The Minister of Ministry of Personnel had been setting up an examination fraud case, planning to drag Xie Huizhou into it and ruin him beyond redemption.
Who would have thought a mere Bookshop would be so bold as to muddy the waters and disrupt all their plans?
Now all sorts of true and false rumors were circulating everywhere, and as they spread, some people began to think there had never been any examination fraud at all.
It was just a group of people scamming others out of their money.
Such scams had happened in previous years, too, and were hardly worth mentioning.
Even the Fourth Prince personally asked what exactly was going on, and whether money had blinded them so thoroughly that they had completely forgotten their plan.
"My lord, this Bookshop has become quite popular in recent years. Many high-ranking officials and nobles buy books there. If we simply shut it down, people are bound to ask questions," a subordinate from the Ministry of Personnel objected. "Besides, the son of the Minister of Rites is behind it. That old bastard is fiercely protective of his own!
Although the Bookshop had made its fortune selling improper books, it also sold inexpensive copies of the Four Books and Five Classics, along with writing supplies and calligraphy, which made its position in Capital City unshakable.
The Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Rites did not get along very well. The mere mention made the minister even angrier, and he took it as a provocation from the Ministry of Rites. "The Ministry of Rites! Pah, am I afraid of him? I'll send people over right now and see just what he's up to."
They sent additional men to investigate the examination fraud around the Bookshop.
They would have been fine if they had stayed away, but the moment they went, Xie Huizhou's men caught them red-handed and threw them into the dungeon along with the people who wanted to buy the exam questions.
The newly built dungeon held a crowd of people, each with an agenda of their own, and Xie Huizhou was interrogating them.
"I've caught you. Now tell me who's behind this."
"You think this will make us submit? Not a chance!"
Xie Huizhou revealed the instruments of torture behind him, which he had borrowed from Zhang Lanhe. "Won't talk? Have you heard of the eighteen methods of torture?"
He described every torture method he had learned about, from ancient and modern times, both domestic and foreign. The more he spoke, the more the others looked at him as though he were a pervert.
The Ninth Prince, Xie Huizhou, looked perfectly respectable, but in private, he was a pervert who enjoyed torturing people!
No wonder the Ninth Prince got along so well with the Imperial Preceptor. They were birds of a feather.
Xie Huizhou looked at the instruments. "If you won't talk, I'll let you try every last one and see whether your mouths are harder than they are."
Before he could finish, they all immediately confessed. "We'll tell you everything!"
They were not death-sworn agents. They had merely taken money to do someone a job.
They were not willing to test those eighteen methods of torture on themselves for such a paltry profit.
Why risk their lives for that little money?
They quickly identified the person who had instructed them, and following the trail led all the way to the Minister of Ministry of Personnel.
At Zhang Lanhe's urging, the censorial officials launched a barrage of denunciations against the Ministry of Personnel, forcing the emperor to intervene.
The emperor's face darkened the moment he saw the secret report about the Ministry of Personnel's involvement in examination fraud!
"Those scoundrels, deceiving their superiors and concealing things from their subordinates! Investigate! Investigate them thoroughly!"
The head of the Dali Temple took over the case and soon uncovered that the Ministry of Personnel had been selling offices and titles, and had been involved in examination fraud for years.
The Minister of Ministry of Personnel was sentenced to be beheaded after autumn. The other participants had their property confiscated and were exiled, while the scholars involved were stripped of their eligibility to sit the Imperial Examination.
Now everyone knew that the supposedly useless Ninth Prince was extremely clever and fair.
Most of the scholars came from poor families. Previously, when others bought exam questions in advance and took their places, they could only swallow their anger. Now they showered Xie Huizhou with praise.
They even called him an upright lord of justice.
Having put an end to the examination fraud ahead of time and gained another source of income for the Bookshop, Xie Huizhou and his friends were delighted. Forgetting the lesson from before, he went drinking with them again.
He had only had one mishap. Surely it would not happen again?
Zhang Lanhe was not very pleased.
"Your Highness, are you abandoning me again?" Seeing how Xie Huizhou kept avoiding him, Zhang Lanhe smiled in a way that made one's hair stand on end.
