The Empress’ Livestream

The Royal Leisure Palace was for sure extravagant, but it couldn’t compare with the young Langjuns in their brightly colored clothes and makeup walking amongst the blossoming flowers. They looked prettier than the flowers as they took their seats.

Liu She wore a light green robe and he had a dark, gauze-made hat. He was holding a jade Ruyi and sitting straight with no expression on his face. He had passed his thirtieth year, but he didn’t look much older than the other young men. Instead, he had a sense of maturity and earnestness that the young men didn’t have.

He looked at the Langjuns walking towards him. Some of them wore a slight smile on their faces; some of them had their eyebrows twisted hard; and some others bowed at him. There were thousands of different attitudes from the people, which made it fascinating to see. But there was a mutual attitude towards him, which they all tried to ingratiate towards him secretly. They resembled peacocks who spread their tails to show the best of themselves.

He lost himself for a second. It reminded him that he used to be one of them several decades ago. He only remembered that he had played it cool at that time. He was playing instruments, discussing a poem with others, or evaluating a painting––and all the while soaked with his sweat. His heart was grasped tight like it was going to drop anytime if he made a mistake, which made him extremely anxious.

When he finished the evaluation and came home, he spilled his embarrassment and nervousness to Gumin but he only received dirty looks from her.

Even until then, he still clearly remembered her complaints. “Come on, what kind of exam is that?” Liu She was confused.

“Liu County Chief, all the Langjuns are seated and we can start anytime.” His colleague pulled him back from his memory with caution. Liu She opened his eyes like he had just woken up from a sweet dream.

Looking at the gentry clan’s young men who were prettier than the views, Liu She put on a light smile and said, “Let’s begin.”

The evaluation in Dongqing Dynasty occurred every three years. The files for “Family Background” in the upper category had been delivered to Shang Jing long ago.

Liu She arrived in Shang Jing a bit late and he spent most of his time skimming through it. He went through all the files on all the candidates and ranked and graded them based on their family background and the individual status of their own family.

The grades were classified as “superior,””medium,” and “inferior.”

There were merely a hundred candidates participating in the evaluation, but they were particularly selected from the different areas in Dongqing. Every single one of them had a strong family background and they were not people to mess around with. If there were some conflicts with the ranks, Liu She definitely offended whoever was behind him.

As for what was mentioned before, “moral conduct,””appearance,” and “personality” all gave the candidates enough space to bribe the tester. Liu She had received some benefits and bribery on or under the table. Their generosity startled him. It was either real money or precious antiques, which really opened his eyes.

No wonder everyone wanted to be the General Evaluation Officer at least once. They didn’t have to work for over thirty years if they got to be the Officer once.

“Ability” was was the bragging report that they had handed over to him early.

Liu She had read through the reports. They were mostly full of bragging, containing essentially nothing of value.

Why would he say so? For example, a feeble person whose waist was slim but who craved drugs would have such sensitive skin that he could only wear soft clothes. He could hardly wash himself but he could open a super heavy bow and defeat two tigers. What would it be if it was not a joke? Maybe he meant that he defeated some female tigers who made him sweat and then laid next to his side of the bed.

Liu She didn’t realize that he was thinking dirty.

The evaluation was more like a large scale scholars gathering with ulterior motives. All the Langjuns focused on showing off their unique attributes.

Those who stood out after they showed off their unique attributes definitely did have some skills.

Liu She was slacking at the beginning but then he started to get involved. The atmosphere seemed to be at peace.

Like what he had said, the evaluation was more like a large scale scholars gathering. The attendants were not just gentry clan young men; there were quite a number of big people in high positions and their families, including the emperor, his concubines, and his children. It was for sure a large quantity of people, but somehow it wasn’t too noisy.

Liu Xi didn’t have a memory of this and Jiang Pengji was a general from a future world. She had no idea how she should cope with it.

Fortunately, Feng Jin, as the son of the wife in Feng’s, had been through all sorts of situations. He was acting proper and wandering around in the masses while Jiang Pengji stalled him. He greeted people and chit-chatted with them as he introduced Jiang Pengji to the people he talked to.

The people were all sly. Even though they had never heard Jiang Pengji’s name, they were not going to ignore her just because she was “the son of Liu County Chief.” Jiang Pengji did get to know plenty people from Feng Jin.

“You don’t like to communicate with people?” Feng Jin asked as he found his seat, which were arranged by their positions.

Jiang Pengji couldn’t help but sigh and said, “No, I just feel that your precious circle is such a mess.”

Feng Jin was a bit confused. His precious circle was such a mess? He recognized every word of it, but it just didn’t make sense to him all together. But he could still figure it all from the literal meaning of it, considering that he was rather smart.

“Why?” Feng Jin couldn’t hold back his laugh. He came close to her and lowered his voice, just in case she was going to mention more strange things.

“It seems that it is a trend to admire guys’ appearance at the moment.” Even in her real era, which was extraordinarily open, not everyone was gay. After she had met so many people with Feng Jin, she sincerely questioned if she had accidentally traveled to a gay world.

She had the illusion that she might be the only straight guy in the world. But d*mn, she was a woman.

Feng Jin had a slight blush on his snow white skin. He somehow felt uncomfortable and said to her, “Can you stop looking around?”

Jiang Pengji scorned him and said, “So you want me to close my eyes then?” It was not her fault that she couldn’t control her brain and not analyze someone the moment she saw them. It was her occupational habit after years and years of training and it was not an easy thing for her to change in a moment.

Feng Jin paused for a second. His face looked strange, but he added something in a low voice, “The relationships in the government have always been a mess. Honestly, as long as it doesn’t affect them passing on their family blood, it is not something abnormal for two men to love each other.”

Some of the guys with a special love would love to help prepare the betrothal gift for their other half. That way, they could make sure they would have a wife and a son to carry on his family name.

After all, there were three ways to not be filial, and having no children came first.

Two men loving already disobeyed the ethics for breeding. How would they confront their ascendants after their death if one of the partners failed to fulfill his obligation to his family?

Jiang Pengji squinted at him, which made him feel uneasy. She felt odd.

“I’m not interested in this. You don’t have to look at me that way… It’s kind of scary.”

It was all right if they were in any normal circumstance, but Feng Jin always had a feeling that she could see through him every time she looked at him like that.

Jiang Pengji smiled at him and said, “You are doing what you are doing. Why are you scared of me?”

“Not scared of you. I just don’t like it,” Feng Jin responded helplessly. “Sit straight. People will criticize you for not receiving a good education from Liu County Chief if they catch you acting like this.”

He seemed to remember something and he emphasised it to her, “Don’t run around. The Royal Leisure Palace is not like your own place. You have someone watching you twenty-four seven. Don’t talk much and don’t do much. Just be quiet, okay?”

Jiang Pengji didn’t question him and nodded. But Feng Jin was somehow even more concerned with her being so well-behaved.