Daming: Brother, there is no future for monks, let's rebel

Chapter 1489 Upgraded Version of Super Ears

"Borrow it from Shen Wansan?"

“Yes. I borrowed it from Shen Wansan,” Zhu Yuanzhang said. “He was the richest man in Jiangnan; 100,000 taels was nothing to him. But why did he lend it to me? Because he knew that the world would one day belong to me. He lent me 100,000 taels now, and I will repay him with the world in the future.”

Looking at Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Qiwu suddenly realized that this man was even more terrifying than he had imagined.

It wasn't because he was ruthless, it was because he had calculated everything.

"Okay. I'll go tomorrow."

That evening, Zhu Qiwu returned to the examination hall and prepared everything he needed for the next day.

The loyalty test cards were placed on top; he would test each of the fourteen people one by one during the exam tomorrow.

He opened the system panel again and looked at tomorrow's sign-in rewards.

Ding! Tomorrow's check-in announcement: Reward - A pair of upgraded "Hearing the Wind" devices, allowing you to hear any sound within a 100-foot radius, including whispers. Valid for one hour. Bonus: A panoramic view of the examination hall, showing real-time footage of every corner.

Zhu Qiwu memorized the announcement and then blew out the candle.

The red lanterns at the Zhaoxian Hall across the street are still lit, but only half of them are lit today.

Lu Wenzhao did not come.

Zhu Qiwu stared at the half-mast of red light and suddenly recalled Lu Wenzhao's words: "Of those fourteen people, one was not one of Zhang Shicheng's men."

He was not one of Zhang Shicheng's men.

Whose people are they?

He thought about it all night but couldn't come up with a solution.

The next morning, before dawn, Zhu Qiwu was awakened by a knock on the door.

"who?"

"Seventh Young Master, it is I, Han Shangu."

Zhu Qiwu opened the door, and Han Shangu stood outside, holding a stack of papers in his hand, with a strange expression on his face.

"Sir, what's wrong?"

Han Shangu handed him the stack of papers: "Young Master Qiwu, I finished copying the questions you asked me to copy last night. But after I finished, I discovered something."

"What's up?"

Han Shangu pointed to one of the sheets of paper: "The third question in the third practical exam—'A corrupt official has come from above and wants you to cooperate with him to extort money from the land. Will you cooperate or not?' Someone has changed this question."

Zhu Qiwu was taken aback, then took it and looked at it.

The question has indeed been changed. The original question was "Will you cooperate or not?", but it has now been changed to "How can you cooperate without being discovered?"

A single word can completely change the meaning.

The original question tested integrity, while the revised question tested cunning.

"Who changed it?" Zhu Qiwu's voice turned cold.

“I don’t know,” Han Shangu said. “I went to sleep after I finished copying the questions last night. When I woke up this morning, the questions had changed. I’m the only one with a key to the room where I copied the questions.”

"Where's the key?"

"It's on me." Han Shangu pulled a key from his pocket. "It's always been with me, never out of my sight."

Zhu Qiwu took the key, looked at it, and then looked up at Han Shangu.

"Sir, are you sure no one has been in that room?"

Han Shangu thought for a moment, then suddenly said something.

"Last night, around midnight, I heard footsteps outside the door. They were very light, like a cat walking. I thought it was a stray cat and didn't pay any attention."

It's the middle of the night. A cat is walking.

There aren't many people who can sneak into the examination hall in the middle of the night without being discovered.

He opened the system panel and clicked to use the upgraded version of Shunfeng'er.

A strange feeling welled up inside him, as if all the sounds within a hundred feet were drilling into his ears.

He heard Tang He snoring next door, Song Lian reciting his lessons in the yard, and Fang Zijing sweeping the floor at the door.

A very soft breathing sound came from the northwest corner of the examination hall.

Someone is hiding in the examination hall.

Zhu Qiwu remembered the time limit of the upgraded version of the All-Hearing Technique—one hour. That was enough.

He said to Han Shangu, "Old sir, go and invite Mr. Bowen here. Tell him there's a problem with the question and ask him to come immediately."

Han Shangu nodded and walked away quickly.

Zhu Qiwu walked alone towards the northwest corner of the examination hall.

In the northwest corner was a storage room, piled with old tables, chairs, and broken boxes. Zhu Qiwu tiptoed closer.

The sound of breathing grew closer.

He walked around a pile of broken boxes and saw a person.

The man was squatting in the corner, dressed in black, his face covered with a cloth, and holding a pen in his hand. Several pieces of paper were scattered on the ground, with words written on them that were exactly the same as the questions in the Enke exam.

