Chapter 4: Honesty Is The Best Policy

The uneasy stirring amidst the candidates was too obvious and it was evident that its cause was the examination script. 

The administrators exchanged nervous glances with each other; had something gone wrong? 

But no one could say for sure. The ten examiners for this round, who had personally prepared and checked each script before sealing them away, were already locked up in a compound within the Hanlin Imperial Academy, where they were to spend the next ten days in seclusion until they were done marking the papers. 

No one else present should know the content of the scripts, apart from one.

"What's the matter?" Liu Yao called out as though he had no idea why there was so much unrest amidst the candidates in the hall. 

The Minister of Rites swallowed in nervousness. He had just taken a glance at the question and had gone weak at the knees. 

"I-In response to Your Majesty," he stammered out. "It's nothing." In a louder voice, he tried to call out for order to return, reminding candidates to follow the rules of silence. 

Liu Yao hadn't been expecting him to confess to anything on the spot. Whether it was Wu Shengqi or Liu Wei, he was certain they had already taken a peek at the original list of questions that he'd prepared for the examination, were likely to have been participants in its dissemination. This must have been the case last round too and even during the prefecture and provincial examinations. Why else would certain sons of nobles and officials, whose grades had been mediocre all their lives, suddenly show a marked performance improvement only during the examinations? If they were working harder than everyone else, then so be it, but the reports Liu Yao had received of them stated that if they weren't toiling away in the perfumed boudoirs of the flower district, they were burning hours and money in the gambling dens that he hadn't managed to eradicate. 

If Liu Yao hadn't interfered, these 'promising young lads' would be the ones he had to mint as newly employed officials at the end of spring. 

And now, Minister of Rites Wu had the cheek to tell him that 'it was nothing'. 

Liu Yao had underestimated the anger he harboured. It left a nearly suffocating pressure in his chest. He'd planned for this day for a long time now, ever since he'd held his first imperial examinations three years ago, only to discover to his dismay that despite his best attempts at ensuring that the examination was going to be a fair one, even after appointing his teacher as the head examiner, the power of the nobles was so deeply rooted in the system that he couldn't free himself of their control. 

It was a vicious cycle. To seize power back, Liu Yao had to choose new officials whose allegiances would belong wholly to him. But to choose such new officials, Liu Yao had to seize power first, such that the nobles could not interfere in the examination process. 

From the Ministry of Personnel, to the Ministry of Rites, to the Imperial University, to his dear little brother himself. Liu Yao had no idea just how many people were working against the very peace that he sought to protect. This made him painfully aware that if he couldn't topple the system, he would amount to little more than a puppet emperor. That was what they had done to his father, leeching him dry of all actual say in most matters of the state until he was merely a dry husk on top of the throne, a figurehead to be pandered to with sweet flattery, who was content with his lot in life as long as there was enough wine and beauties to go about. 

But to topple the system, Liu Yao had to build up his support base. He had his network, which was handed down from his ancestors, but by the time it had reached his hands, it was nothing but a shell of its former self, laziness and greed turning a dangerous tiger into a pampered house cat. Liu Yao had invested the time and effort into honing its claws once again, painstakingly supporting those who deserved to rise in the ranks whilst weeding out those who had forgotten what it meant to serve the empire and their liege. 

But even with their help, his journey had been excruciating. The old noble clans weren't foolish; they knew that an emperor, however feeble, had his resources, let alone this young, prickly upstart with more ambition in one bone than the late emperor had in his entire body. Thus, they guarded their territories zealously, rooting out spies and concealing their traces with a caution that Liu Yao would have admired more if it hadn't been directed against him. And even then, whatever little evidence Liu Yao's men managed to obtain of his enemies' misdoings, they could only present it to him under the table. 

Without a strong, united voice to back him up in court, even if he tried to use it to take them down, he would soon be met with a chorus of dissent that was voluminous to drown out any pleas for justice. 

