Chapter 589 - 218: Three Birds with One Stone
Chapter 589: Chapter 218: Three Birds with One Stone
Was Gong Yuanxiu’s current situation considered dire?
Absolutely!
And let’s not forget, he had been burdened with an imperial decree to act as an examiner in Heyuan Province. Not only did he perform his duties poorly, inciting public outrage, but he also frequented brothels. His career as an official was over!
Gong Yuanxiu realized this as well. His body immediately trembled like a leaf in the wind. Unable to bear the fear in his heart any longer, he fell to his knees with a THUD, losing consciousness entirely.
Afterward, Mr. Zhou interrogated him about some other matters, but Gong Yuanxiu kept his mouth shut. In the end, he was dragged away like a dead dog.
As for how to punish Gong Yuanxiu, Mr. Zhou did not have the final say. After all, he was an imperial envoy; to deal with him required a word from His Majesty. However, having committed a grave crime during his tenure, he had lost any possibility of returning to his post. What awaited him was, at the very least, permanent dismissal. Furthermore, since he had falsely accused his colleagues, Mr. Sheng and Xu Yanlin wouldn’t let him off lightly either. Barring any accidents, Gong Yuanxiu would likely spend the rest of his life in prison.
The interrogation of Gong Yuanxiu concluded, but there was still one more person in the hall waiting to be dealt with: Fan Ju.
Fan Ju had misunderstood Mr. Sheng and Xu Yanlin, and had even planned to go to the capital to file a complaint. Considering that he had been deceived by wicked people, had realized his errors in time, and had helped them expose Gong Yuanxiu’s crimes, he was spared from punishment. However, they couldn’t just ignore the fact that he had repeatedly beaten and bitten officials. As a warning to others, he was banned from taking the imperial examinations for six years.
Hearing this punishment, Fan Ju burst into tears.
For an ambitious man like him, being barred from the examination hall for six years was a fate worse than death. He had already sold his sons and daughters and pawned off his first wife. He couldn’t carry or lift anything, lacking even the slightest ability to support a family. He had originally hoped to pass the exams and become a scholar, receiving a sum of reward silver to get by. Now that he had nothing, wasn’t he going to starve to death?
Fan Ju stumbled out of the examination hall in a daze, only to see that the students and commoners who had previously voiced their support for him had all scattered like birds and beasts.
"This guy is no good either!"
"He just parrots what others say without any mind of his own. Even if he became an official, he wouldn’t be a good one!"
"I heard he sold his wife and children just for the imperial examinations. A person like that won’t have a good end!"
Tears streaming down his face, Fan Ju looked east and then west. For a moment, he didn’t know where he could even find a place to stay.
Setting Fan Ju aside, just as the crowd was about to disperse, Zhao Jing heard someone calling him from a short distance away.
"Mr. Zhao, please hold on, hold on!"
Zhao Jing turned around and saw Gu Lin pushing against the flow of the crowd, walking toward him. Seeing this, Chen Wanqing and Xiang’er knew the man had urgent matters to discuss with him, so they left first.
De’an was about to leave as well, but was stopped by Gu Lin. Gu Lin invited the two of them to the Golden Jade Restaurant. Once they were in a private room and the door was closed, he bowed deeply to them, his face deathly pale.
"The Gu family will never forget the life-saving grace you two noble brothers have bestowed upon us."
Zhao Jing was speechless. De’an was speechless too.
They were both a bit bewildered, completely unaware of where this "life-saving grace" came from. However, they kept a straight face, not revealing the slightest hint of abnormality, and simply allowed Gu Lin to thank them over and over again.
It was from Gu Lin’s words that they learned that among the evidence found to condemn Gong Yuanxiu, there was also a silver note. That silver note was exactly the one that the second uncle of the Gu family had withdrawn from Datong Bank and gifted to Gong Yuanxiu. Mr. Sheng, taking into account that Gu Lin was Zhao Jing’s "virtuous younger brother," withheld this piece of evidence and sent it back to the Gu family. Otherwise, if the second uncle were summoned, their entire family would have suffered. If a charge of bribing an examiner were to come down, the Gu family would fall, and their members would scatter. The number of people implicated would be in the thousands.
Gu Lin bowed deeply once again.
"Your life-saving grace will never be forgotten. From now on, you two are great benefactors to the Gu family. If you have any instructions, just say the word, and the Gu family will be duty-bound to fulfill them."
He then shoved a token into De’an’s hands, cupped his fists in salute, and left.
Watching Gu Lin’s receding figure, De’an rubbed his head and said in a daze, "Let me process this. Let me first sort out what exactly is going on. Gong Yuanxiu had a silver note from the Gu family in his pouch. Mr. Sheng didn’t present that silver note as evidence, but instead returned it to the Gu family, doing us a favor and making it look like we had put in a good word for them. Jing, is that what happened?"
Zhao Jing nodded. "It should be."
He then recounted how, on the day they received their failed exam papers, he had helped Gu Lin out of a tough spot at the entrance of the examination hall after De’an had gone inside. He had thought no one was paying attention to that scene at the time, but Mr. Sheng must have taken it all in. The old man was incredibly shrewd. He knew Zhao Jing’s intentions without even needing to think about it. Therefore, he went with the flow, making the Gu family owe him a favor and thoroughly cementing this relationship!
Zhao Jing added, "Perhaps there was another consideration for not bringing the Gu family out into the open."
"What consideration?"
"The Gu family are major grain merchants, and they have always done business fairly. Most of the grain in Heyuan Province is collected by the Gu family. Moving against the Gu family might implicate the livelihoods of countless commoners. For the sake of stability, suppressing this matter was the best course of action."
It protected the interests of the commoners, gave the Gu family a warning, and incidentally helped them befriend the Gu family—killing three birds with one stone!