Chapter 276: Family Destroyed
When Lin Xiafeng was complaining about Murong Ce's taste, she obviously forgot that Murong Ce was just giving advice to the prince, and she herself had chosen the prince as her husband. Her taste was much stronger than Murong Ce's!
Although, she didn't plan to spend her whole life with Ling Jingyu...
From the moment Ling Jingxuan left her, she no longer believed in love. Men are unreliable, and women can only rely on themselves!
Only by holding all the real rights and power in your own hands can you always be invincible and never worry about being abandoned or even slaughtered!
Why should a woman stay at home and never go out, stay with a man for her whole life, obey his mood and live in peace with his concubines?
"You were the ones who trampled me into the mud first, so I must be the one who is superior to others and let Ling Jingxuan see clearly whether I am easy to bully or not!"
"One day, no one in this world will dare to say no to me!"
Being the queen is not Lin Xiafeng’s goal, being the queen mother is!
As long as she gives birth to a son, that idiot Ling Jingyu will no longer have any value in existence!
Lin Xiafeng had finally obtained evidence that was enough to put Ling Jingxuan to death. How could she give up such credit? Since she failed to reach an agreement with Mo Rongce, she left.
But she never expected that before she could find a good opportunity to make the most of the evidence in her hand, Ling Jingxuan took the initiative.
The third place winner of this year's autumn examination is named Zhao Zicheng, the younger brother of Concubine Zhao in the Crown Prince's palace.
Number one scholar Qi Zhongyuan was sent by the emperor to work in the Ministry of Personnel. As a result, the first thing he did was to find out that someone had cheated in this year's imperial examination!
This cheating was not just a simple cheat sheet. Someone leaked the test questions long before the exam started. Zhao Zicheng then prepared the articles and memorized them in advance before going to the exam room to answer the questions.
Who was the person who leaked the test questions to him? It was the only study companion left by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, Gu Hongan, the second son of the current president of the Hanlin Academy!
And this dean, Mr. Gu, is the chief invigilator of this imperial examination!
In addition to being the prince's study companion, Gu Hongan is also the prince's relative. His wife is the younger sister of Concubine Zhao in the prince's mansion and the second sister of Zhao Zicheng, the third place winner in the imperial examination.
So, Gu Hongan and the prince are both Zhao Zicheng's brothers-in-law!
The head of the Zhao family is only a fifth-rank official. Compared with the prince and Gu Hongan, he is not even worth mentioning.
It’s just that their family genes are really strong. Not to mention their daughter, even Zhao Zicheng looks so cute and tender, like a porcelain doll carved out of jade!
It's good that he is good-looking, but it's a pity that Zhao Zicheng has evil intentions. Relying on the fact that he is the prince's brother-in-law, he has made friends with heroes all over the world since he came to Yulin City.
Gu Hongan's biological father was the invigilator, so it wasn't that difficult for him and his wife to help their younger brother sneak a peek at the exam questions.
But the bad thing about this matter is that Zhao Zicheng loves to show off too much. He claims to be the brother-in-law of the current crown prince and a relative of the chief examiner. With such a noble status, how could he not tell others about it and let those poor students envy him?
Many of these students would later serve in the same court as him, so how could he not cultivate good relationships? How could he not share exam questions with everyone?
If he had only shared within his own small circle, for mutual benefit, Qi Zhongyuan might not have been able to catch him. But after he made a bunch of bad friends, they all praised him every day, and he didn't even know who he was.
Not only did no one tell him to restrain himself, but some people even encouraged him to take advantage of this opportunity to make a fortune. In the end, he even had the audacity to start selling test questions!
Leaking test questions is such a serious crime that you could lose your job at the very least, or even your head at the worst!
This time, not only did the Gu family betray the emperor's trust and fail to keep the test questions confidential, but the Gu family members leaked them to the candidates taking the exam, and then they were sold on a large scale, seriously interfering with the fairness of the imperial examination and affecting the court's talent selection.
Regardless of whether Grand Secretary Gu and his tutor Gu got a penny of the money, they are both the main culprits. One was guilty of negligence, while the other committed the crime knowingly. Their crimes are extremely serious!
Although Qi Zhongyuan has become much more restrained than before, the pride in his bones is not so easy to change.
Especially after he made a comeback, his arrogant look was really despised by his peers, but so what?
Qi Zhongyuan's attitude is, if you don't like me, kill me! If you can't kill me, don't compete!
Such a proud person will not allow himself to have any flaws.
Therefore, when dealing with the matter of Grand Secretary Gu and Zhao Zicheng, he obtained all the evidence and ensured that there was absolutely no possibility of being overturned. Only then did he hand it all over to Prince Duan and his father, allowing Prince Duan and Grand Secretary Qi to expose the matter in the court.
With all the witnesses and evidence present, Gu Hongan had no way to deny it, and Zhao Zicheng was so scared that he confessed everything without being asked.
