten people whose names had been called knew they had entered the top ten. All of them were excited and elated, their hearts full of anticipation and unease, yet they forced their expressions steady and followed behind the eunuch into the hall together.

Sheng Zhaoning lowered her head, eyes on her nose and nose toward her heart, carefully observing palace rules. She did not look directly upon the sacred countenance.

Only when the young eunuch stopped did all ten of them halt in unison, kneel, and pay their respects.

The emperor looked at the ten people below his seat. All were young, and even the oldest was only in his thirties. They were the youngest cohort of Jinshi in recent years.

The court and the nation needed the younger generation to take part in its construction. When the Emperor of Wei saw these high-spirited new Jinshi, even his usually stern face could not help softening.

“Rise.”

The ten of them stood properly, heads lowered.

The golden hall was resplendent. The emperor sat upon the dragon throne, his gaze sweeping back and forth over the crowd before finally landing on one person, his expression giving away neither joy nor anger.

“You are Sheng Zhaoning?” the emperor asked.