noffsinger Chapter 405 Jiang Suining officially becomes a female official
Chapter 405 Jiang Suining officially becomes a female official
Yang Huihui and her husband have already left.
After thinking it over, Duke Yang ordered his servant to prepare a carriage, and in the evening he left the Duke's Mansion and went to the home of a familiar official from the Ministry of Personnel.
Yang Manman did not eat dinner. She sat alone in the room, waiting for the night to darken little by little and eventually turn into an impenetrable darkness.
Lian Qing tried to go into the room to serve several times, but all he got was a scolding from Yang Manman.
Finally, she stopped knocking on the door and went back to her and Lianwei's servants' room to rest.
Nearing midnight, Yang Manman finally opened the door and walked out of the yard.
It was late at night, and the entire Duke's Mansion was silent. Everyone had gone to bed, except for the servants who were on night watch, who were dozing off by the door.
Yang Manman slowed down her pace and did not light a lamp. Relying on her familiarity with the terrain and the dim moonlight, she walked to the outside of the ancestral hall where the tablets were enshrined.
Pushing the door open and walking in, tablets of all sizes were neatly placed in layers. The candles were swaying in the wind blowing in from the door. The cold atmosphere made Yang Manman shiver subconsciously, and a feeling of fear and guilt surged in her heart.
But soon, this thought disappeared without a trace.
She looked outside and after making sure that no one was following her, she quickly closed the door of the ancestral hall, walked quickly to the side of the tablets, took down one of the rows of tablets, reached in through the gap in the shelf, and took out the account book that she had stuck under the shelf.
What she said before was just to deceive Duke Yang. She knew that this account book was of great importance and could not be handed over to others casually. Also, she could not find anyone in the imperial city who could help her with such a thing.
Of course, she knew better that as long as she said that the account book was in her hands, Duke Yang would search the mansion from top to bottom.
After much thought, the only place where it won't be found is this ancestral hall.
Yang Manman looked at the account book in her hand and was glad that she had chosen a perfect hiding place.
After putting the account book into her sleeve and restoring the tablet, she quietly left the ancestral hall and returned to her own yard.
For her, the next thing to do is to wait for news.
Soon, the palace garden chrysanthemum viewing banquet began.
Although this banquet was used for the third round of assessment for Jiang Suining and the others, after all, so many female relatives were invited, including concubines in the harem and wives of officials, who were hoping to use this opportunity to choose candidates for daughters-in-law, so there could not be any mistakes.
In addition to Jiang Suining and others, Empress Shi also sent experienced maids to accompany them throughout the whole process, so that they could observe their performance and prevent any major mistakes from causing problems at the banquet.
Of course, the most nervous people were the six people who took the assessment. After almost finalizing the entire process a few days ago, they checked it over and over again, fearing that there would be any problems.
Jiang Suining was in charge of the seating arrangement and food preparation for the entire banquet. She had inquired about the relationships between the ladies and female relatives of each family in advance. When arranging the seats, she not only took into account the rank but also the closeness of the relatives.
As for diet, I paid special attention to finding out if there were any dietary taboos or foods that could not be eaten, and avoided them. Throughout the entire banquet, no mistakes were made.
However, there are still some problems in other aspects.
A female family member was playing the piano when a string broke and injured her finger. It was later discovered that she had not checked the piano carefully when preparing it.
The painter suddenly had a stomachache, so before the new painter arrived, Lu Yan had no choice but to take over herself, but this meant that there was no one to do the writing that she was responsible for.
Although it was just a chrysanthemum-viewing banquet, and there were few records of such banquets in the past, this time it was Empress Shi who gave the order herself. If it was not recorded clearly, it might be counted in the assessment results.
Fortunately, everything was fine with Jiang Suining, and there were no mistakes. He could take over the record-keeping role when he had time, allowing Lu Yan to focus on painting until the new painter arrived.
The banquet finally came to an end amid the sounds of music and drinking.
Jiang Suining, Lu Yan and others watched the officials' families leave and did the final finishing work.
Qin and Liu Yuan also attended the chrysanthemum viewing banquet today.
When she was leaving, passing by Jiang Suining, Qin looked at her indifferently, and finally just smiled and said congratulations.
"Looking at Miss Jiang's performance today, the status of this female official should be a sure win."
"I would like to thank the wife of Marquis Changning for her good wishes." Jiang Suining replied with a smile.
Qin didn't say anything more, retracted her gaze and left.
In addition to congratulating her, Liu Yuan also whispered a piece of news to Jiang Suining.
"Han Nian'an and Han Yueying were sent back to the Han family by their mother because they made too much noise in the mansion."
"When did this happen?"
"Just last night."
She has been married for so long but has not been able to get pregnant. Now Qin is planning to take a concubine for Zhou Yihong, and she doesn't want someone from an ordinary family, but the daughter of a minor official.
Perhaps she was worried that those people would not want to marry their daughters to this mansion because of the way things were, so Qin planned to kick Han Yueying and Han Nian'an out. It happened that Han Yueying went too far and burned the yard, so Qin didn't even wait until the next day. She wrote a divorce letter on behalf of Zhou Yihong yesterday and sent them back to the Han family that day.
However, Liu Yuan did not intend to talk to Jiang Suining about these things in detail, and this was not the right place to talk about them.
Jiang Suining looked at Liu Yuan and smiled at her, "Thank you for telling me the news."
Liu Yuan shook her head and looked at Qin who had walked some distance ahead. Without saying anything more, she quickened her pace and caught up with her.
Jiang Suining stood where he was.
It was beyond her expectation that Han Nian'an could return to the Han family.
After all, the result she had initially assumed was that Han Nian'an would die in the backyard of the Marquis of Changning's Mansion.
However, Han Nian'an is now useless, and is even at odds with the Han family. If he is sent back at this time, his life will probably be even more miserable than when he was in the Marquis' Mansion.
Jiang Suining suppressed his thoughts and stopped thinking about it for the time being, concentrating on finishing up the banquet.
After everyone had left and the banquet was completely over, Queen Shi listened to the reports from the maids and officially confirmed the list of female officials to be selected.
A total of four people.
Lu Yan and He Qingrui, who was mistakenly identified as Lu Yan by Yang Manman, were the seventh-rank classics and eighth-rank booksellers respectively, in charge of matters concerning classics, documents, paper, pens, and desks.
Jiang Suining and another noble lady named Wei Yao were the seventh-rank Dianbin and the eighth-rank Zhangbin respectively, responsible for the audience with guests and the rewards at the banquet.
"From now on, you will be palace ladies-in-waiting. You will be promoted based on your performance. The best ones can become sixth-rank officials and sixth-rank officials. Officials are in charge of both classes, regardless of whether they are in charge of classics or banquets. You will officially take office after the Mid-Autumn Festival, and your official uniforms and seals will be delivered to your respective residences. You need to work hard, but don't let me down."
Jiang Suining and the others bowed and responded, "Yes, we will follow the Queen's instructions."