The Prime Minister's Darling novel Chapter 618

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.

"Prime Minister Yuan loves to study ancient books," Premier Zhuang said. _{fɾēewebnσveℓ.com}