Pingyang Fu of the Red Chamber

Chapter 735: A Candidate Causes Trouble
In the palace,

When people around him haven't reacted yet,
With a "slap" sound, a slap mark was printed on Yang Mingan's face. After a moment, his cheek was visibly swollen, which made everyone present a little confused. Who dared to do this?
Without waiting for others to do anything, Yang Mingan reacted quickly and threw the bamboo hat in his hand. It happened to hit the tip of Xue Pan's nose, and blood came out instantly.

The people around were dumbfounded.
Xue Pan reached out and wiped the blood off the tip of his nose.
"Good boy, I won't stop until I beat you to your knees and beg for mercy, you son of a bitch."

After cursing, they rushed forward. The two of them had no rules and fought chaotically. The people around them immediately dispersed, and even the two who had just cursed together retreated. Luan Yiqing asked in a low voice;
"Why do you want to fight me? This is Hanyuan Palace."

"Yeah, I thought it was just a few scoldings, what can I do?"

Sun Huaizhong was also a little uneasy. They had just participated in it. What if they were caught by that evil star Luo Yunhou? In his heart, he was somewhat blaming Brother Yang. Wasn't this just cheating them?

Jia Lan, who was standing at the back, didn't dare to move. He had never encountered such a thing before. His eyes turned red with anxiety. Xu Changwen wanted to stop the fight, but Gao Wen held him down tightly.
"Brother Xu, this is no small matter. It's in the palace."

This reminder made Xu Changwen stop in his tracks.
Looking at the two men wrestling in front of him, they were throwing punches at each other, hitting each other in the face without caring about their dignity, and kicking each other with their feet. The fight was evenly matched, but Xue Pan was always stronger and more powerful, and gradually gained the upper hand.

I don't know who shouted "good", and the people around immediately started to talk and point fingers.

"Brother, who is fighting in front? It's so fierce,"

"That's right, don't you see whose son he is? One of them is the son of Mr. Yang, the Minister of Guanglu Temple."

"Is this true? This is in the palace. Who is the other one?"

"I looked for a long time but couldn't see who it was,"

The noisy situation was immediately noticed by the inspectors around. Seeing that someone was fighting, they didn't know what to do, so they hurriedly reported to Shen Zhongxin, the person in charge of the hall.

"Master Shen, something bad has happened. Some students are causing trouble and fighting. What should we do?"

"What, someone's fighting?"

Shen Zhongxin looked incredulous. It was already so late. Fighting in the examination room would disqualify one from taking the exam. However, the inspector looked a little overwhelmed and didn't seem to be lying. He looked up at the entrance of the hall and saw a group of people gathered there. It was very lively.
After a pause, he ordered;
"Go tell the Marquis, and I'll go over there myself."

"It's Mr. Shen,"

The examiner nodded and left.
Shen Zhongxin greeted a few young censors, stood up and walked over.
Meanwhile, in Hanyuan Hall, several people were still eating cakes and drinking tea inside the east window. They obviously hadn't noticed the noise inside. Zhang Jinyu sat there, taking a rare moment of leisure. He pinched two pieces of cake and put them into his mouth. It can only be said that there is strength in numbers. Fortunately, some more censors were asked to come here, so there were people watching inside and outside. It was much better than the group of old men at Lord Nan's place.

Just thinking,

I saw an inspector rushing over and kneeling on the ground in panic.
"Your humble servant greets the three princes and the marquis."

Hear the sound,

Zhang Jinyu's heart skipped a beat. Could it be that the good things didn't work and the bad things came instead? Just now he was thinking about saving himself some trouble, but now it's like this.
Obviously something went wrong.

"Get up, what are you panicking about? What happened?"

"Thank you, Lord Marquis. I am here to report to you that there is a fight among candidates in the front hall. Lord Shen has already led his men over."

"What, there's a fight,"

Zhang Jinyu's eyes widened. There are still such fierce people, fighting when the Enke enters the field, this is making trouble, whose son is so arrogant, and wanted to ask more, but he didn't see the three princes around him, suddenly sitting up, and became interested. The second prince Zhou Chong hurried over and asked;

"Who is fighting? What's going on? How did the fight start? Is the fight serious?"

After a series of questions, not only did Zhang Jinyu feel a little uncomfortable, but even the censor was a little confused.

