Top Scholar

Chapter 519 Better to be a broken jade than a whole tile (Seeking monthly votes)

[Dai Dabing is fifth, not second; this has been corrected.]

Zhu Shou enjoyed a hearty meal at Liu Jin's residence before leaving satisfied.

Only after he was out of sight did Liu Jin turn back, looking puzzled.

"Tell me, why did the Emperor suddenly come to extort money from our family?" he asked his brother-in-law Sun Cong and Zhang Wenmian, who had rushed over upon hearing the news. These two were his 'strategists'.

“He’s probably really poor,” Sun Cong said. “Otherwise, the emperor wouldn’t have just taken a small amount of money and left.”

“Yes, if His Majesty truly harbors any dissatisfaction with Dongweng, he certainly wouldn’t be so easily appeased.” Zhang Wenmian nodded in agreement.

“Indeed.” Liu Jin nodded, stroking his smooth chin, and said, “If Zhang Yong and his gang were plotting against me, they wouldn’t have been so lenient.”

“Exactly, what can 100,000 taels do?” Liu Erhan interjected. “It’s only enough for ten days or half a month’s harvest.”

"Shut up!" Liu Jin glared at him fiercely and growled, "If the Emperor hears this, we'll all be in deep trouble! He hates being lied to the most..."

"Hey hey..." Liu Erhan shrank his neck, not daring to speak.

Liu Jin then ordered in a deep voice, "Put away all those lamps, screens, and other eye-catching items, and replace them with ordinary ones!"

"Will the Emperor come again?" his brother asked.

"Who knows? Just in case." Liu Jin said with a gloomy face. It was really strange that he had suffered such a loss today.

~~
The next morning, at the Dragon and Tiger Lecture Hall.

Su Lu took attendance, only to find that Dai Dabing, who was fifth in line, was absent.

"Brother Binzhong?" he called again.

“Brother Zhuangyuan, he is ill,” said Zheng Zan, another Jinshi from Fujian, with a worried expression.

"What illness is it? Is it serious?" Su Lu asked anxiously, "Have you seen a doctor?"

“This…” Zheng Zan hesitated slightly.

"We'll talk about it later." Su Lu nodded in understanding and continued to take attendance.

During the morning's etiquette practice, Su Lu called Zheng Zan outside the hall and asked him if Dai Da Bin had any unspeakable difficulties.

“Bin Zhong… he’s gone mad.” Zheng Zan sighed. “He was disheveled, running around the yard with a dog in his arms, and shouting something like ‘The celestial official summoned me,’ and he kept making a scene until dark.”

"Huh?" Su Lu exclaimed in surprise, "How could this be? Everything was fine yesterday morning!"

Yesterday afternoon, during the Leopard Transformation class, all the classmates went out to visit temples in the capital and did not meet again. Who would have thought that such a thing would happen.

"Sigh, it's hard to say..." Zheng Zan shook his head.

Su Lu immediately realized there was more to this than met the eye. While it's true that some people do experience a tragic turn of events after high school, like Fan Jin, if they were going to go mad, they would have done so long ago; why wait until now?
That afternoon, after school ended, Su Lu followed Zheng Zan and other Fujian natives who had passed the imperial examinations to the Fujian Guild Hall to see if he could be of any help.

On the way, Zheng Zan and the others finally told Su Lu the inside story. It turned out that Liu Jin had taken a liking to Dai Dabing and wanted to arrange a marriage between him and the emperor's protégé.

Dai Dabing was unwilling to associate with the eunuch faction, so he claimed that his marriage would be decided by his parents. Unexpectedly, Liu Jin sent people directly to the Dai family in Putian.

“His father passed away three years ago, leaving only his mother as a widow. How could she withstand the intimidation from the Embroidered Uniform Guard? She was forced to sign a document agreeing to the marriage,” Zheng Zan said in a low voice, filled with grief and indignation.

Therefore, Dai Dabing was desperate and had no other choice but to resort to this desperate measure...

"Sigh..." Su Lu sighed and said, "You should have told me sooner."

