CH 125

Xu Bin had just met face-to-face for the first time, to say nothing of the fact that they had had no prior contact. Even if he held a grudge, he was a merchant, and regardless of how much money he had, he wouldn’t dare to confront a Court official. And yet, he had still tried to lose face for and make a stumbling block for an imperial ambassador.

Magistrate Fan had previously introduced Xu Bin as a relative of Nanjing’s Right Assistant Minister of Appointments. That was a bit of a distanced connection; if just anyone shared a hometown or clan with an official, then they could also wave that tiger’s skin as a banner by claiming a connection. That was why Tang Fan had guessed that Xu Bin’s status might might have something else to it.

Indeed, Ji Min resolved his suspicions. “Xu Bin’s former backer was Minister Chen Zhi. After the other stepped down, he reportedly gave up the majority of his wealth and relied on his connection to the capital to enter Head Vizier Wan’s eyes, and give him all his salt permits for the next three years.”

Saying so, he shook his head, half-joking. “Everyone says that Chen Zhi meeting with poor luck was because of you. You cause Xu Bin to have no choice but to donate most of his wealth to Head Vizier Wan — tell me, does he hate you, or not?”

Tang Fan saw the light. “So that’s what it was. I saw how he was looking at me like I owed him several tens of thousands of taels when he tried to embarrass me every time. If he has the big tree that is Wan An backing him, it’s no wonder he had no scruples!”

“Right. Runqing, you don’t need to fear him now, but a vile man like that is best left unprovoked. If you offend a noble, they will scold you a bit to your face at most, but if you offend a villain, they will conspire behind your back.”

“You’re saying that the case I’m investigating is likely related to him?”

“I don’t know for sure, but there is one thing. On the eve of the institutional exams, Xu Bin’s son, Xu Sui, had a verbal altercation with the deceased scholar, Lin Zhen, at an academy. They had both participated in this year’s institutional exams. After the list was revealed, Lin Zhen was in the top twenty, but Xu Sui wasn’t.”

That was actually a very important clue. “How did you know about that altercation?” Tang Fan wondered.

Ji Min shook his head. “The Egret Isle Academy they were at is the most famous academy in Ji’an. One little gust that stirs the grasses can spread to every alley. There had been a big disturbance then, with two sides beginning to fight, where I had nearly gone out to stop it. Purportedly, the headmaster later showed up to calm them down, as had the trouble gotten to me, the scholars would be disgraced, and it might affect their future honors.”

“I understand. This is all very useful, thank you. The day is late; I’ll have to wrong you with staying overnight.”

Ji Min huffed out a laugh. “Wrong me how? I’m the one that set this posthouse up. I still have a lot of things to discuss with you, so isn’t it best for you and I to get some shut-eye together tonight?”

Before Tang Fan could say anything, the sufficiently mute Lu Lingxi reacted quicker than all others. “Brother Tang, my wound really hurts!”

He hadn’t made a peep this whole time, most of his weight leaned against Tang Fan. The latter had thought that he was asleep, that unexpected utterance really startling one into a jump. Tang Fan turned his head to side-eye him. “Go back and rest, then.”

Lu Lingxi chuckled. “Can you bring me back? I can’t walk.”

Tang Fan was someone that could be persuaded, not forced. If one was defiant, he might not stand for it, but if one politely asked, he might compromise. Sui Zhou had long figured his character out, and another person had now, too. If Envoy Sui, so far away, learned of this, what would he feel?

Ji Min laughed. “Don Lu, you’re not that young, yet you still have a childlike personality. No wonder Runqing said he sees you as a little brother!”

That just made Lu Lingxi rather unhappy, unable to disclaim himself from having the personality of a pampered son. His hand refused to loosen on Tang Fan’s sleeve it held, having much of an air of ‘I want you to help me.’

Seeing this, Ji Min felt nothing. Ever since his failure at the exams, he had long been seeing instances of coldness and warmth in human relationships, and came to know many human expressions and personalities. Lu Lingxi’s grade didn’t make him wonder even a little. “Runqing, you must be tired from running around today. How about I take Don Lu back?”

