Not Your Typical Villianess

The Crown Prince mansion, the Crown Prince's study.

Zhongshan Ling dismissed the inner room makes cleaning the study on arrival, to ensure that there were no ease droppers. He wheeled himself to the other side of the reading table, the cluster of empty wine jars and cups had already been removed apart from the faint smell of alcohol that hinted to his late-night drinking everything else were in order. The official reports were piled up and arranged on one side of the table while on the opposite end was the inkstone, ink, brush and paper.

He glanced down at the flower kept by the table and frowned, "was a new maid posted here?"

"New maid..." Eunuch Lan glanced at the flower vase, "my apologies, your highness. I will make sure to educate the new maids. It won't happen again". Eunuch Lan quickly picked up the flower vase and kept it by the window before returning to stand by the Crown Prince's table.

Zhongshan Ling picked up the report at the top of the pile on one end of the table and opened it up. " why were you in such a hurry this morning?"

"Ah yes, it is about the instructions you gave me yesterday. I looked into the Emperor's recent activities leading to the night he fainted, he paid a visit to the Examination council. One of the clerks at the council that night reported that the Emperor read through third Young master Lu's answer sheet".

Zhongshan Ling dropped the report in her hands on the table, " father Emperor reading an answer sheet for a top scholar like Lu Ying is not strange, it is no secret that Imperial father has singled him out for the past six years". 

"Your highness is right but this time he didn't have his essay cancelled as usual but instead instructed the chief examiner to give him the full marks".

"What?" Zhongshan Ling leaned forward, tapping his fingers on the table. "Has the Imperial examination results been compiled?"

"Yes, your highness, my subordinate intercepted it before it left his Majesty's office. This was the note that was sent over" Eunuch Lan took the letter out of his sleeve and handed it to the Crown Prince. 

Zhongshan Ling unfolded the letter and read through it, seconds later is squeezed the paper into a ball and threw it into the fire. "Lu Yaozhu! Why does he keep testing me!"

"Your Highness, Xiaobao sent word that his Majesty called the head of Ministry of rites over at daybreak. They spoke privately for an hour before Minister An left but right after the meeting, Prince Wu was called into the Palace."

"Why is he making all these major moves, is his health in decline. A'Lan get our man at the Ministry of Health to look into his Majesty's medical records, I want to know the Emperor's condition".

"Yes. Em, your highness about the Fifth Prince. He has is men looking into Prince Wu's issues".

Zhongshan Ling smirked, "A mad dog can bite even its master, he is reacting exactly as I expected. People like Zuo are the easiest to manipulate, everyone has been watching me since Lu Yaozhu's promotion. They are expecting me to make a move against him but I don't intend to make such an obvious move that would put me in a bad light instead I will leave that to Zuo. 

Disclose the Emperor's activities this morning to his end, he will take care of the rest".

Eunuch Lan replied with a smile, " Yes, your highness"

************

Two days later the result of the Imperial Examination was released, the list of the successful candidates was written in order of rank and posted on the notice board at the Imperial College. Noble families whose sons took part in the examination send their servants to check the result. The Imperial Examination for the first time in a few years left everyone shocked, after writing the exam for six years Lu Ying's name made it to the top of the list as the highest-ranking candidate. 

His name was number one, Madam Lu lost her footing as the news was delivered by the steward. She sent her lady's maid to check the results once more before she finally accepted the news. A lot of families sent over gifts and congratulatory messages to the Duke's mansion. The top three schoolers in the Imperial examination always received special appointments and lucrative positions from the Emperor. To rank among the top three meant that your political career was set so most noble families tried to curry favours from the candidates.

Two days later Lu Ying and the two other top scholars went into court to greet the Emperor and the ministers. It was an elaborate event and in the end, the Emperor's decree announcing the appointment of each scholar was read in front of the entire court. Everyone looked forward to that last stage of the event, there was a lot of speculation on the Emperor's appointment this year. There were so many ongoing bets in all the major gambling dens since the result was posted on the position that would be appointed to each candidate.

Many rumoured that since the Lu family were now being favoured and since the third young master of the Lu family, Lu Ying ranked first his majesty would appoint him to a lucrative office. Since Lu Ying's strong suit, unlike his brothers that were both civil and military officials leaned more to the civil side of things. It was predicted that height is sent to the ministry of finance but his appointment as a Vice-minister of reform shocked everyone most, especially Zhongshan Zuo.

This appointment would put the Lu family in charge of three of the four lucrative offices. His Imperial father's statement that night immediately replayed in Zhongshan Zuo's head. As soon as he returned to his mansions called for a meeting of all his advisers.

Zhongshan Zuo had his men keep an eye on his father and Lu Yaozhu and for the past few days, the two had interacted regularly. Their sudden closeness left him on edge but it was Lu Ying's appointment that pushed him over the edge. 

After weeks of looking for loopholes in Lu Yaozhu's office, an opportunity presented itself in the form of the investigation into the death of the head of the Examination councils who was found dead at a tea house days after a petition accusing the examination council of rigging the examination to favour the children of noble families over the commoners that took place in the examination.. The petition was submitted by the Head of the Examination councils, Councillor Zhang.