The distance between the banker's house and the imperial palace was a bit far. When they arrived at the palace gate, it was already crowded with many beauties waiting to be selected.
Because it was a general election, there were quite a lot of women participating, more than 500 in total, and they were divided into two days for the primary election.
Jiang Changning and the four girls from the Zhuang family, Xie Baoyin and Lu Xiujie were all scheduled to arrive on the first day.
The three hundred beauties were divided into five teams: one team from noble families, one team from civil officials' families, one team from military officials' families, one team from the common people, and another team from aristocratic families.
Jiang Changning thought that she should stand on the side of the civilian women.
The chief eunuch found her name, "Jiang Changning, from Hangzhou, her father Jiang Zhijun, was a successful candidate in the imperial examination during the Chenglong Dynasty."
Jiang's father took part in the imperial examination, but did not become an official. He returned to Hangzhou and became a local gentry.
My father had made great achievements, and although he never entered officialdom, he was not considered a commoner.
The Jiang family is very famous in Hangzhou and has been passed down for more than ten generations.
Furthermore, in order to elevate Jiang Changning's status, the Queen Mother classified her into the group of girls from aristocratic families.
Jiang Changning walked over and found that there was no one she knew in the team.
She has been in Beijing for six years, but has rarely been out and doesn't know many people.
The girls who were running for the election from families that had dealings with the banker were all lining up in the civil servants' group.
Xie Baoyin and Lu Xiujie stood in the military officer's team, one in front and one behind.
A carriage drove slowly over, and the logo on the carriage was a black eagle with its wings spread.
Prince Jin was sitting in the car. He lifted a corner of the curtain and looked out. He immediately saw Jiang Changning standing in the team.
He thought of a word: standing out from the crowd.
Most of the concubines wore light pink clothes, but Jiang Changning wore light green clothes, a touch of green among the flowers.
Jiang Changning never thought of being unique, she wanted to blend in with the crowd.
But wearing light pink makes her look too delicate and too pretty.
The original intention of wearing light blue was to reduce the color and be less outstanding, but who knew it would have the opposite effect.
Jiang Changning smiled bitterly. Eight out of ten things in life are not as we wish!
Forget it, forget it. She is a beauty. No matter how much she covers it up, she is still a beauty. That cannot be changed.
"Is it arranged?" asked the King of Jin.
Chang Youzhong replied: "Everything has been arranged. Miss Jiang will not be wronged."
King Jin smiled with satisfaction and lowered the curtains.
After waiting for about a quarter of an hour, Jiang Changning felt his feet were almost numb from standing, and everyone finally arrived.
The palace gates opened and the beauties lined up to go in one by one.
Soon, they stood in front of a palace.
A tall, thin, middle-aged maid came over and stood on the steps. She said loudly, "Ladies, you are here for the beauty pageant, not for the market. Please be quiet."
After the ladies quieted down, she said sternly, "No matter how noble and spoiled you are at home, once you enter the palace, you must abide by the palace rules. I'm going to make it clear in advance, if anyone breaks the rules, don't blame me for being cruel."
Seeing that the concubines were all well behaved, the nanny smiled with satisfaction and said in a gentle tone, "A nanny will take you in for a physical examination in a moment. Don't make any loud noises, so as not to disturb the nobles in the palace."
After saying that, the five maids standing nearby, who were wearing brown palace dresses with dark patterns, came over and bowed to the middle-aged maid.
They found the team they were to lead and stood in front of it.
The nanny took the booklet and arranged the beauties in order according to their family background.
Jiang Changning ranked tenth. Ahead of her were seven girls from aristocratic families in the capital, and two girls from other large clans in other places.
The eunuch read out the name of the candidates, and the selected girls were led in by palace maids for physical examination.
"Zhao Xifang!"
Jiang Changning looked up and saw a slender figure.
Zhao Xihe was wearing a light pink palace dress, which she also matched with a white gauze shawl.
Jiang Changning was standing at the back and could not see the appearance of this talented woman from Beijing.
She now stands at the top of the aristocratic family, which shows that her father's family is also not simple.
The concubines were called in one by one and never came out again. No one knew how many of them were kept and how many were not.
"Jiang Changning." The eunuch called out Jiang Changning's name.
Jiang Changning was led into the palace by a palace maid. Two old maids were standing in the room. "Hello, maids."
"Hello, young lady." The two old maids said gently.
Jiang Changning took out two purses from his sleeve pocket and stuffed them into the two old ladies' pockets. "These are just small gifts, not a token of respect."
The two old maids smiled, stuffed their purses into their sleeve pockets, and circled around Jiang Changning a few times, "Young lady, please undress."
Jiang Changning knew that after the appearance check, it was time to check the body.
She reached out to untie her belt, but an old maid held her hand down.
Under her surprised gaze, the old lady smiled and shook her head.
"No need." Another old lady whispered.
"Thank you, Ma'am." Jiang Changning thought that it was the two purses that did the trick.
Jiang Changning breathed a sigh of relief. That was great. He didn't have to take off all his clothes in front of two strangers.
The old lady calculated that the time was almost up, so she walked to the door next to her and knocked gently, "Go."
A woman replied, "The eldest daughter of the Jiang family in Hangzhou, Jiang Changning, has been examined."
Jiang Changning bowed to the two old maids again, and under their guidance, he walked around the screen, opened the side door, and went out.
There was a palace maid waiting for her there. She had checked her body and went to the left.
We arrived at an open hall with a desk and some stools.
On the desk was a copy of "Legends for Women", as well as writing brush, ink, paper and inkstone, to test whether the concubines were literate.
You don’t have to be talented or understand poetry or songs, but you must be able to read.
"Turn to any page and copy a hundred words." said the nanny sitting above.
Jiang Changning picked up the ink stick with his right hand, slightly bent his little finger and raised his index finger.
The index finger of the left hand supports the wrist of the right hand, and the middle finger and ring finger support the sleeve of the right hand.
With a slight turn of the wrist, the ink stick is ground into inkstone to produce ink.
She has an elegant posture and sits upright, worthy of being the daughter of a noble family.
The nanny nodded slightly and wrote an "excellent" on the piece of paper with Jiang Changning's name on it.
What Jiang Changning copied was the "Women's Conduct" in "Instructions for Women", "Women have four conducts: one is women's virtue, two is women's speech, three is women's appearance, and four is women's work..."
After copying, he signed his name, placed it in front of the nanny, and knelt down to salute.
When the nanny took a look, she saw that the handwriting was in small regular script with flowers, which was beautiful and elegant.
She is really a beautiful and intelligent girl. The nanny put the paper in the brocade box on her left hand side.
"Miss, please come this way." The palace maid took her to the back hall, where all the beauties who had passed the two tests were located.
Glancing around, she saw Zhao Xifang sitting reservedly among the girls.
Zhao Xifang had an oval face the size of a palm. Although her skin was not very fair, she had a beautiful appearance and gave people the feeling that she was well-read and elegant.
Surrounded by the women were not only Zhao Xifang, but also four other women.
Jiang Changning guessed that they should be the first in each team.
The talent show not only selects appearance and talent, but also family background.
The four girls had good family backgrounds and good looks.
But the tallest girl had an arrogant look on her face, which made people feel a little uncomfortable.
(End of this chapter)