These five years, and with only the left prime minister and his grand tutor firmly on his side, Liu Yao had had to demonstrate some makings of tyranny to get his way. Every time he'd jumped on a fault committed by one of the six old noble clans, who were at the heart of the rot of this dynasty, he'd seized it by the neck and refused to let go. Executions, demotions, the stripping of positions, Du Yi had warned him that he was pushing them too far, pressurising them too hard at a stage where he wasn't ready to go up against them. But Liu Yao could feel the noose they dangled tightening around his throat each time he'd conceded to any of their demands. 

Du Yi was right, of course. Morning court had swiftly become like quicksand; the more Liu Yao struggled against his ministers, the faster they tried to circumvent any changes he tried to make. Du Yi and Left Prime Minister Zhao advocated a gentler route of tentative compromise, insidious in its own way, chipping slowly away at stubborn stone, piece by piece until it crumbled. 

But Liu Yao didn't have the luxury, especially not after learning that Liu Wei might not be the best candidate for his successor after all. One alternative was a good-for-nothing, who spent all his time dabbling in art and music in the high-end brothels of the capital, sometimes even applying for permission to tour the southern cities, where the beauties were said to be made of water. 

The other was a little boy who had yet to see his ninth summer. 

Liu Yao didn't want the throne but he wasn't going to be his father. He didn't shirk the responsibility that had landed upon him and had the intention to pave the road for whoever was walking behind him. But all these grand ideas that he had were far easier said than done. The very bastards that had sworn loyalty to their emperor, some of them to three generations of emperors, in fact, were the reason why he was met with resistance at every turn. 

At the end of the day, it didn't matter that the dragon was a mightier creature than the teng she (1). Perhaps it could win a fight against five teng snakes, or even ten. But what about a hundred? A thousand? 

To believe that it could still win alone would be a dangerous arrogance. If it wanted to prevent its rightful place from being usurped, it had to put aside its pride. 

"Cao Mingbao, take notes." Liu Yao didn't bother lowering his voice and it rang out clearly across the hall, a simple sentence that sealed certain fates. 

Cao Mingbao bowed and beckoned for the young eunuchs behind him to present him with a scroll and brush, already dipped in ink and ready for his use. Evidently, they had come prepared. 

Beneath the dais, under the unnerving stare of the man who was above all, the candidates trembled, especially those who harboured nefarious intentions. The emperor hadn't announced what sort of notes he'd commanded his head eunuch to record. It could very well be just a record of the day. But their guilty conscience, coupled with the shocking question on the examination script, made fear blossom in the dirty depths of their souls. 

To cheat during the imperial examination, to form factions within the court…they were both transgressions. If the emperor wanted, he could pick it up and put it down lightly. But conversely, if he so wished, these could be blown up into serious crimes that could result in the death of one's nine degrees of kindred (2). 

It would be inhumane, of course, but hadn't there been all those stories about His Majesty's reputation for being harsh? 

Liu Yao watched and didn't miss the changes in their expressions. Every shudder, every panicked, terrified white-lipped face didn't escape his gaze. 

Those who were thieves were afraid of being found out (3). 

Cao Mingbao was astute too; Liu Yao didn't have to point the suspicious ones out to his head eunuch for him to deploy the small team of red-uniformed men to approach these candidates. The names on the scripts were already sealed to prevent examiners who read it later from recognising its owner and becoming biased towards or against them. But that wasn't a problem. With utmost politeness, these members of the brocade guard requested to see the candidate's provisional ticket. 

Some of these candidates definitely had something wrong with them but others would be innocent. Either way, Liu Yao wasn't stopping them from completing the examination now. If they were guilty, then it didn't matter how good an answer they managed to present. Once his brocade guard investigated their backgrounds and found an issue, he would not be using them. 

On the other hand, if they were innocent but couldn't handle the pressure of the situation and produced a bad result, then they didn't have the mettle required to stand up against intimidating enemies in court either and Liu Yao wouldn't dare to use them. 

