CH 72

Chapter 72: Without pressure, you wouldn’t know how rich your parents are!

After Mo Ruoshuang left, the two girls, Little Princess and Li Shi Shi, giggled together.

Little Princess threw herself into Li Shi Shi’s arms, giggling, “Shi Shi sister, you acted so well just now! Your embarrassed look when you couldn’t keep up with the discussion scared them both silly!”

“Junzhu, you were just as good! Your pitiful look when you made a mistake was so heart-wrenching!” Li Shi Shi covered her mouth and laughed.

“No, Shi Shi sister, you’re better than me. I still have room for improvement!” The two girls praised each other.

However, Lin Beifan let out a sigh and reproached them, “How could you deceive others like this? He was a good young man with aspirations. You’ve ruined him!”

Little Princess put her hands on her hips and grumbled, “You’re the worst! One moment you said he was weak, another moment you insult us as servants, you shattered his moral integrity! Hmph!”

“Husband, Little Princess is right. I won’t defend you this time,” Li Shi Shi protested unhappily.

Lin Beifan apologized repeatedly, “I know, it was all my fault! But I did it for their own good!”

The two girls were confused, “This was for their own good?”

“Yes, I did it to teach them a valuable lesson: never trust someone just because they look good!” Lin Beifan explained.

The two girls burst into laughter once again, enjoying themselves thoroughly. After they finished their wine, they continued to admire the scenery until it was late and they returned home.

Lin Beifan didn’t take Mo Ruoshuang and her companion seriously, thinking that it was a chance encounter and their paths will likely never cross again.

After his vacation, Lin Beifan returned to the Imperial Academy to resume his duties as a director.

On the day of the monthly exam, Lin Beifan cancelled all other work to invigilate the tests.

He felt thrilled because it was another day to reap the rewards of his work – he could officially harvest the budding cabbage.

As he watched the students pondering over their exams and scratching their heads, Lin Beifan felt content.

It looked like he could reap another good harvest. Sweet!

The results were soon released.

“Gao Tianyu, failed!”

“Wang Ruofeng, failed!”

“Ding Shaoren, failed!”

…None of them passed!

Lin Beifan fumed, “Take a look at your grades! I gave you a month, arranged the best teachers, and hired a homeroom teacher for your class, but you still ended up with zero points! What use are you to me? Are you worth my painstaking effort?”

The sons of high-ranking officials trembled in fear, “Director, we were wrong! Please, give us another chance!”

“I don’t want to say any more!” Lin Beifan drew a large stick, “I don’t want to use violence, but you’re forcing me to! I’m democratic – you can either give me your money or your life. Choose one!”

“Life… we choose life!!!”

Under Lin Beifan’s coercion, one by one they all reluctantly took out their money. According to the rules, failing the first monthly exam would result in a caning of 20 strokes.

Failing the second monthly exam would result in a caning of 40 strokes. If they didn’t want to be beaten, they had to pay 1,00 taels of silver for each stroke. So, each of them took out 4,000 taels of silver. In total, there were 24 people, which added up to 96,000 taels of silver. One wave of extortion made Lin Beifan rich!

Lin Beifan accepted the money, feeling satisfied, “You all are well-prepared, if only you’d put this much effort into your studies!”

These spoiled brats had been milked so many times, yet they still had a huge potential to be exploited. Lin Beifan thought he could still squeeze more out of them.

“If I don’t push you, you wouldn’t even know how rich your parents are!”

Seeing the depressed faces of the students, Lin Beifan yelled, “Stop looking so mournful, do you really think I wanted your money?”

“Isn’t that what you wanted?” the students asked hungrily.

“Of course not! I’m a director how could I do such a thing?”

Lin Beifan said righteously, “I did this to motivate you to study hard! If you don’t understand, it’s your loss, why blame me?”

The students sneered to themselves, not believing a single punctuation mark he said.

“Let me tell you, the money is only with me temporarily! When you all improve, I will return the money to you!”

The students were elated, “We can get the money back?”

“Of course! I’m a director, what’s the point of cheating you?” Lin Beifan was getting angry.

The students had a glimmer of hope, their mood was lifted. “I’m sorry, Director, I misunderstood you before!”

“I thought you were a corrupt official, but I didn’t expect your intentions to be good for us!”

“I’m sorry, Director, I was wrong to blame you!”… Lin Beifan felt warm in his heart.

After all, they were just children! He waved his hand nonchalantly, saying, “As long as you understand my good intentions, that’s enough! Enough talking, keep working hard! I look forward to hearing good news from you all!”

“Um, Director Lin… how can we get the money back?” one person cautiously asked. Everyone listened carefully.

