Since it was just a small episode and nothing was lost, Wen Mingyu didn’t take it to heart. After a lesson and something else to divert his attention, he soon forgot about it.
Break.
A group of teenagers got together to chat and have some fun, and the topic for today’s chat was again about novels. Because Yu Mu couldn’t bear the hatred of so many readers, he wrote about the double male protagonist’s teenage life after the previous BE, about Tang Yiyuan and Cheng Yunzhen studying at the Imperial Academy.
The anxiety in their hearts was finally relieved, and they read it happily.
The courtroom confrontation was excellent, and when it comes to the teenage prequel, Yu Mu also captured the youthful enthusiasm and naivety typical at this age. And sometimes, you couldn’t help but find pleasure in reading it, and when you learned about the foolish things they had done, it resonated with you as though you’d spent that time studying with the protagonist.
A student took the newly released book and skeptically said, “I looked at that writing style before and thought Yu Mu was at least a dozen years older than us and passed his prime, but now this prequel has me all confused again. Yu Mu writes the protagonist at our age so genuinely, as if he were a fellow student around.”
“Besides, don’t you guys think that Yu Mu knows too much about our school? I have a sneaking suspicion that Yu Mu… is among us!”
The boy delivered these words with resolve, his two eyes shining.
Wen Mingyu listened, his heart skipping a beat.
The others were unimpressed. “You’re so talented, why don’t you go be a magistrate and solve cases? To meet the age requirement and be in Imperial College, it would only be a teacher, you dare ask?”
That classmate just thought of it casually and shook his head forcefully. “I dare not, I dare not.”
The crowd didn’t take his deductions seriously, and neither did he take them seriously, not realizing that he had accidentally come out with the truth. The conversation soon shifted to discussing the storyline.
The school life novel had a lot of interesting daily routines that were very relatable to reality, like nodding off during exams, becoming sidetracked, getting hand-slapped by a teacher, etc. They couldn’t help but feel a greater sense of connection when they saw the protagonists experiencing similar situations. It was also endearing and refreshing to see that the two protagonists, who were so clever and resourceful, had such a childish side.
On top of that, there were a lot of dashing points set up in the book, with the cannon fodder deliberately making things difficult, the protagonist skillfully solving things to face-slap him, and the two protagonists constantly competing for first place. Fighting and bumping into each other makes for a lot of exciting highlights.
For readers who were already hooked on the CP from the earlier book, they would find it to be a total sugar rush. For those who were not, watching the gradual development of friendship between the two protagonists with a tit-for-tat relationship was also very fragrant.
Even the devoted reader, the big bearded man who was standing at the bookstore door berating Yu Mu for not being human, entered the pit once more, hugged the teenage prequel book, sobbed with happiness, and transformed into a real male mother.
How abusive the ending of the dynasty was, how sweet the teenage life was now.
When the sugar knocked on his head, when the bearded man saw Tang Yiyuan occasionally taking on tasks, and when a hint of the future Tang-shashu’s calm and collected expression appeared on his face, he couldn’t help but remember that Tang Yiyuan died at a young age… Isn’t this crushed glass mixed with sugar? So abusive!
Not only the students of Imperial College read novels; even some teachers would occasionally read them. They were not counted as Yu Mu’s fans; they merely felt that taking a leisurely look was enough.
Two days later.
Teacher Yu, a lover of books, entered the class and began his lecture.
With a quarter of an hour remaining before class ends, Teacher Yu’s hand rested on a stack of papers, which werepolicy essayswritten by the students previously. Despite having already evaluated them, he brought them in today for a special critique. Regardless of how good or bad they were, he would affirm or criticize them mercilessly.
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As they listened all the way through, the students’ expressions moved, gradually shifting to admiration. They looked at Cai Xinhan with different gazes. Cai Xinhan was ecstatic to receive it, enjoying being the center of everyone’s attention.
After reading them aloud, Teacher Yu stroked his beard and praised him twice, saying, “I am reminded of the ending in Yu Mu’s novel. Change is a hundred year-old plan—without destruction, there can be no construction, and sometimes occasional radicalism has its merits. Well-written, Cai Xinhan, keep it up in the future.”
Cai Xinhan nodded in response, looking calmly accomplished with himself, and his eyes silently glanced in Wen Mingyu’s direction.
Wen Mingyu’s face was cold. He was staring at him, too.
When Teacher Yu had read out a few sentences, Wen Mingyu recognized something was off. Because the content of Cai Xinhan’s policy essay was almost the exact same content as the one he had written three days ago, with minor changes in the way it was presented.
Wen Mingyu’s expression changed—he immediately rummaged through his bookcase and, sure enough, was unable to locate the paper sandwich between the pages of his book. Following the teacher’s explanation of the assignment, Wen Mingyu pondered and then came up with a few ideas, and finally, since he couldn’t decide between them, he came up with two policy essays.
