Repudiating a Good Wife Is Out of the Question

152. The Imperial Edict

Translator: Sissy That Walk

Someone shouted from the wall, “Prince Xing is here, don’t worry any more, everyone!”

“Mo! Watch out! Don’t fall!” Xiao Yi got nervous when he saw Cao Mo climbing on the aerial ladder.

“I’m fine, don’t worry!”

Cao Mo climbed over the wall and he was followed by a troop of soldiers brought by Prince Xing.

Cao Mo walked towards Xiao Yi and said, “I have been worried sick since I heard about the fire, are you all right?”

Xiao Yi smiled with affection, “I’m fine, I have been worried sick for you too, seeing that galloping horse charging at you!”

“Thanks to the shadow guard, he saved me. It was the person on the horse who set the fire, I saw oil stains on his saddle! It’s a shame that he was beaten to death by the people, otherwise I’d like to ask him who is behind this.”

With that Cao Mo greeted Prince Ning.

Prince Ning turned livid, “How… how dare you come to the compound uninvited?”

Cao Mo raised his head, “Prince Xing has been knocking on the gate with the imperial edict for so long, and we heard the noises inside the compound, so Prince Xing asked me to climb the wall to check on you and protect you!”

“Nonsense! You have trespassed the compound and Xiao Yi has caused trouble inside the compound, what are you up to? A revolt?” Prince Ning rebuked them.

Xiao Yi’s face darkened, no way would he just listen to that nonsense and do nothing about it. Xiao Yi pushed the candle guy and candles fell on the ground from the basket.

“Your Highness, please uphold justice for us! Mo is just following orders from Prince Xing and I caught this guy who tried to sell answers hidden inside the candles, please check the candles!”

The other candidates nodded their heads and said, “Please check!”

“Soldiers! Arrest everyone who isn’t inside his cubicle! I won’t tolerate such a chaos!”

The soldiers took the command and started to drive the candidates away.

Cao Mo raised his passing token high in the air, “I’m Prince Xing’s Chief Steward, Prince Xing is entrusted by the emperor with the task of being in charge of the safety of the compound. Who dares to arrest people without permission is deemed as being disrespectful to the emperor!”

The soldiers halted, they looked at each other in speechless despair, at a loss. They didn’t know whose order they should take, Prince Xing came with the imperial edict after all.

Prince Ning turned livid, “Ridiculous! How dare you order my soldiers around with your passing token?”

Cao Mo chuckled, “Your Highness, what the soldiers value is the imperial edict in Prince Xing’s hand. Come on, we will take orders from you if you can show us the imperial edict in your hand.”

Prince Ning felt embarrassed as he listened to Cao Mo’s ridicule.

Xiao Yi said to Prince Ning with great respect, “Your Highness, it’s not too late to set things right, please cancel this paper and issue the new paper! We can still bring order out of chaos,”

“Xiao Yi is right, my brother, it’s time you wake up and escape disaster at the last moment! This cheating scandal is no trivial matter, father the emperor has heard of it at this moment.” Prince Xing now walked in with the imperial edict in hand, he cleared his throat and announced, “I’m here to issue a decree, the emperor has entrusted me with the task of investigating the safety of the compound. Now all the candidates should return to their own cubicles. And I will report this cheating scandal to His Majesty in no time.”

Prince Ning saw Officer Liang behind Prince Xing, it turned out Officer Liang had broke free from the reading room and opened the gate for Prince Xing.

Prince Ning pointed at Prince Xing, “I don’t know the authenticity of your imperial edict, let’s go to the palace and discuss this matter in front of father!”

Prince Xing was surprised to see how stubborn Prince Ning was, he started to wonder whether Prince Ning had some tricks up his sleeve.

Prince Ning glared at Cao Mo and Xiao Yi.

Xiao Yi’s heart pounded as he saw Prince Ning’s glare.

Cao Mo patted Xiao Yi’s shoulder, “Don’t worry, Yi. With the candle guy, his basket and all the other candidates inside the compound, we have both human testimony and material evidence in hand, no way can Prince Ning confuse right and wrong.”

Prince Xing said with a solemn face, “I’m afraid he doesn’t need to do anything, his mother is pregnant, of course father will turn a blind eye to Prince Ning’s misconduct for the unborn baby’s sake. To make matters worse, I think father will blame us if we disclose this and make father lose face.”

Cao Mo was choked, he was unwilling to submit, “But… but we cannot give up an undertaking on account of an obstacle, cheating scandal is nothing compared to the fire, fire endangers people’s lives! The candidates are all elites, it will be a great loss to our country if anything should happen to them! I don’t think the emperor will turn a blind eye to the candidates’ safety.”

“Prince Ning is no way a good deputy chief examiner!”

The candidates echoed.

Yao Wenyuan suddenly marched down to Officer Liang and he grabbed Liang by his collar, “Where have you been hiding? You need to justify yourself! How come this guy is selling candles with answers hidden inside! This is not fair for us, we have been working hard for over a decade!”

Prince Xing’s lips curled on reflex as he saw Yao Wenyuan, “Are you all right?”

“Yeah, I’m fine!”

Prince Xing’s eyes sparkled as he saw Yao Wenyuan.

“Here!” Yao Wenyuan handed Prince Xing the tiny piece paper hidden inside the candle, “Check this out, answer sheet written by mouse whisker. It takes hours to put the paper inside the candles, this guy knows the questions before we got the paper!”

The candle guy trembled with fear, he took a glimpse at Prince Ning and closed his eyes in pain, “I’m so wronged!”

Cao Mo shouted, “He is going to commit a suicide!”

Xiao Yi promptly put a candle inside his mouth to stop him from biting his tongue to commit suicide.

Prince Xing ordered his guards to take the candle guy away and keep a close eye on him.

The candidates who were already on the way to their own cubicles started to swarm back to see what was going on, and they met with Prince Xing’s rebuke, “Go back to your own cubicles, otherwise you will be disqualified!”

The candidates went away disapprovingly.

Prince Xing asked his subordinates to maintain order in the compound while he took Prince Ning, Officer Liang and the candle guy to the palace.

Cao Mo had to leave the compound as well, he heard that Xiao Yi’s cubicle was on fire and Xiao Yi almost got wet in the rain, Cao Mo grabbed Xiao Yi’s hand, “Yi! I hate to see you suffer, it’s okay if you want to leave now, Prince Ning is giving you a hard time deliberately.”

“Don’t worry, Mo! I can do this!” with that the two parted with reluctance.