The Prime Minister's Darling
Chapter 618 - 618 298 Strength (First Update)

Chapter 618: 298 Strength (First Update) Chapter 618: 298 Strength (First Update) Ning Zhiyuan deeply felt sorrow for Xiao Liulang.

It was his first time in the Capital City. However, it wasn’t his first brush with officialdom. He had been a teaching assistant at the prefectural school in his area, and served as an ad hoc clerical officer next to the county magistrate.

He had seen the dark side and the struggle that comes with officialdom, but he never expected such injustices to exist even in a pristine place like the Hanlin Academy.

Indeed, his life had not been entirely smooth sailing either. Still, his difficulties were within normal range, typical of a person with no power, influence, or background; someone who was not given much importance.

In contrast, Xiao Liulang was being deliberately suppressed.

Only because Xiao Liulang had a strong mindset, and had not lost his cool, he managed to keep it together. Any other person would have lost their composure by now.

Ning Zhiyuan didn’t say anything more, he patted his shoulder and left with a sigh.

Xiao Liulang went to wash his writing brush, and when he came to the ink wash pond, it so happened that Prince Anjun was also there washing his brush.

He need not do it himself; he had people to do it for him.

He was surrounded by colleagues garlanding him with compliments.

“I heard Zhuang Bianxiu scored first place, just goes to show real gold isn’t afraid of the fire!”

“Absolutely! Nobody can show bias this time!”

While they were speaking without hesitation, they also directed their poignant glances towards Xiao Liulang.

How Xiao Liulang came to be first place all along had been “well spread” in the capital city. It was said that he had benefitted from having a face that resembled the young lord of Zhaodu by seven or eight points and thus had won the favor of the young lord’s biological father and brothers from the same sect.

Even his title of number one scholar was thought to have been given out by the emperor intentionally to suppress the Zhuang family.

The emperor naturally couldn’t meddle in everything; the emperor’s influence did not extend to the Hanlin Academy. And there you have it, in his first Hanlin examination, his true colors were revealed!

In reality, don’t think that learned people are more subtle when speaking than the aggressive women in the countryside. The women in the countryside merely shout and their words are coarse and crude, their insults don’t hit home.

But when learned people insult you, it’s like they can dissect your heart; their verbal attacks are sharp and bloody.

However, the officials of Hanlin Academy weren’t as reckless as those young dandies at the Guozijian, they cared about their reputation. They wouldn’t openly confront Xiao Liulang or deliberately trip him up publicly.

They would only use their power to oppress him, or collectively ridicule and isolate him.

Xiao Liulang’s expression remained mostly unchanged.

After washing his brush, he was about to leave.

“…It should be calculated like this, the result is twenty-seven.” After explaining the answer to an arithmetic question asked by one of the Bianxiu, Prince Anjun called out to Xiao Liulang, “Wait a moment.”

Xiao Liulang halted and looked at him indifferently: “What is it?”

Prince Anjun said, “The Hanlin Academy is a place for fair competition. No matter what others say, I hope you understand that your merit is the only thing that matters here. You know exactly how you achieved your number one rank, the Hanlin Academy won’t give Xuanping Marquis any chance of interference. You really shouldn’t have sided with Xuanping Marquis.”

It would’ve been understandable if you were a military general siding with Xuanping Marquis.

However, being a civil servant, the Zhuang family is the tallest tree you should be clinging to!

Xiao Liulang didn’t respond to Prince Anjun’s words. He glanced at a question in the hands of a certain Bianxiu nearby, and said, “Nineteen.”

After saying this, he left calmly.

Prince Anjun furrowed his eyebrows.

What did he mean by ‘nineteen’?

The aforementioned Bianxiu was studying Prince Anjun’s solution to the problem, and didn’t dare listen to their conversation.

Prince Anjun walked over, took another look at the question, and suddenly realized that he had missed a number in the seventh step, and the correct calculation result would be——

Prince Anjun took a paper and pen, and calculated it once again on the paper.

It was nineteen!

How did he know?!

Had he encountered this question before? It couldn’t possibly be that he had just heard the Zhang Bianxiustate the question and then mentally figured out the answer, could it?

Impossible!

He’s not that clever!

This computation was immense. For a normal person, it would take all day to be done on paper. A scholar of Hanlin’a brilliance, although far superior to the average person, would still take half an hour.

He was exceptionally smart; thus he only took less than half an hour. However, this still required him to write down complicated and extensive calculation steps on paper.

And he still made mistakes.

How could Xiao Liulang have mentally calculated the correct answer?

Following his shift, as Prince Anjun was riding in a carriage on the way to his residence, he unexpectedly found Zhuang Taifu in the carriage.

“Grandfather.” Prince Anjun gave a bow. “Why are you here?”

“Just passing by, so I decided to drop in and see you,” said Zhuang TaiFu, appearing to be in a splendid mood.

