Chapter 15 - His Majesty hears that He Qinwang is ill (1/2)

Just as the Buddha said, a man’s burning ambition cannot be doused by cold water. Gu Yuanbai felt a bit fickle, and he understood Kangxi’s moods during his later years.1

Aware that he was dying, aware that all he had done was for nothing, even knowing that the future ruler was right next to him.

But he didn’t want to let go of his power. He also felt some reluctance about killing the future ruler, because, if he killed the protagonist of the novel, who else would do a better job than him?

Because of this, Gu Yuanbai wasn’t sure about how he should be feeling when facing Xue Yuan and Chu Wei.

Ever since he injured his foot, Gu Yuanbai had started a three stop route for work:2 going to court, sleeping and handling government affairs. Since his body was so delicate, his small injury gave him the same appearance of someone who had been seriously harmed. Gu Yuanbai’s ankle remained swollen day after day, and half of his foot had bruising from all the massages. He had already gotten used to the pain, but the imperial doctors looked more and more upset every day.

The Emperor’s wound seemed too serious. They felt like they were sinning when they massaged it.

After more than ten days, the injury on his foot finally healed. Over the past ten days, Prince He3had been ill and didn’t show up for many days. At first, Gu Yuanbai had only thought that he had caught a cold when he went home under the heavy rain. Getting sick was only to be expected.

However, after it kept happening, Gu Yuanbai realized something was wrong, and he sent someone to Prince He’s mansion with an imperial doctor to let them check what was going on.

During this time, the spring breeze was starting to blow, and it was time to post the results of the examinations.

As the Emperor, naturally, Gu Yuanbai had the right to know the results in advance. A high official from the Ministry of Rites sent him the list and said with a smile: “The only son of official Chu got the first place.”

Gu Yuanbai nodded, looked down to read the top ten and asked: “Where are the top three essays?”

The high official handed the pages to Gu Yuanbai. Gu Yuanbai first looked at the examination and approval of the examiners, and then went to read the policies the top three presented on their essays.4

This year’s essays had been personally drafted by Gu Yuanbai himself. One section asked three questions about the agricultural and livelihood policies of the Great Heng Dynasty, and the other asked about border trading. It was easy to write about a broad topic, but writing detailedly about specific matters would be much harder.

One goal was to examine whether the candidates were down-to-earth and knowledgeable about the basic elements that sustained the country, and Gu Yuanbai’s second intention was to see if they were short-sighted. If someone was a pedantic bookworm, it would be better not to hire them.

People whose views lined up with Gu Yuanbai’s would be hired, and those with pedantic and inconsistent ideas would be discarded. In the long run, Gu Yuanbai’s ideas would be implemented more smoothly, and with the influx of fresh blood into the court, the Emperor would gain loyal guardians for when it was time to confront conservative factions.

The Imperial examinations could also be considered a process to tame intellectuals and unify their thoughts, to an extent, with those of the ruler.

For this year’s examination, Gu Yuanbai had selected an official who was a real politician and worked down-to-earth as chief examiner. As such, the final top three essays weren’t written as beautiful articles, and instead had real ideas, solid writing, and were true to Great Heng’s national situation.

Gu Yuanbai looked carefully one by one, and couldn’t help but smile when he saw the last one: “Well written!”

The Minister of Rites was curious and went up to take a look. He discovered that the third essay was from a scholar from Shandong.

Ranked ahead of the Shandong student were Chu Wei and Chang Yuyan, who wrote good articles, with fluent expressions and profound meaning that made for an interesting read. This article was written unpretentiously, with concise and plain words. If the content weren’t really brilliant, it’d be hard for it to end up third.

Looking at His Highness’ reaction just now, he couldn’t help but sigh at the head examiner’s keenness and the student’s good luck. Seeing the Emperor, it seemed that this student had made a strong impression.

Gu Yuanbai read the essay from start to finish multiple times. Finally, he looked back to the top and memorized the name of the person who wrote such a sagacious essay.

Kong Yilin, Qingzhou Prefecture, Shandong.

