A little maid ran in: "Second Master, Second Master, there's a Master Fang who says he's your friend and wants to see you!"

The surname is Fang, your friend?

He only knew Fang Ji, but Fang Ji was his eldest sister-in-law's cousin. If he wanted to see him, he could just tell the gatekeeper and a servant would bring him in...

Xu Siyu couldn't help feeling a little confused, and seeing that Jing'er was sleeping soundly, he said a few words to Ajin and went to the flower hall for receiving guests.

Seeing Fang Ji's familiar figure, he couldn't help but laugh: "Brother Fang, what happened? You said you were my friend, and I guessed for a long time..." As he said that, his smile froze on his face, "Brother Fang, what happened?"

Fang Ji looked solemn and did not smile at all when he saw Xu Siyu.

Seeing Xu Siyu asking him, he pulled Xu Siyu to the corner with a solemn look and whispered, "Liu Shaoyan was detained by Yin Tianfu's people!"

Liu Shaoyan is one of the authors of this ten-thousand-word letter.

Xu Siyu was shocked, but he also felt that this was reasonable.

"When did it happen?" he whispered, "Brother Fang came to see me, but what did he want me to do?"

Quick and easy.

Fang Ji's eyes flashed with admiration, but he felt that now was not the time to talk about these things, so he suppressed his emotions and said, "I don't have any acquaintances in Yanjing. Can you help me find out what Liu Shaoyan's crime is? Are there any victims or evidence?"

Xu Siyu said without hesitation, "Brother Fang, are you going to wait for me here, or go to Sanjing Hutong and sit down?"

Fang Ji thought for a moment and said, "I'll wait for you in Chunxi Tower! We don't know what the situation is right now, so we don't want to alarm the elders and make them worry."

Seeing his nonchalant look, Xu Siyu thought of his kindness towards him these days, and couldn't help but say, "Brother Fang, I have something to say. I will tell you whether you like it or not."

Fang Ji was stunned.

In his impression, Xu Siyu was not only polite, but also cautious in his words and actions... He didn't expect him to suddenly say such a thing.

"I'm not one of those petty people." He smiled, "If you have anything to say, just say it! Then you can go do something for me."

There was a hint of smile in Xu Siyu's eyes.

He likes dealing with people like Fang Ji.

"I think we should talk to our elders about this!" He whispered, "Everyone has done some stupid things in their life. I believe that if Shuntian Prefecture arrests Liu Shaoyan, they must have a victim and evidence. Brother Fang should prepare for a rainy day."

Fang Ji is a smart man, his face changed when he heard this: "You mean..."

"Although the emperor wants to deal with Li Zhong, dealing with Li Zhong is one thing, and being forced to deal with Li Zhong is another." Xu Siyu said pointedly, "I remember that at the beginning of the founding of the country, the students who participated in the spring examination wrote a ten-thousand-word letter on the corruption case of Li Rui, a founding hero and Wenyuan Pavilion Grand Secretary. In the end, although Li Rui was executed, some of the students who participated in the letter were banned from taking the imperial examination for life, and some were banned from taking the exam for three years..."

Before Xu Siyu could finish his words, Fang Ji was already sweating profusely.

He bowed deeply towards Xu Siyu.

"I don't need words to thank you for your kindness." Fang Ji interrupted Xu Siyu, "I'll go find Minister Liu right away. Brother Shaoyan, please help me run some errands. No matter what, we can't just leave it alone."

Xu Siyu said, "I will go to Yin Tianfu right now. I will inform my eldest brother as soon as I have any news." Then he left a message for Shiyi Niang, saying that he and Fang Ji were going out for dinner. Then he left with Fang Ji.

Eleventh Lady did not take the news too seriously. Firstly, Xu Siyu was already so old, it was normal for him to have his own social life. Secondly, Fang Ji was quite prestigious in the literati circle in Jiangnan, and being able to interact with him and meet some friends through him would be of great benefit to Xu Siyu in the future.

