Joy of Life: The melon-eating prince sees through Fan Xian's fake death

Chapter 72: Enter the palace to see the emperor and ask for his will

From ancient times to the present, scholars have been the most arrogant, but hundreds of students on the scene all knelt down and kowtowed to the same person in unison. This shocking scene was even more exciting than the scene of the Spring Examination, and the shouts of gratitude were endless.

Seeing that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was so respected and loved, Qing Zhu couldn't help but raise his chin proudly and looked at the Crown Prince: "Your Royal Highness, just think of yourself as being proud of yourself."

Jiang Ziyan opened her big eyes and her face flushed with excitement: "This is too spectacular!"

Even Luan Hongyu, who had a blank expression on her face, looked at Li Chengqian with a hint of appreciation and respect: "Your Highness, this is righteousness."

Fan Xian stood behind Li Chengqian. Seeing so many students kneeling to him, he felt a little bit of disbelief in his heart. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was even more saintly than him. The purpose of this wave of publicity was probably not just as simple as winning the hearts of the people, right?

The people of Kyoto who were standing outside the examination hall and watching, after learning the whole story from people who knew the situation, could not help but express their sincere gratitude to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince for his noble act of challenging the Spring Imperial Examination, which was monopolized by the aristocratic families and high-ranking officials, for grassroots students like them:

"His Royal Highness the Prince is wise!"

"Your Highness the Crown Prince loves the people like his own children and is kind-hearted!"

"Mom, what are they doing? Why are they all praising that brother?"

A child who was brought by his mother to watch the Spring Examination Hall asked curiously. His mother secretly pointed to the center of the crowd and said, "That is His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. Remember his appearance. When you grow up, you will also study for the imperial examination. If you have the opportunity to serve as an official in the future, it must be his contribution now."

"Everyone please stand up. As an examiner of the Spring Examination, I have no choice but to take the responsibility." Li Chengqian said.

Hundreds of students stood up in response, hundreds of eyes were filled with the light of hope. Even though they had overcome all the obstacles and gone to Beijing to take the imperial examinations, and studied hard for decades, all the hardships they had endured were now forgotten.

As long as there is hope, they have motivation!

Everyone thinks that His Royal Highness is their adopted parent. Everyone wants to study hard to get a good ranking in the fair Spring Examination and become an official in the future. If His Royal Highness needs anything, they will definitely repay him with a thousandfold kindness.
Winning over the hearts of the "small town test-takers" was a double-edged sword, and Li Chengqian had more to do than that. He walked to the "fainted" Guo Zheng, squatted down, and said in a warning tone:
"Minister Guo, don't think you can fool everyone by pretending to be unconscious."

The unconscious Minister Guo moved his fingers.

Fan Xian also noticed this detail, and looked at the prince, asking with his eyes whether he needed manual wake-up service?
Li Chengqian waved his hand and gave a final warning: "Minister Guo, tell the Second Prince behind you that I will be in charge of this Spring Examination. Tell him to put away his tricks and thoughts. If he dares to fight me, I don't mind pulling out the people behind him."

The side of Minister Guo's face that was pressed to the ground was trembling slightly, and his heart was filled with turmoil.

"Let's go."

Li Chengqian called the maid beside him, and left the examination room with Fan Xian. When they took the carriage back to the inner city of Kyoto, hundreds of candidates spontaneously followed the prince to see him off, and hundreds of Kyoto citizens made way for them and lined the streets to welcome them.

Qingzhu and Jiang Ziyan followed on both sides of the carriage, surprise and pride showing on their pretty faces.

I have never seen such a scene before. This is the power of the people.
······
On the carriage.

Fan Xian rubbed his face. Just now, in order to cooperate with His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and help him establish his authority, his stern face was a little twitchy. He looked at Li Chengqian with a smile: "Your Highness the Crown Prince, your acting just now was not bad, right?"

Li Chengqian still maintained his seriousness: "What is acting?"

Fan Xian was embarrassed and explained: "It means that I acted very well."

I secretly complained: I really haven’t found out yet.
Li Chengqian then relaxed his shoulders and touched his throat: "Just now, I almost made my voice hoarse while shouting to encourage people. Next time, I have to be careful when using my true Qi to speak loudly."

It would be nice if there was a Buddhist lion's roar.
Fan Xian lifted the curtain and saw the dense crowd of students following the carriage to see him off. He was somewhat amazed: "Your Highness the Crown Prince's heartfelt words must have touched the hearts of these students, and will soon reach the ears of today's scholars from humble backgrounds. Your Highness will surely become famous!"

"Stop testing me."

