Chapter 62 A Huge Secret

Lu Jinlan smoothed out the wrinkles on his clothes. "Lu Jinlan, a fourth-rank cavalry captain."

When the editor heard that she was a fourth-rank official, he still had a sliver of hope.

After all, she had seen high-ranking officials before. If she offended her superior, the official would be displeased, and she might get a scolding or even a few blows, but she would just endure it and let it pass. Most officials valued their reputation and would let it go once they were angry; they couldn't be bothered to bother with petty officials like her.

But when she heard the name "Lu Jinlan," her heart, which had been hanging in suspense, suddenly died.

Because the name Lu Jinlan is more lethal than that of a second-rank official.

From the moment she rose to fame in the martial arts competition, Lu Jinlan became a prime subject for storytellers. Because she always acted unconventionally, seemingly born to defy the rules, she was practically a chosen storyteller.

Every now and then, something interesting happens. One day someone gets into a fight to stand up for a friend, the next day someone gets involved in a sex scandal, and the day after that someone solves a major case. These kinds of interesting stories, both righteous and wicked, keep coming. The storyteller adds embellishments and spreads them around, and the people in the streets and alleys love to hear them, which makes them more and more bizarre as they are told.

Everyone says she's the number one troublemaker at the Royal Academy, always causing trouble, or on her way to cause trouble. She's utterly reckless, and there's nothing in the world she's afraid of. Rumor has it that to regulate the cafeteria, she fed dozens of officials pig swill, even making the Imperial Censor vomit. And it's also said that to investigate disaster relief funds, she slept with a spy and got her pregnant.

In short, Lu Jinlan has a reputation for being difficult to deal with; she's argumentative, righteous yet wicked, and wicked yet sinister. When it comes to reasoning, no one can out-argue her. When it comes to being a rogue, even thugs and hooligans would lose to her by a significant margin.

Good people feel they can't match her righteousness, bad people fear they can't outdo her in causing trouble, and everyone has to treat her with respect because she's truly difficult to deal with.

The editor, clutching his sore backside, groaned inwardly: "Ouch, how did I end up in the clutches of this living devil?"

She had no choice but to accept her bad luck. She quickly got up and apologized, trembling as she said, "I was blind and didn't know Lord Lu was here. I have offended you greatly. Please have a seat, Lord Lu. I will go and fetch Xiang Ruzhen for you right away."

Seeing her flustered expression, as if she were afraid that she had seen something, Lu Jinlan shoved her aside and said, "Get out of the way! I'll go find it myself."

"Lord Lu, you can't go in, Lord Lu..."

Seeing that he couldn't persuade Lu Jinlan, the editor tried to tip off those inside before she could.

"Lu Jinlan is here! Lu..."

Lu Jinlan covered her mouth tightly, held her under his arm, strode across the corridor, and kicked open the gate of the Hanlin Academy.

*

Since Xiang Ruzhen was ordered to study at the Hanlin Academy, the entire academy has been on a long holiday, and everyone has become very relaxed.

When a new person arrives in an old department, some of the older staff will automatically become paralyzed and relinquish all their responsibilities.

If a capable newcomer arrives, the elderly will collectively become completely paralyzed.

Newcomers are rarely treated as human beings; most of the time, they are seen as livestock by the older generation.

The Lunar New Year is just over a month away. In previous years, this time of year would be a busy time for the Hanlin Academy, but this year many people have taken sick leave. Today, apart from the editor who was receiving guests outside the gate, only two other compilers came to the academy.

"Xiang Ruzhen, hurry up and finish the 'Gazetteer of Shenjing' that you didn't finish compiling last year. The dean is waiting for it."

"Xiang Ruzhen, we urgently need the books and archives in the library. They need to be submitted to the Ministry of Rites for review at the end of the year, so please take stock of them as soon as possible."

After giving their instructions, the two compilers brewed a pot of tea, set up a chessboard, and leisurely drank tea and played chess while leaning back on the couch.

As the game of chess reached a crucial point, his temper flared and his brow furrowed. One of them shouted towards the library, "Xiang Ruzhen, bring us a charcoal brazier! Are you trying to freeze us to death?"

Before he could finish speaking, a loud bang was heard, and a spirited young man burst in from outside.

The man held their colleague hostage, his lips slightly pursed, his brows furrowed in anger, like an impending storm.

The two were startled. "Who are you?"

Lu Jinlan threw the person in her arms away. The person staggered a few steps and fell onto the chessboard. With a crash, countless chess pieces fell to the ground and splashed everywhere.

An angry man rushed forward, fists clenched, but Lu Jinlan grabbed his wrist with one hand and twisted it behind his back with a slight force, causing the man to howl in pain.

Just as the other person was about to get up in anger, the editor hurriedly advised, "Shh! She is Lu Jinlan."

The man's expression changed, and he cupped his hands, saying, "We are all weak scholars, please show mercy, Lord Lu."

Lu Jinlan snorted coldly, still holding on tightly in her hand, and said sarcastically, "Is that so? It looks like you want to fight me. Your Hanlin Academy is quite spacious, so I might as well have a go at it with you."

