ITVCFITB CHAPTER 70

Chapter 70 – The Spring Examinations

After more than half a year of trying, Li Mingjin still hadn’t managed to get Luo Shuyu pregnant.

Every time Luo Shuyu did anything even slightly out of the ordinary, Li Mingjin panicked. Luo Shuyu got so exasperated he didn’t want to talk to him.

If Luo Shuyu overate and felt a bit of indigestion, Li Mingjin would summon Lin Yuan to take his pulse. If he drank too much water and felt bloated, Li Mingjin decided that must be pregnancy, immediately supporting his waist, forbidding him to move, and sending for the physician again. If he squatted for a moment and felt lightheaded as he stood, pregnant, surely!

Once or twice was tolerable. Every time was exhausting. Finally, Luo Shuyu had enough. He ignored Li Mingjin for three full days and banished him to the small couch at night. Li Mingjin felt terribly wronged.

Banished for wanting to be a father too enthusiastically!

Luo Shuyu could only roll his eyes. Seeing a doctor every other day, those who knew wouldn’t comment, but those who didn’t would think he was some porcelain-boned immortal.

What happened to “let nature take its course”?

The imperial physician sent by Emperor Tiansheng came to take Luo Shuyu’s pulse once every seven days. With that schedule in place, Li Mingjin finally stopped fussing; for once, he appreciated his father’s “foresight.”

Luo Shuyu, however, was a touch depressed at the emperor’s meddling. In his past life, Emperor Tiansheng hadn’t cared at all. This time, because Li Mingjin enjoyed a warmer “father–son” bond, the attention was different. With the Crown Princess and Shen Mingyun both having miscarried once and then conceiving again, the emperor had begun to fret over Li Mingjin, sending all manner of medicinal supplies.

Headache-inducing either way: neglect felt wrong, but too much attention was suffocating. Still, the seven-day pulse-checks continued on schedule.

Noticing the imperial physician had little to do otherwise, Luo Shuyu suggested he coordinate with Lin Yuan. In the end, Lin pulled him into free clinics.

Day after day, the physician sat in Lin’s pharmacy, treating the poor for free. His skill won him local gratitude and small gifts. He often visited Luo Shuyu to marvel that his training had not been in vain. Compared with bowing and scraping to the powerful in the capital, life here felt meaningful; his pride swelled. He even befriended several agricultural officials who’d arrived with Li Mingjin the year before.

Properly “trained” by Luo Shuyu, Li Mingjin reined himself in. He truly let things be. When our child is meant to come, he’ll come. No rushing, his spouse was still recuperating.

Lin Yuan had said “you can conceive now” didn’t mean a guaranteed success. Toxins still lingered; total detox would take three to five years. It hadn’t even been two yet. No sense in forcing the pace.

Li Mingjin turned his focus elsewhere.

The newly discovered mine was quietly opened. Smelting for weapons began in secret. He also started earning money off the books, moving goods through a hidden channel and selling them, as if from a foreign state, to Emperor Tiansheng. The profit funded the raising and training of private troops.

Everyone knew the Crown Prince had the Yan clan behind him and everyone suspected the Yans maintained their own hidden forces. The clan was too vast; even if the emperor knew, he could do little. Li Mingjin had started laying groundwork only recently; only now did he have the funds to support soldiers. Training eats silver like a bottomless pit. Without the mine, he wouldn’t have dared.

With Luo Shuyu at his side, he had the courage to gamble. If Emperor Tiansheng discovered this, the consequences would be dire, yes, but like the Crown Prince’s faction, if he didn’t fight, he could only await death. The Yans would never let Li Mingjin’s family live in peace.

Forging an elite force in a short time was anything but easy.

Winter set in. It was bitterly cold, and Li Mingjin stayed home. After a lunch of dumplings Luo Shuyu had wrapped with his own hands, they curled up in a room warmed by extra braziers and a toasty kang. Luo Shuyu, feeling overheated by his human “stove,” pushed him away and set out the checkers board on the low table.

He asked whether it was possible to produce firearms. In the book he remembered, Shen Mingyun and the Fourth Prince had formed a musket unit while raising private troops; against the Crown Prince, they’d been unstoppable.