Li Chengqian laughed:
"You should be able to guess that I am not doing this for fame, nor just to win the hearts of scholars around the world. Otherwise, why would you deliberately block my mouth shape and voice when I said those words to Guo Zheng?"

Fan Xian chuckled and clasped his fists in apology:

"Your Highness wants to use the opportunity of punishing Minister Guo to intimidate the Second Prince and the Princess, thereby protecting the students participating in the Spring Examination from being affected?"

High emotional intelligence: protecting students.

Low EQ: Can’t make mistakes.

If anything goes wrong in this Spring Examination, both Fan Xian and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince will be to blame. Even if Minister Guo will be implicated and dismissed from his post, the Second Prince and the Eldest Princess behind the scenes will not be affected.

They could use this opportunity to dethrone Fan Xian, or even use other means to prevent Fan Xian from getting engaged to Lin Wan'er, and thus keep the power of the inner treasury in their hands. On the surface, it was a spring imperial examination, but behind the scenes it was a power struggle.
Li Chengqian nodded: "Being on guard against my second brother is the second purpose. You are right."

Fan Xian didn't understand. One was to win over the hearts of scholars all over the world, and the other was to guard against the conspiracy of the Second Prince and the Princess. Did His Royal Highness have other purposes? This was something he couldn't see:

"I don't quite understand. Please enlighten me, Your Highness."

Li Chengqian reminded:

"Who ordered us to host the Spring Examination?"

"His Majesty."

"Then think about it, Your Majesty's intention is just to let us host the Spring Examination?"

Fan Xian was stunned for a moment, then immediately realized that Emperor Qing wanted to use the Spring Examination to achieve his own goals. He had not noticed this, but it was His Royal Highness the Crown Prince who saw it first and enlightened him: "Your Majesty, do you want us to offend someone? Do you want Your Highness to fight with the Second Prince?"

Not only that, Emperor Qing wants to depose your father-in-law and take all the power into his own hands.

"You can guess what your majesty is going to do."

Li Chengqian shook his head and stopped there, not wanting to say more.

If someone else were to privately speculate on the emperor's intentions, it would be a capital crime punishable by beheading.

Fan Xian also understood this principle, so he did not continue to ask questions and thought about it on his own.

·······
The Second Prince's Mansion.

The news that the prince had hundreds of students kowtow to him respectfully and was admired by the people of Kyoto and that a group of people were escorting the prince's carriage back to Kyoto reached Li Chengze. His first reaction was shock. He had not expected the prince to use such a thundering method:
"Is Li Chengqian crazy? He will do anything to gain credit and fame!"

Xie Bian and Fan Wujiu dared not say a word, because the Crown Prince's success meant that the Second Prince was at a disadvantage. As for Li Chengze and the Princess' plan, they were only executors and had only a vague understanding of the content, and could not see through the details of the princes' game:

"Your Highness, so what should we do? We can't let the prince have it so easy!"

Fan Wujiu is loyal and looks like he is ready to kill the crown prince for the second prince.

Li Chengze was happy in his heart, but he still shook his head and asked:

"Have the things I asked Guo Zheng to prepare at the Ministry of Rites been properly arranged?"

"It will be perfect and will be useful when the Spring Examination begins."

Xie Bian was the supervisor himself. In addition to tampering with the materials, he was also responsible for registering the names of Li Chengze's followers and handed him a note: "Your Highness, these are the students who will take part in this year's Spring Examination."

Li Chengze glanced at the names on it and hesitated. In previous years, it was customary to stuff people into the Spring Examination. However, this time, the Crown Prince and Fan Xian were presiding over the Spring Examination. Shoveling people in would be like putting your neck in front of others and letting them chop you off.

"Not appropriate. Let them rely on their luck in this spring exam. Don't give the crown prince a chance."

Fan Wujiu asked tentatively: "Then we're just going to sit there and watch?"

Li Chengze smiled and shook his head, "Then you underestimated me."

He took out the list that the princess had given him. The officials on it were all her hidden agents in Kyoto. "Go and inform these officials that they can take action now. Have them give gifts to the examiners of the Spring Examination and stuff the list. Do whatever you can to make it look shameful."

Fan Wujiu asked in confusion: "Isn't this handing a knife to the prince?"

Li Chengze looked at him impatiently. He had been asking a lot of questions recently!
"These people are clean and won't leave any clues. We must maintain the tradition of stuffing names in previous years and incite more officials to give them gifts to stuff names. Doesn't the prince want to clear the name of scholars in the world? Let's see how he will clear his name!"

Xie Bian took the order and hesitated for a while before doing anything: "But if I give a gift to the prince, wouldn't it seem unreasonable and make His Majesty suspicious?"

