"Are you Yan Baoyi's pageboy?" The head constable rushed forward and roughly grabbed him by the collar, choking his neck until it turned bruised and purple.
The pageboy shook his head frantically. "No, I'm not Yan Baoyi's pageboy."
The head constable looked at Ding Weiyue, who was frozen in place, and asked him to confirm, "Master Ding, is he Yan Baoyi's pageboy?"
At this moment, Ding Weiyue was on the verge of a mental breakdown.
His lips parted slightly as if to speak, but he stopped himself. The words swirled in his chest a couple of times before he gritted his teeth and nodded.
The pageboy's shoulders slumped, and he roared at Ding Weiyue in dissatisfaction, "Master Ding, you are my young master's teacher~"
Ding Weiyue put his hands behind his back and turned away.
The pageboy's voice carried into the lecture hall where an examination was taking place.
Hearing the familiar voice, Yan Baoyi looked up toward the window.
Several figures were partially obscured by the bamboo grove, though he could vaguely make out a few constables in official uniforms among them.
Upon seeing the blue-clad figure being forced to kneel on the ground, the brush in Yan Baoyi's hand dropped onto the desk with a sharp clatter.
Ink splattered from the bouncing brush tip onto his face. He frantically wiped it with his hand, turning half of his face black.
Sitting in the chair on the podium, Ye Liangyu swept his gaze over Yan Baoyi, his eyes sharp and piercing.
Hearing the noise, Song Qiming stopped writing and looked up at Yan Baoyi, noticing his nervous expression as he stared out the window.
Following his line of sight, he just happened to see two constables escorting Yan Baoyi's pageboy away.
A few constables stayed behind, walking over to the pavilion to sit down. They occasionally glanced toward the inner court lecture hall, as if waiting for something.
Ye Liangyu picked up the disciplinary ruler from the desk and tapped the table. "There is half an hour left until the end of this exam. Those who haven't finished, hurry up."
The students whose attention had been drawn away, including Song Qiming, refocused their minds and continued copying their essays from their scratch paper onto the answer sheets.
His ink-stained answer sheet was already ruined, so Yan Baoyi hastily grabbed a new one and started copying all over again.
Distracted and anxious, his mind was completely consumed by the memory of paying Xiao Hu to hire thugs, as well as the sight of his pageboy being taken away just moments ago.
The more he wrote, the more rushed he became. His hands trembled violently, causing him to make mistake after mistake.
The classmates sitting around him were disturbed by the loud rustling of his pages and couldn't help but roll their eyes at Yan Baoyi in disgust.
Making such a racket, was he rushing to a funeral?
If they hadn't still been in the middle of an exam and Ye Liangyu hadn't been sitting at the front, they would have slammed their desks and lost their tempers at Yan Baoyi.
Ding Weiyue walked in from outside with a gloomy face, sat in his chair, and kept his head lowered the entire time.
Seeing that Ding Weiyue refused to look at him, Yan Baoyi clenched his hands tightly. The brush snapped into two pieces under the pressure, and the lower half flew out, hitting the back of the student sitting in front of him.
The young man gritted his teeth and turned his head to glare at him. Answering the exam required quiet, and especially during the copying phase, no mistakes could be afforded.
This guy had caused a disturbance time and time again—what exactly was he trying to do? Once the exam was over, he would definitely have to give him a piece of his mind.
As soon as the half hour passed, Ding Weiyue stood up and said, "Pens down. Leave your papers on the desks. The morning exam is over."
Yan Baoyi, his eyes burning like wildfire, stared intently at his answer sheet, on which he had only managed to copy three columns.
Seeing that he was dawdling, Ding Weiyue closed his eyes and helplessly raised his voice, "Leave the papers on the desks and everyone get out."
As soon as the other students stepped out of the lecture hall, they saw several constables walking toward them.
Ji Youming walked up to Song Qiming's side. "Has the government office reached a conclusion about the thugs? Yan Baoyi is acting very strangely, and he still hasn't come out."
Song Qiming nodded, turning his head to look at Yan Baoyi, who was still sitting in the lecture hall and hadn't gotten up. He was the only one left inside.
"Just now, I saw the constables take his pageboy away. Those thugs were most likely sent by him."
Hu Fengye gently touched his slightly swollen eye corner. "I knew Yan Baoyi was highly jealous and vindictive, but I didn't expect it to be this extreme!"
"He even dared to commit a crime like hiring thugs to hurt people, and he almost cost the two of you your lives. Master Ding won't be able to protect him this time."
Ji Youming glanced at Ding Weiyue standing on the podium and shook his head. "I'm afraid Master Ding has no intention of protecting him this time either."
Seeing that Yan Baoyi was taking a long time to come out, the head constable simply led his men and barged into the lecture hall.
"Scholar Yan, you are suspected of hiring thugs to injure others, committing a serious felony. By the order of the prefect, we have come to arrest you and bring you to justice!"
The student from the front row, who had planned to confront Yan Baoyi, froze in his tracks.
Hiring thugs to hurt people? Did he hear that right?
The students lingering outside the lecture hall widened their eyes one by one, watching in disbelief as Yan Baoyi was taken away.
The pageboy who had been taken away earlier hadn't even lasted an hour before he confessed everything.
Meanwhile, the constables discovered at the bank that the five-hundred-tael silver note was one of twenty notes withdrawn by Yan Baoyi's father a year ago.
With conclusive physical and testimonial evidence, Yan Baoyi was thrown into prison immediately upon arriving at the government office.
During the exam that afternoon, looking at the empty desk and chair, the students of the inner court felt a turbulent mix of emotions.
"Did you hear? The injuries on Song Qiming, Ji Youming, and Hu Fengye were all caused by thugs hired by Yan Baoyi."
"Where did you hear that? Has Yan Baoyi gone mad? Even if he injured Song Qiming and the other two, with his level of learning, he still wouldn't be able to pass into the upper court."
...
Facing the whispering students, Yang Yanfeng knocked the disciplinary ruler with a stern face. "Quiet! The afternoon exam is about to begin. The exam papers will now be distributed."
Too ashamed to show his face at the academy, Ding Weiyue took a temporary sick leave.
Ye Liangyu simply didn't show up at all.
Having injured his precious disciple, even if Master Yan rushed back right now to save him, it was highly unlikely that his son would be getting out this time.
