After the two of them left the palace, Xie Yunchuan led Xue Shu to his own house.

Xie Pingchuan was only a sixth-rank editor, and the Hanlin Academy was a noble place, so his salary was not high, so he rented the house he lived in. It was quite far from the imperial city, and the courtyard was not big, but it was quiet.

Leading Xue Shu into the study, Xie Pingchuan asked the servant to guard the door and opened all the doors and windows of the study to make sure that no one was eavesdropping. Then he asked Xue Shu to sit down and crawled under the desk. He fumbled to dig up two green bricks and dug out the thing wrapped in oil paper underneath.

"I have hidden these things for six years. This is the first time they have seen the light of day again." Xie Pingchuan carefully peeled off the oil paper covered with dirt, revealing a dark brown wooden box inside.

The flat wooden box was old and rusty, with dings on the four corners, and it looked old just by looking at its appearance.

Xie Pingchuan took out the key he had kept close to him and unlocked the box. There was a layer of oil paper inside the wooden box. After removing the oil paper, a stack of yellowed pages were revealed.

Xue Shu's eyes fell on the stack of papers: "Is this the file of the imperial examination fraud case?"

Naturally, he also knew something about the Xie family case.

About seven years ago, that is, around the twelfth year of Longfeng, the fraud case of Xie Wendao caused quite a stir.

In that year's imperial examination, 121 Jinshi were selected, the highest number of Jinshi in history. However, it was also in this year that the candidates were dissatisfied with their ranking in the imperial examination. Dozens of candidates protested outside the Gongyuan, and in their anger, they even tore up the imperial edict.

Because there were four people on the list of successful candidates for this year's imperial examination who were notorious for being unlearned and unskilled. Some students from the same hometown as these four people had heard them boast that they had bought the test questions in the previous imperial and provincial examinations to pass.

Before the examination, the four had mentioned that they were sure to win, and their words were full of confidence. However, all the students who had known them knew that they had not even read the Four Books and Five Classics.

But after the examination results were announced, the leader of the four won the first place, and the remaining three also ranked among the top.

After the announcement of the results, the four men became more and more arrogant. They held lavish banquets and posted invitations to all students. However, they did not expect that this action angered the students who failed the exam. As a result, the students gathered in Gongyuan to protest against the unfairness of the exam and even tore up the imperial list.

This incident caused such a big commotion that it was quickly reported to the higher authorities and reached the ears of Emperor Longfeng.

Since the founding of the Yan Dynasty, the imperial examinations have always been very important for recruiting officials, and cheating in the imperial examinations is a serious crime. So the chief minister Yu Huaian immediately asked Emperor Longfeng to hold a re-examination and investigate the matter thoroughly.

The re-examination questions were drawn up by Yu Huaian himself, but the papers submitted by the four students who had ranked very high in the imperial examination were completely nonsense!

Therefore, on the day when the re-examination results came out, the four were sent to prison, and the chief examiners and supervisory examiners of their previous academy and provincial examinations were also thoroughly investigated.

After repeated interrogation by Dali Temple officials, the four students finally confessed the truth - they bought the questions before the examination.

——The questions for this year's examination were jointly formulated by the chief examiner and the deputy examiner.

The chief examiner at that time was Shao Tian, ​​the then Minister of Rites, and the deputy examiner was Xie Wendao, Xie Pingchuan's father and the president of the academy.

The two men were detained immediately, and later officials from the Dali Temple arrested the seller of the questions based on the four students' statements. After further investigation, it was found that the seller was Xie Wendao's long-time follower.

In this way, the person who leaked the test questions was naturally Xie Wendao.

Soon Xie Wendao confessed his guilt and signed his name, and was sentenced to death by beheading. Shao Tian, ​​who was innocently implicated, was later released and rose rapidly up the career ladder, becoming the Minister of Personnel and then the Second Assistant to the Imperial Household.

But in fact, there are still many doubts in this case.

For example, there are seven questions in the examination, five of which are drawn up by the chief examiner and only two by the deputy examiners. The questions drawn up by the deputy examiners must be reviewed by the chief examiner, but the questions drawn up by the chief examiner cannot be reviewed by the deputy examiners to prevent leakage. However, the questions that the four students got were all correct.

However, Xie Wendao's long-time attendant pointed out the crime and Xie Wendao quickly pleaded guilty and signed the guilty plea, so the case was hastily closed.

"My father was a man of integrity. My mother and my eldest brother did not believe that he would leak the exam questions. They went around to plead for him and tried to find a way to see him. But before they could see him, they heard that he had confessed and would be executed. My eldest brother noticed something was wrong and asked an old friend to get the files. He found many suspicious points and was going to ask for help from Prime Minister Yu. But on the eve of his meeting with Prime Minister Yu, the Xie family was tragically wiped out. A total of twelve people in the family were killed. Thanks to my eldest brother's prudence, he hid the evidence in a place that only he and I knew about when the accident happened, so the remaining evidence was not destroyed."

Talking about the past, Xie Pingchuan's gentle brows sank, covered with a dark haze.

He stroked the thin, yellowed paper, picked it up, and handed it to Xue Shu: "Later, when I returned to Beijing, I heard that the Dali Temple had a fire and burned many files. I secretly took away the files hidden by my elder brother, and asked around for the whereabouts of the long-time attendant and the four students. I learned that the long-time attendant had committed suicide in prison, and that three of the four students had died in an accident, and only one was missing. I have been searching secretly for so many years, and only recently found some clues."

