cold clothes

The four courtesans attended in their finest attire, each with a different expression. Qingchun, her face veiled, was making her first public appearance since her injury. Just as she was about to tell the matron to begin the assessment, she saw the door open a crack, and then her eyes burned with fury and turned as cold as ice.

Who else could make Qingchun lose her composure besides Lengyi? Lengyi mentally played the jingle "ding ding ding ding~" in her head, making her grand entrance. In reality, she was carefully walking in with Qingtan's help, leaning on her cane, and almost tripped over the threshold.

Upon seeing her, the four courtesans reacted in different ways. Yunqiu's smile deepened, while Nuandong's concern grew, in contrast. Liuxia, after a moment of surprise, glanced at the others' expressions and smiled with amusement, clutching a snow-white plush rabbit doll in her hand. As for Qingchun, she instinctively began to roar:

"Ningbi, what are you doing here!" However, Qingchun was actually quite clever and quickly figured it out. She then put on a mocking expression and said, "Do you want to take the monthly exam? With the way you are now?" Qingchun's sarcastic gaze fell on the gauze covering her eyes.

Leng Yi was much calmer than her: "Although I can't see her, I can tell from her tone that it's Sister Qingchun—Sister, I think as long as I'm still a candidate for the top courtesan of Zhuoyu Pavilion, I'm qualified to take the exam." Leng Yi mischievously dragged out the syllables between her sisters, her tone quite lively, and knelt down under Qingtan's guidance.

Everyone was terrified when they saw her, as if they had seen a ghost. They all thought: What kind of disaster can this little devil cause when she is blind?

"Ningbi, do you know what the consequences are for failing the monthly exam? You will be punished by being made a lowly maid for a month until you pass the exam next month or the month after." Qingchun's voice was exceptionally cold.

"It's like a life sentence..." Leng Yi sighed, then gave a strange laugh: "Don't you hate me? Why are you speaking up for me?"

"How could I possibly speak up for you? Don't dream about it. I'm just worried that you might not know the rules and fail the test later, thus escaping punishment, so that people won't say I'm taking revenge behind your back." Qingchun glanced at Yunqiu and Nuandong beside her, then looked away and said, "Now that you know, do you still want to continue with the test?"

Leng Yi fell silent, seemingly frightened by the punishment. Qing Chun, seeing this, scoffed dismissively.

Everyone was waiting for Leng Yi's reply when a clear, crisp sound, like the clinking of metal and jade, rang out: "How can the Jade Pavilion's assessment be taken lightly? If you don't want to come, that's fine, but coming to the examination hall means the assessment has already begun, and there's no reason to withdraw." It was Liu Xia, one of the four courtesans, who spoke while smiling and holding a snow-white rabbit doll in her hand. Her voice was crisp and clear, and her expression was exceptionally charming and innocent, but no matter how cute her expression was, her words were anything but gentle and harmless.

Leng Yi recognized Liu Xia's voice. After all, it was hard not to remember the voice of the number one courtesan in the capital. In her memory, Liu Xia was a very gentle woman on the surface. Of course, the four courtesans all looked gentle and beautiful on the surface, but they were all dark inside, like four black sesame dumplings.

“Liu Xia is right.” Qing Chun’s eyes lit up as she looked at Liu Xia, pleased that Liu Xia agreed with her. Liu Xia winked at her in return. For Qing Chun, making Leng Yi suffer was her joy, while Liu Xia simply found Leng Yi amusing and wanted to continue watching.

After all, it's been so boring here for far too long.

"Did you hear that, you brat? You have to take the exam whether you want to or not," Qingchun shouted.

However, Leng Yi remained silent for a long time. What the others didn't know was that she was attracted by something else. The people around her didn't speak, but their breathing was clearly audible. It was as if they could feel the distant aura emanating from her body. Naturally, her cold yet sorrowful little face, her nimble dance moves, and her joyful expression while dancing would appear in their minds.

Leng Yi smiled faintly: "I understand, I'll take the test."

Yun's nonchalant demeanor surprised everyone, including Wu Xue. If Leng Yi could see her, she would know that Yun had been speaking to Wu Xue from the very beginning, because Yun had been staring intently at Leng Yi from the start.

As soon as the nanny stood up and announced the examination rules and order, the assessment began. The order of the first four people's examinations was different for each subject. Since it was assumed that Lengyi would not participate in this assessment, she was not ranked. Therefore, Lengyi was always ranked last.

The first subject was calligraphy, requiring students to recite the texts the nanny asked them to write within a limited time. This tested not only their calligraphy skills but also their academic knowledge. Xia Hua, who ranked first, passed easily, followed by Nong Yue and Wu Xue. Although Wei Feng seemed unreliable at times, she could memorize everything she needed to, though she had worked hard before the exam.

Finally, it was Leng Yi's turn. Everyone's eyes were fixed on her, eager to see what tricks she was up to. Leng Yi stood up under everyone's gaze, then changed her posture and sat back down, all the while saying:

"I give up."

Uh!

As expected, Qingchun was the first to lose her temper: "Ningbi, you can't be so presumptuous during the monthly exam!"

Leng Yi calmly replied, "I am blind now and cannot write. I hope you can understand that."

"Playing the emotional card won't work. Skipping the exam is equivalent to failing, and failing a subject means being punished. There have been no exceptions in the past ten years," Liu Xia said.

This is a cruel fact. Everyone can see that Leng Yi has no chance of passing this monthly exam. Why does Leng Yi insist on taking the exam? No one can guess the reason.

Leng Yi remained calm: "Since I've come to take the exam, I will naturally abide by the rules of the examination room and will not make things difficult for the judges. The judges can judge according to the rules."

"Ha, you said it yourself." Qingchun beamed. Could it be that Ningbi sought death because she wanted to atone for her sins against me? As Qingchun thought this, her affection for Lengyi inexplicably increased.

Seeing that the four courtesans had no objections and Leng Yi's expression remained unchanged, the headmistress suppressed her doubts and announced the verdict for Leng Yi: "Ning Bi has abandoned the exam and fails."

The remaining exams will proceed as scheduled.

Everyone assumed Leng Yi had given up on all the remaining exams, but to everyone's surprise, during the antiquing of the zither, Leng Yi stood up and said:

"To repay Sister Yunqiu's guidance, I will do my best in this exam no matter the outcome."

Not only that, but in the following operas and dances, she kept saying "in order to repay Sister Nuandong's teachings..." "in order to repay Sister Liuxia's teachings..." "in order to repay..." She basically praised all the judges and won a lot of goodwill. Even the instructor's tone when she pronounced her failing grade was a little more heartbroken.

Leng Yi smiled knowingly to herself. She was definitely not here to be laughed at, but rather to salvage her reputation!