"Your Highness, I don't know what happened. I just found out that someone was fighting, so I came back to report it. I think the fight was pretty serious, and there was blood."

"What? There's blood everywhere, Lord, what are you waiting for? Come on, let's go and take a look. What if something is broken?"

The second prince was obviously excited. He stood up impatiently and urged others to come over. He said caring words, which made the inspector beside him confused. Only Zhang Jinyu laughed secretly in his heart. It was obvious that he had nothing to do after eating, and suddenly something happened. How could he sit still?

"Okay, listen to the Second Prince. Ningbian, bring your men to follow."

"Yes, Lord Marquis."

When Zhang Jinyu stood up, the three princes followed behind him with excitement, and Ning Bian followed closely with his personal soldiers. In this way, the group walked over in a mighty manner. Only the inspector stood there in a daze, not knowing whether to follow.
When they got close to the palace gate,
The candidates were still watching, with the sounds of cursing, panting, and clothes being torn. At this time, Zhang Jinyu had already walked over here. Shen Zhongxin and the others were far away and fell behind him.
As soon as they stopped, the three princes rushed forward to take a look, but were stopped by Zhang Jinyu.

"Don't come any closer,"

The three princes had no choice but to fall behind them. When they stretched their heads to look, they saw the two men on the ground wrestling with each other and rolling into a ball. Not only were their clothes torn, they looked unrecognizable. Their faces were red and swollen, and a lot of their hair had been pulled out. They were really badly beaten.

Among the crowd of onlookers, Xu Changwen was always worried, but it was useless to persuade them verbally. He couldn't get close to them and couldn't stop them. When he was anxious, he saw Luo Yunhou and his soldiers coming over. He thought to himself, "Oh no!" and hurriedly spoke out;

"The examiner is here!"

This shout came suddenly.
Almost all the candidates immediately fell silent, and quickly retreated a long way, leaving only the few people who were fighting and Zhang Jinyu and the others behind.

There were so many people around that Zhang Jinyu didn't see clearly who was fighting. Only three people were left around him. One was the two candidates he met in the restaurant before. What were their names? The other one was Li Wan's son, Jia Lan. His face was trembling and he was standing there stupidly.
what's the situation,
Could it be that

Looking at the two people on the ground again, Zhang Jinyu's face darkened. Damn, it was really them, Xue Pan and Yang Ming'an. They were really enemies. There were so many students, but they were standing close to each other. Even if they came earlier or later, they would not have been able to squeeze together. Now, not only were they squeezed together, they were almost kissing each other.
"Those who are not involved should leave first,"

Seeing Marquis Luo Yun speak, Ning Bian behind him obviously understood what the Marquis meant, and called two of his personal soldiers to drive Jia Lan, Xu Changwen and others aside. Xu Changwen was unwilling to do so, and seeing that the two were about to miss the opportunity,

"My Lord, do you have anything to say?"

"Well, what did you say?"

"My Lord, they just had an argument over a trivial matter, and that's why they started fighting. I hope you will be lenient with them, after all."

Before Xu Changwen could finish his words, Gao Wen came back and grabbed him.

"My Lord, Brother Xu was just frightened and is talking nonsense. Don't blame me, don't blame me!"

Xu Changwen wanted to say more.
Zhang Jinyu snorted coldly;
"What else do you want to say? I'm already standing here, and these two are still fighting each other. Is this the trivial matter you mentioned?"

At this time, Xue Pan and Yang Ming'an were still struggling with each other. The three princes were watching them with great enthusiasm. The second and third princes even added to the excitement. Zhang Jinyu was so upset that he scolded them.

"Why don't you separate them?" "Yes, my lord."

The guards behind him hurriedly came to the front and separated the two. When they separated, the two were still unwilling to give in and kept cursing. Xue Pan was panting, with a pair of panda eyes and a swollen and bleeding mouth. He cursed,
"Little boy of the Yang family, your uncle Xue has beaten you so badly, go back to your mother and drink her milk."

"Fuck you, Xue family dog, you were just slapped by me, how is it, is it tasty enough?"

