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Xiao Liulang knew nothing about the token, so he naturally didn't know that Junior Compiler Cen would take the token to the Heavenly Music House.
It was a place that truly lived up to the reputation of a red-light district. Honorable government offices such as Hanlin Academy should never step in there without authorization.
Who would have guessed that Junior Compiler Cen would be so bold?
In the next two days, Junior Compiler Cen didn't come to Hanlin Academy to report for duty, and neither did he send someone to ask for a leave of absence.
On the first day, everyone was confused but didn't think of the worst. They just thought that maybe he was ill or something urgent happened at home which left him unable to even send a report letter to Hanlin Academy.
The next day, it was still the same situation. But this time, Reader-in-Waiting Yang sent someone to Junior Compiler Cen’s home, at the thought that he used to work for him at least.
Junior Compiler Cen’s family was an ordinary scholarly family in the capital. Father Cen was a Xiucai, and he opened a private school to support his family. Mother Cen was a concubine-born daughter from a family of an old landlord who had a bit of wealth accumulated over time.
The Cen Family wasn’t that affluent in the capital, but they also had their own residence to live in and servants to order around.
Unexpectedly, the Cen Family actually planned to make a trip to Hanlin Academy to look for Junior Compiler Cen.
They thought that Junior Compiler Cen was still on duty at Hanlin Academy.
This kind of situation wasn’t unheard of. During Hanlin Academy’s busiest time, it was possible for a Junior Compiler not to come home for three days.
But it was obviously not the case this time.
Both sides immediately reported to the authorities.
The yamen solved the case very quickly, or perhaps the case itself wasn’t very difficult.
They found Junior Compiler Cen's corpse in the corner outside the west door of Heavenly Music House where sundries were piled up.
"We've seen this kind of case many times... people who tried to sneak into the Heavenly Music House but were mistaken as a thief and were beaten to death..."
Heavenly Music House raised their threshold very high, and most people were unable to enter it, but some couldn’t resist their wishful thinking. It happened that the outside of Heavenly Music House’s west door was a place where sundries were piled up, so some people tried to sneak in from here, leading to a quite conceivable result.
The guards of Heavenly Music House were not vegetarians.
If you come uninvited, you would be regarded as a thief. These guards only had to be called and it was over for you!
Cen Family didn’t believe it, and neither did the Hanlin Academy.
But Junior Compiler Cen did change out the official uniform of Hanlin Academy into new navy brocade clothes. He had also shaved his beard, which obviously indicated that he was going to meet someone important.
"Maybe, maybe they changed his clothes after they killed him!" The Cen Family stated.
Killing a court official was different from killing ordinary people.
However, this speculation was quickly denied, because the bailiffs found the coachman hired by Junior Compiler Cen that day.
The coachman explained that Junior Compiler Cen was still wearing his Hanlin official uniform when he boarded the carriage. After getting off the carriage, he had already put on a new set of clothes and had shaved his beard.
"I sent him to the Brisk Wind Tower. After that, I watched him go in the direction of Heavenly Music House."
With this, the path and purpose of Junior Compiler Cen had been basically determined. With his identity, it was indeed impossible for Junior Compiler Cen to enter the Heavenly Music House openly.
Then, the only way was for him to climb over the wall.
The people in Heavenly Music House had no idea that he was an official of the imperial court. They just thought that he was an ordinary lecher, so it was natural for them to attack him.
This kind of matter could be brought to the law court. After all, a person had been killed, and Heavenly Music House had to bear some responsibility. It was just that in this way, the reputation of Junior Compiler Cen would completely get ruined.
In the end, Heavenly Music House gave some solatium and settled the matter.
But paper couldn’t contain fire after all. The story of Junior Compiler Cen being killed while visiting a brothel spread inside Hanlin Academy. Of course, everyone didn't talk about it in public, but they were all discussing it in private.
"Say... How can a decent person like Junior Compiler Cen suddenly go to a brothel?"
"Could he have been encouraged by Senior Compiler Xiao? There is no one else in Hanlin Academy who has an affair with a brothel woman except him."
"Shush, keep your voice down, Chancellor Han doesn’t allow us to talk about it!"
"Did I say something wrong? The day before Junior Compiler Cen disappeared... I saw him talking to Senior Compiler Xiao... I don't know what they were talking about... Junior Compiler Cen seemed very stirred up... "
While several people were talking about the matter, Xiao Liulang came over from not far away.
A group of people instantly fell silent and exchanged glances before dispersing.
