Chapter 231:
Is Lu Ziyan coming?
Xie Wanning’s first reaction was nervousness, but soon she relaxed again.
He was going to Xiangzhou to suppress the rebellion, and Xiangzhou was over two hundred li away from Bianzhou, which was really quite far.
Unless something enormous happened, there was no way it would trouble the Crown Prince of the nation to come in person.
Thinking of this, Xie Wanning even smiled to comfort Chen Xi’er, “What’s there to panic about? Not to mention he’s going to Xiangzhou—even if he came to Bianzhou, I hardly ever step out the door these days. Could he really drag me out?”
Everyone in the world knew that the eldest young lady of Xuanping Marquis’s Estate had died in Dayang Lake, and Lu Ziyan’s men would only search for the body in Dayang Lake, never looking for her everywhere.
She was very safe.
She herself was quite open-minded about it, but Chen Xi’er at her side was simply terrified of Lu Ziyan down to her bones.
Back in Qingzhou, she had heard of his prestige from her father, and later she had personally witnessed a bit of it. Even the Chen Family had been wiped out by that Killing God.
Every time she thought of Lu Ziyan, her heart truly pounded in fear.
But she also knew her cousin was right—if nothing enormous happened, Lu Ziyan would not come to Bianzhou, and they were safe.
Chen Xi’er worried every day whether the distant Lu Ziyan, separated by mountains and rivers, might one day come knocking to drag her cousin back, but she never expected her own family to run into trouble first.
This year was the provincial examination, and after three years of hard study, Li Wenhan was determined to take the exam.
The closer it got to the autumn imperial examination, the more the city filled with scholars from the counties below coming to take the exam. He no longer buried himself in studying, but often accepted invitations from other students at the academy, actively going out to banquets, hoping to boost his reputation. After several times, he made quite a few friends.
Friends always exchange some favors. The Li Family was not very wealthy, but they ran a pastry shop that was an old established name in Bianzhou City. Gradually, when Li Wenhan gathered with friends, he liked to bring pastries from home.
The problem arose with these pastries.
Several scholars ate the pastries he brought, and after going back, they all suffered vomiting and diarrhea. Forget focusing on studying for this year’s autumn imperial examination—they were on the verge of dying if things continued like this.
Their families reported it to the authorities.
With the autumn imperial examination approaching and several scholars involved, the authorities naturally dared not slack off.
When Chen Xi’er came looking, Li Wenhan had already been taken away by the authorities. The Li Family pastry shop was sealed with a notice, and even the Li Family Matriarch who made the pastries had been taken away for questioning along with him.
If not for her pregnancy and not having helped at the pastry shop for these past few months, she probably would have been taken away too by now.
Seeing Chen Xi’er panicked and at a loss, speaking incoherently, Xie Wanning hurriedly helped her into the room. After hearing the full story, her brows furrowed tightly.
“The pastries absolutely have no problem. There were unsold pastries in the shop, and my mother-in-law always brings them home after closing. Even I ate them while pregnant without issue—why would they alone be harmed!” Chen Xi’er said: “It must be that they wanted to harm my husband.”
Xie Wanning agreed that the pastries had no problem—after all, her appetite had improved these days, and she had eaten quite a lot of the Li Family’s pastries.
But saying several scholars had colluded to harm the Li Family didn’t make sense either.
From what she knew, Li Wenhan had only become a scholar at the age of twenty, which was considered quite literary among ordinary folk, but compared to many other students, it was nothing special.
He was neither a hot favorite to top this exam nor did he have any prominent family background.
This was the autumn imperial examination held every three years—how many three-year periods does one have in a lifetime? For several young scholars to not study hard themselves and strive to pass, but instead collude specifically to harm such an obscure minor figure, heedless of their own health.
What could they possibly gain from it?
