The inner courtyard of the temple was further divided into east and west courtyards. The east courtyard was mostly for nuns to live in, while the west courtyard rooms were specially set up for guests.

Liu Changning was specially arranged by Abbess Ningxin in a side room of the west courtyard, considering that she would be taking the exam soon, and was given a room where she wouldn’t be disturbed.

Most nuns were curious. Abbess Ningxin had always been serious, but she was particularly caring and close to this commoner lady.

Little did they know that Ningxin had known her a year ago, because in her first life she was the number one righteous person in the Immortal Realm, with insights into Taoist and Buddhist laws far surpassing those of mortals.

During her travels, she had accompanied Ningxin for a month, discussing the Tao and playing chess, thus forming a friendship and considering each other as kindred spirits.

This room in the west side courtyard was located in a remote area, with usually no monks or nuns passing by. The noisy sounds from the outer courtyard were also very far away.

At this time, the Empress was worshipping heaven, firecrackers were booming, and music was playing softly. Only this place was deep and quiet.

Liu Changning closed the wooden door of her room, spread out the xuan paper, and picked up her brush to write a letter.

Over the years, she had accumulated some connections, mostly with commoner scholars.

The imperial examination was approaching, and she had compiled a summary of the essay topics from past years’ examinations.

One person cannot support the whole world. The reason why half of the commoner children from Lingnan respected her was not only for her talent, but more importantly, for the prosperous future and brilliant prospects she could bring them in the future.

There were more than forty Lingnan scholars participating in this imperial examination. Due to the long distance from Lingnan, most of the scholars had just rushed to the capital at this time of winter solstice.

Liu Changning wrote down what would be called review materials in later generations, one by one on the xuan paper.

This busy work lasted for a whole day.

—

During the winter solstice ceremony, Pei Yunzhi stood by the Taifu’s side, unable to move a step all day. He saw Jing Huan standing among the civil and military officials from afar, but couldn’t approach her, which made him very displeased.

Following the Taifu to meditate and worship Buddha had already made him extremely annoyed.

He originally thought that finally getting out of the palace would give him a chance to see Jing Zhu and express his lovesickness, but unexpectedly there was no opportunity to talk at all.

Pei Yunzhi accompanied the Taifu and a group of official husband-husbands and noble young men to finish dinner with a gloomy expression. When they returned to the inner courtyard of the temple, there was a disagreement over the allocation of rooms.

The four superior rooms in the west courtyard were allocated to the Empress, the Taifu, the Imperial Consort, and the Prince of Zhennan respectively.

The rest of the rooms were ordinary ones inhabited by nuns, simple and austere.

As an Imperial Consort, Pei Yunzhi was used to silk clothes and jade food. How could he endure such a simple meditation room?

So he held back a stomach full of anger and threw a big tantrum.

The Taifu had to swallow his pride and beg the abbess to allocate the only empty room in the east courtyard to Pei Yunzhi.

In the meditation room.

Pei Yunzhi lay on the soft couch, with the young attendant Qing Bi stepping forward to massage his temples.

A faint scent of su he incense wafted to his nose. He frowned and looked at the cloisonné three-legged elephant trunk incense burner on the eight immortals table, saying, “What is this incense?”

“In reply to the Prince, there aren’t many types of incense in the temple, and there’s no an xi incense that you usually use. The Taifu’s attendant Jing specially instructed to keep everything simple, so…” Qing Bi replied with a difficult expression, and inadvertently, the pressure of his massage increased slightly.

Pei Yunzhi raised his hand to remove the young attendant’s hand, looking displeased: “Are you trying to massage this prince to death?”

Seeing the master suddenly angry, the blue-clothed young attendant hurriedly knelt down and kowtowed to admit his mistake.

Pei Yunzhi glanced at him, saw blood seeping from his forehead, and then stopped: “Get up. This is a minor punishment as a warning. Next time if you dare to make a mistake again, this prince will not spare you.”

Qing Bi knelt on the ground trembling and agreed, only his light-colored eyes inconspicuously glanced at the incense burner in the distance.

An he incense was nothing special, but if cornus officinalis, cnidium monnieri, green wood, and dragon bone were used as fuel, the scent released when burned mixed with an he incense would be an extremely potent aphrodisiac.

This was a most potent love potion, created by the Ghost Doctor herself.

Ordinary people didn’t know its wonderful use, but Qing Bi knew, because the Ghost Doctor was his father’s benefactor back then. His father relied on this skill of concocting aphrodisiac incense to be revered as a saint by the ladies in the flower districts.

It’s a pity that he didn’t inherit his father’s looks, otherwise he would have secured a position in the palace.

Now that he had offered this method to the Taifu, the Taifu promised him a position as an imperial attendant.

Offending Pei Yunzhi didn’t matter much in comparison.

A calculating look flashed across Qing Bi’s eyes and disappeared. Covering his bleeding forehead, he pretended to be weak, got up with a wobbly body, and bumped into the leg of the eight immortals table.

Pei Yunzhi glanced at him impatiently and said coldly, “You don’t need to be on duty today. Call Hong Liu in to serve closely.”

“Yes.”

—

At a quarter past the hai hour.

Liu Changning put down the wolf howl brush in her hand and rubbed her sore wrist. Just as she was about to get up, there was suddenly a knock at the door.

She opened the door suspiciously. The visitor was Qiu Sheng, the nun who served by Ningxin’s side.

She wore a Taoist robe, with several deep wrinkles on her high forehead. She was just over thirty years old, but her face already showed signs of old age.

Qiu Sheng was originally Ningxin’s secular servant, who followed her to become a nun. She had served by her side for many years. Liu Changning was on good terms with Ningxin, so the two of them were quite familiar with each other.

Qiu Sheng put her hands together in greeting, then said kindly, “Lady Liu, the abbess has instructed this poor nun to invite you to her meditation room for a chat.”

Liu Changning raised her eyes to look at the dark sky, and hesitated: “Why is the time so late today?”