What Baoyue said went no further than the information Wang Yang had already gathered, but it was the most complete and coherent explanation he had ever heard. Many scholar-officials understood the matter only halfway, yet Xiao Baoyue had sorted it out so thoroughly. If she had explained it earlier, why would he have needed to rack his brains making connections and fishing for answers?
Still, even if she had told him earlier, he probably would not have dared believe her. He would have had to verify it through other channels before he could rest easy.
An idea stirred in Wang Yang's mind. He turned to Xiao Baoyue with an eager expression, but just as he was about to speak, Baoyue cut him off:
"Don't go setting your sights on me. I don't have that kind of ability. Before register verification, there would have been ways. Back then, county registers weren't checked against one another. They were submitted straight to the Provincial Tribunal, and the province didn't retain copies either. After inspection, they were sent back to the county. The Department of State Affairs only compiled registers once every three years, and supervision wasn't strict. So with the right arrangements, slipping entries into household registration records or falsifying dates wasn't particularly difficult. Even the offices and noble ranks of fathers and grandfathers could be altered for money.
"Things are different now. From the county to the province to the Department of State Affairs, every level checks against the others, and the Register Books are cross-examined. There's no room for anything to slip through. You're also registered under another household, which brings the Commandery Office into it and makes things even harder. You might alter one record, but you can't alter all the others. Besides, the Gentry Register is different from the