Peach Blossom.

The scene seemed a bit awkward.

Wang Huan hurried over to smooth things over, urging, "Father, quickly give the child to the Empress."

"The Queen has no experience and I'm afraid she won't be able to carry the baby properly. Let me do it." Wang Dun said seriously, and the word "I'm a commoner" was given a particularly heavy tone.

Tao Ye knew that Wang Huan was Wang Dun's daughter, but for some reason, she had never considered that she would meet Wang Dun here before coming.

"So it's your father?" Tao Ye pretended to be unfamiliar and put down her hand as if she didn't care. "Since your father is worried, I won't hold you."

Wang Huan bowed to Tao Ye and explained on his father's behalf: "Please forgive me, Queen. My father was outspoken and didn't mean what he said."

She quickly took the child from Wang Dun's arms and advised: "Father, you have been holding the child for so long, be careful not to get tired, why don't you go back and rest..."

Wang Dun sneered and asked, "Why? Are you so anxious to get rid of me because you're afraid I might offend your queen?"

"Dad..." Wang Huan was helpless.

"Madam Zhongshu, don't worry. I'll leave." Tao Ye smiled at Wang Huan, turned around and walked out.

Unexpectedly, Wang Dun's voice came from behind her again: "Stop."

The voice was so powerful that Tao Ye didn't know how to express it. She didn't look back, but she could hear that Wang Dun wanted to move forward.

Apparently, Wang Huan grabbed Wang Dun and tried to stop him: "Dad, don't do this. She has lost her memory."

Tao Ye looked up inadvertently and found that Chen Cuo, who was standing right in front of her, was staring at her intently.

As a person with amnesia, normally she should want to know about her past.

Tao Ye had no choice but to turn around and look at Wang Dun in surprise: "Could it be that Lord Wang and I are old acquaintances? Sorry, I don't even remember."

"You don't remember?" Wang Dun glared at Tao Ye, his eyes filled with hatred. "You don't remember us, and you can't even figure out your own age? You don't think that since you're over thirty and the Empress, this is your first time getting married, do you?"

Tao Ye stood there blankly. Under such circumstances, it was impossible for her to be "unaware" of her own marital history.

"If you hadn't been so persistent in pestering my second brother and insisting on marrying him, he wouldn't have to die!" Wang Dun's voice was like thunder, and he let out a deafening cry. Before he finished speaking, tears were already pouring down his face.

Tao Ye suddenly felt as if he was struck by lightning.

She had never thought before that her love for her second brother would be the culprit behind his death?

However, this seems to be the case. It was because she refused to give up Wang Jing no matter what that Chen Ji wanted to kill Wang Jing.

"My second brother possessed the most outstanding talent and beauty in the world, but he lived the most miserable life... and was even charged with murder in the end... while the Empress took every step carefully and sat firmly above everyone else, and she completely forgot about my second brother..." Wang Dun cried and laughed, like a fool, and his condemnation was finally completely drowned out by the wailing.

Wang Dun's grief made Wang Huan burst into tears. She handed the child to the maid, hugged her father tightly and comforted him.

Tao Ye stood there as if petrified, unable to move forward or backward, afraid to be sad and unwilling to admit it.

Chen Cuo came over from behind and whispered to Wang Huan, "Madam, the work at the Imperial Examination Office is not finished yet. I have to send the Empress back."

Wang Huan nodded.

Chen Cuo bowed to Tao Ye again: "Your Majesty, please!"

Tao Ye followed Chen Cuo's arrangement and left Wang Huan's residence.

Caiwei and Lanyue followed.

After leaving the courtyard, Chen Cuo ran into a housekeeper, who stopped him and asked, "Where has the Left Prime Minister gone?"

The housekeeper replied, "The master had already left before the young master came back. I don't know where he went."

Chen Cuo didn't ask any more questions and continued to lead Tao Ye out.

General Zhao Bi led a hundred guards and waited for Tao Ye at the gate of the Left Prime Minister's Mansion.

Sitting in the carriage on the return journey, no one mentioned anything related to what Wang Dun said.

Tao Ye was just silently grieving in her heart, imagining that if she had given up this relationship back then, perhaps Wang Jing would still be alive now...

Thinking of this, Tao Ye felt as if her heart was being cut by a knife.

In this world, what is more important than being alive?

The carriage stopped in front of the courtyard. Chen Cuo got out first and asked the gatekeeper, "Has the Left Prime Minister been here?"

The servants all said no.

Tao Ye was also helped by Caiwei to get off the carriage and walk into the courtyard. She tried hard to calm herself down.