“No need. Thank you for your goodwill, Brother Ziming. I’ll send him off, so you just rest well, and we’ll chat again tomorrow.”

With Tang Fan having said that, Ji Min couldn’t argue, nodding with a smile. “Very well.”

The three of them were staying in one courtyard, which took only a few steps to exist. Lu Lingxi had been able to come over and hear the two chatting with his injury, so there was no reason that he couldn’t take those few steps; Tang Fan figured that he likely had something to say to him alone. Granting his want, he led him back to his room.

Lu Lingxi was legitimately tired, but he still preserved his spirits. As soon as he entered his room, he couldn’t resist flopping down onto the bed. Tang Fan felt a bit heartsick and guilty seeing this, chiding, “Anything to say can wait until tomorrow. If you had been sleeping here to begin with, you wouldn’t be so exhausted.”

The other gave him a weary smile. “I heard Eunuch Wang speak of the White Lotus Society before, and I didn’t take it to heart, thinking that with people like us by your side protecting you, nothing would happen. Only now do I know that I couldn’t have been more wrong. A few unknown bandits at night put us in such a sorry state; if there were any more people, you might now be… I’m terrified just thinking of it. That’s why I can’t leave you alone somewhere I can’t see.”

Tang Fan was amused. “This is a posthouse. What’s going to happen? Don’t think too much. It’s good to be careful, but you can’t be on guard against enemies hiding around every corner. How else are you going to sleep at night?”

Lu Lingxi grabbed his sleeve. “Brother, can’t you sleep here tonight? I need to see you to be at ease, or I’m going to go stand guard outside your room. It’s your choice; don’t tell me that you have to heart to make me spend the night outside!”

Tang Fan really had no way to handle him. “”Go to my room, then. The bed’s a bit bigger, this one can’t hold two people.”

Lu Lingxi made a happy noise. He had limped out of unwellness a moment before, yet now immediately leapt out of bed like he wasn’t injured at all.

“…”

Despite being June, it wasn’t too warm at night. The cooling mats spread out on the bed were quite refreshing, and there was just enough room for two men to lie down on without too much tossing and turning.

However, Lu Lingxi had an excited energy for some reason, and he would not stop wriggling like a caterpillar. Tang Fan had to reach out and stop him. “You were sitting with Shen Si all night. Did you find anything out?”

Remembering his proper business now that he was reminded of it, Lu Lingxi flushed with shame and quickly coughed to cover up his awkwardness. “A little bit. I think that Don Shen is a really big moron.”

Tang Fan raised a brow. “Why do you say that?”

Lu Lingxi smiled. “I had looked at his act during the banquet and believed that he intentionally obfuscated stupidity, but a few sentences in, I learned that he’s been relying on his dad’s status to wreak havoc for a few years: there’s been no huge mistake that he hasn’t made, an unceasing amount of minor offenses, and no progress in his studies. It was out of anger that Shen Kunxiu brought his son everywhere with him. If he really was faking it, there would be no need to hide it from his own dad, nor for so many years.”

Tang Fan shook his head. “Shen Kunxiu is old-fashioned in personality, but he has quite some knowledge. Making a son like that must have been bad karma from his previous life.”

The father was implicated in the case and needed to avoid suspicion, yet the son had still openly attended a feast, and one for welcoming an imperial ambassador, no less. Those not in the know believed that he had come to bribe the imperial ambassador on his father’s orders. If Shen Kunxiu knew of this, he would likely rage to death.

With a son like that, it was little wonder as to why he wanted to bring him around and keep an eye on him. If he wasn’t with him. Shen Si might cause problems.

“I’m about the same age as him. Don’t you think I’m a lot cuter than him by comparison, Brother Tang?” Lu Lingxi asked with a grin.

Tang Fan rolled his eyes at him. “Your aspirations are pretty low. You might as well try to compare to me if you’re actually comparing yourself to him!”

