Marrying Wife and Concubine Together: After Rebirth, I Remarried the Scumbag's Father on the Sp

Zhan Yan had failed to catch the coachman and had just returned home when he heard about the incident. He was so angry that he slammed his fist on the table: "It must have been a carriage collision on Zhuque Street! Someone deliberately set up this to frame us!"

Lin Yiwan suppressed her panic and composed herself: "Now is not the time to investigate the cause. We must rescue Zhan Mu first. Cheating in the imperial examination is a serious crime. At best, it will result in the loss of academic honors; at worst, it will implicate the entire family!"

Zhan Yan immediately stood up: "I will go and plead with the chief examiner, and send people to investigate the carriage on Zhuque Street and the runaway coachman. We must find the person behind this!"

Princess Youyi spoke up to remind him, "Uncle, the examiner is surely acting impartially at this moment. Pleading for leniency rashly will only give others cause for criticism. It would be better to investigate the origin of that piece of paper and the carriage involved in the accident. There must be traces of carriages in the capital. In addition, among the onlookers at the scene of the accident, perhaps someone saw who put something into the examination basket."

She paused, then said, "I will go to the Imperial Academy to ask the teacher for help. The teacher has a past relationship with the chief examiner, and perhaps he can persuade the examiner to postpone the conviction and give us time to investigate the case."

Everyone followed the plan. Zhan Yan led his men to investigate the origin of the carriage and discovered that it was an old carriage that had been resold on the black market, and the owner had long since disappeared.

Lin Yiwan then sent people to visit merchants on Zhuque Street. Sure enough, some vendors saw someone approach Zhan Mu's carriage after the car crash. However, the person was wearing a gray cloth shirt and had his face covered, so they couldn't see what he looked like at all.

The situation seemed to have reached a stalemate, with no progress made except for Zhan Mu still being detained in the examination hall.

Lin Yiwan was restless and the entire household was in chaos. She suppressed her anxiety and ordered a carriage to be prepared to go to the examination hall.

The imperial examination hall was strictly regulated, and ordinary people were not allowed to enter. Fortunately, Zhan Yan had made arrangements in advance, which allowed him to see Zhan Mu, who was being guarded, in a side hall.

Upon meeting, Lin Yiwan's eyes reddened, and she stepped forward to grasp his hand: "Mu'er, you've been wronged. Mother will definitely find out the truth and will never let you suffer this undeserved disaster."

Although Zhan Mu looked haggard, his eyes remained clear. He advised her, "Mother, don't worry. I have nothing to hide. It's just that I feel uneasy for causing you all this trouble."

"What kind of time is this to say such things!" Lin Yiwan wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes, her voice filled with resentment and reproach.

She composed herself and got to the point: "The proctor said the paper was found in your exam basket, but you were clearly hit by a carriage before entering the exam hall. Someone must have framed you. Now we've discovered that the carriage was a black market used car. The vendors only saw a masked man in gray approaching. The trail has gone cold. I'm asking you, among the students taking the exam this time, is there anyone you have a personal grudge against? Or have you offended anyone recently?"

Zhan Mu lowered his eyes in thought, his fingertips unconsciously rubbing his cuffs. After a moment, he spoke: "I am usually humble and have no deep-seated hatred with others. It's just that a few days before the exam, when I was studying in the study, Liu Chengfeng, the young master of the Liu family, came to provoke me. He said that I was relying on the power of the Marquis's mansion and that I could definitely pull strings. He even boasted that he would definitely come out on top in this imperial examination and told me to wait and see him make a fool of himself."

"Liu Chengfeng?" Lin Yiwan's heart skipped a beat. After Meng Xiang left, Grand Secretary Liu became the head of the civil officials.

The Liu and Zhan families have always held differing political views in the court, and Grand Secretary Liu has been refuted by Zhan Yan several times. Liu Chengfeng is his seventh son, and he is narrow-minded, so this matter is somewhat suspicious. "Besides him, is there anyone else?"

"And there's Zhang Huai'an from the Zhang family in the south of the city. Last month at the poetry gathering, I pointed out that his poems were suspected of plagiarism, which made him lose face in public. At that time, his face turned ashen. Although he didn't lash out, he glared at me fiercely for a long time."

Zhan Mu added, "It's just that Zhang Huai'an is timid by nature and may not have the courage to frame someone."

