Chapter 335: First Place, Wang Wanqing

The list of candidates for the imperial examination was submitted to the imperial court. This time, Xiao Li had Song Junzhan arrange two preliminary screening rounds. Of the tens of thousands who signed up, many were like the scholars from Yizhou—their qualifications were greatly inflated. In the end, only a thousand people actually made it to the final stage.

Xiao Li wasn’t as desperate for talent as before, so she wasn’t too concerned about the number of outstanding candidates. The only thing she wanted to know was exactly how many of them were women.

The officials in the court could more or less guess the Empress’s thoughts, so they specifically highlighted the female candidates.

This time, it wasn’t just Wang Yizhu walking the difficult path alone.

Aside from Wang Wanqing, whom Xiao Li had specifically noted, there were twenty other women’s names.

The oldest was thirty-seven, while the youngest was the same age as Wang Wanqing, just in her early twenties.

Looking through their histories, they came from merchant families, declining aristocratic families, and scholarly poor families. They had all been married; some were widowed, some were divorced. Of course, there were also those from relatively happy families, like Qiao Ruyan.

Xiao Li looked at the final review section of the documents. At the very top was Song Junzhan’s name. He was the one who had reviewed and submitted these candidates.

Just then, Song Junzhan walked in.

"Your Majesty."

His gaze fell on the list in her hands, and he instantly understood what she was looking at. "A total of one hundred and thirty women signed up this year. I personally screened them without favoritism or suppression, ensuring absolute fairness. In the end, only these twenty remained."

He knew the Empress wanted women to become officials, but he understood her; the prerequisite for women to hold office had to be ability, wisdom, and perseverance.

The Empress looked out for women, but her court had no place for the useless.

She had men and women stand together in the court, not to suppress men, but to give women a backbone.

So he had given these women a fair chance, letting them reach the end on their own merits.

Xiao Li didn’t doubt him. She closed the list and asked casually.

"Back when you were so insistent on the imperial examinations, did you ever imagine that women would also take this path and enter the court?"

Song Junzhan was blunt. "Never."

His gaze fell upon Xiao Li. "Just as I never anticipated that the monarch I would ultimately serve would be an Empress."

When he first realized Xiao Li’s identity, his thought was to have the Princess help persuade the former Emperor. He never imagined that a Princess could also become an Emperor.

But Xiao Li had made the impossible possible.

He accepted Xiao Li as Emperor because of her strength. By the same token, if women were capable, why couldn’t they enter the court as officials?

’Of course, Xiao Li being the Emperor was the one and only necessary prerequisite. If she hadn’t shaken me to the core and earned my complete admiration, I would never have had such thoughts.’

’Compared to all that, developing feelings for the Empress was, in fact, the most normal thing in the world.’

’She is so powerful and wonderful. I have followed her to this day, admiring her, won over by her, and submitting to her. I wish I could offer her everything I have. It would be stranger if I *didn’t* have feelings for her.’

His gentle gaze rested on Xiao Li, and beneath his calm eyes lay a turbulent sea of emotion.

’I stand in this position now, trusted by Your Majesty, by her side, building a new dynasty with her, and destined to be recorded together in the annals of history. I am already incredibly, incredibly fortunate.’

’But the human heart is always greedy. The moment it sees the slightest possibility, that greed grows like a wild weed, constantly devouring my reason.’

When the imperial examinations began, not a single one of the Six Ministers could afford to slack off. All of them were brought out to grade the papers.

The system was the same as before: papers were graded and candidates were screened in public. Cheating was impossible, and there were no leaked questions. It was absolutely fair and just.

Although the process itself took three days, the entire affair spanned three months from start to finish.

When the final results were announced, two of the top ten candidates were women. Ten women placed in the top one hundred. The lowest rank among the remaining nine women was still within the top three hundred, and all of them were accepted.

As for the top ten, their final ranking was decided by a blind vote.

When the first-place winner was chosen and their name was revealed, Xiao Li smiled.

"First place, Wang Wanqing!"

From the crowd, Wang Wanqing was ushered to the front, the center of all eyes, and she bowed with great composure.

"I, Wang Wanqing, greet Your Majesty." Although she tried her best to restrain herself and appear composed, she couldn’t suppress the upward curl of her lips.

’I’m finally standing before Your Majesty, open and proud.’

The Empress raised a hand. "You may rise."

Xiao Li had been personally invested, but she had not shown favoritism. Wang Wanqing had finally grown into the person she had hoped she would become.

"Second place, Jiang Zhou!"

Jiang Zhou broke into a wide grin and stepped forward to bow.

"I, Jiang Zhou, greet Your Majesty."

’Even though I got a few fewer votes than the female demon, at least it wasn’t by much. From now on, I, Jiang Zhou, will be able to bring honor to my ancestors.’

’Becoming an official wasn’t my first choice, but after serving the Empress for a while, it’s actually quite addicting.’

’For the sake of my useless old man, and for that crazy brother of mine, who knows where he is, I’m determined to be an official!’

"Third place, Xin Yuan!"

"Fourth place, Li Yunhao!"

...

"Tenth place, Qiao Ruyan!"

According to the established rules, once the rankings were announced, they would parade through the streets on horseback before entering Jinluan Hall to be conferred their titles.

As the Champion Scholar, Wang Wanqing’s post would normally be a Sixth-rank Official Position. However, due to her prior contributions, her initial rank was set at fifth-rank.

Jiang Zhou also had prior merits and was promoted to Sixth Rank.

Although he had previously been appointed the acting Minister of the Ministry of Rites, a temporary position is different from a permanent one. It seemed like a demotion, but it was actually a promotion.

The third-place winner was a former seventh-rank compiler, while the rest were granted Secondary Seventh Rank official positions according to the old rules.

Then, of course, training was indispensable. As per the old rules, all the newcomers were about to be thrown into the grinder.

This time, Xiao Li didn’t need to personally intervene. No one in the court understood training—or how to grind—better than the current officials.

A group of ’veteran’ officials looked at the fresh-faced new officials, their smiles radiating with ’kindness.’

’Welcome to the court. Let’s all get on the grind together.’

’Now you can also have a taste of the suffocating pressure the Empress dishes out and experience the despair of being on a pirate ship you can’t get off.’

Aside from Wang Wanqing, who was already an insider, and Jiang Zhou, who had figured out a thing or two, the others had no idea that their nightmare was about to begin.

Of course, before being turned into beasts of burden for the court, they could still comfortably enjoy one of the Empress’s banquets.

The Empress sat at the head of the hall. Before her were the officials of the third-rank and above. The top ten candidates had the opportunity to sit with these high-ranking figures, while the rest were seated behind them according to their ranks.

With the precedent set by Wang Yizhu, Wang Wanqing and Qiao Ruyan’s presence was not so unusual.

Wang Wanqing had always been by the Empress’s side and had previously rotated through the Six Ministries. Her abilities were plain for all to see. Honestly, it was not at all surprising that she had become the Champion Scholar.

They had long since witnessed Wang Wanqing’s capabilities and had already accepted that she was destined to serve alongside them as an official. At most, it was just a question of how high she would rank.

Although Qiao Ruyan had come from far away, her husband, Han Bin, had served in the Empress’s former Princess Mansion, so she was considered something of an acquaintance.

Coupled with the fact that Qiao Ruyan was genuinely capable, there was naturally nothing to criticize.

By now, there were no longer any arguments in the court about "a hen crowing at dawn" or how women becoming officials went against the natural order.

This was the benefit of Xiao Li having steamrolled the court and reshaped its very principles.

With that group of stubborn, greedy, and pedantic old fossils gone, the younger generation was much more receptive.