Refined and outstandingly handsome, Tang Fan did not err on the sides of ‘boyish’ or ‘womanly’ in looks. Throwing out an eye-roll naturally couldn’t throw out any sense of loveliness or style, either; an eye-roll was just an eye-roll.

In the eyes of those fond of him, however, he looked good no matter what. Lu Lingxi immediately asked him, like a pest, “Brother Tang, tell me how you were when you were a teen, then!”

Tang Fan didn’t jump on the opportunity, however. “Did you hurt your arm, or your head? Why does it seem like you suddenly became ten years younger, even learning how to play coy. It’s late; behave and sleep now!”

With that, he turned so his back faced Lu Lingxi.

The latter wanted to place his hand on his waist, but he feared that Tang Fan would get angry and turn hostile, having a villain’s heart but not one’s guts. He had to resentfully stare at the back in front of him, thoughts turning rampantly, but because he was too worn-out, he unwittingly fell asleep.

No words were said for a night.

The day after, Tang Fan did not rise early, since there had been an assassination last night and he had been busy for most of the night before he could sleep. When he did get up, he heard from a posthouse person that Magistrate Fan dropped by, and was now waiting outside to meet with him.

The Magistrate had been waiting most of the morning. Too afraid to rouse Tang Fan with noise, he hadn’t even allowed anyone to make a report until Tang Fan woke up by himself.

Seeing Tang Fan walk in, properly dressed, he hurriedly got up and bowed. “This humble officials greets you, Sir.”

“No need to be so polite, Magistrate Fan. Why did no one wake me up when something happened?”

Magistrate Fan dryly laughed, as how could he have dared? “I am here specifically to apologize to you, Sir. After the assassination attempt on the streets last night, I was immensely shocked, and together with Millarch Tan, I launched an investigation to search everywhere in the city overnight. Now that people have been sent to hurry the search, we must be close to finding those villains!”

Despite saying as much, he knew himself that the chances of finding anyone were beyond slim. They hadn’t been able to catch them last night, so wanting to catch them now was very troublesome. If the assassins had assumed other identities, when the soldiers searched, they would definitely only go into the homes of civilians, which missed many clues and was no different than trying to find needles on the seafloor.

As a local official, Magistrate Fan bore this responsibility, but Tang Fan had personally experienced those assassins’ might. They had clearly been prepared, and had been able to retreat intact; given that they had shelters in the city that they could hide in any time, they could disguise themselves as ordinary civilians and leave the city at daybreak. Who would even find them?

For that reason, he didn’t lay too much responsibility on the Magistrate for investigating this. “Don’t blame yourself. You have already fulfilled your duties. No one had anticipated this, in any case, so there’s no need to speak more on it. However, from now on, some more caution is needed. I hope nothing like this happens a second time.”

Magistrate Fan shivered. “This humble official understands that lesson, Sir, and I acknowledge my wrongs! Your subordinates were all injured; I specially borrowed a few skilled soldiers from Millarch Tan for you to sent out. What is your opinion on this?”

His behavior completely differed from Chen Luan’s. Chen Luan had relied on his supporter to look down upon Tang Fan, while Fan Yuezheng feared misstepping and being reproached by the imperial ambassador, his black cap no longer ensured thereafter, so he was fawning on Tang Fan to the best of his abilities out of fear that his service would be lacking.

Tang Fan had a think. Now that two of the four Wang Zhi had given him were seriously injured, the usable subordinates at his side were greatly diminished, so he nodded. “Arrange for them to stand guard around the posthouse, then. Sorry to trouble you.”

A superior willing to receive his goodwill and not express an intention to look into his faults made Magistrate Fan delighted, and he mentally wiped off his sweat. “This is within my duties! It is what should be done!”

After he left, Lu Lingxi came in. “Brother Tang, everyone he found are soldiers from the army. I could probably say that their abilities are limited, and even more say that they can’t top mine!”

“Aren’t you resting? Why did you get up again?”

Lu Lingxi laughed. “Even you’re up, so how could I keep sleeping? I said before that wherever you go, I’m going with you. How could I defend you, otherwise? I don’t what a repeat of what happened last night!”

