In the seventeenth year of the Kaihuang era, I wrote my will in the examination hall.

He casually pushed the memorial from Bingzhou aside and tapped his fingertips forcefully on the table.

"Is the rule of the Crown Prince that he should secretly mingle among the scholars from humble backgrounds, without his elders' knowledge?"

These words reveal the emperor's extreme displeasure with the "overstepping" behavior of the imperial family members.

For members of the royal family to enter officialdom, there was a specific path of recommendation from the imperial clan.

Yang Yan insisted on participating in the imperial examination anonymously, which showed a disregard for the dignity of the imperial family.

It is also a silent questioning of his grandfather, the emperor, and of the current system for selecting officials.

Yang Jian stared at the wooden box presented by Yang Yue and remained silent for a moment.

"Bring it here."

As if granted a pardon, Yang Yue crawled forward on his knees and raised the wooden box high above his head.

Yang Jian reached out and took it; it felt slightly heavy in his hand.

He glanced at the sealing wax seal that Xue Daoheng had personally affixed, and the anger in his eyes lessened slightly.

At least Xue Daoheng knew the rules.

With a slight effort, he crushed the sealing wax with his large, well-defined hands.

Lifting the lid of the box, there lay a lone roll of hemp paper inside.

The scroll was not unrolled, and a line of small characters was written on the cover in a neat, official script.

"The final anonymous examination paper of the Imperial Examination Hall, numbered Bingzi Qishisan".

"Class C...pretending to be from a poor family?"

"This grandson is a bit more clever than his good-for-nothing father."

The title of the scripture at the beginning of the book comes into view.

The handwriting is not in the currently popular style of the calligraphy of Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi, but rather in a Wei stele style with sharp edges.

Yang Jian's gaze swept across the text, and his originally nonchalant expression froze slightly when he saw the first sentence that broke the mystery.

It's like suddenly hearing the sound of war drums amidst a chorus of soft, melodious music.

Unlike others, Yang Yan did not sing praises or talk about "the sage ruling by doing nothing".

Instead, it begins with a single sentence.

"The foundation of governance lies not in issuing orders, but in maintaining trust. When trust is established, orders are carried out; when trust collapses, laws are rendered useless."

Yang Jian frowned slightly.

These words sounded harsh, yet he couldn't find fault with them.

He patiently read on.

However, as his gaze moved downwards, his fingers gripping the scroll began to tighten unconsciously, and the veins on the back of his hand bulged.

This isn't answering questions; it's like slashing open a festering sore in the Sui Dynasty court!

The volume states:

"The world today appears to be a prosperous and beautiful age, but in reality, trust is as fragile as sand. The court views its officials as traitors, so it has set up a net of surveillance and defenses at every level; the officials view their ruler as tigers and wolves, so they are bound to make mistakes if they speak too much, and they are always obsequious."

"Thus, a single decree issued by the Ministry of Personnel is met with numerous setbacks by the time it reaches the prefectures and counties. This is not due to lax governance, but rather to mutual distrust and obstruction between superiors and subordinates. To prevent one abuse, ten laws are enacted; to supervise one person, ten soldiers are employed. This is a waste of ten times the national strength on internal strife!"

"presumptuous!"

Yang Jian's breathing instantly became heavy, and his chest heaved violently.

These words were like a direct insult directed at his nose!

Is he criticizing me for being suspicious of meritorious officials? Is he criticizing the censors I established for wasting national resources?

Yang Jian wanted to close the scroll and throw this madman into prison. But the words seemed to possess some kind of magic, drawing his gaze and forcing him to continue reading.

What followed made his pupils shrink even more.

"Your suspicion stems from the fact that you have no choice but to suspect. Why? Because powerful clans have seized land and hidden households are as numerous as the sea. The court does not know the population or the amount of grain, so it has no confidence and naturally becomes suspicious."

