Volume 2: Jade Promise Chapter 31 Three people make a tiger
"Joint report?" Tang Zheng recalled that he should not have done anything against the law recently, right?
He really couldn't think of anything he had done that was so serious that it warranted a joint report.
At most, Tang Ququan would have to hand over 90% of the profits, and he would have to behave a little like a bandit, but that was a matter outside the street, and the warriors in the academy didn't need to help Tang Ququan with this.
Leng Buchen took the joint letter of complaint presented by the deacon, read it carefully, and without any change in expression on his face, he handed the letter of complaint to Tang Zheng.
Tang Zheng took the letter of complaint somewhat puzzled, glanced at it, and felt both amused and confused.
The report was written in parallel sentences, neat antithesis, and good handwriting. It was obvious that it was written by a candidate who was well-read.
The content of the letter was to report that Tang Zheng had leaked the test questions before the exam in an attempt to profit from it. After the candidates on the letter sternly rejected the report, they were overwhelmed with a sense of justice and decided to report Tang Zheng. They also begged the academy to exempt Tang Zheng and the other candidates from the Tang Family Fort from the second written test results.
It was just a short letter, but it was written with great emotion and every word was stained with blood. If Tang Zheng had not been the person being reported, even he himself would have felt that the guy being reported must be guilty of a heinous crime and was capable of all kinds of evil.
"Deacon Leng, I am innocent--" Tang Zheng shouted in an exaggerated manner after reading the letter of complaint, but there was not even a trace of worry in his eyes, showing none of the basic qualities of an actor.
Leng Buchen took the letter of complaint back, glanced at Tang Zheng, and said calmly: "Whether it is unjust or not, we will have to wait until the specific investigation to judge. But don't worry, I stood behind you most of the time when you were taking the exam and watched you answer the questions. If you are not an extraordinary actor, all the test questions should have been carefully thought out, and there is no sign of you memorizing the answers in advance."
Tang Zheng nodded and had no objection to Leng Buchen's approach.
Investigating and verifying is the fair and just attitude of the academy towards all candidates. We cannot ignore the reports of other candidates just because Leng Buchen himself believes that Tang Zheng is innocent. This is fair.
I testify that this is Leng Buchen's support for Tang Zheng as an examination invigilator and one of the first eyewitnesses. This is private.
Leng Buchen's attitude towards dealing with things is to distinguish between public and private affairs and to be impartial.
"Bring all the candidates mentioned in the report letter to the inner courtyard of the academy and confront them on the spot. This matter must be investigated thoroughly and no disciplined and rule-abiding candidate must be discouraged." Leng Buchen instructed the deacon who reported the matter. When he said the last sentence, his eyes looked at Tang Zheng.
Tang Zheng nodded, naturally understanding that Leng Buchen was trying to reassure him, as if a person of integrity has nothing to fear.
The second exam had just ended not long ago, and all the candidates were still near the examination room. The deacon was very efficient, and it didn't take long before all the candidates on the joint complaint letter were brought to the inner courtyard of the academy.
Leng Buchen and Tang Zheng had already been sitting in the inner courtyard, watching the candidates who had jointly reported the case follow the deacon in one after another.
There are a total of twelve candidates who jointly reported the case. While waiting, Leng Buchen has already read the information of each of them.
Basically, they were candidates participating in the Yisuli Academy Autumn Selection for the first time, and they all performed well in the first assessment.
It is hard to imagine that so many candidates with good grades and not much interaction with each other in the past would collude with each other to falsely accuse one person, which would most likely make people more suspicious of the person being reported.
Unfortunately, the person they reported was Tang Zheng, a guy who was watched by Leng Buchen almost throughout the exam and who wrote unprecedented poems and essays.
These candidates are generally young, the youngest is about seventeen years old, and the oldest is about the same age as Tang Zheng.
After entering the inner courtyard, they had different expressions under Leng Buchen's gaze, some pretended to be calm, some were indignant, some lowered their heads and remained silent, but there was a hint of uneasiness in everyone's eyes.
Tang Zheng had been observing and examining those who reported him with a smile on his face, without any awareness that he was the defendant.
As soon as the candidates stood still, Leng Buchen asked directly, "You reported Tang Zheng for leaking the test questions. Is everything in the letter true?"
A candidate standing at the front heard Leng Buchen's question, stepped forward , bowed and replied: "Reporting to the head steward, everything we said in the letter is true. After the first day of the examination, Tang Zheng secretly tried to sell us the test questions in the academy tavern. At that time, he asked a few questions about classics and history, but we didn't believe him and drove him away."
"Oh? Then why didn't you report it directly at that time?" Leng Buchen asked.
"Because we believed that the examination questions of the academy must be extremely strict, Tang Zheng's action should just be to extort money from us. Since we were not fooled, we just took it as a joke and did not take it seriously. But after today's written test, we found that the questions on classics and history proposed by Tang Zheng all appeared, so the more we thought about it, the more scared we became. The academy's autumn selection is so solemn, how can we allow such a thief to dominate? Filled with righteous indignation, we gathered together and wrote a joint letter of complaint, vowing to expose the evil deeds of this deceiver!" Leng Buchen had just finished asking when another candidate stepped forward and answered in a clear and loud voice with great righteousness.
