"Bullshit! You were expelled from the county school and stripped of your scholarly title long ago! A useless man deprived of his title,
yet you dare impersonate a student here and deceive government officers! Your crime is all the graver!"
Wang San's eyes were bloodshot as he roared hoarsely, his face wearing the savage delight of exposing a lie.
Hearing this, constable captain Wang indeed turned his scrutinizing gaze toward Fang Yuan again, with a trace more amusement and chill in his eyes:
"Oh? Stripped of your scholarly title? Is that true?"
Fang Yuan's heart sank. This is bad.
Quite a few villagers knew about this, but Wang San definitely hadn't known. Who had gone out of their way to tell him?
Sure enough, the villagers could never stand seeing someone else live comfortably.
Seeing the constable captain question him, Wang San immediately rushed to answer, his tone certain:
"Absolutely true! Boss, plenty of old folks in the village know about it! He stopped being a county school student long ago—he's nothing but a common peasant household!
He ought to be subject to conscription! He was clearly trying to deceive you just now!"
Being stripped of one's scholarly title meant losing that thin umbrella of protection and becoming an ordinary peasant household again, required to perform corvée labor and pay grain taxes.
Wang San looked at Fang Yuan mockingly, his eyes seeming to say: Let's see what tricks you have left!
The situation had taken a sharp turn for the worse! Resisting head-on was absolutely not an option; it would only give the constables an excuse to act.
In that flash of lightning, Fang Yuan suppressed every emotion. A perfectly measured look of "panic" and "sickness" appeared on his face,
and he coughed lightly twice before bowing to the constable