His complexion was a bit wan, but his energy was decent. The youth had recovered quickly, the severity of his wounds being lighter than Xi Ming’s group’s. As long as he didn’t move his injured arm, there would generally be no issue to speak of.

“Don Lu is right!” Xi Ming and Han Jin came in from outside, picking the conversation up. They had been the least injured of the four last night. “Sir, that group that failed to succeed last night will certainly try to make a comeback. You must have people around you.”

Tang Fan furrowed his brow. “But all of your injuries…”

Xi Ming smiled brightly. “We have no internal injuries and can walk around. You don’t need to worry, Sir!”

Since they were so insistent, Tang Fan couldn’t object anymore. “In that case, when breakfast is done, Xi Ming and Han Jin will follow me to visit Shen Kunxiu. Yiqing, you go ask Magistrate Fan for Lin Zhen’s corpse, then find a coroner to identify his cause of death.”

Every day this case went uninvestigated was a day the institutional exams would go unrepeated. Because this case involved the County Honorate title of many other scholars, if their accusations of cheating were confirmed, then Lin Zhen had senselessly died, killing himself to avoid the crime. Those scholars would never have their honors resumed, either. If it became verified that Shen Kunxiu had cruelly misjudged the case and made up false charges, and the scholar’s hadn’t cheated, his career would be over.

This was a simply topic, and how the case should be judged was all in Tang Fan’s hands alone.

If Shen Kunxiu was any other official, even if he wasn’t guilty, he would certainly rush to cozy up to Tang Fan right now, lest his neglect led Tang Fan to anger and caused him to incline towards the scholars. However, Shen Kunxiu did not do that — from yesterday to today, he did not show up, nor had he even gotten someone to come over and greet Tang Fan. It was unclear whether he was overly open-minded, or way too aloof and conceited.

Xi Ming and Han Jin simultaneously agreed, but Lu Lingxi was a bit reluctant. “Brother Tang, how about I come along with them?”

Tang Fan pat his head. “Do what you’re told.”

Lu Lingxi imperceptibly held in a smirk, content with his place in life.

Notices needed to be delivered before paying a visit, but Tang Fan was an imperial ambassador that didn’t need to be constrained by that rule. He brought Xi Ming and Han Jin straight to where Shen Kunxiu was staying.

The city had two posthouses. One was where Tang Fan was, and the other was currently occupied by Shen Kunxiu. As the Jiangxi Consul of Education, his permanent residence was in Nancheng Prefecture, and he always stayed at posthouses when he patrolled the various prefectures in the provinces. Now that he was deeply bothered by the case, he didn’t leave his door rashly, naturally being there when Tang Fan came.

Both of them were in the third rank. Due to Tang Fan’s status, Shen Kunxiu had to be especially half-courteous toward him, which Tang Fan did not reject. After they took their seats, he spoke no extra nonsense, getting straight to the point. “I just came here, and the only sources for this case are Court reports and rumors. Please describe everything from start to finish, Consultant Shen.”

Shen Kunxiu began to explain. Truthfully, this matter was not that complicated.

Ever since the Tang Dynasty, imperial exams had been used to employ scholars. Some had then begun to cheat in order to snatch every opportunity, and since this Dynasty had developed to the realm of having great achievements, many test-takers would have no scruples in acquiring honors. Hiding tiny cheat-sheets in clothes or hidings things in one’s hat or soles were too low-brow — not only was it easy to detect, but one’s future prospects would be ruined — so many intelligent folk had thought of a way to cheat from the source: bribing the evaluating officials.

Evaluators were human, too. Humans had desires, meaning they had weaknesses. However, following the Song Dynasty, prior to exam papers being presented to the grading officials, they would be re-transcribed. No one could be told apart from their handwriting, with even their names muddled, only to be clarified after the results were public. For that reason, telling a grading official’s your name ahead of time os that they could pick you out was a useless method, unless you could get the test questions straight from the overseeing officials.

