Long Live the Empress

The entrance examination of Fengzhuo Academy will be held in a few days, so Gu Ziwei, the daughter of the Minister of Guanglu Temple, and Bai Xuer, the daughter of the Imperial Envoy, invited Yue Jinghong to go to the German Bookstore together.

Although the German Book Club was a private book club, it housed many rare books that were not even available in the palace, attracting many scholars and men of letters.

The book club is divided into two levels: the general books are in the lower level downstairs for ordinary scholars to borrow. The rare and fragmentary books are in the upper level, which is high-end. Even the young men and women of the aristocratic families have to show their identity to enter.

Yue Jinghong and the two young ladies were walking towards the bookstore, chatting and laughing, when they bumped into someone, and that person's books fell to the ground.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it, please forgive me, miss!"

Yue Jinghong took a look and saw that it was a poor scholar with a bookish air. His robe had been washed so much that it turned white, and there were even a few patches on the cuffs...

"You bumped into our lady and you're done with just apologizing?" Pearl rolled her eyes and looked at him with disdain.

The poor scholar didn't expect that even though he had apologized, the other party was still so aggressive. He looked up at Yue Jinghong. He had never seen such a beautiful woman before, but he immediately realized his impoliteness and lowered his head again, "Miss, please forgive me..."

Yue Jinghong snorted in her heart, a poor scholar dared to covet her beauty! But she looked at the people around her and smiled appropriately, "Sir, you are too polite. Zhenzhu, why don't you help me pick up the book?"

Upon hearing this, the poor scholar quickly bowed and thanked him, then bent down to pick up the books. "Thank you, Miss. I can do it myself. I can do it myself..."

The two young ladies admired Yue Jinghong even more because she was so tolerant towards a poor scholar.

"That's our Miss Yue. If it were someone else, they would definitely not let him off easily!"

"That's right, Miss Yue is truly a role model for the noble ladies in the capital!"

They went upstairs while complimenting Yue Jinghong.

The poor scholar stared blankly at Yue Jinghong's departing back.

"Mr. Kong, you are a regular customer of our book club and you know the rules. So Mr. Kong will compensate you for the broken books according to their prices!" The shopkeeper looked at the broken books and counted on the abacus. "The total is three taels of silver."

Three coins? How could Kong Xiucai have that much money? He showed a trace of embarrassment on his face, "Boss, you saw it just now. I didn't mean it. I will go back and glue the book back. I will definitely return it intact. What do you think?"

The shopkeeper also sympathized with these poor scholars, but he had no choice. "Hey, Mr. Kong, these rules are rules. If everyone violates them, then this book club will be in chaos. Don't you think so?"

Kong Xiucai gritted his teeth and took out half a penny from an old purse. "Boss, this is all I have. Can you be lenient for a few days?"

"This..." The shopkeeper looked at the pitiful half ounce of silver with an embarrassed expression, "Mr. Kong, it's not that I'm not flexible, I'm just a shopkeeper. If the boss knows about this, I'll be in big trouble..."

Just as Kong Xiucai was about to ask the shopkeeper for help, a small hand handed him ten taels of silver. "Shopkeeper, I'll pay for him. The rest will be in his name. If he comes to buy books next time, you can deduct it from this amount!"

Kong Xiucai stared at the silver ingot on the counter with his eyes wide open. Ten taels? Even if he wrote letters for five years, he couldn't earn ten taels!

Looking at the owner of the small hands, it was a thin woman who looked no more than eleven or twelve years old. "Miss, I can't take this money. I hope you can take it back quickly!"

Yue Jinghao looked at the shabby Kong Linan, the iron-faced and impartial Minister of Revenue in his previous life. He was a child of a poor family, but he won the title of the top scholar with his talent, and later he was in charge of the finances of the entire Wei State, and he never made any mistakes. However, such a person also fell in love with Yue Jinghong and won over many officials for Yue Jinghong...

"Mr. Kong, your mother is not well. Go back and see her!" said an old man as he pulled Kong Lin'an out.

At this moment, Kong Linan didn't care about much and ran home in a hurry.

A green-roofed carriage caught up with him from behind, "Sir, please get on the carriage quickly, or you may miss your mother's illness!" Yue Jinghao looked at the running Kong Linan from the window, her face also full of anxiety.

Kong Linan stamped his feet anxiously, and then he and Lao Zheng sat side by side outside the carriage, pointing at the way home.