Palace Fighting Naive Concubines’ Ascent to Power
Chapter 567 Didn’t Look Closely

Chapter 567: Chapter 567 Didn’t Look Closely

So she just didn’t say it out loud, and after feeling sorry for her third brother for a while, she eagerly returned to her own little room to think.

Her second brother saw her door open and felt something was off. She was seldom at home at this time of day, so he limped over to check on her.

Seeing her with a furrowed brow, sorrowful enough to wring bitterness from, her second brother felt sorry for her and asked what was wrong, saying that with him around, success was guaranteed, he could beat anyone into shape.

So she pulled out her homework, those questions so profound—there were two characters she couldn’t even read. She had sought out the teacher after school and had him write them down one by one before bringing them home.

The teacher had said that this was a question for testing scholars, hard-earned, like presenting a treasure, specifically pulled out to test them, to see their potential and whether they had a grand fate ahead.

Her second brother, upon seeing the characters, felt like his head would explode, immediately covered his eyes, complained of dizziness, and suggested asking their mother, or Xiao Bao, or if all else failed, their father. In any case, he couldn’t handle it—if he were to teach, he feared it would only get worse, which mother had strictly forbidden.

She thought that made sense. Her second brother never lied to her, he was fierce in fights, but even worse than she was at studying.

After much deliberation, she decided to ask her father. He was an adult and always boasted about his own abilities. Questions intended for scholars should also be doable for him, right?

After showing it to her father, he looked all mysterious and told her to wait, saying it would soon be sorted.

And so she waited and waited; she waited until her elder brother came home in the evening, until her father handed her homework over to her elder brother to write directly for her.

It turned out that today was her elder brother’s day off, which explained why her father was so confident.

Oh, her elder brother wrote it directly for her? Was that really allowed?

At that moment, she felt like she suddenly learned something.

Her elder brother, after looking at the question, patted her head and said the question was too tough. Knowing she couldn’t go to class without the homework, and after a brief thought, he directly wrote an essay for her so she wouldn’t have to worry about punishment.

He gave her a bunch of freshly bought fun little toys to play with, then got down to writing, telling her to wait beside him.

She was delighted—not having to do it herself and avoiding punishment.

The best part was her elder brother; although he was seldom at home, every time he returned, he brought her lots of fun things.

Soon, her elder brother finished writing. She was having fun at the time, so after receiving it, she glanced at it quickly, thought the writing looked very nice, as handsome as her elder brother himself, and carefully put it away without looking closely.

When she went to school and handed it to the teacher, the teacher initially wanted to scold her upon seeing the handwriting. But as he continued to look at it, for some reason, he ended up not scolding her. Instead, he treated her brother’s homework like a treasure, anomalously praising its excellence.

She knew her elder brother was right. He had said she wouldn’t be punished, and she wasn’t only not punished but also praised.

From then on, she thoroughly learned the lesson. The next time she didn’t want to write her homework, she spent two strings of candied haws and a clay figure to have a classmate, who played best with her and was very loyal, write it for her instead.

But that time, she wasn’t so lucky; the teacher saw through it immediately, harshly punished her by slapping her palms, and scolded her for being good for nothing. He said that if she had to find someone else to write, she should have looked for the one who wrote well previously; finding someone whose writing was even uglier than hers was something he couldn’t tolerate, and he must punish her severely.

This incident eventually came to her mother’s knowledge, resulting in another dose of punishment with a rattan stick, which was very painful...

Recalling the past, Lian Hua sighed profoundly: "My handwriting, the teacher said even turned to ash, he could recognize. He told me not to try to be clever in the future. Indeed, ugly handwriting has all kinds of odd shapes, whereas beautiful handwriting always looks the same. No wonder the teacher could recognize mine."

The Emperor found it amusing, every time he heard her talk about her childhood, he found it very interesting, a kind of life he had never experienced.

After listening for a long while, he picked out the important points from the rambling stories.

The first one was, his Little Concubine had seen her elder brother’s handwriting, but had not paid special attention, probably due to her childhood love for play and not focusing on handwriting.

The second was that his Little Concubine only recognized ugly handwriting; to her, all beautiful handwriting looked the same.

It seemed somewhat absurd, but happening to his Little Concubine, it seemed perfectly normal.

He pondered for a moment and tentatively asked, "Can Nannan distinguish my calligraphy?"

"Hmm?" Lian Hua frowned, feeling that this question was not simple.

The question was somewhat profound. She should be able to, right?

His Majesty had written several characters that she recognized without question. There had never been a need for her to distinguish them, so she did not know.

If she said she could not, would His Majesty...

The Emperor could tell something was amiss and directly unfolded the scroll to ask, "Regarding my writing and this piece, what do you think, and where do they differ?"

Lian Hua looked down, pondering for a long time, glanced at the Emperor, and looked down again, as if trying to bore a hole through the paper.

After a long look, as if she had brewed her thoughts enough, she hesitantly said, "Both are very beautiful?"

The Emperor fully understood, sighing inwardly, "Since both are beautiful, then, Nannan, how do you determine that these characters were not written by me, but by your elder brother?"

"Ah?" Lian Hua was completely stunned on the spot.

The Emperor caressed her hair, no longer dwelling on this issue, and began to roll up the scroll again, "Come, let’s walk in the courtyard."

To clear her mind and to ensure she would not see the scroll again.

"Oh..."

Lian Hua walked out blankly, deeply immersed in thought.

If two types of calligraphy were placed before her, could she distinguish them?

But when she truly saw those characters, it was as if she saw her elder brother. It was simply a feeling, though she could not articulate specifically what was different.

Could she really be mistaken?

Oh dear, she almost forgot, confirming whether it was her elder brother was of utmost importance!

It wouldn’t do, and she would have to think of other methods to confirm it.

After that day, Lian Hua persisted and often lingered around the Emperor, occasionally blurting out, "I can distinguish my elder brother’s writing!"

"How do you distinguish it?" The Emperor would tease her whenever she said this.

She would begin mumbling, "His writing... his writing is clean!"

After thinking for a long while, she squeezed out two words to describe it.

To critique others’ calligraphy in technical terms was beyond her. If she had been able to discern such details, her own calligraphy would not have looked like scribbles initially.

But if she didn’t articulate something, she couldn’t prove her ability to distinguish.

Lian Hua was troubled.

Each time after hearing her response, the Emperor would smile silently.

After repeating words like clean, neat, free of errors, and pleasing to the eye several times, Lian Hua ran out of things to say. She knew that this approach was going nowhere, so she began to think of other methods.

She started to subtly, covertly, pretend inadvertently to bring it up, all the while trying to verify that the person was indeed her elder brother, yet fearful of openly saying it, lest her elder brother be caught for forgery and paraded through the streets.