Lin Yiwan kept the two in mind and asked, "When you were in the carriage, did you notice the appearance of the man in gray? Or when the carriage crashed, were there any unusual sounds or smells?"

Zhan Mu recalled for a moment: "The driver was driving extremely recklessly. After the crash, he fled in a panic, and I didn't get a clear look at his face. But in the chaos, I smelled a faint scent of pine soot ink on the man. It wasn't like the kind of ink used in ordinary households, but rather the scent of high-quality ink sticks commonly used by students in academies."

The smell of pine soot ink! Lin Yiwan's eyes lit up. If the masked man was indeed a scholar, the possibilities narrowed considerably. She immediately stood up: "I understand. You can wait here patiently. Mother will investigate Liu Chengfeng and Zhang Huai'an immediately and will surely clear your name!"

After bidding farewell to Zhan Mu, Lin Yiwan rushed back to the mansion, only to bump into Princess Youyi, who had just returned home.

Clutching a half-piece of gray cloth in her hand, her expression grave, she said, “Aunt, I went to investigate the location the vendor on Zhuque Street mentioned and found this piece of gray cloth in the corner. The material is ordinary coarse cloth, but it’s been starched until it’s stiff, and there are even some pine soot ink stains on the edges!”

"Pine soot ink stains?" Lin Yiwan was both surprised and delighted, and hurriedly told Zhan Mu what he had said, "Mu'er said that the person who framed him had the smell of pine soot ink on him, and also mentioned that Liu Chengfeng and Zhang Huai'an had a grudge against him, and Liu Chengfeng is the most suspicious!"

Princess Youyi's eyes narrowed slightly: "Liu Chengfeng has always been flamboyant, and the Liu family has enough power to arrange the black market carriages and frame people. Zhang Huai'an is cowardly, most likely he has been used or is scared out of his wits. Let's split up. You send someone to keep an eye on the vicinity of the Liu family and see if there are any clues. I will go to the Zhang residence to find out what's going on and also investigate whether the Liu family has been in contact with people from the black market recently."

Lin Yiwan made the arrangements immediately, and then personally took Zi'er to wait outside the Liu residence.

Half past noon, two servants from the Liu family came out of the mansion, looking smug and humming a little tune. Zi'er, with her sharp eyes, pointed to the ink pouch hanging at his waist and said, "Madam, look, that ink pouch contains pine soot ink. And his clothes, I glimpsed when he went out just now, there was a patch on the cuff, and the material is exactly the same as that piece of gray cloth!"

Lin Yiwan felt more certain and had Zi'er quietly follow, while she returned to the mansion to meet up with Princess Youyi.

Before long, Princess Youyi brought back news: "Zhang Huai'an's mother said that he has been staying at home these past few days, studying hard to prepare for the exam!"

As the evidence gradually came together, Liu Chengfeng's suspicion was confirmed.

Zhan Yan's side also made progress. They found the dealer who resold the old car on the black market. Although he refused to reveal the buyer, they remembered that the buyer had a jade pendant with the character "Liu" engraved on his waist.

With irrefutable evidence, Lin Yiwan immediately ordered a carriage to be prepared. Carrying the fragments of gray cloth, the rubbing of the jade pendant, and Zhang Huai'an's testimony, she headed straight to the examination hall to see the chief examiner.

The chief examiner, who valued talent, had doubts about Zhan Mu's cheating. Seeing that the evidence was complete and having heard that Liu Chengfeng had a history of misconduct, he immediately sent someone to the examination hall to summon Liu Chengfeng for a confrontation.

When Liu Chengfeng was brought before the chief examiner, he initially denied everything, but when he saw the gray cloth fragments and the jade pendant imprint, he panicked.

Unable to withstand the interrogation, he finally confessed that he had bribed people in the black market to arrange for a carriage to crash into Zhan Mu out of jealousy, and had his servants cover their faces to frame him, all in an attempt to eliminate Zhan Mu, his formidable enemy.

When the truth came to light, the chief examiner was furious and immediately ordered Liu Chengfeng to be arrested. He also submitted a memorial to the court to impeach Liu, the Grand Secretary.

Zhan Mu was exonerated. Although it took half a day, the examiner, considering his innocence, allowed him to enter the examination room to answer the questions.