Chapter 67 Sooner or later, old and new accounts will be settled together
Everyone was silent for a while.
"Di Youhong, let me ask you, do you have any regrets at all?" After a while, Jiang Heci slowly spoke.
Di Youhong lowered his head and knelt there without answering. His slightly shaking shoulders showed that he was very emotionally unstable at the moment.
"Forget it." Bai Qing'an looked back at the extinguished flames, as if seeing all the injustices he had suffered in the past six years. "It's all over."
"I don't know, I really don't know." At this time, Di Youhong suddenly burst into tears, "I thought... I thought you were the son of a great general, and that you took the imperial examination to steal the jobs of ordinary people like us. I thought that all the help you provided was just... a matter of moving your fingers. I really..."
Jiang Heci raised his hand, and someone immediately dragged Di Youhong away.
"I'm sorry!" Di Youhong shouted at the top of his lungs, "I'm sorry!"
"There must be someone behind him!" Bai Rui'an suddenly said with certainty, "Or rather, everything he did was deliberately condoned or even instigated by someone."
He looked at Jiang Heci with grief and indignation, "Please, Mr. Jiang, investigate thoroughly and give my elder brother justice."
"I will check!" At this point, Jiang Heci turned to look at Bai Qing'an with some distress, "But what results can I find..."
Bai Qing'an lowered his head, trying his best to control his emotions. After a long moment, he slowly spoke, "Qing'an doesn't dare to force anything. I just hope that I can get a fair chance in this spring exam."
Jiang Heci nodded. "Don't worry, I've already moved your rolls of paper. I'll personally monitor them and won't give anyone else a chance to take advantage of them."
"Thank you, Mr. Jiang!" Bai Qing'an and his brothers and sisters thanked Jiang Heci together.
"I'm so ashamed!" Jiang Heci shook his head, looking at the crumbling house not far away. "I prided myself on being fair and impartial, but I never imagined the Imperial Examination Hall would be in such a state of disrepair. I feel so sorry for all the students here, and even more so for calling me Master Jiang."
He looked at the people behind him with a stern gaze, "From today on, all officials in the Imperial Academy will be investigated. I want to give these students a truly honest and upright government!"
"Yes!" The officials were sweating profusely and dared not breathe.
The fire in the Imperial Examination Hall soon spread to the front court. The next day, when the emperor received the news, he was furious and scolded Prime Minister Zuo Shanzhang at the morning court.
Although Di Youhong always claimed that he was the one who did everything, he was, after all, a retainer of the Prime Minister's Mansion, and the two sons of the Prime Minister's Mansion were the biggest beneficiaries of his actions.
Zuo Shanzhang received the scolding and returned to the Prime Minister's residence as soon as he left the court and went straight to the courtyard of his wife Jiang Yinyue.
"Haha, he really is a good father. For so many years, he has ignored you and me, his son-in-law, and now he is helping outsiders to squeeze the Prime Minister's Mansion?"
He pointed at Jiang Yinyue's nose and cursed, "Doesn't he know what a piece of shit Li Suining, adopted by the General's Mansion, is? What did he do to his own grandson? The General's Mansion clearly regards the Prime Minister's Mansion as its mortal enemy. What? Are you, the father, going to make a complete enemy of the Prime Minister's Mansion too?"
Jiang Yinyue was dressed in plain clothes, completely different from the bright and arrogant concubine Lou.
She lowered her head, her expression indifferent, "Master, don't you know that I severed ties with my father the day I married into the Zuo family?"
When this matter was mentioned, Zuo Shanzhang gritted his teeth in hatred. He was once Jiang Heci's retainer and Jiang Heci's most proud disciple, but for some reason, Jiang Heci just didn't agree with his marriage to Jiang Yinyue.
He even drove away all his retainers and disciples and severed ties with Jiang Yinyue.
However, the facts have proved that Zuo Shanzhang is no worse than anyone else, and is even better than his teacher, and more capable than Jiang Heci.
Thinking of this, Zuo Shanzhang's face became a little smug. "No matter what, he can't get too close to the General's Mansion, especially that Li Suining, that little bitch..."
"Shan Zhang!" Jiang Yinyue couldn't help but interrupt her husband. She had never seen this little girl named Li Suining, but after all, she was only a three or four-year-old child. Besides...
She hesitated and said, "Shan Zhang, I always feel that the child...his words cannot be fully trusted."
"Jiang Yinyue, are you also getting senile?" Zuo Shanzhang glared. "That's your son, your own son. If you don't trust him, who can you trust?"
"But..." Jiang Yinyue still felt something was wrong.
"No buts." Zuo Shanzhang waved his hand impatiently, silencing Jiang Yinyue. "Remember, this child was lost for three years because of you. You owe him this. What you need to do now is to make it up to him, not doubt him or even despise him."
Jiang Yinyue sighed softly, "You know better than me why I left while pregnant."
"Stop talking nonsense, that's your own incompetence!" Zuo Shanzhang obviously didn't want to hear this and turned to leave.
When he reached the door, he suddenly stopped again, his expression grim, and said, "In short, this time, my feud with the General's Mansion is complete. Sooner or later, I will settle all the old and new accounts, both mine and my precious son's."
Finally, he said coldly, "This general's mansion... shouldn't be in the imperial city!"
——
That night, the little ones gathered together again to wait for the stars. As soon as the stars came out, Li Suining immediately asked about the result.
"Great!" Little Dumpling jumped up and down with joy. "Big brother passed the palace examination, paraded through the streets wearing a big red flower, and finally entered the Eastern Palace."
When everyone heard this, they all cheered.
"Wearing a big red flower means that big brother is one of the best!" Bai Ruian was so excited that he burst into tears.
"Yes, first class! Big brother got into the first class!" Bai Shi'an was also happy for his big brother. It had been six whole years. No, big brother had been in school since he was five years old. It had been fifteen years now. "Fifteen years, big brother's fifteen years were not wasted!"
You Zhu was still lying lazily under the eaves, his legs crossed and a smile on his face.
Little Dumpling ran up to the fourth and fifth brothers, tilted his head and asked, "Should we go tell Big Brother now?"
The two thought about it and said in unison, "No!"
"There's still a month before the results come out. If we tell Big Brother now, he'll have to celebrate with us," Bai Shi'an explained with a smile. "No, no, when the time comes, Big Brother should celebrate with Mom and Dad."
Bai Ruian nodded in agreement, "Yes, let's wait patiently!"
"Okay!" Li Suining felt that what his two brothers said made sense. Such a big happy event would be happiest if the whole family celebrated together, and it only happened once in a lifetime, so they must be patient and wait.
"But I think," You Zhu said from a distance, his voice also tinged with laughter, "even if we don't tell him, Big Brother should be able to guess it."
Li Suining thought it made sense and frowned, "Then what should I do? How can I hide this from my big brother?"
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