After saving the Empress, I became the top scholar in the imperial examination.

Dark as ink.

The flower hall of the Ning Mansion was still brightly lit.

Ning Nan yawned, put one foot on the chair, and said listlessly to the person opposite him, "Finished downloading? Hurry up and give me the stuff."

Having resolved his worries, Li Yanting frowned, staring at the black and white chessboard before him, and said, "Let's play another game."

talking.

He kept picking up the chess pieces and putting them down again.

With his amazing memory, he restored the chessboard to its original state as the Laurel Chess Game.

The final battle for Bai Zi is about to begin.

The Black team has no hope of turning the tide.

Li Yanting held the white pieces, staring at Ning Nan.

Ning Nan reluctantly picked up a black stone and placed it on the "fourth and fifth" position.

Li Yanting's expression was solemn.

Then he placed a piece.

The sound of chess pieces falling onto the board was crisp and lively, like raindrops pattering on banana leaves.

"Snapped!"

Ningnan has made another move.

Li Yanting stared in disbelief and said, "Why did you change it again?"

When the opponent first broke the laurel wedge, their second move was at the "entering the 82nd position".

In the previous three games, the opponent also landed in the "entering the 82nd position," but the opponent changed positions on the fourth, sixth, and seventh moves respectively.

Now, he is playing this game with his opponent for the fifth time, and his opponent has changed his strategy on the second move!

Ning Nan rolled his eyes and said, "I've noticed that it breaks your finishing move even faster here."

Li Yanting gritted his teeth.

He reluctantly followed suit and placed a piece.

Six moves later, the opponent broke through the white pieces' endgame strategy.

Ning Nan clapped his hands and said, "See? I told you this would be faster!"

Li Yanting's expression suddenly turned serious, his eyelids twitching as he stared intently at the chessboard in front of him.

Yesterday, the other party came to him to resolve the marriage matter. He asked the other party to do him a favor and wanted to see if Wang Erniu was after his uncle's family property and was trying to take advantage of his uncle's extinction. After testing him, he felt relieved.

However, the fact that his opponent easily broke the Laurel Chess Game yesterday morning still made him uneasy. After seeing that his opponent had broken the game, he thought about it and realized that he was powerless. So he returned to Bailu Academy and found a senior brother who was proficient in the Nineteen Lines of the Horizontal and Vertical Chess Game to play a game. That senior brother's chess skills were solid and he was among the top five in Bailu Academy.

His senior brother praised him for coming up with the first three steps, but in the fourth step, his senior brother used a clever move to continue the momentum of the final move, and he was defeated again.

Li Yanting couldn't help but feel fortunate. If the big rascal from Li Family Village had really broken the Moon Laurel Chess Game, he naturally wouldn't have taken credit for it.

However, if the opponent only makes one or two brilliant moves to defeat me, but would be defeated by a master player... If I say that the opponent broke the game, it would inevitably make the opponent a laughing stock in front of the master player and damage their reputation. It would be natural for me to lose to my senior brother, and I don't need to care.

After returning to the capital today, he couldn't help but think of that game of chess again.

After hesitating for a long time, I finally decided to visit their incredibly large house.

I just didn't expect it.

I thought that with my senior brother's solution, we would be able to deal with the opponent.

Following his senior brother's change of strategy, his opponent also suddenly changed his approach, which immediately threw him into a panic!

Seven moves later, the opponent once again broke through the white pieces' endgame strategy!

Later, the opponents even disregarded the previous seven-move strategy and began to change their moves...

Even now, the opponent changed their move on the second move, rendering the moves they had stolen from their senior brother completely useless, allowing the opponent to break the game in six moves.

Li Yanting stared at the chessboard, his eyes darkened, and a tightness gripped his chest. He suddenly felt a sense of despair.

If one's chess skills are insufficient and one lacks the skill to adapt, then there's no point in continuing the game.

He pursed his lips, picked up a cloth bag, and handed it to the other person.

Ning Nan solemnly accepted it.

Once opened.

The air is filled with the fragrance of ink. On sheet after sheet of paper, neat rows of small, elegant calligraphy works are displayed... all recent essays in the eight-legged essay style, written by promising young scholars from Lijia Village...

