Capital, Zhang Prefecture.
Elder Official Zhang Wenyuan sat in the hall, his face brimming with satisfaction.
His wife sat beside him as well.
Servants of every kind wore brand-new clothes.
He was a high-ranking official and possessed an Official Seal, through which he could examine the Golden Roll results from every region. He had long known that his ninth son, Zhang Haoyue, had achieved the excellent result of eighth place in the Provincial Examination.
As a Minister, he had almost reached the pinnacle of officialdom. Perhaps there remained one or two more steps, but those steps could only be encountered, never sought, so he did not dwell on them for now. Compared with his own career, he cared more about how his sons performed.
An Aristocratic Clan—what was an Aristocratic Clan?
It meant holding real power at court, having venerable elders back in one's hometown, and generations of talented descendants emerging in an unbroken stream. Only that counted as a great aristocratic household.
He possessed all of those things.
What pleased him most was his descendants.
People said that the children of high officials were mostly wastrels, but that common saying did not apply to the Zhang Family! The Zhang Family's descendants stood in a class of their own. None of them was ordinary.
His eldest son was already Vice Minister of Rites.
His second son cultivated the Dao in an immortal sect.
His fifth son was quite popular in the capital... to put it bluntly—he was the Little Tyrant of the Capital.
His fourth and sixth sons were both Juren, and they would surely pass the Palace Examination next year.
His seventh son...
For the moment, he would not think about his seventh son. His Literary Altar had shattered, the sole blemish among a household full of outstanding sons...
His eighth son had also taken this Provincial Examination. He had registered in the capital, and though his result was barely satisfactory, he had passed in the end.
His ninth son had even taken eighth place in the Provincial Examination!
In a single day, two more talented descendants of the Literary Way had been added to the family. Heaven blessed the Zhang Family with a hundred years of grand fortune!
Those had been the exact words of the old steward, that bootlicker. Zhang Wenyuan had even rebuked him for them. What did he mean, a hundred years of grand fortune? How could the Zhang Family's great fortune last merely a hundred years? Think of another phrase for me.
The old steward blurted out, "A thousand years of grand fortune, ten thousand years..."
Forget ten thousand years. Are you trying to get yourself killed, daring to touch on His Majesty's taboo?
Hahaha! Master and servants alike were in high spirits.
Suddenly, the Official Seal at his waist trembled. Zhang Wenyuan took it out and fed Literary Way Power into it. A phantom appeared before him—it was Lei Zhongzhou, Prefect of Haining.
"Zhongzhou, the Provincial Examination is over. Put some thought into the upcoming Deer Cry Banquet. Understand?"
His meaning was clear. Although his son had placed eighth and qualified to attend the Deer Cry Banquet, his ranking was still rather low. By convention, rankings could not be altered at will. Yet there were ways to make someone stand out—for instance, setting a question at the Deer Cry Banquet and having all the students compose a poem. The question would supposedly be random, but the prefect could easily give Zhang Haoyue a hint in advance, allowing him to overwhelm the crowd with his poetry.
For scholars, literary fame was very important.
If one called it illusory, it truly was illusory. Yet if one called it real, it was real as well.
Why? Because once literary fame flourished, one's spirits soared, and one's Literary Altar shone with dazzling brilliance, releasing even greater potential.
"Minister... Minister, something... something terrible has happened." Lei Zhongzhou's face was deathly pale, and his lips trembled.
"What happened?"
"Ninth Young Master's Literary Altar has shattered..."
"What?" Zhang Wenyuan roared. The doors of the central hall instantly exploded into fragments. Several servants outside had just been about to enter, but they were hurled far away and landed coughing blood, unable to rise. At the entrance to the hall, the steward had just entered with an official, only to freeze in place...
Lei Zhongzhou dropped to his knees and tremblingly explained what had happened.
Zhang Wenyuan stood in the hall, and even the bluestone slabs beneath his feet had cracked.
The air around him spun wildly, its force almost impossible to replicate...
Haining's top Provincial Examination graduate was actually Lin Dingnan's third son. Of course, he knew the name of the top graduate, but it had never occurred to him to connect it to this, because in his mind, Third Young Master Lin was not a scholar at all...
Lin Su had made a wager with twenty-three people, Zhang Haoyue among them...
Lin Su had won the wager.
According to the terms, he could ask those twenty-three people questions, and they had to answer truthfully.
The first question that brat asked concerned the Minister's official reputation and moral standing. The moment Ninth Young Master gave his answer, his Literary Altar shattered on the spot...
Of the Zhang Family's nine sons, another had fallen!
Zhang Wenyuan exploded on the spot...
Lin Su! That remnant of Lin Dingnan, daring to cripple two of my sons in succession!
Lei Zhongzhou added another matter. "In Lin Su's policy essay, there is a line extremely unfavorable to you, my lord. It has already spread through Haining, and I fear it may have reached all of Great Cang. You must be cautious..."
"What line?" Zhang Wenyuan spoke those three words with astonishing calm. Perhaps that was the tempering gained through years in high office: no matter how great the setback, he could swiftly regain his composure.
"Countless millions of common folk weep blood as they await the royal army, while the lords of court still flaunt their tails and wag them in Luocheng..."
