This job—this court attendance—is remarkably easy! And the salary is quite generous, too.
Going to work! That was her greatest expertise!
It was nothing more than expressing approval for her superiors during the morning court session (the equivalent of a morning meeting), and then, once court was dismissed, inviting two or three good friends to drink wine and chat merrily.
Beyond that, it was a matter of flattering the leadership daily, striving to slack off while collecting her paycheck until the day she could retire and return home!
Moreover, the Wen family had practically exhausted their savings to buy a mansion in the Capital, and nowadays, the entire household depended on her salary to survive.
She, Wen Shiqing, was the true head of the Wen family.
Living as a man in a patriarchal society... was really, truly wonderful.
Everything was going smoothly—until the matter of the betrothal popped up.
Wen Shiqing irritably scratched her head. It was not as though she had never encountered such a problem before; previously, her mother had always used her existing betrothal to turn other suitors away.
Only, back then, her mother had simply patted her hand and said those were merely excuses.
To think her mother had been using a real situation as an excuse all along!
*Knock, knock—*
The abrupt knocking at the door made Wen Shiqing bolt upright. She straightened her robes and said in a deep voice, "Come in."
The door pushed open slowly, and Madam Wen's figure appeared in the doorway.
Her expression looked somewhat haggard, and her footsteps carried a hint of heaviness.
Seeing this, Wen Shiqing hurriedly stood up to greet her: "Mother, why are you here?"
Madam Wen walked into the study, her gaze lingering on Wen Shiqing's face for a moment before she slowly seated herself in a nearby chair. Raising a hand to massage her temple, she spoke with a trace of fatigue: "Qing'er, Mother knows this marriage has been distressing you, but there are some things I must tell you."
Wen Shiqing sat back down at her desk, lowered her gaze to her hands, and sighed softly: "Mother should have told me about this sooner."
"When your father passed away unexpectedly back then, Mother had no choice, for the sake of us women and children, but to announce to the outside world that the child born was a son... After your father left, the Lu Family's attitude noticeably cooled. Who could have imagined that the tables would turn, and you would pass the imperial examinations with top honors, while the Lu Family is now left with only a mother and daughter?"
Wen Shiqing bit her lower lip and hesitated before speaking: "Even so, the betrothal must be broken off."
Madam Wen nodded along: "Mother understands this as well, but... you have just entered the imperial court. If you take the initiative to break off the engagement, I fear it might work against you."
Hearing this, Wen Shiqing frowned: "What does Mother mean?"
After pondering for a moment, Madam Wen hesitated and said, "Perhaps we could find a way to make her take the initiative to call it off?"
Wen Shiqing shook her head: "Mother, the Lu Family's situation is one that desperately needs this marriage. Besides... this was our fault to begin with."
After a brief pause, she added, "Perhaps we should think of a way to settle this once and for all, so that anyone who comes to propose marriage will avoid me like the plague from now on."
The next moment, Madam Wen's eyes turned red: "Qing'er, it is Mother who has failed you. If you... continue living this way, I'm afraid that for your whole life..."
Reaching the saddest part, Madam Wen raised a hand to gently wipe away the tears at the corners of her eyes, her voice thick with stifled sobs: "...there will be no way for you to openly seek a good match."
Had she been the original Wen Shiqing, she might have stood up, patted her mother's back, and offered comfort.
As for the present Wen Shiqing.
"Mother, for the sake of the Wen family, for you and my sister, I am willing to sacrifice. For the sake of the dozen or so mouths in the Wen family, I can give up my female identity, and I can give up a normal marriage."
Wen Shiqing leaned back into the carved pearwood chair, putting on a heartbreaking and grief-stricken expression as her tone shifted: "So Mother, tonight I want to eat lotus root and pork rib soup..."
Here, she paused. "And make a plate of sweet and sour carp. It has been so long since I tasted the ones you make yourself."
Hearing her daughter's words, Madam Wen felt an even greater ache in her heart. Wiping away her tears, she hurriedly stood up: "Alright, alright, Mother will go make them for you right now."
As for the present Wen Shiqing, she believed in taking things as they came and finding peace wherever she was.
