"Since you heard them, do you... have anything to say?"
As Xiao Jinxuan spoke again, everyone in the Imperial Court turned their eyes toward Jiang Xiaobai.
Even Li Bingzhang, standing to one side, finally opened his eyes slowly.
Clearly, they all wanted to see how Jiang Xiaobai would respond.
"Your Majesty, I believe..."
Under everyone's scrutiny, Jiang Xiaobai spoke slowly. Looking at Xiao Jinxuan, he cupped his hands, neither servile nor arrogant. "The doubts these officials have are actually... quite understandable."
Hm?
At those words, quite a few people in the Imperial Court froze.
Clearly, no one had expected those to be Jiang Xiaobai's opening words.
"Alas, I have a poor reputation in Capital City. I'm well aware of that myself."
Jiang Xiaobai's voice rang out again. "And I spend my days eating, drinking, and making merry, behaving outrageously and throwing my weight around. I don't deny any of that, either."
"So I can understand why the scholars outside don't believe me, and why the officials here don't believe me."
At that point, Jiang Xiaobai paused briefly.
Quite a few officials below had already begun to frown.
They suddenly could not quite tell what Jiang Xiaobai was getting at.
Just then, Jiang Xiaobai spoke again. "Even... when they accuse me of buying my position as Top Graduate, I find that... reasonable too."
Boom!
The moment Jiang Xiaobai finished speaking, the Imperial Court erupted into an uproar!
Even Guo Zhan and Zhong Yu, who had kept their heads lowered until now, abruptly looked up, their eyes filled with shock and doubt.
One had placed second in the examinations, the other third. Jiang Xiaobai had beaten them both, and naturally, neither felt happy about it.
They had expected Jiang Xiaobai to start making excuses as soon as he stepped forward, never imagining