Zhu Qiwu scanned him with his talent appraisal technique—Name: Zhou Xiaoqi. Identity: Zhang Shicheng's spy. Literary talent: Average. Loyalty: Superior. Danger level: Average.

Zhang Shicheng's spy.

Zhu Qiwu didn't move, but quietly retreated and waited at the door.

A short while later, Liu Bowen arrived.

"Seventh Young Master, what happened?"

Zhu Qiwu pulled Liu Bowen aside and whispered a few words to him.

Liu Bowen's expression changed.

Are you sure?

"Confirmed. In the northwest corner, there's a spy named Zhou Xiaoqi. He not only changed the questions, but also copied them. The copied copy is probably on its way to Suzhou now."

Liu Bowen stopped fanning himself.

"The questions were copied? Then Zhang Shicheng's men would know the questions during the exam, wouldn't they?"

“Not necessarily,” Zhu Qiwu said. “The questions have been changed. Even if they got their hands on them, it would be a modified version. But this in itself is a signal—Zhang Shicheng has already extended his reach into the examination hall.”

Liu Bowen remained silent for a long while, then said, "Seventh Prince, what do you intend to do?"

Zhu Qiwu thought for a moment and said, "Let's turn the tables on them."

"How can we turn the tables on them?"

“The question has been changed, so let’s use the changed question,” Zhu Qiwu said. “Anyway, the changed question isn’t unusable. ‘How can you cooperate without being discovered?’—this question tests your cunning. People who can answer this question well are more dangerous than those who can answer the original question well. Because they not only have backbone, but also brains.”

Liu Bowen looked at Zhu Qiwu with an indescribable look in his eyes.

"Young Master Qiwu, are you really only eighteen years old?"

“Mr. Bowen, you’ve asked this three times today,” Zhu Qiwu laughed, “but I’m still eighteen.”

Liu Bowen smiled, then put away his fan and said a single word.

"Grasp."

Zhu Qiwu nodded and led Liu Bowen and Tang He toward the northwest corner.

Zhou Xiaoqi was still squatting in the corner, completely unaware that she had been discovered.

Tang He pounced on him from behind and grabbed him by the neck.

Zhou Xiaoqi struggled a few times, and the pen in her hand fell to the ground.

Zhu Qiwu picked up the paper from the ground and looked at it. The questions copied on it were exactly the same as those copied by Han Shangu, even the modified ones.

"Who sent you?" Zhu Qiwu squatted down and looked at Zhou Xiaoqi.

Zhou Xiaoqi's face turned bright red from being pinched, but she still stubbornly insisted, "No...no one told me to come...I came by myself..." "You came by yourself?" Zhu Qiwu laughed, "You, a spy, sneaking into the examination hall in the middle of the night just to copy a set of questions? Do you think I'm a three-year-old?"

Zhou Xiaoqi fell silent.

Zhu Qiwu stood up and said to Tang He, "Take him away and lock him up with Zhao Bulan. Let them keep each other company."

Tang He dragged Zhou Xiaoqi away.

Zhu Qiwu turned to look at Liu Bowen.

"Mr. Bowen, don't announce the matter of the question yet. Use the revised question for the exam. I want to see what kind of tricks Zhang Shicheng's men can come up with after receiving the revised question."

Liu Bowen nodded, and then suddenly said something.

"Seventh Prince, do you remember what Lu Wenzhao said? 'Out of fourteen people, one is not Zhang Shicheng.'"

"Remember."

"I thought about it all night, and I think that person might be..." Liu Bowen paused, "...or perhaps one of our own."

Zhu Qiwu was taken aback: "Our own people?"

“Yes,” Liu Bowen said. “If that person is one of our own, then his going to take the special imperial examination wasn’t to cause sabotage, but to keep an eye on those thirteen people from within. In that case, the list Lu Wenzhao gave you wouldn’t be a list of enemies, but a list we can use.”

Zhu Qiwu's mind went blank for a moment.

If that person is truly one of our own, then everything makes sense.

Why did Lu Wenzhao specifically tell him this? Because Lu Wenzhao had also discovered that person's identity, but he didn't expose him. Instead, he chose to let Zhu Qiwu investigate on his own.

This is Lu Wenzhao helping him.

"Mr. Bowen, during tomorrow's exam, I'll use the loyalty check card to check everyone. It'll be clear who's on our side."

“Alright,” Liu Bowen said, “I’ll head back now. I’ll proctor the first exam tomorrow.”

After Liu Bowen left, Zhu Qiwu stood alone in the northwest corner, looking at the few pieces of paper scattered on the ground.

A gust of wind blew by, and the paper tumbled a few times.

He bent down and picked them up, looking at them one by one.

