Night inside the Examination Palace records corridor, lit by blue lanterns and moonlight through carved screens. Ling-er searches for a weakness in the scoring machinery after her rank refuses to fall.

Ling-er compares Luo's essay with the remembered poem from the Crown Prince's literary review.

Ling-er finds Junior Judge Luo working late in the scoring room and closes the door behind her.

Ling-er lays out the evidence and forces Luo to understand the danger.

Luo tries to deny intent, and Ling-er makes clear she does not need to prove his intent, only make the accusation believable.

Luo asks what Ling-er wants. She names the price: a ten-point music deduction.

Ling-er explains exactly how Luo can change the score without creating a public scandal.

Luo capitulates and alters the ledger. Ling-er gets the ten-point fall she wanted.

Ling-er leaves the scoring room under moonlight, feeling the danger of what she has done.

Ling-er returns to her room and calculates what the deduction should do to her rank.

Ling-er reads a notebook line from Cao Yan and imagines her aunt's old advice, without learning anything new about the past.

Ling-er waits for dawn, unable to sleep because hope has become another kind of fear.