But Xiao Liulang already heard everything he needed to hear.
Of course, he never encouraged Junior Compiler Cen whatsoever.
But for people being excluded, even breathing was a wrong thing.
……
Ever since he made up his mind to marry his precious granddaughter to An Junwang, Grand Secretary Yuan had someone gather An Junwang's poetry collection that had been scattered everywhere over the years.
He read them all carefully and he could say that An Junwang was indeed a man of talent and ambition. Many of the poems that had been praised to this day were written when he was in the State of Chen. Although he was still young at the time, he willingly became a hostage in a foreign land, carrying the lifeline of a country and bearing humiliation. Despite all that, he could still have such youthful lofty sentiments. Truly a rare talent.
Grand Secretary Yuan had the poetry collection sent to her granddaughter.
He understood his granddaughter’s character well. She was a great talent and inordinately proud of her abilities. Ordinary people couldn’t enter her eyes, but a talented person like An Junwang should be able to.
Little did Grand Secretary Yuan know that as soon as the young Taoist nun looked at those five-character and eight-rhyme poems on the table, her expression turned dark at once.
Why did he want her to read poetry?
She just wanted to read a novel!
Anyway, it had been so long. Why hasn't the third book of Cloud Court Memoir come out yet?
Wasn't the publication supposed to come out once a month?
It had been a month and three days already. Did the author get blown away by the wind?
……
Bishui Alley.
Old Chief, who had just finished writing the last word, put down his writing brush and sneezed violently, "Achoo!"
He had just taken over the Imperial Academy and his salary wasn’t enough. The main reason was that all his savings were robbed by the elderly woman and he also wanted to get a new carriage...
In order to cope with the increasing expenses, he had to return to his old job of novel writing.
He hadn't written for many years, and his former pen name had long been forgotten, so he used a brand new pen name—— Live As If Dreaming.
Listening to it gave him a good feeling.
His first comeback book was about the counterattack of a sickly hostage prince from the enemy country who brought disaster and chaos to the imperial court and formed a love and hate relationship with the Grand Princess of the Great Xia Dynasty.
In order to avoid causing unnecessary trouble, he clearly indicated at the beginning that all this was just the dream of the hostage prince.
However, despite that, everyone couldn’t stop following his story.
The first two books sold very well, allowing him to earn a small sum of money. The third book should have been submitted long ago, but recently there were many things to be dealt with at the Imperial Academy, hence the sudden delay.
In order to express his apology, he decided to personally deliver the manuscript to the bookstore he was in partnership with.
Today, the young Taoist nun also went to the bookstore. She was there to urge them to publish the next book soon.
Old Chief couldn't help pricking up his ears.
Behind the bookshelf, the book boy introduced other novels to the little young Taoist nun.
The young Taoist nun flipped through a few of them with boredom and said, "Not good, it's not as exciting as Live As If Dreaming’s story."
Old Chief thought that the other person would say that his story contained fresh ideas, but instead, he heard her say that it was thrilling.
Old Chief cleared his throat.
So... It was thrilling huh.
The young Taoist nun said, "The part where the Grand Princess finally cast off the imperial son-in-law was quite good. An imperial princess shouldn't let herself suffer such injustice!"
In fact, the Grand Princess was just an unremarkable supporting character in the novel. The plot about her wasn't written in detail and her divorce with the imperial son-in-law was only briefly mentioned. He didn't expect the other party to have such a deep impression of her.
This was a bosom friend!
Old Chief let out a slight cough, and he couldn't help but feel a little interested in communicating with the other party. Perhaps he could find more inspiration. He asked, "Does this young Taoist nun also like this book?"
The young Taoist nun said, "It’s all right, the writing is passable."
Old Chief: I'm the Imperial Academy Chief, how can the writing be just ‘passable’?
But then again, in order to match the threshold of the audience, he indeed deliberately weakened his writing style and added a lot of everyday language, which could ensure that it was easy to understand.
At the same time, in order to cater to the scholars’ aesthetics, he also added a lot of original poems, which generally could be skipped by ordinary people without the plot being affected.
Old Chief asked again, "What does the young Taoist nun think of the character Li Wang?"
Li Wang was the protagonist of the book, the sickly hostage prince who subverted the entire Great Xia Dynasty.
The young Taoist nun curled her lips and flipped through a book she had taken off the shelf, "He’s good at schemes and intrigues, but not love. He’s blind."
Old Chief:“…!!!”Raz P.'s Thoughts
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