Li Chengze threw a grape at him:
"No one dares to send gifts to the Crown Prince, and no one has the courage to put pressure on him. Then why don't you ask them to send the gifts and the list to Fan Xian? Li Chengqian, as the Crown Prince, can withstand the pressure. Can Fan Xian withstand it?"

The two shook their heads. If Fan Xian had more power and could withstand the resentment of the officials, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince would not have personally stepped in to deal with Minister Guo for standing up for the students, but would have let his subordinate Fan Xian take the blame.

Fan Wujiu flattered, "Your Highness is wise. As long as we put pressure on Fan Xian, as long as he dares to deny the list of officials in Kyoto and refuse their gifts, it will surely arouse the anger of the officials. And everyone knows that Fan Xian works for the prince, which will make the prince arouse public outrage!"

"That's right!"

Xie Bian responded. Li Chengze smiled proudly:

"The prince also said that he wanted to support scholars all over the world and eliminate the unfairness of the spring imperial examination selection. That's asking him to fight against the conventional insider information. The rules of the game are agreed upon by everyone, and even the prime minister is involved. Why does he dare to break them?"

"They have ruined everyone's interests. Just wait for the officials in the court to regard them as enemies!"

"Hahaha"

Li Chengze laughed wildly. When Xie Fan and the others were about to carry out their orders, he suddenly said, "No hope. I'll give you a chance to take part in this year's Spring Examination. You can stay in my house and study during this period. You don't have to go anywhere else."

Fan Wujiu felt a tightness in his heart and knelt down to express his gratitude:

"Thank you, Your Highness!"

······
There was a strange spectacle in Kyoto. Every household went out to see. The people saw hundreds of students escorting the prince back to the palace. The people who had eaten melons all the way back from the examination hall had the topic of conversation and talked about it to everyone who came to ask what had happened.

As a result, news of Li Chengqian's deeds spread throughout Kyoto. Contrary to the rumors of cheating in the Spring Examination that had previously circulated in the streets, this year the two examiners, the Crown Prince and Fan Xian, were in office and they were determined to clean up the deep-rooted malpractices in the examination room and restore fairness.

This move of giving opportunities to the grassroots "small town test-takers" is very encouraging to the people and the momentum is already built!

Fan Ruoruo stood at the door of Fan's house, looking at the noisy streets and crowds.

When she heard the amazing deeds of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and his brother being passed on by word of mouth among the people, her heart leapt with joy: they did not encounter any difficulties when they sneaked into the examination room, but instead made a move that shocked the whole capital!

"Look at your worthless appearance."

Fan Xian appeared in front of her mysteriously.

Fan Ruoruo shouted "Brother" in surprise, then looked behind him curiously, expecting to see the person she wanted to see, but unfortunately the prince didn't come, which made her a little disappointed: "Brother, it's great that you're back, let's go back to the mansion for dinner!"

"Is it really that good?"

Fan Xian asked jokingly:

"You don't look well. Why do you look a little disappointed?"

"Brother! You ask even though you already know the answer. Humph!"

Fan Ruoruo stomped her feet in shame and anger. She had originally wanted to accompany her brother back home, but now she didn't want to pay any attention to him. She walked quickly, holding up her blue skirt, and sat in her seat angrily. She ignored Fan Xian during the meal.

Fan Jian and Aunt Liu couldn't help laughing when they saw this scene between the brother and sister.

Ruoruo has really grown up and will fight with her brother over feelings. Although Fan Xian and Li Chengqian have a good relationship, who would not be jealous when seeing his sister being disloyal? His sister is going to get married, and as a brother he has to stop her.

But the problem is that Fan Ruoruo's thinking is too independent and cannot be stopped.

Fan Xian had no choice but to tease her in another way: "Hey, you don't want to talk to me?"

"Then I won't tell you what happened in the Spring Examination Hall today?"

The words have not yet fallen.

Fan Ruoruo put on a sweet little girl's smile, picked up the serving chopsticks and served Fan Xian all kinds of delicacies, and said in a sweet and flattering voice: "Brother, you have worked hard. Come, eat something delicious. I know that you like braised pork the most. Do you want me to feed you?"

"Ah~"

Fan Xian reached out and pushed his sister's chopsticks away, with a jealous look on his face: "You were arrogant at first, but respectful later. It makes me laugh just thinking about it!"

Fan Ruoruo chuckled: "Sister just wants to hear a story, brother won't be angry, right?"

Fan Xian: “.”

Ruoruo is the girl I trained, but she was abducted by that yellow-haired prince!

"Master! Master!"

The servant at the gate came running in breathlessly: "Many officials came to the gate with gifts, saying they wanted to see the young master and had important matters to ask him to do. Under the gifts in their hands were small notes!"

