"When the city gates catch fire, even the fish in the moat suffer!"
Su Ziji gazed at the suicide note for a long time before sighing.
In his letter, Xing Ye said that he had spent ten years studying by a cold window, while his family endured untold hardship. Even his travel expenses had come from selling their fields. Yet one mistaken decision had not only cost him all his money, but also saddled him with the charge of cheating in the Imperial Examinations and stripped him of his scholarly standing.
Not only had all his family's sacrifices gone down the drain, but he had also dragged everyone connected to him into disaster.
After that, how could he have the face to return home?
Return? He could not return.
Stay? He had no way to stay.
His future held no hope; everything had turned bleak.
Rather than linger on, barely clinging to life, he would end it himself, lest he return only to become a disgrace and a burden to his family.
Every word seemed to weep blood. There were wrinkles in the paper, too, as though tears shed while writing had soaked it.
After reading the suicide note, Su Ziji fell silent.
Had Xing Ye been wronged?
Strictly speaking, Xing Ye's fate was not unjust. After all, this was what the court's laws prescribed.
Selecting officials through the Imperial Examinations affected so many people's destinies. To rise above the crowd, one had to push countless others aside and cross that single-log bridge.
People only ever saw the boundless glory of those who crossed the bridge. But how many fell from it?
Countless!
Under such circumstances, anyone who attempted to cheat in the Imperial Examinations had to be punished severely. Even their suppliers and contacts had to be rooted out,