His cronies usually praised him to the skies, but when something really happened, each one of them was quicker to act than the other, and they all tried desperately to atone for their sins, saying that Zhao Zichen had abused his power to bully them and forced them to help him sell the test papers.
He is the prince's brother-in-law. How dare ordinary people like them disobey his orders?
"It was Zhao Zicheng who forced us to do this. Your Majesty, please understand. I and the others really had no other choice!"
"Your Majesty, I've long disliked him and wanted to expose Zhao Zicheng's crimes. However, my influence was limited, so I didn't dare offend him. That's why I stayed by his side, pretending to be nice to him, in an attempt to gather evidence!"
This man was so clever that he managed to portray himself as a great hero who had worked hard and made great contributions. Others followed his example, trying to avoid punishment and even gain merit, and described all of Zhao Zicheng's daily acts of tyranny with exaggerated details.
Some things were not even done by Zhao Zicheng, but they were blamed on him.
Anyway, kicking a man when he's down is really a natural human instinct!
This incident was extremely serious and had far-reaching consequences. It could be said to be the most serious incident of leaking exam questions since the emperor ascended the throne. Therefore, the punishment was naturally the most severe.
The president of the Hanlin Academy, a second-rank official, was directly imprisoned.
The last study companion of the prince also left him, but he was not driven away by him, nor did he leave on his own, but was separated from the prince by death.
Gu Hongan and the third place winner Zhao Zicheng were both sentenced to immediate execution.
For those candidates who participated in the examination, if it was found that they had purchased the examination questions, all their scores and rewards would be invalidated, and they would not be allowed to take the imperial examination again within five years.
This time, the Gu family really collapsed overnight, falling directly from the center of imperial power to the bottom of society.
The Gu family hated the Zhao family so much that they felt that they had suffered such a disaster and their family was broken up because they married the beautiful woman from the Zhao family.
Even the crown prince was severely scolded by the emperor. If you can't even take care of your own brother-in-law, what else can we expect you to do?
This criticism can be said to be very serious. If all the relevant personnel were not trying their best to protect the prince and prove that the prince was completely unaware of this matter, the emperor would probably have asked him to go back to the East Palace to reflect on himself.
There was both human and material evidence, and the emperor personally intervened, so such a major case was not delayed for more than a few days and was concluded by the end of October.
With the removal of one of the presidents of the academy, the prince's power in the Hanlin Academy was also suppressed by half. The concubine Zhao in the prince's mansion was also demoted to a lowly concubine and thrown into a small courtyard in a remote corner to fend for herself.
This scandal made the prince worry and turn gray, but it really made Ling Jingxuan proud.
Coincidentally, on October 28th, the newly renovated Wangjianglou reopened for business, and many old customers came to congratulate.
A 'hardcore customer' like Prince Duan would definitely go, and he also invited a bunch of good brothers to drink with him.
Dugu Yu and Qin Qingyao naturally showed up out of respect. When they saw Qi Zhongyuan, Qin Qingyao actually went to pour him tea and apologize.
Before he could finish his words, Qi Zhongyuan was embarrassed. He had made the bet with the princess out of youth and impetuousness. But now he had figured it out. The princess had provoked him so much in order to get him out of the house and cheer himself up.
After all, he should be thanking the princess. How could he dare to ask the princess to pour him tea and apologize?
He really couldn't drink this cup of tea in front of King Wu Ling.
In the end, he had no choice but to perform a great ceremony, bowed deeply, then half-knelt to take the tea and took a sip gently, as a token of his appreciation.
That cautious look made Qin Qingyao laugh. It's really rare that this person can be afraid sometimes!
On the day Wangjiang Tower reopened, Lin Xiafeng also came.
The prince has been so miserable recently, all thanks to Ling Jingxuan and Qi Zhongyuan. The prince almost wants to bite off their necks and drink their blood.
But Lin Xiafeng not only did not hate them, she was actually grateful from the bottom of her heart for the great help they had given her.
As a concubine's daughter, she was of low status. When the prince asked to marry her, he could only give her the position of concubine. She was not even worthy of an imperial decree granting her marriage.
But the Prince's Mansion already had a concubine named Zhao, and that concubine Zhao had been in the mansion for many years and had a son and a daughter. In the affiliated high school, she acted like the real prince's consort!
When she gets married, she will have to flatter him, and she feels a headache just thinking about it.
This time, the Zhao family fell before she even got married. That concubine Zhao and her family caused so much trouble for the prince. I'm afraid the prince will never want to look at her again in his life!
When she married, she would be the highest-ranking woman in the Prince's Mansion. So what if she wasn't the Crown Prince's wife? As long as Lin Xiafeng was alive, the position of Crown Prince would either remain vacant or it would be hers!
The prince is now as anxious as an ant on a hot pan, trying desperately to turn the tables and give Ling Jingxuan a good punishment. What she has in her hand is the prince's heart pill.
This time, Murong Ce doesn't need help, the prince will definitely listen to her orders!
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