Ultimately, he didn’t submit this essay and chucked it into his book. He didn’t turn in this one because he didn’t think it was good, on the contrary, he liked this one more. It was just that some parts therein weren’t perfected yet, and he wasn’t completely satisfied, so he wanted to save it for a later revision.
But he never expected that, within the school, there would be a thief, stealing the draft of the policy paper he had written and taking it for himself.
Teacher had just finished his talk when the bell for dismissal rang soon. He gathered his things and was ready to exit the room.
Wen Mingyu couldn’t bear it anymore. His mind buzzed. He wanted to explain the situation to Teacher Yu right away, but Cai Xinhan had already anticipated this earlier and rushed over. He seized his hand and lowered his voice. “Come out with me and talk.”
Wen Mingyu was so repulsed by him that, being touched by his hand at this moment, he felt nauseous. He shook it off without hesitation and told him in a chilly voice, “I don’t think we have anything to talk about. You dare act in such a despicable manner; you should know that if you are found out, you will definitely pay a heavy price.”
His volume was not deliberately lowered, and he soon attracted the attention of others, especially Ye Xu and the others not far away. They suspect Cai Xinhan was treating Wen Mingyu wrong and was bullying him.
Cai Xinhan was calm and self-satisfied just now, but now he showed a panicked look and quickly whispered, “You have no evidence at all, will Teacher Yu believe you? I’ll give you five hundred taels—no, two thousand taels. It’s considered buying your policy paper. This is quite a sum of money, and you might as well take it rather than making a big fuss out of it and letting the teacher have an opinion of you.”
Even though Cai Xinhan was clearly wrong in this matter, he still managed to act with an I-gave-you-money-okay condescending attitude, as though Wen Mingyu had earned his attention and naturally demanded him, thinking he would agree.
Wen Mingyu felt like laughing at his absurdity and bluntly spat, “Get lost! Don’t disgust me!”
Cai Xinhan seized his hand once more with great grip and with a slightly more sinister expression. “I heard Ye Xu’s disrespectful words to the emperor last time. You don’t want to harm your friend, do you…”
When temptation was useless, it changed into a threat. His expression was still filled with contempt for Wen Mingyu for being naive.
He didn’t believe he was wrong in the slightest. Cai Xinhan approached situations according to his own set of values.Profitwas the only thing that mattered; gettingfriendswas even more so. In his opinion, friends were like interests, so he limited his social interactions to those with well-established backgrounds. If the grades were excellent, it was very likely that they would be on the golden list and become an official, so then his attitude would slightly be better, but only to some, because people without a background would at best be an inconspicuous mere official.
He had asked people to look into Wen Mingyu’s family background, and nothing much came out of it. When he considered the nobles in the capital with the surname Wen, there was only the Marquis of Guangyang who had been eliminated. Wen Mingyu was most likely from a minor branch that wasn’t worth much attention.
Therefore, Cai Xinhan was not happy with how high-profile he was acting, despite being a commoner. When there was no one around, he casually flipped through the contents of his bookcase and happened to see his policy essay. Coincidentally, Cai Xinhan was worried since he didn’t know how to start his paper, so he took Wen Mingyu’s, made a few slight changes, rewrote it, and submitted it.
Cai Xinhan didn’t expect that this paper would make Teacher Yu like it so much that he praised it profusely in front of everyone. He was a bit flustered in his heart, and he seem to be floating, but more than that, he still felt smug and proud. He didn’t take Wen Mingyu seriously because, in the end, it was too easy for the nobility to take advantage of the common people. Whether they oppressed them with force or money, the common people had no chance to fight back.
But how could he have predicted that Wen Mingyu would be so fearless and tough and that he would fight against him.
Ye Xu and the others hurried over, frowned and asked with concern, “What happened? Is he bullying you?”
They surrounded Cai Xinhan in a flash.
Friends did not hesitate to stand by Wen Mingyu’s side. Wei Chen and Chu Shuli were not from prominent families, but at this moment, they also dared to fight Cai Xinhan for his sake.
Wen Mingyu was not going to compromise, and he showed even more courage now and squarely said, “He didn’t even write that paper—he stole it from me.”
The voice was so loud and resounding that practically everyone in the room could hear it with a shocked look on their faces, never imagining that there could be such a brazen person.
After Ye Xu reacted, he ran out of the room even more speedily to catch up with Teacher Yu, who had not yet gone that far to ask him to come back to deal with this matter.
Cai Xinhan was really flustered at this point, but he was unwilling to show his cowardice, bracing himself to glare grimly at Wen Mingyu. He spoke through gritted teeth, “Do you really want to make a big deal out of this? You better not regret it!”
When he listened to Ye Xu’s words, Teacher Yu was surprised. Stealing other people’s paper—this kind of behavior was incredibly wrong. He turned around decisively and returned to the room.
“What the hell is going on here?” Teacher Yu had an intense expression on his face.
Cai Xinhan grabbed the opportunity and claimed, “He flared up at me without reason and said that my paper was his, even though it was clearly something I had put a lot of effort and time into writing. It’s really hard for me to understand, and it’s just too uncomfortable to be wrongly accused. I still have the draft here, teacher; you can take a look at it.”
