Want to win the palace fight? Better to be crazy than to be idiotic!

The venue of the poetry competition was full of red plum blossoms, which were in full bloom. At this time of year, the green had faded, and the branches were adorned with red, which already had a subtle fragrance and sparse shadows. The palace maids selected several pieces of colorful silk in matching colors and hung them on the branches, making the venue even more elegant, like a fairy's residence.

The Queen Mother must be very satisfied with the poetry competition she supervised. Not only did she come to be a judge herself, she also invited four close ministers who were related to the royal family to participate in the judging process to show fairness. Although the people had not arrived yet, their business cards were already hung in front of the judges' seats at the back of the venue. Although Su Feiran didn't recognize any of them, they must be famous and famous people. She didn't recognize them because she was short-sighted.

Others all said that the Queen Mother treated the poetry contest so seriously because she valued Concubine Xian. Lin Xiuqing glanced at the business cards in front of the judges' seats, but he had some other guesses in his heart.

The suspicion only flashed through her mind, and Lin Xiuqing was arranged by the palace maids to sit in the seats for contestants along with the other four people. In just a short while, many concubines who were not participating in the competition also arrived and were led into the audience seats one by one.

What surprised everyone was that Concubine Jia, who had not given any face before, actually came. Although she put on a sour face and prepared her own table and food for watching the competition, she chose a good seat, sat there, and waited motionlessly for the poetry competition to begin.

The concubines had been seated for a long time, and Qin Feng'an also arrived with a large group of people. Probably because he had just finished his official duties, Su Feiran always felt that his face was seven points tired, three points bored, and zero point zero point zero point of irritability that wanted to curse. After a while, the Queen Mother also arrived with the invited ministers. They sat down at the judges' table, talking and laughing, as if they had known each other for a long time.

Qin Feng'an did not participate in the judging process in order to be fair. Therefore, the only people present at the judging table were the Queen Mother, Li Zhanyang, the Grand Secretary of Jixian Pavilion, Wen Songtao, the Grand Secretary of Wenhua Hall, Fu Han, the Attending Scholar of Zunyi Hall, and Ning Qiyuan, the most important Grand Tutor, who sat in the middle.

Nowadays, the imperial power is centralized, and most of the Grand Secretaries are nominal positions, with only a rank but little real power, but they still stand above all other officials. No matter which cabinet or hall the Grand Secretaries belong to, the highest achievement of their life is to be included in Qingyunxuan, and only then can they truly stand at the top of the scholars.

Ning Qiyuan, the Grand Tutor, was the Grand Secretary of Qingyunxuan. He was granted the title of Grand Tutor after he entered Qingyunxuan, and nominally had the power to teach and assist Qin Fengan. Now he was a first-rank official, which was beyond the reach of many officials. Scholars like Li Zhanyang and Wen Songtao, who had been famous for a long time, rarely saw the Grand Tutor, not to mention Fu Han, who had the least experience among the four.

The maids served tea and snacks to the five judges. The empress dowager chatted with the maids around her, and several university scholars gathered in a circle to chat.

For the other three except the Grand Tutor, participating in the harem poetry contest was just to give the Queen Mother a face. They wanted to just brush it off and just randomly select the poems - after all, how much accomplishment could a woman in the harem have in poetry? Unexpectedly, the Grand Tutor was also invited by the Queen Mother, which was a pleasant surprise for the three. The three quickly took this opportunity to get in touch with the Grand Tutor, and maybe they could get a nomination for Qingyunxuan in the next few years.

"I have long heard of Lord Ning's name. Now that I have met him, I can see that he is truly worthy of his reputation for extraordinary bearing!" Li Zhanyang smiled shyly and bowed respectfully to Ning Qiyuan.

Wen Songtao sneered at Li Zhanyang's lackey-like appearance, and smiled and offered tea to Ning Qiyuan from a distance: "Long time no see, Brother Ning, how are you?"

Li Zhanyang cursed Wen Songtao in his heart, "You old fool, didn't you just meet Ning Qiyuan at the civil servants' meeting a few years ago?" The relationship between the two men was roughly just a greeting, and at most a self-introduction. Wen Songtao started to call him a brother and try to get close to him just by meeting him once. Even the construction of the city wall had to take materials from his face.

Ning Qiyuan stroked his beard and smiled, "I am only on the second floor of Qingyun Pavilion, so I can't really be called an elder. You two young friends are exaggerating."

The words of the Grand Tutor seemed modest, but in fact he was extremely arrogant. Qingyunxuan had three floors, and each floor was as difficult as ascending to heaven. Ning Qiyuan was in the middle floor, which was a position that the ancient civil officials could not reach. He had no outstanding achievements in the country, and only climbed to the second floor by assisting Qin Feng'an for many years. Because of his excessive water, he had always been secretly despised by other Qingyunxuan scholars. Now that he was praised, he naturally wanted to show off his title.

Fu Han had no chance to join in the conversation of the three scholars, but he could hardly stay awake. After listening to Ning Qiyuan's words, he almost laughed out loud - the Grand Tutor didn't take the other two scholars seriously at all. They were only ten years apart in age, but he actually called them "young friends". Wen Songtao just called him "Brother Ning", and the Grand Tutor was so disrespectful and directly crossed the generation gap. It was really too funny.

"Haha, I heard that Wenhua Hall ranks relatively low among the palaces this year." Li Zhanyang said with a wry smile, "Colleagues in Wenhua Hall must work hard. No matter what, we can't let Zunyi Hall overtake us, right?"

Zunyi Palace focuses on etiquette, and its knowledge of books is at the bottom of the palace, so it is always looked down upon by other palaces and ministers. Even if Fu Han is present, Li Zhanyang doesn't mind making sarcastic remarks to his face. Not to mention that Fu Han is just a bachelor of reading, even if the Grand Secretary of Zunyi Palace came here, Li Zhanyang still doesn't take it seriously.

Wen Songtao was hurt by Li Zhanyang's words. He held his teacup and sneered, "This year, Wenhua Hall has been working on compiling and repairing history books. It is normal that no results can be seen for a while. However, Jixian Pavilion has been surprisingly active this year. The officials have submitted many innovative proposals, most of which were severely criticized by the emperor, and only a few were adopted."

Every word they said was full of thorns, and they were making innuendos, from the other person's education, family background, work unit, parents, relatives, and even eighteen generations of ancestors. Ning Qiyuan sat quietly in the middle, listening to the two people quarreling beside him indifferently, without saying a word the whole time.

"It's already noon."

After Qin Fengan finished speaking, everyone fell silent.

He was sitting next to Concubine Jia, a good position to look around the entire venue. At this time, he stood behind the table with his hands behind his back, and he could see every plant and tree in the venue.

"The Queen Mother is so kind that she has specially organized a poetry competition to celebrate Concubine Xian's birthday." Qin Feng'an said, "Everyone present here is both a relative and a close friend, so there is no need for any red tape to start the event. Now, I declare that the poetry competition - officially begins!"

"Pah, pah, pah..."

Su Feiran clapped his hands again out of reflex, then looked embarrassed as if he had seen something before and put his hands back into his sleeves awkwardly.