At this moment, Xiang Ruzhen heard the noise and quickly came out. The man hurriedly pleaded in a low voice, "Ruzhen, it seems that Lord Lu has misunderstood. Please help explain."

Xiang Ruzhen had just finished registering ancient books in the library, getting herself covered in dust and dirt. When she came out and saw the chaotic scene, as well as the pastries that Lu Jinlan was still carrying, she suddenly smiled and said, "Jinlan, let her go. Didn't you come to find me?"

Lu Jinlan gritted her teeth, "I'll give Ruzhen face today, get out of here."

The three quickly excused themselves, saying, "We won't disturb you any longer, you two continue your conversation."

They were walking in a hurry, and someone stepped on a chess piece and fell to the ground with a thud. The person didn't dare to cry out, but was dragged out by their companions with a frown on their face. The scene was quite comical.

Xiang Ruzhen smiled and shook her head, took a new teacup from the tea tray, and poured a cup of tea for Lu Jinlan. "Sit down. I washed this cup this morning; it's very clean."

Lu Jinlan sighed helplessly, reached out to wipe the dust off Xiang Ruzhen's face, and said with heartache, "I told you long ago that this is not a good job. The Emperor allowed you to study in the Hanlin Academy, not forced you to come and study every day. Why do you let these people humiliate you? The people in the government office are sycophantic and domineering. You suffer grievances but don't tell us. You really are..."

As Lu Jinlan spoke, her nose suddenly stung with tears. She waved her hand and said, "Forget it. Later, Wu Xin and I will buy a few sacks and drag all those bullies from the Hanlin Academy into an alley and beat them up. Let's see who dares to bully you then."

Xiang Ruzhen chuckled, "Alright, they didn't really do anything to me, they just assigned me more work. I didn't tell you because I was afraid you'd worry about me. Actually, I come here every day for my own reasons."

"Firstly, I want to familiarize myself with all the affairs of the Hanlin Academy as soon as possible. Since the Emperor has allowed me to come here to study, I can't come for nothing. If I can get to know the Hanlin Academy thoroughly, it will definitely be beneficial for me to understand another government office when I enter the court in the future."

"Secondly, I also want to see just how bad the atmosphere in officialdom can get. If we want to clean up these malpractices in the future, we have to understand them first, right? I can ask you to stand up for me from the very beginning, but what if it's someone else, someone who doesn't have a friend as strong as you?"

"Thirdly, I'm on holiday and have nothing to do anyway. After your wedding, I'll go home for the New Year. When I come back after the New Year, I'll have to prepare for the start of school, so I won't have time to come here. I'll only be studying here for a little over a month, and it's not like I can't handle this little bit of hardship."

Lu Jinlan said angrily, "Fine, you're more sophisticated than me, I can't argue with you. Once you, Xiang Ruzhen, have made up your mind about something, who can stop you? But let me ask you, how long are you going to suffer? You're doing the work of a dozen people all by yourself, even if you're made of iron, you'll be exhausted to death."

Xiang Ruzhen laughed and said, "Now that you're here, you've already suffered this long enough."

Lu Jinlan rolled her eyes at her, "It had better, otherwise I'll come and make a scene every day, and I'll see how many people in the Hanlin Academy can take a beating."

The two drank tea and ate some snacks for a while. Seeing that it was getting late, Lu Jinlan left first.

The three men finally breathed a sigh of relief after watching her leave. The two cultivators went inside to pack their things, muttering complaints under their breath.

"What's she so smug about? Isn't it just because of her powerful family background through marriage?"

"Times have changed. I don't believe she can stay this lucky forever. The day she falls into our hands, she'll be in for a world of hurt... Sigh!"

The two were speaking when suddenly their necks tightened and their feet left the ground.

Looking back, Xiang Ruzhen, who had always been meek and hardworking, had a sullen face, a cold glare, and a chill in her eyes.

She grabbed the two women by the collar, slammed them against the wall, and warned them coldly, "Don't let me hear you slandering my friends, or I won't be polite."

The two were being choked, barely able to breathe, struggling with their hands and feet, but a hint of defiance shone in their eyes.

Xiang Ruzhen sneered, "I know what you're thinking. I come from a lowly background, what can I do to you? Well, let me tell you, I'm naturally strong. One punch from me will be enough to keep you lying in bed for half a month."

"Don't forget, no matter how noble your birth, you only have one life. Cross my line, and I'll show you what it means to have a worthless life and be fearless. I'm not afraid to die, are you?"

She raised an eyebrow dismissively, released her grip, watched the two of them slide to the ground like mud, snorted coldly, and turned away.

From then on, everyone in the Hanlin Academy suddenly recovered from their illnesses, collectively canceled their sick leave, and dared not leave all their work to Xiang Ruzhen.

But Xiang Ruzhen still went every day according to her plan.

That day, Lu Jinlan was observing training at Zhongyong Garden when Yan Wuxin hurriedly came to find her.

Before the person even got close, he shouted, "Something terrible has happened! The sky has fallen!"

This drew the attention of the group of male servants who were training. Jiang Lan coughed and said, "Practice your skills properly!"

