Fame and fortune have always been the most tempting, if it weren't for Zhou Chen's preference for martial arts practice.

I am afraid that he will really be able to indulge in the title of this gold list, the joy of exploring flowers in high school, and finally get lost in this eunuch career like most scholars in the Ming Dynasty.

Fortunately, Zhou Chen and even the strong side of his own strength were really strong, so from the next day, he resumed his regular life of practicing sword techniques and accumulating skills in the past.

In order to be able to calm down and practice martial arts, Zhou Chen also deliberately moved out of the originally noisy inn and moved to a house on the outskirts of the city.

In the future, this capital will also be Zhou Chen's permanent residence, so when he just finished trying the Spring Festival, he asked Badao to find a suitable house in the capital.

A few days ago, Badao had already bought a house in the eastern suburbs of the capital.

Although the place in that mansion is not big, it is better than a quiet place, and it is very suitable for Zhou Chen to practice martial arts.

In the following days, Zhou Chen was completely idle, and he only needed to wait quietly for the imperial court to grant him an official position.

According to the usual practice, Zhou Chennai was the top three in the first class of the palace examination, and he was likely to be arranged to serve as an editor of the seventh grade in the Hanlin Academy, or a historian from the sixth grade.

These are two relatively idle positions, which are specially used to mix the qualifications of the top three in the first class of the palace examination.

After three or five years, as long as he has not made any big mistakes, he will be sent out of Beijing to serve as a prefect, or a governor of Zhili Prefecture, and become a four-rank member above the court.

If there are no unforeseen circumstances during the term of office, after the successful completion of a term of office, he will be promoted to the governor of a province, or he will be directly transferred to the capital to serve as a chamberlain in one of the six ministries.

Such a speed of promotion can be said to be unfast, in less than ten years, you can go from a petty official of the sixth or seventh rank to a key member of the court of the second and third ranks.

This is the preferential treatment of the imperial court for the top three in the palace examination, as long as you can be a person, then the speed of promotion is far from being comparable to that of ordinary fellow scholars.

Ordinary Jinshi, when he first became an official, was at most a small county order from the seventh grade.

Zhou Chen was not dissatisfied with the speed of this promotion, but unfortunately the only thing that made him a little resistant was that he really didn't want to live in this capital for three or five years.

Cultivating books in the Hanlin Academy for three or five years is really a waste of time for Zhou Chen.

And there is really a mixture of fish and dragons in this capital, the princes and nobles don't know how many, with Zhou Chen's temperament, he can't tell when he will offend these nobles, which will affect his future career.

So Zhou Chen finally thought about it, and planned to find a way to leave Beijing.

After all, the emperor is far away, as long as he leaves the capital, it doesn't matter how Zhou Chen tosses it.

But just when Zhou Chen was thinking about preparing to go to the door of the officials and find an opportunity to leave Beijing.

A group of dozens of horsemen escorted a middle-aged eunuch to the courtyard where Zhou Chen lived.

Seeing the middle-aged eunuch's face, Zhou Chen didn't dare to be the slightest bit lazy, he hurriedly stepped forward and bowed his hand and said, "The lower official has seen Lord Wang." ”

This big eunuch is none other than Emperor Hongzhi's cronies, the eunuch Wang Yue, who is in charge of the seal.

Walking into the courtyard, Wang Yue's narrow gaze fell on Zhou Chen's body.

After Wang Yue saw that Zhou Chen's courtesy was very thorough, and he was not as respectful as other scholars, but in fact, he looked down on them at all, and the smile on his face became more and more intense.

Hurriedly walked to Zhou Chen's side, and after raising his hand to help Zhou Chen up, Wang Yue said with a smile: "Tanhualang doesn't need to be polite, you better hurry up and change into clothes, and go into the palace with our family, Your Majesty is waiting for you!" ”

Zhou Chen's expression moved when he heard this, and he had the heart to ask what was going on.

It's just that after seeing the faintly anxious look on Wang Yue's face, he hurriedly went back to the house to change his clothes.

After a long period of busy work, Zhou Chen followed the great eunuch Wang Yue through the palace gates and entered the Palace of Heart Cultivation, where Emperor Hongzhi usually lived and worked.

When he came to the gate of the palace, Wang Yue first asked Zhou Chen to wait here, and he entered the palace to report.

After a while, Wang Yue walked out of the palace door again and greeted Zhou Chen and said, "Tanhualang, Your Majesty has time now, you can go in and see you!" ”

Zhou Chen nodded slowly, he took a deep breath, and stepped into the Heart Cultivation Palace.

Rao is Zhou Chen thinks that his martial arts cultivation is not bad, but facing Emperor Hongzhi, the supreme ruler of the Ming Dynasty, he still has a lot of tension in his heart.

As soon as he stepped into the palace gate, before Zhou Chen could think about how to salute Emperor Hongzhi, Emperor Hongzhi's gentle voice sounded from inside.

"Is Tanhualang Zhou Chen here? Come on in! ”

When Zhou Chen heard this, he walked into the inner room, only to see Emperor Hongzhi sitting behind a large bookcase.

Below him were several wooden tables and chairs, but behind him stood a large screen.

In the whole room, except for the screen, which is quite exquisite, the other layouts and furnishings are very simple, and it does not look as luxurious as ordinary people imagine for the royal family.

However, how the decoration in this room was, but Zhou Chen didn't pay attention to it at all.

Although on the surface, there is no fourth person in this room, except for Wang Yue, who serves Emperor Hongzhi.

But Zhou Chen sensed two different breaths from behind the screen, which was what Zhou Chen cared about the most.

One of those two breaths is very obvious, and I am afraid that any first- or second-rate martial arts master can sense it.

What made Zhou Chen most vigilant and vigilant was the other breath, if it weren't for Zhou Chen's ability to hear some faint breathing sounds every few moments, Zhou Chen probably wouldn't have discovered the existence of that person at all.

Judging from Zhou Chen's induction of that person, that person's martial arts realm may not be worse than him, and nine times out of ten, he is also a martial arts powerhouse in the innate realm.

Although the thoughts in his heart were churning and changing, Zhou Chen's expression on the surface did not reveal anything.

Walking to the front of the hall, he bowed down to Emperor Hongzhi and said, "Minister Zhouchen, I have seen Your Majesty, Your Majesty bows to Jin'an!" ”