"To resolve this crisis, it is not enough to kill one or two meritorious officials; the key lies in rebuilding the bond of 'trust and righteousness,' which lies in..."

Upon seeing this, Yang Jian suddenly stood up, knocking over the celadon teacup on the table.

"Clang!"

The teacup shattered on the ground, the icy tea splashing onto the hem of the dragon robe with a jarring crack in the deathly silent hall.

"How dare you! How dare you!"

Yang Jian's face was ashen, and his eyes were bloodshot, like an enraged old lion.

He suddenly raised his hand, crumpled the roll of hemp paper he hadn't finished reading into a ball, and slammed it hard onto the ground!

"A disobedient and unfilial son who has no regard for his ruler or father! How dare he spout such nonsense!"

With this shout, he slammed the sandalwood brush washer onto the brick floor, splashing ink that spread a shocking black stain on the expensive Persian carpet.

Yang Yue was terrified, his head banging against the gold bricks with loud thuds: "Your Majesty, please calm down! Your Majesty, please calm down! His Highness Yang Yan is young and may have been confused for a moment; he did not mean to offend us..."

"Confused?"

Yang Jian sneered, his chest heaving violently.

He kicked over the priceless rosewood stool that was right next to him.

"He even pointed his finger at me and called me a 'breach of trust, fickle and unreliable' villain. How could he be confused?"

Yang Jian pointed to the crumpled pile of hemp paper on the ground, his fingers trembling slightly with extreme anger.

"According to his absurd logic, Yu Qingze's previous act of secretly hoarding weapons and armor, holding his troops and observing the situation, and disobeying imperial orders, was all just my suspicion?"

"Is Wang Shiji now secretly cultivating land and training troops because my 'suspicion' has forced him to defend himself?"

"Is it I who have made the people of this world afraid to speak the truth?"

The hall was completely silent; Yang Yan felt he could hear himself swallowing.

At this critical juncture, anyone who responds is courting death.

With his hands behind his back, Yang Jian paced back and forth anxiously in front of his desk like a raging lion trapped in a cage.

He looked at the mess on the ground, and his gaze finally fell back on the exam paper that he had discarded like trash.

For some reason, a sentence on it seemed like a poisonous vine, tightly binding his mind.

"When trust is established, orders are obeyed; when trust collapses, laws are rendered useless."

"In today's court, the officials are silent, not out of respect, but to avoid disaster. This is to use vast sums of money to create an appearance of peace."

Quiet.

It's too quiet.

Yang Jian suddenly realized that since Yu Qingze was arrested last month, the court had indeed become incredibly "obedient".

No one argued with him anymore, unlike Gao Jiong before.

No one dared to utter a single word of objection to the matter of deposing and installing the crown prince.

Even the reports on abundant grain harvests from various regions were presented with uniformly ornate wording.

He had always thought this was a symbol of the stability of imperial power.

He was captivated by the exhilarating feeling of absolute power.

But now, seeing the phrase "the ministers are silent in order to avoid disaster," a huge sense of panic suddenly rose in his heart.

This kind of panic is called being all alone.

The censors he sent out to verify the household registrations reported increasingly impressive figures.

It is said that the population grew during the Kaihuang era, a period of great prosperity. But why is it that the growth rate of grain in the national treasury is far behind the numbers recorded in the household register?

Why is military spending on the western border region increasing year after year, even though there is no major war?

Is it really as this book says, that the "collapse of trust" led those below to add layers of defense and security?

"Hidden costs..."

Yang Jian pondered the unfamiliar new word in the scroll, a hint of bewilderment and shock flashing in his cloudy old eyes.

That word is so precise.

The "hidden costs" and "collapse of trust" mentioned in this exam paper are the nightmares that haunted him for countless sleepless nights!

He had initially only vaguely sensed that something was amiss, but couldn't quite put his finger on it. But now, Yang Yan had seen through it all and even found the root cause of the problem, a truth he couldn't deny, even though he didn't want to admit it!