“You…” Fang Ruyi looked around, leaned closer to Pan Yang and lowered her voice: “You are no ordinary person.”
Pan Yang raised an eyebrow and looked at Fang Ruyi. Could this person really have some skills? He slowly said, "Tell me about it."
Fang Ruyi immediately shook her head: "That would really reveal a secret of heaven, and I would lose my lifespan. I can only say that you are no ordinary person. You are the star next to the Purple Star."
Pan Yang took out some silver from his pocket and tossed it to him: "You're right. If you have this skill, why are you fortune-telling in this teahouse?"
"You don't understand," Fang Ruyi said with a smug smile. "I just came from the south a few days ago and did a fortune telling for a high-ranking official. So, I have to say this half-truths and half-lies. He gave me a few hundred taels of silver to do good deeds at the teahouse."
"Hey bro, if you ever need anything, just call me. No matter what kind of monsters or demons you're dealing with, I can handle it all for you, and I guarantee you'll be completely convinced."
“Sure.” Pan Yang suddenly became interested. He had an idea, but it wasn’t the right time yet: “I’ll find you at the teahouse later, and I’ll give you the books on the table.”
As he spoke, Pan Yang stood up and slowly walked downstairs. Fang Ruyi breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed he would have to be more careful in the future. This man was truly formidable in a certain sense. Just talking to him for a few words gave him a strange feeling.
Fang Ruyi picked up the book, glanced at it, and saw that it was just an ordinary collection of ancient poems. She casually put it into her canvas bag, then walked over to a new customer and said, "Brother, would you like your fortune told?"
At the morning court session, Zhou Yang sat on the dragon throne, looking at the ministers below. The imperial examinations had been completed in the past few days, but he had not seen the papers at all, and did not even know the questions.
He took a deep breath, and the eunuch handed him the list. No matter what, the top three scholars had to be summoned to the palace.
"The top scholar of the new imperial examination is Pan Yang, the third-ranked scholar is Liu Qing, and the second-ranked scholar is Song Xie.
Zhou Yang was taken aback. Pan Yang? He hadn't left the capital and had even participated in this year's imperial examination, becoming the top scholar. He knew about the latter two people; they must have been arranged by Wang Ji. But why would Wang Ji let Pan Yang become the top scholar?
Pan Yang followed the two men inside and bowed.
Zhou Yang looked at the man, then at Wang Ji. To his surprise, a look of confusion flashed across Wang Ji's eyes. Something was wrong. The top scholar he had chosen was clearly someone else. That family had given him a thousand taels of silver. At the time, besides his few people looking at the exam papers, there was also a neutral party member, Cheng Xun.
He hadn't expected Cheng Xun to be so bold. Wang Ji glanced at Cheng Xun, then looked at Zhou Yang.
Zhou Yang took a deep breath, first assigning positions to the second and third place winners, then looked at Pan Yang and gritted his teeth.
Unexpectedly, Cheng Xun spoke first: "Your Majesty, I believe that Pan Yang is a man of great talent and should not be dealt with casually."
“But there are no vacancies in any of the positions in the court. How should we arrange them?” Wang Ji took a step forward and looked at Cheng Xun.
“If we investigate carefully, we’ll probably find quite a few people occupying vacant positions and doing nothing. Then there will be positions available.” Cheng Xun looked at Wang Ji coldly, completely unafraid.
"What does Lord Cheng mean? Are you going to investigate me too?" Wang Ji sneered.
"Lord Wang is joking." Cheng Xun frowned as he looked at him.
Zhou Yang sighed, then looked at Pan Yang and opened his mouth.
“If all else fails, I’ll become the Imperial Advisor. It seems the position has been vacant for a long time,” Pan Yang said first, shocking everyone.
The position of Imperial Advisor is both very important and not very important. Originally, the position of Imperial Advisor was very important, but when the late emperor was in power, the Imperial Advisor observed the celestial phenomena at night and revealed the cause of the late emperor's death. The late emperor was skeptical and was eventually persuaded by Wang Ji to kill the Imperial Advisor. Since then, the position of Imperial Advisor has remained vacant.
“I can also tell fortunes and observe celestial phenomena, so why not just let me be the Imperial Advisor?” Pan Yang shrugged and continued.
Wang Ji looked at Fan Yang. In fact, the Grand Preceptor's words wouldn't cause much of a stir. At present, it was just an empty shell, so even if it was given up, it wouldn't matter.
Cheng Xun frowned. He had seen Pan Yang's exam paper with his own eyes. It was a pity that such a talented person was to become the Imperial Preceptor. However, given the current situation, it seemed that he had no choice but to compromise.
Thus, each of them harbored their own thoughts and appointed Pan Yang as the Imperial Preceptor. It was somewhat absurd to appoint the newly appointed top scholar as the Imperial Preceptor.
Soon, the former Grand Preceptor's Star Gazing Pavilion was cleaned up, and Pan Yang moved in. As soon as he moved in, his servants spread rumors that the Star Gazing Pavilion was haunted, saying that it was the former Grand Preceptor's spirit causing trouble.
Zhou Yang came to find him almost immediately after receiving the news. As soon as he entered the Star-Picking Pavilion, he saw Pan Yang sitting in a rocking chair, swaying back and forth, without a single servant by his side.
"Why haven't you left the capital?" He walked over quickly, his face full of worry. Although he had changed his identity to enter, he was just a figurehead Grand Preceptor and certainly didn't have any real power.
"Because you're here, you just need to wait patiently now." Pan Yang glanced at him and continued rocking the rocking chair.
"Pan Yang, matters of the court are not suitable for you." Zhou Yang took a deep breath, feeling that Pan Yang was being far too impulsive.
"What's inappropriate about it? Just kill Wang Ji." Pan Yang shrugged, looking completely indifferent.
001 immediately screamed: "Host, host, slow down! Slow down, we can't kill Wang Ji right away!"
Pan Yang silently rolled his eyes at 001 in his heart, then stood up from the rocking chair, looked at Zhou Yang, and almost blurted out: "You're worried about me?"
“I…” Zhou Yang suddenly stopped. He didn’t expect that Huan Yang would say such a thing. It was a bit sudden but completely in line with Huan Yang’s personality. He took a deep breath: “I am worried about you, so you can’t take risks. Huan Yang killing Wang Ji is not a simple matter. Once he is killed, there will be other officials who will not be convinced.”
“Then kill them all.” The way Fan Yang said this was as simple as asking if he had eaten. He held Zhou Yang’s hand: “Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing. Tomorrow I’ll send someone into the palace. You can trust him.”
"You?" Zhou Yang frowned. "Fine, you must tell me what you're planning to do." Pan Yang absolutely cannot die in the palace. At first, he spoke to this man perhaps only because they felt their situations were similar, but now…
Pan Yang nodded, then chatted with Zhou Yang for a few more minutes before leaving the palace and arriving at the teahouse, where he indeed saw Fang Ruyi.
Fang Ruyi saw the imperial edict and jogged over to give a proper bow: "Congratulations, Imperial Preceptor. Who are you trying to fool by summoning me to the palace?"
Fan Yang wasn't surprised that Fang Ruyi knew what he was talking about, after all, this person was truly capable: "to deceive everyone."
"This is so exciting!" Fang Ruyi's eyes lit up. Of course, if he had to choose again a few years later, he would definitely run away immediately. What the heck! This is like a complete change of world order, how could it not be exciting!
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