Although today is not a new moon or full moon holiday, Zhao Shouzheng is also at home.

Because the Imperial College examination was approaching, students preparing to take the exam were allowed not to stay in prison and could prepare for the exam at home.

Zhao Shouzheng sat in the main room with two uninvited guests, chatting incoherently and feeling very tormented.

Seeing his son coming in, he seemed to have seen a rescuer, and he breathed a sigh of relief and said with a smile: "My son is back."

"Father." Zhao Hao saluted respectfully to Zhao Shouzheng, then stood up and looked coldly at Zhou Jijiu and Liu Yuanwai.

"This child, even if the marriage fails, Da Sicheng and I are your elders, why don't you bow to us?"

Mr. Liu's attitude was much more arrogant than before. Last time, Zhao Liben was there, and he knew he was in the wrong, so he was quite cautious and compromised.

But this time, since the two sides have already fallen out and Zhao Liben is not present, he naturally wants to get back the ground he lost last time.

Zhao Hao saw the unpleasant arrogance on his fat face. He thought that although they were both fat, Tang Youde was much cuter than him.

"Humph." Zhao Hao sneered and said, "Those who humiliate others will always be humiliated!"

"That's right." Zhao Shouzheng immediately added: "A gentleman must respect himself before others respect him..."

Although he felt that saying this might offend Zhou Jijiu, it was more important for Zhao Shouzheng to always be on the same front with his son.

Mr. Liu was furious and slapped the table, saying, "As expected, the top beam is crooked and the bottom beam is crooked. The Zhao family is so arrogant. It shows that our decision to cancel the engagement is absolutely correct!"

"Haha." Zhao Hao lifted his robe, sat down next to Zhao Shouzheng and said, "You can cancel the engagement, but each of you has to pay 10,000 taels."

"That's right." Zhao Shouzheng nodded immediately and said, "It won't work if you don't have a penny less!"

This is what the old man ordered before he left, so Zhao Shouzheng naturally had to strictly carry it out.

"Haha..." Zhou Jijiu and Liu Yuanwai were so angry that their noses almost crooked. They looked at each other.

"Grand Minister, you have no illusions now, right?" Mr. Liu looked at Zhou Jijiu with an expression as if he had known this would happen.

The so-called "Da Sicheng" is an elegant name for Jijiu.

Zhou Jijiu hesitated for a moment, nodded, and slowly unfolded his gilded folding fan, gently waving it and saying, "From March to now, Shouzheng, you have been in prison every day, rain or shine. From Xuezheng to Dean, everyone praised you for your upright attitude and rapid progress in your studies. It seems that you are bound to pass the imperial examination this autumn."

Zhao Shouzheng's heart skipped a beat, and he knew what evil plan this fellow had. In fact, if his future was not in their hands, he would have chased them away long ago.

Zhao Hao remained calm and watched Zhou Jijiu's performance quietly.

"But if you want to take part in the provincial examination, you must first pass the entrance examination. This year's entrance examination is organized by the Imperial College itself..." Zhou Jijiu closed his folding fan, picked up the teacup, took a sip, and stopped talking.

But the naked threat had been conveyed to the father and son without any error.

Zhao Shouzheng looked at Zhao Hao nervously, but saw Zhao Hao giving a strange smile.

It looked like he was irritated, but also like a cat playing with a mouse.

"What are you laughing at?" Mr. Liu particularly disliked this kid. And since he came home, Zhao Shouzheng seemed to have gained a backbone and became a thorn in the side.

Zhao Hao ignored him and just looked at Zhou Jijiu who looked confident of winning. He smiled and said, "I heard a poem from someone else. I will share it with Zhou Jijiu today."

Without waiting for Zhou Jijiu to express his opinion, he cleared his throat and chanted:

"A branch of crabapple blossoms looks fresh after the rain, and its thin hair makes it look even more beautiful. It is beautiful without fragrance, and it makes people jealous but also sympathize with it..."

"Pfft..." Mr. Liu couldn't help laughing, clapping his hands and teasingly said, "If Ms. Qin Huai heard this poem, she might be able to exempt my nephew from the boat fare."

"Ah, how could my son write such erotic poems..." Zhao Shouzheng's face changed when he heard this, but he would never scold Zhao Hao in front of outsiders.

