Because King Xin stayed in the palace to be an eyesore, Ke Wei couldn't wait for him to move out of the palace as soon as possible, not only did not hinder him, but did his best to assist, without the need for Zhou Hou to personally supervise, and the old Huiwang Mansion was soon renovated.

However, the progress of the selection of concubines is slow, which naturally cannot be blamed on Empress Zhang's lack of dedication, but because of the Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang's article "All my descendants, marrying wives and husbands, must be from commoners' families, and the children of nobles and officials are not allowed to be selected." The ancestral teachings.

Because of this ancestral teaching, the selection of concubines in the Ming Dynasty is different from that of other dynasties, and it usually takes five steps.

The first step is for the emperor to make a decision and determine the personnel in charge. Most of the handling personnel are the queen or respected concubines who are the lords of the six palaces, and they are responsible for formulating standards according to established rules, selecting participants, and training them.

The second step is to make the emperor list, so that the commoner virgins aged 13-16 in Wanping and Daxing counties under the jurisdiction of Beijing urban area are accompanied by their parents to participate in the election, and the prince and princess are generally selected 2,000, and the crown princess is selected by multiple counties 5,000.

The third step is to be selected by the trained eunuchs and palace maids: on the first day, the tall, short, fat and thin of the ladies who are participating in the election are examined, and 1,000 are eliminated; On the second day, the ears, eyes, mouth, nose, hair, skin, waist and buttocks of the remaining ladies were examined, and another 500 were eliminated; On the third day, the selected ladies reported their names and residences one by one, checked their voices, and eliminated 250 more; On the fourth day, 100 people were selected by carefully measuring their hands and feet, inspecting and walking.

The fourth step is to introduce the selected 100 ladies into the palace, and the full-time old palace maids will touch their chests, sniff their armpits, and rub the muscles of their whole bodies one by one, leaving 50 of them, let them live in the palace for a month, observe their temperament and speech, select 25, check their secret places in detail, and finally determine 10 and send them to the manager.

The fifth step is to choose the auspicious day of "suitable for hiring", and at the time of the hour, ten people sit in the main hall of Kunning Palace, and Concubine Liu will ask questions to test calligraphy, arithmetic, poetry, painting, chess and piano. At noon, after the test, Zhang Hou came and sent a decree to give them food, so as to observe their eating appearance and finally determine the candidates.

Although the steps prescribed by the ancestors took a lot of time, in fact, there was another reason for the slow progress, that is, Zhang Hou's heart was too anxious. After asking the Emperor of the Apocalypse for a decree, all her thoughts were used on this, and she had to ask countless times a day, and if she didn't want to hurry, she wouldn't be able to reach it.

Besides, Zhou Kui, although he still refused to give up, his disappointment became heavier and heavier: after all, the capital is different from the countryside of Suzhou, and the silver earned by his small craft was only enough for his family of three to barely survive. As soon as the freshness of the people in the capital passes, it will be difficult to even get by, if he can't see Chen Renjin again, he really can't think of how their family will live.

On this day, Zhou Kui wandered around for a day, tired and had a sore back and legs, but he didn't get anything, and then thinking of the current situation of the family, his legs became more and more heavy as lead. Suddenly, I saw a lot of people at the foot of the city gate wall, pointing at the wall and talking about something.

"What's the strange thing?" Zhou Kui asked himself, and followed curiously to see, but before he got closer, he had already heard it clear from the discussions of the onlookers: the imperial court selected a concubine for King Xin's imperial list, and the 13-16-year-old virgins of the civilians in Wanping and Daxing counties could sign up for the election.

Zhou Kui couldn't help but be stunned: "The little lady is fifteen years old, isn't it just in line with the requirements?" Could it be that she would be so blessed? If she really has such a blessing, she is more than a hundred times stronger than the little daughter-in-law of Chen Renjin who has no shadow. ”

Thinking secretly, Zhou Kui remembered the coincidence between Xiaoniang and Chen Renjin again, and asked in his heart, "Isn't this an intentional arrangement from God?" The desire began to burn, so that he no longer dared to believe the words of the onlookers, and hurriedly looked up to see it for himself.

Helplessly, the position he was in was too far away to see really, Zhou Kui struggled to separate the crowd and squeezed to the front, and looked at it again. Sure enough, it was.

Zhou Kui's heart seemed to jump out, and he was at a loss for a while before he remembered that he had to rush home. Because he just squeezed in and had to squeeze out, he provoked a burst of boos from the onlookers, and he couldn't care about it.

At home, Zhou Xiaoniang is learning spinning from her mother Ding Xiaonu. Zhou Kui earned less and less, and the two had to buy a spinning wheel to earn a little to subsidize the family. was busy, and seeing Zhou Kui coming back in a hurry, the two couldn't help but get up together.

