After being mistaken for a fellow by Long Aotian

Even though the servant of the Ministry of Rites was so angry that he blew his beard and stared, the ranking was still determined like this.

Li Miao is the No. [-] flower, Yan Jia is the second place, and Zhou Xun...

Is the champion.

Yes, champion.

Three years ago, standing here was Zhou Cai, the eldest son of the Zhou family.He was wearing a vermilion champion gown, with black hair tied, looking at Rong Xuan, who resisted all opinions and insisted that he be the champion, from a distance across many figures.The light in everyone's eyes was focused on him alone.He walked in the sun, his steps were so relaxed, and the corners of his clothes fluttered... At that time, Zhou Xun was struggling on the sickbed, with a high fever, red cheeks, and he was still in the examination room, constantly holding up his pen. The nightmare of writing, but not being able to finish the article no matter how I write.

But now, it was him standing here.He is the one with fluttering clothes.In a trance, he seemed to have missed everything, and the fate of circulation finally came into his hands.

After thanking you, Zhou Xun raised his eyes.On the throne far away, the emperor who had always kept a cold face today and had never expressed anything to Zhou Xun finally blinked his eyes slowly at him who was about to leave across the hall far away.

They avoided suspicion for a day, as if they were strangers to each other, even when Zhou Xun was being deliberately made things difficult, he never said a word.Only then did he wink at Zhou Xun.

But it is this kind of alienation and respect, rather than favoritism and love, that is precious.He knows him so well, so he must be fair and just, and he must not be allowed to question everything he deserves, and he must not be embarrassed.

Until the moment he got on the horse, Zhou Xun was still in a trance.Surrounded by people, he put on the robe of champion and the red flower on his chest, and was sent to the horse amidst the constant congratulations. Senior scholar Gu smiled kindly at him, and King Duan waved his fan , also smiled at him, the servant of the Ministry of Rites was full of dissatisfaction but could do nothing... and he would wear this robe that belonged to the champion and see all the flowers in the capital.

"Hey, hello!" Li Miao yelled three times behind Zhou Xun before Zhou Xun heard his voice.Zhou Xun turned his head, only to hear Li Miao say sourly: "Well, now my son admits that you are indeed a disciple of Elder Shen."

Zhou Xun smiled, and Li Miao continued, "But I'm not bad either. In a certain aspect, you've lost to me."

"What aspect?" Zhou Xun was very patient.

Li Miao: "Since ancient times, Tanhua has been awarded to the most handsome candidate in the first class... Hey! Come back!"

Zhou Xun: ...I really have nothing to talk to this person.

He rode slowly.To enter the city, you have to pass through two tall buildings. On the first building, there are ministers and relatives of the emperor standing on the sidelines. They are standing or sitting, smiling, looking at the three young candidates.Occasionally, some people whispered a few times, discussing the family background, talents, or party affiliation of the candidates.

The second building is much more lively.There is a curtain hanging beside the fence, and there are many women from noble families standing in shadows inside, such as princesses and Wengzhu.The scene here is different from before.They stood secretly behind the curtain, discussing the three young and handsome candidates.From behind the curtain, there are occasional voices of laughter. This is their carefree youthful time before leaving the court. Naturally, they whisper, play happily, and discuss with their closest friends who they fall in love with in this place where outsiders can't see. to whom.

Someone seemed to have fallen and almost fell out of the curtain.Another hand reached out and pulled her back.When the man stretched out his hand, he showed a side face, his eyebrows were thick and long, and his description was a bit glamorous.Zhou Xun heard Li Miao behind him startled: "Is it Changle Princess? Has she returned to the capital?"

Princess Changle?Is it Shangguan Mingjing's princess friend who hates Zhou Cai so much, the one who followed his uncle to the frontier fortress?Zhou Xun thought.

He turned his gaze to the side of the curtain, and to his surprise, the princess stood there without avoiding his gaze.Zhou Xun only saw her side face, felt that she was very cold, and saw the direction of her gaze.

She is looking at Yan Jia.

After a while, the eldest princess looked at Zhou Xun.This time, there was a feeling of hand-to-hand combat.After a moment, she looked away.

Li Miao seemed to be suffocated along the way.Yan Jia never spoke. He felt that Yan Jia felt that he had lost face and was holding grudges in his heart, so he talked to Zhou Xun after he left the palace: "The princess of Changle is over twenty. It is reasonable to say that at this age The girl should have been married long ago, but she still goes out to race horses with her uncle all day long. The officials have made several discounts on her matter. I guess now that she returns to the capital, the emperor is going to marry her, even if she is Eldest princess, you can't just float around like this all day long. Maybe the eldest princess' son-in-law is among this year's candidates..."

He was talking too much, Zhou Xun glanced at him, and said before the traffic increased: "Unexpectedly, the son knows the matter of the eldest princess very clearly."

"No, she was like a boy since she was a child, and beat me..." Li Miao said this inexplicably.

Zhou Xun gave him a strange look, and suddenly understood what Li Miao was thinking.But just now the eldest princess was upstairs but she didn't look at him at all.

She looked at Yan Jia for a long time, but she didn't express envy or appreciation.

She did look at Zhou Xun, but it was an extremely weird...as if she knew that Zhou Xun had noticed that she was looking at Yan Jia.

"Why did she go back to the capital? I thought she would stay outside the Great Wall for the rest of her life..." Li Miao muttered.But before he could finish his sentence, he saw the bustling street in front of him.

