Ning Chen was about to go back in when he caught sight of a figure flickering past in the distance.

He had somebody lead the horse back into the residence and went after the man himself.

The man ahead walked fast, and eventually turned into an alley.

Ning Chen followed him in.

"Presenting myself to my lord prince!"

"Get up!"

The man in front of him was Silence, whom he had not seen in a long time.

Ning Chen looked at him. "What brings you here?"

"I hear my lord prince is the chief examiner for this year's spring examination?"

Ning Chen nodded and grunted.

Silence said, "Then my lord prince had better be careful!"

"Say what you have to say."

Silence said, his voice low, "In past spring examinations the men who placed high were all sons of the gate-clans and relatives of high officials... My lord prince takes no clients and no bribes, and means to give the students of the Great Xuan a fair chance. That is bound to damage certain people's interests."

"Apart from the great gate-clans and the high officials and notables, the imperial examination has always been the busiest season for every country's covert agents."

"That is all outside. If something were to happen inside the examination hall... my lord prince is the chief examiner, and my lord prince would have to answer for it."

"In the nineteenth year of Rende there was a fire at the examination compound. Does my lord prince know about that?"

Ning Chen nodded slightly. "I've heard something of it!"

The story went that in the spring examination that year a great fire broke out at the examination compound, and twenty-seven students burned to death.

The chief examiner at the time was the Director of the Hanlin Academy — the same post Li Hanru holds today — and afterward he was beheaded in front of the whole city. Half of the eighteen associate examiners were beheaded.

More than twenty other officials connected with the examination were beheaded too, and only then was the matter closed.

Silence said, "I did…