“Firearms?” Li Mingjin arched a brow. “No wonder you understand me best. How did you know I want a musket corps?”

Luo Shuyu couldn’t exactly say I read it in a novel. “I once saw a diagram in my father’s study. I’ve heard muskets are powerful. With a musket unit, we could hold foreign enemies at bay and reduce casualties.”

Li Mingjin nodded. “Father Emperor wanted to form one, but the materials weren’t good enough. The barrels overheated and burst.”

“Can that be improved?” Luo Shuyu tapped the table.

“Not yet,” Li Mingjin admitted. “When I came north, I quietly requested three muskets from Father. I kept one and gave two to craftsmen to study.”

In the book, Shen Mingyun had exchanged for a proportional formula sheet, but not all details were written out, only the key points. Luo Shuyu would have to reconstruct and organize them from memory.

If it hadn’t come up today, he might not have remembered the bursting-barrel problem, let alone thought about solving it.

From Li Mingjin’s point of view, Luo Shuyu had never dealt with such things; he often felt no need to burden him. Fortunately, Luo Shuyu asked on his own.

Meanwhile, Shen Mingyun had gained the emperor’s favor, and followers were gathering around the Fourth Prince. Most crucially, the neutral Left Chancellor had finally stepped into the ring against the Right Chancellor, the Crown Prince’s camp had grown too strong.

Truth be told, Emperor Tiansheng still couldn’t stomach the Yans taking the world. The Crown Prince lacked force of character; the Yan clan’s roots ran too deep. They had to be torn out completely. Little skirmishes wouldn’t do.

The emperor had once pinned his hopes on the Eldest Prince, but Consort Lin’s clan was shortsighted and ruined years of planning. Having now seen the Fourth Prince’s patience and ability, the emperor believed there was still hope of striking the Yans down.

---

On the eighth day of the new year, Li Mingjin, tired of being cooped up, took Luo Shuyu out to stroll the streets and enjoy the smiles on people’s faces. Seeing the prosperity reminded them their efforts over the past year hadn’t been wasted.

The carriage clopped smoothly over freshly paved streets.

A year ago, a market for mutual trade had opened in a nearby town. Now, many locals earned good silver through it. Merchants from the south arrived in growing numbers, raising incomes across Gucheng. Monthly tax revenue now equaled that of an entire year in the past.

Luo Shuyu bartered away things he didn’t need for useful crops and opened a plot for veteran farmers to tend, he’d need it later.

In the book, Shen Mingyun had used such markets to acquire valuable goods, then sold the harvest at high prices to fund the Fourth Prince’s army. Luo Shuyu’s aim was different: introduce crops that actually filled bellies and lift the people’s lives.

Take from the people, use for the people, livelihood is the foundation of a state. Without it, an empty treasury only leads to a revolving door of emperors.

He did not wish Li Mingjin to follow in the footsteps of Emperor Tiansheng and his predecessors. A little change would be enough.

They rode toward the city gate in the winter cold, staying inside the carriage. There, a mother was sending off a young man with a pack on his back; a book boy trailed him. Not far away stood a group of merchants. From their accents and dress, they looked like they’d come from the capital.

“A scholar, heading for the exams?” Luo Shuyu guessed.

“Spring examinations are near,” Li Mingjin said. “Leaving for the capital now gives a month to acclimate.”

“I hadn’t kept track,” Luo Shuyu admitted. “Three days locked in the exam cell, eating and sleeping in that tiny room. When they come out, won’t they reek?”

Li Mingjin grimaced in sympathy. “I’ve always thought the system tortures people.”

“Ten years of bitter study,” Luo Shuyu said. “If we had better pathways, perhaps people wouldn’t suffer like this.”

“It deserves serious thought,” Li Mingjin agreed. “We’ve followed the same model for generations with little progress.”

A flicker of memory crossed Luo Shuyu’s mind, the “college entrance exam” Shen Mingyun had once described, where students were sorted into schools by merit.

“Our model exists because most people can’t access education,” Luo Shuyu said. “If everyone could read and had a skill, they wouldn’t need to burn ten years just to chase a top rank.”

“You’re right,” Li Mingjin said again. “Education is the root issue.”

Families poured everything into one child so he might pass the exams and bring glory. With so few paths, minds grew rigid and a nation stagnated. Changing a system a thousand years old would be hard, but necessary.