When he returned to the examination room, Chen Cuo saw that Chen Ji had fallen asleep on the table, while the examiners had put down their pens.

He Yang, the Left Minister of Personnel, saw Tao Ye and Chen Cuo enter and hurriedly went to greet them. "Your Majesty, the rankings have been verified, and all colleagues have no objections. According to the original plan, the results should be announced tomorrow. I wonder if Your Majesty has any further instructions?"

"Okay..." Tao Ye was confused. She felt that the content of He Yang's report contained too much information. It was difficult for her to understand and hear clearly.

Chen Ji was awakened by He Yang's voice. When he opened his eyes and saw Tao Ye, he was stunned.

"That... I've been listening to the sound of them flipping papers all day long, the rustling sound is so hypnotic..." Chen Ji looked at Tao Ye with an embarrassed smile and yawned again.

Tao Ye didn't hear what Chen Ji said, she just found a place to sit down and rest.

Chen Ji thought Tao Ye was angry, so he hurried over and whispered in defense, "I just fell asleep for a while, really, I was watching over them for you..."

Tao Ye looked up and stared at the grinning Chen Ji. Only one thing came to her mind - this was the man who killed her beloved second brother.

Chen Ji seemed to feel that there was something strange in the gazes.

He Yang did not get an accurate answer from Tao Ye and looked confused. He really did not understand what the word "good" meant, nor did he know whether the marking of the papers was over.

On the desk, the examination papers of eight subjects were neatly stacked into eight piles, and each pile was arranged from top to bottom according to the ranking, waiting for the results to be announced tomorrow, when the seals would be torn off and the list of successful candidates would be made public.

Chen Cuo walked over, held the first pile, and began to read through it at a very fast speed.

He Yang asked, "You are turning the pages so quickly, can the Secretary-General see clearly?"

"I can't see clearly." Chen Cuo replied mechanically.

After hearing this nonsense, He Yang was too lazy to pay attention to it. He walked aside and waited boredly with the other examiners.

They all knew that the young Zhongshu Ling was a little bit crazy, but because they were all promoted by the Left Prime Minister to some extent, they had to accept Chen Cuo's invitation to contribute to the newly established Imperial Examination Office.

In this way, everyone watched Chen Cuo flip through pile after pile until he had looked through all the test papers.

From the first test paper to the last, Chen Cuo did not change the original stacking order. He just confirmed that the seals on all four sides of each test paper were intact and glued together with no signs of being tampered with.

It was already getting dark.

"Master Zhongshu, will the results be announced tomorrow?" Qing Kun, the Left Prime Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, asked impatiently.

Qingkun is the nephew of Chen Cuo's deceased mother.

"Yes." Chen Cuo sorted out the test papers of each subject and pushed them back to their original places.

When Chen Ji heard this, he said to all the ministers, "Since this is the case, all of you should go away."

The examiners were already feeling sore in their backs and were eager to leave as soon as possible, so they all bowed to Chen Ji and Tao Ye and withdrew.

Chen Ji also came out with Tao Ye and got on the carriage pulled by Zhao Bi.

He had already noticed that Tao Ye had become different after returning from the Left Prime Minister's Mansion.

On the way back to the palace, Tao Ye remained silent.

Chen Ji imagined the person Tao Ye was supposed to meet at the Left Prime Minister's residence, and speculated on the reason for Tao Ye's unusual behavior. "What did Chen Cuo's wife...talk to you about?"

"Nothing." Tao Ye's instinctive response was to avoid the question, but when she answered these three words, she felt Chen Ji's guilty conscience when asking the question.

The question itself sounds problematic.

Then Tao Ye could also have some doubts, so she asked: "Your Majesty, what do you think Chen Cuo's wife should talk to me about?"

"How could I guess?" Chen Ji quickly grinned and turned his head to avoid Tao Ye's sharp and inquiring gaze.

Tao Ye ignored Chen Ji. She couldn't treat Chen Ji with a normal attitude, nor did she want to force him.

She suddenly realized today that even if she pretended to be nice to Chen Ji for some purpose, it would only bring Chen Ji temporary happiness. This... was too easy for Chen Ji.

The only worry at the moment is that if Chen Ji knows what happened in the Left Prime Minister's Mansion, it may be detrimental to Wang Dun.

That night, Tao Ye couldn't sleep again.

She knew from the beginning that it was Chen Ji who killed Wang Jing, but for some reason, after meeting Wang Dun, the seed of hatred grew again.