After that day, Lu Xuechi clearly avoided Wen Shiqing. Wen Shiqing had to attend court, and for the time being, she hadn't thought of a once-and-for-all solution.
So she could only let nature take its course.
The hardest thing for her to adapt to about coming here to work and attend court was having to wake up before dawn to go to court!!!
During the morning sessions, she almost always had to force herself to stay awake.
Wen Shiqing was considered short among men. Standing at the back of the imperial court, she usually just stared at the back of the person's head in front of her.
This had one advantage: when she stood and closed her eyes to rest, it wasn't easily noticed.
She lifted her gaze slightly, her eyes passing over the layers upon layers of official caps, landing on the lofty imperial throne and, near it, the Prince Regent—Prince Jiu—who was lounging lazily in a grand chair.
He was dressed in a black python robe, propping his head up with one hand in an indolent posture, while his other hand absentmindedly twveled a mutton-fat jade thumb ring, occasionally lifting his eyelids to scan the court.
The rumors in the capital's streets and alleys regarding this Prince Jiu were without exception bloody and brutal.
After all, the late emperor had numerous offspring, and the struggle for the succession could only be described as unimaginably fierce.
Various princes had schemed against one another for the supreme throne of the Son of Heaven, plunging the court and the country into a sea of blood.
At that time, Prince Jiu did not possess the ruthless and cruel methods attributed to him in rumors; instead, he was an idle prince who wasn't even at the center of the conflict.
Perhaps precisely because of this, amidst all the plots and schemes, he was the only one who survived in the end.
Just when everyone thought he would ascend the throne, he defied all opinions and pushed the eldest prince's direct grandson up to the imperial throne, making himself the Prince Regent.
After taking power, Shen Heting acted with lightning speed and decisive force. First he gathered military power, and then he personally purged the imperial court and selected high-ranking officials.
The current emperor was only twelve years old, a mere youth saddled with an overbearing sister and a powerful imperial uncle.
Tsk, tsk, tsk.
After court was dismissed, Wen Shiqing invited two or three good friends to the Bright Moon Pavilion in the Capital, partly to ask about the prayer ceremony scheduled for a month later, and partly to carefully ponder the matter regarding the Lu Family.
"Lord Wen, what is the matter with you today?" Su Jingyi rested one hand on the chair and rubbed the rim of his cup with the other, looking with a half-smile at the person sitting opposite him. "Why are you so absent-minded?"
Although Su Jingyi did not hold a high official post in the court, the Su family had more than one person serving as an official; his father was a current minister, and the Su family was an aristocratic clan in the Capital.
Or rather, the two gentlemen present—aside from Wen Shiqing—were both scions of great aristocratic families in the Capital.
Yet they genuinely enjoyed spending time with Wen Shiqing, who was courteous in manner and, above all, truly pleasing to the eye.
Especially that pair of eyes; when they smiled, they were affectionate and charming, yet the person herself remained pure and clean, making others instinctively want to draw close.
Lin Yuxuan also closed the folding fan in his hand and looked over: "Fretting to this extent? Isn't Lord Su handling the prayer ceremony? If there's anything you don't understand, just ask him."
Wen Shiqing managed a strained smile, picked up her teacup, and took a small sip: "It's not about that."
"Then what is it?" Lin Yuxuan's interest was piqued, and he leaned forward, asking doubtfully.
"Sigh, you two..." Wen Shiqing stopped mid-sentence, her lips pressed tightly together as she weighed the matter repeatedly.
She glanced at the two of them—one had just reached adulthood at twenty, the other was eighteen.
At last, she sighed softly and asked, "Do either of you have a betrothal?"
Hearing this, Su Jingyi was startled at first, then burst into a hearty laugh. "A betrothal? I couldn't possibly escape that; the elders in my family arranged a match for me long ago."
Lin Yuxuan nodded slightly, his expression calm. "I have a betrothal as well. Our two families are of matched social status, and the match was arranged since childhood. A few days ago, I even met with my fiancée; she is dignified, graceful, and well-read, so it can be considered a good match."
With that, both men turned their gazes toward Wen Shiqing, asking in astonishment, "What is it? Are you looking to get married?"