With that, he took a piece of paper from his own bookcase and handed it over, and he also turned to question Wen Mingyu, “You are slandering me like this, do you have any evidence? Things aren’t yours just because you said so.”
His tone was of awe-inspiring righteousness, so sincere, as if he had truly been falsely accused.
For a moment, the other students were a bit confused as to who was telling the truth.
Teacher Yu’s expression remained unchanged. He was not persuaded by the words of a single person and quickly scanned the paper in his hand with his head down, then he looked up at Wen Mingyu and asked kindly, “Do you have any evidence?”
Based on his understanding of Wen Mingyu over the course of several months of lectures, he actually did not believe that Wen Mingyu would say such things for no reason. But at the same time, he couldn’t just arbitrarily conclude that a student had stolen someone else’s policy paper. Even if it was beyond his usual level of performance, jumping to conclusions was something a teacher would never do.
Thus, he wanted to hear more from each side and provide them with a chance to prove themselves.
Wen Mingyu shook his head. “My rough draft was tucked in the book and was gone.”
Cai Xinhan smiled mockingly. “That’s just your side of the story. You can say whatever you want naturally.”
Those who were on good terms with Cai Xinhan agreed with him, and some of the people who usually were against Wen Mingyu did the same, falling down the well and mixing in with the accusations, albeit they couldn’t be blamed anyway. More students, on the other hand, were on Wen Mingyu’s side. As the two sides were about to spark a quarrel, Teacher Yu opened his mouth to ask them to be quiet.
At that moment, Wen Mingyu looked at Teacher Yu and said with a serious look on his face, “Although the draft is missing, I wrote the paper. Everything is naturally in my head. I can fully provide you with all my thoughts in detail, and the teacher will be able to judge accordingly.”
Cai Xinhan frowned. “Teacher read my paper out to us just now in class. Don’t you know all of the content? What sort of evidence is this?”
Wen Mingyu calmly stated, “Written classical Chinese simply conveys concepts for easy reflection and revision. This is only my initial draft, and there are still many unfinished ideas. It is precisely because it is not complete that I handed in another one and pressed this one down, intending to rewrite it.”
“And Cai Xinhan is adamant that he wrote it himself, so there must have been quite a few ideas in his mind that he is not afraid to express. I implore the teacher to hear what each of us has to say and to give us an opportunity to prove it.”
Since Teacher Yu was already fairly interested in this policy essay and heard that it could still be refined, he naturally wanted to see how far his students could go.
With a nod of his head, he said, “That’s not a bad way to go. Do you accept it, Cai Xinhan?”
Each word Wen Mingyu spoke, the worse Cai Xinhan’s expression got. Clenching his teeth, if he could, he simply wished he could kill Wen Mingyu, so that he was unable to say another word again. However, under the eyes of many, he couldn’t show it and could only hold it in; instead, he must confidently assert that the policy paper was written by him. He couldn’t show the slightest guilt.
He hated how Wen Mingyu put him in such a terrible predicament. It was just a paper. Who does Wen Mingyu think he is. If he was willing to use it, then it was Wen Mingyu’s honor. If you had received the money, everything would have been fine. He definitely wouldn’t let Wen Mingyu off the hook.
Refusing at this point would make him look like he had no backbone, and he could aggravate other people’s suspicions of him, so Cai Xinhan nodded and added, “Yes, but this one is a matter of honor and is very important. Would Teacher Yu mind inviting another teacher to come over and judge?”
Teacher Yu’s eyebrows raised a little. Was this an implication that he would be biased?
He was slightly offended but had no reason to refuse, so he nodded.
Cai Xinhan immediately had someone invite Teacher Fan. His father had taken care of Teacher Fan, who had tried to climb up the ladder, so he would surely be in his favor. Since Wen Mingyu had the audacity to confront him in such an unwelcome manner, Cai Xinhan would certainly seize the chance to kick him out of Imperial College!
After some time passed, it turned out that the one who appeared was not Teacher Fan but rather thechancellorhimself, the state official in charge of Imperial College.
The chancellor came here because Wen Mingyu’s attendant had come looking for him. Upon learning that something was wrong, he rushed over in a hurry. Others didn’t know, but he was personally instructed by His Majesty. How could he let something happen here.
Cai Xinhan bowed his head, blocking his face that he couldn’t control getting twisted for a split second. The chancellor had arrived, and his standing and authority were more than sufficient to handle this. Cai Xinhan didn’t have an excuse to get an acquaintance to help.
Teacher Yu also expressed surprise at the arrival of the chancellor, and then he spoke out, “Since the chancellor is present, Cai Xinhan, you should have no objection, right?”
Cai Xinhan gritted his teeth and nodded.
The chancellor roughly understood the situation and asked solemnly, “Which one of you will be first?”
Wen Mingyu was about to speak when a loud yell came from outside—”His Majesty has arrived!”