Since Zhuang’s grandmother had sent Zhuang Yuexi back home from the Imperial Palace, Zhuang Taifu hadn’t shown such a jolly countenance in many days.

Unable to resist, Prince Anjun asked, “Why is grandfather so cheerful? Is there some significant good news?”

Zhuang TaiFu, with an affectionate gaze and barely suppressable laughter, replied, “You could say that, a joyous event indeed.”

There weren’t many things that could make his grandfather call it a happy event…

The Duke of An looked at Premier Zhuang in confusion, not knowing why, but he inexplicably felt a sense of foreboding boiling up from within him.

Premier Zhuang finally stopped playing guessing games and smiled at the Duke of An, saying, “Prime Minister Yuan has taken an interest in you.”

“Prime Minister Yuan?” The Duke of An was taken aback.

Prime Minister Yuan was like the polestar on Mount Tai in the Zhan Country, the indisputable first assistant in the cabinet.

Why would he suddenly take an interest in me?

It wasn’t that the Duke of An undervalued himself, thinking that he didn’t have enough merit; rather, his reputation had already gone out, and if Prime Minister Yuan had wanted to take notice of him, he would have done so long ago.

If it was because of this imperial examination, he only ranked as the second place, with the new top scholar, Xiao Liulang, distinctly above him.

Premier Zhuang said with a smile, “You went to organize the Book Pavilion on Yueluo Mountain this time. He has seen the ancient books you organized, and he is very satisfied with you.”

The Duke of An was also pleased with the ancient books he had sorted.

He had been a voracious reader from a young age, and even while he was a hostage in the Chen country, he never slackened in his studies. His knowledge of history was quite good.

He didn’t organize many ancient books that day, but he was confident that he was the best among the few who did.

“Prime Minister Yuan loves to study ancient books,” Premier Zhuang said.

“I see.” The duke had an epiphany, which is why he suddenly took a liking to him. “So is he… planning to take me as a disciple?”

It would be great if he could become a disciple of Prime Minister Yuan.

Although after they passed the imperial examination, they were all considered students of the king, no one would despise an additional such outstanding mentor.

In his eyes, there were only four people in the six countries who deserve to be his teachers.

One was the late Mr. Feng, one was the cold mountain hermit of Yan country, one was Mr. Lianyun from Zhao country, and the other was Prime Minister Yuan.

Even his fourth uncle, Zhuang Xianzhi, was not quite qualified.

As for Huo Jijiu, he and Queen Zhuang did not get along, so the Duke of An naturally didn’t like him too much.

“Not a disciple, but a son-in-law,” Premier Zhuang said.

The Duke of An furrowed his brows.

Premier Zhuang said, “He wants to marry you to the granddaughter who was raised in the Taoist temple, that girl’s talent is not bad, Prime Minister Yuan values her very highly. It’s a pity she is a woman and can’t inherit Prime Minister Yuan’s mantle. If you really marry her, you’ll be no different from his disciples.”

How could there be no difference?

There’s a difference in terms of generations after all.

But the Duke of An didn’t voice these words.

He didn’t have the power to decide his own marriage matters. If he couldn’t marry the woman he truly liked, then it didn’t really matter who else he married, did it?

After Mr. Yang was promoted, he was busy lecturing to the assistant scholars at Hanlin Academy and temporarily had no time to trouble Xiao Liulang.

Xiao Liulang finished his duties on time.

He packed his things and left the Hanlin Academy.

As soon as he left, Cen Bianxiu also came out of his office.

He had been avoiding Xiao Liulang these past few days, firstly because he felt guilty for making a calculation on Xiao Liulang, and secondly because he was observing when Xiao Liulang would go to Mr. Yang for confrontation and accusation.

Xiao Liulang left Hanlin Academy and began to walk westward.

He clearly remembered that Xiao Lulang usually walked to the east…

Could it be that he really went to Mr. Yang to complain?

The west just happened to be the direction of Hanlin Academy–

Xiao Liulang indeed went to the Hanlin Academy, but it wasn’t to find Mr. Yang, but to find Fen Lin and Lin Chengye. He had sorted out some astronomy and arithmetic problems last night, which should be suitable for their current progress.

Cen Bianxiu sneaked up after him.

Seeing Xiao Liulang heading towards the Hanlin Academy, his heart was in his throat!

What he didn’t expect was that Xiao Liulang was stopped halfway by someone.

It was a woman!

The woman was dressed glamorously, with delicate eyebrows and eyes, and a head full of jewelry. Although she was wearing a veil, it was still impossible to conceal her irresistible charm.

Cen Bianxiu felt like his eyes were popping out just by looking at her.

The woman didn’t approach him.

It was her maid who walked over and said something to Xiao Liulang.

From Cen Bianxiu’s angle, he could only see Xiao Liulang’s back, he didn’t know what expression Xiao Liulang had, and he couldn’t hear what they were saying.

Soon, Xiao Liulang left.

The maid and the woman both slightly bowed to Xiao Liulang.