Do Not Offend the Reborn Wicked Wife-Chapter 201: Such Vicious Tactics!
Xiao Liu was holding a bunch of medicine packages, chewing on a candied hawthorn, looking a bit comical.
"Master, Madam, it was Mr. Duanmu who gave it to me!"
After entering, Xiao Liu obediently confessed.
Eating a string of candied hawthorn, Long Yue wouldn’t mind, waved her hand, and asked, "What did Master say?"
"Mr. Duanmu didn’t say anything, just gave me this medicine package."
Xiao Liu lifted and shook the medicine package in his hand.
How clever was Long Yue? She understood immediately!
"Put it down."
"Okay! Uh... Madam, aren’t you going to brew the medicine?"
"It’s still early, later... hmm, this afternoon!"
"Alright!"
After Xiao Liu left, Long Yue picked up the medicine package and opened it.
Inside the package were seven small medicine packages. Long Yue opened them one by one and found a note in the last package.
"A Mu’s body is deficient and should be supplemented with nourishing and gentle medicines. Roasted ginger is very hot, dries and depletes kidney water, which is harmful to him!"
Long Yue’s face instantly turned ashen.
Li Qingmu saw his wife’s expression and felt a chill in his heart, "Yue’er, what’s wrong, is there something amiss?"
"See for yourself!"
Li Qingmu took the note, glanced at it, and his gaze turned cold.
He let out a cold laugh, "Those people in the palace are really painstaking!"
Even meddling during a diagnosis, they really surpassed themselves!
No wonder the palace concubines are not simple, every step is treacherous, always calculating. Which of those who climbed to the position of Imperial Concubine didn’t have backing or some means?
"Do you think it’s Empress Qiao or Consort Xue?"
"Consort Xue has already stumbled twice, once at your hand, and once at mine. She will certainly behave herself for a while, so..."
That leaves Empress Qiao!
"Empress Qiao has been close to Pang Wenzheng, and she even adopted Pang Shuangyue as a foster daughter. We’ve been in the capital for so long, she’s been slow to make a move, I thought she would lay low and watch us fight with the Third Prince, but I didn’t expect her to secretly interject."
"This is just a minor trick, not painful or itchy, at most it makes me more physically weak, but not life-threatening. I can’t exactly go to the Emperor and say, the Imperial Physician you sent to me has ulterior motives, can I?"
After Li Qingmu finished speaking, he chuckled softly, the smile carrying a hint of sarcasm.
This is a silent loss. Whether Li Qingmu takes the medicine or not, Empress Qiao wins either way.
If you take it, your body worsens. If not, you know my scheme, but you feel uneasy, don’t you? Uneasy, yes, but can you hit me? No, you can’t!
This really makes one’s teeth itch in anger!
"I’m so angry, I can’t just swallow this dumb loss!"
In a fit of anger, Long Yue shredded the note into pieces, tossed it into the candle flame to burn it, her furious little appearance as if the note was Empress Qiao herself.
Li Qingmu continued to laugh heartily.
"What are you laughing at?"
Long Yue couldn’t understand this man anymore, getting schemed against yet still able to laugh?
"If not laugh, should I cry?" Li Qingmu took a loquat, peeled it, and popped it into his mouth, mumbling, "Yue’er, that Empress Qiao just wants to disgust us. If you get angry, it means falling into her trap. Imagine how delighted she’d be if she knew you were so mad over this little thing that you stomped your feet?"
Long Yue pursed her lips and went to grab the loquat from him.
"Have you thought up a plan for retribution?"
Li Qingmu shrugged, "No!"
"Then what’s making you so happy?"
Long Yue glared at him, half annoyed, wondering why this man was getting more and more punchable?
Seeing his little wife nearly at her breaking point, Li Qingmu knew it was best not to provoke her any further, so he said, "Yue’er, in just ten days, it’s the spring examination."
"What does that have to do with this?"
"Empress Qiao has a nephew, who will participate in this year’s spring examination and is highly anticipated by his clan."
Long Yue squinted at him, wondering what he meant by that. Did he want to mess with that Qiao family member? But how, and is it even possible?
"Empress Qiao’s nephew is usually carefree and writes flamboyant grass script or flowing cursive, but during the exam, it is mandated to use regular script. This is to avoid the handwriting being too illegible, which could cause misjudgment from the copyists."
The spring examination is a very serious and important civil exam. Once passed, one will attain the rank of Jinshi and be appointed as an Official from the capital.
This is a threshold, like a carp leaping over the dragon gate, a step to the heavens.
Where there’s benefit, there will be people taking risks.
As a result, cheating emerges.
The various cheating methods are truly astonishing, one of which is bribing the examiners to recognize handwriting for cheating purposes.
This method is truly ingenious. At one point, someone actually succeeded, of course, this person himself was not lacking in talent, it was just his essay was mediocre. He wouldn’t have passed, but he bribed the examiners, and an ordinary essay was rated top notch.
After this incident was exposed, the courtiers came up with this method, hiring some clerks to copy the essays onto another answer sheet for the examiners to review.
Although troublesome, this at least ensured the fairness of the examination.
"The Emperor said previously, if you pass the spring examination, the position of Imperial Censor will be entirely yours? So, do you think someone will mess around in the exam?"
"Not think, certain!"
Li Qingmu walked over to the desk, grabbed the rice paper on the table, and tore it viciously!
"Riiiiip—"
The paper tore, revealing the pre-written essay inside.
"Other means can’t do anything to me, and if they blatantly make things difficult, it will be unfavorable once it reaches the Emperor’s ears, so if they want to mess up, the only link left is the transcription."
Long Yue approached slowly, looking at the neatly written essay, thoughtfully, "So, you plan to imitate Empress Qiao’s nephew’s handwriting to get by?"
"No! Relying on imitating his handwriting to get through is just a lower strategy."
"Then what’s the best strategy?"
"The best strategy is..." Li Qingmu stopped mid-sentence, then turned back and said, "Yue’er, haven’t you noticed there have been more sneaky people outside the General Mansion lately?"
"Noticed long ago, which is why I brazenly went to the farm, so they could catch something against us, allowing you to show your capabilities at court!"
Long Yue knew her man too well. His eloquence could turn the dead into the living. Moreover, what they did was beneficial to the country and the people; they truly weren’t afraid of the opposition’s impeachment.
"Hmm! Those people circling the General Mansion are gathering our intel, so I periodically toss out essays I’ve written, just for them to see! And the handwriting I use is none other than the regular script of that nephew of Empress Qiao!"
Upon hearing this and thinking it through, Long Yue was dumbfounded.
"You imitate his handwriting and throw it to those about to cheat. Those transcription clerks are ordinary clerks, how could they have contact with Empress Qiao’s nephew? So, when the exam is over, they copy, only recognizing the handwriting, he will become your scapegoat, failing the exam—hiss—"
What a vicious means!
