Chapter 2

“I have a modern person’s knowledge. What can you possibly fight me with? Admit your guilt, and I might leave your corpse intact. Otherwise, I’ll make you wish you were dead!”

I didn’t understand what she was talking about.

I had, however, had quite enough of this madwoman.

I reached out, seized her collar, and lifted her off the ground with one arm.

Her feet dangled. Terror destroyed her pretty composure as she struggled.

“Ah! Put me down, you shrew!”

The scholars retreated, shouting.

“Murder! The fraud wants to silence her!”

“Stop!” Lord Pei barked. “Have you no sense of propriety?”

I let go.

Jiang Xueci hit the paving hard enough to bring tears to her eyes.

Pointing at me, she sobbed hoarsely.

“You saw it yourself, Lord Pei! Violence is all she knows! How could such a vulgar barbarian be champion?”

He descended the steps, his pace steady, and bent to retrieve the torn results list.

Then he looked at her.

“Jiang Xueci. Do you know that tearing down an imperial notice in public is a capital offense?”

She froze, forgetting to cry.

Then she recovered and protested loudly.

“I’m exposing examination fraud! I deserve credit! She can’t write a single word. Why is her name first?”

His gaze was cold.

“Insolence. The court’s laws are not yours to twist.”

Rather than grow afraid, she suddenly sprang to her feet.

“Has this slut bewitched you too, Lord Pei? She can’t even hold a brush. How could she produce fine essays? You’re all conspiring against a defenseless woman!”

The scholars immediately grew indignant.

“Punish the fraud!”

“Everyone knows Miss Jiang is the capital’s greatest talent! Give her justice!”

“Execute that shameless village woman!”

Abuse washed over me in waves.

I wasn’t even angry now. Just increasingly puzzled.

Fine essays?

When had I taken a composition examination?

I distinctly remembered knocking down eighty strong men that day.

How had that become an examination in essay writing?

Were the capital’s rules different from the ones back home?

**4**

I stepped forward and looked at Jiang Xueci.

“Have you mistaken me for someone else? I don’t know how to compose fine essays.”

She burst into arrogant laughter.

“You heard her, Lord Pei! She admits it! An illiterate who doesn’t know her characters came first!”

The white-robed gentleman had crawled up from the ground and edged closer.

“My lord, this woman is a disgrace. She must have bribed the examiner with her body. Strip her of the title! Strip off her clothes and parade her through the streets!”

My gaze chilled.

I kicked him.

He screamed, flew three meters, and crashed against the stone steps.

The crowd erupted.

“Murder!”

“The examination fraud is killing people in broad daylight!”

“Where is justice?”

Jiang Xueci pointed at me, shaking with excitement.

“You slut! Can you do anything except use violence?”

I rubbed my fist. My hand itched to smash that noisy mouth.

But Mother had told me to be reasonable in the capital.

I forced down my anger and turned to Lord Pei.

“My lord, has there been some mistake? I never held a brush when I competed for my title. I held a two-hundred-jin iron hammer.”

“Shut up!” Jiang Xueci shrieked. “If you don’t hold a brush in the imperial examinations, what do you hold—a blade? Do you think every scholar in the realm is a fool?”

She dropped to her knees before Lord Pei.

“My lord, I beg you to open a formal inquiry immediately! Find out how many examiners she slept with!”

The scholars took up the chant.

“Open an inquiry!”

“Punish the slut!”

“Give Miss Jiang back her title!”

I looked at these frenzied people, utterly bewildered.

Was I forbidden to earn my living through strength because I had curves?

Why did they insist I relied on men?

Lord Pei suddenly gave Jiang Xueci a mocking look.

“Do you know, Jiang Xueci, that Great Zhou’s examinations have two separate results lists? Civil and military?”

She stared, her crying cut short.

“Two… two lists? Civil and military?”