“What can the top scholar do? That’s Liu Jin, after all,” Zheng Zan said matter-of-factly.
“Besides, Bin Zhong felt deeply ashamed and forbade us to make a fuss about it,” other Fujian natives from the same year also said.

"Let's go see him first..." Su Lu nodded, completely understanding Zheng Zan's concerns. For scholars, reputation is indeed more important than life itself.

The group hurried to the guild hall and entered the small courtyard where Dai Dabing was staying. It was quiet inside, and there were no strange noises.

Upon entering the room, one would find Dai Dabing lying stiffly on the kang (a heated brick bed), staring blankly at the ceiling, his face still bearing traces of wet tears.

Where was even a trace of madness? Instead, a profound sadness filled the entire room…

Zheng Zan and the others sensed something was wrong and hesitantly asked, "Bin Zhong, are you... not crazy?"

Without turning his head, Dai Dabing said in a hoarse voice, "No need."

The group exchanged bewildered glances: "Why?"

Dai Dabing's lips moved, each word uttered with profound sorrow: "My mother... is gone." These words struck everyone like a thunderbolt, leaving them frozen in place, their faces filled with shock.

"How did your aunt die?" After a long silence, Su Lu asked softly.

"The letter said she died suddenly from an acute illness." A metallic taste rose in Dai Dabing's throat, which he suppressed by clenching his teeth. "But I know she was forced to sign that marriage certificate, and only did it to protect my reputation..."

Before he could finish speaking, a mouthful of blood suddenly gushed from his mouth, a shocking sight.

"Binzhong, stop talking! Quickly, go and get a doctor!" The other students rushed forward to support him, some patting his back to help him catch his breath, some wiping his mouth, and others running out to fetch a doctor...

Dai Dabing's face was ashen, but he struggled to sit up and hoarsely instructed his attendants to pack his belongings: "I'm going home for a funeral..."

His classmates tried their best to persuade him to stay, and Su Lu even had the imperial physician prescribe calming medicine and administer acupuncture. However, after lying in the guild hall for two days, he took advantage of the time when his classmates were having classes to leave behind a memorial entitled "Requesting Grace for Mourning," and quietly left the capital to return to Fujian for his father's funeral...

~~
When the news quickly reached Liu Jin's ears, he was in the Directorate of Ceremonial listening to the memorials. Upon hearing it, he first smashed a teacup and cursed, "Bad luck! Disappointing!"

After finishing his tirade, he remained silent for a moment, gazing at the pristine white shards of porcelain on the ground. Suddenly, he sighed, his expression complex, and said:

"The integrity of these scholars... is truly enviable."

~~
For several days in a row, Su Lu was depressed because of Dai Dabing's matter.

Although this matter had nothing to do with him, it still evoked his empathy. He had almost ruined his reputation because of Liu Jin's one thought.

A ruthless and vicious person like Liu Jin is a terrifying threat to everyone. He couldn't help but wonder, if he had the opportunity to eliminate him in the future, what stance should he take?
Thinking of this, he chuckled self-deprecatingly. He was really overthinking things. Who did he think he was, wanting to kill Liu Jin?
Composing himself, he suddenly noticed Qian Ning peeking around at the entrance of the hall, so he walked out of the Dragon Tiger Hall and led him into his preparation room in the East Wing Hall.

Qian Ning closed the palace door and pulled out a thick stack of files from his pocket, slamming them in front of him.

"Godfather, I'm here to report back."

"So fast?" Su Lu was somewhat surprised. Qian Ning had only been transferred to the West Depot for three days.

“That’s right, my godfather’s job is my top priority!” Qian Ning pointed to his panda eyes and said with a smile, “I led a team to investigate all the cases related to monks and nuns in the capital over the past three years, and we found that almost every temple had been involved in lawsuits. Of course, most of them were property lawsuits, but there were also quite a few cases of adultery and murder.”

