Chapter 123 "Examining the False Accusations"
"Father, are we sure we'll be alright doing this?"
"What could possibly happen?"
"Well, the Guo family's son has already passed the county-level examination and become a scholar. What if he fails the provincial-level examination this time—"
He succeeded in one fell swoop; the Zhao family has just shot themselves in the foot!
"Ha! Silly boy, the provincial examination is not that easy to pass." Hearing his son's words, Boss Zhao waved his hand dismissively and said with a hint of sarcasm, "There are plenty of poor scholars who fail the provincial examination year after year. If Guo Baiwen were really confident in this provincial examination, he would definitely not have gone back to the prefectural city before even waiting for the results to be released."
If they hadn't happened to come and stumbled upon it, not a single piece of information would have been leaked beforehand.
It's likely that he failed the exam as well.
"Besides, he passed the imperial examination many years ago. Although he's not that old now, he's taken the provincial examination so many times, has he ever passed even once?"
Who knows if he'll be a dud? It would be lucky if he could even pass the county-level exam, let alone dream of passing the provincial-level exam?
Mr. Zhao still remembered the look of disdain on Guo Baiwen's face when he saw his son, so he retorted with great satisfaction: "If you ask me, he was lucky to pass the imperial examination and become a scholar. His ancestors were blessed with good fortune. After all, he came from a small mountain village and is not worth mentioning."
Although the Zhao family was just a merchant family, they had been wealthy in Xiuning County for many years and had many connections with rich families and officials. Compared to small, insignificant families from outside the area, they naturally had their own ways and connections.
If it weren't for the need to escape the limitations of his family's "merchant" identity through marriage, he wouldn't have gone to such lengths to ask a scholar's daughter for his only son's hand in marriage!
The more rampant the rumors spread on the streets, the more relieved he felt of the anger he had been holding onto.
Young Master Zhao originally wanted to say something, but after listening to his father's words, he realized that they made sense.
Although he was initially very resistant to the marriage, he unexpectedly ran into Guo Songwan at the entrance of the embroidery shop and, seeing her beautiful appearance, began to agree.
If it weren't for her brother's interference, Guo Songwan might have already exchanged birth dates with him and would soon have become his wife!
That's why!
It was supposed to be a perfectly good marriage, but it had to turn into this mess!
Young Master Zhao shook his head and sighed for a while, then bid farewell to his father and prepared to leave with a wave of his fan.
Before he could even step out the door, he was stopped by his own gatekeeper.
"How dare you! You dare block your young master's way!"
"Young master, it's not that I'm being bold," the gatekeeper who was blocking the way said helplessly. "It's just that the master just instructed you to stay home as much as possible these next few days."
"Stay indoors! It's not like you're forbidding me from going out!"
"Master said that even if you really want to go out, you should be accompanied by Ah Da and the others before they will let you go."
"You!" Young Master Zhao slammed his fan down, quite angry. He had originally promised Xiao Taohong from Qingfeng Garden that he would visit her in the next few days.
But ever since returning from the prefectural city, not only has my father deducted half of my monthly allowance, but I also have to bring two more people with me to watch over me whenever I want to go out.
As a result, this "outing" trip has escalated to the point where it really can only be an outing now!
Guo Baiwen!
It's all your fault!
He snapped the fan shut, tossed it onto the gatekeeper's head, and yelled, "What a lousy gate! I don't even want to go out!"
However, despite his stubbornness, Young Master Zhao was not really willing to be locked up at home for several days.
On this day, after much pleading and cajoling, he finally convinced his father to allow him to take only one person with him on this trip. Only then did Young Master Zhao excitedly change into his newly made clothes and head out.
But something just felt off about this trip.
Passersby would casually glance at him, which was one thing, but when he passed by the entrance of Tongfu Inn, he even overheard something about the 'Zhao family'.
Haven't the previous rumors finished circulating yet?
Young Master Zhao assumed it was just one of the rumors circulating before. As the protagonist of the "annulment of the engagement," he was, after all, the victim in the rumors, and his situation was naturally much better than that of the "money-grubbing" Guo family.
So he continued shopping without caring, and didn't find it strange even when someone rolled their eyes at him.
I guess it's because they think my outfit today is too flashy!
He walked along the street corner, intending to go into his usual jewelry shop to pick out a couple of trendy pieces for Xiao Taohong, to appease himself for not visiting her these past few days.
Before they had even fully turned the corner, they heard a commotion going on inside the teahouse.
"I never would have guessed—the Zhao family's move was truly ruthless."
"If you ask me, the Zhao family was originally just a salt merchant, what kind of morality could they possibly have!"
"Exactly, exactly. This girl has suffered so much for no reason. Thinking about all the rumors circulating these past few days, I knew the Guo family couldn't possibly be like that. It's so pitiful that she had to run into such a family..."
The more Young Master Zhao listened, the more he felt something was wrong. He stopped walking and quickly squeezed into the crowd with the people behind him.
