Zhang Zhixu turned her head back toward him, pinching the crumpled paper and looking at her seriously. “Do you mind very much?”
“It’s not that I mind, I just had a sudden impulse to practice calligraphy.”
“Tell me the truth.”
She raised an eyebrow, giving him an amused sidelong look. “What do I get for telling the truth?”
“Something.” He nodded stubbornly. “I’ll be very happy.”
Chen Baoxiang froze.
The person before her surely already knew the answer — otherwise his eyes would not be shining like that, so bright she hardly dared to meet them.
But he seemed to need her to say it aloud. Only then would he be completely at ease.
Jiuquan sensed how things were going and made a swift exit, leaving the room to the two of them.
Chen Baoxiang looked left and right and ultimately admitted defeat, pressing her forehead against his chest and murmuring indistinctly, “A little, I suppose.”
Three soft words, striking him in the chest together with the gesture that accompanied them.
Zhang Zhixu burst out laughing.
The person in his arms pinched him resentfully. “What are you laughing at!”
He shook his head, letting her pinch him, only laughing harder and more happily.
Chen Baoxiang gave up, watched him laugh, and after waiting quite a while, gently patted him on the back.
The crumpled pages were tucked into his sleeve pouch as though they were a treasure. The dark clouds hanging over Zhang Zhixu’s head seemed to scatter completely in an instant.
“I’ll be more mindful from now on,” he said. “It won’t happen a second time.”
Chen Baoxiang found herself unable to hold up under his direct, unwavering gaze. She gave a light cough and turned her head away. “Aren’t you hungry? Let’s go to the front hall — we’re eating with Biqing today.”
“Is Biqing going back to the palace?” he asked, unsurprised.
“How did you know?”
“I had a feeling.” Zhang Zhixu said in high spirits. “Our sovereign, though suspicious by nature, is skilled at putting the right people to use. Keeping Biqing here before was to watch whether you’d grow complacent after being granted the title of Marquis. Now that she sees you’re the same as always, there’s naturally no more reason to keep her here.”
In truth, Li Bingsheng was a cautious person — her assessments of others could take anywhere from three to five years, or even a lifetime.
Chen Baoxiang was the first person in her experience to pass in under a year.
Truly remarkable.
“We also owe thanks to your willingness to go dig up Ye Shuangtian’s old memorials, and to write those thick new ones day and night without stop.” Chen Baoxiang rubbed her chin. “This year’s imperial examinations will go on as before, but I believe next year will definitely see a change.”
Next year, was it.
Thinking of what Gu Hualong had mentioned about the people the Gu family had been associating with lately, Zhang Zhixu raised an eyebrow slightly.
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