A Perverted Stalker Fan

After Xie Huizhou and Zhang Lanhe left the imperial palace, Xie Huizhou never wanted to see the emperor again.

They rarely met, yet the moment the emperor opened his mouth, he urged him to marry. Who could stand that?

As the Imperial Examination drew nearer, Xie Huizhou had to hurry to the Ministry of Personnel to deal with it.

Xie Huizhou went to the Ministry of Personnel early in the morning.

The Minister of Ministry of Personnel had brought his men to wait there first thing that morning. As soon as they saw him, they all came up to fuss over his well-being, each more adept than the last at reading his mood.

Xie Huizhou's arrival at the Ministry of Personnel prompted whispers throughout the court, with everyone guessing what the emperor intended.

First he had the Imperial Preceptor teach the Ninth Prince, and now he had sent him to the Ministry of Personnel. Had the other princes fallen out of favor, leaving him planning to support another prince instead?

The emperor's mind was unfathomable.

Xie Huizhou sat in the Ministry of Personnel, observing how they normally worked and listening to a barrage of flattery.

"Your Highness is young and accomplished. Your future is boundless."

"The Ninth Prince has such a commanding bearing and majestic grace. Truly handsome."

"One look at Your Highness tells us you are blessed by heaven."

All this flattery nearly wore calluses on Xie Huizhou's ears. He yawned, even feeling that going back to draw Phoenix Illustrations would be more interesting.

Not one of these people was sincere.

Every one of them was shrewd. They heaped praise on him to his face, but who knew what they thought of him privately?

His colleagues at the Ministry of Personnel had heard that Xie Huizhou had recently grown close to the Imperial Preceptor and nosily probed for gossip. "We heard there's a beauty hidden in the National Preceptor's Residence. Have you seen what he looks like?"

Oh, now that was something they sincerely meant.

Xie Huizhou: "..."

The Imperial Preceptor was the only beauty in the National Preceptor's Residence. Was there someone else?

He occasionally visited the National Preceptor's Residence to listen to Zhang Lanhe lecture him about his bizarre worldview, and he had never seen any other beauties.

Xie Huizhou had, however, drawn more and more Phoenix Illustrations, with plenty of beauties in them.

Seeing that Xie Huizhou did not quite understand, his colleague reminded him with exasperation, "That youth who called the Imperial Preceptor less than a real man and accused him of having a secret ailment! Your Highness, surely you've heard of him?"

There was really no need to be so specific.

Xie Huizhou knew perfectly well what rumors he himself had fabricated. All he could do was feign sudden understanding. "Oh, that. I've heard of it. Have there been any new rumors lately?"

"Recently, the rumor is that he's been found, and now he's trapped in the National Preceptor's Residence, unable to live or die. Hurry and tell me what sort of breathtaking beauty could make the Imperial Preceptor so unable to forget him."

Every official in the Ministry of Personnel, high and low, looked at Xie Huizhou.

After all, few people could enter the National Preceptor's Residence and emerge unscathed, and Xie Huizhou was one of them.

Since the Imperial Preceptor valued the Ninth Prince so highly, perhaps he knew something of the inside story.

Xie Huizhou said helplessly, "There's no such person. The Imperial Preceptor has simply been busy praying for the nation lately and has no time for this matter."

Disappointed murmurs rose around him one after another.

Xie Huizhou was speechless. Could you people be any more gossipy?

Unable to stay at the Ministry of Personnel any longer, Xie Huizhou simply requested past Imperial Examination papers and study materials to take back to the Detached Palace and study.

The minister of rites, a white-haired old man, handed Xie Huizhou the materials he had prepared long ago. "I knew Your Highness would need these, so I prepared them well in advance."

A shrewd gleam flashed in his eyes.

Unwilling to linger, Xie Huizhou ran back to the Detached Palace as soon as he had the materials.

The moment he left, the Minister of Ministry of Personnel's expression fell, changing faster than the turn of a page. "A green boy who knows nothing. Who knows why the Fourth Prince takes him so seriously?"