Ning Nan smiled and said, "Thank you, Brother Yanting." The other party had suddenly come to ask him to play chess, and it was that particular endgame. After thinking about it, he made this request.

Playing chess is fine, but if I lose, I'll have to lend him some of the eight-legged essays I've written recently, because with the luck of a scholar, he might just guess the question correctly.

Ning Nan chuckled and said, "Brother Yanting, are you thirsty? I'll have the servants change your tea."

Li Yanting shook his head and said, "Brother Bai Xuan," he had only recently learned that the other party had a courtesy name, "I wonder if you will have time to visit Bailu Academy tomorrow..."

Since my chess skills are not good enough, I need to ask my senior brother to play against me. If the opponent can really beat my senior brother with black pieces, then I can go to Master Gongsun's place and play against him to try to break the Moon Laurel Chess Formation!

Before he could finish speaking, Ning Nan shook his head and said, "No." Li Yanting paused, unsure of what to say next.

"Brother-in-law, have an orange."

A soft, sweet voice interrupted their conversation.

A slender figure dressed in light green entered the flower hall.

Her hands were slender.

He presented Ning Nan with a plate of peeled oranges.

"oh."

Ning Nan nodded.

With one hand, I flipped through the eight-legged essays that the book seed had recently written, and with the other hand, I picked up a segment of orange and popped it into my mouth; it tasted sweet and sour.

Without looking up, he pushed the white porcelain plate toward Li Yanting, saying, "Brother Yanting, you should try some too."

At this time.

The flower hall seemed to fall into silence.

Ning Nan frowned. How rude! Even if you don't like oranges, you should at least say "thank you." He looked up and exclaimed "Huh?"

This bookworm's eyes were actually staring straight at his sister-in-law!

Ning Nan frowned and immediately said with displeasure, "What are you looking at!" As he spoke, he glanced at his sister-in-law.

My sister-in-law has facial scars. Whenever someone looks at her face, she feels like they are looking at the scars on her face, and she turns pale, lowers her head, and dares not speak.

He was worried that the gaze of the bookworm might hurt his sister-in-law, so he turned his head to look.

To Ning Nan's surprise, his sister-in-law, who usually kept her head down and dared not look people in the eye... looked directly into the eyes of the book-loving boy, her gaze intense, and a blush rising on her face!

"Bang!"

He slammed his fist on the table, raised an eyebrow, and said, "What are you looking at!"

A loud bang startled both of them.

The boy blushed and quickly lowered his head.

The young girl Qinghuan seemed to be startled as well. She turned her head and secretly pinched Ning Nan's sleeve, saying, "Sister... Brother-in-law, my sister is coming back soon... I... I'll go cook something for you, lotus seed soup."

"Add more sugar," Ning Nan said.

Qinghuan gave a barely audible "hmm" and hurried away with small, quick steps.

"Brother Bai Xuan, who is this?" Li Yanting asked, his face flushing quickly.

"My sister-in-law," Ning Nan said calmly, "is not getting married. I'll support her for life."

Li Yanting's gaze froze for a moment.

After a long while.

He let out a breath and said softly, "It's good that there's no engagement."

"Hey!"

Ning Nan's eyes widened, his eyebrows shot up, and he made a move to get up.

Li Yanting got up even faster than him, repeatedly saying he had to take his leave, otherwise there would be a curfew.

Before leaving, Li Yanting quickly said that the new educational commissioner of Yingtian Prefecture, Lord Dong Yunzhuo, together with the magistrates of Jiangning and Shangyuan counties, as well as the prefect of Yingtian Prefecture, would be holding a literary gathering on Fengwei Street on August 20th to test the talents of the candidates from Yingtian Prefecture. All the candidates from Bailu Academy who were taking the imperial examination this year would be attending...

"Dong Yunzhuo...the new educational administrator of Yingtian Prefecture..."

Ning Nan frowned; the name did sound somewhat familiar.

Half an hour passed.

After all the oranges on the plate were eaten, Ning Nan suddenly realized what had happened.

"Oh... Magistrate Dong, Lord Dong..."