Chapter 680 - 249: Receiving Instruction

Chapter 680: Chapter 249: Receiving Instruction

Following Chang Zai, the Metropolitan Examination Champion Zhao Jing also came under attack.

His essay was certainly head and shoulders above the rest, but who could say if this "outstanding" work was truly written by his own hand?

After all, he had married a good wife and secured an incredibly powerful backer. It was entirely possible that Prince Ning had sent word to Mr. Xu in advance, allowing Zhao Jing to peek at the exam questions early. He could have secretly hired a ghostwriter to produce such a brilliant piece.

Before the fallout from Zhao Jing’s scandal could even settle, massive controversies erupted around the third-place Fan Chunxiu and fourth-place Zhu Tianxiang, drawing everyone’s attention.

First, someone dug up a poem Fan Chunxiu had written in his earlier years. It carried the suspicion of mocking state affairs and criticizing the Emperor. This was the ultimate taboo in the civil service examinations—"slandering the sovereign." Anyone caught doing so wouldn’t necessarily be beheaded, but they would be immediately stripped of their scholarly rank and permanently barred from official service. Many initially assumed this was a smear campaign against Fan Chunxiu, but an investigation proved it to be true. Digging deeper into his background, they uncovered something even more shocking: he was actually the deeply hidden illegitimate son of the Sect Hierarch of the Hongshan Old Mother Sect.

Such a traitorous threat to the nation was naturally arrested on the spot and escorted straight to the Ministry of Justice’s prison. Not only was Fan Chunxiu utterly doomed, but any officials and constables who had failed to thoroughly investigate his background were also implicated. Dismissal or imprisonment awaited them. It truly rooted out everyone involved, pulling them all down together.

As for the fourth-place scholar, Zhu Tianxiang, he was reported by a fellow townsman. His mother had reportedly been involved in a loan-sharking case years ago that drove several people to their deaths. Due to local officials shielding her, the matter had been swept under the rug. Whether the allegations were true or false was temporarily unknown. However, with his mother’s "moral deficit," the son was naturally deemed unfit to be a role model for the scholarly community. Thus, the court had no choice but to temporarily strip Zhu Tianxiang of his right to participate in the upcoming palace examination.

Following Zhu Tianxiang’s downfall, the fifth-place Jiang Peilin perhaps sensed that something was terribly wrong and immediately bolted. That very day, his household summoned a doctor. They publicly announced that Jiang Peilin had fallen into the water and was suffering from a high fever that refused to break. Surviving at all was considered a stroke of immense luck, so he absolutely could not attend the palace examination.

With the top five candidates of the Imperial Examination facing disastrous incidents one after another, even the most foolish observer could tell something was amiss. This was clearly a conspiracy aimed squarely at the top three spots of the First Class. For the mastermind to orchestrate all this, their background had to be profoundly deep and their methods unimaginably cunning. Only someone from a prominent noble clan or a powerful aristocratic family could pull this off.

Coincidentally, the Advanced Scholar ranked sixth was Tao Yanxun, the son of the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel. When he participated in the autumn examination in Heyuan Province, Tao Yanxun only ranked ninth. Yet at the Imperial Examination in the Capital City, not only did he not fall behind, but he cleared a path to success and directly secured sixth place.

The Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel was instantly thrown into the hot seat. Not only did the Chang family, the Jiang family, and the Fan Family relatives in the Capital City glare at him—storming off after dropping a cryptic, "Mr. Tao is truly a capable man"—but even the Empress Dowager was certain this matter had to be related to him. Even if he hadn’t orchestrated it himself, his son must have been playing tricks behind the scenes.

Because of this, the Empress Dowager kept him in the palace after the court assembly to specifically reprimand him regarding the issue.

"The fathers, brothers, and elders of those Advanced Scholars all serve as officials in the same court as you," she said. "Even if they are not as heavily relied upon by me as you are, they are still considered capable men. Just for the empty title of Champion Scholar, you knocked them all down in one fell swoop. Is this not digging your own grave?"

The Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel knelt on the ground, terrified and drenched in cold sweat. He wanted to argue that this matter truly had nothing to do with him, nor was it the doing of his stuck-up son. The only reason his son had managed to place sixth was because, prior to the exam, he and his advisors had secretly guessed the test topics and helped write practice essays. It was sheer dumb luck that they actually guessed several of the topics correctly for the Imperial Examination, allowing that little brat to secure sixth place. But he couldn’t say this out loud; otherwise, it would sound like they were blessed by divine intervention. Even the Emperor and the Empress Dowager couldn’t claim to be protected by an immortal, so who was he to claim such a thing?

Mr. Tao deeply realized just how vicious the mastermind’s scheme was. They had subtly pointed all the clues toward him, yet left him in a position where he couldn’t even explain himself. They were truly trying to push him into an abyss of eternal damnation. Until he had concrete evidence to prove his innocence, anything he said would be wrong. Rather than arguing pathetically and making a fool of himself, it would be better to grit his teeth and endure this ordeal for now. Once the storm passed, he would meticulously trace the clues and drag out the despicable person pulling the strings behind the scenes.

After the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel stepped out of the palace gates, the nanny beside the Empress Dowager brought over some tea. The nanny had been the Empress Dowager’s dowry maid and had served by her side since long before she even entered the palace.