The Fourth Prince, Xie Wangqiu, had personally instructed them to lay a trap for Xie Huizhou and find a way to involve him in Examination Fraud. His plan against the Ninth Prince had to proceed.

This was the first time the Fourth Prince had taken such an insignificant opponent so seriously.

"Will having him set the questions personally affect us?" The vice minister of personnel sounded worried as he recalled the emperor's verbal decree. "We already told some court officials that we'd leak the questions to them in advance so the younger members of their families could enter the court. Now that the Ninth Prince has been appointed to set the questions, won't that make things difficult for us?"

The Minister of Ministry of Personnel was unconcerned. "What is there to fear? I've already made inquiries. The Ninth Prince is a useless fool with neither literary nor martial ability. He barely knows how to read. In the end, he'll either use the examination questions we've already prepared or come begging for our help."

Other princes had interfered in this matter before, but whatever questions they produced for the Imperial Examination, they could never escape the framework of these old scholars. Every one of them had gone away disappointed.

In the end, the Imperial Examination remained firmly in their hands.

"Besides, even if he comes up with something novel, as long as we get the questions in advance, are we really afraid we won't be able to answer them?"

"True."

Besides, these were the Fourth Prince's orders, so they could hardly be blamed for showing the Ninth Prince no mercy.

With the Imperial Examination imminent, Xie Huizhou decided to give them a surprise personally.

Day and night, Xie Huizhou recalled all sorts of civil service examination questions from his previous life. Combining them with this dynasty's Imperial Examination study materials, he decided to make life a little harder for them.

You should all get a taste of the suffering I went through.

Xie Huizhou had been very busy lately, furiously drawing his erotic illustrations while seriously writing examination questions, so busy his feet barely touched the ground.

Using his workload as an excuse, he had not visited the National Preceptor's Residence for some time when new trouble came looking for him.

"Young master, another chest appeared at the entrance, just like yesterday's."

The Shadow Guards carried in a lavishly decorated wooden chest, their expressions strange and guilty.

"Young master, we still haven't caught the person. Would you like us to destroy it?"

They had been Shadow Guards for so many years and had ample experience, yet they had still let the person leaving the chests slip away. They suddenly felt like failures.

Xie Huizhou's rapidly moving brush stopped. "Bring it here! Let me see what he's written this time!"

Lately, a stranger had also been sending him all sorts of peculiar letters and gifts, as though he knew where Xie Huizhou was at any given moment. Even the Shadow Guards could find no trace of him.

The contents of these letters were utterly shameless and obscene, leaving even Xie Huizhou flushed to the ears.

He claimed to love his Phoenix Paintings and be his fan, while also praising his beauty and saying he wanted to marry him.

His words were deranged.

Could this be called a fan?

Xie Huizhou thought this was a pervert who had been secretly spying on him all along!

This was a perverted stalker fan.

Most importantly, this fellow knew that Spring Studio Hermit was the Ninth Prince, Xie Huizhou.

Xie Huizhou had thought he had concealed himself very well. Now someone had exposed his identity, catching him off guard.

Who was this person?

"Assign more men to keep watch and find out who it is," Xie Huizhou said, touching the jade in the chest as though he had touched a hot potato. "Who on earth discovered my identity? Kill him when you find him, and make sure you leave no traces."

Xie Huizhou had always been deeply averse to having his secret identity exposed to others. It was bad for him.

The bad news was that his secret identity had been exposed, and a pervert had set his sights on him.

The good news was that this pervert counted as a fan and would not do anything to him for the time being. The fear was that the fan's love might turn to hatred and he would use this to blackmail him.

Just as Xie Huizhou was worrying about his perverted stalker fan, a friend rushed over in a panic to tell him something serious had happened.

"Zhouzhou! Zhouzhou! This is bad! I heard someone is secretly selling Imperial Examination questions among the public. There's suspected Examination Fraud, and it could spell trouble for you!"