The candidates who had remained mostly unshaken by the development of these events were the ones Liu Yao looked to in search of a new future for his kingdom. His eyes landed on a figure in light grey robes, tucked away in a quiet corner of the hall. Coincidentally, he was surrounded by candidates from a more affluent background; they were all dressed in muted colours, but in the dim glow of the lights that hung overhead, his was the only set of attire that did not have a shiny sheen to it. Silk was the preferred material of the rich, perfect for spring as it could keep its wearer both warm and cool depending. 

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And yet, it was this dullness of his clothes that caught Liu Yao's attention first, followed quickly by his self-assured posture and the confidence with which he wielded his brush. As everyone present knew, the beauty of a candidate's calligraphy was very important; anyone too nervous to keep their hand steady whilst writing would be severely penalised. This, too, was part of the test. 

"Royal Brother, has this subject-brother's organisation failed to meet your standards?" On Liu Yao's left stood Liu Wei, who had been fidgeting on the spot since the start of the examination. 

Liu Yao didn't deign to look at him. "If you have done everything within your capacity, why are you worried now?" was his offhand reply but instead of ameliorating Liu Wei's unease, Liu Yao could sense that the tension in his fourth brother had heightened, his thin frame in its elaborate Prince of the First Rank robes going rigid. 

Liu Yao's network had kept him informed of Liu Wei's doings, although Liu Yao didn't have to rely on them to tell him that this little brother of his hadn't learnt that much of a lesson after the last time Liu Yao had subtly reprimanded him for his behaviour at Compiler Wu's wedding. 

Liu Yao had granted the role of chief investigator to Liu Wei both as a chance for him to train and to socialise with the new generation of officials. Back when he'd accepted that Liu Wei was his best bet for an heir, he'd intended to groom him for the position. Liu Yao wasn't much older than Liu Wei but a mere four years still lent him an advantage. He'd wanted to help Liu Wei gather allies in court, uproot the civil war within his court, and make peace at the uneasy borders, before handing a strong empire over to his brother and retiring into the mountains to mourn. 

His plans had changed a lot in recent times and those included the ones he had for Liu Wei. Perhaps an emperor's heart truly was fickle but making Liu Wei chief investigator was a double-edged sword for the both of them. Liu Yao could be raising a traitor, he was well aware of this fact now. But for Liu Wei, this was as much an opportunity to gain followers as it was a test of his loyalties. 

A test that he had failed spectacularly. 

Earlier that morning, whilst Yan Yun had still been fast asleep in Liu Yao's arms, Head Eunuch Cao had returned with the results of the investigation into Meihong. His eyes and ears, which lurked in the depths of his imperial city and extended its shadowy reach down the throats and deep into the bowels of his officials' households to see what was hiding inside, had been efficient as always. The little eunuch who had been in contact with Meihong, the one who worked in the imperial buttery, was in charge of the supply of meats to the kitchen, sourced directly from the imperial hunting grounds. 

No one but this little eunuch knew what else had been sneaked in past the imperial city's tall walls in the bellies of these slaughtered animals. 

The mere thought of having that burnt in his study, in his bedroom, the soot leaving a nearly invisible coat of filth over his belongings, incensed Liu Yao. But not as much as learning that the little eunuch's contact in the imperial hunting grounds was an old retired soldier, one of a batch from the southwestern army that he had taken pity on and personally granted recognition for their service by allowing them to retire with a comfortable sum and easier jobs in or around the capital. 

The southwestern army. The imperial hunting grounds. The former was linked to the Southwestern King, the warlord in charge of the safety of those borderlands, and General Guo. The latter was linked to Grand Protector Li. 

All three of them were meant to be protecting the realm and the imperial family. Yet, they had now become Liu Yao's greatest suspects. 

"You seem like you have something you'd like to ask this sovereign." 

Since Liu Wei was hesitating like a coward, Liu Yao would just have to speak up for him. 