"What are you saying?! Let me hear it!"
Some people in the crowd didn't recognize Young Master Zhao, and upon seeing this, they enthusiastically began to explain things to him.
It turns out that the scholar Guo Baiwen, who was mentioned in the previous rumors, wrote a "Refutation of the False Accusations" at some point, which not only detailed the process of the Zhao family's rejection of his marriage proposal but also the spread of rumors.
Moreover, because he was worried that ordinary people wouldn't understand it, he specially wrote a plain language version as well.
Both versions are written with earnest words, yet each one is scathing. They not only point out the suspicious aspects of the rumors, but also point out that there were bystanders present when the engagement fell through. They even specifically state that "marriage should be based on mutual consent, and cannot be forced. Furthermore, one should not use rumors to ruin someone's reputation. This is neither the behavior of a gentleman nor the way of honest business."
Although the Zhao family is not mentioned in the entire text, it seems that every sentence is about the Zhao family.
Merchants value profit, but they also value reputation.
Guo Baiwen copied the article dozens of times and asked several of his former classmates from the academy and students he had taught to post and circulate it in teahouses, taverns, and private schools in Xiuning County, and even in the prefectural city.
In this era of flourishing literary culture, scholars, whether or not they have passed the imperial examinations, place great importance on "morality." Even wealthy merchants yearn for their approval.
After the "Refutation of the False Accusation" spread, students from academies and private schools began to criticize the Zhao family for being "immoral," and many neighbors also felt that the Zhao family had gone too far.
"Even if you don't marry her, you can't just ruin her reputation like this!"
More importantly, many of the Zhao family's clients were from scholarly families or were gentry who valued moral character. Upon seeing this, they reduced or even cut off their business dealings with the Zhao family, stating frankly that they "did not want to do business with unethical merchants."
Young Master Zhao's reputation at the academy wasn't very good to begin with. After this incident, even the academy's owner, the registrar of Xiuning County, who had always remained behind the scenes, subtly suggested that he transfer to another school.
He was originally the registrar of Xiuning County. In addition to wanting to revitalize the literary style, he also wanted to make more friends with scholars when he built the private academy.
Young Master Zhao himself is not very learned. He enrolled in the academy with the idea of expanding his social circle. However, if he continues to stay in the academy, the reputation and brand that Yangzheng Academy has built up over decades will likely be dragged down as well.
When rumors spread to others, you, as the beneficiary, don't feel any suffering. But now that the roles have suddenly reversed, you realize just how painful it can be.
Seeing his business suffer and fearing complete ostracization from the literary circle, Boss Zhao originally planned to offer a high price to recruit a scholar to write an article similar to "Refuting the False Accusation," stating that it was all Guo Baiwen's one-sided story.
Although the idea was good, he kept running into obstacles in his attempts to find other scholars to help him. Not to mention that there were not many scholars in Xiuning County to begin with, more importantly, no one wanted to get involved in this mess.
Left with no other choice, Boss Zhao had to settle for a higher price and hire a penniless young scholar to help him polish his writing. The scholar offered to lower his price by ten taels, as long as Boss Zhao didn't say that he had written the article himself!
Upon hearing this request, Boss Zhao was almost laughing in anger. If it were just a simple article, he could easily find someone to write it for him. The reason he specifically sought out someone with official rank was simply to increase the credibility of his words and to compete with that Guo fellow!
So he had no choice but to haggle with the student for several more days, and even offered to pay more!
Anyway, isn't this scholar's family short of money?! In that case, surely he can get away with paying more, right?!
However, the other party was very insistent, insisting that his name could not be made public, and even seemed to imply that if Mr. Zhao continued to talk about it, he would close his doors to visitors.
So, unable to get the article he wanted, Boss Zhao became increasingly angry and went home to give his precious son, Young Master Zhao, a severe beating.
If this kid had just studied hard at the academy, would he have needed to beg and plead with others outside for help?!
But if we don't agree to this request, then we really won't find anyone else willing to help.
So after deliberating for a day, Boss Zhao had no choice but to reluctantly agree to the request. After the scholar finally finished writing the article, he had Young Master Zhao, who was still recovering from the beating, carefully review it. After confirming that there were no problems, he followed Guo Baiwen's example and posted it everywhere.
However, given the delay, Guo Baiwen's "Refutation of False Accusations" had already deeply resonated with the public. This young scholar's essay, written with elaborate language and numerous classical allusions, was still barely comprehensible to those who had studied for a few years.
But for the villagers who were used to hearing plain language and were illiterate, it was no different from a book written in heaven.
In the end, despite spending a lot of money, it was like throwing a stone into a large pool; it started off with great force but only splashed a little water at the very beginning.
Seeing that having people write articles to respond to each other was not working, Boss Zhao began to think of other methods.
But before he could come up with a new solution, the official salt transportation route that his family had finally managed to establish suddenly encountered a new problem.
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