Reincarnated as the daughter of my mortal enemy, all I want is to ascend the throne.

Li Yan promised to give Li Qingyan a gift on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month this year.

Seeing the chubby little hand reaching out, Li Yan walked over and slapped her palm. "What's the rush? I'll give it to you on the fifteenth. Isn't Shao Yuzhen going to test you? Aren't you going to prepare?"

Upon hearing Li Yan mention this, Li Qingyan collapsed to the ground in despair, saying, "He wants to test my military strategy."

Li Qingyan looked helpless. Why did this scholar have to teach military matters as well? Li Yan lay down next to her, using one of his arms as a pillow. "Little brat, do you know that the Shao family's military strategy is not passed on to outsiders? If he's willing to teach you, then so be it."

Li Qingyan turned over and sat next to Li Yan, using him as a cushion, resting her arm on his chest, and sighed.

"What is he thinking?"

Shao Yuzhen's thought process is truly unique. Although he is clearly loyal to the eldest prince, he still teaches her things without reservation.

Knowing full well that she and the eldest prince were rivals, she still helped the eldest prince's opponent.

I don’t understand, I don’t understand.

Li Yan patted her head; her little head was all fuzzy from rolling around on the mat.

"If he's willing to teach, then you should learn. If he uses these tricks on you later, you'll be prepared. Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated."

Li Qingyan nodded hesitantly.

This was Li Qingyan's last good day; the next day, she learned what a series of tests meant.

The exam started with poems and songs, then moved on to history and military strategy, and lasted for seven days. For those seven days, Li Qingyan spent at least four and a half hours each day in the Misty Courtyard.

On the last day of the exam, Li Qingyan's eyes were filled with confusion. She regretted letting Shao Yuzhen teach only her; if there were more students, Shao Yuzhen wouldn't have had the energy to put in so much effort.

After writing the last word, Li Qingyan collapsed onto the table.

Shao Yuzhen glanced at the examination paper, raised an eyebrow slightly, and said, "It seems that the young prince has studied the military strategy I wrote for him quite well."

However, he only received a second-class award.

When Li Qingyan looked up, there was a piece of Xuan paper on her forehead. Shao Yuzhen peeled the paper off and placed it on the table. "Your Highness should learn more about handwriting. Your handwriting is exactly the same as His Majesty's, so there will always be mistakes."

After he finished speaking, he took out a stack of calligraphy copybooks from the table next to him. "These are my work. The calligraphy of the Shao family is quite good. Your Highness can learn from them and take the test in half a month."

After grading the other exam papers on the spot, he sealed them up and had the palace servants send them to the Hall of Diligent Governance for safekeeping.

To this day, every single one of Li Qingyan's assignments and test papers is still preserved in the Qin Zheng Hall.

Li Qingyan kowtowed on the table, raised his hands above his head in a gesture of respect, and said, "This student understands."

This behavior is completely unruly. Shao Yuzhen smiled slightly and shook his head, "Your Highness's energy and spirit are still insufficient."

He left the Misty Courtyard after he finished speaking.

When Cuiping came in, she only saw Li Qingyan lying face down on the table. She was so frightened that she quickly reached out to check if she was still breathing.

Li Qingyan grabbed her hand immediately, saying, "I'm still alive! I'm still alive!"

Cuiping breathed a sigh of relief, looking at Li Qingyan's small face, "Your Highness has suffered. Mr. Shao was too ruthless, testing you for so many days in a row."

Li Qingyan reached out her hand and let her carry her back to the Hall of Diligent Governance. She didn't want to say another word; she was truly exhausted these past few days.

The man fell asleep in Cuiping's arms. When they arrived at the Qinzheng Hall, Laifu took him and carefully carried him to his bedchamber where he fell asleep.

Li Yan is still discussing matters in the Imperial Study and won't be back for a while.

Laifu tucked the cloth rabbit into Li Qingyan's arms, wiped away her tears as he looked at the dark circles under her eyes, and thought, "The Shao family truly lives up to their notorious ruthlessness."

The Shao family is known for its strict discipline in educating its children. They demand excellence in everything from academics to martial arts.

A series of tests is even more terrifying.

When Shao Yuzhen's older brothers were alive, they once took the civil and military exams for fifteen days in a row, and the third brother even fainted several times.

Because of such strict discipline, the children raised by the Shao family are all of the highest caliber in terms of both academic achievement and character.

