The Imperial College's chief academic officer was only a fourth-rank official. Fu Jingsheng relied on the fact that his father, Fu Zuchong, was a third-rank official in the Ministry of Personnel to threaten Shen Yao to judge that Jiang Shi had plagiarized and cheated. However, he never expected that Jiang Shi would directly ask someone to invite the Supreme Court Minister Du Boling over.
A rare stern look appeared on the boy's gentle and fair face.
His words were powerful and impactful.
"I have returned to the Imperial College after many years. You and I are just acquaintances. Who can help me cheat and plagiarize?
A gentleman should be open and honest, self-disciplined, and respectful. Your suspicion of plagiarism implies that I am guilty, but I plead not guilty. Please ask Lord Du, the Minister of Justice, to investigate whether I have plagiarized or cheated. If Lord Du truly determines that I have, I will voluntarily go to jail and will not participate in the next imperial examination.
If Lord Du finds me not guilty, I ask you, Fu Jingsheng, to make a formal apology to me."
The Dali Temple Minister was also a third-rank official, and Fu Jingsheng could not use his father's official power to threaten Du Boling.
Fu Jingsheng panicked and immediately rebuked Jiang Shi: "It was just a small competition between you and me. Even if you cheated or plagiarized, it's not a big deal. Why did you invite Lord Du, the Supreme Court Justice, over? You're making a big deal out of nothing!"
Jiang Shi straightened his back and said calmly, "If you really judge me as having plagiarized or cheated, my reputation will be ruined. This is no small matter for me. I hope I can be treated fairly by you."
After these words were spoken, many people in the Imperial College felt guilty.
Fu Jingsheng looked stern but was actually weak. "Jiang Shi, what do you mean by that? Are you questioning whether the Lord Jijiu will treat you fairly?"
Chen Yao raised his eyebrows, but at this moment, the confrontation between Jiang Shi and Fu Jingsheng was beyond his reach, and he couldn't get a word in to defend himself.
Jiang Shi said: "Lord Shen is naturally fair, but as for the others, please forgive Jiang Shi's mean-spiritedness. To ensure justice, I still ask Lord Du to conduct a thorough investigation and restore my innocence."
Du Boling then spoke up, "The reputation of a scholar must not be damaged or slandered. Prince Jiang and Master Fu, please rest assured that I, Du, have served as an official for many years and would never abuse my power for personal gain or commit corruption. I will definitely give you a fair outcome."
Fu Jingsheng's face turned pale.
The result was naturally that Jiang Shi did not cheat or plagiarize.
This was just a small incident that happened in the Imperial College. The laws of Wanjin State did not have any provisions for convicting "slander", so Fu Jingsheng was not taken away by Du Boling and imprisoned in the Dali Temple.
But before Du Boling left, he glanced at Fu Jingsheng. That glance made Fu Jingsheng tremble with fear, and a bad premonition emerged from the bottom of his heart.
As expected, the next day, Fu Jingsheng's father Fu Zuchong was impeached by the censors. The charges included not only "poor parenting", but also corruption, bribery, forming a clique for personal gain and other crimes.
The emperor was furious and immediately ordered Du Boling to thoroughly investigate Fu Zuchong.
On the third day, Fu Jingsheng did not come to the Imperial College to study.
On the fifth day, Fu Zuchong was sentenced to death for his multiple crimes. The Fu family was confiscated and exiled to the border.
This is the second family to be exiled this year, and both families had "offended" Jiang Shi before being exiled.
Some people who like to stir up trouble started to say bad things about Jiang Shi again.
"It's good to have a good father. He can protect him even in death. You must stay away from Jiang Shi in the future. If you offend him, your whole family will be exiled to the border."
The students of the Imperial College looked at Jiang Shi with fear and a hint of contempt in their eyes.
They still believed that the emperor was so kind to Jiang Shi because of the deceased Wu'an Marquis and his wife, but Jiang Shi was a sickly person, and even if he was much better now, he would not be able to achieve much in the future.
Although Jiang Shizai won the competition with Fu Jingsheng, they had been prejudiced against his status as a scholar for many years and never believed that he had any real literary talent. They even mocked him, saying that he would definitely not take the next imperial examination due to his poor health.
Having learned from the previous experience, they did not dare to provoke Jiang Shi again, so they began to ignore him, hoping that he would suffer and blame himself, and at best, roll back to his Wu'an Marquis Mansion in disgrace.
However, Jiang Shi remained calm towards their indifference and sarcasm. He came to the Imperial College as usual every day to listen to the teacher's lectures, and left with his books after school.
Seeing that neither being ignored nor being ridiculed could make him angry, some people became restless.
Xu Naiming, the son of Duke Kangle, relied on his family's title of Duke, which was passed down from the founding emperor of Wanjin State to the ancestor of the Xu family, one of the founding heroes. For this reason alone, it was impossible for the emperor to easily order the confiscation of property and exile of the Xu family.
So he was so bold that he followed Jiang Shi's carriage with a group of younger brothers after school, wanting to see what he would do after school every day.
However, after following Jiang Shi for three days, they discovered that he would go directly back to Wu'an Marquis' Mansion every day after leaving the Imperial College, and would not leave the mansion until the next morning to go to the Imperial College to study.
Xu Naiming and others were stunned. They couldn't believe that a teenager in his teens could be so honest without the supervision of his elders. In his free time, he didn't go out to seek prostitutes or travel around, but stayed at home without going out.
Someone suddenly thought, "Isn't there a girl from Chen County living in Jiang Shi's house? She's his fiancée. I heard her last name is Yu, and her father seems to be a second-rank official."
As soon as these words were spoken, the others also remembered.
"Yes, I remember his fiancée also went to the Mid-Autumn Festival Palace Banquet. She was a very beautiful girl."
Xu Naiming stroked his chin, a wicked smile curling up at the corner of his mouth. "I was wondering why Jiang Shi went straight back home after school. It turns out he was anxious to be alone with his fiancée. There are no elders in the Wu'an Marquis's Mansion. I'm afraid they have already become husband and wife under the guise of an engaged couple. Tsk tsk, I never expected that."
They didn't dare to confront Jiang Shi openly, so they thought of using underhanded tactics.
The best trick is to spread rumors and slander.
These children of the powerful and wealthy never care about right or wrong and act only according to their own likes and dislikes.
When they hated Jiang, they wanted to bring him disgrace and bring misfortune to everyone who had any contact with him.
They don't care whether innocent people will be harmed or not, because they know that what they are doing is harming innocent people.
It was not enough for Xu Naiming to spread rumors. Today he also asked people to tamper with Jiang Shi's carriage, hoping that Jiang Shi would get into an accident on his way back, preferably with serious injuries, preferably on his face.
"A man is so frail. If I were him, I would be too embarrassed to go out and see people." He gritted his teeth, his words full of malice.
The people around him echoed him.
"That's right. I really don't know how the Marquis of Wu'an and his wife could give birth to such a weak and incompetent child."
Listening to others insulting and slandering Jiang Shi, Xu Naiming showed a happy smile on his face.
He stared at Jiang Shi with cold eyes as he got into the carriage.
That night, he finally heard the news of Jiang Shi's carriage accident and happily ate four large bowls of rice.
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