Official

Five days later, Xiao An, who had been sent to gather information about the merchants, returned.

“Young master, I searched through most of the people in Shengjing before I found out that someone had chatted with those merchants and was said to be from Hejian Prefecture.”

"Hejian Prefecture? Is the Dongfang family located very close to Hejian Prefecture?"

“It’s not very close; the Dongfang family is in Hejian Prefecture,” Xiao An replied.

"Some of the merchants came from towns and villages near Shengjing City, but most of them came from Hejian Prefecture."

"Hmm." Shen Changqing said thoughtfully, "Let's go."

"Where to?" Xiao An asked, puzzled.

"Go find Dongfang Hongyao." Shen Changqing sighed.

Dongfang Hongyao was slightly surprised to see Shen Changqing being led over by the waiter. "Brother Shen, what brings you here today?"

Without waiting for his invitation, Shen Changqing straightened his robes and chose a stool to sit down.

"Brother Dongfang, do you still remember the refugees at the end of the year?"

Dongfang Hongyao's mind raced, guessing that Shen Changqing already knew about him buying rice for Gu Yu, "Of course I remember."

"I heard those merchants are from Hejian Prefecture?"

"Oh, you mean this?"

Dongfang Hongyao slapped his forehead, as if he had just realized what he was talking about. "Actually, I was helping Miss Gu with this matter. Her brother, General Gu, has taken in about 10,000 refugees at the camp outside the city in the suburbs of Beijing. However, the price of rice in the capital is rising higher and higher."

"Our family has been personally funding refugee relief efforts, but with rice prices soaring to near gold levels, which family can afford it? That's why Miss Gu is willing to spend more money to buy rice from nearby areas. Firstly, to alleviate the immediate crisis, and secondly, to spread the news of the high rice prices in the capital, so that nearby grain merchants will come to the capital..."

"Besides rice?" Shen Changqing pressed.

"Miss Gu only sent me a message that she wanted to buy 1,000 shi of rice, and nothing else."

Dongfang Hongyao replied, "As for whether those merchants transported more goods, I certainly don't know. Why, Brother Shen, are you suddenly so curious about what happened a few months ago?"

Do you still remember the sky filled with paper dragonflies on the day of the imperial examination?

“You told me that.”

"Lord Li has investigated and found that no shop in Shengjing City has sold so much paper and ink to the same person in the past year. Therefore, Paper Dragonfly's paper and ink could only have come from these traveling merchants."

His long, slender fingers tapped on the table, like an aggressive judge. "Brother Dongfang, according to the laws of the Great Sheng Dynasty, the main culprit in cheating on the imperial examinations is executed along with his entire family, and accomplices will also have their families implicated."

"There's something I don't understand..."

Dongfang Hongyao stared straight at him, somewhat puzzled. Did Shen Changqing really not know what his father had done? Why could he speak so confidently about the Great Sheng Law?

"...How can you be so sure that the leak of the imperial examination questions is related to me? I am just a minor scholar, and I have no relatives in the court to help me. What audacity would I have to do such a thing? Putting aside the matter of paper and ink, isn't the most crucial thing the examination questions? How did I get my hands on the questions? Young Master Shen, don't make false accusations without evidence."

Dongfang Hongyao was genuinely baffled. If Shen Changqing was righteous, then the whole world would be full of righteous people.

"A clear conscience fears no accusation. Young Master Shen, please investigate. I will not admit to anything I did not do."

He looked at Shen Changqing with confusion in his eyes, "Are you doubting Miss Gu? Miss Gu is just a young lady from a respectable family, how did she get the test questions? And she has no reason to do this... What benefit would Miss Gu gain from doing this?"

Shen Changqing remained silent for a long time.

"I just... have some doubts."

He closed his eyes, his hands pausing for a moment. "Of course I don't want this to involve her."

"You still have the list of your transactions with the merchants, right? Give me a copy, I'll check it myself."

“At that time I was studying, so I wrote a letter of divorce and asked my second uncle in the family to trade with those merchants. Even though there was a list, it was in my second uncle’s hands.”

Dongfang Hongyao paused, knowing that he wouldn't give up until he got to the bottom of it, and continued, "Second Uncle is staying at our ancestral home in Hejian Prefecture this month. If you want to go, that's fine. I can write a letter and have someone send it over, but it will take about half a month for you to come and go."

“…I’ll go myself.” Shen Changqing made up his mind.

Dongfang Hongyao sighed, saw Shen Changqing off, and then saw Wei Cong standing at the door, having been there for a while.

"You heard everything?"

"Yes, Brother Hongyao, you're hiding something from me."

Wei Cong recalled that day when Gu Yu invited the two of them to discuss the refugee issue. He left first, but Gu Yu and Dongfang Hongyao must have stayed a while longer.