She just called Wenzhu over and said, "If the Second Young Master is short of money, you can come to me for some money."

Wen Zhu said hurriedly: "The Second Young Master doesn't have much to spend on weekdays. The money is enough."

Eleventh Lady didn't say much to her and turned to look at Jin Ge'er.

Jing'er had just woken up and was sitting on the kang eating an apple. When he saw Shiyi Niang coming in, he opened his arms and asked his mother to hold him.

Eleventh Lady held him in her arms, fed him an apple, and talked to him as usual: "...When mother is not around, what have you been doing, Brother Jin? Did you take a nap today? Have you had dinner? These apples were given to you by your aunt, the current queen. They are said to be tribute from Shandong. Your seventh aunt married to a place called Gaoqing in Shandong. When you grow up, go visit her there..."

Jing'er tilted his head and blinked his bright eyes at Shiyi Niang, as if wondering what his mother was talking about. Shiyi Niang couldn't help but sigh and touched Jing'er's head in frustration: "You are almost one and a half years old, and I talk to you every day. Why don't you answer your mother?"

* * * * * *

On the other side, Xu Siyu rushed around for two days before he could reply to Fang Ji's message.

"What did Minister Liu say?" He first asked about Fang Ji's situation.

"I don't know yet." Perhaps the initial shock had passed, Fang Ji's expression was still calm. He smiled and said, "Liu Shibo said that since the emperor has this intention, someone will inevitably suffer. But don't do too much. Let me prepare for the imperial examination with peace of mind, and he will help with other things." He added, "I have thought about it carefully these days. I don't mind not being able to participate in the Spring Examination. It's just that it makes my mother sad..." At this point, his eyes dimmed, "And my uncle. He was originally a free and easy person. If my father hadn't offended the powerful in the court and resigned to return home, how could he have traveled thousands of miles and suffered from the paperwork. He originally hoped that I would be on the list of successful candidates, so that my uncle could unload the burden of the family, return to Huzhou, study and farm, and live the days of 'picking chrysanthemums under the eastern fence and leisurely seeing the southern mountains'..."

Xu Siyu was surprised: "Brother, are you talking about my sister-in-law's father?"

Fang Ji nodded, with a guilty look on his face: "My uncle has always hoped that I could pass the imperial examination, but I was afraid of the constraints of the official career, so I have been playing around with life. My father and uncle have always turned a blind eye and let me do whatever I want... If I am not allowed to take the imperial examination for the rest of my life because of this, I don’t know how disappointed my father and uncle will be... Although my second brother is young, he is not as educated as I was when I was young, and I don’t know if he can support the family by then..." He murmured, his tone revealing a bit of melancholy, but he soon cheered up and smiled, "Forget it, let’s not talk about these things. Since you are here, I believe there must be some progress in Brother Shaoyan’s matter. What happened?"

Xu Siyu quickly calmed down and said, "Brother Liu was detained for the crime of 'taking a woman by force.' The victim and the evidence are all there."

Fang Ji was a little dumbfounded: "Although Brother Shaoyan is kind and gentle to women, he is from a wealthy family and would not 'take a woman by force'!"

Xu Siyu listened and felt a chill in his heart.

* * * * * *

Perhaps it was because of Minister Liu's efforts, or perhaps it was because the Emperor felt that catching those few people with moral flaws was enough, and on March 18, Fang Ji entered the venue smoothly, which made Xu Siyu and Xu Siqin, who came to see him off, feel relieved.

The two went to Sanjing Hutong.

Fang found out, put her hands together and chanted "Amitabha", then went to the temple to burn incense to the Bodhisattva, and sighed: "I hope that big brother can live up to everyone's expectations this time. Then, dad can go back to Huzhou. Shaanxi is really not a place for people to stay."

Xu Siqin was a little surprised.