"The cheating students were not allowed to speak up. I think there must be something wrong with their initial confessions."

Xue Shu took the file and put it into his sleeve, saying, "Leave the remaining person to us. There is no place safer than Dongchang. If we don't let him die, he won't die."

Xie Yunchuan looked at his attitude and his uneasy heart calmed down a bit, but he still reminded him hesitantly: "This case has been reported to the emperor. I heard that my father's execution was approved by His Majesty himself."

If it was a common injustice, then it would be overturned. But if it was a case personally approved by the emperor, it would be a disgrace to the emperor if the case was overturned. This was also the reason why he had been patient and had not spoken out.

Xue Shu glanced at him and snorted, "Master Xie, just put your mind at ease."

The emperor's face is worthless in the eyes of the prince.

Xie Pingchuan didn't say anything more after hearing this, and silently saw him off. Only when he was leaving did he bow deeply and said, "I can't thank you enough for your great kindness. I will remember your help today, Lord Xue."

"Thank you for your courtesy, sir." Xue Shu looked back at him, politely helped him up, and this time he smiled sincerely.

The Dongchang guards were always efficient in their work, and following the clues provided by Xie Pingchuan, they quickly found the hiding student.

After discovering that three of his friends had died "accidentally" one after another, he felt uneasy and, under the arrangement of his family, he changed his appearance and hid on a farm. In recent years, he was afraid that his existence would be exposed and someone would come to silence him. He lived in fear and no longer had the arrogance and recklessness he had before.

Tortured by fear, the man who had just turned thirty was already looking very sad. He looked at the guards who came to his door and was taken away without any resistance.

The next thing becomes simple.

While Shao Tian was "avoiding suspicion" at home, several upright people jointly reported him and brought up the fraud case of that year.

When the old case was brought up, the files had to be checked. But when the people from the Censorate went to retrieve the old files, they found that the files had been destroyed in the fire.

When Shao Tian heard the news, he smiled as if he had expected it. To weed, you have to uproot the weeds. He didn't like to leave any trouble. Look, isn't this coming in handy?

The Dali Temple Shaoqing who was in charge of the case back then is now the Dali Temple Qing. He smiled helplessly at Xue Shu and the officials from the Censorate who came to retrieve the case files and said, "Master Xue, this is really unfortunate. Look at this...?"

Xue Shu looked at the other person's relaxed smile, narrowed his eyes slowly, pulled out the yellowed file from his sleeve, and showed him the seal at the end: "Isn't this a coincidence? We just got such a file, which is exactly the case of Xie Wendao's fraud. Lord Temple Minister, please take a look at the authenticity of this file."

The Dali Temple Minister looked at the old files and his expression changed instantly.

With the files and witnesses available, many doubts about the old case were quickly raised and referred to the Censorate for reexamination.

Having just been accused of harboring private soldiers and then implicated in a corruption case in imperial examinations, Shao Tian's time of "avoiding suspicion" and recuperation has been extended a lot. However, this time he is no longer in a relaxed mood.

When the news of the previous dynasty's turmoil reached Emperor Longfeng's ears, Xie Wendao's old case had already begun to be re-examined.

Emperor Longfeng took great effort to recall this old case, and his expression immediately turned unhappy.

If I remember correctly, this was a case that he personally approved.

The prince wants to overturn the verdict. Isn't this a slap in his face?

Emperor Longfeng was very angry, but before he could lose his temper, he began to feel dizzy. With Yin Ciguang's help, he drank another bowl of medicine and finally recovered.

Leaning weakly against the bedpost, Emperor Longfeng dared not get angry anymore. He just gritted his teeth when he thought of how the prince increasingly disregarded him as the emperor.

He had to find a way to persuade the prince to do this.

Emperor Longfeng's wandering gaze finally fell on his eldest son. After a long while, he seemed to have made a decision and asked someone to put down the pen.

After dismissing all the servants in the inner hall, he opened the side of the pillow and took out a blank edict with a seal on it.

Emperor Longfeng picked up the pen and dipped it in ink. He pondered for a long time before he started writing.

Just as he finished writing the edict, he heard a voice from outside: "Your Majesty, Consort De wants to see you."

Emperor Longfeng didn't want to meet him at first, but then he thought that the crown prince was too arrogant now, and Prince An had to take care of his illness and couldn't attend the court, so he could use the third prince to suppress the crown prince's temper first.

After putting the imperial edict away and pressing it under his pillow, Emperor Longfeng sat on the bed and said, "Come in."

After giving a look and ordering the four eunuchs to stay outside the palace, Defei slowly walked into the inner hall.

When Emperor Longfeng saw her, he was stunned for a moment, then frowned: "The way Concubine De is dressed today..."

Concubine De's appearance was not outstanding. She usually dressed in plain and elegant clothes, and could be praised as dignified and generous. But today she came in a gorgeous dress with makeup on. However, her appearance was too plain to be suppressed by the overly gorgeous makeup and complicated clothes, which showed a strong sense of incongruity, and she looked like a fool imitating a fool.

"...It doesn't suit you very well." Emperor Longfeng felt that Concubine De was acting too unbecoming today.

De Fei's face darkened for a moment, then she quickly smiled, no longer as respectful and humble as usual: "Today is a happy day, so I came here in my best attire."