The people ran out of their homes to admire the three young first-class candidates.They held bluegrass or other flowers in their hands, and threw them to these handsome young people, praising their talents and appearance.Or in some pavilions, covered girls secretly came out to see them, or some officials and gentry came here to see them.

In fact, to them, the talents of these three candidates are the least important—no matter what their talents are, they can't be seen in the process of parading, so the appearance of the candidates has become a hot topic of discussion .Among the three, Li Miaosheng was the most handsome, tough and tall, many girls were secretly looking at him.And Yan Jia is just more delicate and gentle, but he has a beautiful sister after all, and he is not bad, and there are also girls who are bold enough to throw bluegrass on him.

On the contrary, Zhou Xun received even fewer "gifts".This is not because he is born inferior to the other two, on the contrary, in terms of appearance, he is far better than the other two.But he has a very alienated and indifferent aura about him, as if there are peanuts in Gaoling.People would whisper about him in private, but they didn't dare to look at him more, or throw something at him, as if it was an offense to him.

Walking all the way, to the west of the city.But the path of travel became congested. Someone went to the front to see and replied: "A girl is throwing a hydrangea to invite relatives."

Upstairs in front, there really was a girl, covering her face, beckoning to her.A few people hurried over, but who would have thought that the girl seemed to take a look at this side, and the flower ball would go straight to this side.

Seeing the flower ball coming straight towards Zhou Xun.Just as Zhou Xun was about to dodge, he saw a black shadow flashing out of the crowd...

That black shadow was really fast, like a bolt of lightning, and there was a bloody aura like a blade between its actions, and it was full of sharp killing intent in the eyes that flashed past Zhou Xun's vision. A seasoned assassin or spy.

The seasoned spy and Zhou Xun looked at each other...

…then he reached out with lightning speed and hit the bouquet elsewhere.

After finishing all this, Sombra opened his mouth, tried to show a "mild" smile to Zhou Xun, and then disappeared into the crowd.

Zhou Xun: ...

He saw a familiar figure from a distance and understood.

...Your majesty, is it that you take out the black clothes that you made with your own hands and use them like this?Zhou Xun couldn't help but choked speechlessly.

He was looking over there when suddenly the tips of his ears moved.A very strange reaction came to his mind.

Not far from here is Yanyunfang.There is only a river.Zhou Xun looked at the source of the premonition.He is now standing next to a teahouse, and in the distance is a Zhulou.Zhu Lou is called "Revlon".

"What's wrong?" Li Miao asked him behind him.

"Nothing." Zhou Xun shook his head and said.

He continued walking with the crowd.On the Zhu Tower not far away, a woman in plain clothes respectfully closed the curtain for another woman.

"He shouldn't be able to see us." The young woman in plain clothes said.

The woman sitting beside her was wearing a gray dress, her hair was tied up in a bun, and her face was covered with a veil.She is no longer young, but there are still traces of softness in the outline - that kind of trace is like a rose that has been plucked and petals rubbed, even though it has dried up now, you can still see it from the color It was so beautiful when it was so beautiful.

The woman in plain clothes didn't speak.She seemed to be waiting for the time for the woman in gray to sink into her memories. She didn't know the story of the woman in gray, but with her intelligence, she could always see some clues.But the woman in gray didn't pause, she just casually picked up the bamboo tube containing the information in her hand and said, "You did a good job."

The plain-clothed woman smiled and said, "It's nothing too much. Xie Zhengqing is very vigilant, and I spent a lot of effort to get these things. He is not the kind of man who appreciates the beauty of women's fragility. It didn't take much effort."

"The eldest prince of Xiliang is no longer in the capital, is he planning to return to Xiliang?" The woman in gray said calmly, "I'm afraid he didn't expect that the little girl he picked up since he was five years old would actually betray him. On the surface In fact, you are from Xiliang, but in fact, you have been working for the Northern Wei Dynasty."

The goddess sitting opposite her smiled.This woman in plain clothes is the goddess Qingruo who was on the float that day, but she has a sweet smile in private, not as cold as when she was on the float.She said: "If I only work for the eldest prince, I will be just 'his lightness' for the rest of my life. Even if he is in a high position in the future, I will be just a concubine's plaything. To be a handy knife, the knife will always be blunt That day. But the taste of doing things for yourself, like this tea.”

She picked up the tea she made: "Whether the tea is cold or warm, bitter or sweet, you get it yourself, not begging for it. The credit you earn is also yours."

The woman in gray left "Revlon". Before leaving, she saw a woman living in the backyard.The woman with eyes similar to those of Lin Yan was holding a baby, and from time to time insulted the child who did not bring her the glory and wealth of marrying into the Zhou family, but instead became her burden.She was full of obscenities, and called the child by ugly names, without knowing that she was a mother.

The attendant of the woman in gray said in a low voice, "There is such a mother in the world."

"The birth of this child is not what she wanted. Although it shouldn't be like this, there is nothing wrong with it." The woman in gray said lightly, and got into the carriage.

Upstairs, Qingruo opened the curtains again.She watched in the distance that the teams belonging to the top three in the imperial examination had left the street.Naturally, the top three teams would not come to this street.She folded her hands, looked at the scene in the distance, and thought about the young man who was the number one scholar she had just seen.

She has a good memory and has a photographic memory. People who have seen her once will be able to report her name next time.If not, she would not be a handy knife.

"I seem to have seen him before." She thought, "Is it the day when the goddess paraded through the streets? The man who followed him..."