Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 218: Being tricked again!
As soon as the ship docked, Xia Lin never appeared in front of Princess Pingyang again, but rumors began to spread. All kinds of strange rumors were flying around, and some people even wanted to say that Princess Pingyang traveled thousands of miles to the south of the Yangtze River just to give birth to a child for the talented Xia Dao.

For such a matter, not to mention that she was just a princess of a different surname, even the Buddha Wu Tian didn't have a good solution. But fortunately, the goods she needed were ready, so she might as well set off immediately.

The reason Xia Lin hid himself for a while was not because he was really worried about the rumors, but because he wanted to fix the format of the rumors, giving people the feeling that he was absconding from the crime, and enriching the stereotype of the unfaithful scholar.

"What kind of routine is this, Master Xia?"

Cen Wenben poured tea for Xia Lin and sat outside the Ten-mile Pavilion waiting for the princess's motorcade. Xia Lin sat there lazily and sighed: "Actually, this trick is very dirty, but there is no other way, I still have to use it."

"All ears."

"Don't wash your ears, or they will be dirty after hearing them." Xia Lin sighed helplessly, "An unclear rumor, unfinished KPI, and delayed return for several days. Any of them would be fine, but put them all together. Oh? Jingren, if your wife went on a cruise ship with a young stranger and was isolated from the world for four or five days, what would you do?"

"That would drive you crazy, wouldn't it? Just thinking about it is filthy enough."

"What if you find out that your wife not only went on a boat trip with a young man but also took your money, but also missed her return date and has not been contacted since?"

"Oh, Lord Xia, please stop talking. Just listening to it makes me furious."

Xia Lin laughed loudly, then tapped her fingers on the table. "The same is true of her husband. No matter what their relationship is, the one who can marry her is probably not an unknown person. Even if there is no relationship, there must be some status. And you have to know that the relationship between the brothers of the Li family is bonded by this princess. Once this happens, there will definitely be a big fight on her side. The truth cannot be hidden."

"I know her husband is angry, but how could something happen between her brothers?"

"Jingren, let me ask you again. Your wife told her family that she would bring a cart of dowry for them, but after traveling with a young man for a few days, the dowry was reduced by half. What do you think?"

"Oh, stop talking, stop talking, I'm getting angry."

But after a while, Cen Wenben still asked curiously: "Wouldn't it be clear if we talk about it?"

"Of course, the world is based on faith. If you believe, you have it. If you don't believe, you have nothing. But how to make people believe, that's a big problem." Xia Lin supported his chin with his hand: "I put myself in this game because I was afraid that they would believe it."

After saying that, he patted the box next to him and said, "So I have to reinforce their conjecture."

"This is?"

He opened the box, and inside was a set of armor made of pure gold, weighing 72 kilograms. There was no need to tell you how much it was worth, but it was so dazzling that Cen Wenben was stunned.

"what!?"

"It's a huge loss." Xia Lin sighed. "I won't tell you how much the gold price is. I spent 10,000 taels just to hire those 82 craftsmen. They worked day and night for four days, hammering it out one by one. It's not an exaggeration to say that it's priceless. Some small places with two or three thousand people are not worth the cost."

"Isn't it that the pick fee that I worked so hard to negotiate is now being returned in one go?"

"The concept is different, Jingren." Xia Lin patted the box: "It's not easy for her to accept this gift."

As they were talking, Princess Pingyang, who was full of rage, had already arrived. She was riding on a horse, escorting the goods over. When she saw the person sitting in the Ten-Li Pavilion from a distance, her blood pressure instantly rose. If it weren't for that evil creature, how could she have spread so many rumors?

I didn't want to pay attention and just walked past, but Xia Lin stood up and said, "Princess, wait a minute!"

She rolled her eyes and didn't want to pay attention, but who knew that Xia Lin would take the initiative to step forward and said, "Your Highness, I said before that I would give you a set of armor. Today I brought it to you."

Armor? That's interesting.

Princess Pingyang stopped her horse, and then saw Xia Lin struggling to drag the box over. "Your Highness, we have been through a long journey, and it will be a long time before we meet again. Please take care of yourself. I will remember our acquaintance for the rest of my life. This small gift is not enough to show my respect. If Your Highness wants to return the gift in the future, please bring me a piece of Longcheng Zhoubai Spring."

After saying this, he bowed, then turned and left, and finally said without looking back: "Your Highness, I hope we won't meet on the battlefield."

Princess Pingyang looked back at Xia Lin's back and felt a little strange, so she asked someone to open the box. When she opened it, her heart immediately started pounding. The golden armor was actually real gold when she weighed it in her hand.

