The Red Mansion: From a Small Pawn to a Leader

It was already dawn.

The fat man called several young eunuchs holding lacquer trays into Chuxiu Palace, which is now Xue Baochai's residence.

Outside the bedroom, Ying'er was asking the palace maids to prepare toiletries.

Seeing the little fat man coming, Ying'er hurried over and whispered, "The emperor has woken up and is talking to our queen."

The little fat man nodded and walked in silently.

Ying'er asked several palace maids to put the emperor's formal dress on the lacquer tray on the fumigation cage to dry it. It was already the beginning of November in the lunar calendar, and it was already very cold in the mornings and evenings.

Walking outside the veil, the little fat man said softly, "Your Majesty, it's time to get up."

Li Hu's voice came from inside: "Let them in."

The little fat man: "Yes." He bowed and walked out, motioning Ying'er to lead the palace maids in to help Li Hu wash up.

Xue Baochai got off the bed, first opened the lid of the incense burner, and blew some air into it. The agarwood in the copper incense burner ignited a flame, making the bedroom a little warmer.

Li Hu also got off the bed at this time, and said with a smile: "Xue Ke can see the overall situation and start from small things in Shengjing City, which shows that he has really improved. The troops drawn from outside the Great Wall are still gathering, and Shengjing cannot be in chaos."

Xue Baochai smiled, took out clothes from the closet, and helped Li Hu put on them.

Li Hu: "Don't worry, those Japanese country bumpkins are still burning, killing and looting in Gyeonggi Province. By the time they cross the river, the troops dispatched by the court will have already assembled."

Xue Baochai said "hmm" and walked around to the front to button Li Hu's shirt.

Li Hu suddenly remembered: "I heard your brother is back?"

Xue Baochai smiled and replied, "Your Majesty, my brother came to the capital yesterday afternoon. My mother sent someone to tell me that my brother brought some local specialties from Shaanxi and planned to bring them to the palace to honor the emperor and the empress. I went to the empress to pay my respects. The empress graciously allowed my mother to enter the palace today."

Li Hu: "Is Baoqin coming too?"

Xue Baochai was stunned for a moment: "I will send someone to tell Baoqin to go to the palace with her mother."

Li Hu raised his hand and said, "No need. Her brother has done a great deed, I just want to reward her with something, little fatty."

"I'm here." The fat man's voice came immediately from outside the gauze curtain.

Li Hu: "Tell the Queen that I will not be there for breakfast today because I am taking the imperial examination. Also, Xue Ke has made great contributions, so let the Queen decide what to reward Bao Qin with."

Little Fatty: "Yes."

Seeing Xue Baochai in a daze, Li Hu smiled and pinched her face, asking, "What's wrong?"

Xue Baochai came back to her senses and hurriedly replied: "I suddenly remembered my aunt's illness."

Li Hu was stunned for a moment. "It was my negligence. When you go to the Queen later, tell her what I said and ask Li Yuanzheng to go and see Xue Ke's mother. If she needs any medicine, go to the pharmacy in the palace."

Xue Baochai knelt down immediately and said, "I, your concubine, thank the emperor for his grace on behalf of my aunt!"

Li Hu smiled and pulled her up, saying, "It's getting late, hurry up and help me wash up."

Xue Baochai responded and quickly called Ying'er and others to come in, helped Li Hu wash up, and then changed into the formal dress for the ceremony.

Li Hu patted Xue Baochai's hand and said, "No need to see me off. You can sleep a little longer." After that, he walked out.

After seeing Li Hu off, Ying'er returned to her bedroom and saw Xue Baochai sitting by the bed. She hurried over, picked up the coat from the hanger and put it on Xue Baochai, asking, "What's wrong, young lady?"

Xue Baochai came back to her senses and said, "Change your clothes and go to Kunning Palace to pay your respects to the Empress."

Ying'er: "It's not even daybreak yet, girl, you should sleep a little longer."

Xue Baochai: "No."

Ying Erh dared not say anything else and could only help Xue Baochai change her clothes.
The Jingyang Bell rang. Under the guidance of two red-robed eunuchs from the Imperial Household Department, the imperial scholars waiting outside the Meridian Gate divided into two lines and entered the palace from the left and right side gates respectively.

The palace examination lasted only one day. At dusk, the papers were handed in and kept by the officials who received, handled and sealed the papers. On the day of the examination, the papers were divided among eight examiners, each with a table. They took turns to read the papers and added five kinds of marks: "○", "▲", "\", "1" and "×". The paper with the most "○" was the best paper. Then, among all the papers, the ten papers with the most "○" were selected for the final examination.

