The Great Song Dynasty: You were put in charge of teaching, and you produced a whole bunch of prime

The atmosphere in the study was somewhat heavy.

Jiang Lin sat in the main seat, his fingers lightly tapping the table. Su Shi, Zhao Lingjun, Qian Duoduo, and Shen Kuo, who had just finished class, sat on either side.

"Everyone, take a look," Jiang Lin said, pointing to the secret letter on the table.

Su Shi picked it up and glanced at it, his brows instantly furrowing into a deep knot: "Leaking false exam questions? Framing someone for cheating? Cai Jing is trying to undermine us completely! Once the charge of cheating in the imperial examinations is proven, not only will I, as the examiner, lose my head, but the entire Jingshi Academy will be buried with me!"

Qian Duoduo's face trembled with fright, and she quickly touched her neck: "Headmaster, this is no joke! Throughout history, cheating in the imperial examinations has been a crime punishable by the extermination of nine generations of one's family. This Grand Tutor Cai is too ruthless!"

Zhao Lingjun snorted coldly: "Cai Jing suffered a great loss on the West Lake project. Now that he has finally seized the opportunity of reforming the civil service examination system in Jiangnan, how could he not take a bite? His trick is very insidious. As long as he sends someone to spread the so-called 'exam questions' and then lets the people from the Censorate find them in the examination hall, we will be unable to clear our names even if we jump into the Yellow River."

"Master, what should we do now?" Su Shi looked at Jiang Lin. "Should I immediately order a city-wide manhunt for those who spread the fake exam questions?"

"Catch them? Where are you going to catch them?" Jiang Lin retorted. "Since Cai Jing dared to pull this stunt, the people he sent must be either assassins or extremely secret agents. If you go to search in a high-profile manner, you'll only alert them and give them a reason to say that you're guilty."

"Are we just going to stand by and watch them pour this dirty water on our heads?" Su Shi said anxiously.

Jiang Lin didn't answer immediately, but turned to Shen Kuo: "Cunzhong, how's the situation with the intensive training class?"

Shen Kuo adjusted his glasses and reported truthfully: "Those scions of aristocratic families have been thoroughly tortured. Although their foundation is weak, under pressure they have managed to grasp some basics. However, they harbor a great deal of resentment towards the academy."

"That's exactly what I mean by their resentment." Jiang Lin sneered. "The more they hate us, the more they feel they can't pass the exam through the proper channels, the easier it is for them to fall for our trap."

Everyone was taken aback, not understanding Jiang Lin's meaning.

Jiang Lin stood up, walked to the map of Jiangnan hanging in the study, and pointed heavily at the location of Hangzhou.

"Cai Jing wants to use a sting operation, so let's turn the tables on him and double-cross him." Jiang Lin turned around, his gaze sweeping over the crowd. "Isn't he going to leak false exam questions? Then let's give him a hand and make this commotion even bigger."

"Headmaster, what do you mean by this?" Qian Duoduo swallowed hard. "You wouldn't be thinking of...?"

Jiang Lin snapped his fingers: "Duoduo, I'm giving you a task. Immediately use all your business channels and informants to secretly spread the word that there's a mole within Jingshi Academy, and a 'top-secret internal report' has been leaked. This report is the final exam question for this year's provincial examination!"

"Huh?!" Qian Duoduo was dumbfounded. "We leaked the exam questions ourselves by spreading rumors?"

"Yes." Jiang Lin nodded. "Moreover, you should drive the price of this fake exam paper up to the sky! Five hundred strings of cash a copy! Sell it only to the powerful families of Jiangnan."

Zhao Lingjun, quick-witted as ever, immediately understood and her eyes lit up: "Headmaster, are you planning to use this trick to lure out the people Cai Jing sent?"

"It's not just about luring out Cai Jing's people." Jiang Lin's eyes were cold. "I want to use this opportunity to wipe out all those powerful families in Jiangnan who harbor ulterior motives and try to take shortcuts!"

Jiang Lin walked to the table, picked up a brush, and quickly wrote a few lines of characters.

