Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Come to think of it, Chu Lingfeng was both a benefactor sent from heaven and a nemesis I was fated to cross paths with.

A woman becoming an official was unheard of. I disguised myself as a man and took the provincial examination, then traveled to the capital for the next round. I was only one step away from the palace examination.

Before that final step, however, the candidates first had to be tested by the Grand Preceptor.

Seated in the hall, Chu Lingfeng cast me a cool, arrogant glance before addressing the others. “Grand Secretaries, have you all gone senile?”

“What… Lord Chu, what makes you say that?”

“A hall full of high-ranking ministers and pillars of the nation, yet you’ve all been thoroughly fooled by a woman.” He gave a derisive laugh. “Just look at that soft, delicate skin. Did none of you realize she was a woman?”

“This candidate’s writing is sharp and seasoned, equally adept at wit and invective. How could the author be a woman? Lord Chu, you must be mistaken.”

“Who says bold, commanding prose must be written by a man, while tender sentiment must come from a woman?” Chu Lingfeng snapped his fan shut and pointed it at me. “Tell them yourself.”

I stood silently for a moment, then removed my headcloth and stopped forcing my voice lower. “Your lordship has a discerning eye. This commoner is indeed a woman.”

The white-bearded Grand Secretary jumped in fright and clutched his chest, his beard practically flying. “Y-you… You insolent woman! This is the crime of deceiving the emperor!”

Ignoring him, Chu Lingfeng asked me, “Yu Pan’an isn’t your real name, is it?”

“No, my lord.”

“Then what is it?”

“Yu Miaoren.”

He glanced at my examination paper, then back at me. “Why did you choose Yu Pan’an as your alias?”

I smiled faintly. “My lord, may I ask who ranked foremost among the four great handsome men of antiquity?”

A barely perceptible smile touched his lips. “Pan An.”

“Since Pan An was foremost among handsome men, he must have been a Miaoren-a remarkable fellow. That is why I chose Yu Pan’an as my alias.”

He chuckled softly, opened his fan, and walked down toward me. When he reached me, he gently lifted my chin with the fan and asked, “Why do you want to become an official?”

“I don’t particularly want to become one. I simply couldn’t stand reading all those stale, pretentious essays,” I replied.

Still smiling, he asked, “Then how about I recommend you for a position at court?”

“What’s so good about entering the court?”

“You’ll enjoy the finest food and drink.”

And just like that, he stood at the Late Emperor’s side during my palace examination. The Late Emperor even asked him why the candidate was a girl.

Chu Lingfeng strongly recommended me, saying that my writing was excellent and that the princesses were growing older and needed to learn to read and write.

The Late Emperor was open-minded. At first, he kept me in the palace as a Female Official with few real duties.

On our way out of the palace, I asked Chu Lingfeng how he had known at a glance that I was a woman.

He looked down at me. “With that slight frame of yours, if no one could tell you were a woman, then your face would have to be extraordinarily ugly.”

Without lifting his gaze, he continued looking downward until his eyes settled on my chest. Then he remarked blandly, “No wonder.”

Rather than getting angry, I smiled and asked, “Lord Chu, are you married?”

“I have no wife.”

So I let my gaze travel down from his face, openly inspecting him from head to toe before fixing my eyes between his legs. Shaking my head in rueful sympathy, I said, “No wonder.”

He later said he had never met a woman as unwilling to let a slight go unanswered as I was.

What a coincidence. I had never met a man so utterly incapable of treating a woman with tenderness either.