Shen Xian won three prizes in a row at the age of nineteen and was the youngest number one scholar in the Liang Dynasty. She disguised herself as a man for seven years and passed the exams from Jiangzhou to Kyoto. She did not do anything to achieve success, but just to revitalize the Shen family.
During the palace examination, she was answering questions fluently through the screen, but she heard the emperor's voice - a woman's voice.
She suppressed the turmoil in her heart, kowtowed in gratitude, and accepted the imperial edict compiled by the Hanlin Academy.
On the way back to her hometown, she spent a long time wearing hairpins in a crowded street, thinking about how to keep a low profile in front of the emperor to save her life.
A fast horse chased from the direction of the palace gate, and the eunuch's sharp voice cut through the noise in the city - "The Holy One has an edict to announce that the number one scholar in the new subject will be presented to you, and the imperial study will give you the correct answer."
She dressed up and entered the palace, passed through the palace gates, and what was waiting for her in the royal study was the emperor who had not changed his dragon robes and had not taken off his crown.
The emperor dismissed all the palace people and closed the door of the imperial study with his own hands.
"Shen Qing," she said, "I know your biggest secret."
Shen Xian knelt on the ground and clenched his fingers in his sleeves. She thought that the crime of deceiving the emperor should be executed.
The emperor stood up from the dragon chair, walked to her, leaned down, and said in a voice that only two people could hear——
"Don't be afraid. I am too."