"Zizhan, immediately draft a new set of exam questions. These questions must be extremely obscure and completely avoid all the key points we've discussed before. This set of questions will be the 'top secret internal reference document' that we release."

Su Shi took the paper, glanced at it, and immediately gasped. The assignment Jiang Lin had given him was actually about calculating the consumption and attrition rate of horses and fodder for the northwestern border army of the Song Dynasty. This was something that scholars from Jiangnan should never have encountered!

"My dear teacher, if this question were released to the public, even if they obtained it, they wouldn't be able to memorize it," Su Shi said.

"They don't need to memorize it," Jiang Lin sneered. "As long as they pay for it, as long as this exam paper appears in their study, that's enough. Cai Jing wants to catch cheating, right? Then let us catch him."

Jiang Lin turned to Qian Duoduo: "Duoduo, when you're keeping watch, you must be discreet. Make those powerful families think they paid a huge price to buy it from our 'mole.' As for the people Cai Jing sent to spread false questions..."

Jiang Lin's eyes turned cold: "They will definitely hear about this too. When they discover that the fake exam questions circulating in the market are different from the ones they have, they will definitely try every means to verify them. As soon as they make a move, they will be exposed."

Qian Duoduo was thrilled and patted his chest vigorously: "Don't worry, Headmaster! When it comes to spreading rumors and selling counterfeit goods... cough, when it comes to business operations, I, Qian Duoduo, am second to none! I guarantee I'll make those powerful families obediently hand over their money!"

"Alright." Jiang Lin clapped his hands. "Now, the net has been cast. We're just waiting for the fish to bite."

In the following days, the underground black market in Hangzhou was bustling with activity.

A highly confidential message was quietly circulating among the heads of the major families in Jiangnan.

"Have you heard? That fat guy who manages the money at Jingshi Academy got scolded by Jiang Lin for embezzling public funds, and now he's holding a grudge. He secretly took out the original exam papers!"

"Really? Where's the roll?"

"Shh! Keep your voice down! That fat man is asking for 500 strings of cash a serving, but he's only selling three! First come, first served!"

Inside a secret room in the Lin family mansion.

The head of the Lin family looked at the "top secret internal reference scroll" on the table, which he had spent a thousand strings of cash to bid for, and his hands were trembling with excitement.

"Calculation of horse and fodder losses for the Northwest Frontier Army..." The Lin family head looked at the question and laughed heartily, "Excellent! Excellent! Such a bizarre question, besides that madman Su Shi, who else could come up with it! Jiang Lin, Jiang Lin, you planned everything, but you didn't foresee your own backyard turning into a fire!"

The butler standing to the side quickly flattered, "Master, with this exam paper, our Lin family's children will definitely come out on top this time! We don't need to go to that cram school at all!"

"Go! Why not?" The Lin family head's eyes were venomous. "Not only do you have to go, but you also have to pretend nothing happened. Once we get to the examination hall, we'll give them a huge surprise!"

Unbeknownst to the Lin family head, while he was ecstatically holding the fake exam questions, in a secluded inn in Hangzhou, several mysterious men speaking with Bianjing accents were looking at the intelligence delivered by their subordinates with grim faces.

"Damn it! How could an exam question about the Northwest Frontier Army have leaked out?" the leader of the men in black cursed angrily. "The Grand Tutor gave us a fake question; it was clearly about the salt tax in Liangzhe Circuit! Who's ruining our plans?!"

"Sir, everyone in the market is saying that the exam questions from the Northwest Frontier Army are the real ones. Nobody believes the salt tax questions we have!" the subordinate said anxiously.

The man in black gritted his teeth, a ruthless glint in his eyes: "Investigate! Find out exactly where that set of exam questions for the Northwest Frontier Army came from! If Su Shi really leaked the questions, then we'll solidify the evidence and make sure he dies a horrible death!"

A covert battle over "fake exam questions" quietly unfolded in the night of Hangzhou.

Jiang Lin stood at the highest point of the academy, overlooking the brightly lit city, the evening breeze ruffling his clothes.

"It's taken the bait," Jiang Lin murmured softly.