Ning Chen looked at Feng Gaojie. "Lord Feng, do this work with a clear conscience. Don't fail the students who have spent ten years at a cold window over their books."

Feng Gaojie understood what Ning Chen meant. He was being told to show no favor and to rig nothing.

"My lord prince may set his mind at rest. This official will not fail the trust my lord prince places in him."

Ning Chen nodded slightly.

Li Hanru said, smiling, "My lord prince had better not go home for a while."

"Mm?"

Ning Chen looked at him, puzzled.

Li Hanru went on, still smiling, "Most of these students come from the great gate-clans. Every year at this time, the men bringing gifts will wear the chief examiner's threshold flat."

"And this is the season when the students start looking for a patron's door... My lord prince is the new power in the capital now, and the students hoping to be taken into my lord prince's following are likely beyond counting."

"A thousand men, a thousand tempers, and the ones who have failed the examinations again and again are mostly stubborn. Sometimes they do the most outrageous things."

"So my lord prince would do well to stay out of the way for a time!"

Ning Chen smiled bitterly. "I'll do my best!"

Ning Chen saw Li Hanru and Feng Gaojie off. Then he sent for Gu Yichun and told him to tighten the guard for the time being, so that the candidates could not disturb the people of the household.

Ning Chen had prepared in advance, but he had still underestimated how wild these students could be.

Over the next several days there were men bringing gifts, men kneeling at the gate and refusing to get up, men climbing over the wall. There was no trick they did not try, and all of it toward one end: to get a connection.

The backbone of a scholar, smashed all over the ground!

Of course there were some who genuinely admired Ning Chen — Ning Chen was the Great Xuan's immortal of poetry,…