Forced to converse by a direct address from the emperor, Liu Wei had no choice but to engage. "This subject-brother can sense that Royal Brother is not in a good mood…perhaps it is because Royal Brother is still recovering?" He spoke barely above a whisper, still had enough good sense not to announce the emperor's health status for all to hear. "Would Royal Brother like to take a rest in the side chamber? This subject-brother will provide you with updates—"

"Liu Wei." It was the second time today that Liu Yao had addressed his little brother by name. He wanted to remind him of who he was and what he stood for. That they shared the same surname and bloodline. "This sovereign has received evidence that certain candidates today have, prior to this examination, received a copy of the original examination script." 

Liu Wei went pale and proceeded to drop into a low bow, his movements capturing the attention of the candidates, who were already high-strung from the unusual turn the proceedings had taken. 

"This subject-brother begs Royal Brother to proceed with a fair investigation! This subject-brother does not know who has set out to frame me and turn Royal Brother against me, but—"

"Don't be so quick to jump to conclusions," Liu Yao interrupted Liu Wei's impassioned speech. He lifted his head to meet Cao Mingbao's eyes and received a slight bow in return. 

Cao Mingbao tucked his whisk and horsetail whisk under an arm before clapping his hands together twice, sharply. 

The brocade guard, who had been returned to line the walls in a militant fashion after retrieving the names of the candidates who had roused Liu Yao's suspicions, broke out of rank and file to approach a candidate each. They stood by them and pulled out a roll of parchment from their sleeves, leaning down and disregarding the frightened men as they compared the handwriting. 

Upon the dais, Liu Wei's expression had turned ugly as Liu Yao explained to him just what was going on. 

"Isn't it uncanny, how this sovereign's examination script, which had taken this sovereign months to decide on, should so conveniently match the questions these candidates had chosen to practice on in their homes?"

Already, four or five candidates had been hauled out of their seats and dragged away for further interrogation by the brocade guard but Liu Yao was certain that there was more. Not everyone was enough of an idiot to leave written evidence of their cheating lying around for nosy 'servants' to poke their noses into, after all. But the few that he had caught would be sufficient for him to make a big fuss of this in court, not the mention the others who might have blown their cover in front of him today by displaying an unnatural amount of fear. 

"This could just be a coincidence, Royal Brother," Liu Wei said but there was a lack of conviction in his tone. "This subject-brother assures you that utmost care was given in ensuring that the content of the script was protected, perhaps these students were just industrious enough that they checked what matters of state Royal Brother was most concerned with and chose practice questions that fitted the bill…?" 

"Perhaps," Liu Yao said lightly. "Or perhaps not." He turned to meet Liu Wei's eyes, noting with satisfaction the mounting horror that his little brother tried so hard but failed to suppress. "This sovereign isn't accusing anyone yet, is just taking precautions to ensure that the integrity of today's examination isn't compromised." He waved an expansive arm at the rest of the hall. "For every individual that attempted to cheat today, there are many other honest ones who deserve to have their hard work respected, is this sovereign right?" 

What could Liu Wei say to that? 

"Of course, Royal Brother," he gritted out. 

Liu Yao's smile was gratified. "This sovereign is relieved that his fourth royal brother is so sensible and trusts that you were not involved in anything untoward," he remarked calmly. "Still, although it pains this sovereign to say so, as Chief Organiser, it is inevitable that you would be implicated. To ensure that your name is cleared as soon as possible, this sovereign shall personally oversee the investigation of this matter." 

His ministers helped their sons and students to cheat, his little brother sought to absorb all the poor candidates with no backing into his camp.

Liu Wei wanted evidence? Liu Yao was more than happy to oblige, he just needed the excuse to do so. 

And today had granted him one. 

He patted Liu Wei on the shoulder.. "Until this sovereign is satisfied that your honour and the imperial family's reputation has been preserved, this sovereign must trouble you to return to your manor and wait for further news."

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