The Prime Minister s Darling

Chapter 371: 195 Defensiveness (Two updates combined)_2

Du Ruohan: “The Duke Residence is the only prestigious family in the Capital City that can rival the Marquis Residence and the Zhuang family, and there once was the Liu family. If this candidate named He really is related to the Duchess, then he does indeed have the qualifications to make such grand claims.”

With the power of the Duke’s Residence, it would be exceedingly easy to arrange a minor official position in the Capital City for Xiao Liulang.

Counting it up, it’s indeed faster than Xiao Liulang’s studying.

“Why do I feel that the one with the surname Wang looks a bit familiar?” Fen Lin, propping his cheek, fell into deep thought, “Seems like I have seen him somewhere.”

Du Ruohan furrowed his brow: “Now that you mention it, I do feel the same.”

“He, Jinghong.” Lin Chengye spoke.

Du Ruohan did not remember this name, but Fen Lin suddenly recalled: “It’s him!”

“Who?” Gu Jiao asked.

“The top scorer in the College Examination in Pingcheng!” Fen Lin said.

This happened when Xiao Liulang was taking the examination to become a talented scholar. Xiao Liulang had been the top scorer in both the county and prefecture exams. However, during the third round of the College Examination, someone switched out his essay paper, resulting in him missing the top spot.

Fen Lin specifically paid attention to the top scorer of that College Examination, the name was He Jinghong.

Of course, he didn’t see this man in person.

During the fifteenth year examinee selection, Lin Chengye was not in Pingcheng. The reason he knew about He Jinghong was entirely because in June, not long after, He Jinghong also came to the Provincial City for the Provincial Exam.

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He Jinghong was staying in the same inn with him, Xiao Liulang, and Fen Lin.

“I remember now! I remember now! He was staying next door to us!” Fen Lin said, “At first, I didn’t know that he was He Jinghong until I overheard someone calling him. The Wang guy was his house manager and had shown up with him a few times.”

Fen Lin was not good at keeping secrets, once he found out that next door lived the top scorer of the College Examination, he blabbed it to Xiao Liulang, Du Ruohan, and Lin Chengye.

Fen Lin said: “Back then, I even joked, wondering if it was this guy who bribed the exam officials of the College Examination, and switched out Liulang’s exam paper.”

This kind of guess was not without reason.

Xiao Liulang’s early performance was too outstanding, he was the indisputable top choice. Only two types of people could profit from his fall: one was the barely adequate who could scrape through, as long as they pull down someone who is certainly within the top fifty, their chances of becoming a scholar will greatly increase.

The other type was those who were about equal to Xiao Liulang’s scores. Once Xiao Liulang falls, they would be the first.

But there was no evidence, so it was left at that.

Moreover, Xiao Liulang himself didn’t care.

But just because Xiao Liulang didn’t care doesn’t mean Gu Jiao didn’t care.

Gu Jiao’s eyes were dangerous: “What was his rank in the Provincial Exam?”

“Eleventh.” Lin Chengye said, he remembered it clearly because he had never thought that he could pass the examination. Unbeknownst to his family, he had read the ranking list repeatedly at home, from the first to the last, he knew it all by heart.

He was six places higher than Fen Lin’s seventeenth rank in the Provincial Exam. This might count for something in Youzhou, but in the Capital City, it was somewhat unimpressive.

There are so many top-ranking scholars in the Capital City, who would care about someone ranked eleventh in the Provincial City?

He Jinghong did not even manage to get into Guozijian, it’s highly likely that he would also fail in the Provincial Exam.

But as long as he passes the Provincial Exam, Duke’s Residence will have room to maneuver.

The palace examination, despite being presided over by the emperor himself, is ironically the trickiest part of the pool.

It is true that the Palace Examination is overseen by the emperor, who can immediately expel a candidate he dislikes and take note of a candidate he fancies. However, it is impossible for the emperor to personally review all the candidates’ papers.

The papers are still marked by ministers from the cabinet. They will select about ten exceptional papers for the emperor to personally review or interview, and then award the three “Class Alpha” scholars and grant them official scholar degrees.

This is where the tug-of-war between the emperor and ministers begins.

Among these ten or so individuals, there will inevitably be both the favored candidates of different major forces and the ones favored by the emperor himself.

If the emperor wants to protect his own people, he must tolerate the candidates of the ministers, otherwise, the ministers could rank the emperor’s favorites below the top. Then, the emperor would not even have the chance to promote them.

Even if these ten or so people don’t make it to Class Alpha, they will still be ranked Beta scholar and there is no risk of becoming an ordinary scholar.

Of course, the ministers can’t go too far. If they really put in a good-for-nothing, the emperor would still get angry.

As for someone like He Jinghong, to say he lacks talent and learning is not true. He has them, just not outstanding enough. Plus, he has a consistent track record of good performance. If he snatches an exceptionally good result in the Provincial Exam, earning a place in the Palace Examination would make it even more justified, right?