The palace examination was normally held in the Baohe Hall, but since it was the first palace examination after the founding of the Tang Dynasty, Li Hu decided to hold it in the Fengtian Hall, and the standard was immediately raised a lot.

The hall was silent and quiet.

Li Hu sat upright on the dragon throne, silently gazing at the "disciples" filling the hall.

Since the emperor was personally attending the examination, Jia She and the two grand secretaries Shi and Meng were all present. At this moment, they were standing solemnly on both sides of the hall and at the door, and together with the invigilators at the four corners, they were monitoring the candidates who were answering their papers.

Li Hu was a person who could not sit still. He wanted to stand up and stretch his muscles, but he was afraid of disturbing the other candidates and bringing them pressure, so he had to endure it.

Being bored, he could only focus on the examinees. Suddenly, he found that many of them were thirsty due to nervousness, so he said to the fat boy, "Give each of them a bowl of tea."

In Chuxiu Palace, Aunt Xue was like Granny Liu entering the Grand View Garden. She found everything curious and wanted to touch and look at everything.

The eunuchs and palace maids wanted to laugh but didn't dare to, and could only hold it back.

Xue Baochai pulled Aunt Xue to sit on the couch and said, "We don't need you here anymore. Go wait outside the warm room."

The eunuchs and palace maids said, "Yes." and left the warm room.

Ying'er made two bowls of tea and left.

Aunt Xue picked up the teacup and sipped it slowly while looking around the luxurious warm room. She smiled and said, "Only after entering the palace did I know what true wealth is. When I think about Rongguo Mansion, it seems a bit petty."

Xue Baochai smiled bitterly. How could these be compared?

Aunt Xue put down her teacup and said to Xue Baochai, "Only when a woman has a child can she maintain her status. So, you should get pregnant with a dragon son while you are young, beautiful and most favored."

Xue Baochai was silent for a moment, then whispered, "Mother, the emperor always calculates the day to come to my place."

Aunt Xue was startled at first, then her expression suddenly changed: "The Emperor doesn't want you to get pregnant with a prince?!"

After hearing this, Xue Baochai felt tired, but was afraid that Aunt Xue would say something nonsense, so she expressed her guess.

Aunt Xue: "The Emperor wants the Empress to give birth to a legitimate son?"

Xue Baochai sat there silently. She had served Lin Daiyu for several years and naturally knew everything about her. During that period of every month, Li Hu stayed in Kunning Palace, and she and Jia Yingchun, Xiangling and Amber would avoid them during that period.

"What if the Queen can never get pregnant?" Aunt Xue suddenly asked.

"Mom!" Xue Baochai was so frightened that her voice changed.

Aunt Xue also realized that she had said the wrong thing and hurriedly covered her mouth.

Xue Baochai stood up and glanced at the sky outside the window: "It's getting late, you should go back."

Aunt Xue: "Your brother's matter"

Xue Baochai's face turned ugly: "The emperor has not even rewarded the Lin and Jia families yet."

Aunt Xue said hurriedly, "I'm not asking for a reward. Your brother is already grown up, and it's time for him to get married. If he doesn't have a proper job, those wealthy families won't even look at him. Besides, it's embarrassing for you."

Xue Baochai frowned: "The rich family marries the daughter, and the poor family marries the wife. In this way, my brother can suppress the new bride and take control of the family, and my mother doesn't have to suffer from the daughter-in-law. In this way, I will ask the emperor for grace in two days and buy a house from the imperial merchants of the Ministry of Internal Affairs..."

Aunt Xue interrupted her and said, "How can the daughter of a merchant family be the daughter-in-law of our Xue family?" When she said this, she was also stunned and slowly looked at Xue Baochai.

Xue Baochai was stunned at first, and then tears began to well up in her eyes. However, because of her strong personality, she stood there biting her lower lip tightly, refusing to cry.

Aunt Xue panicked and stood up quickly: "Well, I..."

Xue Baochai turned around and said, "It's getting late, mother, please go back."

Aunt Xue opened her mouth, said, "Your Majesty, take care of yourself," then turned and walked out.

Xue Baochai slowly walked to the window, looked at Aunt Xue's receding back, and tears finally flowed from her eyes.

On the other side, Lin Daiyu was stunned after hearing Zijuan’s report, and Xue Baochai was so angry that she cried!
She knew Xue Baochai too well. How much injustice she must have suffered! (End of this chapter)