After Du Xiao Hui left, Li Yao knew it was time for her to move around.
She had gotten a lot of fragrance powder on that fake document. However, it would still be quite difficult to discern it amidst the dense crowd here, as there were too many smells here.
After circling around the nearby crowd yet detecting no scent of fragrance powder, Li Yao expanded her search perimeter to the nearby streets.
In a small alley not far from the exam site, a slender man with a mole above the corner of his mouth occasionally popped his head out of the alley, seemingly anxiously waiting for someone.
When he saw Li Yao's figure quickly approaching, he turned and ran away.
Li Yao noticed his abnormal behavior and smelled the fragrance powder at the same time. She immediately chased after him at top speed. That man was clearly very familiar with the surrounding terrain and kept squeezing into complicated alleys, darting about like a frenzied fleeing mouse.
But with Li Yao’s physique far surpassing ordinary people achieved through years of training, and her well-honed tracking skills, she had him cornered in a dead-end alley in less than a minute.
"I...I didn't mean it! Someone made me do it!"
"Who?"
"It was Xu Youcai!" the man with the big mole said panicly. "He was afraid of Wang Er from your family. So he wanted to steal his exam permit to stop him from taking the exam. That way, he could easily rank first!"
"Where is the permit?"
"I've already destroyed it..."
If the permit really was stolen and destroyed, Wang Er would truly be barred from taking the exam this time.
There were no rules for replacing permits now. Even if Prince of Yizhou and Prefect Song tried to intervene, it wouldn’t work.
"What's your name?"
"I'm called Xu Gouzi. I usually steal things to make a living," Xu Gouzi said. "Yesterday, Xu Youcai found me and gave me five taels of silver to help him with this."
But Li Yao didn’t believe him.
A seasoned thief wouldn’t have kept the goods on himself after stealing them.
Moreover, although this man looked quite flustered, his eyes were too calm and he spoke very coherently without much fear.
One should know that she was an official now, and all the commoners of Yizhou City knew about her good relationships with the Prefect and the Prince.
How could he not be afraid of severe punishment like two thousand cane hits or exile?
"Dare you accuse Xu Youcai face to face?"
"As long as you promise to spare me, I'll testify against him with you!"
"Fine, come with me."
Li Yao took Xu Gouzi directly to the exam site entrance and asked someone to call Prefect Song from inside the exam hall.
Upon hearing that someone had dared to steal Wang Er’s permit, Prefect Song immediately came out with people.
"It's him who stole it," Li Yao said. "But he claimed to be following orders from someone else."
"Who is it?"
"Xu Youcai."
"What? It's him?" Prefect Song didn’t expect Xu Youcai to be capable of doing such a thing. He thought he was the most prestigious young talent in Yizhou City. "Men, bring Xu Youcai here!"
Xu Youcai was at the very front of the line. He was quickly brought over by two yamen runners.
But in the face of Xu Gouzi’s accusation, Xu Youcai was clearly dumbstruck.
“My Lord Prefect, you have wrongly accused me. I don’t even know him, let alone order him to do this!”
“Xu Youcai, you scoundrel!” Xu Gouzi shouted angrily. “You clearly told me to steal Wang Er’s permit in exchange for five taels of silver. And now you’re denying what you did!”
Xu Youcai was also anxious to the point of a flushed face. “Who the hell are you? I've never seen you before!”
"You've never seen me before?" Xu Gouzi said. "We met at Thousand Cloud Residence last night when you were drinking with some people. Ask the waiter there. He saw everything!"
"I..." Xu Youcai was about to cry.
Indeed he was drinking at Thousand Cloud Residence last night, but he really didn't do it!
"Enough!" Prefect Song said coldly. "This matter must be thoroughly investigated! Take these two to the yamen and interrogate them strictly later!"
"My Lord Prefect, I'm innocent... It wasn't me..."
"My Lord Prefect!" Xu Gouzi shouted loudly. "I already told the young miss earlier that if I testify, she promised to spare me!"
Prefect Song looked at Li Yao. She nodded and said, "I did say that."
"Then spare you for now," Prefect Song said. "But in the coming days, you are not to leave Yizhou City and must be available to be summoned at any time."
"Don't worry, My Lord Prefect. I live in West City. Anyone can easily find me if you ask around."
After Prefect Song released Xu Gouzi, Xu Youcai was taken away by the yamen runners. The onlooking crowd also buzzed with discussion.
"I didn't expect Xu Youcai to be that kind of person."
"Bah! So much for being the top young talent of Yizhou. What a disgrace for scholars!"
"Now it looks like neither Xu Youcai nor Wang Er can take the exam. I wonder who'll benefit from this."
...
With something like this happening right under his nose, Prefect Song was also furious.
However, the situation was a little different from previous years.
Yizhou was now Liu Yun's fief. He was Liu Yun’s prefect, drawing his salary from Liu Yun, not officially appointed by the imperial court anymore in the strict sense.
But the county examination was the imperial court’s business. The chief examiner, examiners and supervising officials were all dispatched by the court.
As the prefect, his role was only to assist on the side at most. The specific exam arrangements were still up to the chief examiner to decide.
To put it bluntly, if the chief examiner refused to give him face and barred him from entering the exam site, he couldn’t say anything.
"Miss Li, why did you let Xu Gouzi go?" Prefect Song asked.
"Xu Youcai was not the mastermind. Let him go later, and don't affect his exam," Li Yao whispered.
"Then who is it?"
"We'll know very soon," Li Yao said. "If Prefect Song wants to enjoy the show, you're welcome to come with me."
Of course Prefect Song was willing. Staying at this exam site, he couldn’t do anything. Going to catch the culprit would be better.
Since all the yamen runners were helping out at the exam site, he ordered the garrison troops to bring dozens of men over with Zhang Shun leading them.
After resigning from the county magistrate position of Bailu County, Zhang Shun now served as a captain in the garrison troops, equivalent to a seventh-rank military officer, commanding a thousand veterans. With his capability, he had long brought them under his full control.
Seeing a familiar face, the feeling was naturally different.
And Zhang Shun, who had been bored stiff in the barracks, was happy to come out for some air.
“Long time no see, Miss Li.”
“Congratulations, Captain Zhang. I’ll have to trouble you this time.”
“No need to stand on ceremony with me, Miss Li,” Zhang Shun said. “Where’s our target? Let’s hurry up and arrest them!”
“Did you bring the dogs?”
“Brought them.”
Zhang Shun had his men bring over two ferocious hunting dogs. Li Yao let the dogs sniff the fragrance powder before letting them follow the scent.
Soon, the group arrived at the gates of a tall house with a big courtyard.
“I was right. This was Yang Changgan’s doing after all,” Li Yao said.