Still, the world had successive generations of talents, so a new way to cheat would quickly appear: making an appointment with the grading officials in advance to formulate a codeword. This time around in the institutional exams, ‘Great Achievement’ had been a code, which the exam-takers had thought hard about how to cram into their papers. When the evaluators had seen it, they would understand that this was the agreed-upon codeword, and the paper needed to pass.

The last exams had been an archetypal codeword cheat, but Shen Kunxiu had not detected it beforehand. He had overseen many exams, with Ji’an Prefecture being only one of his posts, so this was not at all strange, when added with his limited energy. After the evaluators had laid out all the ranks of the graded exams, he had only briefly skimmed over the first couple of papers, felt that there was no issue, and agreed to announce the roll. He hadn’t expected that something big would happen.

The deceased Lin Zhen included, ‘Great Achievement’ had shown up in sixteen peoples’ papers total. Shen Kunxiu’s interrogation of the evaluators had yielded nothing. He had gathered those sixteen together and had them re-take tests, which had resulted in many poked holes; on that basis, he had believed that the sixteen had not been unjustly accused, so they needed to have their honors stripped, never to be employed.

That had pretty much been a bolt from a blue sky to that group of honors-obsessed scholars, and had subsequently made Lin Zhen hang himself.

Hearing all this, Tang Fan asked, “Since you re-examined the sixteen, you presumably still have their papers?”

“I do.”

“Can I look at them?”

Those papers were important evidences, so Shen Kunxiu still had them safe. He found them immediately, and, together with the sixteen papers from the institutional exam, handed them all to Tang Fan.

Tang Fan read them, then wondered, “Consul Shen, Lin Zhen was at the same level in both of his papers, with no huge discrepancy. The last-minute re-examination afterwards is not any inferior. Clearly, these are articles made with real abilities.”

“How so?” Shen Kunxiu countered. “The two papers were not that far apart in difference, but that doesn’t men that he didn’t chat. ‘Great Achievement’ appeared in his previous paper. Clearly, he had been looking for easy advantages at the time, and with those words, he would have extra protection. Too bad that his plot was exposed.”

That was reasonable, of course. He couldn’t be said to be wrong. However, if any other official of education had run into that situation, had they found that a test-taker was similar in both papers after the second exam, they would generally choose to let those people have an out. Those that did indeed have a great difference in their post-level would be expelled, and a blind eye would be turned to those otherwise.

Because scholar-officials were in charge of public opinions nowadays, and all scholar-officials had been students before. The Emperor appeared to be up on high and solely reigning supreme, yet he actually wasn’t alone in governing the realm, ruling it together with the civil officials. Thus, he was a little more lenient towards them.

A story had passed around some area once, where one year, owing to a natural disaster, the amount of people participating in the institutional exams had been much smaller compared to previous years. In the end, the number of people getting County Honorate had been higher, with only five falling off the roll. The rest of those who had passed had sent a joint petition upwards, requesting that the head examiner pass the five that had fallen off in order to send a good message. The examiner had believed that to make sense, so he had admitted the five others. This event had later spread amongst the literary circle, and no one ever said that the head examiner had been wrong, instead all praising him.

Hence, Shen Kunxiu’s conduct, compared to common practices of education officials, was quite a bit too harsh.

Of course, it couldn’t be said that he was wrong because of that, since, just like he had said, those sixteen really were suspicious. There might really had been people able to pass with their actual talents, but felt that their chances of passing would be greater with a codeword, following the example only to end up in a tragic state.

Tang Fan’s investigation really had two key points to it: one was whether the sixteen should be ousted all together, and the second was to see if Lin Zhen’s death had been forced by Shen Kunxiu’s actions.

“After coming to Ji’an, I heard some rumors related to you, Consul Shen.”

Shen Kunxiu creased his brow. “What rumors?”

“Lin Zhen’s father had a personal grudge with you from the past?”

“Bunch of drivel!” Shen Kunxiu’s reaction was quite severe. He smacked the table. “Who was it that blurted that to you, Censor Tang? Lin Zhen and them had obvious hints of cheating! I expelled them out of a will for fair play! How could any bit of slander be tolerated?!”

