“Princess, I suspect there was cheating in this imperial examination.”
“Oh?” Rong Ke, who had been lounging lazily on the couch, finally showed some interest when hearing Xiao Jingduo’s words. “Examination cheating is no small matter. Do you know what you’re saying?”
Xiao Jingduo certainly knew—he was even going to report himself. Though his heart was heavy with unspoken troubles, he had to continue: “Of course I have evidence. Before the jinshi examination began, a note circulated containing an essay and several policy questions. Coincidentally, the exam questions turned out to be identical to those on the note. So I suspect someone leaked the questions and cheated before the exam.”
Rong Ke caught something odd: “You’ve seen this note?”
“To be honest, this note originated from me.”
Rong Ke raised her eyebrows in surprise, then her eyes filled with amusement—reporting oneself, now this was interesting.
“So, what exactly do you want from me today?”
“When I left home for the exam, my younger sister secretly placed a note in my book chest while I wasn’t looking. After I moved to the examination compound, my fellow student accidentally obtained this note and used it on the exam. I knew nothing about this. Only today, after returning home, did my sister let it slip, and I learned about this incident. I know this trouble was caused by me, but I swear I never saw the leaked questions note, nor did I intend to pass the examination through such underhanded means. Now that the damage is done, I can only report truthfully to the Princess and await your decision.”
The guard nodded and quickly left. After the guard’s departure, only Xiao Jingduo and Rong Ke remained in the room. Although servants were still present, Xiao Jingduo felt oddly uncomfortable. Though they had been alone in a room before, something felt different this time. To break the strange feeling in his heart, Xiao Jingduo had to speak up: “Princess, if I need to report something to you, how should I find you?”
This was a question he had wanted to ask since years ago when dealing with the plague. Having to rely on others to pass messages each time they met was extremely inconvenient.
This made sense to Rong Ke. After thinking for a moment, she pulled off a jade pendant: “Next time if you have urgent business, take this jade pendant to the East Palace’s back door. You don’t need to say anything, just show this pendant to the guards, then come here and wait for me. I’ll send someone to meet with you.”
Rong Ke extended her hand to give the jade pendant to Xiao Jingduo, but he didn’t take it immediately.
“Princess, this is your jade pendant. Would it be improper for me to take it?”
Rong Ke gave him a dismissive glance and tossed the pendant to him: “If I tell you to take it, just take it. Why so many unnecessary words?”
When Rong Ke threw the pendant, Xiao Jingduo couldn’t let it fall to the ground, so he had to catch it and reluctantly accept it. The pendant still carried Rong Ke’s body warmth, smooth and warm to touch, with a lingering fragrance. Only then did Xiao Jingduo realize the source of his earlier discomfort.
As time had passed, many things had changed. The most obvious change was that Rong Ke had grown from an adorable little girl, like a snowball, into a young lady. At twelve years old, her features were strikingly beautiful, and as she had grown taller, she was beginning to show the enchanting beauty of a young woman. As for Xiao Jingduo himself, he was already seventeen.
They had reached the age where they needed to be mindful of proper distance between men and women. It seemed that from now on, he could no longer meet with Rong Ke privately without consideration.
Xiao Jingduo’s heart was both nostalgic and complicated, and the jade pendant still in his palm became increasingly difficult to handle.
Moreover, Rong Ke’s name contained the character for jade, and as a subject, he should avoid using the princess’s given name. Yet here he was accepting her jade pendant. Whether considering the separation between men and women or the propriety between ruler and subject, Xiao Jingduo felt his behavior was extremely inappropriate.
Xiao Jingduo’s expression turned serious as he silently reproached himself. Rong Ke hadn’t expected the seemingly carefree Xiao Jingduo to suddenly think so deeply about this. She reclined casually against the soft pillow, her eyelashes lowered, her thoughts unclear.
Fortunately, this awkward silence didn’t last long. Soon, the guard Rong Ke had sent out returned.
