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

"Your Majesty, I'm just a clumsy little eunuch. Please don't be angry. I will pick them up right away." Cheng Song knelt on the ground and picked up the scattered memorials. When he picked up the last one, a blank envelope slipped out from the memorials.

The envelope was perfectly wrapped, except for the lack of a signature.

Xie Ci'an also noticed from the corner of his eye that there was no blank letter. Thinking of Du Chao's previous accusation, Xie Ci'an's eyes narrowed instantly. It seemed that someone was trying to be clever again. Xie Ci'an suddenly stretched out a hand, and Cheng Song reacted quickly to open the envelope and handed the letter inside to Xie Ci'an.

The person in the letter reported that Jiang Fengmian kept beautiful women in captivity and had an affair with a woman.

The person who was used by the Queen to support the couple Xie Qingzhi and Jiang Fengmian was the dean of the Chunqiu Academy in Qinghe County.

He had some impression of this person. He lived a very poor life in Qinghe County because he refused to accept gifts from the common people and students. Most of the monthly salary given by the court was used by him to repair the academy. He never took the initiative to ask for a penny from the Hanlin Academy.

He remembered that this man was also good at literature. In the imperial examination, he was second only to Li Shicheng and was highly appreciated by the late emperor. If it weren't for his father offending the prince's party and the late emperor, he would not have been impeached and sent to such a small place. If this man had stayed in the court, he would definitely have made a difference.

The Queen had not noticed anything wrong with this man before.

However, the queen was so busy eating melons that she didn't seem to pay attention to these things.

Some people are just talented in writing, but you can only judge a person by his appearance but not his heart.

Xie Ci'an raised his hand and handed the note to Cheng Song, "Have someone check it out. Also, summon the several deans to the palace later. I have some important matters to discuss with them."

Cheng Song didn't dare to hesitate for a moment and agreed immediately.

Xie Ci'an pushed the door and entered the inner hall. Gu Jianchu was still eating eggs boiled with brown sugar, but he had already finished one.

"I heard from Doctor Lin that boiled eggs with brown sugar can relieve abdominal discomfort. How about it? Does it work?" Xie Ci'an walked forward and sat down next to Gu Jianchu, placing his warm palms on Gu Jianchu's lower abdomen.

"It's still useful at least." Gu Jianchu nestled in Xie Ci'an's arms and ate the last egg.

Xie Ci'an took Gu Jianchu's empty bowl and handed it to Zhu Xia beside him before saying softly, "I just found another anonymous letter of complaint among the memorials."

Hearing this, Gu Jianchu instantly became interested and asked, "Who are you reporting?"

"Jiang Fengmian, the letter said that Jiang Fengmian kept a woman in captivity and had an ambiguous relationship with her." Xie Ci'an felt that it would be better to tell Gu Jianchu about this matter, as the source of the information would be faster.

[It turned out to be Wan Gaofeng from Bogu Academy. He felt that Jiang Fengmian was very competitive and wanted to use this rumor to report Jiang Fengmian. After all, there was Du Chao who took the lead.]

Jiang Fengmian has been a clean-handed person in Qinghe County for years, so there shouldn't be any scandals surrounding him. However, Wan Gaofeng's report is well-founded and doesn't seem false. Furthermore, if such a report is brought to the Emperor, he will likely investigate. If the report turns out to be false, the whistleblower will likely be implicated. Wan Gaofeng should be aware of this.

[Could it be that Jiang Fengmian is only being chaste on the surface? If that's the case, Xie Qingzhi should stay away from him, lest he bring back another scumbag.]

[Fuck, this is actually true.]

Xie Ci'an frowned and clenched his fingers into fists under his sleeves.

However, seeing that Gu Jianchu didn't look very angry, he was afraid that there was some hidden story behind this matter.

[But it's not what Wan Gaofeng reported.]

[Jiang Fengmian's father was at least the Minister of Rites. When he was impeached and demoted, two officials who were deeply involved with Jiang Fengmian's father were also implicated. They were not demoted, but directly dismissed from office or even exiled.]

Among them, the Yang family, who were close friends with Jiang Fengmian's father, were exiled. During their exile, they passed through Qinghe County. At the time, the Yang family had a beautiful little daughter who was nearly bullied by soldiers. Fortunately, her father and brother found her in time and rescued her. They accidentally ran into Jiang Fengmian, who was also exiled to Qinghe County. The father and brother begged Jiang Fengmian to take their daughter away, believing that they were lucky enough to save her once, but they might not be so lucky again. If she were targeted by the soldiers, there was no guarantee she wouldn't be bullied again.

The Yang family's fate was partly due to their involvement, and Jiang Fengmian felt a surge of guilt. So when the father and son begged him, he agreed without hesitation. Saving the Yang girl wasn't easy, though. Jiang Fengmian used his father's connections to establish connections, but saving the girl also required money. The government demanded 30,000 taels of silver. Their property had been confiscated, and they simply couldn't come up with that much. Even after selling the jade pendant and other valuables left to them by their father, they only managed to scrape together 20,000 taels, still far from the amount the government demanded.

Jiang Fengmian borrowed money from all his friends and finally, within three days, he had gathered thirty thousand taels of silver and bought the girl from the soldiers. From then on, Jiang Fengmian treated her like a younger sister and found her a house near the academy for her to temporarily live in. Being close allowed him to look after her from time to time. After all, he had promised the Yangs that he would take good care of the girl and not worry them. If he lived further away, he was afraid someone would bully a girl from another place, so he kept her near the academy and would occasionally go over to help look after her.

[But as time goes by, rumors are bound to spread.]

Those rumors were actually spread intentionally by someone. That person originally had the potential to become the dean of Chunqiu Academy, but because Jiang Fengmian was parachuted in, he lost the position. He harbored a grudge, so when he saw Jiang Fengmian often taking care of a young girl, he spread obscene rumors about Jiang Fengmian and the young girl, saying that Jiang Fengmian had a mistress outside the academy and didn't give her a legitimate status, in order to tarnish Jiang Fengmian's reputation.

After the young lady from the Yang family learned about this, she felt that she had implicated Jiang Fengmian, so she considered marrying him to suppress the rumors, as if to repay his life-saving favor. However, Jiang Fengmian refused. Jiang Fengmian only had Xie Qingzhi in his heart. The young lady from the Yang family knew that Jiang Fengmian had someone else in his heart, so she did not force him. Later, she even thought about leaving so that she would not continue to implicate Jiang Fengmian, but Jiang Fengmian refused. Jiang Fengmian was too upright and felt that there was no need to explain something he had not done.