Are Husbands Assigned When Going to the Capital for the Imperial Examination?

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#Both leads are each other's first and only#

Zhao Baozhu was a fine young man from a remote mountain village. He was the first person in Zhao Village to pass the provincial imperial examination in hundreds of years. The villagers, who had been poor for most of their lives, pooled their resources to send him to the capital to take the metropolitan exam, hoping that one day this precious talent would become a high-ranking minister, earn a noble title, and return home in glory.

But Zhao Village lay in a remote mountain valley in Shu, and it took Zhao Baozhu three months just to make his way out of the mountains. By the time he finally arrived, the bustling capital was already packed with candidates from across the country. With no one to turn to, Zhao Baozhu trudged all over the city carrying his bundles, but could not find a single inn with a vacant room.

With his stomach pressed against his backbone from hunger, he stumbled into a secluded alley and found a red-lacquered gate. Summoning the last of his strength, he knocked. The door opened, and out came a handsome young nobleman in fine robes, with thick brows and a face like jade.

Dizzy with hunger, Zhao Baozhu managed to shout, “Innkeeper, please give me something to eat!” before collapsing.

Ye Jinghua, son of the sitting prime minister: ...?

·

When Ye Jinghua first met Zhao Baozhu, his strongest impression was of how hard life was for the common people.

The Ye family was a distinguished clan, renowned in Gusu since the previous dynasty. Countless people had come hoping to serve as household retainers. Ye Jinghua's father was the prime minister, making their branch the most prominent among the great clans. Outside the Ye family's ancestral residence, just beyond Shenwu Gate, ambitious people lined up every day, hoping to secure a promising future for themselves.

Ye Jinghua liked peace and quiet. He had chosen the most secluded residence he could find so he could study in peace before the palace examination. He never expected someone to come knocking even there.

He looked down at the young man who had fainted while clutching his robe. His clothes were worse than those of the beggars on the street. He looked like a young vagrant who had fled to the capital from famine in the south. Ye Jinghua's heart softened.

The little beggar seemed sweet-natured. Who knew how badly he might be treated if left out on the streets? Better to take him in as a page. The Ye family was wealthy and powerful, and one more mouth to feed would hardly matter.

And so the misunderstanding began.

When Zhao Baozhu woke the next day, he thought he had met a truly good man. The innkeeper was not only handsome, but kindhearted, too. He gave Zhao Baozhu food and clothes without asking for a single coin. All he had to do was run errands and help with the writing materials each day, and at the end of the month, he even got paid.

Staring at the silver in his hand, Zhao Baozhu was horrified and tried to refuse it.

“How... how can I accept this? A gentleman earns money through honorable means.”

“Where did you read that?” Ye Jinghua raised an eyebrow, then slipped him a few more pieces of silver. “Go buy yourself some sweets.”

He thought the boy was not only sweet-looking, but clever and quick-witted as well. Perhaps he could keep him by his side and teach him to read.

It was not until the eve of the spring examinations that Ye Jinghua, fully prepared, set off for the metropolitan exam with the paper, brushes, and other essentials his servants had packed for him. When he reached the examination hall and saw Zhao Baozhu still following him, he asked in surprise,

“Baozhu, why are you still following me?”

Zhao Baozhu looked up innocently. “Huh? I'm taking the exam, too.”

Ye Jinghua: ...??!!

·

After the palace examination, some celebrated while others fretted. Just as expected, Ye Jinghua was named the top graduate. When he left the Qionglin Banquet and went to find Zhao Baozhu so he could clear things up, he learned that Zhao Baozhu had already received an appointment from the Ministry of Personnel and gone to take up a post as magistrate of a poor little county.

A week later, a letter from the Ye residence in the capital arrived in Qingzhou by express courier, bound for the magistrate's office.

At the time, Magistrate Zhao was wearing an old, slightly worn official robe and writing furiously at his desk. “Hm? What's this?”

He picked up the letter and recognized the familiar handwriting, each stroke driven deep into the paper. The first line asked whether he was eating well and sleeping soundly. Tears immediately streamed down his face.

“Young Master Ye is so kind. He still remembers me!”

After a moment of sadness, Magistrate Zhao put the letter aside after reading barely two lines. He sprang to his feet, and a teapot went flying into the head of the local gentry below.

“You, Chen! I'm telling you, if you don't cough up the money you embezzled, I'll take your worthless life today!”

Zhao Baozhu planted his hands on his hips, striking the same swaggering pose he used to flaunt back in the village. He glared with his big eyes.

“Don't bother buying your old mother's coffin, either. I'll send your whole family down to reunite with her right now!”

The local gentryman was left bleeding from a head wound. He kowtowed frantically, looking up at Zhao Baozhu, who stood with his hands on his hips and the look of a demon on his face. Tears of blood welled in his heart.

What kind of scholar versed in the Four Books and Five Classics was this? He was a bandit and a thug!

The other officials: Who's going to Qingzhou? It's a barren place full of troublesome locals.

Magistrate Zhao: Is it poorer than my village? Are its people nastier than Ergou next door?

