He's a scholar! He doesn't need to kneel before your master, yet you dare to arrest us so rashly!
The yamen runners behind him scoffed, "Heh, so what if you're a scholar? We're arresting you! Our master is a Jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations), and he's not as arrogant as you to discuss state affairs."
Zhang Qiang's expression changed, and he asked with a forced smile, "Is there some misunderstanding? We talked about it before and nothing happened, didn't we?"
Besides, we didn't say anything bad about him; we've only been saying that His Majesty is wise and that the Prince is not good.”
"Even if the prince is bad, he is still a descendant of the emperor! Is he someone you can talk about?" the constable sneered.
Another urged, "Stop talking nonsense! Come with us to the prison."
The three men's expressions changed several times.
Since before the Lunar New Year, they have had a string of bad luck.
Not only them, but also the business of Zhao Fugui's family, who had long been able to pay their bills, suffered a sharp decline.
For some reason, the dirty and despicable things that the Zhao family had done were exposed one after another.
Repeatedly selling off assets to cover the losses was futile.
Now the entire Zhao family is crammed into two dilapidated huts. Zhao Fugui can no longer afford to go to restaurants, and even his three meals a day have been reduced to two.
Despite his current predicament, Zhao Fugui is unwilling to abandon the integrity of a scholar and will not seek employment. Therefore, the Zhao family is still living off their savings.
They naturally could no longer make Zhao Fugui pay the bill.
The three of them originally worked as teachers in official schools or private academies, but they were all dismissed one after another!
Without a stable source of money, the three became anxious and turned their attention to the book-copying work that they had previously looked down on Fan Jin for.
But after asking every bookstore in the area, not one was willing!
They complained that their handwriting was ugly, or that their prices were too high; nothing ever went right for them.
"Sir, please show leniency! We are all scholars. If we go to prison, how can we participate in the imperial examinations again?!" Zheng Pingsheng panicked and pleaded anxiously.
The yamen runners didn't care.
The master originally intended to use a few students from the prefectural city as an example to curb the trend of speaking out against the court!
As for why these three were chosen, it was simply because someone had asked the master for a favor beforehand; it was just a small favor.
It's all because of these three people's mouths that cause trouble.
"You three surely know better than us that loose lips sink ships. Let's go, don't linger, or things will get ugly if we start fighting!"
The sounds of pushing, shoving, cursing, rebuking, and the clanking of chains were incessant.
Fan Jin remembered what Shui Qing had said: avoid discussing state affairs to prevent being caught in the crossfire.
Shui Qing is absolutely right.
The imperial examination paths of Zheng Pingsheng, Zhou Wenzhang, and Zhang Qiang are now closed.
Despite being classmates, Fan Jin felt strangely no sadness, and even a little bit of joy.
He knew this was inappropriate, and there was a hint of schadenfreude in it, so he quickly suppressed it.
It turns out that he did take those insults, harassment, fault-finding, and humiliation to heart; they had also caused him harm.
Now, he felt that the pent-up frustration in his heart had completely dissipated.
Looking up ahead, he exhaled and drove the oxcart home.
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