C98 (1/2)

In the next few days, Li Yannan did not have much face left, other than the His Majesty, every one of them had come to pressure him. After all, the Ministry of Rites was the examination hall and the examination papers were all in the Ministry of Rites, so if one were to change the exam papers, everyone in the Ministry of Rites would have a chance to escape suspicion. And the facts were that, the first ranking given was not very fair.

After Ministry of Justice took over the case of the fraud, other than sending a bunch of people to the Rites Department to watch over them, then sending a few young masters who were extremely difficult to please in, they did not have any other results. No one knew what they were doing every day, but the situation had not progressed at all.

”Master, Lord Gu is inviting you.”

”What is he planning to do now?!” Li Yannan unhappily yelled at the manager, ”No, that's not right. How come I don't know when he came?”

It was you who said not to bother you if you had nothing to do with it...

Li Yannan impatiently threw down his work. ”Let's go and take a look. Every day …”

Li Yannan came outside Feng Chen's room, only to see one of his subordinates lowering his head and bringing out a plate of squirrel fish, Gu Yun stood by the side with his hands behind his back, and took the initiative to greet him, ”Thank you, Master Li.”

Li Yannan cupped his fists, ”Yo, why didn't Lord Gu inform everyone that he was coming?”

”Lord Li is too polite. I came here on a routine inspection, so I didn't want to disturb you from your work. Thus, I came here first.”

Then why bother? Li Yannan looked at the squirrel fish with its tail held high and snappily. Then, he suddenly noticed a piece of fish skin that was exposed from the bottom of the fish's belly. His pupils constricted. ”What is this?”

Gu Yun had been looking at his reaction the entire time, and laughed heartily upon hearing this, ”Oh, Master Li might not know this, but since I've been here today, I've coincidentally met your esteemed head who came to deliver the food, and then decided to throw away the fish belly. In the end, I found a slip of paper with a fish belly, wrapped in that fish skin.”

”A note? ”There's actually such a thing?” Li Yannan was astounded as he turned to look at the head, ”What's going on?”

The owner's face was filled with tears, as if he had lost his parents, ”I didn't know, Master, we were just bringing the fish over to the Young Master Feng as usual, who knows what's hidden inside.”

No matter how you looked at it, the main task wasn't really a person who could put the piece of paper inside and then return the fish to its original form. Therefore, this piece of paper should have been placed inside the fish before it was fried.

The words were very small, but one could still make out that the words written on the paper were exactly the same as the answers written on the papers previously used by Feng Chen on the examination. That meant that Feng Chen's so-called ”different handwriting” was not written by himself, but was written by someone else.

This way, the scope of the exam papers could be narrowed down, because after the exam papers were handed in, they would be affixed with a piece of paper with a stamp on it. Whether it was before or after the exam papers were exchanged, the number of people who could be reached was very limited, and coincidentally Li Yannan was one of them. Furthermore, other than His Majesty, the only people who could come into contact with the Hall Exam questions were a few Scholars of the Hanlin House and a few Masters of the Main Examiner. Coincidentally, Li Yannan happened to be one of them as well.

”Lord Gu, this matter can be big or small. I thought that it would be better to gather more evidence and thoroughly investigate. After all, regarding the selection of my Great Chen exams and the reputation of the examiners, I hope that Lord Gu would be cautious.”

Master Li is serious, so you should try your best to handle the matter. However, Master Li, you can rest assured that the few Masters in your clan have always been cautious and diligent. I personally believe that the various Masters here will make this matter clear and will not make things difficult for Master.

Li Yannan laughed and patted Gu Yun's shoulders, ”Lord Gu is young and promising.”

Great Scholar Feng naturally was unable to eat the squirrel fish he yearned for. This fish was brought back to the Ministry of Justice as proof of submission, and was placed in front of Gu Yun as he looked around.

The words on Feng Chen's paper were the same as the handwriting on the piece of paper, which also proved that Feng Chen's Top Scorer had cheated as well.

The number of people participating in the Hall Competition was higher than in previous years, and other than the people who were originally ranked, after the second round of examination, the people who thought that they were qualified for the Hall Competition had also arrived. His Majesty had personally taken charge of the examination, so the questions were all fresh out.

The His Majesty had personally sent guards to read the papers after the test. This meant that the test papers were being read in front of the His Majesty and everyone else.