However, this was the first time this trick had been used on an outsider.

Two hours had passed when Li Yan returned to his bedchamber, and Li Qingyan was still asleep. Her buttocks were sticking up, her head buried in the cloth rabbit, and a strand of hair stuck up from rolling around.

He picked her up, and seeing that Li Qingyan was about to wake up, he quickly shook her and patted her a few times. After she fell asleep again, he carried her around the room.

He heard about this from Laifu on the way, so he had someone send Li Qingyan's exam papers to the bedroom, where Su Xue unpacked the sealed papers and laid them out one by one on the table.

The papers from the previous few days were all regular exams. Li Qingyan did the worst on the chess notation analysis paper, and she got a grade of D.

Upon seeing this result, Li Yan smiled. He had never received a grade below Grade A since he was a child.

"Pig brain."

He studied chess the most every day, but his mind was still blank. He pinched Li Qingyan's chubby cheeks in his arms, "After studying for so long, even a pig would have learned it."

When Li Yan's gaze fell on the papers from the last two days, her face immediately fell, and her eyes flashed with a complex mix of emotions.

He thought Shao Yuzhen was just teaching Li Qingyan some military tactics, but only superficially.

But the content here was something he had never seen before; it was the Shao family's military strategy, which was truly kept secret.

Shao Yuzhen is training Li Qingyan as his personal disciple.

The most precious thing for the Shao family has never been money, but the cultural heritage left by their ancestors. If there are no descendants, they can take on disciples to carry on the tradition.

But Shao Yuzhen is only twenty-six years old. Although he is not married yet, he is not at the age where he will not have children.

unless……

Li Yan looked at Li Qingyan in his arms and lowered his head to kiss the fleshy rabbit's forehead.

Everything has both good and bad aspects.

-----------------

The Shao family compound was very large, but only a few courtyards had lights on; the other courtyards had to be sealed off because their owners had passed away.

Shao Yuzhen sat under the eaves drinking wine, while Shao Taifu sat beside him eating tea.

The grandfather and grandson looked at the newly risen moon.

"Have you thought it through?"

Grand Tutor Shao coughed.

"Yes. It's an unfilial grandson to be a grandfather."

Shao Yuzhen took a swig of wine, tears welling in his eyes.

Grand Tutor Shao patted his shoulder with his aged hand. "Yuzhen, you've grown up. Your shoulders have become much broader. Just make your decision. Your grandfather won't ask why. Whether it's right or wrong, your grandfather will stand with you through it."

"I don't know how much longer my old bones can stay with you."

An aged voice echoed in the courtyard. The large courtyard was utterly empty.

-----------------

After Li Qingyan woke up and had dinner, Cuiping carried her back to her bedroom. Suxue and her men had prepared clothes for her in advance. As soon as they saw her, they stripped her naked and changed her into a light blue dress embroidered with silver rabbits.

Her hair was styled into two small buns tied with matching hair ties, with small silver openwork balls hanging from the ends of the ties.

When the light shines on the hollowed-out ball, the shadow it casts looks like three rabbits.

She was wearing a silver fox fur cloak.

The moment you put on the hat, your whole body becomes fluffy.

Cuiping picked the person up and walked out. She didn't answer Li Qingyan's question, and her hurried steps seemed to indicate that she was in a great hurry.

Upon arriving at the palace gate, Li Qingyan was placed in a carriage. She clutched her head, feeling dizzy from Cuiping's actions, and stumbled headfirst into the carriage.

Fortunately, there was a tiger skin on the ground, so she wasn't hurt when she fell. When she looked up, she saw Li Yan and Yan Xu looking at her.

Li Yan looked disgusted. "The little brat is getting clumsy and clumsy. Be careful not to let the butcher at the market mistake him for a piglet and grab him."

Just as Li Qingyan was about to bite him, Yan Xu pulled her into his arms. "Little Prince, how did you fall?"

Li Qingyan crossed her arms and looked at the two of them. Yan Xu was dressed in a dark red outfit with a red hairband that she had given him. Li Yan was dressed in a cloud-blue outfit and also had the hairband that she had given him that day tied on his head.

Why go out so late at night?

She looked at the two people.

"An emperor and a first-rank general, yet they're so playful. It's truly worrying."

【Um… didn’t you say you wanted to go out and have fun a while ago, host?】

"Shut up."