Fang was shocked to realize that she had spoken out of turn.

My father-in-law is also an official in Shaanxi, and he is very happy with his job.

As if to make amends, she smiled and said, "My husband, you don't know that among us in Jiangnan, if our family has a little wealth, we can pass the imperial examination and then go out to serve as an official for a few years, which is considered to be an explanation to our ancestors."

It was the first time Xu Siqin had heard of this. He laughed and said, "But there are many people from Jiangnan in the court!"

Fang just smiled and said nothing.

Xu Siyu thought of Fang's 20,000 taels dowry and said with a smile, "I'm afraid most of them are from poor backgrounds!"

Fang thought this was a bit too absolute, and said with a smile: "Not entirely. It's just that everyone in my mother's family likes to live a comfortable life, so it's like this." She also felt that this was not a good topic, so she asked Xu Siyu: "I just hired a chef from Yanjing, and he makes very good braised pork elbows. Why don't you stay for lunch, second uncle?"

Xu Siyu thought that there was nothing to do when he returned, so he agreed with a smile.

He left early and came back late, and spent three days in Sanjing Hutong. In the evening, he went to pick up Fang Ji to perform.

"Brother Fang, what are the questions this year?" Xu Siyu took the test basket from Fang Ji.

Fang Ji's eyes were bright: "The Analects has two sentences, 'When a country has a good way, its words are trustworthy'; the Doctrine of the Mean has two sentences, 'If you plan ahead, you will succeed; if you don't plan ahead, you will fail'; Mencius has two sentences, 'Everyone has a heart that cannot bear to see others suffer'; the title of the poem is 'Looking at the remaining snow in Zhongnan after the rain'."

"Oh!" Xu Siyu was very interested. "What did Brother Fang say?"

Seeing Fang Ji's tired look, Xu Siqin hurriedly said, "Let's talk about this later. Let's go back and have dinner first. After dinner, you can talk by candlelight at night!"

The two smiled at each other and got on the car to Sanjing Hutong. As expected, they talked all night long. Fang Ji knew that Xu Siyu was going to collect the test papers, so he volunteered to help him. Xu Siyu was worried about this matter, so he was naturally surprised to hear this. The two discussed for a long time and decided that Fang Ji would be responsible for the top three papers of the palace examination, and Xu Siyu would be responsible for the top ten papers of the joint examination. On the day of the announcement of the results, the two went there early. Although there were a lot of people, Xu Siyu still saw Fang Ji's name at a glance - he was ranked first, the position of the first place.

He called Fang Ji excitedly, but Fang Ji stood there with a dazed expression, as if he couldn't believe it. After a while, he happily put his arm around Xu Siyu's shoulder and said, "Let's go to Chunxi Tower to drink. Don't go home until you're drunk. I'll treat you."

Xu Siyu was also very happy and nodded repeatedly.

Xu Siqin pulled the two of them aside and said, "Wait a minute, wait a minute. I remember that Fourth Aunt's fifth brother-in-law is also taking the imperial examination this year. His name is Qian Ming. Let's find his name so that we can go and tell Fourth Aunt the good news."

Xu Siyu only then remembered and felt a little ashamed.

Fang Ji was in high spirits at the moment, and everything seemed pleasing to him. He immediately ordered Xu Siyu, "You find these imperial edicts, I'll find the ones over here, and my brother-in-law will find the ones over there. Let's finish reading the edicts quickly so we can go drink."

The two of them responded promptly, squeezed through the crowd, and finally found Qian Ming's name in a corner.

"Qian Ming from Yichun. Ranked 332nd." Fang Ji said loudly, "It should be the person you mentioned. Judging from the ranking, he is most likely a fellow Jinshi."

Xu Siqin and Xu Siyu looked at each other in bewilderment: "So, should we go and report the news?"

Fang Ji disagreed: "What good news is there for a fellow Jinshi? Just pretend you don't know. Let's go drink!"

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