They've all become top scholars in the imperial examinations, and you're telling me this i

Chapter 31 The more you struggle, the more excited I become.

Not far from Xishikou, in a certain house, only an oil lamp flickered with a faint light.

Yuan Shoucheng's withered fingers moved swiftly across several old copper coins, the yarrow stalks scattering on the mottled tabletop with a soft rustling sound. His brows were furrowed, his cloudy eyes fixed on the divination results, and he muttered incantations to himself.

"Snap." He accidentally snapped a yarrow stalk.

Chen Guangrui watched quietly from the side, without urging him on.

Yuan Shoucheng suddenly raised his head, his white goatee trembled, the wrinkles on his face deepened, and his tone was quick and urgent.
"I've figured it out! The divination is chaotic, but the direction is clear: someone is definitely causing trouble! That thing is blocking your way, preventing you from entering the Buddhist temple!"

Chen Guangrui stepped into the room, his expression calm and composed, as if he had expected this: "Hmm? It really was deliberate?"

"Someone is sabotaging us in the shadows!"

Yuan Shoucheng nodded hurriedly, his withered face showing lingering fear.
"But... thank goodness! Heaven has eyes! That ghost wasn't watching you all the time, as you said, otherwise... otherwise he would have found me through you, and I would be dead tonight!"

He glanced instinctively toward the window, as if something was indeed hidden outside.

Then, he secretly glanced out the window into the shadows.
"Your actions today, which were intended to be those of a 'pure disciple,' have certainly been 'known' to it! From now on, you must be extremely careful in every action you take! Absolutely! Absolutely! Just because it isn't paying attention to you now doesn't mean it will look after you in the future."

After he finished speaking, he stretched out his hand, stroked his beard, and that habitual shrewdness reappeared on his face:

"Um... the divination is finished... the divination fee..."

Chen Guangrui seemed to have just remembered this, and slightly tugged at the corner of his mouth.

"I was in a rush today and didn't bring any gold carp. Tomorrow, I'll go fishing in the Jing River."

"Tomorrow?! You..."

"Hmph!" The Old Dragon King of the Jing River had spent a whole day with Yuan Shoucheng, so naturally he didn't leave.
Hearing Chen Guangrui's words, he naturally couldn't express his dissatisfaction. He could only glare at the back of Yuan Shoucheng's head, filled with silent accusation: It's Jin Li again! It's that damned old Taoist priest again!

But that was what Chen Guangrui wanted, and Lao Long could only stare helplessly. After all, Lao Long still had something to ask of him, and he didn't know how the matter of that person, Cao Guan, was progressing.

Ignoring Lao Long's anger, Chen Guangrui fixed his sharp gaze on Yuan Shoucheng and asked the most crucial question.
"Old Yuan, make this clear. What will happen if I go to the Buddhist temple again tomorrow?"

Yuan Shoucheng's mercenary expression vanished instantly, replaced by a serious expression.

He took a deep breath, bent down at his desk again, and his trembling fingers scattered the coins once more. This time he examined them more carefully, and even beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

A moment later, he suddenly looked up, his face ashen, his eyes filled with disbelief and terror.
"Another...another terrible omen! We can't go!"

His voice trembled, "What's even more terrifying is... the divination shows that as long as you don't actually set foot in a Buddhist temple and register your name there, the calamity will only intensify. There's a saying, isn't there? The more you struggle, the more excited it becomes..."

He took a breath, his voice lowering, carrying a sense of fatalistic helplessness.
"But if you really enter the temple... then with my level of cultivation, I can't calculate it. It's all chaos... maybe you can avoid it for a while? But... but since the death calamity on you is unsolvable... then the peach blossom calamity... I'm afraid you still can't get around it in the end!" These words were very obscure, yet they carried an extremely heavy implication.

Chen Guangrui listened without any change in expression, but his eyes were as deep as an ancient well. He didn't ask any further questions, simply saying "I understand," before turning and leaving the suffocating room. Yuan Shoucheng watched his departing figure, opened his mouth, but ultimately didn't call out to demand the fortune-telling fee.

