Like Pearl and Jade

Chapter 91

In the first imperial examination after Jin Yang started to govern on his own, many talented people appeared. When their essays were published, many people were attracted to them, and they were very popular.

But no one could have expected for a stunning thing to occur during the imperial examination.

Everyone knew the imperial examination was the world of men. Court rarely had examples of women as officials. Even when that female emperor in history was in power, she only used a few of her female officials, and the important officials in court were all men.

But this time, the imperial examination revealed that the fourth-ranked was a woman.

Before each imperial examination, from county examination to the court examination, while the candidates would not strip themselves for inspection, they would be searched. There were all kinds of investigations relating to one's moral reputation. But even under such strict rules, a woman managed to make her way in.

Some scolded the woman for corrupting the court. Others suspected some were cheating in the imperial examination, so a woman was able to disguise herself as a man and appear at Zhaoyang Hall. Everyone was in a hurry to criticize this woman, especially the scholars who seemed to have been fatally insulted and who were jumping up and down to express their discontent.

Everyone forgot how they had worshiped, been in awe of, and wanted to gain a connection to this fourth-ranked examinee before this.

Gu Ru Jiu heard of this matter, and disapproved of the scholars. She became interested in the fourth rank.

"Great Feng's imperial examinations are always to recruit the talents of the world. Who said that such talents must be men?" Gu Ru Jiu sneered and said disdainfully, "In the end, these scholars just feel that women cannot be in those positions, and should not be there."

Jin Yang heard Gu Ru Jiu's words, and said with a smile, "Jiu Jiu, what do you think should be done?"

"I do not care about this." Gu Ru Jiu snorted. "You should do the things that take up brain power. I will be responsible for beauty, eating and drinking."

This Zhang Tai's greatest crime was not that she attended the imperial examination as a woman, but that she was a woman while her household registration had her recorded as a man, and she still came to participate in the imperial examination. If this matter was pursued, this was a crime of deceiving the emperor. If someone was at odds with her, just this crime alone was enough that Zhang Tai could not come back up.

Jin Yang smiled helplessly. "Why, after having Zhuang Zhuang, you are like him?"

"That can only be blamed on you." Gu Ru Jiu propped her chin on her hand and looked at him with a smile. "Who let you spoil me like this?"

"Really?" Jin Yang came close to Gu Ru Jiu, his expression innocent. "How come I do not know I spoiled you?"

Gu Ru Jiu held his face and looked left and right. She jerked with her hands. "Thick skin."

Already used to the emperor and empress interacting like this, the palace attendant nearby looked calmly at the tip of his toes, and tried to see if there was a flower blooming.

He Ming finally knew why Bai Xian, that sly old fox, was happy to follow the empress. From how the emperor was enthusiastic about the empress, following the empress was no different from following His Majesty.

He originally felt that Bai Xian had made a bad move. What was the use in having the emperor's favour for a while? Men were all greedy and lusty. Today, they could be good to this woman, and tomorrow, be just as good to the other woman. Even if the empress was no ordinary woman, serving the empress could not compare to serving the emperor.