"Your Highness, all sorts frequent taverns. You've just offended people, and someone could easily target you."
After Xie Huizhou left, Zhang Lanhe instructed his subordinates to do something for him.
"My lord, don't you want His Highness to fall in love with you willingly? What you're planning isn't exactly something a normal person would do."
"How will His Highness know that he's best off with me if he never weathers any storms? I only want to tell His Highness to be careful outside and never let his guard down." Zhang Lanhe gave a long sigh, his expression melancholy, as though he were worrying about Xie Huizhou. "As His Highness's temporary tutor, if I don't put such care into teaching him, how will he understand my painstaking efforts?"
Every lesson he taught Xie Huizhou left a deep impression.
At the tavern.
As they drank, Li Xu voiced his earlier concerns. "Zhouzhou, you need to watch out for the Imperial Preceptor. I don't think there's anything right about the way he looks at you. Don't let him gobble you up one day."
After going home, the more Li Xu had thought about it, the more something had seemed wrong. Even if it offended the Imperial Preceptor, he had to keep harping on it.
"Is there really nothing between you and the Imperial Preceptor?"
Li Xu was no fool. Once he connected it to the "girl" who had dallied with Xie Huizhou without asking him to take responsibility, he began to suspect that Xie Huizhou was the person the Imperial Preceptor was looking for.
If the Imperial Preceptor got together with his best friend one day, his poor little heart might not take it.
Xie Huizhou denied it. "There's only the pure bond between a ruler and his subject. Ah Xu, don't see everything as dirty just because your mind is in the gutter! You've been looking at too many erotic pictures."
Li Xu: "..."
Had he really been overthinking it?
With no further suspicions, they went back to drinking heavily. After several rounds, they were all hopelessly drunk.
Xie Huizhou's head felt heavy and muddled. He had just walked out of the tavern and was about to wave his men over to take him home to rest.
But then-
He had barely entered the alley where the carriages were waiting when someone clamped a hand over his mouth and nose from behind and dragged him into an unfamiliar carriage before he could react.
The person was immensely strong, leaving the already drunken Xie Huizhou powerless to resist and completely at his mercy.
By the time the Shadow Guards rushed forward to rescue him, the masked driver had already whipped the horses into a gallop and sped away with the carriage, leaving them exchanging looks.
"Something terrible has happened! The Ninth Prince has been abducted! The vile Ministry of Personnel is taking revenge!"
Xie Huizhou was held in someone's arms, his hands and feet bound and even his eyes covered with black gauze. For some reason, Little White Snake had not attacked the man.
This is bad. This feels very bad.
Despite having lived two lifetimes, this was Xie Huizhou's first time being kidnapped. He did not know what the other party wanted. Was it money or his life?
Xie Huizhou calmly negotiated with the person behind him. "Who are you? Why have you kidnapped me? If you want money, I'll give it to you. As long as you don't hurt me, we can work this out."
With cloth covering his eyes, he could not see where he was and knew only that he was in a jolting carriage. His senses heightened, he could feel the breath of the person beside him against his neck, as well as the scorching gaze that seemed intent on devouring him whole.
It gave him goosebumps.
Damn it, this tavern and I just don't get along. Every time I come here to drink with my friends, something bad happens.
This time, Xie Huizhou had even run into a pervert!
Who could have abducted him without a sound right under the Shadow Guards' noses?
His martial arts were not weak. Even with his frail body and drunken state, escaping should not have been a problem, but his intentions were seen through several times, and every attempt failed.
The moment he recalled the Imperial Preceptor's warning, he regretted not listening to him. Now he was paying for it.
His whole body was burning hot from drinking too much. He could not think of anyone else who would treat him this way, but his heart sank when he heard the words that followed.
The person's voice sounded a little false, as though he were deliberately disguising it. Its peculiar, indistinct tone left Xie Huizhou unable to tell who he was.
"Shh. My favorite artist, Spring Studio Hermit. I sent you so many letters and gifts, but you kept ignoring me. You even sneaked off to drink with other people. I'm angry."
Pain shot through Xie Huizhou's neck. The man was actually biting it, and he asked mischievously beside his ear,
"Why don't you guess who I am?"
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