Chapter 4

1.4 – You can't just casually turn bent!

The system that had been called out to show itself by its host only to be thrown downstairs and pinched by the neck by a certain general, "…"

Heavens, could this world be any better? Was he not afraid of being struck down by lightning for abusing the system like this?!

Host, I've seen through you! You're a jerk!

Its host supported his cheek and looked down at the general, laughing brilliantly.

The system couldn't watch on anymore. Its host was even using a honey-trap for the sake of completing the task. It felt as though things like high moral principles simply did not exist while it followed this host!

Fortunately, the general's morals and state of mind could be considered pretty firm. Although he had previously been distracted, he recovered quickly. He first stared at the shivering little white fox in his hand, then looked towards the man in red on the windowsill.

Today, the imperial examinations had published a list of successful candidates, and the only person who could dress like this should be the one who ranked first.

After the general examinations came the palace examinations. The emperor had yet to appoint the number one scholar, but if there were no surprises, it would be this top candidate.

Although there was a youth in the general's palace who was also taking part in this year's imperial examinations, the general had been in the central government for so many years, and felt that it was all the same with or without the scholars that came up in the examinations every year. They were not indispensable, and so, he hadn't paid much attention to the situation this year, let alone spent time on the rankings. Based on this person's appearance, they should now be rushing to the palace examinations. Why…

Why would he throw the fox at him at this moment?

In fact, Xue Ling wanted to throw down a flower, but after thinking about it, he thought that a flower was too flirtatious. In case the general became angry, it wouldn't be worth it. Unfortunately, there was nothing suitable for him to throw; if he carelessly dropped the window support, whether or not it hit the general was not important, the key point was that Xue Ling himself felt all kinds of entanglement and indecision.

After all, the plot seemed to be developing in the direction of Pan Jinlian and Si MenQing more and more.

As he was thinking about it, the general conveniently rode under his window. Xue Ling ordered the system to show itself, grabbed it, and threw it downstairs, almost scaring the system half to death.

Although it was a bit unsuitable, the man had already laid eyes on himself. Xue Ling smiled leisurely, adjusted his sleeves and spoke, "Today is the day for the palace examinations, but the person who came to inform me did not tell me how to enter the palace. Since the General was riding by, this one could only respectfully make this decision, and also hope the general would be magnanimous enough to show the way."

The general's original intended words were directly interrupted by his remarks. He looked at the man with somewhat complicated eyes, brain turning countless thoughts that ultimately turned into a silent sigh. "What is the Emperor playing at this time?"

Xue Ling shrugged his shoulders, innocently saying, "I don't know either, but I just need to find my way into the palace, which is giving me a bit of a headache." Although he was born gorgeous, when he put on an innocent expression, he looked extremely pure. These two temperaments colliding together on his body made Cong Hui, who was meeting this type of person for the first time, rather agitated in his heart.

"I thought that since I have some connections with the general, the general probably wouldn't refuse me." Xue Ling finally added this sentence.

Cong Hui was taken aback. He completely could not recall how he had possibly intersected with this strange and fascinating creature before his fox was thrown at him.

Seeing his rare astonishment, Xue Ling held back his smile, "Did the general forget? A few days ago, that painting that I held back the longest, that was requested for the most, entered the general's palace."

Cong Hui was surprised, eyes bright as he directed a soul searching look towards Xue Ling. Unfortunately, this kind of frightening eyesight was not useful at all against a thousand year old fox spirit, and Xue Ling was still particularly calm. "It's only been a while since your Excellency General took the painting away, and now you're going to turn your face around and claim not to know someone?"

Recently, apart from dealing with military affairs, Cong Hui's remaining time had been devoted to that painting. He had always wanted to find the painter to properly discuss it, but now that this person had appeared directly in front of him, he suddenly had a feeling of not knowing what to do.

"Your Excellency General?" Descending the stairs, he retrieved the system he had thrown out. Xue Ling petted the system's head and stroked its fur; the system turned its head and was unwilling to look at him.

"Come up on the horse." A long while later, the calm-faced general opened his mouth.

Xue Ling looked stiff, blinking a little confusedly, "This one, can't ride a horse…"

Cong Hui looked the other in the face. Xue Ling's eyes were completely different from how they had been. Being stared at like this, because he was really embarrassed, he silently turned his head, ears showing a trace of red.

The system quietly complained in its heart that its host was really acting out a good play. It was as though he really was very pure.

The general's face turned red, and he felt like something wasn't quite right with him today.

"Can you ride behind me?" As the protagonist gong of the world, the general was usually lucky. Although he had a strange fondness for the person in front of him, he was not actually so easy to talk with.

Xue Ling also disliked the general's bothered appearance, couldn't he use his brain a little? He also didn't really want to get close to the general. Would the general die if he agreed to his request earlier?

The reason why something like this happened today was actually very simple. The article Xue Ling handed in was a great article with many good things hidden within. As long as one read it carefully, they would be able to gather a lot of information from it. In his article, not only did he answer the topic clearly, making people who read it feel enlightened and want to talk to him about government affairs, he also hid some of his own life story, stating that he knew that there would be someone in the examination room writing the same article as him. He hoped that the emperor would give him a chance to chat with the person who copied his article during the examinations.