"Brother Cong, don't blame me. Dragging you into this won't do you any good. If... if I really..."

Dongfang Hongyao couldn't say anything discouraging. The merchants had already left Hejian Prefecture, and Shen Changqing hadn't been able to find anything even after going there.

He was born into an Eastern family, but not into the main branch. He was from a collateral branch because the main family had no sons and wanted to adopt a child from the collateral branch as their eldest son.

He happened to be the most studious among the children of his age, so he became the master's child at the age of ten. From the moment he was recognized by the master's family, he was no longer himself, but Dongfang Hongyao.

He was quite talented; although he didn't have a photographic memory, his memory and comprehension were both good. The patriarch of the Dongfang family placed his hopes for the resurgence of the Shi clan on him.

As far back as he can remember, he has been reading, reciting, and memorizing the Four Books and Five Classics with everyone.

Wei Cong was met on the way to the capital for the imperial examination. He was born into a poor family and lost both his parents. He grew up with the help of the villagers.

To be honest, he envied Wei Cong.

Wei Cong studied diligently and understood principles, all for the sake of the people and his fellow villagers. He had no personal gain, and he could be a gentleman without any qualms.

But he was different. He studied for power, fame, and fortune, for the sake of his relatives who needed them. He accepted all the resources and protection his relatives gave him, and he had to repay them.

If Gu Yu had told him her reasons and plans before asking for his help.

He would only weigh the pros and cons and might not dare to lend a hand, even if he knew that Gu Yu exposing the cheating in the imperial examinations was not a bad thing.

"Such a warm and mild spring in Shengjing City is something you can't see in Hejian Prefecture."

Springtime in Hejian Prefecture is dry and cold, and the sun feels uncomfortable on the skin.

Standing by the window facing the street, Dongfang Hongyao watched Shen Changqing's departing figure with a genuine smile on his face. "Brother Cong, I always felt that we couldn't live in that little courtyard that Brother Shen mentioned."

“We still have about three hundred taels of silver. We can buy a small, secluded courtyard and make a living by selling our calligraphy and paintings.” Wei Cong didn’t seem to care about this.

“You’re right, but there’s something even better: Enco has reopened, so you don’t have to think about three years from now. Just focus on the present.”

Wei Cong's eyes lit up upon hearing this, "That's even better, that's even better."

He didn't care where Dongfang Hongyao got the information from; he only knew that Brother Hongyao would never lie to him.

*

Just as Shen Changqing arrived in Hejian Prefecture, Xiao An, who arrived two days later, brought him a message.

His face was filled with sorrow, and his eyes had lost their light. "Young master, don't go back to Shengjing. Go to Bianjing, to Madam's maternal home. Only there will you have a chance to survive."

"What happened?" His handsome brows furrowed, and he had a vague guess in his mind. "Tell me about the situation in Shengjing first."

"...The master has been arrested by the Embroidered Uniform Guard. The investigation into the cheating in the imperial examinations has reached the master, and the Embroidered Uniform Guard has obtained evidence."

"What evidence?"

Shen Changqing suddenly opened his eyes wide. According to the way his father had described for passing the test questions, it shouldn't have left any evidence for Shi Zhixuan.

"Young master, do you still remember the mutton-fat jade thumb ring that Master used to always wear?"

"That jade thumb ring?"

Shen Changqing tried hard to recall where the ring had gone. He remembered that it hadn't been lost or stolen.

"Just based on that jade thumb ring?"

"There is also a letter written by the master himself."

"No, there's definitely something wrong here."

The testimony of Shi Zhixuan that Li Shiqin told him was consistent with the way his father described the leak of the exam questions, so why were there an extra jade thumb ring and a handwritten letter?

The only thing that's certain now is that Li Shiqin was lying to him from the beginning, and he had always suspected Shen Xiuwen.

"Young master, could it be that all this evidence was forged by someone else?" Xiao An asked.

"The handwritten letter may be fake, but the jade thumb ring should be real."

He remembered that Shen Xiuwen often wore a white mutton fat jade thumb ring a few years ago, which was known to those who knew him well.

So where did that jade thumb ring come from? And how did it end up in Shi Zhixuan's hands?

There must be something wrong here.

"What should we do now, young master?"

"The evidence is conclusive. If Father doesn't admit it, things probably won't end well."

Even if the evidence isn't that convincing, what if we add Shih Chih-hsuan's testimony?

At first, Shi Zhixuan kept quiet, insisting that he was innocent and hoping that Shen Xiuwen would find a way to get him out.

