Yin Zhe sped along the road to the Imperial Study in the Central Palace.
I had just passed by Qinghui Palace and saw Xiao Liu looking relaxed, so I went to greet him.
I originally wanted to find out something, but now I think I should give up and report to His Majesty first.
Arriving at the Imperial Study, after announcing their arrival, they entered and saw Empress Qin Minghuang reviewing memorials.
"I heard they've already located the big fish hiding in the deepest part?"
Yin Zhe bowed respectfully.
"Your Majesty, that's right. The other side couldn't hold back and revealed their true colors first."
All signs point to this person being Shen Yuanzhang, the manager of Qingjianzhai Bookstore.
The intelligence previously sent back to the palace did not include detailed names and identities, precisely to prevent leaks and alerting the enemy.
After all, no one can be certain of the extent to which aristocratic families have infiltrated the court.
Therefore, Yin Zhe spent several days carefully verifying information from various sources and setting up surveillance.
Only after confirming that everything was correct did he personally return to the palace to report to the emperor.
Upon hearing this, Qin Minghuang paused slightly in her writing, raised her eyes, and her expression softened noticeably, revealing a genuine concern and expectation.
Capturing the key figures of powerful families hidden in Fengjing is an unprecedented achievement in many years.
If we can capture him alive and interrogate him thoroughly, we will surely uncover a whole host of hidden evils lurking throughout the court and the country.
Even if the hidden dangers cannot be completely eradicated, destroying its core intelligence network means that it would be impossible for the aristocratic families to rebuild such a large-scale network of informants in Fengjing without years of hard work.
This will undoubtedly buy the court valuable breathing space and time to make strategic plans.
Qin Minghuang put down the vermilion brush, leaned forward slightly, and showed great interest:
"Tell me in detail, how did you discover this person?"
Yin Zhe will now recount the exploration process in detail.
The key to this lies with Li Jingyao, the chief examiner of the Zhongchen Dao provincial examination.
The reason he was chosen as the chief examiner was not only because his qualifications and reputation were enough to convince the public, but also because a hidden agent planted by the Xuanji Guard had been lurking in his mansion for many years.
In this respect, the Xuanji Guard and the secret agents of the aristocratic families were evenly matched, using the same methods.
After years of open and covert struggles, they are well aware of each other's usual tricks and infiltration methods.
In fact, the Xuanji Guard had already thoroughly investigated the scandalous affair of Li Jingyao's son when he served as a county magistrate, and the evidence was conclusive.
It's just a minor county magistrate of the seventh rank, not worth the Xuanji Guard making a big fuss about.
On the contrary, they used this handle to their advantage and carefully crafted a "hook".
We're just waiting for the day when an even bigger fish will bite.
As a result, this wait lasted for many years.
There are many such hidden pieces in the Xuanji Guard that may never be used, or even at all.
While powerful families may be able to plant deeply embedded spies, the Xuanji Guard, which has the full support of His Majesty, is certainly no less formidable in the Fengjing region.
Sure enough, on the eve of the provincial examination, this pawn, which had been dormant for many years, finally got its reward.
Someone, through extremely secretive channels, passed a message to Li Jingyao, requesting that he manipulate the final results of the provincial examination:
A special exam paper that is in a state of uncertainty is graded as passed.
This requirement itself doesn't sound excessive, and it's even entirely within the examiner's authority.
In the imperial examinations, the most difficult decisions are made regarding the two ends:
First, there's the selection of the top scholar; second, there's the decision of whether or not to accept the last few marginal students.
Selecting the best candidates from those papers that were neither entirely acceptable nor entirely unacceptable was the norm in all previous imperial examinations.
Yin Zhe personally took action and tracked down the messenger who delivered the message.
However, upon closer investigation, it was discovered that this person had clearly already been discarded.
There was no connection whatsoever with him to any upstream source, and the trail ended there.
The situation seemed to have reached a stalemate again, and all the key to understanding lay in the phrase "between possibilities."
The command itself is quite strange.
How could the other party have known in advance that the candidate's paper would fall into the delicate range of "ambiguity"?
The analysis of the hidden state reveals only two possibilities:
Either the candidate's writing ability is indeed limited, and their level is neither high nor low, making it very likely that they will be stuck at this position;
This could be a double insurance policy: the candidate is extremely capable, but there's a fear that they might underperform, so this policy ensures that the candidate's performance falls within a manageable range.
No matter how you speculate, there's an inexplicable strangeness about it.
With tens of thousands of candidates taking the provincial examination, who could accurately predict the final grade of a particular paper?
After much deliberation, Yin Zhe decided to change his approach and start screening the women who had passed the initial test.
The focus naturally falls on two types of people.
First, they are extremely gifted and talented, so even if they make a mistake, they are almost certain to pass the imperial examination.
Secondly, there are girls whose academic level is in the middle, and who are just right between the "uncertain" edge of the admission line.
Upon investigation, the problem was indeed discovered!
"The Wen family?" Qin Minghuang narrowed her phoenix eyes slightly upon hearing this familiar surname. "Could it be the Wen family of the imperial harem?"
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Yin Zhe continued to report.
To avoid alerting the enemy, this investigation was carried out by the elite of the Xuanji Guard, whose cultivation levels were at least at the fourth rank.
The Wen family appeared unremarkable on the surface and did not initially attract much attention, especially since the eldest son of the Wen family was a member of the Emperor's harem.
However, upon closer inspection, unusual clues were discovered.
It turned out that the servant in charge of purchasing at the Wen residence had been quietly replaced before the provincial examination.
The mansion gates remained tightly shut all day, unusually quiet.
After the Wen family fell into decline, Wen Tingwan, the second wife, finally seized the opportunity to gain fame and fortune. It was only natural for the whole family to be cautious.
Strangely, while the household was cautious, the newly appointed purchasing servant always unconsciously revealed a look of worry and fear on his face whenever he went out.
His eyes darted away, and his steps were hurried.
On another occasion, she deliberately delayed for a long time during her shopping trip, wandering around the East Market. Her restless appearance clearly showed that she was struggling internally.
This anomaly immediately alerted the Xuanji Guards who were secretly monitoring the situation.
Instead of rushing into the mansion or arresting him, they immediately reported the situation.
Yin Zhe personally took over and followed up on the matter, and after several twists and turns, he finally figured out the key and the reason behind it.
"Bang!"
Upon hearing the crucial point, Qin Minghuang slammed his hand on the dragon table, his face filled with disbelief:
"What! They got the Pei family's exam questions? And they spent 100,000 taels of silver?"
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