As Prefect of Jingzhao was preparing for the morning court session, he received a report from his subordinates about the arrest of the Gong Xiaohua family.
Although the Jingzhao Prefect had two participants who made it to the finals in the fierce competition, Gong Xiaohua's contribution was undeniable.
However, this young lady was also a formidable competitor for the Prefect in the second round of the competition.
Now, with one strong rival less, why wouldn't he take advantage of the situation? So, the Prefect chose to turn a blind eye, driven by his personal interests.
He whispered to his subordinates, "Handle this matter privately through Vice Prefect Ouyang."
"Yes, Your Excellency."
At the suburban competition field.
"Your Excellency, what should we do now? The competition is about to begin, and if Xiao Hua doesn't show up, she will be considered forfeiting the match and lose her eligibility," one of the attendants cautiously asked Deputy Minister Lin.
"What should we do? Who should I ask when you ask me? A whole group of people still haven't found her. What good are you?" Deputy Minister Lin scolded the attendants harshly.
Just as he finished scolding the attendants, the referee's voice announcing the start of the match could be heard from outside.
"The second round of the wrestling competition is now beginning. Please have the twenty participants come up on stage."
Deputy Minister Lin rubbed his forehead with a headache, knowing that the Ministry of Justice had lost one of the most likely winners in this year's wrestling competition. His frustration was evident.
Moreover, Lord Li had gone to the morning court session and was unaware of this matter. When he found out that Gong Xiaohua couldn't participate in the match after the session, Deputy Minister Lin had no idea how furious Lord Li would be.
Feeling powerless, he sat back in his seat and said to the attendants below and the other three participants, "You all go down and prepare for the match. Leave me in peace."
"Yes, Your Excellency." Everyone retreated.
On the competition arena.
The referee saw the nineteen participants on stage, with one missing from the Ministry of Justice, and not just any participant, but the most formidable one. This was getting interesting.
"The match is officially starting. Since someone is absent, it will be considered an automatic withdrawal."
The spectators on the stage saw that the only one missing from the competition was the young lady, who was undoubtedly the most formidable among them.
Many spectators clamored for the match to be postponed, insisting on waiting for Gong Xiaohua to participate.
"Rules are rules, and we can't break them for one person," the referee said firmly.
Deputy Minister Lin was itching with anger. In previous years, there were exceptions to delay matches for someone's arrival. Today, the referee's actions were clearly meant as retaliation, considering that Gong Xiaohua had single-handedly defeated a significant number of skilled participants from the Ministry of War yesterday.
Without Gong Xiaohua, they gained an additional spot in the finals.
In the end, twelve from the Imperial Guards, four from the Ministry of War, two from the Ministry of Justice, two from the Ministry of Justice, one from the Ministry of Justice, and one from the Prefecture made it to the top ten.
They would participate in the national wrestling competition finals scheduled for a month later.
After the match, everyone regretted the absence of the fierce young lady from yesterday. It was evident that none of the participants in this competition could match her skills.
Some who had witnessed several competitions even believed that with her abilities, she would have secured a spot in the top three of the national finals.
Even though she didn't participate in this match, anyone who saw yesterday's competition was deeply impressed by her.
In the VIP spectator area, Lin Yueru had a constant smirk on her face from the beginning to the end of the competition. It was truly satisfying to watch a competition without that despicable person around.
In the viewing area for the Qin family's women, Qin Ziyu, the eldest grandson held in the arms of Third Madam Qin, was unhappy and throwing a tantrum. He wanted to go find his favorite female knight sister who didn't participate in the competition, and no amount of persuasion could make him listen.
In the end, they had to promise to take him to meet his female knight sister in a few days, and only then did he give up on his demand.
Qin Chuyuan, who had just left the court, was immediately assisted into the carriage by the waiting guards.
As they walked on the road, the guards were somewhat hesitant.
"Master, there is something about the palace girl, I'm not sure if I should speak of it."
"Why should you hesitate? Speak!"
"Today, the palace girl couldn't participate in the competition."
"What happened?"
The master was indeed concerned about the palace girl.
"Master, during the competition, our people found out that the palace girl couldn't participate, and we later found out it was the doing of the Sixth Prince."
"But when we questioned the secret guards who were watching the Sixth Prince, they claimed they didn't notice anything unusual at the Sixth Prince's residence. So we sent someone to investigate and discovered that someone from the Lin Residence reported the palace girl's family to the Prefect of Jingzhao, accusing them of engaging in illegal business, and they were thrown into prison."
"Do we know who made the report?"
"According to the secret guards' investigation, it was a steward from the Lin Residence."
"The Prefect's men were waiting outside the palace's courtyard early in the morning and caught the palace family red-handed."
Qin Chuyuan, sitting in the carriage, touched the thumb ring on his right hand with his left hand and had a thoughtful look in his eyes.
"Qin Yi, pass this information to the Ministry of Justice," Qin Chuyuan said to the guard outside.
"Yes, Master. I will take care of it."
The Lin Residence? Apart from Lin Yueru, there shouldn't be anyone who would target such a small palace family.
Lord Li, the Minister of Justice, had a good mood from greeting familiar faces on his way to and from the court. Moreover, at the court meeting, the Emperor had specially praised their performance in the competition yesterday and encouraged them to strive for more today.
After leaving the court, he leisurely made his way to the Ministry of Justice. However, when he arrived at his office, he sat there for quite a while without anyone coming to report the results of today's competition.
These youngsters, could they have run off to celebrate on their own?
"Come in," Lord Li called out to the guard outside.
"My Lord," a guard entered the room.
"Go and bring Deputy Minister Lin here."
"Yes, My Lord."
Soon, Deputy Minister Lin entered with a grim expression and saluted Lord Li.
Seeing the subordinate's unpleasant face, Lord Li's heart skipped a beat. Could something have gone wrong with the competition?
So he asked uncertainly, "What's the matter? Your face looks so bad. Was there something unusual about the competition? Or is there another difficult case?"
At the mention of the competition, Deputy Minister Lin became furious.
"Report, My Lord, Xiaohua couldn't participate in the competition. Moreover, during the competition, our people were targeted by the Twelve Guards and the Ministry of War's men. In the end, only two of them made it through."
"What? How could Gong Xiaohua be absent? Explain it to me clearly."
Upon hearing this, Lord Li stood up in excitement. Gong Xiaohua, the most indispensable palace flower, was unexpectedly absent from the competition. With a heavy heart, Lord Li turned to Deputy Minister Lin and said, "It is said that the Gong family has been reported for engaging in illicit business and has been detained in the dungeon by the Prefect of Jingzhao. Moreover, they deliberately blocked the news, making it impossible for us to find them."
"This is outrageous! Old man He from the He family has obvious ulterior motives. Gather our men and horses, we shall pay a visit to the Prefect's office. If they have wronged the Gong family, I will have them pay for their misdeeds."
"Yes, my lord. I will make the necessary arrangements immediately."
