By now, the palace examination had ended.
After attending Cao Mao's banquet, the scholars had each departed to await the results.
Cao Mao, meanwhile, was responsible for reviewing the memorials they had submitted at the end.
This was their first time submitting a memorial to the emperor, so they could hardly have taken it more seriously.
But before Cao Mao could finish reading them, several explosive pieces of news arrived in succession.
First came Xiahou Ba's death.
Cao Mao could only express his regret.
He had actually rather wanted to bring the old man back and let him spend his remaining years in peace in his homeland. What a pity. He had already been old and plagued by illness; lasting until now had been no easy feat.
Then came Chen Zhi's death.
Cao Mao was quite surprised by this news. He knew Chen Zhi had not lived long, but this seemed somewhat earlier than he remembered.
Was it because the Shu Kingdom's situation was now more dangerous than it had been back then, leaving him with more to do?
Cao Mao gave a long sigh and shook his head.
Though Chen Zhi's death brought him some happiness, he also felt some regret.
The man had been talented, too. Though his closeness to Huang Hao had left him with an evil reputation, and later generations generally regarded him as the chief culprit behind Huang Hao's rise to power, Cao Mao felt this was somewhat unfair.
Chen Zhi had not given Huang Hao his position. Even if Chen Zhi had refused to associate with Huang Hao and suppressed and attacked him at every turn, would Liu Shan have killed Huang Hao for Chen Zhi's sake?
Quite the opposite. Liu Shan liked Chen Zhi because he never made trouble for him and got