Seeing him flush red from irritation, Tang Fan asked, “No need to be angry. Even if they’re rumors, it’s my responsibility to ask after them to understand. Also, after the roll was released, the motives behind those who had brewed up the cheating rumors are extremely suspicious. Did you ever look into that?”

Shen Kunxiu had not. By the time he had learned the news, everything had already turned into a huge fuss. He had been occupied with stamping out the fire, so how could he have been of the mind to look for the one who had set it? Hearing Tang Fan’s question, his face darkened. “No!”

“Then did you question those evaluators again? How did they get into contact with the test-takers for cheating?”

“After I did, they refused to admit anything.”

Tang Fan frowned. Had they not admitted anything, or had he not thought to ask? Cheating was obviously impossible to do on the exam-taker’s efforts alone. The cooperation of evaluators was essential. How would the codeword come about in the first place, otherwise?

Seeing Tang Fan’s frowning face, Shen Kunxiu was mighty unhappy. He had searched inside him and concluded that he had done nothing wrong in his handling of this event, and it was only because of the mess with Lin Zhen’s death that he had ended up the object of public criticism. Now that the Court had sent an imperial ambassador to handle things, he had no comment, but seeing that Tang Fan was young in age yet using a tone of voice like he had come to arrest him as a criminal, Shen Kunxiu automatically became angry.

“Excuse me for asking, but how many evaluators were in the institutional exams, and what were their respective origins?”

“Five altogether, all headmasters at Ji’an’s academies.”

“Where are they now? I want to meet with them.”

“They all went home.”

Tang Fan couldn’t take this anymore. “As they’re involved in this case, all of them are suspicious. You very clearly knew that the Court was going to send people down to investigate, yet you let them go home? What is your reasoning?!”

Shen Kunxiu grunted. “If you’re dissatisfied, you can always call them back for questioning!”

Tang Fan was especially enraged by his uncooperative attitude. This guy was obviously the one to bungle things, yet he still looked self-assured — what right did he have to try to intimidate anyone?! “I’ll be making a report of this,” he said, expression sunken.

Meaning, ‘I’m going to complain about you.’

However, Shen Kunxiu replied, in a stuffy voice, “Do what you please!”

Their discussion ended unhappily. Knowing Shen Kunxiu’s temper well, Tang Fan didn’t bother adding words to a bad situation. He stood with a bang, prepared to brush out his sleeves and leave, only for him to see someone scramble in from outside with a panicked look. “Master, Master! It’s terrible!”

Upon seeing Tang Fan, his voice stopped dead, yet the expression on his face didn’t detract, seeming quite odd.

Noticing that the other not saying anything meant that he didn’t want him to hear, Tang Fan was disinterested in remaining here. He said a farewell to Shen Kunxiu, then strode away with Xi Ming and Han Jin.

Shen Kunxiu never rose to send him off, remaining seated.

The second they left, Xi Ming said to Tang Fan, “Sir, his servant had an off expression just now.”

Tang Fan nodded. He had also noticed that the man had been overly shocked. Had something only minor occurred, he wouldn’t have been like that. “Go ask around for what happened. Go find the five evaluators and some of the scholars that had cheaters, too. I have to question them. You can go to Magistrate Fan; he’ll have to help.”

Xi Ming affirmed all of that.

If there really had been a cheating scheme, the evaluators’ role in it was indispensable, yet Shen Kunxiu had let them go without a single word. It was hard to not be suspicious.

Even though Shen Kunxiu had made it evident that he wasn’t going to cooperate, Tang Fan didn’t believe that he wouldn’t be able to do anything without him. This case hadn’t been complicated at the start, yet with those related to it nowhere to be seen, there was no way to start on it.

Xi Ming accepted his orders and quickly went to find Magistrate Fan. Tang Fan brought Han Jin back to rest, but Lu Lingxi had already returned.

“Brother Tang, Lin Fengyuan said that Li Zhen’s body has since been buried.”