Wealthy beyond measure, yet you call me a sister-supporting-brother demon?

Zhao Changde spoke rapidly, leaving the contact person at Pingshifang with no chance to get a word in edgewise.

Zhao Changde was seething with anger. This Pingshifang had delayed his prince's important business. Not to mention the 20,000 taels of silver, the prince's previous plan to acquire Yuanjinglou and Yuanshi Glass after Yuansheng became disabled and realized the realities of society had to be postponed.

The contact, whose face was covered and who wore a straw hat, waited until Zhao Changde finished speaking before saying, "We can't take this job. Here's two thousand taels of silver for you."

As they spoke, the contact took out two thousand taels of silver notes from his pocket and handed them to Zhao Changde.

Before the contact could speak, Zhao Changde launched into a full-blown attack, "Is this the code of conduct of your Ping Shi Fang? If you didn't want this job, you should have said so earlier! We would have found someone else to do it! You're only saying this now, and you've delayed so much of our work!"

The masked contact took a deep breath to calm his anger. "It's not that we didn't want to take the job. Our four top assassins from Ping Shi Fang have already gone to Laiyuan County. But all four have now disappeared. We sent people to investigate and found that all four have been executed by the Laiyuan County government."

"Yuan Sheng, it's not as simple as you think. He's definitely not an ordinary student!"

If they had known earlier that Yuansheng was so powerful, they would have mobilized more people, devised a more meticulous plan, and would not have accepted this job for a mere two thousand taels of silver!

Because of those two thousand taels of silver, they lost four of their top assassins!

"What did you say?" Zhao Changde clearly couldn't believe it.

The top assassins from the four Ping Shi Fang gangs all perished in Laiyuan County?

This Yuansheng is no ordinary company!

"Believe it or not!" The contact turned and left. If it weren't for this bastard providing incorrect information, perhaps Ping Shi Fang's four sharpest knives wouldn't have been broken in Laiyuan County.

Knowing the matter was of great importance, Zhao Changde hurriedly returned to the Prince's residence to report to Prince Rong, Zhao Qicheng.

"Your Highness, the people from Ping Shi Fang say that the four assassins they sent out have all been killed by the yamen runners of Laiyuan County."

Prince Rong, Zhao Qicheng, clearly hadn't expected this outcome. He twirled the ring on his hand, wondering how the yamen runners of Laiyuan County could be so capable of taking down four top assassins from Pingshifang.

Even if the Laishui County government really had such powerful constables, why would they protect Yuan Sheng and settle this matter for the Yuan family?

Zhao Qicheng then thought that Yuan Sheng was able to reach the Heavenly Court because he invented the Yuan family plow, which meant that he must have some connections.

This Yuansheng is no ordinary company!

Damn it!

He's just an ordinary citizen, and he can't even move?!

Zhao Qicheng was tempted by the thought of Yuanjinglou and Yuan's Glass. Even if Yuan Sheng had some connections, he might not be that powerful. Yuan Sheng had to die, and Yuanjinglou had to be owned by the Zhao family.

If Yuan Sheng were an ordinary student, he might have spared his life. But Yuan Sheng was too outstanding, achieving the highest honors in the imperial examinations and having a bright future. If he didn't kill Yuan Sheng today, Yuan Sheng would definitely seek revenge in the future!

That idiot Zhao Changde went to provoke us a few days ago; Yuan Sheng probably already guessed that the assassin was hired by Prince Rong's mansion.

Prince Rong, Zhao Qicheng, paced back and forth in his study before ordering, "Summon Wang Cheng here."

Wang Cheng is the head of Prince Rong's personal guards and is highly skilled in martial arts.

According to regulations, Prince Rong's mansion should have twenty personal guards and forty ordinary guards, but in reality, Prince Rong's mansion had nearly one hundred personal guards and nearly one hundred ordinary guards.

The expenses of Prince Rong's Mansion are high, and Zhao Qicheng desperately needs Yuanjinglou to provide financial support to the Prince Rong's Mansion.