Fan Xian and Fan Jian looked at each other, both showing serious expressions.

Fan Ruoruo, who was laughing and joking just now, also restrained her smile at this time: "Brother, they know that you and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince are going to work together to deal with the cheating in the Spring Examination, but they chose to send gifts to our family at this time. Aren't they deliberately making things difficult for us?"

Fan Jian nodded, agreeing with his daughter's words: "Before, the number of officials who sent gifts to fill in the list was small, which was no abnormality compared with previous spring examinations. But since you and the prince came back, the number of officials who came has increased several times. I guess someone must have made special arrangements."

Aunt Liu asked worriedly, "What should we do now? Should we welcome her or send her off?"

Fan Xian frowned and thought. Accepting the gift and the list at this time would undoubtedly be a slap in the face of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, and also a slap in his own face. However, if he refused the list sent by the officials of Kyoto, he would have to endure the hatred of the officials, who might even make things difficult for him one day.

"They didn't dare to send the things to the Yannian Palace, so they could only send them to my Fan Mansion."

Fan Xian decided to take the blame for the Crown Prince from all the civil and military officials in the court, and asked his aunt to close the door and announce to the public that he would not be seeing any guests today. Upon hearing this, his aunt immediately stood up, twisted her curvy figure and walked out of the inner mansion, preparing to close the door and let the guests go.

But at this moment he ran into Li Chengqian who appeared from nowhere.

"Your Highness? Why are you here?"

"The back door was not closed, so I came in."

Aunt Liu suddenly realized what was going on and smiled as she welcomed the Crown Prince into her home: "Fan Xian, Ruoruo, look who's here?"

When Fan Ruoruo saw that it was Li Chengqian who came to see her, she happily put down her chopsticks and stood up: "Your Highness the Crown Prince!"

"Ruoruo."

Li Chengqian and Fan Ruoruo looked at each other affectionately. He had been too busy recently to take his girlfriend out to play, so he could only take the opportunity to find time to meet her. He also greeted Fan Xian and Fan Jian, and explained how and why he came.

Fan Jian looked at Aunt Liu and said, "Why don't you give His Royal Highness the Crown Prince a pair of chopsticks?"

Li Chengqian humbly said, "Father-in-law, please stop bothering me now. I will leave as soon as I have finished speaking."

Fan Jian smiled and shook his head: "This is a family dinner. His Highness has already called me father-in-law. How can I disturb my family?"

Aunt Liu smiled happily and twisted her slender waist to add more bowls and chopsticks to the prince's table, and deliberately asked Ruoruo to sit next to him.

She hadn't seen her lover for a long time, and she felt shy and blushed, but she was sensible and knew that the prince came here for important matters, so she didn't say anything. Instead, she silently and obediently added more food to the prince and moved the braised pork in front of Fan Xian to the front of the prince.

Brother and sister love is deep.
If the situation wasn't urgent, Fan Xian would have put on a crying scene. He looked at Li Chengqian seriously and said, "Your Highness, the Crown Prince, should we accept the gifts and list sent by the court officials? But if we don't accept them, we will anger everyone."

Li Chengqian shook his head: "What we are doing is a deep-rooted evil. If we want to make the imperial examination fair and just, it will affect their interests and undermine the established rules in the officialdom. Naturally, it will arouse public anger."

Fan Ruoruo frowned worriedly, hid her little hands under the table, and clenched her skirt into fists.

Seeing the prince so calm, Fan Xian wondered, "Your Highness, have you come up with a plan to deal with this?"

Li Chengqian nodded and looked at his father-in-law: "Presiding over the Spring Examination and giving fairness to scholars all over the world is what Fan Xian and I wish for. I already know the consequences of investigating cheating in the Spring Examination, but I will still do it."

"Tell the officials who came to Fan Mansion to deliver gifts to send the gifts directly to Yannian Hall."

"I am the crown prince of the country, and there are only a handful of officials who dare to offend me."

Fan Jian did not agree, but he had a greater sense of approval for his son-in-law. He knew that the prince saw that Fan Xian was an outsider and was worried that the Fan family was too weak to withstand the attacks of other officials, so he resorted to this desperate measure. Ruoruo had not entrusted the matter to the wrong person.

Fan Xian was worried that the prince would divert the fire and use himself as bait to attract hatred, which would backfire.

But Fan Ruoruo asked first: "What about you?"

Li Chengqian held her nervous little hand and said, "I will go to the palace and ask His Majesty for an order. As long as His Majesty nods, all this will not be a problem. Ruoruo, don't worry, I will be fine."

　Sorry for the long wait, there will be another chapter later

　　
　
(End of this chapter)