Chapter 272: Princess Xiangyang – Instead of Reflecting on Yourself, Question Others! (1 / 2)

A few days later, the verdict on Liang Youwu’s imperial examination fraud case was announced.

“Chief examiner Xu Yanmiao and deputy examiner Li Qian—due to negligence in supervision—are fined six months’ salary.”

“All other examiners are fined one year’s salary.”

“Curtain official Wu Songnian, for accepting bribes and engaging in favoritism, is stripped of his position as the Minister of the Imperial Academy! He is to be executed after the autumn. His parents, siblings, wife, and children are all exiled to Shangyang Fort in Liaoning!”

“Examinee Liang Youwu, for bribing officials, is stripped of his imperial examination qualifications and sentenced to execution after the autumn! His father, Liang Rui, is fined a year’s salary for failing to discipline his son. His brother, Liang Youwen, who took the same examination, is suspected of involvement in the fraud. He must retake the exam to prove his innocence.”

—As for the threats against officials and the ledger in question, those matters would be handled separately and kept from the public eye.

Upon receiving the verdict, Liang Rui knelt and bowed deeply toward the imperial palace, tears brimming in his eyes.

“The Emperor’s grace is boundless! Rui—”

“Thanks to His Majesty’s great mercy!”

Liang Youwen also bowed, but then, anxious and distressed, he asked, “Father! How could my younger brother cheat? He has always been so proud! Could this be a wrongful conviction?”

“It is not,” Liang Rui replied, the corners of his mouth pulling into a stiff, sorrowful expression. “How could it be… a wrongful conviction?”

After all, Bai Ze himself testified. The Jinyiwei (Embroidered Uniform Guard) witnessed it firsthand. That ledger still lay open on the Emperor’s desk.

Liang Youwen nearly fainted on the spot. He pinched his own arm to steady himself and barely managed to stay upright. “Father, then… then what will happen to my brother? Does he really have to be… executed after the autumn?”

At that moment, he could no longer care about his own examination retake.

Then, he saw his father silently walking toward the door.

Liang Youwen called out, “Father! Are you going to visit my brother in prison?”

Liang Rui nodded silently.

“Wait for me! I’ll braise some pig liver for him! The prison food is awful, and my brother loves pig liver!”

When they saw Liang Youwu again, he was lying on the straw-covered ground of his cell, lost in thought. Only when he noticed his father and brother’s arrival did he struggle to sit up, using his upper body strength to drag himself forward.

“Father, Brother, you’re here.”

Liang Youwen rushed to the cell bars, nervous. “Your leg?”

“It’s fine. When the Jinyiwei arrested me, I strained my ankle. It should heal in a few days. But even if it doesn’t, it doesn’t matter. I’m going to die soon anyway—”

Liang Youwu looked at Liang Rui and grinned. “Father, you must be so disappointed in me, right?”

Liang Rui gazed at him calmly. “Yes.”

Liang Youwu froze, his expression stunned.

Liang Rui continued, “Since you didn’t want to hear the truth, why did you do it? Since you didn’t want to know the consequences, why did you ask?”

His words were as sharp as ever. But for the first time, Liang Youwu was experiencing that sharpness head-on, leaving him speechless.

Then his father’s voice suddenly turned harsh. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done? Do you realize that because of your selfishness, innocent examiners have been punished?”

“Do you know that your brother is now forced to retake the exam just to prove he didn’t cheat? The imperial examination is a matter of timing and fate—even if I took it again, I wouldn’t be guaranteed a passing grade, let alone your brother, who has already failed once before!”

“Do you even understand—”

Do you understand that the evidence in that ledger, those missing grains from the warehouse, carry the bitter sweat of farmers? That they are soaked in the cracked lips of starving people, in the white skin torn off by desperate teeth?

Do you understand that corrupt officials steal from the blood and sweat of the people?

Do you understand—

That by doing this, you have doomed yourself to death?

Liang Rui stared at his son’s face, searching for any hint of remorse.

—But there was none.

He knew everything.

“…Sigh.” Liang Rui closed his eyes, suppressing his tears, and whispered, “Come here.”

Liang Youwu hesitated, then slowly shuffled to the front of the cell. “…Father.”

Liang Rui crouched down, took a small bowl of braised pig liver from the food basket, and pulled out a pair of chopsticks. “I’ll feed you.”

Piece by piece, he fed Liang Youwu. His son ate with focus, even seeming a little happy.

“Eat…” Liang Rui’s eyes reddened. “Eat well. Once you’re done…”

Once you’re done—execution after the autumn.

The words hovered on his lips.

Just then, an all-too-familiar voice, completely out of place in the prison, suddenly rang out:

[What luck, just wandering around and I stumble upon this drama. Feels like a live execution preview.]

[Sigh…]

[Old Liang is so pitiful—white-haired parents sending off a black-haired child.]

Liang Rui, though crouched steadily like a mountain, suddenly wavered.

—Liang Youwu almost got stabbed in the throat with chopsticks.

For a moment, he thought his father was going to kill him in the name of justice—better to end it now than to spend months in fear, only to face execution after autumn.@@novelbin@@

But Liang Rui wasn’t even paying attention to his son anymore.

His mind flashed back to the whispered rumors among his colleagues about the Bai Ze Survival Guide, Yisi Edition—which now seemed to be evolving into a Bingwu Edition.

“If Little Bai Ze appears near you, especially in places where he shouldn’t be, you need to be on guard. There’s a high chance he’s about to reveal something you’d rather not know—and definitely wouldn’t want others to hear!”

Liang Rui: “……”

Would Xu Yanmiao regularly visit the prison for fun?

…What if he did? What if he just had peculiar hobbies?

[Too bad he doesn’t know that his second son has always believed he favored the eldest, and has held a deep grudge against his brother for years.]

Liang Rui’s gaze froze.

His hand, which had been picking up a piece of pig liver, paused midair.

Liang Youwu felt his father’s stare but remained outwardly calm. Inside, though, he was on high alert, trying to figure out what had gone wrong.

—But no matter how sharp he was, he could never imagine that something like a gossip system existed in this world. Nor could he fathom the possibility of someone hearing his inner thoughts.

And Liang Rui was still listening intently.

[Sigh…]

[If Lord Liang had realized this sooner, maybe they could have talked it out. But now… what a shame.]