Lu Jinlan asked with a smile, "What's wrong? Got a few more muscular men?"

Yan Wuxin said, "It's even scarier than a strong man! The dean just sent someone to my house to tell me that the four of us missed the final exam, and she has prepared a new set of questions for us to take a make-up exam the day after tomorrow. Ugh! I was away on a business trip for more than a month, and then I played for more than a month after I came back. I don't even know where I threw my books. I've forgotten almost everything I learned. What's the point of taking the exam?!"

Lu Jinlan said, "They probably notified me too, but I left the city this morning and they didn't catch me. Let's go tell Ruzhen that we'll study together tonight."

When the two arrived at the Hanlin Academy, the same person was at the entrance as before, but this time he had completely changed his expression and greeted them with a smile: "Lord Lu, Xiang is in the library. Shall I call him out for you?"

"No need, let's go inside and find her."

The man hesitated for a moment. Although he didn't know who Yan Wuxin was, he didn't dare to ask any further questions. He turned a blind eye and pretended not to see anything.

When the two mentioned the make-up exam, Xiang Ruzhen said, "Let's take the exam. Actually, I was a little regretful that I didn't take the final exam at the end of the first semester. This time, I feel that everything is perfect."

Yan Wuxin said with a worried look, "You two, plus that prince, of course you're not afraid of exams. If I had grades as good as yours, I wouldn't be afraid of exams either. I'm just afraid of not doing well. The dean is really something. It's the first semester final exam, not the end of the academic year. It won't affect your future employment in any department. What's there to make up for?"

The Royal Academy has three academic years. The final exams in the second semester of each academic year are the year-end exams. The results are recorded and serve as an important reference for the selection of talents by the Six Ministries and other major government departments.

Although there are three academic years, there are actually only exams at the end of the first and second years. Third-year students are sent off to other places, and the dean and instructors will directly evaluate their grades based on their performance in the first two years and their classroom activities.

As Yan Wuxin said, the final exams last semester weren't important. She had barely managed to avoid them, and now she had to take a make-up exam, which caught her completely off guard.

She grumbled and complained for a while, then suddenly had a bright idea: "Does the Hanlin Academy have archives of past year-end exams?"

Before Xiang Ruzhen could reply, she had already found the archive of a certain year's exam by searching through the catalog.

Xiang Ruzhen advised, "Don't look at it. What if some of the exam questions are the same as before? That would be a leak. It's not fair to the other students."

"Oh dear, that's something for the end of next semester. Don't you know how bad my brain is? I wouldn't remember it even if I looked at it, I'm just curious."

Lu Jinlan smiled and said, "Let her see it. She won't even have to wait until the end of the next semester. She'll forget everything after the New Year."

As the two were talking, Yan Wuxin suddenly exclaimed, "Huh? Didn't you say that Lady Yu was a top student in that year? How come she's only ranked twenty-third?"

"Impossible!" Xiang Ruzhen said firmly, "I saw her ranking in the college library for the first semester of her sophomore year, and she was number one. Moreover, her graduation exam paper was selected by the dean for the anthology of outstanding graduates. How could she only be twenty-third?"

Yan Wuxin handed over the original scroll, "Look! This is her name."

Xiang Ruzhen looked at the handwriting on the scroll and suddenly said, "That's not right! This isn't Lord Yu's handwriting."

Lu Jinlan said, "The papers were graded anonymously. The names were only revealed after the scores were graded. Could there have been some oversight, or someone made a mistake?"

She took the test paper and examined it carefully. The paper in the name section was slightly raised. She scratched at the name section with her fingernail, and the name strip quickly fell off, revealing a new name.

Lu Jinlan frowned. "Ling Sichen, who is this?"

Xiang Ruzhen glanced at her, "She must be a relative of the Ling family."

Yan Wuxin was puzzled, "How could they be so wrong? Their names are completely different, how could they be confused?"

Lu Jinlan shook her head. "No, it's not a mix-up, it's intentional. Find the first-place paper and see if it's Ling Sichen's."

Yan Wuxin flipped it over and looked at it, "No, the first place is surnamed Zhao."

Lu Jinlan took the exam paper, peeled off the name tag, and Yu Jifang's name was revealed. Xiang Ruzhen leaned over to confirm, "This exam paper is indeed Lord Yu's handwriting."

Lu Jinlan took a deep breath. "Then things get really scary. We can confirm that Lord Yu's grades were altered. But I suspect that everyone's grades were altered. Verifying this isn't difficult; we can just cut off all the name tags from this year's graduating class and see how many are different."

Xiang Ruzhen thought for a moment, "You two check this year's papers, and I'll go find all the archived papers from previous years that I can."

Yan Wuxin asked Lu Jinlan nervously, "If I'm not mistaken, have we discovered a huge secret?"

Lu Jinlan shook his head solemnly, "A huge secret isn't scary, what's scary is a secret that's openly known in certain circles. Some people treat the Six Ministries like their own private shop, letting whoever they want in.

Yan Wuxin hurriedly asked, "Then... then what do we do?"

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Author's note: Struggling with my period, I'll try again on Saturdays and Sundays after these last couple of days (_).