Shi Zhongkui's congratulatory words were a bit loud, and everyone in the Jia family immediately returned to smiling.

It's a pity that Jia Zheng didn't hear the hint of "the emperor's grace is great" and asked him to enter the palace to express his gratitude to the emperor. Instead of going to the Dragon Head Palace in person, he used the above-mentioned method to express his gratitude to the emperor.

Even if you are really afraid of the Supreme Emperor's questioning, don't rush to the Dragon Head Palace to express your gratitude as soon as you leave the palace.

As long as the sedan stopped outside the palace for a quarter of an hour, the emperor would definitely feel much better.

I understand that the Jia family is actually just like me, they have no choice but to do so.

------

Shi Zhongkui saw that Jia Zheng's smile had returned, even brighter than before.

But I sighed again in my heart. This family really had no sense of crisis, and the smiles on their faces brightened, showing it to the eunuchs on the side.

Then he used the reason that the Jia family had a happy event and left directly.

Jia Baoyu, who wanted to have a good chat with Shi Zhongkui, quickly asked, "Why is this?"

Jia Mu laughed and pulled Jia Baoshi to explain.

"My good grandson, your second brother-in-law wants to avoid suspicion. In case there is another imperial edict coming later, he is also an imperial envoy to announce the edict. He can't stand or hide, so he has to leave first."

When other people heard it, they thought it should be like this.

Wang Xifeng said with a smile, "The second brother-in-law is indeed very handsome, and he is the number one scholar at first glance. It's a pity that we did meet him, but he didn't have the chance to meet the second sister. Maybe he is cursing his mother in his heart right now?"

Everyone burst into laughter upon hearing this.

Jia Mu pretended to be angry, but she was actually very satisfied with Shi Zhongkui's avoidance just now.

In addition, Shi Zhongkui is indeed handsome. He is 1.78 meters tall and wearing an official uniform. He has a faint sense of majesty all over his body. He immediately outshone Jia Lian.

He laughed and scolded, "You are a monkey who knows how to arrange your sister and brother-in-law. If you offend him one day, I won't give you a New Year's gift. Let's see if you are angry or not."

"Ouch," Wang Xifeng said with a nonchalant expression, "Then I'll knock on the door and ask for the second sister. No matter how powerful my brother-in-law is, he can't drive me, my sister-in-law, out of the house.

It's hard to say, but I can bring all the good things from my brother-in-law's house back to honor the old lady, the eldest gentleman, the gentleman and the two ladies."

When everyone heard this, they laughed again.

"You are a broken-down man. If you really do that, your brother-in-law really won't be able to do anything to you."

After chatting and burning incense, Xia Shouzhong from the palace came directly to Jia's house with the imperial edict as expected.

Soon Shi Zhongkui learned that Xia Shouzhong came to announce the decree, but he only brought two young eunuchs with him.

Anyone with a slightly stronger political sensitivity would basically understand that the emperor was unhappy, otherwise the specifications would never be so small.

It even feels a bit perfunctory.

Unfortunately, just as Shi Zhongkui feared, everyone in the Jia family was dazzled by wealth and power, or they were simply stupid and couldn't see the problem.

After the edict was read out, Xia Shouzhong didn't stay long. He collected a banknote, said some auspicious words of congratulations, and left.

Jia Zheng was busy thanking him, and the whole family was making a fuss. No one paid attention to what Shi Zhongkui said to Jia Zheng.

Unexpectedly, the emperor asked casually, as Shi Zhongkui expected, if Shi Zhongkui, the son-in-law, came to visit, why didn't he stay with the old lady to talk to her?

Jia Zheng suddenly thought of Shi Zhongkui's words and his heart tightened.

He did not say, 'You must have foresight in life', but he knelt on the ground and said, "Bo Qian saw that my Jia family has a red robe, and he advised me that since there is no scholar in the Jia family who has a good reputation, and there is no scholar in the Jia family,

Those who serve in the military.

From now on, you need to be more careful as a person and in everything you do.

He also said that Yuanchun was able to be granted the title of concubine, which is a great favor from the Emperor and is all due to His Majesty's great kindness."

After hearing this, the corners of the emperor's mouth turned up slightly, and he was in a good mood.

But when the words came to his lips, they turned into, "The number one scholar I have appointed is very wordy. I know the loyalty of the Jia family."

How could his niece-in-law talk to Aiqing like this? It is really rude."

Jia Zheng didn't hear the emperor's words at all. They were completely ironic and a temptation.

He thought that the emperor was really dissatisfied with Shi Zhongkui, so he kowtowed again and explained.

This explanation also made the emperor understand that Jia Zheng was really as pedantic as the news from the Xiuyiwei spies said, did not know how to adapt, and had no Machiavellian wisdom.

Ordinarily, this kind of ministers should be treated as rice worms. Anyway, compared with other nobles and princes who hold military power, the Jia family is not a threat at all.