Those reforms would have to wait until they held the reins of power. For now, another matter pressed on Luo Shuyu’s mind.

Wasn’t there some scandal tied to the spring exams?

He suddenly remembered: his second brother was testing this year. In his past life, a major incident had erupted during those exams. Luo Renshou had run himself ragged to rescue Luo Shuhan from accusations of buying answers, even asking Luo Shuyu for help. Back then, Luo Shuyu and Li Mingjin were on bad terms, and Luo Shuyu despised cheating; he refused.

Later, Shen Mingyun did something mysterious, and Luo Shuhan slipped the noose, even placing decently and being sent out as a local official.

At the time, Shen didn’t sit the exams himself, but his name was everywhere. He’d compiled and printed Ten Years of Civil Exam True Papers, which many candidates bought as study guides, hugely popular, hugely expensive, complete with past questions and model top-scorer answers.

As for the answer-selling scandal, Luo Shuyu recalled it implicating the Crown Prince. With the Right Chancellor’s protection, the prince had emerged unscathed.

“Do you know who’s overseeing this autumn round, pardon, this year’s exams?” Luo Shuyu asked.

Li Mingjin clearly wasn’t invested in the minutiae. “Either the Left Chancellor or the Right. Those two fight over it every year.”

“If something does happen,” Luo Shuyu probed, “what would the fallout be?”

Is he about to use that uncanny foresight again? Li Mingjin focused. “Something in the exams?”

“Mm. If the questions leak, answers will be sold.”

“That could be worked to our advantage,” Li Mingjin said.

“You sound awfully sure the exams will go wrong.”

He chuckled. “There are many flaws. If someone with long arms wants to pack the court with his own men, the exams are the best funnel. You’re right, this year could be spectacular. First, Father’s bouts of illness are more frequent; second, the Fourth Prince is ascendant. The Yan clan might use the chance to plant people. The Yans will always be the Yans. The Lis will always be the Lis.”

“You mean the Crown Prince himself might not know?” Luo Shuyu asked.

“Or the reverse, he might want to slip the Yan leash.”

“That's complicated,” Luo Shuyu murmured.

“I’ll have people watch it,” Li Mingjin said. “Handled well, it could blunt both the Crown Prince and the Yans.”

“And the credit goes to the Fourth Prince?”

“It will.”

Watching others fight, delightful entertainment.

Under bright winter sun, the two shared sly smiles. A fruitful outing indeed.

In early third month, the spring examinations began.

Soon, news from the capital came in a steady stream.

Just as expected, Luo family’s Luo Shuhan purchased answers. This time, Shen Mingyun didn’t help him. Luo Renshou aged ten years in a single night from anger and panic.

He’d wanted Luo Shuyu to pull strings, but the latter was far in the north; even a meritorious third prince couldn’t douse a distant fire and in any case, they wouldn’t intervene.

Luo Shuhan went to prison, along with more than twenty others. Emperor Tiansheng, furious, declared he would interrogate the bold offenders himself.

Evidence ultimately pointed to the Crown Prince. Cleverly, he went straight to the empress for aid, and the Yan clan produced scapegoats. Even so, they harbored resentment: the prince had been reckless.

By the end of the third month, the Crown Princess and Shen Mingyun both went into labor.

---

Gucheng.

After dinner, Luo Shuyu tugged Li Mingjin out for a walk to settle the food; he was a bit overfull. Li Mingjin’s eyes immediately dropped to his belly.

“Shuyu, are you sure you’re not pregnant?”

Luo Shuyu patted his slightly rounded stomach. “Positive.” He was simply stuffed.

“Then I must not be working hard enough,” Li Mingjin muttered.

When would he finally be a father?

---

Author’s Note:
Third Prince: Beloved, today you’re the discarded spouse of a prince. I’m the cruel lord who torments your body and heart. When angry I want you, when pleased I still want you, I ignore you, but you never leave me! One day you chat too long with the gatekeeper, and in a jealous rage I drag you inside
Luo Shuyu: Inside, the discarded spouse accidentally drinks the poison you prepared to scare him, bleeds from seven orifices, and dies on the spot.
Third Prince: …

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