Chapter 8
Chapter 8
“I, Jiang Rui, promise that if I become a Female Prime Minister or a Female Minister one day, I will ask His Majesty to bestow a marriage between us.”
With the metropolitan examinations approaching, I made this vow to Yun Jian.
In Great Jin, women were also granted the opportunity to take the imperial examinations.
However, during my last attempt, my brother had interfered, disrupting the examination hall and causing my disqualification.
Therefore, I had to find someone of status and position to act as my recommender and guarantor before I could be eligible to sit for the exams again.
After packing my bags that night, I stood in the vast courtyard of the Yun Manor, my expression unusually relaxed.
This place was the first stepping stone to send me on my way.
Through duplicity and painstaking effort, I had finally achieved what I desired.
The moonlight was like water. As I organized my old calligraphy practice sheets and poems into several thick stacks, my heart was filled with a myriad of emotions.
At that moment, the door was pushed open.
A figure dressed in moon-white stepped inside.
I lowered my eyes, adopting a more gentle and simple expression.
“Jiang Rui.”
It was rare for Yun Jian to be wearing only a moon-white sleeping robe today.
Stripped of all complex and magnificent ornaments, he appeared pure but not plain-a minimalist elegance that was strikingly beautiful.
“Jiang Rui.”
He called out again.
“It hurts.”
I froze for a moment, then frowned as I took his pulse.
While it was true that I was using Yun Jian, I was not entirely ungrateful. I had applied acupuncture many times and even written to my Master for guidance; I had long since uprooted the cause of Yun Jian’s chronic headaches.
He hadn’t had an episode in a long time.
“Your pulse is very steady…”
Yun Jian suddenly pulled his hand back. “Oh, then I must be hungry.”
He stared straight at me, his eyelashes lifted. For some reason, it reminded me of a cat with its eyes wide open.
“You didn’t make me any pastries today.”
I was speechless.
Who was the one clamoring before that eating late-night snacks every day was making him fat and forbade me from making them anymore?
However, since it was my last day, I indulged him and went to cook.
Once he was full, he complained of the cold.
Despite the silver-thread charcoal burning day and night in his own room, he refused to go back. Instead, he wrapped himself in my quilt and watched me pack my books until dawn.
When it was time to set out for the capital, I didn’t bring much-just a few sets of old clothes and some rare books.
The mountains were high and the road was long; there was no need for clutter.
It was only when I stopped to rest at a courier station that I discovered a translucent, lustrous jade pendant in my bundle.
It was carved in the shape of a Lantern Festival fish lamp, with the character “Jian” engraved in the bottom left corner.
A moment of silence filled my heart.
I had no intention of deceiving anyone.
It was simply that whoever stood on the path that benefited me, I would use them.
I tucked the jade pendant away and entered the capital a few days later.
Luoyang was prosperous, a city that never seemed to sleep.
As I stood atop the city walls, the last bit of hesitation in my heart was scattered by the wind.
The governance of the realm required my hand.
Filled with ambition, I headed toward the inn where I was staying temporarily. However, a group of men in official robes, carrying a Golden Edict, came galloping down the long street on horseback.
The commoners scrambled to make way, and I quickly stepped aside to avoid them.
“The Seventh Prince is investigating a major criminal! Do not move!”
The people on the street were surrounded for questioning.
I waited among them for the routine inquiry.
However, in a moment of distraction, the crowd suddenly became restless for some reason. I looked up.
Among the government soldiers, the leader lightly nudged his horse’s belly and arrived before me in an instant.
The tip of a sword, gleaming like a ray of light, pointed directly at my face.
The newcomer wore a purple robe and a golden crown. He had sword-like eyebrows and starry eyes, but his gaze was as sharp as a blade.
“Peel off that mask and let This Prince have a look.”