It would be wrong not to kill the man-eating tiger first, but to kill the rice-stealing mouse instead.

But whoever asked the Supreme Emperor to take advantage of Jia Yuanchun, the Jia family could not avoid it even if they wanted to.

Moreover, he is related by marriage to Wang Ziteng, which becomes even more unavoidable once military power is involved.

"Go to Longshou Palace to thank you, lest your father will be unhappy if you go late."

Jia Zheng was so stupid, he actually left the palace obediently and went straight to the Dragon Head Palace.

The emperor's face suddenly turned ugly after hearing Xia Shouzhong's report.

Then he sighed and said, "If Jia Zheng is half as smart as my number one scholar, the Jia family will not be reduced to a state where there are no serious officials."

Xia Shouzhong chuckled and said, "Your Majesty, Duke Zhuangyuan is the sixth-ranked scholar, the best in history.

There probably aren't many people in the world who are smarter than him.

But no matter how smart the Number One Scholar is, he is still not His Majesty’s minister.”

With Jia Zheng's previous words, the emperor's attitude towards Shi Zhongkui improved again.

However, the emperor also thought that after the Qionglin Banquet the day after tomorrow, Shi Zhongkui would have to express his gratitude, which would only take a few days, so he would wait and see.

Xia Shouzhong secretly glanced at the emperor and saw a smile on his face, and he felt happy in his heart.

Last time, he took 4,500 taels of silver from Shi Zhongkui. This time he won the first prize, and as agreed, he received another 5,000 taels.

Including the 400 taels from that meal, we got nearly 10,000 taels before and after.

Xia Shouzhong was such a cheerful financial sponsor, and from the bottom of his heart, he didn't want anything to happen to Shi Zhongkui.

And if I sell the conversation between the emperor and Jia Zheng this time, I don’t know if I can get a few hundred taels or a thousand taels.

No, I want 1,000 taels. After all, what I just said was directed at the number one scholar.

As for the 750 taels earned by Saffron every month, Xia Shouzhong always believed that it was Xue Pan's contribution.

When Shi Zhongkui learned about this, it was already the night after he returned from meeting Yu Honggao in Daxing the next day.

After thinking about it, I decided to send him six thousand taels.

But this time he didn't give all the banknotes. Instead, he asked the Golden Mouse to bring a purple, gold and red gourd, and put in a few banknotes worth 3,900 taels, and then 2,100 taels of silver ingots and some scattered silver.

Xia Shouzhong should be able to guess that he was short of money.

But when Xia Shouzhong found out, he just smiled and didn't care whether Shi Zhongkui was short of money.

In short, if you get your own information, you have to give it to me even if you don't want to give it to me.

This made Shi Zhongkui understand from now on that he could only talk about money with eunuchs, and this group of people would become more and more greedy.

So Shi Zhongkui murmured in his heart and asked the golden-haired mouse to go to the place where Xia Shouzhong hid his money and almost emptied it all.

Fortunately, he was still sensible and understood that if he wanted to do something, he would simply kill Xia Shouzhong first and then take his money.

And it's pretty stupid to do that.

Just a few messages are not worth ten thousand taels of silver.

The Qionglin Banquet was actually similar to the Luming Banquet, except that the participants were of a higher level. This time, no one insisted on him writing poems, and Shi Zhongkui didn't want to be in the limelight anymore.

In ancient times, Jinshi in the same field would basically spontaneously form alliances. As the No. 1 scholar, Shi Zhongkui was naturally the leader of these 200 people. Of course, he was more concerned about getting closer to each other.

Not only was the glass dry, but his attitude and tone were surprisingly humble and kind.

All of a sudden, many fellow scholars had a very good first impression of him.

But unfortunately, winning over these people can only be regarded as an investment, and it will take at least three years to get a return.

Moreover, the only ones that can really make a difference are the twenty or thirty people who became concubines and stayed in the Hanlin Academy to observe politics after the big exam.

Why don't these concubines continue to stay in the Hanlin Academy, remain unknown for many years, and put their life goals on the cabinet?

Otherwise, he would go to Yushitai and Liubu to serve as a minister, which is the so-called Yanguan.

Once other people are released, they may not even see each other for ten years.

After the Qionglin Banquet, except for the first three people, they went directly to the Hanlin Academy to report and became officials directly.

The top two and top three have to stay in the Ministry of Rites or the Hanlin Academy to prepare for the exam, and this major exam can be said to directly determine the ceiling for Jinshi's future promotions.

The importance is no less important than the National Examination and the Imperial Examination.

Therefore, in the next three months, the new scholars will not have the time or thought to visit each other to enhance their relationship.

Shi Zhongkui wrote a sincere note of gratitude, but did not wait for the emperor's response.

My thoughts couldn't help but focus on the rice fields in Gyeonggi Province.

It is already the tenth day of April, and some families in Gyeonggi are preparing to sow seeds. If they don't take action, there will definitely be a censor who will take part in his work.
To be continued...