A quick heads-up:

1. The top student, a calculating and deeply scheming nobleman, is the gong x a pretty, unlucky scholar from a poor family is the shou.

2. The gong spoils the shou. The shou is as stubborn as a mule and often leaves the gong speechless.

3. A beloved-by-everyone story.

4. Includes some court politics.

5. The shou may be rustic, but he's beautiful.

------End of promo for the next story-------------------

Chu He is a strange fellow.

That is practically the consensus among the students at Ganghua International School.

The pale boy is tall but painfully thin, his uniform hanging loosely on him. He has a colorless face and deep-set features. Though handsome in a delicate way, he cannot hide the cold, gloomy aura about him.

No one at Ganghua wants to get close to him. Everyone leaves him by himself, so Chu He is like a mushroom growing in a dark corner, alone in the damp.

What few people at Ganghua know is that this gloomy boy, whom they consider bad luck just to look at, once had a secret relationship lasting two years with the school's universally acknowledged golden boy.

Cheng Bingyi is a flawless, perfect young gentleman in every way. He is handsome, eloquent, sunny, outgoing, and has the air of a natural leader. Every day he rides to school in a different brand of luxury car, serves as student council president, and always earns a perfect GPA.

A list of Cheng Bingyi's accomplishments would still fail to do him justice. His female classmates have admirers lined up from Yigang all the way to Baisha Bay.

Cheng Bingyi is the golden boy known throughout the entire city of Hong Kong. His fame endured for years, so much so that even after the Cheng family went bankrupt, wealthy young women who still pined for him seized the chance to beg their fathers to settle his debts and take him as a live-in son-in-law.

But before any of them could make a move, someone else got there first. The news that the Cheng company had been acquired and that Cheng Bingyi had married a man made the front page together.

The earth-shattering news immediately set the Ganghua alumni circle abuzz.

When people opened the newspaper, many recognized the tall groom at once. Dressed in a black suit and silver tie, he held Cheng Bingyi tightly in his arms as if keeping him under lock and key.

The groom was none other than that unlucky fellow, Chu!

·

The shou's perspective:

Cheng Bingyi never thought of himself as the golden boy.

He just thought he'd been a little lucky. Although the family business had declined, at least his parents loved each other, his childhood had been happy, and his youth had gone smoothly. For more than twenty years, he had been a pampered young master who had never had to lift a finger.

At his father's funeral, he comforted his sobbing little sister while planning to send her and their mother overseas. Only after everyone had left did he get a chance to spend some time alone with the gravestone bearing his father's name.

But as soon as he left the cemetery, a black car cut him off.

The person who got out was just as oblivious to social cues as he had been as a teenager. He forcibly dragged Cheng Bingyi into the car, then grabbed his hand and made him sign two documents before he could contact anyone else.

One was an acquisition agreement, the other a marriage certificate.

Cheng Bingyi, of course, refused.

He considered himself a man who could fend for himself. He had worked hard at school, and if his money was gone, he could earn more. What was so bad about relying on his looks to get by?

A week later, he had to travel to the United States to sort out the company's assets and restructure its debts.

After the suited managers of five major banks joined forces to throw him out and told him he had fifteen days to find someone to take over the debt, Cheng Bingyi spent his last few hundred dollars bribing a bank doorman. With nowhere to go, he found a tiny coffee shop tucked away on a Wall Street side street and bought a three-dollar espresso to warm himself.

He held the coffee in his left hand and lit the last cigarette he had in his right. At last, he understood how cruel the world could be.

Just then, a luxury car pulled over at the curb. An executive-looking man seemed to have stopped by for a coffee while passing through.

The sharp-eyed Chinese American executive walked past the shop, then suddenly turned back. He sat down across from Cheng Bingyi with a smile.

“Are you Young Master Cheng?”

Holding half a cigarette, Cheng Bingyi looked up in surprise. “You know me?”

The executive smiled faintly, his gaze lingering on him. “Young Master Cheng... you're quite famous around here.”

Cheng Bingyi caught the meaning in his eyes, but was not offended. He was simply astonished. He had no idea he was popular with men, too.

He had always thought that the only person who could like him was a strange kid like Chu He, whose brain was wired all wrong.

At that moment, a loud crash rang out in the street. A Bentley slammed into a car by the curb, smashing both headlights and causing tens of thousands of dollars in damage. Homeless people all along the block shouted in alarm.

A handsome man stepped out of the Bentley, dressed in a black suit and black tie like a mourner. He smiled faintly at the executive who had been chatting Cheng Bingyi up.

Cheng Bingyi looked at him through the smoke and silently added another offense to Chu He's list: he just won't stay gone.

---Reader's Guide------

1. A possessive, obsessive, twisted female ghost gong with an overwhelming need to control x a steady, dependable, universally adored golden boy shou

2. A fake forced-pursuit romance. The female ghost gong has multiple episodes, but none succeed; her attempts at coercion remain unsuccessful.

3. Read it as marriage first, love later; written as mutual secret crushes.

4. The gong loves him dearly, but she's very twisted and has episodes now and then.

Theme: Live earnestly and stay positive.