In front of the gate of Gongyuan.

"Brother Sanshui, someone at home has come to pick me up. Let's go first."

"Brother Sanshui, someone at home has come to pick me up, so I'll take the first step."

After agreeing to meet at Bishui Pavilion tomorrow, Ji Gang and Zhang Feng and their respective families drifted away under Li Miao's gaze.

Wherever you look, there are actually quite a few such situations. Most of the candidates are accompanied by family members or people sent by their families, but he is standing here alone, more or less.

It's a bit conspicuous.

A feeling of loneliness and loneliness can't help but arise in the heart, making people feel a little depressed.

"Master Li, here!"

"Master Li, here!"

"Master Li, here!"

At this time, a girl's sweet voice suddenly rang in the ears, making people couldn't help but look in that direction.

I saw, among the crowd not far away, a girl with a round face standing on tiptoes and waving her little hands constantly. Who else could she be if she wasn't a girl with a bun face?

Li Miao quickly walked towards the girl's position and asked in surprise: "Miss Xing'er, why are you here?"

The bun-faced maid smiled and said: "There is nothing to do in the house anyway, so I wanted to come pick you up, Mr. Li."

"Master Li, let me help you get your luggage."

With that said, she was about to take the luggage in Li Miao's hand.

Li Miao avoided it slightly and said: "No need to bother with this, I can just take it myself."

The two of them walked towards Zhe's Mansion, but when they just turned a corner, they saw Zhe Xinyi standing there.

She was wearing a gray outfit today, with her long hair tied up. She looked quite heroic, attracting the attention of many passersby.

The bun-faced maid didn't seem surprised at all when Zhe Xinyi appeared here. She obviously knew that Zhe Xinyi was here.

It turned out that the bun-faced maid did not come to pick up Li Miao alone, but came with her own lady. However, Zhe Xinyi followed Li Miao's previous advice and was worried that she might be raped when she appeared in front of the Gongyuan gate.

He recognized it and caused some trouble, so he chose to wait in this place with few people.

Li Miao couldn't help but feel a little flattered by this.

Looking at his expression, Zhe Xinyi said: "What? Are you surprised that I appear here?"

Li Miao did not deny it, nodded, and said honestly: "I am indeed surprised, um... and a little flattered."

Zhe Xinyi chuckled and said: "It doesn't have to be like this, we are also friends after all, right?"

Li Miao was startled for a moment, then laughed and said, "That's true."

The bun-faced maid on the side looked at her young lady, then at Mr. Li, and couldn't help but scratch her head.

The three of them chatted and headed towards Zhe's Mansion. Of course, the main chat was between Li Miao and Zhe Xinyi. The bun-faced maid only added a few words from time to time.

......

On the morning after the examination, Liu Hongwei, the chief examiner, several deputy examiners, and more than a dozen officials from the Hanlin Academy appeared in a relatively spacious room that was protected by guards.

Everyone is sitting in front of the corresponding desk, and there is a stack of examination papers with names blurred on top of the desk.

In the next five days, they will stay in this room and correct the exam papers until they are finished.

"Everyone, the next five days will be hard for you."

"So... let's start marking papers now!"

As the examiner Liu Hongwei gave his order, everyone in the room started to move and began the long road of marking papers.

Time flies by like a flash, and by the time I realize it, the sun has already set.

Looking up at the sky outside, the examiner Liu Hongwei put down the exam paper he had just corrected and said to the people in the room: "Everyone, that's it for today. You have worked hard today."

It is obvious from his brows that he is in a good mood.

There is a reason for his good mood. You must know that the questions in this examination are obviously more difficult than those in the last examination. But after marking the papers today, he has found that there are many good papers, which are better than he expected.

.

As the examiner, the better the quality of the paper, the better it is for him. After all, this is equivalent to political achievement.

Faced with his politeness, the others kept saying it was not hard.

Then, everyone left the room and went back to their homes.

Before that, Liu Hongwei locked the room, even though there were layers of imperial guards guarding the outside of the room.

At the same time, Li Miao, Ji Gang, and Zhang Feng just came out of Bishui Pavilion. With the purple wooden sign given by Chen Yuqing, the owner of Bishui Pavilion, everything cost as they said before.

Free.

After the three of them separated at the familiar fork in the road, Li Miao continued to walk leisurely to the location of Zhefu.

At this moment, a familiar figure entered his eyes, causing Li Miao to pause slightly.

Seeing that he was only one person, and as the night got darker, there were far fewer pedestrians on the road than during the day. Thinking of what he had done to me not long ago, an evil thought arose in his heart.

Looking around, Li Miao just hesitated for a moment and then quickly followed.

Always keep a certain distance and follow closely behind that person.

On the other side, Zhe Xinyi, who was dressed in smart clothes, had just come out of the military department not long ago and was heading home.

Today, the Zhe family army had some matters that she needed to go to the Ministry of War to resolve.

Then, I suddenly saw Li Miao right here.

"What is he doing sneakily?"

Because of the angle, Zhe Xinyi did not see the person Li Miao was following.

After thinking about it, Zhe Xinyi also followed.

In recent days, Sima Zhong's mood has been quite good. He has slowly come out of the loss of his son.

His concubine is pregnant with his son's heir, which sounds surprising...but after all, the bloodline of their Sima family has no heirs.

Sima Zhong has walked through this alley many times, and it is an alley that is relatively close to his home.

Because it was getting late, there were not many people in the alley, except for one or two people passing by from time to time.

Suddenly, he stopped and looked behind him.

Is it my own illusion?

Sima Zhong's brows couldn't help but frown slightly. It was getting late, and looking at the alley where no one was passing by now, Sima Zhong's heart suddenly skipped a beat.

Not daring to hesitate any longer, Sima Zhong started walking again, obviously much faster than before.

Gradually, except for Sima Zhong, no one else passed by the entire alley.

Sima Zhong stopped suddenly again and looked behind him, but still found nothing.

"Who is it? What's the purpose of following me secretly?"

"I have discovered you, come out quickly!"

Quietly...

Except for Sima Zhong's voice, there was no other sound in the entire alley, and no one was slowly walking out from a dark corner.

A cool evening breeze blew by, ruffling the hem of Sima Zhong's clothes.

Is it really my illusion?

With such suspicion, Sima Zhong took steps again, but did not take a few more steps. He seemed to hear a strange noise coming from behind, and turned around suddenly, looking behind him.

This time, he saw a figure suddenly appear in front of him. Before he could see clearly what the person looked like, he felt his eyes go dark, as if a sack was covering his head.
Chapter completed!