But the two soon discovered that Zhou Jijiu's face had turned as pale as paper, and beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

"This, this, this..." Zhou Jijiu looked at Zhao Hao with horror in his eyes. After a long while, he managed to say, "Let's find a place where we can talk alone."

"What can't I tell others?" Zhao Hao put on airs.

Seeing that he was determined to defeat him, Zhou Jijiu became more and more nervous and short of breath. He stood up and bowed deeply to Zhao Hao, then without allowing Zhao Hao to say anything, he pulled his arm and walked towards the west room.

Watching the door of the west room slam shut, Zhao Shouzheng and Liu Yuanwai looked at each other, neither knowing what the two were up to.

But Liu Yuanwai had a more ominous premonition in his heart. Zhou Jijiu was a dignified fourth-rank official, but he was so panicked after hearing an erotic poem. This in itself can explain a lot of problems.

Zhao Shouzheng's mind is full of gossip now, but unfortunately he can only wait for his son to come back and answer his questions.

~~

In the west room, Zhou Jijiu grabbed Zhao Hao's arms with both hands and asked in a low voice, "Where did you hear this poem from?"

Zhao Hao pushed his arm away, pushed Zhou Jijiu two steps away, and sneered: "If you don't want others to know, then don't do it yourself!"

"You, what do you know?" Zhou Jijiu's face became increasingly ugly, and he was almost scared to death by Zhao Hao.

"Not too much." Zhao Hao smiled more brilliantly and said, "I only know that in the past few months, you have been very close to Shao Fang, who is known as the 'Danyang Hero'. You even took a flower boat with him to cruise the Qinhuai River at night. Shao is a wonderful man. He helped Lord Zhou and a famous Qinhuai prostitute to get together... By the way, what is the name of that famous prostitute? Zhu Taiyu, her maiden name is Wuxia, right? When Zhou Jijiu compared the beauty to the crabapple, I'm afraid he meant to compare himself to the pear blossom?"

"You, you..." Zhou Jijiu's face turned red from being squeezed. Just as he was about to say something in defense, he suddenly heard Zhao Hao's shocking words:

"Master Shao, is this about Duke Wei's matter?"

Zhou Jijiu's face turned pale instantly, then purple, and finally blue.

He never expected that such an extremely confidential matter could be seen as if by his own eyes by this young boy living in a slum alley.

After staggering for a while, he knelt down in front of Zhao Hao and said with his head down: "I really can't afford ten thousand taels of silver."

Zhao Hao was really shocked. He didn't expect that a fourth-rank official would kneel down as soon as he was told to do so.

Zhou Jijiu actually started to cry and said, "I was 41 years old when I passed the imperial examination. It was not easy for me to be selected by chance. Now that my career is on the rise, I am trembling with fear in my position and dare not accept gifts. I rely on the daily filial piety of the students to barely maintain my dignity. Even if I empty my family, I can only come up with a few thousand taels of silver."

"Master Zhao, I will agree to anything you ask. Just don't tell anyone about the affair between Duke Wei and me, or I'll be finished..."

Zhou Jijiu would be so scared that he knelt on the ground, not because he was worried about his affair with the famous Qinhuai prostitute being exposed, but because he was afraid that his affair with Wei Guogong Xu Pengju would be leaked.

The former can only slightly damage his reputation, and it can't even affect his career. After all, in the eyes of the public, the main occupation of Nanjing officials is to plant flowers and walk birds, and strolling along the Qinhuai River and singing with famous prostitutes is really nothing.

But the latter thing - it was a big taboo of collusion between civil officials and military officials! At that time, the Prime Minister Xia Yan was beheaded by Yan Song on the charge of "internal officials colluding with frontier generals". Even the Prime Minister had to be beheaded, so how could he, a small Imperial College Jijiu from Nanjing, bear such a crime?

Although Duke of Wei Xu Pengju was not a frontier general, as the head of the Jinling nobles and the garrison commander of Nanjing for many years, his identity was naturally very sensitive.

If this matter really gets out, even gods won't be able to save Zhou.

Zhou Jijiu never expected that, although he was extremely careful every time he met Shao Fang and never even had direct contact with the Duke of Wei, he was still seen as if he had seen it with his own eyes by a young boy who lived in Caijia Lane!

Anyone would be scared to death.

ps.** Wave after wave, how can I break it? I can only keep going. Please recommend, collect and comment on this chapter~~~~