No one knew what the Emperor was thinking. The moment he entered, the Gongshi knelt in unison. "We pay our respects to Your Majesty."
As Gongshi, they were considered half-officials, no longer counted among the powerless commoners. Therefore, they could use the same term for an audience, "" cānjiàn, as the court officials.
"Rise," Emperor Changsheng said casually, his eyes still fixed on Xu Huaiqian. The more he looked, the more satisfied he felt. Handsome and talented—truly worthy of being someone he had noticed.
This was Xu Huaiqian's first time kneeling in salute. He was quite unaccustomed to it. When the Emperor said "rise," he hurriedly stood up along with the others.
But he had overestimated his physical condition. The act of kneeling and rising quickly made his still-unwell body dizzy, and he almost lost his balance.
Emperor Changsheng, who had been watching him, instinctively moved his foot, about to step down and catch him. But Meng Fangxun, standing behind Xu Huaiqian, supported him first. The Emperor withdrew his step.
"Be careful," Meng Fangxun, who had caught Xu Huaiqian, was extremely nervous. This was before the Emperor! Losing composure in the Imperial presence was a punishable offense. Xu Huaiqian had struggled with illness to get this far; he couldn't let it all go to waste because of a minor misstep.
"...Thank you," Xu Huaiqian, stabilized by Meng Fangxun's support, came to his senses. He instinctively wanted to turn his head and thank him, but then remembered the Emperor was present. Such a movement would be too conspicuous. Instead, he looked towards the Emperor, wondering if he had been noticed.
Then, his eyes met the sharp gaze of Emperor Changsheng—a man in his forties who had spent half his life in military campaigns, seized power, usurped the throne, yet still retained an air of decisive authority.
No way? I only staggered a tiny bit. With over three hundred people here, he still noticed me? Can you see that clearly from up there?
Xu Huaiqian's heart tightened, and his mind went blank for a moment. He gave Emperor Changsheng an awkward smile and mouthed the words, "I'm sorry."
He didn't mean to do it. He just knelt and stood up too hastily and lost his balance. It wouldn't happen again.
Emperor Changsheng found it amusing. Clearly, he was the one feeling unwell, yet he was apologizing. He nodded at Xu Huaiqian, then addressed the others, "All scholars, please be seated."
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
Seeing the Emperor nod at him without any sign of reproach, Xu Huaiqian, along with the other scholars, thanked the Emperor and went to find their respective seats.
On both sides of the hall where they had paid their respects, over three hundred desks for the Gongshi to use for the exam had been prepared long ago. They were arranged according to the Metropolitan Exam rankings. Xu Huaiqian quickly found his seat.
Sitting at his assigned desk, Xu Huaiqian thought about the Emperor's reaction just now. He felt their Emperor was actually quite benevolent?
Back in Xinghua Village, due to limited information flow, he had no idea what the current Emperor was like. Even in Yong'an Prefecture and Changnan, there was no discussion about the Emperor.
It was only after coming to the capital that he heard people talking.
Their current Emperor was neither the legitimate eldest son nor the eldest son. He had ascended the throne by killing his father and imprisoning his elder brother.
Originally, the Crown Prince wasn't him. He was just a prince who had long garrisoned the border. But as the previous Emperor, Zhaowendi, was nearing his death, he led troops into the capital, killed the Emperor with a single stroke, imprisoned the Crown Prince, and ascended the throne himself, changing the era name to "Changsheng" Prosperous, symbolizing his wish for the nation to prosper.
His actions were as swift as lightning. The court officials hadn't even reacted before the dynasty changed hands. Therefore, aside from officials in the capital, local officials didn't discuss it much.
In the capital, the most common talk was that after ascending the throne, this Emperor of theirs had randomly killed and executed many court ministers. Particularly in the second year of his reign, a major disaster like the Huayin flood occurred. Therefore, Emperor Changsheng had an extremely poor reputation among the capital's citizens.
Labels like ruthless methods, harmful to heavenly harmony, virtue not matching the position, disaster is inevitable, etc., were common.
When Xu Huaiqian went out with Chen Liejiu, he had also overheard such talk. He had assumed their Emperor must be capricious and extremely difficult to deal with. He thought that after becoming a Jinshi, he would lie low in the Hanlin Academy, avoiding the spotlight as much as possible. This was also a reason he didn't particularly want to be the Zhuangyuan.
But after seeing him today, his impression of Emperor Changsheng changed. Rumors were indeed just rumors.
Emperor Changsheng was far from the cruel, murderous tyrant people described. On the contrary, he seemed quite mild-mannered.
As for his usurpation of the throne, having seen too many TV dramas about imperial power struggles, Xu Huaiqian didn't take it seriously at all.
Throughout history, except for a few utterly incompetent rulers, which emperor who managed to seize power was a pushover?
Without some ruthlessness, one couldn't hold onto the throne firmly.
As long as this emperor wasn't a despotic, tyrannical ruler, Xu Huaiqian was quite willing to work for him.
After all, he was in this dynasty now. Without attaching himself to imperial power, all the skills he had learned in the modern world would be wasted.