Yang Mingan was not much better, his eyes were almost blind, there were several scratches on his neck, bleeding, the corners of his mouth were swollen no less than Xue Pan, and his words were not very pleasant to the ear. Zhang Jinyu's face turned cold, what an ungrateful person,
coincidentally,

Shen Zhongxin also arrived with the inspector. When he saw the appearance of this place, he knew that it was the son of Lord Yang, the Minister of Guanglu Temple, and the son of the Xue family of Rongguo Mansion. It was inevitable that the Marquis was involved, so he asked quietly;

"My Lord, what should we do?"

"Humph, if you dare to cause trouble here, I will deal with it impartially."

Zhang Jinyu also knew Xue Pan's character. It was incredible that he could take the imperial examination. Whether he passed or not was another matter. But being able to take the exam was a test of his ability. The Xue family was sometimes a mystery.

"I understand."

Shen Zhongxin did not expect that Marquis Luo Yun would really dare to "kill his own relatives for the sake of justice." After all, Shen Zhongxin did not know what kind of person Xue Pan was. After all, Master Xue had a good reputation in the Jia family, and he was "righteous and righteous." He was also a student of the Rongguo Mansion's clan school. From outsiders' perspective, he was a promising man. Not to mention, someone who knew the inside story knew that one of Marquis Luo Yun's concubines was from the Xue family. Although the matter was kept secret, there was no wall that was impenetrable after all, and the people in the Rongguo Mansion had leaked a lot of rumors.

In addition, the eldest son of Master Yang's family was a man of great literary talent and elegance. He was also known as a little gentleman in the capital, and everyone knew about it. Therefore, Shen Zhongxin felt it was a pity. After all, if someone was determined to be a troublemaker by the examiner, he would not only be banned from taking the exam, but also be punished. He would be banned from taking the exam for at least six years, and no one could change that.

Hence the question just now.
Zhang Jinyu looked at the two of them who were still unwilling to accept it, and thought, this is easy to deal with.

"Let them go and let them continue fighting. Let's decide the winner first."

Subsequently,

The personal guards behind the two actually let them go.

But at this time, the two of them had obviously come back to their senses. Looking at the many people around them, they also realized that they had caused trouble. Yang Mingan tilted his head and saw Luo Yunhou coming. He shuddered in his heart and looked at his brother Luan Yiqing and Sun Huaizhong for help. But how could the two dare to be so presumptuous? They lowered their heads and said nothing.
Only Xue Pan was at a loss, and was seen by the Marquis again. He looked so miserable, it was unlucky. He should have taken action first.

"Okay, since we don't want to fight anymore, let's talk about it. What happened? You go first."

Zhang Jinyu pointed at Xue Pan and asked,

Xue Pan was so happy that he suddenly knelt down and cried loudly:

"My Lord, please help me. I am wronged."

This cry startled everyone around, even the three princes were confused, it seemed that there was really an injustice.
Only Zhang Jinyu knew that Xue Pan was obviously pretending.

"Then you must tell me everything, and don't lie. I will treat everyone equally and without mercy. Whoever is at fault, there are so many people watching."

This is a warning to Xue Pan that you must not exaggerate or make unreasonable demands. It would be bad if others find out.

Xue Pan may not be good at other things, but he is definitely good at this. He received the Marquis's secret message.
He immediately bowed his head.
"My Lord, everyone, everything I said is true. Just now, in the courtyard, I was leading the younger generation of my clan to take the exam. I accidentally bumped into him, and he scolded me. I know that those who can take the exam here are all children of aristocratic families, so I didn't dare to say anything. The younger generation also apologized.
Who knew that when I was queuing in the hall, I met him again. Not only did he speak rudely, but he also asked two people to insult the students. As the saying goes, when a man is angry, blood will splatter five steps. The student couldn't bear the humiliation and cursed back. He started to hit people first. Seeing that they were outnumbered, the student could only hit one of them first to attract their attention. Otherwise, how could he dare to let the younger generation of the clan suffer injustice. "

I don't know if Xue Pan has learned something or gained experience from fighting, but he spoke so clearly and miserably that even Zhang Jinyu almost believed him. But then I thought about it and realized that he shouldn't speak so much and without restraint in front of so many people.

The eldest prince beside him looked at Yang Ming'an with some disgust. He lived in the East City and had heard about the young master of the Xue family in Rongguo Mansion. He was a rare chivalrous man, so how could he lie? At least it was Young Master Yang. The evasive look was also seen by the eldest prince Zhou Ding, and his guess in his heart came true.
"My Lord, what do you think we should do?"