He set the question. But someone changed it. Someone copied it. Someone sent it to Suzhou.

What would Zhang Shicheng think if he received the revised exam questions?

He would think that Enke's questions were nothing special. He would think that Zhu Qiwu's abilities were limited to this.

But he didn't know that the changed questions were deliberately made to him by Zhu Qiwu.

Because the revised question was more difficult to answer than the original one.

"How can you cooperate without being discovered?"—There's no standard answer to this question. Everyone's answer will be different. Even if Zhang Shicheng's men received the question, they wouldn't know how to answer it.

The only people who can truly answer this question are those who have actually worked at the grassroots level. Only those who have served in the county and dealt with corrupt officials know how to get things done without being detected.

Zhang Shicheng did not have such a person under his command.

Because Zhang Shicheng's men were either sycophants or conspirators. The people who actually did the work had long been driven away by him.

Zhu Qiwu put the paper away, and the corners of his mouth slowly turned up.

Zhang Shicheng, keep copying. The more you copy, the harder you'll fall.

He turned and walked out of the examination hall. After a few steps, he suddenly saw a person standing at the door.

It is Lu Wenzhao.

Lu Wenzhao leaned against the door frame, holding the folding fan in his hand. When he saw Zhu Qiwu come out, he smiled slightly.

"Young Master Qiwu, the question has been changed?"

How did you know?

“I guessed,” Lu Wenzhao said. “I looked at your special exam question three times. The third question in the third session wasn’t originally phrased that way. After I got home last night, the more I thought about it, the more something seemed off. The original question was too straightforward, not like your style. Your style is—a mix of righteousness and wickedness.”

Zhu Qiwu looked at Lu Wenzhao and suddenly felt that this person was even more terrifying than he had imagined.

"Young Master Lu, whose side are you really on?"

"Seventh Prince, as I've said before, I'm not on either side. I just stand with whichever side is likely to win."

"So which side do you think will win?"

Lu Wenzhao looked at Zhu Qiwu with a very complicated expression in his eyes.

“I used to think Zhang Shicheng could win. Now I think…” He paused, “I haven’t decided yet. That’s why I’m taking the entrance exam. I’ll decide after I take it.”

Zhu Qiwu laughed.

"Okay. Then do your best on the exam. After you're done, I'll give you the answer."

"What answer?"

"The answer you wanted."

Lu Wenzhao was stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter.

"Seventh Prince, you are truly an interesting person."

Zhu Qiwu stood at the entrance of the examination hall, looking in the direction where he disappeared.

The exam is tomorrow.

Ten days became nine days.

Nine days from now, everything will be answered.

He turned back to the examination hall and did a final check on the things he would need for tomorrow.

Loyalty test card, upgraded version of "Ears of the Wind", panoramic view of Enke test center.

Three things, three trump cards.

enough.

The sound of a wooden clapper rang out outside the window; it was the fifth watch of the night.

The sky over Yingtian Prefecture slowly began to brighten.

Nine days later, at dawn, before the sky had fully brightened in Yingtian Prefecture, a long queue had already formed at the entrance of the examination hall.

Zhu Qiwu stood on the second floor of the examination hall, looking down through the window. A dense crowd stretched from the entrance of the examination hall to the end of the street, numbering at least five or six hundred people. Some carried lanterns, others held torches, illuminating the entire street.

Tang He stood beside him, holding a knife in his hand, his eyes wide like copper bells.

"Seventy-five? That's too many people! We only have three hundred seats. What are we going to do with the extra people?"

“No extras allowed in,” Zhu Qiwu said. “Where’s Da Ge?”

"They're maintaining order outside. Xu Da said that all five streets around the examination hall are closed off today; not even a fly can get in."

Zhu Qiwu nodded, then took out the three items from his pocket—a loyalty test card, an upgraded version of the "Ears That Can Hear" device, and a panoramic view of the Enke examination site.

He first unfolded a panoramic view of the examination hall. A virtual image appeared before his eyes, showing the entire examination hall in its entirety. Three hundred seats, thirty invigilators, and every corner was clearly visible.

Then he put on the upgraded version of Super Ears.

In an instant, all the sounds within a hundred feet radius flooded into his ears.

He heard the discussions among the candidates queuing outside, heard Xu Da shouting to maintain order, and heard Tang He sharpening his knife nearby.

Then he heard a sound that shouldn't have been there.

The whispers came from the very middle row of seats in the examination room.

"...The question has been changed. The answer to the third question in the third round is now focused on the word 'patience'..."

Someone is passing on the answer.

Moreover, the answers to the questions were modified. (End of Chapter)