The guard had somehow managed to obtain the note that Dong Peng had taken from Xiao Jingduo. The guard presented the note to Rong Ke, who looked at it and asked, “You said the note contained not only the essay topic but also five policy questions?”
Xiao Jingduo hesitated: “That… I cannot be certain.”
“The policy questions are the most important part of the official selection. If those were leaked too, that would be truly terrible.” As Rong Ke spoke, she handed the note to Xiao Jingduo, “Look at this—all five policy questions were correctly predicted. Tell me, where exactly did these questions leak from?”
Xiao Jingduo took the note passed by the servant and quickly scanned it, his brows furrowing: “They’re exactly the same, this…”
The situation was worse than imagined. Xiao Jingduo knew the test questions had come from him, but he had no way to prove he hadn’t seen them, nor could he explain the note’s source. He was now defenseless. Xiao Jingduo quickly analyzed the current situation—the fact that Rong Ke was willing to show him the note meant she still trusted him somewhat. He had to seize this opportunity to dispel her suspicions. At least Rong Ke was more reasonable than the Crown Prince. If he could make arrangements before this matter exploded, perhaps he could resolve his crisis.
In that instant, Xiao Jingduo decided on his next plan. He chose his words carefully, trying to appear as impartial as possible: “The imperial examination is meant to select officials based on talent. Now that someone has obtained the questions in advance, it’s extremely unfair to both the court and the candidates. Princess can retrieve Dong Peng and Wu Tai’s exam papers—if their answer approaches match this note, they likely consulted it. If not, we can all be relieved that it was just a false alarm. When retrieving the papers, the Princess might as well take out my paper too. I can guarantee I never saw this note; all answers were my own work.”
It was coincidental that all the policy questions happened to be topics he excelled in—Xiao Jingduo really couldn’t explain that. As he was still considering how to prove his innocence, he suddenly remembered something.
Before leaving today, Cheng Huizhen had clearly said she wrote down the essay from her dream—so why wasn’t it on this note?
Xiao Jingduo looked up in shock, only to see Rong Ke resting her head on her hand, slowly smiling at him.
“You noticed rather quickly.”
Looking at the composed Rong Ke and then at the suspiciously pristine paper in his hand, everything became clear to Xiao Jingduo. While Rong Ke had indeed obtained the note from Dong Peng, the one in his hands was deliberately forged by her.
Without realizing it, he had fallen for this young girl’s scheme, and he hadn’t even noticed when she had made the switch. Upon realizing this, Xiao Jingduo became forthright and smiled gently at Rong Ke: “An excellent ploy, Princess. I admit defeat completely. Now, do you believe me?”
Rong Ke nodded with a smile: “Judging by your reaction, you truly seem unaware of what the note looked like. Very well, I’ll trust you for now. I’m going to discuss this matter with my father. You may leave first.”
“No need, I’ll wait here respectfully for the Princess.”
“Suit yourself.”
The Crown Prince frowned deeply at the crumpled note in his hands.
“Not only did someone leak the essay topic, but they even correctly predicted two policy questions.”
The paper contained the “TIan Wen” topic and an essay below it. Though the essay’s concept was good, it read disjointedly. The more brilliant the opening, the more disappointing the latter parts became, with an enormous disparity in quality between the beginning and end—it was so drastically different it seemed as if different people had written it.
After the essay, several policy questions were listed, six in total, though only two were correct. Even so, this was enough to put the Crown Prince on alert.
Though there had been practice question booklets sold in the market these years, leaving aside the classics section, who could accurately predict policy questions? The policy questions were based on recent years’ political reports, and as for the essay section being tested for the first time, it couldn’t possibly be guessed by chance.
The Crown Prince looked at Rong Ke and asked gravely: “What exactly is going on here?”
Though the Crown Prince was refined and cultured, he was still the heir to the crown. Even this light question carried immense weight.
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