"And this Baolian Temple in Xishan, though it hasn't had many lawsuits, each one carries significant weight, and every single one of them seems sinister! Moreover, this temple is incredibly wealthy—based on my years of experience, this is the perfect entry point!" He pointed to the stack of files as he spoke:

"Please, Godfather, consider this!"

"Thank you for your hard work." Su Lu nodded, took out four files from the file box, and placed them on the table.

The first case was the "sudden death of a pilgrim at Baolian Temple" in Shuntian Prefecture in the first year of Zhengde's reign;
The second case was the 'disappearance of pilgrims to Baolian Temple' in Wanping County in the second year of the Zhengde reign;
The third case was the 'disappearance of monks from Baolian Temple' in Wanping County in the same year;
Finally, there's the 'Po Lin Monastery selling counterfeit medicine case' that was just concluded this year.

Su Lu first looked through the case file of the "sudden death of a pilgrim" and saw that it recorded: In the autumn of the first year of Zhengde, Zhang Gui, a merchant from Hejian Prefecture, took his wife Wang to the "Hall for Sending a Child" of Baolian Temple to pray for a child. Wang entered the clean room to fast and purify herself according to the rules, while Zhang Gui waited in the guest room outside the temple.

The next morning, Zhang Gui's servant, Zhang San, found Zhang Gui dead in his room, his face bluish-purple. After the monks reported the incident, the Shuntian Prefecture officials conducted an investigation and hastily closed the case as "death from a sudden illness."

“There’s something fishy going on here.” Qian Ning turned to the file and marked a page: “Godfather, look, Zhang San said that Zhang Gui went to the meditation room to visit Wang Shi early that morning. But Wang Shi and the monk both testified that they did not see Zhang Gui that day. The judges completely ignored this contradiction in the testimonies and hastily closed the case.”

"Hmm." Su Lu nodded. His knowledge of solving cases came from detective novels and Conan and Kindaichi, so he naturally couldn't easily offer his opinion.

"Godfather, take a look at this one too." Qian Ning handed over the second file of the 'Disappearance of Pilgrims' case. "This case is even more outrageous."

Su Lu then consulted the records: "A woman named Li from the capital went to Baolian Temple in the spring of the second year of the Zhengde reign to pray for a son. After entering the meditation room, she disappeared without a trace. Her husband, Yuan Jian, reported her missing. The monks said she was 'not sincere and left the temple on her own in the middle of the night.' The authorities searched the temple but found no one, so the case was closed as 'missing.'"

“The Baolian Temple is located deep in the mountains. What woman would dare to leave alone in the middle of the night? Besides, her husband is outside. Why didn’t she ask him to come with her? It doesn’t make any sense,” Qian Ning said in a deep voice.

"Then her husband can accept it?" Su Lu asked.

“Of course not, Godfather, continue reading the third file,” Qian Ning said.

Su Lu then picked up the third case of a missing monk. Records showed that the missing monk, Huineng, was a newly ordained monk who arrived at Baolian Temple in the autumn of the second year of the Zhengde reign. At the end of the same year, Huineng suddenly disappeared, and the temple reported to the authorities that he had "absconded with funds." The government, like Su Lu, did not investigate further and closed the case.

Qian Ning flipped to the end of the file, and Su Lu saw the marked section... The investigation in Wanping County found that although the monk's ordination certificate was genuine, the lay name 'Wan Kuan' on it was forged, and based on this, they accepted the temple's statement.

"Did Godfather find anything wrong with this name?" Qian Ning asked, as if showing off.

Unfortunately, although Scholar Su still didn't speak, he stretched out two fingers to block the top half of the two characters 'Wan Kuan'.

All that's left are the two characters '元见'!
“A godfather is a godfather; you can tell at a glance,” Qian Ning said awkwardly. “The missing monk and the missing woman’s husband are very likely the same person.”

Su Lu smiled faintly. If he hadn't shown off, he wouldn't have realized there was a problem.

But as long as there's a problem, a test-taker's instinct will lead them to find the answer...

P.S. This is a post to be edited later. Please vote with monthly tickets!
(End of this chapter)