The moment those words were spoken, bloody light surged in Zhang Wenyuan's eyes. "Audacious madman! Audacious madman! The Luocheng Alliance was personally decreed by His Majesty. Those who rashly discuss it shall die!"
"But, my lord, the Holy Hall has rated this policy essay Class A!"
Zhang Wenyuan staggered and nearly fell!
If the Holy Hall had rated it Class A, that represented the Holy Hall's sacred decree.
Who dared defy a sacred decree of the Holy Hall?
Even the Emperor did not dare!
The Holy Hall had directly overruled imperial authority. This was too terrifying...
His Zhang Wenyuan's lifetime of illustrious fame would be cast into the eighteen levels of hell because of those two catchy lines, words bound to spread far and wide!
"Wait. Students' policy essays are not ordinarily spread across the realm or made public. Why was his policy essay released on its very first day?"
When the Holy Hall selected scholars, it needed explain nothing to anyone. Thus, students' poetry, ci, and policy essays were all sealed within the Holy Hall and never publicly released. That was precisely why people went to every conceivable length to seek out exemplary policy essays. Some outstanding model essays could sell for a thousand gold!
Why had Lin Su's policy essay, of all things, spread throughout the realm so quickly?
Could that boy have done it deliberately?
Lei Zhongzhou's expression was neither laughter nor tears as he answered, "My lord, Lin Su truly was not responsible for this essay's release. Ninth Young Master and the others questioned whether Lin Su had obtained the top graduate position fairly. The twenty-three of them jointly petitioned the Holy Hall to make it public."
The twenty-three had jointly demanded publication, only for it to result in Zhang Wenyuan's foul name spreading everywhere!
A tangled knot of rage twisted in Zhang Wenyuan's chest, and he was nearly coughing blood.
"Minister, there is another matter, even more... serious..."
There was more? Something even more serious? Zhang Wenyuan's heart nearly stopped beating.
"The Zhang Family has suffered a great calamity. Something happened to the old master. More than six hundred people are all dead; only more than seventy women survived..."
Lei Zhongzhou finished everything. Zhang Wenyuan made no movement at all, and the hall was terrifyingly silent.
Suddenly, Zhang Wenyuan roared. The roof of the central hall shot violently into the air, and the entire hall was reduced to ashes!
Amid the swirling dust, Zhang Wenyuan threw back his head and bellowed, "Who was it? Who severed the ancestral bloodline of my Zhang clan? I will tear you into ten thousand pieces! I will exterminate your nine clans..."
The steward and the Vice Minister standing at the doorway both changed color.
Haining Zhang Family.
Several women wailed loud enough to shake the heavens and the earth, yet no one showed them the slightest sympathy. Passersby even secretly tossed cow dung and the like over the courtyard walls. The great households of Haining that had ordinarily been on good terms with the Zhang Family all shut their doors at the same time.
As a result, more than six hundred corpses of the Zhang Family lay in the courtyard, with no one to collect them.
The weather was still hot. After two or three days, the corpses would all rot and stink.
Could anyone still live in that residence then?
Every woman inside was panicked and helpless, yet several young women watched coldly, without the slightest grief on their faces, and even...
"Haha, you old Zhang fiend! So this day has come for you too. Heaven has eyes!" A young woman strode out of the room. Tears covered her face, yet she also burst into wild laughter.
"You audacious bitch of Clan Liu! Seize her and beat her to death with clubs!" the Second Madam shouted coldly.
The two maids beside her looked at each other...
"Did you not hear me? I told you to beat her to death!" The Second Madam grew even angrier.
The maid on the left suddenly stood and slapped the Second Madam across the face. The Second Madam was stunned on the spot.
"The old Zhang fiend harmed countless people, and you were his accomplice! Heaven has opened its eyes and taken in a whole courtyard of evildoers—why did it leave behind a venomous woman like you?"
"That's right! Beat her to death!"
"Beat her to death!"
A crowd of maids rushed forward. The Second Madam turned pale with fright and tried to run, but a maid kicked her to the ground. Seven or eight maids simultaneously raised clubs. Amid scream after scream, the Second Madam was beaten into a pulp.
"And that old hag! Since we've done it, we might as well go all the way—kill her!"
More than thirty maids charged into the inner residence, and at once it became a bloody storm of slaughter. The old madam of the inner residence, the First Madam, the Fourth Madam...
In barely an hour, a group of maids and young women emerged from the inner residence, their bodies covered in blood.
Those women secluded in their chambers who had escaped Mr. Bao Shan's Words Become Law ultimately did not escape the hands of the inner-residence women they had oppressed for so long.
The maids left Zhang Prefecture and went to the Prefectural Yamen to surrender themselves.
Liu Xing'er looked at the deep palace-like compound before her. Recalling the bitter torment of the past three years, she let out one great cry, one long laugh, and slammed her head into the hitching stone before the gate...
The entire Zhang residence was now utterly empty!
Lei Zhongzhou had just wiped away the sweat covering his forehead after ending his conversation with Lord Zhang in the capital when the court drum sounded outside.
A large group of maids, their bodies covered in blood, stood in the hall. They openly declared that they had killed every remaining person in the Zhang residence...
Lei Zhongzhou collapsed onto his backside. The vast Haining Zhang clan had now been completely uprooted. Not a single person remained.
How was he supposed to report this to Lord Zhang?
Before you continue