After Xie Zhaoan returned to Kyoto, the prince's party paid close attention to his actions. Because there was no topic, the prince's party even began to let their followers recite the posthumous works left by Jiang at that time, in order to get some answers from them.
Xie Zhaoan never denied this, nor did he admit in person that these answers were wrong. Over time, the entire officialdom knew that the questions for this exam were taken from the posthumous works of the deceased Princess Ning'an.
Most people had no opinion on this, but the queen did have some complaints. She called the prince to her palace, holding the teacup in her white fingers, and looked at the prince with a look of contempt.
"It's now widely rumored in the capital that Xie Zhaoan wants to use Ning An's posthumous work as the test question this time."
The prince nodded, not realizing what was happening.
"That's right, but in my opinion, this shouldn't have much impact on us."
There was no expression on the queen's face. The prince thought that the matter was over, but who knew that in the next second, the queen threw the teacup in her hand directly to the ground. The fragments of the teacup flew up and scratched the prince's neck, leaving a trace of blood on it.
"Mother! Please forgive me!"
The prince reacted almost instantly and knelt on the ground, his head pressed tightly against the ground and his body shivering.
The queen stretched out her foot and slowly lifted his head up, her eyes fixed on his. Although the slapping of her tender white palm on his face did not hurt, it was extremely insulting.
"What a good son of mine! Don't you know who Ning An is? Back then, she stole the limelight and made me, the queen, completely invisible in the entire capital. I put so much effort into getting rid of her. Now, Xie Zhaoan, a bastard born from a merchant family, wants to use Ning An's posthumous work as a test question and make Ning An praised by everyone in the world again. My good son doesn't even have any reaction. Tell me, isn't it ridiculous to say this?"
The prince shrank back and nodded repeatedly.
"Please forgive me, mother. I didn't think this through. Please don't be angry with me anymore. I will do it right away."
Oh.
The queen slapped his face and said coldly.
"Don't make it too obvious. Also, let Ning An's posthumous work become a heretical book."
The prince knelt and nodded.
"Okay, mother, since you said so, I will definitely handle this matter properly."
The queen nodded, then relaxed and took a sip of water.
"I believe in my good son. You will definitely not let your mother down."
The prince was already sweating all over. He stood up and walked slowly outside. As he stepped out, the queen's voice sounded behind him.
"Tonight, a boy will come to your room. If he does something wrong, he should be punished. Don't you think so?"
The prince's body froze, but he didn't even dare to raise his head and nodded.
"Yes, mother is right."
The next day.
A rumor began to spread in Kyoto.
"Does everyone know? Why did Princess Ning'an's posthumous work suddenly become popular again after such a long time? Some people say that this is because someone is secretly manipulating it! The reason why Princess Ning'an died strangely was because she tried to interfere in the government despite being a woman. What's more, she seduced the emperor so much that no one in the court opposed her. Instead, most people agreed with the methods she proposed!"
"Is that really the case? Then what is this person's purpose now?"
"It's just to disrupt the government! The posthumous work of a deceased woman is used to write this kind of article, in order to cause chaos in the government. Now, almost everyone in the entire dynasty is studying her article. Isn't this a symbol of evil winds everywhere?"
People around were talking to each other, and the power of rumors was fully demonstrated at this time. For a while, the books left by the Jiang family became evil books.
However, the prince's party is still trying their best to study the posthumous works she left behind, which makes his followers puzzled.
"Your Highness, her posthumous work has been spread so far that the emperor will soon issue an order for us to stop studying this work. By then, wouldn't we have wasted our time in vain? Are we sure we don't need to put in the effort on those traditional classics? The imperial examinations in previous years were all about these things!"
"If I say no, then no. I am sure about this matter."
After that night, the prince could not even sit still. He could only half lie down. Every time he felt the pain in his body, he sighed. If he really became the current emperor, many people would have to be purged.
night.
A fire burned the place where Xie Zhaoan placed the posthumous works left by Princess Ning'an.
Because Xie Zhaoan sent many people to guard Princess Ning'an, even though his actions were secretive, they were still discovered by the prince's men.
A huge fire completely caused rumors to spread throughout Kyoto.
"I told you, there is definitely something wrong with this Princess Ning An!"
"That's right! Why is there evil fire falling from the sky? In the final analysis, it must be because there is something wrong with her posthumous works!!!"
Everyone was talking at once, making the matter seem like a miracle, but the person involved had not made any move. The prince narrowed his eyes, and although he felt that there might be something fishy about this matter, when he thought about how Xie Zhaoan always looked like a scumbag, he felt relieved a lot and did not take the matter seriously.
"At least the Queen Mother has resolved the matter, so that's enough. As for Xie Zhaoan, he looks sickly all the time. Didn't the imperial physician examine him before? He said that he would not live past 25. If that's the case, why should we worry about him? We will definitely win this game."
Seeing how confident the prince was, the prince's followers all nodded happily. They all felt that they were sure to win in this matter.
Everyone continued to read the posthumous work left by Jiang. Since Xie Zhaoan had said before that he would publish it from this book, then it must be from it. There was no other reason, but that Xie Zhaoan was a fool. Seeing that things had developed to this point, he still did not know how to repent. At least now, in the eyes of everyone, things had developed like this.
The prince was very confident about this and told everyone not to say too much as he had his own arrangements.
After the queen learned about this, she sneered and sighed, saying that Xie Zhaoan really came from the cold palace and had never seen the world, so naturally he didn't know his place.