The First Auxiliary Road from the Imperial Examination

"Sister Yuan, are you still angry with your brother?" Sheng Xin and Sheng Yuan walked side by side on the stone steps outside the training ground. They looked at each other in silence for a long time, but finally they couldn't help but spoke first.

"Brother, what you said is interesting. Why should I, your 'sister', be angry with you?! And why do you, your 'brother and son', think that I am angry?!"

Sheng Xin suddenly laughed: "What you said is quite clever. There is no accusation in every word, but every word is a question!"

"Brother, do you want to hear me speak frankly? Unfortunately, I'm too lazy to say it." Sheng Yuan shook the small whip, lazily feeling the warmth of the sun.

Sheng Xin glanced at her and sighed helplessly: "Brother, have I disappointed you so much?!"

"I'm not disappointed." Sheng Yuan shook his head, looked up at the high sky, took a breath of cool air, and said, "It's just that I know that a person's position and interests determine his behavior. If you can't satisfy the other party's interests, it's impossible and unrealistic to change his decision with a few words."

"You have a point, but it sounds very distant."

"Distant?" Sheng Yuan also smiled, looking sideways into her brother's eyes. "People often say that couples are the closest and the most distant, but really, when the interests of a couple are tied together, who in the world is closer than them? People say that distance does not separate relatives, and even siblings should not say anything bad about each other's partners."

"I know clearly that you are angry that I didn't take good care of the Shu family."

"Brother, do you remember that a troupe in Kyoto once performed a play called "Man Tang Cai"? "

Sheng Xin's smile gradually faded. "Are you talking about the excerpt called "Double Act" in the play? The clown Qi San's wife Cheng appears to act absurdly and likes to quarrel with others, but in fact, she is mostly instigated by Qi San... Sister Yuan, you want to say that I asked Shu to say those words for me, right?"

Sheng Yuan stared at Sheng Xin silently. The two siblings faced each other in silence for a long while before she retracted her gaze and said softly, "I know what kind of person my elder brother is... But, he is not a saint. As long as we are in this world, who has not been shaken? Anyone with ambitions and aspirations wants to realize their ambitions the most. In this case, what else can help them achieve their ideals better than that position? To be frank, if there is such a temptation in front of me, I may not perform better than my elder brother."

"Yuan Jie'er, your praise sounds like the truth, but it doesn't make me happy."

"Words that are too true can indeed be embarrassing." Sheng Yuan stepped onto the highest step with an extremely steady breath, walked towards the platform overlooking the parade ground, and looked into the distance while holding the railing.

"He used laziness to suppress his contradictions, used retreat to hide his ambitions, and used inaction to cover up the conflict between instinct and morality... If I guess correctly, Big Brother wants to cover his ears to get through this anxious time and welcome the final result. No matter where the situation goes in the end, Big Brother can accept it calmly and is happy to accept it."

"Sister Yuan, do you really have to expose all my secret thoughts and embarrass me?" Sheng Xin looked at the top of Sheng Yuan's head and smiled bitterly helplessly.

"If you were afraid of hearing this, you wouldn't have come looking for me today... Don't you just want me to give you a slap on the head?!"

"I want you to scold me to wake me up, but I don't want you to bombard me with cannons!" Sheng Xin sighed, stood beside Sheng Yuan, and looked up into the distance with her.

After a moment of silence, Sheng Xin's voice, with a hint of laughter, gently passed by Sheng Yuan's ears: "Yuan Jie'er, our father... wants to send your family away, including the adults and children." (End of this chapter)