Young Master Gao? Call me Little Grand Secretary!

Since Gao Zhao started learning martial arts, he has practiced diligently every day, and his martial arts skills have naturally improved by leaps and bounds, becoming increasingly profound. His spear technique has also become superb.

With a swift counterattack, he turned the tables and took the initiative, leaving the Biyong Chancellor completely bewildered!

After learning that Gao Zhao had clashed with a group of students, the Biyong Cheng rushed over in order to quell the incident. His idea was to find a reason to downplay the matter and make it disappear, thus pacifying the situation.

It wasn't that he was deliberately favoring Gao Zhao, but rather that Gao Zhao wouldn't be a student of the Imperial Academy in a couple of days, so there was no need to make things difficult for him!

But to his surprise, before he could even begin his performance, Gao Zhao questioned him first!

What? You've clashed with the entire Biyong Academy, clearly incurring the wrath of the masses. Do you think you're in the right?

So the whole world is wrong, and you're the only one who's right?

The Prefect of the Imperial Academy's face darkened, and he shouted, "Insolence! The Imperial Academy is an outer campus of the Imperial Academy, a place for the nation to cultivate talent and select officials; it is naturally a place of education!"

Gao Zhao immediately chimed in, pointing at the group of impoverished students, and sneered, "If this is a place of education, why are there such wicked people running rampant here!"

"You're talking nonsense!"

"Don't be the one to accuse others first!"

"Chief of the Imperial Academy, do not listen to his baseless slander!"

……

Seeing Gao Zhao distort the truth, the students watching immediately spoke out in righteous indignation.

"Silence!" the Biyong Cheng shouted, and the hall immediately fell silent. He pointed to one person and ordered, "You, explain the whole story!"

The student stepped forward, glared angrily at Gao Zhao, and then declared loudly, "These classmates, due to their impoverished backgrounds, had previously received financial assistance from Gao Zhao. Today, however, they have been unjustly humiliated and beaten by him. We are filled with righteous indignation and have therefore stepped in to help them!"

After listening, the Prefect of the Imperial Academy did not immediately express his opinion. He turned to Gao Zhao and said in a deep voice, "What do you have to say?"

"Haha...that's just their side of the story!" Gao Zhao laughed mockingly. "In this dispute, you only listen to one side, yet you portray yourself as righteous, defending the wicked. Little do you know that you are more despicable than the perpetrators!"

The student who testified was furious, his face flushed, and he retorted sharply: "It is clearly you who bullied others by abusing your power. Everyone saw it. How can it be just one side of the story?"

"What did everyone see? Did you see the cause of this? Did you see the truth of the matter? Answer me! Speak up!"

Gao Zhao glanced at the students around him, who looked uneasy, and said with a contemptuous and disdainful tone, "So you saw nothing, know nothing about the truth, yet you jump to conclusions and shamelessly aid and abet the evildoers!"

These questions were forceful and resounding. A series of counter-questions left the surrounding students speechless. They could only glare angrily at Gao Zhao, feeling that he had found a flaw and was trying to confuse the issue and distort the truth!

The Confucian scholar who had stepped forward to testify was rendered speechless, his neck turning red, his fists clenched, as he argued, "We asked you, but you wouldn't tell!"

"Ha! You call that questioning? You're demanding an explanation from me! Who do you think you are? I need to give you an explanation!"

Gao Zhao's words were blunt. Turning back to point at Qin Hui and Chen Dong, he sneered, "Qin Hui has been telling the truth the whole time, did you listen? Chen Dong left them speechless, did you listen?"

The student roared, "Qin Hui is on good terms with you, how can you believe what he says?!"

"You can't trust Qin Hui's words? Then you can trust what these few people say? Don't you want the truth? Why did you immediately label us as criminals? Can this kind of truth still be the truth?"

The sentence progressed step by step, like a series of thrusts from a spear, forcing the student who was testifying to retreat step by step, his face turning pale and then red, unable to answer a single word.

The restless energy of the surrounding imperial students visibly subsided.

However, Gao Zhao did not give up. He was in the right and could not let it go, otherwise he would have gained the moral high ground for nothing!

He took a step forward, confronting the students who had testified, and sneered, "So what you care about isn't the truth at all, but rather using the guise of upholding justice to satisfy your cheap sense of moral superiority!"

"After all, isn't it more in line with what you all want—for the children of high-ranking officials to bully students from poor families?"

The student's face suddenly turned a deep liver color, his lips trembled, and he couldn't utter a single word for a long time.

Gao Zhao's gaze swept across the entire room, then he looked at the Prefect of the Imperial Academy and said, "Is it acceptable to speculate on the existence of something without seeing or hearing it firsthand? They disregard the truth, make wild guesses, and distort the truth. It's not an exaggeration to call them evil people, is it?"

The Prefect of the Imperial Academy remained silent, his face grim. He still couldn't understand how Gao Zhao had come up with such a rebuttal!

Based solely on a few facts that happened and a whole lot of conjecture, they managed to come up with such a scathing critique!

If you're so capable, why are you going to the Imperial Palace? Go to the Censorate!

That's where you can truly shine!

You can report rumors and impeach officials without any evidence; just fabricate stories. You'll definitely shine wherever you go!

"They certainly made some mistakes, but they meant well..."

"That's wrong!" Gao Zhao interrupted him bluntly. "Kindness? What kindness do they have? They make baseless accusations without distinguishing right from wrong. Is that kindness? They're just bullying people with their numbers and power, without any consequences!"

The crowd immediately erupted in protest, their anger rising as they shouted and berated the injustices.

Gao Zhao, however, remained unfazed, looking directly at them and sneer, "If you were truly so fearless of power and so full of a sense of justice, why don't you condemn the Liao and Western Xia? It's only because they actually dare to kill people!"

These words were like hot soup poured with oil; the crowd instantly erupted in uproar.

"Silence! Silence!" the Biyong Cheng shouted loudly, and the officials who followed also stepped forward to maintain order and calm the crowd.

It took a long time for the students to quiet down. Bi Yongcheng breathed a sigh of relief, turned to look at Gao Zhao, his eyes full of helplessness. He could see that this kid was deliberately provoking and angering everyone. He really seemed to want to stir up trouble!

"Gao Zhao, stop beating around the bush!" the Biyong Cheng rebuked in a deep voice. "Since you don't accept other people's testimonies, then you speak for yourself!"

Gao Zhao shook his head and said, "Brother Fang has already told you the truth. There's no point in me saying more, since you won't believe me anyway."

Those poor students put on an act of being wronged, but secretly they were delighted and smug. Now everyone is on our side, what can you do?

"Then I won't bother explaining!"

Gao Zhao paused, looked at everyone, and smiled, "He just said that I had once financially supported them, so how could I not be considered their benefactor?"

"But how did they repay me? They summoned a bunch of ignorant people like you to attack me, which shows that they have neither compassion nor shame."

The crowd paused, speechless. They turned to look at the group, inwardly criticizing them. Treating those who had helped him in this way was indeed unkind and ungrateful, like repaying kindness with enmity!

"You question me without even asking for the reasons, based solely on conjecture. This clearly shows that you have neither the heart to yield nor the heart to right and wrong."

Mencius said: "The heart of compassion is the beginning of benevolence; the heart of shame and aversion is the beginning of righteousness; the heart of deference and yielding is the beginning of propriety; the heart of right and wrong is the beginning of wisdom."

"Therefore, you are all unkind, unjust, impolite, and unwise people; you are not human! How are you any different from beasts! Why should I explain anything to you beasts!"

Gao Zhao unleashes area-of-effect damage once again!