He had made his intentions so obvious that other than feeling as though he needed to ensure this genius was kept for his own use, the emperor also had no complaints at all about him playing such a game in the examination.

But the emperor was still the emperor at the end of the day, and it was obviously inappropriate for him to listen to Xue Ling's words so casually, which led to today's events.

Although the students were notified that they needed to enter the palace to retrieve their robes, they were not given any tools or personnel to guide them.

Duan Xuyang in the General's Palace had no such worries. Although the general had not returned yet, once he explained the situation to the housekeeper, the housekeeper arranged a carriage to bring him to enter the palace.

Although there was no one following in the open, in fact, people were sent to secretly observe. All the candidates' reactions were in the hands of the emperor. Among them, Duan Xuyang, the earliest one, and Duan Qian, who was led in by the general, were the two the emperor cared the most about.

The emperor was amazed when the officials who reviewed the papers first brought them to him. After reading Duan Xuyang's papers, he felt that the younger generation would surpass the older (后生可畏), but after reading Duan Qian's papers, the emperor could only sigh that some people were born with genius.

Although the two papers had different signatures and handwriting, they both shared similar views. Only, one article stopped after discussing the issue from a shallow superficial perspective, letting the emperor appreciate (赞赏), but not admire deeply (叹服).

In addition, the old elder in charge of marking Duan Qian's papers had in his possession a piece of his calligraphy. After the emperor read the two together, he was even more amazed. The talent of this young man as a national scholar was unparalleled, and the emperor had already begun to think about where he could assign him to best use this talent after he was awarded the championship.

In order to quickly cut through this mess, Xue Ling had already gone all out, and reached the stage of serious OOC. The system expressed that it couldn't bear to watch further. Good things would not happen just because its host was too eager to succeed!

Cong Hui ultimately can not persist under his shameless acts, and after the other party scratched his head in embarrassment and finally promised him another painting, the general was finally satisfied and arranged for people to prepare a carriage, personally sending the youth to the palace.

In a sense, the general's behaviour was really quite like that of a rogue.

He sent Xue Ling all the way through the palace gate, but even if he was the general, it was not an easy matter to enter the palace without the emperor's orders, so he could only watch as the small champion went in step by step.

The funny thing was that the young champion seemed very unhappy that he took advantage of the fire to rob, so he had no good expression to show the general, jumping out of the carriage and only leaving a snort of contempt before leaving.

The general frowned slightly. How come he felt that the little champion's face seemed to be even paler than before?

Xue Ling was being led along the way, all the while complaining to the invisible system, "This body is really terrible, just riding in an ordinary carriage, going a little faster, the road is a little bumpier, and blood is already surging. Not vomiting blood on the floor just now, is already something to thank the heavens for."

The system was also helpless, "There's no other way, the power that the Ten Directions World can provide to help improve your physical fitness is limited, and I can only choose to use your future life force to exchange for your current current lively state. That's why, even though I didn't stop you, I don't agree with you about speeding up the process. You'd better hurry things up. This body won't last long."

Xue Ling pouted. He was already using his fastest speed to slap everyone's faces. As long as he could see the protagonist shou in a little while, his task could be considered half done. After that, the protagonist's luck would be drawn away by the Ten Directions World, and in return, he could use it in exchange for the ability to support this body for a period of time and change the protagonist gong's fate.

Xue Ling knew very clearly that as long as the other party did not like the protagonist shou, there would not be so many matters dragged in in the future, which was why he dropped the system downstairs today, as well as the reason why he had specifically advised Xiao Qing to sell the painting and calligraphy to the general.

Every step that Xue Ling took was full of calculation, and the little white fox system that was stuck with him did not even know how it should criticise him.

It was hard to find such a dedicated host nowadays. What kind of deal did the Lord make with him?

But he was still too confident… Why would he think that as long as he saw him, the protagonist gong would not have good feelings about the protagonist shou anymore? Although this was not a high-level world, and the mandatory plotline wasn't very strong, it wouldn't be so easy to make the protagonist deviate…

The emperor's audience hall was resplendent and magnificent; the emperors of this dynasty had worked hard to govern well, and it was also because of this setting that the general could live so well in the court, and not be regarded as an enemy by the throne due to his power. When the emperor really began to worry about military power in his old age, because the general and Duan Xuyang loved each other, and had no children, even though he had military power, there was no reason to usurp the throne, so they were never regarded as thorns in his side.

Xue Ling was the last one to arrive. When his name was called up, Duan Xuyang obviously wavered for a moment, however he was very good at acting and knew that he should not make any foolish moves in the emperor's audience hall, so he bowed his head and said nothing. Rather, the other candidates looked at the hall door with some curiosity, wanting to see the demeanour of this top scholar.

And then, they were all amazed.

A youth dressed in red clothes, as handsome as ornamental jade, his posture upright, lips hooked in a slight smile, swept a pair of good-looking eyes around the hall. Wherever his gaze touched, candidates blushed and felt their heartbeats speed up, feeling that something was not quite right with themselves.

How terrible, the impartial attack of the first prize scholar was too powerful for them to resist!