Chapter 192

Shen Cui could already imagine the scene where the laws would lift a stone only to drop it on their own feet.

But for now, the most important thing was to clear the customs first, so Shen Cui said, “Since your big brother doesn’t want others to know, don’t tell your sister-in-law about this for now.”

Mu Er Pang still unconditionally trusted his mother and nodded in agreement.

Soon, Zhou Shi came over with dinner, and the others also entered the main hall one after another.

Asked by Zhou Shi, “Why didn’t my husband stay for dinner?”

Others were also somewhat curious.

At that time, seeing Mu Yunchuan’s manner, they thought he was going to give Mu Er Pang some guidance.

They didn’t expect him to leave so soon.

Mu Er Pang replied, “Big Brother gave me some pointers, but maybe I didn’t quite understand what he said. He talked about the level of my poetry and prose, saying that even a top rank is within reach for me. I think he’s afraid I won’t learn from him and will neglect my own studies, Then he went back to handle official business.”

This explanation didn’t mention Mu Yunchuan’s physical discomfort and helped cover for him.

So everyone didn’t ask further and instead began to discuss the chief examiner of this imperial examination—Pang Cifu.

Pang Cifu, in a high position, was not young compared to his official rank, but he was not yet forty, and he was the new imperial champion during the reign of the late emperor.

His life was quite legendary.

The Pang family was a prominent clan, but Pang Cifu was just a branch-born son of the Pang family and was not valued.

It could be said that he changed his destiny against the heavens through the imperial examination, rising to his current position.

Those who grew up in the capital, like Wei Xu and Shen Aoshuang, knew quite a bit about him and directly shared this information with everyone.

Previously, Shen Cui didn’t know much about Liu Xuezheng, Minister Wang, and Senior Shen, the chief examiners, because in the original plot, they had little to do with Mu Yunchuan.

But she knew about Pang Cifu.

Because this person was the main antagonist in the original plot, eyeing the position of chief minister.

She had thought that after Senior Shen retired, that position would definitely fall to him.

Unexpectedly, Mu Yunchuan, who was favored by the emperor, rose rapidly, almost reaching his level in just a few years.

When Senior Shen retired, the current emperor did not immediately appoint a new chief minister, but instead let Pang Cifu and Mu Yunchuan co-manage the cabinet.

The two naturally started to fight.

In the original plot, someone gave a large sum of silver to the original Shen family, hoping to frame Mu Yunchuan, and it was this person.

But he thought his flawless plan was foolproof, not knowing that Mu Yunchuan had long seen through it, and directly took the evidence to the current emperor to confess his sins.

He was very clever and did not mention that someone was trying to harm him, only that he had accidentally discovered that his stepmother was colluding with foreigners country.

The current emperor punished the original owner for treason, but also had doubts in his heart—Mu Yunchuan came from a humble background, and his stepmother was a simple peasant woman who couldn’t even read a basket of characters, how could she possibly come up a well deviced plan and think of treason and selling out the country?

There must be other masterminds behind the scenes.

At that time, the current emperor had only been in power for ten years, and his power was gradually growing.

He really pretended to be as innocent as he wanted, punishing the original owner and rewarding Mu Yunchuan for his act of righteousness in severing ties with his relatives.

Pang Cifu also knew that both Mu Yunchuan and the current emperor suspected him, but there was no conclusive evidence.

He lurked for a while, and during his lurking, Mu Yunchuan achieved several things he wanted, thanks to his talents.

Earlier, it was said that Mu Yunchuan could almost be on par with him.

Since then, that “almost” could be removed.

Mu Yunchuan really could contend with him and smoothly became the youngest prime minister since the founding of this dynasty.

Mu Yunchuan was not like Senior Shen—Senior Shen knew that Pang Cifu coveted his position, but he wouldn’t think about how to deal with it.

He only thought that he was getting older and had no successors to enter the government.

This position would eventually be taken by others.

But Mu Yunchuan, how could he let others sleep soundly beside his bed?

In less than three years as prime minister, Mu Yunchuan gathered a large amount of evidence of Pang Cifu’s crimes and presented it to the emperor.

When Mu Yunchuan confessed his sins, he planted the seeds of doubt in the current emperor’s heart.

These doubts took root and sprouted.

Coupled with mountain-like ironclad evidence, he finally toppled Pang Cifu, who had been illustrious for half a lifetime.

The current emperor only considered Pang Cifu an old minister from the late emperor’s reign, so he didn’t take his life.

He only demoted him to a commoner and decreed that no one from the Pang family could take the imperial examination for three generations.

Fortunately, Mu Er Pang’s fate came early.

Now, Mu Yunchuan is still accumulating experience in the Hanlin Academy.

Although the current emperor treats him somewhat differently, Pang Cifu doesn’t yet see a Hanlin Academy editor-in-chief of sixth rank as worthy of his attention.