However, in order to get him out of prison, Shen Xiuwen secretly put the roster into Shi Zhixuan's mansion, intending to pin all the blame on Shi Zhixuan. When Shi Zhixuan learned that he had been abandoned, he used the evidence he had against him.

So the question is, how did that jade thumb ring and Shen Xiuwen's handwritten letter get into his hands?

Did someone take these two tokens and exchange them for the exam questions with him? Did this person also know Shen Xiuwen and Shi Zhixuan's method of leaking the questions, and then put the exam questions back where they belonged?

Does such a person who knows the whole truth really exist? Who could it be? A startling guess suddenly surfaced in his mind: Is the person who knows the whole truth Prime Minister Sun?

But what good would doing this do him?

"I need to go back to Shengjing City first and see my mother. Even if I go to Bianjing, I must take my mother with me."

Shen Changqing understood both his father and his mother. Those who cheated in the imperial examinations were punished by having their entire family executed, including the ringleaders.

He closed his eyes, recalling the words he had spoken not long ago, which were now coming true for him.

Shen Changqing glanced at the Dongfang Mansion standing right in front of him, then turned around, went to the post station, bought a fast horse, and rushed back to Shengjing overnight.

They worked almost non-stop for three days and three nights.

As soon as he stepped into the Shen residence, he was greeted by a sea of ​​white silk, and five coffins were neatly arranged in the front hall.

White paper, funeral banners, and deafening cries.

Even the most cold-hearted and aloof person cannot help but feel sorrow at this moment.

Shen Changqing, his face pale, asked in a trembling voice, "What happened? The case has only been eight days, how could a verdict be reached?"

The old nanny who had been serving the lady recognized Shen Changqing in disguise.

"The lady said there was no escaping it; it was only a matter of time. She took the women of her household and left first, hoping that Your Majesty would have mercy and spare you, young master, the only heir of the Shen family..."

"Young Master, don't worry..."

The old woman wept; she had watched Shen Changqing grow up and regarded him as her own son.

"Before Madam hanged herself, she exchanged letters with Old Master Zhuang. He will do everything he can to save the young master."

"......"

Shen Changqing opened his mouth, but found that he could not say anything. His knees buckled and he knelt down in front of his mother's coffin, tears streaming down his face.

What should he say?

He hadn't yet found out who the murderer was who wanted to harm his family, and he didn't want his mother to unilaterally exchange five lives for his one in order to save him.

He preferred to go with them.

While wiping away her tears, the old woman urged Shen Changqing to leave quickly, "Young Master, you should leave soon. Go to Bianjing to avoid trouble. With Old Master Zhuang around, the Emperor... the Emperor can't kill you."

She feared that some Imperial Guard might suddenly appear and arrest Shen Changqing as well, throwing him into prison. "Quickly, let's go..."

With all her might, she pulled him up and shoved him through the side door, looking at Xiao An who was standing there dumbfounded.

"Xiao An, take the young master and leave quickly, don't come back."

Xiao An also wiped away his tears. He was a trained fighter and pulled Shen Changqing along with much more ease than the old woman. "Young Master, let's go."

Shen Changqing remained silent, feeling as if his body no longer belonged to him. His three souls and six spirits were frozen in the mourning hall, numbly letting Xiao An pull him forward.

My mother knew everything my father did; otherwise, she couldn't have been so resolute and ruthless. She abandoned him, and she was bound to drive him to his death.

The Shen family has fallen. The Shen family... is gone...

“Mother…” he murmured, using the more affectionate term he used to call his mother when he was a child.

"Qing'er, you must be tired from studying today. I've made your favorite sweet soup. Have something to eat before you continue studying."

"Okay, Mother..."

He was about to throw down the book in his hand and run to his mother when he remembered the bruises on his palms left by the ruler he had been beaten with a few days ago.

He shook his head sensibly and said, "No, Mother, I need to finish this article before I can rest."

She beckoned to him gently, "Silly child, I've sent everyone away, your father won't know. Come quickly..."

He walked towards her with slight hesitation, and she gently stroked the top of his head. "You are my son. Even if you don't become an official, you can still be a wealthy young master. With your father's greedy and power-hungry nature, he will ruin him one day."

"Qing'er, you can do whatever you want. You don't have to study. You've never left the capital, have you? You rarely even leave your study. The world outside is vast. There's no need to live in this quagmire of Shengjing."

"If you ever leave Shengjing, never come back..."

She smiled gently, but Shen Changqing, focused on eating his sweet soup, didn't notice. When he looked up again, he discovered that his mother's body was slowly disappearing.

"Mother! Mother... Mother... where have you gone?"

Ten-year-old Shen Changqing shouted at the air, but saw no one.

"Mother, don't leave me! Don't leave me! Please... please..."

He was in tears, completely distraught.