The crowd fell into a deathly silence.
"Does anyone know what the first step is for collusion between officials and merchants?"
Another wave of silence.
"Does anyone know what is most crucial for embezzlement?"
The crowd was so quiet that only the sound of breathing remained.
Xiao Jin Yu coughed lightly twice. "Since His Majesty has appointed me as the chief examiner for this imperial examination, I would be failing the imperial favor if I didn't offer you some advice."
Chu Chu stood beside Xiao Jin Yu, her heart nearly jumping to her throat. Would the Prince, driven by anger, actually teach people how to become corrupt officials in the Imperial Examination Hall?
Xiao Jin Yu's face showed no trace of anger. His back was ramrod straight, and his voice was cold enough to freeze the thousands of people listening intently on the spot. "The most crucial thing for embezzlement is to have no shame. To achieve collusion between officials and merchants, the first step is to have no regard for your life... As for the interrogation chamber, take a good look tonight at what mine looks like."
Before Xiao Jin Yu's words faded, Wu Jiang understood his meaning and swiftly moved to the last examination booth in a row, marked with the character for "year." He dragged out a man who was huddled in the corner, hugging his legs, and pulled him up by the back of his collar as if handling a cat or a dog, bringing him before Xiao Jin Yu.
Wu Jiang looked with disgust at the grown man who crouched back into a ball on the ground as soon as he was set down. Pressing hard on the man's pale neck, he barked, "Kneel!"
The man instead collapsed to the ground, sobbing and sniffling.
Wu Jiang flared up. "Stop pretending!"
Someone in the crowd immediately shouted indignantly, "Do not insult scholarly dignity!"
Wu Jiang grabbed the man from the ground and unceremoniously forced him to kneel properly, saying irritably, "Hear that? Even your fellow scholars think you're disgracing their dignity, and you're still crying!"
"..."
Wu Jiang retreated to Xiao Jin Yu's side. Chu Chu tugged at his sleeve and gave him an unreserved thumbs-up, making Wu Jiang's face turn both red and dark. He twitched the corner of his mouth and offered Chu Chu a humble smile in return.
Xiao Jin Yu frowned slightly as he watched the sobbing man. "You're in the year-marked booth... so you must be Li Rusheng, correct?"
Wang Xiaohua had been thoroughly annoyed by this man, who was more troublesome than a woman, ever since the body search at the entrance. He slammed the hilt of his knife and glared fiercely. "Speak!"
"I... this student is... is..."
"Tell us yourself. How did you kill the person?"
"This student did... did not!"
Li Rusheng lifted his face, streaked with tears. Though he appeared to be over forty, his face was still fair and delicate. With two clear trails of tears, Chu Chu's heart softened at the sight, and she nearly stepped forward to offer him a handkerchief.
"It wasn't me, it wasn't me..."
Xiao Jin Yu watched him calmly. "If you didn't kill anyone... how did you know someone had died before leaving the examination booth?"
"I... I heard it..." Li Rusheng trembled as he pointed a slender, pale hand toward the supervising officials. "They were talking... this student overheard..."
Xiao Jin Yu glanced at the ten supervising officials, and all ten heads shrank back in unison.
"Fine... let's assume you heard it." Xiao Jin Yu spoke unhurriedly. "Do you dare to remove your clothes to prove your innocence?"
The crowd fell silent.
Chu Chu stared blankly at Xiao Jin Yu. Had the Prince lost his senses from fever? Innocence... that's not what it means!Li Rusheng’s peach-blossom complexion instantly turned deathly pale. He clutched his collar tightly, curling up on the ground and trembling violently. “No… don’t strip me…”
Xiao Jin Yu’s voice was low and firm. “Wu Jiang…”
Wu Jiang took a deep breath, steeled himself, and strode over with a hardened expression. In the blink of an eye, he tore off the outermost layer of Li Rusheng’s tightly wrapped clothing, revealing a second garment underneath.
Wu Jiang froze. The other candidates, who had been clenching their fists in protest, also stiffened on the spot. The ten invigilators’ jaws nearly dropped to the floor.
What was wrapped around Li Rusheng’s body was actually an official invigilator’s uniform.
Wang Xiaohua grew frantic. During the entry search, this person had been wearing five or six layers of coarse cloth garments, with the innermost two or three layers patched repeatedly. How could an official uniform suddenly appear? “Where the hell did you get this damned uniform?!”
Ignoring Li Rusheng’s sobbing state, Wu Jiang frowned and swiftly stripped the official robe from him, presenting it to Xiao Jin Yu.
Xiao Jin Yu turned the uniform over and glanced at the unusually crude stitching. “Li Rusheng… where did this uniform come from?”
“I… I made it…”
Wang Xiaohua exploded at this. “Impossible! When this little bastard entered, I had him stripped clean! There wasn’t a single scrap of this kind of cloth on him. How could he have made it?!”
Xiao Jin Yu looked at the person still sniveling on the floor and said softly, “Naturally, it was made outside and smuggled in to him.”
Wang Xiaohua slammed his broadsword down, his eyes blazing with fury. “Bullshit! My men were watching closely! Aside from these ten wandering around aimlessly, only the two old folks delivering water…” Suddenly, as if struck by a realization, he froze, then roared, “Damn their ancestors!”
“No need to rush…” Xiao Jin Yu coughed lightly twice. “General Wang, aren’t you curious why a candidate would wear an official uniform to the exam?”
Wang Xiaohua swung his long blade, pressing it against Li Rusheng’s slender neck. “Speak!”
Li Rusheng cried even harder, his tear-filled eyes pitifully fixed on Wang Xiaohua, sending shivers down the latter’s spine. The veins on Wang Xiaohua’s forehead bulged like earthworms after rain, his dark face twitching. “Keep crying… and I’ll castrate you with one swing!”
Wu Jiang nearly lost his composure.
No one protested about insulting scholarly dignity anymore—all eyes were fixed on this classmate who seemed to have been touched by a stroke of divine intervention.
Xiao Jin Yu covered his mouth and coughed twice more. “General Wang… allow me to explain on his behalf. He wore this uniform to avoid drawing attention when sneaking out in the dead of night… The ‘Nian’ cell is at the far end of the examination hall, where the lighting is dim at night. On the previous two nights, he slipped out, picking locks and swaggering about in this self-made official robe, then swaggered back in… Your guards stationed outside the examination hall simply mistook him for an invigilator on night patrol.”
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