So, since Mu Yunchuan hasn’t been placed on the list in front of Pang Cifu, Mu Er Pang won’t be implicated either.

So when Shen Cui recalled the original plot, she didn’t say much.

After the Wei brothers and Shen Aoshuang briefly described Pang Cifu’s life, the task of collecting Pang Cifu’s works still fell on Lao Buyu.

He was already thriving in the Southern Mansion, having spent a considerable amount of time in the capital in his early years, so he was naturally adept at this.

So, in just a few days after entering the month of December, while other candidates were still trying to find out who the main examiners would be, Lao Buyu had already taken a step ahead, gathering many poems and essays written by Pang Cifu.

He then led the young men to analyze them word by word — the information provided by Mu Yunchuan was still accurate; Pang Cifu himself wasn’t good at poetry, but his essays were outstanding.

Especially those he wrote when he was young, they were substantive, with sharp expressions, as if he was a knowledgeable man who, despite being born into a noble family, had experienced the hardships of life, and was determined to repay the court and seek the well-being of the people.

After reading his essays, apart from Shen Aoshuang, all the young men couldn’t help but feel stirred, and they even admired him.

Shen Aoshuang moved his mouth a few times, wanting to say something, but in the end, it was Shen Cui who noticed and changed the subject, making an excuse to take Shen Aoshuang out of the classroom.

“Let them ponder a bit,” Shen Cui said.

It would be too cruel to tell the young men now that Pang Cifu, who once had ambitions for the world, now only knew how to climb the ladder of power, without caring for anything else.

When they finished their exams and officially entered the service, they would naturally discover the gap between ideals and reality.

Comparing their current admiration to their future state of mind would make a deep impression on them and serve as a warning.

…

After the eighth day of the month of December comes the new year.

This year, Shen Aoshuang didn’t return to the Shen family, and the Wei brothers only returned home for half a day.

They still secluded themselves, studying and discussing with each other every day.

Zhou Shi stayed at Cuiwei for a while and didn’t continue to lose weight.

After seeking medical advice for half a year, even the famous doctor Huang admitted his inability to cure her.

Now she just changed her living place, didn’t even take a single dose of medicine, and miraculously seemed to have recovered.

But her strange illness itself was inexplicable, and the even stranger recovery without medication didn’t make Zhou Shi think too much.

She just smiled at Shen Cui and said, “I heard that Master Wei and Master Cui always talk about Feng Shui. The Feng Shui of our Academy is good!”

Now that she was feeling better, she would definitely have to take care of the New Year’s affairs for both families — it would be simple on Cuiwei’s side, just some New Year’s goods, couplets, and decorations would do.

But there were many things to handle at the Mu residence, especially since Mu Yunchuan had become an official, the household was simple, but the external etiquette couldn’t be neglected.

Deciding who to give gifts to and what gifts to give was quite a task.

In previous years, Zhou Shi always consulted with Mu Yunchuan to avoid any unintentional breaches of etiquette.

But this year was different. After entering the December, Mu Yunchuan was frequently summoned to the palace, sometimes for several days at a time, and was busy whenever he was out.

Zhou Shi guessed that he would probably be assigned an out-of-town position after the New Year, so she didn’t want to bother him with such trivial matters.

So she brought the list of gifts to Cuiwei for organizing and asked Shen Cui to help oversee.

Shen Cui teasingly scolded her, “If it’s too bothersome to bother him, then you’re bothering me instead, right?”

Zhou Shi only acted like this in front of Shen Cui.

Shen Cui playfully tapped her forehead and then helped her with the arrangements.

Comparing the past gift lists with the new list compiled by Mu Yunchuan, Shen Cui quickly noticed three additional names.

These three people were not on the previous gift lists, indicating they had only recently become associated with Mu Yunchuan.

Shen Cui wasn’t particularly unfamiliar with two of them — they were the two officials responsible for disaster relief in the original storyline, serving as Mu Yunchuan’s deputies.

It seemed like the plot had been accelerated, but the personnel remained unchanged.

Mu Yunchuan had been frequenting the palace lately, probably already receiving his assignment in advance and just waiting to leave the capital after the New Year.

It was only natural for him to build relationships with his colleagues beforehand.

As for the third person, Shen Cui couldn’t recall any relevant plot from the original book.

Zhou Shi also said it was the first time she had heard of this person.

Sending gifts required knowing the recipient’s position, their office, and general information about their family members.

Since Lao Buyu had been frequently gathering information lately, and Shen Cui didn’t want Zhou Shi to leave the academy for too long, she asked Lao Buyu to inquire about it.

Soon, Lao Buyu came back with a message: “This Cao official is the Chief Astrologer at the Ministry of Rites.”

This didn’t surprise Shen Cui.