"Oh, does Your Highness have any idea?"

Zhang Jinyu also asked back curiously, only to see Zhou Ding frowning and shaking his head.
"My Lord, I don't think what the Xue family said is a lie. Besides, I have heard in East City that the Xue family is a man of great integrity and has a good reputation. As for the Yang family, although he has a small reputation, it is only spread among the noble families. I have never seen him."

No way, Xue Pan actually has this ability. When did he get the reputation of a chivalrous man and spread to the eldest prince? It can be considered as his good fortune and he is quite capable. However, with so many people watching, he still has to judge the right and wrong accurately.

"Haha, then Your Highness, just wait and see. To be fair, you can't just listen to one side. Otherwise, if they are not convinced or feel wronged, isn't that our fault?"

"This, my Lord, makes sense."

Zhang Jinyu didn't say whether Xue Pan was telling the truth or a lie. He just laughed. As the saying goes, both the plaintiff and the defendant should listen first and not have preconceived ideas. He also thought in his heart that with so many people watching, he had to find out the cause. He couldn't let a bad guy go, nor could he wrongly accuse a good guy.

The eldest prince Zhou Ding nodded as if he understood something. What the Marquis said was that fairness and justice should be pursued. After all, in public, people’s opinions can be used as a tool to melt gold.

"Okay, now that you've finished speaking, we can't just listen to what you say. Then Yang Mingan, tell us what happened. Remember, you only have one chance, so tell the truth."

Zhang Jinyu asked as a reminder. Yang Mingan's face flushed and sweat broke out on his forehead. It seemed that it was really as he said. However, no, he was the one who scolded me first. He immediately perked up.

"My Lord, and all the gentlemen, what Xue Pan said just now is not true. There are some things he didn't say."

"Oh, no, then tell me, what's the difference?"

Zhang Jinyu continued to ask. Judging from the looks of the two of them, what Xue Pan said should not be too far off, but there should be some discrepancies in the details.
Yang Ming calmed down and thought about how to excuse himself.

"My Lords, what he said just now is not right. The path in the courtyard is so wide and no one would bump into him. Why did he bump into me? It is because I have a grudge against Master Xue and he holds it in mind. So when he was outside, he must have recognized me and deliberately tested me."

He pursed his lips and pointed to the ground.

"Right here, students were waiting in line for inspection, and this man was actually following behind the students. As soon as the students took off their bamboo hats, he started to curse. The students were tongue-tied and couldn't win the curse. Some students around them couldn't stand it and criticized him a few words, but he cursed even more. As the saying goes, there are angry Vajra in Buddhism. The students reached out to hit him, but he was the first to do it."

Good fellow, no wonder people say scholars are powerful, this tongue is really amazing, Zhang Jinyu secretly admired in his heart, Yang Mingan avoided the trivial and focused on the important, and described himself as a victim in a few words. Looking at the eldest prince beside him, he found something strange on his face, and also a little funny,
"Oh, so that's the case. That's not necessarily true. Then I have to ask, it was raining so hard outside, and the fog was rising. You two were both wearing hats, so you couldn't see clearly. You said he recognized you, so when he touched you outside, did he say anything radical or provocative, huh?"

"This, this, this is not the case,"

Yang Mingan was a little panicked. After all, he was outside and someone saw him. He couldn't deny it.

"Since there is no such thing, then Xue Pan is right. He didn't say anything. It was his younger generation who said it. And then you entered the palace gate and he fell behind you, is that right?"

Zhang Jinyu didn't say much and asked directly if that was the case. Yang Mingan nodded, sweat on his forehead, obviously feeling guilty.

"Okay, that's over. After you entered the hall, he happened to be standing behind you, and you two had an argument. At this time, you two hadn't started fighting yet, and you mentioned that two old friends came to help accuse you. Where are they?"

Zhang Jinyu had already seen the two of them hiding at the back, so he deliberately called out their names and scolded them, asking, since they wanted to be fair and just, then they should investigate them together. The so-called killing the chicken to scare the monkeys was nothing more than this. Of course, Xue Pan could also suffer together. Anyway, he was not cut out to be an official, so he might as well go back to live a life of debauchery and gain a good reputation.

(End of this chapter)