The Farm Girl's Charismatic Fortune-Chapter 314 - 310: Someone’s Coming

"Your Majesty, the Empress, your servant has heard it."

The Empress’s face was pale. She scrambled up and rushed out, her wide sleeves sweeping an expensive vase to the ground without her noticing.

"Boom!"

A flash of lightning lit up the western sky.

So long!

So bright!

As if it were right in front of one’s eyes.

As one flash of lightning disappeared, it wasn’t long before another appeared.

One after another.

Then came a series of loud claps of thunder, one after the other.

On such a clear day, who would believe this was normal?

The palace maids of Kunning Palace couldn’t help but whisper among themselves:

"A celestial phenomenon, thunderclaps under a clear sky, who has committed such an atrocity against the heavens?"

"It must be because of grave sins that this is happening, this is divine retribution!"

The Empress heard them and, with a fierce look, roared, "Shut up! Someone drag them away and beat them to death with sticks! Anyone else who speaks nonsense will be beaten to death with sticks as well!"

Two palace maids, pale with terror, fell to their knees with a "thud": "Please spare us, Your Majesty, the Empress! Please spare us..."

Unfortunately, their cries were in vain as they were still dragged away.

Just as the sticks fell upon them, a bolt of lightning suddenly struck from the sky, hitting a nearby parasol tree.

A branch snapped off with a "crack" and fell, crushing the roof tiles at one corner, which shattered and scattered on the ground.

The eunuch who was beating them dropped his stick and ran.

The two palace maids tumbled off the stool, scrambling and rolling as they fled!

Another lightning bolt struck!

Boom!

The main hall of Kunning Palace was struck by lightning.

"Your Majesty, the Empress, run for your life!" shouted the Senior Palace Maid beside the Empress.

"Ahh!" screamed the Empress as she ran back inside!

Another lightning bolt struck!

Boom!

The Empress convulsed and then collapsed.

"Ah! Someone help! The Empress has been hit by lightning!"

"Someone help!"

...

Kunning Palace was thrown into complete chaos.

Cining Palace

The Empress Dowager was originally handmaking some snacks for Xuanbao, waiting for her little grandson to return from playing outside so he could enjoy them. But then she heard thunderclap after thunderclap, nearly knocking over the flour!

Her first thought was: Which one is going to get it this time?

Don’t ask why she thought that.

Intuition told her that the forty-nine bolts of lightning that struck the General’s Residence that year was the handiwork of those two children.

Although she didn’t understand how the children had such great power, intuition told her it was related to them.

Still uneasy, the Empress Dowager went out to take a look, wanting to see from which direction the thunder was coming, and then she saw a bolt of lightning strike Kunning Palace.

Empress Dowager: "..."

You can strike people, but don’t ruin the palace!

It’s quite expensive to rebuild!

"Someone go and check if the palace at Kunning Palace has been damaged."

~

Outside the city

Upon seeing the sudden heavenly phenomenon, the Crown Prince’s face changed, and he immediately rode after Xuanyuan Que, "Ninth Brother, hurry back to the palace! I’ll go check over there."

Then he ordered the Shopkeeper and his men to escort Xuanyuan Que and Ruo Xuan back to the palace.

Ruo Xuan: "I want to go see too! Brother Xuanyuan, let’s go take a look."

Crown Prince: "No, it’s too dangerous over there. Don’t go, hurry back to the palace! Lightning strikes without discrimination, isn’t Xuanbao afraid of being struck?"

Ruo Xuan: "I’m not afraid! That lightning is..."

Xuanyuan Que interrupted her: "It only targets the wicked!"

Ruo Xuan nodded: "Right, it only targets the wicked, it definitely wasn’t attracted by me!"

Xuanyuan Que: "..."

At this moment, lightning also appeared in the direction of the city,

The Crown Prince jumped in shock, not noticing the flaw in Ruo Xuan’s words. That direction was toward the Imperial Palace!

"You guys find shelter inside the arrow tower on the city wall for now, don’t return to the city yet."

This lightning was too strange!

"Master Gu, quickly escort the Ninth Prince and Princess Wuyou away!"

Standing out in the open like this, they were just asking to attract lightning.

Shopkeeper Gu looked toward Xuanyuan Que.

He only followed the orders of his young master.

When the General Residence had been struck by the forty-nine bolts of lightning, not one had touched the young master or Princess Xuanbao, and he knew they were under heaven’s protection—Lord Heaven wouldn’t strike either of them.

Ruo Xuan still wanted to go take a look, but Xuanyuan Que silently communicated to her: "There’s nothing worth seeing, I’ve already arranged for someone to catch the person; let’s go to the Imperial Examination Court to catch people."

The Crown Prince would benefit from catching the culprits—it would be another merit for him.

This flower coming along was purely out of curiosity, but what was there to see, really?

Ruo Xuan’s eyes lit up, right, there was still the Academy!

The Academy had a whole group of people waiting to be caught by her!

She had almost forgotten!

She immediately nodded: "Okay!"

The Crown Prince breathed a sigh of relief. He escorted them to the city gate and had them wait inside the arrow tower until the sky cleared of thunder before going out.

Then he quickly rode out toward the west suburbs.

After entering the city, Ruo Xuan and Xuanyuan Que made a beeline for the Imperial Examination Court.

With a token from Shopkeeper Gu, both of them easily entered the Imperial Examination Court.

The Ministry of Rites’ Etiquette Officials couldn’t understand what these two august beings were doing here.

Master Gu said the Empress Dowager had sent them to observe how the candidates were examined, to experience the atmosphere of studying, and to encourage them to study well when they returned.

But these two august beings wouldn’t need to participate in the imperial examinations in the future. If they wanted to experience the atmosphere of studying, shouldn’t they have visited the Imperial Academy or the state schools? Even visiting the renowned academies in the Capital City would have made sense.

The atmosphere of studying there was indeed very intense.

However, the Etiquette Official only dared to contemplate this in his heart and did not dare to show his doubt. He led the august beings to a tall building from where they could nearly see the entire Imperial Examination Court.

It was in the other room of this building where he watched over the candidates with a telescope, monitoring for any suspicious behavior.

The room they were now in was specially reserved for when the nobility wished to visit on a whim, offering a view over the entire Imperial Examination Court and furnished even more comfortably.

After leading them there, Shopkeeper Gu let the official go back to his duties.

Ruo Xuan, holding the telescope, checked to see what her father was doing, then looked at her second uncle, and then observed the others.

Observing them one by one, she even found interest in watching someone picking their nose!

Xuanyuan Que was astounded!

Ignoring serious matters, she just loved to watch the bustle.

It was Ruo Xuan’s first time seeing a telescope; she had the eyes of clairvoyance, so Xuanyuan Que hadn’t thought she would be interested in this rather useless object.

The Empress Dowager had once asked him to gift one to her, but he had said she wouldn’t like it.

By the time Ruo Xuan had finished her watching, the Crown Prince had already joined forces with Xuanyuan Que’s men and returned from the suburbs to catch people!

The Etiquette Official was extremely surprised—was there some important figure present at this year’s examinations?

Why did one eminent individual after another keep showing up?

The Crown Prince told the Etiquette Official: "Bring out the check-in registration lists for today’s candidates."

The Etiquette Official dared not delay, immediately presenting them with both hands.

He thought to himself: It’s over, probably a candidate cheated, or perhaps an official from the Imperial Academy leaked the examination questions.

This session’s imperial examination would likely be invalidated, and they would have to hold another session on another day. He was facing overtime work again!