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

The paper was indeed filled with writing, but both the font and the content were very different from the article the emperor asked him to post, especially the font.

The second-place winner's article was written in beautiful small regular script, while Yan Cheng's handwriting, although not as ugly as dog crawling, was not particularly beautiful either.

Xiao Cong took the paper from Yan Cheng's hand with a grim expression and naturally handed it to Xie Ci'an.

Comparing the three documents, Xie Ci'an's expression grew increasingly grim. He slammed his palm down on the table with a resounding thud, causing the officials present to shudder. Yan Cheng, who was not far away, fell to his knees with weakened legs. "I'll give you one more chance. Did you write this article?"

Yan Cheng swallowed his saliva frantically, his face pale without a trace of blood, his whole body curled up on the ground and trembled like a sieve. "I don't know, I don't know anything."

"Zhongfeng." Xie Ci'an turned the jade ring on his finger, and his expression showed that he had little patience.

After receiving the order, Zhongfeng immediately stepped forward, drew the sword at his waist, and thrust it directly into Yan Cheng's palm.

Bright red blood instantly flowed out, staining Yan Cheng's palm and the grass beneath it red. The pain made him scream violently, cold sweat kept pouring out of his forehead, and his whole body curled up. He wanted to retract his hand, but found that his palm was nailed to the ground by the sword.

The other onlookers were inevitably frightened by the screams and the cruel punishment and shrank back a few steps.

In the past, I had only heard that the tortures in the Imperial City were terrifying. Anyone who went in would be skinned alive even if they didn't die. Now, seeing Chongfeng executing people in public, who wouldn't be afraid?

Some people even felt a chill down their spines, feeling lucky that they had not done anything to offend the emperor, otherwise they would have been punished.

Everyone was so focused on watching the execution that they didn't notice at all that at the moment Chong Feng was executing him, Xie Ci'an put his arm around Gu Jianchu's waist and gently pulled him into his arms. His big hands covered Gu Jianchu's eyes, fearing that the Queen would be frightened by seeing this bloody scene.

Xiao Conghe, Minister Lin and others who were nearby noticed the emperor's subtle movements and were instantly fed a mouthful of dog food.

Chongfeng exerted a little force on the hilt of the sword, and the sword began to rotate in Yan Cheng's palm, as if it wanted to drill a bloody hole. The shrill screams continued to come, scaring the court officials so much that their hair stood on end.

Zhongfeng squatted down and whispered in Yan Cheng's ear, "I advise you to tell the truth honestly, otherwise the punishments in the Imperial City Bureau are enough to make you want to live but not to die."

Yan Cheng tilted his neck back in pain, his eyes bloodshot, and his voice trembled, "I'll tell you everything."

"I bribed a eunuch in charge of the exam to secretly swap my name with another candidate's. I didn't expect to get second place directly. I have confessed everything I did. I beg the emperor to spare my life."

"Who is the eunuch you bribed?" Chongfeng continued to ask.

"It was a young eunuch in the Hanlin Academy who was in charge of writing. I gave him 10,000 taels of silver to help me do this. It was supposed to be foolproof, but I didn't expect the article to be posted."

"Apart from this, is there anyone else involved in this matter?" Chongfeng was afraid that Yan Cheng was not telling the truth, so he continued to exert force while controlling the sword.

Yan Cheng shook his head repeatedly, "No one else is involved in this matter."

"Did you write today's Feihua Order and the poems that made you famous at a young age?" Xie Ci'an did not let go of his hand that was covering Gu Jianchu, and his eyes swept coldly over the articles with wet handwriting on the table.

Gu Jianchu nestled in Xie Ci'an's arms. She didn't feel panic at all because of losing her sight. Instead, she felt a sense of security because she smelled the faint ambergris on Xie Ci'an's body.

Yan Cheng spoke truthfully, "Today's Feihualing lyrics were obtained by bribing a young eunuch from the Hanlin Academy to deliberately leak the topic to me. I then bought verses from other poor students. As for the poems that made me famous when I was young, they were also borrowed from my fellow townsmen and friends."

"Your Majesty, I have confessed everything I should confess."

"Does your father, the Governor of Zhejiang, know about this?" Xie Ci'an spoke in a lazy tone, but all the ministers in the court knew that there was a dangerous tone in his voice.

Yan Cheng's mind cleared instantly. He looked at Xie Ci'an with horror and shook his head repeatedly, "My father doesn't know. My father doesn't know anything."

"Are you sure?" Xie Ci'an asked again.

As Xie Ci'an continued to ask questions, Zhongfeng's hands became more and more powerful. A bloodthirsty smile appeared on the corner of his mouth. He leaned close to Yan Cheng's ear and whispered, "Think carefully before answering, otherwise your hand will be crippled."

Yan Cheng still had some integrity. He knew that he couldn't implicate his own father in this matter. If he did, it would be a grave sin that would lead to the extermination of the entire clan.

Yan Cheng looked at Xie Ci'an with a determined look in his eyes. "These things were all done by me alone. My father has nothing to do with them. My father doesn't even know what I did."

Xie Ci'an waved his hands irritably, "Go and send all the servants that Yan Cheng brought with him to the Imperial City Office for a thorough interrogation to see if our Governor of Zhejiang is aware of Yan Cheng's actions."

Cheng Song immediately sent someone to do it.

Chongfeng pulled out the sword from Yan Cheng's hand and wiped the blood directly on Yan Cheng's crescent-colored robe. The originally clean and tidy robe was instantly stained with a strong red color.

"Take him to the Hanlin Academy and identify those traitors who actually did such confusing things and defiled the imperial examination. Once they are identified, have them beaten to death in public to serve as a warning to others. By the way, let all the officials, big and small, go and see him, so that the blind man won't be bribed to do such things again in the future." Xie Ci'an was afraid of scaring the queen, so he suppressed his anger.

Chongfeng grabbed Yan Cheng's collar and lifted him out. At the same time, Xie Ci'an put down his fingers that were pressing on Gu Jianchu's eyes.

At this moment, Xiao Cong knelt down in front of Xie Ci'an with a plop. "This kind of thing happened because I didn't rule strictly. I beg Your Majesty to punish me."

[Oh, Xiao Cong's temper is just too good, which is why those underlings think he's easy to bully and have such thoughts. This kind of thing is inherently difficult to prevent, but since it happened in the Hanlin Academy, there must be an explanation. We can't just punish those two young eunuchs and be done with it. As the head of the Hanlin Academy, Xiao Cong can't get away with it.]

"You are indeed not strict in your administration. Such an incident has occurred. You will be punished with twenty lashes of the cane and house arrest for thirty days. During this period, no matter what needs to be dealt with will be overlooked." Xie Ci'an waved his hand coldly.

"Thank you for your grace." After Xiao Cong knelt down to express his gratitude, he went to the Imperial City Office to receive his punishment.

[Isn't the Emperor's punishment a bit too harsh? This will surely distress the little crybaby. However, it does give him a reason to care for Xiao Cong without taking off his clothes. Perhaps this will even give the two of them a chance to warm up.]