Lin Beifan smiled, “It’s simple, just pass the imperial examination and I’ll return the money!”

“The imperial examination?”

“That’s impossible!”

“Kill me then!” Everyone lamented.

Passing the provincial level examination was feasible, given their family background and some manipulation, but passing the imperial level examination was hopeless!

Traditionally, the emperor would personally oversee and review the exam papers of the students, making it clear whether you truly had the ability or not! If there were any issues, it could cost you your life! They glared at Lin Beifan in anger. This guy was too despicable! He brought them hope, then crushed it himself! You devil!!!

Lin Beifan ignored them and left, patting his butt, “Next time you give me something, make sure it’s better or else the price will go up!”

After Lin Beifan left, Gao Tianyu let out a roar, “Enough! I can’t take it anymore!!!”

“Every day we are brought to school, losing our freedom, living a live worse than death!”

“If we come late, we get beaten; if we don’t learn, we get beaten; if we don’t pass, we get beaten again!”

“If we don’t want to get beaten, we have to pay, but if we don’t pay, we still get beaten. Now, I don’t even have a single penny left on me!”

“When we go back and ask for money, our parents will just scold us!”

“When will this miserable life end?”

“I don’t want to live anymore!!!”…

Other young masters were listening, their hearts filled with sorrow, tears streaming down their faces.

“Yes, we’re living so miserably!”

“No money, no freedom, no one loves us! We have nothing, I don’t even know the meaning of living anymore!”

“I haven’t tasted the touch of a woman in a month!”

“I’m just a child, why must they treat me like this?”

“I don’t want to live anymore! Waaah!”

At this moment, Gao Tianyu’s eyes turned cold, and he gritted his teeth, “Let’s just…let’s find someone to kill him, alright?”

All the others were shocked.

“Kill a court official? That’s a huge crime! We would lose our heads!”

“My father said that Lin Beifan is favored by the Empress. If we kill him, the Empress will be furious and our own fathers won’t be able to protect us!”

“I think we should consider this for longer…”

“What’s there to be afraid of? We can secretly spend money to hire an assassin! Even if something happens and the assassin is caught, we won’t be blamed!” Gao Tianyu sneered.

“Isn’t this inappropriate?”

“What’s inappropriate about it? Do you want to continue living like this? I can’t bear it even if you can!” Gao Tianyu said without looking up.

“What if he doesn’t die?”

“If he doesn’t die, then we’ll hire someone else to kill him until he’s dead for real!” Gao Tianyu laughed arrogantly.

“What if he finds out?”

“Even if he finds out, there’s no need to worry. Just deny it! Any incident requires evidence, don’t you know that? We’re not easy to bully either!” Gao Tianyu laughed.

“What if he doesn’t give in?” Gao Tianyu became angry and slammed his hand on the table,

“Enough! Can’t you see I’m annoyed?” The next second, his face turned pale.

“Director…Director Lin ! You…you’re back?” he stuttered.

“I came back for my stick, but unexpectedly heard a major matter concerning my life! Great! Very great! Excellent!” Lin Beifan sneered while holding his stick.

Gao Tianyu glared at the people around him and whispered, “Why didn’t you remind me?”

The other young masters all smiled bitterly, they wanted to remind him but couldn’t somehow bring themselves to.

They watched as Gao Tianyu fell deeper into the trap.

“Director, please listen to me, things aren’t what they seem…” Gao Tianyu tried to explain.

Lin Beifan remained expressionless, “Hiring someone to kill a court official is a very serious crime! According to the rules of the Imperial Academy, you will be expelled and sent to the authorities to be punished!”

Gao Tianyu panicked, “Don’t expel me, I’ll pay! I’ll pay…”

He immediately took out all his money, totaling about 50,000 taels, and gestured to the other young masters, finally accumulating 300,000 taels.

“Director Lin, here it is! A total of 300,000 taels!” Gao Tianyu fawned.

Lin Beifan collected the money and lifted his stick, “But I’m still very angry, can I hit you once?”

Looking at the thick stick, Gao Tianyu’s legs weakened and he begged, “Lord Siye, please don’t hit me! I know I was wrong. If you hit me, I’ll die…”

Lin Beifan’s voice softened, “Listen to me! Lay down and lift your butt!”

Gao Tianyu’s face turned white and he clung to Lin Beifan’s leg, “Director, please don’t do this…”

“Don’t worry, only once! It will be over soon!” Lin Beifan shook his leg lightly and Gao Tianyu fell to the ground.

The stick was raised high and then came down swiftly.

“Don’t…ah!!!