latelenovela Chapter 91. Emperor Longyun passed away before completing half of his studies...
Chapter 91. Emperor Longyun passed away before completing half of his studies...
Emperor Longyun was dumbfounded by Lu Yuxi's unreasonable and biased defense of him.
But he quickly regained his confidence. "I am a wise emperor! How can I be defeated by such a small difficulty?"
Emperor Longyun then carefully recalled Lin Shiming's style.
If you can’t beat it, join!
"Of course I know, that's why I'm here to blame you!" The first step is to seize the moral and logical high ground and find fault!
Lu Yuxi was truly speechless. Her eyes were full of disbelief as she looked at Emperor Longyun. Was it my fault?
"If it's not your fault, who is? It's because you can't control your wife!" The second step is to convict her without any regard for the facts! The third step will follow shortly: drag her out... oops, I mean, detain her for a few days for reviewing all the memorials submitted by me!
With victory within reach, Emperor Longyun inwardly chuckled wildly, hands on his hips.
Then he saw Lu Yuxi remain silent for a moment, then nod in agreement, "It's also thanks to the family's strong academic tradition and the Emperor's excellent teaching."
Emperor Longyun: "... ..."
Emperor Longyun died before he had completed half of his studies...
No, why aren't you following the script? This makes me look really stupid!
Fortunately, Lu Yuxi was unaware of Emperor Longyun's complex inner thoughts. He was still trying to defend his Crown Princess, saying, "But when Father Emperor chose Shiming for me, he should have been prepared."
You've been advised against it by Lin Shihe before. When he told you that his younger brother was too troublesome and difficult to control, didn't you still not care?
Emperor Longyun got excited when this was mentioned.
"I was prepared!" Emperor Longyun had no words to express his suffering, so he simply got up and walked to Lu Yuxi. "When I helped you choose him as the Crown Princess, I also had the idea that Shi Ming came from the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion and would not be easily bullied by the Empress Dowager."
Of course, this is only one of the reasons.
But who knew that Lin Shiming would not only not be bullied, but would also exceed expectations in completing the task, and in just half an hour he turned the tables and verbally tormented the Empress Dowager to the point of near death.
The Crown Princess has driven the Empress Dowager to the brink of despair. Listen to this! In which dynasty or era has such a thing ever happened? Isn't it outrageous?
This astonishing achievement far exceeded Emperor Longyun's initial expectations. In all his years as emperor, he had seen all kinds of people, but he had never seen anyone so ruthless.
If he were to have any contact with the Empress Dowager again, things would get really out of hand!
It's truly baffling how Lin Yunyue and his father raised such a unique and formidable weapon. Its destructive power is immense, and its indiscriminate attacks are something even Emperor Longyun finds difficult to comprehend.
"But I never expected it to turn out this way! Tell me, he suppressed the Empress Dowager like this, not to mention how angry that old woman must be, do you think the Second Prince would still want to cooperate with such a suppressed and powerless Empress Dowager in the struggle for the throne? It all depends on the value!"
Then my plan will have been in vain!
Lu Yuxi stopped writing and slowly looked up. "Father's plan is to have Prince Ping and the Empress Dowager join forces?"
Emperor Longyun: "... ..."
Oh dear, I got carried away and let it slip.
Lu Yuxi continued to speculate, "If Father Emperor only wanted to deal with the Empress Dowager, there was no need to drag Prince Ping and the Empress Dowager into it."
"So Father has some grand plan?" Lu Yuxi quickly recalled everything that had happened since Lin Shiming returned to the capital. "After the Prince An incident, Father used it as a pretext to purge many morally corrupt officials from the court. Father also asked me to preside over this year's imperial examination, saying that this year's examination is of great significance..."
"stop!"
Emperor Longyun, unusually cold-faced, forcefully stopped Lu Yuxi's train of thought, "No need to guess, I won't tell you now."
"Father, am I not worthy of your trust?"
This isn't a matter of trust or distrust. The Crown Prince only took office five years ago, and compared to a cunning fox like Lin Shihe who has been trained since childhood, he's naturally still somewhat inexperienced. Moreover, this matter is unprecedented, and before things fully erupt, it's best to keep as little information as possible.
Furthermore, Emperor Longyun needed to prepare for both possibilities. He still hoped to remove the Crown Prince as much as possible, so that even if he failed on his side, Lu Yuxi could successfully ascend the throne with the help of the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion.
Although it is highly likely that this matter will still involve the Crown Prince.
"This is my imperial decree." For the first time, Emperor Longyun was somewhat worried about his son's cleverness. "If you continue to probe and guess, I will... I will find a reason to separate you and your Crown Princess!"