Zhou Kui didn't speak, came up and took Zhou Xiaoniang's hand and rushed out.

No way, it's the deadline to sign up, and it's not early. If there is any further delay, Zhou Xiaoniang will lose the opportunity, and Zhou Kui's hope for rekindling will be dashed. For such an ending, Zhou Kui didn't even dare to think about it.

Zhou Xiaoniang didn't know why, but when she saw her father burning so hot, she still followed him quickly.

Unfortunately, their residence was not far from the county government, Rao was so, and when they arrived, the officials in charge of registration were also ready to call it a day, and Zhou Kui hurriedly shouted, "Wait-".

The officials did not charge a little fee, and their hearts were happy, and the head of the officials laughed when they heard it: "Wait? Is there something wrong with you? ”

Zhou Kui was afraid that the officials would be embarrassed, so he hurriedly stepped forward to curry favor and said: "The officials have worked hard, the little old man and the little girl Zhou Xiaoniang came to sign up, and I hope that the officials will help me." With that, he pushed Zhou Xiaoniang behind him forward.

Zhou Xiaoniang was born beautiful, coupled with this burst of walking, panting, and unbelievably gorgeous.

The officials were stunned. The officials straightened their eyes, not only because of Zhou Xiaoniang's beauty, but also because if the women who registered through them can be selected as the princess, they will not be able to benefit from them in the future.

However, they have not lost their minds, and the benefits in the future are no more tangible than the dotting fees they have received, and they can't waste the opportunity to collect the dotting fees in vain, and the more critical the time, the easier it is to collect.

Therefore, the head of the official looked back at the other officials and said with a dry smile: "I'm sorry, the time has come, the registration has ended, please go back." ”

"The time has come?" Zhou Kui asked in disbelief, his face decadent.

Seeing that he didn't understand what he meant, the head of the official was unwilling, and said: "Although your daughter has a bit of beauty, and there is also the possibility of being selected, there are too many people who have no choice but to sign up, and we have reported almost more than 2,000 in Daxing County alone, and Wanping County is said to be more than us."

You know, the emperor has already said that our two counties have only set a total of 2,000, alas, it's strange, it wasn't like this before, this time the competition is too fierce, even if you report it, I'm afraid there is not much hope. ”

Listening to what he meant, it's not that he can't register his little lady. By the way, we might as well beg them again. ”

Thinking secretly, Zhou Kui suddenly understood what he meant, and hurriedly said: "If there is not much hope, it is also a hope after all, it is better than no hope." A few officials will help, if the little girl has this blessing, she will not forget the great kindness of a few people, if not, it will not be in vain for the little old man's heart. ”

As he spoke, he took out the ten taels of silver in his arms and quietly stuffed it.

This is the only silver that Zhou Kui's family has, and Zhou Kui has such a temperament, and he would rather do anything to achieve his goal.

Obviously, ten taels of silver is not only a lot of money for Zhou Kui, but also unique to the dotting fees received by the officials.

The head of the official secretly checked it, counted it, and said in his heart, "Why do you still talk so much when you have this?" He smiled and said, "For your sincere sake, I'll report it to you." ”

After speaking, he squeezed his eyes at the official who was cleaning up the pen and ink, and said, "Brother, if you trouble it again, write it down." ”

The servant answered, and pretended to be embarrassed to put the pen and ink away again, and began to write.

Zhou Kui was afraid of making a mistake, so he came to see him write Zhou Xiaoniang's name in person, and he inevitably thanked him again and again.

The head of the official said: "Don't be polite anymore, go back and help your daughter decorate and run, and run for election tomorrow." ”

Zhou Kui hurriedly responded and went home, not daring to slack off, and went to ask his grandfather to sue his grandmother for a loan of thirty taels of silver, and bought new clothes for Zhou Xiaoniang overnight.

People rely on clothes and horses to rely on saddles, and after all the decorations, Zhou Xiaoniang is as if she just came out of the painting.

Zhou Kui's hopes inevitably became more and more intense. Zhou Xiaoniang and Ding Xiaonu didn't have as many thoughts as Zhou Kui, so they were naturally much calmer than him.

Of course, Zhou Xiaoniang also hopes that she can be selected, not because this king of letters, who has never met, must be the wishful husband of her dreams, she thinks that this is the embodiment of her own value. However, if you can't compare to others, it's not a big deal, marriage is determined by God.

Ding Xiaonu believes that for women, this is an honor after all. Therefore, she was secretly looking at it, but she was reluctant to let Zhou Xiaoniang leave her. It should be said that she is contradictory.