"Damn, he was a thousand-year-old monster just now, and now he has evolved into a fraud and a name-stealer. Do I have the talent of a Transformer?" After hearing the angry words of the candidate, Tang Zheng couldn't help but complain inwardly.
"When and where did Tang Zheng leak those test questions to you?" Leng Buchen asked again.
"Yesterday at noon, the third question of the classics and the fifth question of the history were leaked in a private room in the Imperial Academy's tavern!" All the candidates who jointly reported the incident answered almost in unison.
After he finished speaking, the first two candidates who stood up looked at Tang Zheng with disdain. The meaning of their eyes was obvious - you're dead!
Tang Zheng smiled and didn't care.
At this time, Leng Buchen turned his head to Tang Zheng: "Tang Zheng, what do you have to say about this?"
Tang Zheng bowed, stood up slowly, and shook his folding fan, swaying gently. He slowly walked to the middle of the candidates who reported the case, and said with a smile: "In my hometown, there is a very popular legal knowledge, which is that whoever claims, shall provide evidence! You said that I sold leaked test questions, so well, show me the evidence, where is the evidence?"
Tang Zheng questioned the candidates while strolling around. His facial expression, coupled with his attire of a folding fan and long gown, made him look like a top-notch playboy who bullied men and women and even threatened the plaintiff in court.
"Hmph, Tang Zheng, don't be so arrogant. Although we have no solid evidence, the twenty-four black and white eyes of the twelve of us are the biggest evidence!" The first candidate who stood up shouted.
"Hey, don't get excited. So when I was selling the test questions that day, all twelve of you saw it clearly and remembered it vividly, without any omissions?" Tang Zheng continued to ask with a smile.
"Of course!" All the candidates answered one after another.
Tang Zheng folded his fan and suddenly raised his voice, shouting, "How dare you! The private rooms in the tavern were all booked yesterday. You came into the tavern later than I did, how could you possibly be seated in the private room in the tavern!"
"Besides, you said I was selling the exam questions. You saw it clearly and remember it clearly. Well, tell me in detail who I spoke to first yesterday, who rejected me first, how many dishes you ordered in the private room, what they were, and who paid for it!"
Tang Zheng's rapid-fire speech made the faces of more than a dozen candidates pale. The leading candidate was about to open his mouth to argue, but Tang Zheng shouted, "Shut up! Don't open your mouth. Write it down! Deacon, please give each of them a piece of blank paper and write down the questions I asked just now. Then the head deacon will check it personally. If there is any discrepancy, they must be lying!"
The deacon who had been standing aside looked at Leng Buchen, and when he saw him nod, he took out paper and pen and quickly distributed them.
Those candidates holding paper and pen suddenly broke out in cold sweat, and their pens trembled as they picked up them, but they couldn't put them down for a long time.
Tang Zheng once again showed a devilish smile, and continued to pace among the candidates while laughing: "According to the laws of the Changyuan Leng family, those who make false accusations will be punished. You are all great talents, and you should be aware of this. If your moral conduct is not good, I am afraid that if it gets out, no academy will be willing to accept you in the future, so..."
"Leniency to those who confess and severity to those who resist. It was Long Chuidi who instigated you to do this, right?" Tang Zheng walked to the youngest candidate, who had his head lowered and whose brush was shaking the most, and suddenly spoke.
"Ah?! How...how did you know?" The candidate was in a state of anxiety and was caught off guard by Tang Zheng's question. He answered subconsciously.
It was only after he had said this that he realized he had let the cat out of the bag. The pen and paper in his hand fell to the ground, and he fell to his knees with a thud. He couldn't even utter the words to beg for mercy. He cried loudly and kowtowed to Leng Buchen.
The expressions of the other candidates changed several times, and finally they all showed dejected looks and knelt down one after another.
"Head Steward, please understand. This was all Long Chuidi's attempt to deceive us. He said that Tang Zheng and Tang Jiabao performed too well this time. Unless something unexpected happens, we will have no chance in this autumn's election."
"So, only by fighting to the death can we have a chance of survival. He said that three people can make a tiger. As long as we insist that Tang Zheng leaked the test questions and keep our mouth shut, even if there is no evidence, the academy will remove him from the exam for the sake of fairness and justice. Even if we leak the facts, the law cannot hold us responsible..."
When the candidates saw that their deeds were exposed, they all spilled the beans and told the whole story.
Tang Zheng sneered as he listened.
When he saw these candidates coming in, he remembered that several of them who had had a good chat with him when he was connecting with people in the tavern yesterday were among them, so he knew that this guy must be involved.
Sure enough, this guy is the mastermind behind the scenes.
If it weren't for Leng Buchen of Yisuli Academy's insistence on treating every candidate fairly and justly, if it weren't for Tang Zhengshi's brilliant poems and essays in the written test that made people not believe that someone with such talent would cheat.
If it were other candidates and academies, they would probably expel the person who was reported for fear that bad public opinion would affect the academy's reputation.
This dragon pounding the ground, what a good plan!
