The queen is spoiling the king and madly criticizing him for spoiling her

Xie Ci'an didn't ask why, or even where Gu Jianchu heard the gossip from. He simply called Wen Zhu over and said, "Send someone to check on this Dean Wu."

In the eyes of the court officials, Xie Ci'an's behavior was like he did whatever the queen said, and he was no different from a tyrant.

The poor student had already noticed something was wrong with Yan Cheng's essay and tore it down in front of everyone. After hearing rumors that the Emperor was hosting a banquet for the newly minted scholars at the imperial palace, he hurried over.

【Yan Cheng's calamity has come.】

Their flying flower order hadn't finished yet when Zhu Xia came running over with a grim expression, "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, there's a disturbance outside the palace, and we've stopped them."

Xie Ci'an narrowed his eyes and glanced over Yan Cheng.

Yan Cheng also felt a chill and shivered all over. For some reason, his eyelids were twitching particularly violently today.

Xie Ci'an tightened his grip on the teacup and said in a cold voice, "Who dares to cause trouble outside the palace?"

Zhu Xia lowered his head and reported truthfully, "He said he was one of the candidates this time, and he kept shouting outside that the new runner-up's essay was his."

"There is such a thing." Although Xie Ci'an's voice was light, it carried a strong sense of danger.

The court officials who had been with Xie Ci'an for a long time knew that the emperor only looked calm on the surface, but was actually very angry. They all lowered their heads and dared not speak, for fear of angering the emperor at this critical juncture and implicating themselves. After all, cheating in the imperial examination was a big deal. Once it was investigated, it was likely to involve many people.

"This year's imperial examination is really lively, with cheating and someone destroying the invitations." Gu Jianchu's voice was slightly sarcastic.

No wonder my eyelids were twitching so much today. Yan Cheng wiped the sweat from his head and stood up. He looked extremely pale because of his guilty conscience. "Your Majesty, this is absolutely nonsense. I wrote all the articles myself and I definitely did not cheat."

Xie Ci'an didn't respond to Yan Cheng. He let Yan Cheng kneel there and looked at Zhu Xia with cold eyes, "Bring the people in. What's the point of making such a commotion outside?"

Hearing this, Yan Cheng felt like fainting.

Yan Cheng still had a glimmer of hope.

In just a moment, Zhu Xia brought the man over. Although he was stopped in time by Zhu Xia, he was still beaten by the guards outside the palace when he tried to break in. He had several bruises on his face and his clothes were torn in two places, but he was holding a piece of paper tightly in his arms.

"I, the humblest Ai Qing, beg Your Majesty to make the decision for me. The essay of the new runner-up is my own." Ai Qing knelt on the ground, his body curled up into a ball, and the bruises at the corners of his mouth made him look even more pitiful.

Xiao Cong stood up from his seat and said, "Do you know that slandering others is a capital crime? Do you have any evidence to prove that Yan Cheng's article is yours?"

Xiao Cong is also the main person in charge of this scientific expedition. If anything goes wrong, he cannot escape the responsibility.

He thought he was a careful invigilator and that the candidates had no chance to cheat.

Yan Cheng knelt down in front of Xie Ci'an and said, "Your Majesty, this person is talking nonsense. These articles were written by me."

"That's interesting. You all say that you wrote this article. Then tell us about it separately. This article is your evidence." Xie Ci'an naturally took the article handed over by Cheng Song.

This posted document contains the examinee's answer sheet, and the printed part is sent to various colleges.

"Your Majesty can order someone to compare the handwriting, and you will know the answer immediately. In addition, there are a few ink spots at the end of the article. I accidentally spilled the ink while writing the article. I can also recite the contents of this answer sheet in full. If it were not written by me, even if I have the ability, it would be impossible for me to recite all of it in a short time." Ai Qing puffed out his chest confidently.

This is quite interesting. I've seen stupid people before, but I've never seen anyone this stupid. Yan Cheng actually just swapped the two names and didn't re-copy the article.

In fact, Yan Cheng had never thought about stealing a second place, he just wanted to steal a Jinshi. He didn't expect to be so lucky.

Xie Ci'an picked up the paper and took a closer look. There were indeed ink spots at the end.

Xie Ci'an looked at Yan Cheng, "Do you have any evidence to prove that you wrote this article?"

Yan Cheng felt guilty the moment he was questioned. Even his eyes were dodging, and his tone of voice was inevitably a little more stuttering. "The article was indeed written by me personally. This person is deliberately slandering me."

"Cheng Song."

As Xie Ci'an's voice fell, Cheng Song immediately asked someone to prepare two sets of writing brushes, ink, paper and inkstone and placed them in front of the two of them.

"Since both of you say that you wrote the article, why not rewrite it?" Xie Ci'an asked someone to prepare the table and chairs for the two of them.

"Yes." Ai Qing's face was stern. He rolled up his sleeves, sat down at the desk, and confidently picked up the pen to write.

On the contrary, Yan Cheng walked to the desk with unsteady steps, slowly exerted force with the hand holding the pen, and glanced in the direction of Ai Qing.

"Mr. Yan, why don't you write? Could it be that this article really wasn't written by you?" Xiao Cong saw Yan Cheng's panic.

After hearing what Xiao Cong said, he became even more flustered and almost knocked over the inkstone. "I'm just thinking."

Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, one wrote furiously, while the other hesitated and glanced in the direction of the emperor and empress from time to time. It was obvious who had plagiarized the article.

After all, he had written it once, and Ai Qing knew the content of the article almost by heart. Now, for him, it was like copying it from memory. It only took him the time of a stick of incense to rewrite the article.

Ai Qing held up the paper, the ink still wet, and handed it to Xiao Cong, a member of the Imperial Academy. "Please review it, Your Excellency."

Xiao Cong had read the articles of the three new candidates and had some impression of them. After seeing the article written by Ai Qing, he was indeed a little surprised. It was almost exactly the same as the article submitted in the imperial examination, but there were still some differences in sentences.

Even if he were to rewrite an article, he would not be able to write it exactly the same.

Xiao Cong looked at Ai Qing with a hint of surprise in his eyes, and handed the article to Xie Ci'an.

Xie Ci'an put the two articles together and glanced at them indifferently. Indeed, only some sentences were different. The Minister of the Central Secretariat and several other officials came over to take a look and also showed shocked expressions.

Two sticks of incense had passed, and Xiao Cong's gaze fell on Yan Cheng. "Haven't you finished writing yet? It's your own article, so you won't forget it, will you?"

How could he possibly remember? He hadn't even considered that his crime would be exposed, so after changing his name, he simply handed in the paper. Even after the results came out, he didn't even look closely at the paper he had stolen.

Yan Cheng broke out in a cold sweat.

Xiao Cong no longer had much patience and strode forward to take a look.