Emperor Changsheng hadn't expected that a simple nod would significantly increase the favorability of his chosen Xu Zhuangyuan towards him. After all the candidates were seated, he addressed the eight examination officials waiting at the sides of the hall: "Begin the examination."
Hearing this, the eight officials immediately distributed the exam papers, prepared in advance, to the Gongshi.
Xu Huaiqian unrolled his paper and was momentarily stunned to see the topic: "Imperial Examination Reform."
Wasn't this exactly what they were experiencing right now?
Moreover, Xu Huaiqian's understanding of examination reform went far beyond that. It included the thousands of years of exam reforms he had studied from modern times, as well as all the exams he had taken from elementary school through his career as a civil servant.
His personal experience with the imperial exams, combined with the jumbled knowledge in his mind, was more than enough for Xu Huaiqian to write a groundbreaking report on examination reform.
But he glanced at Shen Wennian sitting in front of him, posture perfect and treating the exam with utmost seriousness, and decided against it.
What if he wrote too brilliantly and made the Emperor, who might not have initially intended to, decide to name him Zhuangyuan?
Although this Emperor seemed mild, accompanying a ruler was like accompanying a tiger. Who knew if he might make a fatal mistake one day? The Tanhua position was safer.
Therefore, Xu Huaiqian discarded the advanced ideas in his head and honestly wrote about the benefits, drawbacks, and his own insights into the current examination reform based on what he had witnessed.
While he was writing, the Emperor wasn't idle either. He descended from the dragon throne, first walking to Shen Wennian's desk to look at his answers.
Then he came to Xu Huaiqian's desk and looked down at his work.
No matter how many times he saw it, Xu Huaiqian's beautiful calligraphy never failed to impress. Moreover, Xu Huaiqian was writing fluently without any hesitation, as if he didn't even need to think to produce views and opinions on examination reform that aligned perfectly with his own. Emperor Changsheng nodded with great satisfaction. "Excellent."
"...Cough." If he had remained silent, it would have been fine. But the sound, coming from right beside him where he hadn't noticed the Emperor standing, startled Xu Huaiqian, causing him to cough violently.
The cough was so sudden that Xu Huaiqian, without thinking, pulled a handkerchief from his sleeve and covered his mouth. When the fit subsided, he looked at the handkerchief and saw, as expected, specks of fresh blood.
Xu Huaiqian: "..."
"Your Majesty, please forgive my offense." Losing composure before the Emperor, and in such a significant way, was a serious breach of etiquette. Xu Huaiqian put away the handkerchief and stood up to apologize.
"What offense? If there is any, the fault is mine." Emperor Changsheng's temple twitched seeing the fresh blood on the white handkerchief. He hadn't expected his mere presence to startle Xu Huaiqian into coughing up blood. He quickly pressed the apologizing Xu Huaiqian back into his seat and said to a nearby attendant, "Fetch—"
He initially wanted to say "fetch the royal physician," but then considered the other Gongshi present. Showing too much favoritism towards Xu Huaiqian would be unfair to the others. He changed his mind. "Fetch a bowl of warm water for this scholar to rinse his mouth, and bring an additional charcoal brazier."
An attendant immediately went to carry out the orders.
"Thank you, Your Majesty." The Emperor was bestowing something upon him, so Xu Huaiqian tried to stand up again to express his gratitude.
"Dispensed with." Remembering how Xu Huaiqian had almost lost his balance just from bowing earlier, and fearing another incident, Emperor Changsheng pressed him back down. "Just remain seated."
His body, tempered on the battlefield and full of strength, meant that even just pressing on Xu Huaiqian's shoulder rendered him immobile. Besides, Xu Huaiqian didn't dare move. After rinsing his mouth with the water brought by the attendant, he had no choice but to pick up his brush and continue writing. As he wrote, he added a flattering remark: "I will strive to be worthy of Your Majesty's grace."
"Hmm." The Emperor acknowledged. He had wanted to watch Xu Huaiqian write a while longer, but afraid of startling him again, he thought better of it, released him, and moved on to stand behind Meng Fangxun, who was ranked third.
Meng Fangxun, seeing the Emperor move to his side, breathed a sigh of relief for Xu Huaiqian.
He didn't know if Xu Huaiqian was just having an unlucky day or what, but why did he keep having mishaps?
It had caused Meng Fangxun to nearly slip with his brush when he heard Xu Huaiqian cough, almost leaving an ink blot. Fortunately, the character he was writing had thick strokes, and a slight cover-up wouldn't be too noticeable.
It wasn't just Meng Fangxun. Even Duan Youyan and the others behind them had broken into a cold sweat for Xu Huaiqian, fearing that the Emperor, rumored to be decisive and ruthless, would be displeased and arbitrarily punish Xu Huaiqian, nullifying his Palace Exam.
Fortunately, not only did Emperor Changsheng not blame Xu Huaiqian, but he also treated him kindly upon seeing his ill health.
At this moment, a different thought arose in the minds of Duan Youyan and the others. It seemed this Emperor wasn't as terrifying as they had imagined?