Book 14: Chapter 89

Night Night Night

It seems inappropriate to kill him before we get anything worthwhile out of him.

Moreover, Chen Lin has always been faithful. Killing him like this is a little

His father is a merchant, too. If he looks into his sons death and reports it to Liu Shan Men, we will have a problem.

The only one who didnt speak up was the official who lost a chunk of his ear.

While w.a.n.g Zhenyun didnt expect to hear an immediate response, the reactions of his colleagues had him seething. It all boiled down to n.o.body wanting to get their hands dirty.

You think people are just going to line your pockets when youre such big cowards?!

They werent just spineless; they were also without ambitions. All they wanted was to make an extra lump sum at every exam every three years and then to return to getting by without any aspirations. w.a.n.g Zhenyun was frustrated because he needed such a band of disappointing colleagues to realise his grand ambition of pus.h.i.+ng civil servants to the top.

You think this old one shouldnt kill him? n.o.body dared to meet w.a.n.g Zhenyuns gaze as he swept it around. Hmph, did you actually think this old one wants to kill him due to his impertinence? Youre wrong. What is our goal for this imperial exam? Feng Clan has paid the most among the five clans whove bought the top five placings from us. This is Young Master Fengs first step into the political arena. He is the nephew of Consort Huang, who is most favoured at the moment, and is the only inheritor of the wealthiest family in our country. Do any of you realise how important that is? What purpose will he serve once he enters the political arena?

Prime Minister Li wont grow younger, yet there is n.o.body to succeed him in the imperial court. There are claims that Secretary Lu will succeed him if not Secretary Zhang, but think about it. How well do Secretary Zhang and His Majesty get along? Secretary Lu is not only a foreigner, but shes also a woman. Kong Duan had hope, but theres no need to say any more about him. Young Master Feng will be the person His Majesty trusts most if he can win this exam. At most, Prime Minister Li probably only has another ten years in him before retirement. Who will succeed him if Young Master Feng can add several big accomplishments to his name in the next ten years? Wont we be credited with supporting him?

Every word w.a.n.g Zhenyun spewed rea.s.sured his colleagues more and more.

Theres no room for even the slightest error! Chen Lin seduced Young Master Feng to have an affair in the night. Theres no doubt he took a bribe from Young Master Feng. Everyone knows Young Master Feng spends generously. A small token of reward for him is enough for people to live off for an entire lifetime. If people find out Chen Lin and he were in this sort of relations.h.i.+p, would any of you be able to shoulder the consequences when Young Master Fengs career is ruined? Who do you think our higher ups will choose to side with if they find out about our deal with Young Master Feng?

If the upper echelon insisted on supporting Feng Clan into a Prime Minister role, then theyd be willing to offer up even blood and corpses, let alone material wealth. By all means, Hanlin Academy was important. As long as they had the power to choose the home of civil servants, then, presuming nothing went wrong, they wouldnt have any compet.i.tion. At the end of the day, however, Hanlin Academy was nothing more than a plaque; its members were what mattered. The upper echelon couldve swapped out the members whenever they wanted, especially when His Majesty was already too busy with the Seven Champion White Princes to pay as much attention as usual to Hanlin Academy.

w.a.n.g Zhenyuns compatriots immediately started searching for daggers, pocket knives and whatever else they could think of, but they couldnt even find a pocket knife. Where were they going to get one from when they never thought about self-defence? Nevertheless, they were people whod done plenty of studying, so they werent limited to only those crude tools. One after another, they made suggestions such as roasting, drowning, burying alive, bombing, having a horse stomp Chen Lin into mush and more.

It doesnt need to be that complicated. This old one has a dagger. My dear colleagues, we

Say less, Sir. This one shall slit his throat, and then we shall take turns slas.h.i.+ng his corpse once each. This way, everyone will have been part of it. What say you?

See? They had done plenty of studying; they didnt need a weapon to implicate someone.

All right. Lets do it.

Ming Feizhen had no grudge against Chen Lin, not to mention he was the one responsible for Chen Lins predicament, but he didnt stop the motley crew for he was waiting for the a.s.sa.s.sins. Someone from Hanlin Academy had to be a.s.sisting the archer to have a.s.sumed a high position without being detected, as well as to have Chen Lin brainwashed and dispatched. Judging from the position of the archer, he mustve been cooperating with one of the examiners. Since w.a.n.g Zhenyun was high on energy, the brainwashed examiner had to be one of his colleagues.

The most ideal target to brainwash was someone weak minded, someone who wouldnt dare to fight back even when someone bound bit their ear. In saying that, one examiner wasnt enough to give them a sufficiently big advantage as the operation tonight proved. The fact that Ming Feizhen was so skilled that he could hit an archer using martial arts highlighted the fact. The a.s.sa.s.sins werent going to accept the fact that they failed and alerted their target. After all, itd be harder to a.s.sa.s.sinate him tomorrow now that he would be more prepared. In order to succeed, they needed a strong and authoritative command centre so that they could do as they pleased at the venue without detection. Thatd only be possible if every examiner was helping out. If the examiners had solid spines, then the a.s.sa.s.sins wouldve been forced to resort to murder as a means of threatening them. Howbeit, the cowardice the examiners just showed put the a.s.sa.s.sins at ease.

You certainly are ruthless, Sir. A man chuckled as he seemingly sp.a.w.ned into the building from thin air.