When Chen Guangrui returned to his courtyard at the post station, he was surprised to find that the light in Zhang Changling's room was on.

He pushed open the door and went in. He saw Zhang Changling sitting on a chair, grimacing, his trousers rolled up to reveal his knee, which was bruised and scraped. A servant was carefully applying medicine to his knee. On the chair next to him lay his expensive brocade robe, which was now covered in dust and torn in several places.

"Brother Zhang?" Chen Guangrui was slightly surprised, glancing at his disheveled appearance. "You're back so early? Weren't you going to Prime Minister Yin's residence..."

Zhang Changling looked up at the sound, his bitter smile more like a grimace. He pointed to his disheveled appearance and interrupted Chen Guangrui with frustration and anger.

"Gone? What are you talking about! Brother Chen, look at this!" He slammed his hand on the back of the chair, hissing in pain. "Don't even mention it! I'd only taken a few steps out the door when some damned bastard dug a ditch and didn't fill it in. There was such a huge hole right next to the main road! I wasn't paying attention... thud! Good grief, what a fall!"

He rolled up his trouser leg and showed Chen Guangrui his bruised, swollen, and bleeding knee.
"Ouch, that hurts so much! My pants are torn, and my face is almost disfigured! How am I supposed to see Prime Minister Yin like this? I... I had to be carried back halfway! What... what incredibly bad luck!"

Standing at the door, Chen Guangrui looked at Zhang Changling's disheveled state and listened to his complaints, but his heart sank suddenly! A chilling coldness instantly gripped him. This was no coincidence! Zhang Changling was also being "targeted"!

That hidden force was not only preventing him from entering the Buddhist order, but also forcibly "pushing forward" his marriage with Yin Wenjiao!
Even though Zhang Changling has been temporarily brought down today, as long as Chen Guangrui doesn't go to the temple, this "peach blossom trap" will only tighten its grip day by day!
Zhang Changling's fall may only delay the process, and may not completely disrupt this "arrangement"!
The driving force behind this, their determination to bring this marriage together... is immense! Their intentions are almost blatant!
This method... is both ruthless and vicious! It's as if an invisible net is forcibly pushing everything in a fixed direction—the direction of his marriage to Yin Kaishan's daughter!

The thought flashed through Chen Guangrui's mind, but he quickly concealed all his shock and understanding.

He couldn't reveal any flaws, he couldn't let anyone, not even the slightest possible spy, realize that he had seen through this scheme.

So he furrowed his brow slightly, revealing a mixture of surprise and sympathy, nodded slightly, and replied in a calm tone,
"Brother Zhang, you have suffered. Please rest and recover from your injuries. Once you are healed, you can go again. I believe the Prime Minister will understand."

His voice remained steady, without the slightest hint of anything unusual.

He couldn't let any flaws slip through his fingers; who knew what clues those people would find in the slightest hint?

Just then, the postmaster appeared at the door, his face showing an unusual caution and tension.

Instead of making a fuss directly, he quickly walked to Chen Guangrui's side, stood on tiptoe, and almost whispered in Chen Guangrui's ear, "Chen... Scholar Chen! Lord Wei Zheng... he's here! He's waiting for you inside!"

Wei Zheng?! A sharp glint flashed in the depths of Chen Guangrui's calm eyes, and his heart pounded in his chest.

This upright and incorruptible registrar of the Imperial Secretariat, visiting late at night... he must have something important to discuss! And the timing is so coincidental!
He suppressed all his turbulent thoughts, his face remaining calm. He simply nodded to the postmaster and clearly uttered two words: "Understood."

Having said that, Chen Guangrui slowly straightened up, his gaze calmly fixed on the night outside the door. Suddenly, something occurred to him, and a faint flame of hope flickered within him.

Could it be that.
(End of this chapter)