The examination hall’s gate was surrounded by people both inside and outside.

When the soldiers walked out of the examination hall with the red paper, the people around there began clamoring and squeezing forward. The soldier said angrily: “Don’t push! Don’t push! Take a step back!”

The red paper was finally posted. The scholars around had long lost their usual calm demeanor. They clenched their hands, their eyes almost coming out of their sockets, and inside their chests, their hearts thumped in fear of missing a word.

“Hurry up, hurry up, post the announcement!”

“I made it, I made it!” An ecstatic voice could soon be heard. “I made it!”

The restaurants and teahouses on both sides were also full of people. Some people, listening to the excitement below, couldn’t resist leaning against the railing and stretching their necks to look down. They were very anxious, but even when they stretched their necks to their breaking point, they still weren’t able to read a single word from the red paper.

The face of a certain person who had sent a young servant to read the list remained calm, but their eyes were expressionless and kept glancing at the stairs from time to time. Every passing second felt like torture.

On the day the list was published, there were all sorts of people. Some were smiling and laughing towards the heavens, some were pleased and self-satisfied, and some were desperate, looking at the red paper in dismay, as if their entire being had lost their will to live.

The ones who were ecstatic were very spirited, and the screams of ‘made it!’ triggered the envy of those around. Either because they felt like they were in heaven or in hell, a piece of red paper was enough to make many people go crazy.

Originally, Chu Wei sat very calmly in the teahouse to sip tea. However, the sound of both cheering and sobbing in pain obviously affected him too. He frowned and glanced at the stairs discreetly.

His classmate shook his head and said: “Chu Wei, Chu Wei, I really didn’t expect you to participate in the examinations.”

Chu Wei looked away, with a noncommittal hum.

Suddenly a rush of footsteps came from the stairs to the second floor.

Chu Wei couldn’t resist putting down his cup to look back, only to see that it was another candidate’s servant, who shouted joyously with his hair all messed up: “Made it! Master, you made it!”

Chu Wei’s heart sped up slightly. He simply stood up, ignored the teasing from his classmates, and stood at the window looking towards the gate of the examination hall.

Many people had gone away, and most of those that hadn’t were people who couldn’t believe that they weren’t on the list. Chu Wei’s heart jumped and he pressed his lips together. Could he possibly have failed the examination?

Almost as if it were his reflection, Chu Wei saw that, on the tavern window right across his position, there was also an elegant and calm young master. The young master spotted him too and he nodded politely towards Chu Wei, the corners of his smile stiffening.

Chu Wei recognized him as the candidate who had been boasting, before the exam, to be his rival, Chang Yuyan.

Chang Yuyan was well-known, and had repeatedly produced excellent works of famous poetry. Now, judging from his appearance, it seemed that he hadn’t yet found his position in the list either.

Chu Wei also nodded faintly towards Chang Yuyan. Looking to the side, he spotted a person sitting on the table next to him.

The man’s hand hung outside the window, and he spun the jug of wine loosely in his hand, making it look as if it could fall from his hand and hit the ground at any moment.

The man’s senses were extremely sharp, and he immediately noticed Chu Wei’s gaze. He frowned, glancing towards him with a sinister look. Chu Wei looked away from this terrifying glance without changing his expression. Intuitively, he knew that this person was definitely not a good person.

“Young master!”

A familiar voice suddenly rang behind him. Chu Wei, startled, immediately turned around. When he saw his young servant’s ecstatic face, his heart jumped.

“The top spot! Young master, you got the top spot! Huiyuan! You’re Huiyuan!”5

Everyone’s heads swiveled to look at Chu Wei, and the room was suddenly full of noise.

His classmate, shocked, dropped his tea cup and excitedly got up to pat Chu Wei’s back. “Chu Zihu, Chu Zihu, you actually got Huiyuan!”

As if awakened by this sound, the entire crowd of people in the room crowded around Chu Wei to congratulate him, words layering over each other so noisily that the ear couldn’t distinguish who was saying what.

Chu Wei took a deep breath and, coming back to his senses, the corners of his lips curled up, full of spirits.