"Greetings, Your Highness." Wang Cheng bowed to Prince Rong.

Prince Rong summoned Qi Cheng and said, "Take thirty of the most skilled guards and go to kill Yuan Sheng in Shanhou Village, Qingshan Town, Laiyuan County."

"Yes, Your Highness. I will select the most skilled guard from the palace to kill Yuan Sheng." Wang Cheng accepted the order and went to choose the person.

Thirty of the most skilled bodyguards were sent to deal with a scholar?

At this time, Zhao Changde was ordered to explain the details to Wang Cheng.

“Wang Cheng, you must be careful. That scholar named Yuan Sheng has powerful figures around him. I already hired four assassins from Ping Shi Fang to kill him, but all four assassins are dead. You must not underestimate them,” Zhao Changde warned.

He's definitely a tough nut to crack!

Although Wang Cheng had never fought against the assassins from the Heiji Ward, these people must be highly skilled in martial arts to dare to risk their lives.

Wang Cheng asked, "What level were those four assassins?"

“He’s said to be the top assassin in Ping Shi Fang,” Zhao Changde replied.

Wang Cheng had initially been somewhat dismissive, but after hearing the steward's explanation, he took it very seriously. Since the prince had given the order, he was determined not to mess things up.

Wang Cheng went to select the most skilled personal guards, and Zhao Changde wanted to go with him to identify Yuan Sheng in order to prevent the wrong person from being killed.

……

In Jizhou Prefecture, apart from Yuansheng who ranked first in the examination, the other four classmates all did well.

Yuan Sheng's sixth brother-in-law, Sun Gaoyang, ranked nineteenth, Sun Yi ranked thirty-fifth, Wang Shangchun ranked seventieth, and even Wu Fenghua ranked two hundred and ninety. The last one in line passed the imperial examination and became a Xiucai (a scholar who passed the lowest level of the imperial examination).

Zhang Qingshu didn't come, so Yuansheng checked his results for him. Zhang Qingshu ranked 125th.

Wu Fenghua was overjoyed when he learned of his results. After getting to know Yuan Sheng and the others, his lively nature came out. "My dad said I wouldn't pass the exam, but look, I passed! This is what they call being influenced by your company. Studying with you guys has made me even better."

"Let's go, let's go, I'll treat you to everything today!" Wu Fenghua waved his hand, having bet on Yuansheng High School and won four hundred taels of silver.

Zhao Xinran scolded, "You did the worst on the test and caused the most trouble. After we see the results, we should go back to the academy to prepare for the next exam. Do you think everyone is like you, only knowing how to play?"

Yuan Sheng didn't plan to linger in the prefectural city either; he still had some business matters to attend to and needed to return.

The group chatted and laughed all the way back to Laiyuan County.

Meanwhile, the messenger who brought the good news had already arrived at the village behind the mountain.

As soon as the reporters entered the village, they shouted, "Good news! Good news! The top scholar has achieved the highest honors in the imperial examinations! He has even won the triple crown in the minor examinations!"

"Great news! Great news! The top scholar has achieved the highest honors in the imperial examinations! He has even won the triple crown in the minor examinations!"

Wow, the villagers were absolutely thrilled when they heard the good news!

The village behind the mountain has such good feng shui! They produce top scholars in all three levels of the imperial examinations! They're the best in the county, prefectural, and provincial examinations! This is incredible!

The most amazing thing is that the Yuan family will definitely distribute copper coins later.

Many villagers work at Yuan's chili factory, leaving only a few people behind.

They followed the newspaper staff, making a great show of gongs and drums, until they arrived at the Yuan residence.

Having learned from their previous experience, Yuan Laifu and Sheng Guihua were already waiting.

The two men dressed neatly early in the morning, prepared red envelopes for the messenger and copper coins for the villagers, and sat in the main hall.

They had already asked their son how the exam went, and he said it went well.

When my son said that last time, he topped the exam; I'll probably do it again this time.