Although she hadn't slept the whole night, Tao Ye still got up and washed up at dawn.

She was worried about the results being announced today.

Having been busy with the imperial examination pilot project for so long, how could Tao Ye miss this last important link?

She didn't want to see Chen Ji, so she asked Caiwei to go to Xuanji Palace to ask for permission to leave the palace today.

Caiwei brought back the message from Chen Ji: "The Emperor said that he has many official duties today and cannot accompany the Empress. Please make your own way."

Tao Ye heard this and smiled coldly.

As expected, Chen Ji had no plans to meet her. He was more afraid than she was of facing the possibility that his past would be exposed.

Under Zhao Bi's escort, Tao Ye and two maids came to Chen Cuo's villa again and watched Chen Cuo tear off the seal on the gate for the last time.

He Yang, the Left Minister of Personnel, ordered Jia Yao, the head of the Ministry of Honors, to bring people into the house, move out the piles of test papers that had been sorted out yesterday, and put them all into camphorwood boxes waiting to be escorted.

Afterwards, Chen Cuo invited Tao Ye to get on the carriage, and He Yang, Jia Yao and others rode on horseback to the government office of the Ministry of Honors.

He Yang had previously cleared out a room on the second floor of the Shendu Building, the north building of the Fengxun Division, and set up an elegant seat specifically for Tao Ye to watch the ceremony.

The Shendu Tower is an independent entity from the north wall of the government office. Previously, Chen Cuo had announced to the public as the deputy director of the Imperial Examination Office that the list of candidates admitted to the imperial examination would be posted on the outer wall to the north of the Conferment of Honors Office for public display.

Tao Ye went up to the Shen Du Tower and came to the north window. She saw that there was already a huge crowd of people below, blocking both ends of the street behind the government office. There was a boiling sound everywhere.

Needless to say, most of those standing below are probably candidates taking this year's exam.

Tao Ye looked carefully and found that among the bustling crowd, at least seventy to eighty percent were people with simple clothes, and they must have come from poor families.

Some of them were talking and laughing, as if they were telling each other about their excitement; some of them kept rubbing their hands, looking so nervous; some of them were standing on tiptoe and looking ahead, staring at the row of tables lined up against the wall.

That table was exactly the place that Chen Cuo had ordered people to prepare, where the seal would be torn open in public. He Yang was leading people to move piles of test papers to the table.

Hundreds of other officers and soldiers stood not far from the table to maintain order at the scene.

Among the waiting crowd, there were occasionally people in gorgeous clothes. They did not squeeze together with ordinary people, but stood calmly and leisurely, fanning themselves, surrounded by servants. However, they would occasionally glance at the north wall and the table of the Ministry of Honors, paying attention to the progress of the announcement of the results.

After looking around, Tao Ye felt a strange feeling in his heart.

She recalled that in her previous life, when she learned that the college entrance examination results were out and was about to check the results online, her heart almost jumped out of her mouth.

Later, when the dust settled, she was admitted to the school of her choice. She cheered and jumped for joy. She was so excited that she dropped her phone to the ground, leaving a crack on the screen.

Looking at the people standing downstairs, Tao Ye couldn't help but smile.

This seemed to be the only meaningful thing she had done since becoming queen.

She watched as the test papers had already been moved. Chen Cuo pressed down on one of the piles and seemed to say to He Yang, "Why do you think it's thinner than last night?"

But Tao Ye did not hear clearly what He Yang replied, but later saw He Yang urging his colleagues in the Conferment of Honors Department to remove the seals.

There were two people responsible for each stack of test papers. One person opened the seal and read out the name and hometown hidden under the seal, while the other person wrote the name and hometown on a large piece of yellow paper.

From top to bottom, from the first to the last, that is, from the first to the last, all were written on the yellow paper, and then the yellow paper was pasted on the wall behind the table.

After the yellow paper was pasted, Chen Cuo, He Yang and the officials from the Conferring Honors Office all left the place, and the officers and soldiers also dispersed to both sides, allowing the candidates to come closer to check.

So the candidates rushed forward and scrambled to look for their names on the yellow list.

Tao Ye had been watching and listening from above, and gradually felt that the expressions of the candidates and the discussions coming from below began to become a little strange.

Suddenly, a young man in fine clothes shouted, "Why are all the people on the list from Fengmingyuan Academy? There's not a single child of an official? How is this possible?"

Then, a group of servants behind him shouted together: "The Imperial Examination Bureau is cheating! Someone must be cheating in the Imperial Examination Bureau!"