"...Father, you really do resemble Tingsong somewhat." How childish!
Emperor Longyun touched his nose. "In any case, this matter is not your concern." At least not now.
If you don't ask, then don't ask; you'll find out sooner or later. Lu Yuxi could also guess some of Emperor Longyun's good intentions. "Your subject understands."
Emperor Longyun was pleased with Lu Yuxi's sensibility. He patted Lu Yuxi on the shoulder and then brought the topic back, "Since the Empress Dowager has set the time for paying her respects on the morning of the first and fifteenth of the month, it means that she herself cannot stand it and wants to avoid the time of day."
"This time you can't let your wife get out of control again. Let Shiming suffer a bit and try to stay away from the Empress Dowager so as not to interfere with my plans," Emperor Longyun said earnestly. "I promise that after it's all done, I'll give him a few days to mock the Empress Dowager. How about that?"
Separating the two would at least give the Empress Dowager some breathing room to plan.
"Father, rest assured, I will try my best to keep the two of them away from each other." Lu Yuxi replied earnestly, "I already 'spoke' about Shi Ming yesterday, and he promised not to be so obvious in the future."
If the results aren't obvious, then we need to do more!
Emperor Longyun sighed. He couldn't force things too much or stifle the child's nature. "Let it be."
“There is one more thing. When Father Emperor issued the decree to deal with the family of Du Duan, the former governor of the Southern Region, didn’t he order their property to be confiscated and them to be exiled? There is a woman from the Qin family in that family. If the Empress Dowager is going to cause trouble for this person, Shi Ming will not back down.”
"It's alright." Emperor Longyun waved his hand, preparing to return to his desk to handle state affairs. "I have already issued the decree, and there's nothing the Empress Dowager can do if she's unhappy. If she has any objections, let Shiming take action."
“Oh, right,” Emperor Longyun stopped in his tracks, remembering something, “come with Shiming this afternoon and ask him to help us decide on the topics for the palace examination.”
*
At noon, Lin Shiming, who had been fed a bowl of noodles by Lu Yuxi, leaned against the headboard, still feeling unsatisfied.
"Your cooking skills are pretty good!"
Lu Yuxi treated Lin Shiming like royalty, wiping his mouth with a handkerchief and then washing her own hands before taking a handkerchief soaked in medicine and walking over to sit on the edge of the bed.
"I spent two months in the Tingyun Army before I was officially appointed Crown Prince. I learned all of these things."
Lin Shiming snorted and let Lu Yuxi apply the eye patch to his eyes again.
"Didn't we agree that it was almost done? Why do you need to apply it again?"
"Father told us to go to Xuanzheng Hall this afternoon. The palace examination will be held in ten days. We need to finalize the topics today."
Lin Shiming was startled. "Are my eyes really almost healed?" He really didn't want to go out with red eyes; that would just be telling everyone he'd been taught a lesson last night!
Startled by this sudden change in mood, Lu Yuxi sighed helplessly and pulled the handkerchief that had slipped down back up. "Don't worry, you already have internal strength to help you recover, and with this medicine, you'll definitely be back to normal in half an hour."
Lin Shiming relaxed a little and leaned softly against the headboard.
"Then tell me about the rules of our palace examination, otherwise I'm afraid my father will laugh at me."
Well, the first thing this person worries about is always his own reputation as a young general.
"In Changping, the palace examination questions are usually set out ten days in advance. There are three questions in total, all of which are policy questions."
Lin Shiming knew a little about policy questions; they were basically about writing a short essay based on a given topic!
"The palace examination lasted four hours. After the examination, the papers were graded by officials from the Ministry of Personnel... Then, the Emperor would announce the top ten candidates in the 'Minor Announcement of the Top Scholars' ceremony on April 18th, followed by the Grand Announcement Ceremony on April 19th, with the top scholar parading through the streets. Finally, there was the Qionglin Banquet on April 19th."
Overall, apart from a few minor details, everything else was pretty much the same as what Lin Shiming had heard in his previous life.
Lin Shiming pondered for a while and then thought of a question.
"I remember last month my father told me in court that I should choose people from the new candidates. Does that mean they could all guess that the palace examination would include some legal questions?"
“It’s alright.” Lu Yuxi unconsciously picked up Lin Shiming’s hand and played with it again. “According to the rules of our dynasty, only the top three candidates after the palace examination can be directly appointed to the Hanlin Academy. The rest have to participate in the court examinations of various ministries before they can be appointed. You can ask questions to select people in the court examination of the Ministry of Justice.”
"The various departments?" That sounds rather novel; it's different from what I heard in my previous life!