After the spiritual energy was restored: Goddess girlfriends came knocking.

The time for the palace examination arrived quickly.

Before dawn, a blue-curtained carriage stopped in front of the Zhou residence.

The driver was a fair-skinned, beardless middle-aged man dressed in a standard cotton robe from the palace.

Lin Chu straightened her clothes and walked out of the courtyard. Zhou Tingfu was already standing outside the door.

He personally straightened Lin Chu's collar, stepped back to look at her, and nodded.

Go ahead, with a calm mind.

Lin Chu bowed deeply, turned around, and got into the carriage.

The wheels rolled over the remaining snow on the bluestone slabs, rumbling towards the palace.

The sky was just beginning to lighten, with a thin line of gray and white just appearing in the east.

The streets were still deserted, with only early-rising vegetable vendors carrying their loads and hurrying to the market.

The carriage passed through Zhuque Avenue and turned into a wider and more expansive avenue. The buildings on both sides of the road gradually became more solemn, first the Six Ministries, then the Hanlin Academy, and then the eaves of the Imperial Ancestral Temple.

Finally, the carriage stopped. Lin Chu lifted the curtain and looked up.

The palace gates slowly opened before him.

The two enormous vermilion gates were so tall they seemed to pierce the sky, and each of the copper nails on them was the size of a fist.

Passing through the doorway, the view suddenly opened up.

A plaza unfolds, paved with white stones, smooth as a mirror.

At the end of the square, layers upon layers of palaces stretch into the distance along an invisible central axis.

Lin Chu stood in the center of the square, looking up at the tallest hall.

A huge plaque with blue background and gold lettering hangs under the eaves.

Hall of Supreme Harmony.

He had seen the words "capital," "palace," and "Hall of Supreme Harmony" countless times in books, but when he actually stood here, he realized that the words in books could not contain such things.

Lin Chu took a deep breath and followed the waiter who was leading the way.

The imperial examination was not held in the Hall of Supreme Harmony, but in the Hall of Literary Glory, which is located to the east of the Hall of Supreme Harmony.

The palace doors were wide open, and inside, nearly a hundred low tables were neatly arranged, each covered with plain white Xuan paper and holding brand-new brushes and ink.

Many candidates have already arrived.

As I walked in, several pairs of eyes turned to me at the same time.

"Is that Lin Chu?"

"The top scorer in the imperial examination, Lord Zhou's newly accepted student—"

"Looks so young."

The whispers spread outwards like ripples on the water.

Lin Chu ignored them, found her seat, arranged her brush and ink, and closed her eyes to regulate her breathing.

Brother Lin.

A voice sounded from the side.

Lin Chu opened her eyes and saw a fair-skinned young man sitting next to her.

He looked about fifteen or sixteen years old, with a round face and a clever look in his eyes. He was peeking over to look at him.

Lin Chu glanced at him and felt that he looked familiar.

"Yu Zhiyuan." The young man cupped his hands in greeting and smiled. "We met at Lord Sun's banquet in Yushan County."

Lin Chu remembered.

That boy who sat at the main table back then, lecturing on "The Great Learning" at length.

He was a little younger than me, but he was also a well-known prodigy.

When I saw him again, he had grown taller and thinner, but his eyes were still as bright as they had been.

"Brother Yu," Lin Chu returned the greeting.

"I'm sitting right next to you, what a coincidence," Yu Zhiyuan said in a low voice. "You beat me last time, but this time I'm going to get my revenge."

Lin Chu smiled and said, "Please."

Before Yu Zhiyuan could say anything more, the bronze chime at the entrance of the hall rang.

All the whispers vanished instantly.

"His Majesty has arrived!"

Everyone in the hall stood up at the same time, straightened their clothes, and bowed.

In the Great Zhou Dynasty, except for household servants, no one was required to kneel or bow.

Lin Chu stood behind the low table and caught a glimpse of a pair of bright yellow boots walking in from the palace entrance.

"Rise."

Lin Chu raised her head and saw the current emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty—Zhou Shiyan.

He was in his fifties, with slightly graying temples, a fair complexion, and no beard, and wore a black and gold dragon robe.

His facial features weren't particularly outstanding, but his eyes were quite special—they weren't overly imposing, but rather carried a subtle air of authority.

He was followed by two rows of officials, all dressed in scarlet robes and gold belts.

Lin Chu spotted Zhou Tingfu at a glance.

Zhou Tingfu stood third in the left row. When his gaze swept across the candidates' seats, it lingered on Lin Chu's face for a moment before moving away.

"Fellow scholars," a pale-faced, beardless attendant unfurled a scroll of yellow silk, his voice high-pitched but clear, "the Imperial Examination consists of two questions. The first question—"

He paused, and the hall was so quiet that one could hear the rustling of the Xuan paper being blown by the wind.

"On the ambition to learn."

"No restrictions on subject matter."

A slight commotion arose inside the hall.

This question is neither particularly difficult nor particularly easy.

"The ambition to learn" is a topic most familiar to scholars, but precisely because it is so familiar, it is not easy to write something new.

Lin Chu did not start writing immediately.

He sat in front of the low table, looking at the blank sheet of Xuan paper in front of him. The first thing that came to mind was not a sentence from the Four Books and Five Classics, but another passage.

A passage that was repeatedly pondered by countless scholars in his previous life.

To establish a moral compass for heaven and earth.

To establish a life for the people.

To continue the lost learning of the sages.

To usher in an era of peace for all generations.

These four simple lines are neither a poem nor a lyric.

There is no elaboration, no allusions, and no piling up of fancy words.

Lin Chu put down his pen, read it through once, and then began writing the policy essay for the second question.

soon.

The second question has been handed out—"On the Governance of Yujing".

Lin Chu knew what was going on.

Ultimately, this question is about governance. The examiner isn't looking for your ability to string together classical allusions, but rather your ability to create something remarkable within a limited space.

Yujing is a complicated place—it has many imperial relatives and noble officials, each more formidable than the last. Every year, collecting taxes, adjudicating cases, and coordinating affairs are all a headache.

Lin Chu wrote very quickly, going through everything from public security to taxation to civil administration, his pen never stopping, but his thoughts remained clear.

As he finished writing, Lin Chu pondered for a while and added a few more lines: "If the capital region is stable, the whole country is stable. Governing the capital region is like controlling water; it is better to dredge than to block."

Lin Chu's completion speed was only considered above average among everyone.

After all, all the candidates in the hall had fought their way up from all over the country, and none of them were easy to get.

When the eunuchs collected the scrolls, there was a rustling sound throughout the hall.

Yu Zhiyuan turned his head to look at Lin Chu and forced a "I tried my best" expression. Lin Chu nodded at him.

All the exam papers were sealed and sent to a side hall for review.

The Emperor and his ministers moved to a side hall, while the examinees remained in the Wenhua Hall to wait.

The side hall was brightly lit with lamps and candles.

A dozen or so examiners sat in two rows, each with a stack of papers in front of them.

They had seen this kind of scene many times, but the atmosphere today was clearly different—not because the Emperor himself was there, but because everyone knew that there was a candidate named Lin Chu among them.

The top scorer in the imperial examination was a newly accepted student of Zhou Tingfu.

Everyone wanted to see what he wrote this time.