This gift is extremely precious and exquisite even if it is given to His Majesty. She dismounted and squatted to examine it. Every part of the golden armor fits her body perfectly, as if it was tailor-made for her. There are rose carvings on the armor, and the smallest part is no more than a hair. It is so exquisite that people can't take their eyes away. The lethality of this thing is like a nuclear bomb to her. As a soldier, she likes armor, as a woman, she also likes roses, and as a child of a noble family, gold also matches her status.

This is simply a one-of-a-kind gift in the world, and it is impossible for anyone not to be tempted by it.

Even though she felt a little strange in her heart and thought that it was not right to accept this gift, she was really reluctant to do so. Soon she changed her mind and thought that she had suffered such a big loss in the business, so accepting a gift would be regarded as compensation.

So after thinking for a few minutes, she finally ordered someone to carry the box to the car: "Be careful, don't damage it."

Princess Pingyang finally left, and Xia Lin breathed a sigh of relief. It just so happened that tomorrow was the day for the results to be announced, so he could wait for the results to be announced peacefully.

Speaking of the announcement of the results, the examiners from the Ministry of Rites were almost frightened to death when they were marking the papers, because the Jiangnan Road was like a poison. The test questions covered mathematics, classics, policy essays, water conservancy, commerce, diplomacy, etc. The difficulty was extremely high, not only to test whether the students' basic skills were solid, but also whether their brains were flexible.

When the examiners saw the questions, they all felt that this time they were probably doomed and could only choose the tallest one among the short ones.

But when they really started marking the papers, they discovered that there was something strange about the Jiangnan Dao. No less than a hundred people solved the difficult questions as if they had the answers, and both their writing style and ideas were infinitely close to the strategies given by His Majesty.

Theoretically, this could have been approved directly, but the number was a bit scary, so they delivered the papers to the capital overnight and asked the Ministry of Personnel's Exams Director, the Ministry of Rites' Vice Minister, and the Imperial Examination Director to verify them.

In fact, the court had long been troubled by the fraud cases in previous years. Fearing that this would happen again, the three officials did not even dare to make a decision on their own and submitted the papers to the ministers of various ministries. The ministers decided not to review it. If the questions set by the emperor himself were leaked, too many people from top to bottom would be unlucky. So these people tacitly handed the papers to Gao Shilian.

Gao Shilian felt a dull pain in his liver when he saw the paper. In the past he would have simply charged it as cheating, but now he had participated in the formulation of the new examination system, and most of the examination officials in various departments were his people, so the implications were too wide.

But when he opened the paper, he found that all the candidates were from Jiangnan. Gao Shilian was really angry, so he just acted like a rogue and handed the paper to Emperor Hongbao.

Emperor Hongbao was also an unfortunate person. He actually stayed up all night for two days to finish reading the papers. Then he held his chin in his hand and was puzzled, so he called Gao Shilian and all the examining officials to his side.

"Did you guys reveal the topic?"

As soon as this statement came out, Gao Shilian started to deny it all the way and said that he was willing to accept questioning and investigation and there was no possibility that he would leak the information.

Are you kidding? If this is really revealed, it would be another major fraud case. Last time, Gao Shilian almost monopolized the court with this trick, and now it is his people who are being cleaned out again.

"There is no clue to the question? Then why is the answer so close? Look at the train of thought, it is exactly the same, the solution was thought up by the same brain, what else could it be if not a clue to the question?"

Facing the question from Emperor Hongbao, Gao Shilian said very sincerely: "Your Majesty, it is impossible for someone to reveal the answer to the question. But now that something like this has happened, I think someone must have guessed the answer correctly."

Emperor Hong Bao looked through the test papers of students who seemed to have problems and found that they were either from Yuzhang Academy or Ehu Academy. He didn't know much about Yuzhang Academy but he had personally eaten at Ehu Academy.

"Oh..." Emperor Hongbao slapped his thigh and said, "I was negligent. How could I have forgotten about that little bastard?"

After a quick thought, he knew where this uniform idea came from. It was reasonable to guess the topic, and it was also understandable that the topic was guessed. The key point was that if it was that little bastard, then everything would be reasonable.

"So far, what does your majesty mean?"

"What else can I do? Just take it." Hong Baodi sighed, "I still have to be more careful when setting questions next time."

At this point, Emperor Hongbao suddenly realized a problem, that is, it seems that all the current political issues in recent years are directly or indirectly related to that little bastard. This idea can't help but make him a little surprised. It turns out that even without entering the house, you can still make waves in the world...

"Then Your Majesty doesn't need to look into the question thoroughly?" Gao Shilian was still worried, so he continued to ask: "If Your Majesty wants to check, it can still be checked."

"What are you checking? Look at what academies these are and who owns them." Emperor Hongbao waved his hand and said, "Forget it, let them do whatever they want. He guessed my question this time. I'll wait until the autumn exam this year to see how he guesses my question!"

As he spoke, Emperor Hongbao even seemed to be eager to give it a try, and the man's desire to win suddenly rose up.

(End of this chapter)