How can I bow my head and serve the powerful officials?

When they arrived at the Ministry of Revenue, except for the Second Prince's followers, all the civil and military officials did not have a good attitude towards Xie Chengze.

After all, this person first made wild statements about wanting to confiscate their house, and then went to the emperor with the name of the person who donated the least silver to speak ill of him, and also wanted to fine him half a year's salary. Naturally, this made people angry and speechless.

Seeing that the civil and military officials were not happy with him, Xie Chengze was not annoyed at all. Instead, he smiled and said, "After you donate your silver, don't leave. Let's see who donated the least silver."

A minister snorted coldly and shook his sleeves, but stopped and glanced at the donation book.

Other ministers also stopped and left. Most of them who had not donated much thought that if they were the last, they might as well add some more silver to avoid being fined half a year's salary.

The ministers who donated more just glanced at Xie Chengze lazily and left. In their eyes, Xie Chengze was just a clown, and this little trick was not worth their attention.

However, there were also some who loved to watch the fun and stayed.

Xie Chengze was not annoyed, and continued to watch with a smile until the Ministry of Revenue read out the final result, "Supervisory Censor Chen Yushi, donate 40 taels of silver."

Censor Chen Wenkang was in charge of supervising all officials. He was known for his honest and upright conduct, and his annual salary was only over eighty taels, so he donated the least silver, which was exactly what Xie Chengze had expected.

Upon hearing his name, Censor Chen snorted in a very stubborn manner, "My family is poor, and I have already tried my best! Your Highness, you can feel free to go to His Majesty and complain to me!"

Everyone knows how bad the Second Prince's reputation is. Given his character, he will certainly go to His Majesty and denounce Censor Chen for having no love for the people in order to show off his love for the people.

One of the ministers couldn't bear it, "Old Chen, how about I lend you some? You can pay me back after you get your monthly salary."

"No need!" Censor Chen still said stubbornly, "If I don't go to hell, who will?"

Some sighed, some rejoiced, some were indifferent, and some sneered with disdain.

Xie Chengze turned his head and looked at Censor Chen.

This old minister has an upright character and is not afraid of the powerful. In the original book, the protagonist Shen Yuan takes advantage of the other party's upright character of not fearing the second prince and joins forces with Chen Yushi to find evidence of the original owner's guilt.

Although the evidence was found, Censor Chen's family was killed overnight, the evidence was handled lightly, the corrupt officials involved were all dealt with by Emperor Jian, but the second prince was unharmed.

This also strengthened Shen Yuan's determination to kill the original owner.

Thinking of this, Xie Chengze took a step forward.

"It's a little too early for Lord Chen to say that. The Ministry of Revenue only mentioned the person who donated the least silver at the moment."

Censor Chen looked puzzled. At this moment, everyone had donated, and he, who was at the bottom, had no intention of adding any more money. Who could donate less than him?

Just as he was about to ask what this meant, he saw Xie Chengze walk up to the clerk in the Ministry of Revenue, pointing at the donation book and saying indifferently, "Write, His Royal Highness the Second Prince Xie Chengze, donate 39 taels, 9 coins and 99 wen of silver."

Upon hearing this, all the officials were stunned.

Not more, not less, just one cent less than forty taels, making him the one who donated the least silver.

Your Highness the Second Prince, when did you become such a good person?

Censor Chen was also a little surprised and looked at Xie Chengze with suspicion.

Although he is upright and has nothing to fear from the second prince's gossip, a fine of half a year's salary will inevitably affect the lives of his family. Censor Chen is certainly unwilling to be fined so much money.

But he did not expect that the one who came to help him at this time was not the Crown Prince who had always been kind to the people and loved officials, but the Second Prince who he thought was arrogant and stupid.

Xie Chengze smiled and said frankly, "Lord Chen is a clear-minded person. He is able to donate half a year's salary to the people of Yizhou. He is more compassionate and caring than those people who have a fortune but only donate a hundred taels. How could I criticize Lord Chen in front of my father? Wouldn't that chill the hearts of the people and also damage my own merits?"

He leaned forward slightly and said, "Since the person who donated the least silver has already left, I am still ill, so I will leave first. Please do as you please."

After saying this, his slender body like a willow seemed to be drained of strength all at once. He raised his hand and lightly touched his lips, coughed twice like Daiyu pitying a flower, and left the Ministry of Revenue with a slightly shaky step.

Looking at his frail back, all the officials could not help but look at each other in bewilderment. Only then did they remember that the Second Prince had indeed said that he was unwell when he attended court.

All the officials had no doubts. After all, it was well known how diligent and hard-working the Second Prince was in court. The fact that he took several days off at once showed that his condition was very serious. Even so, he forced himself to finish the court session with his frail body. He even waited for the ministers to donate their silver and wiped out the stigma for the one who donated the least before he left with his sick body. It was hard not to admire him.

Even though the Second Prince could be quite annoying at times, at least he was extremely dedicated to his job and could not be criticized.

"I don't know what disease the Second Prince has. I remember that in the past, even if he broke his leg while riding a horse, he would never ask for leave, right?"

"I see that today, the Second Prince even took the initiative to give up the Spring Examination to the Crown Prince. This would have been impossible in the past, right?"

"Hiss - could it be that the end is near? His actions are good..."

"Brother Wen, please be careful with your words, be careful with your words——"

As Censor Chen listened to their words, his eyes fell on the list of silver donations from officials, and the last line of the book, which showed thirty-nine taels, nine cents and ninety-nine coins.

Your Highness the Second Prince, is your time of death approaching?

Thinking of the other party's somewhat sincere words just now, Chen Yushi, who was feeling a little awkward, thought to himself, well, after all, he accepted the Second Prince's kindness, so he should also go to his house to express his gratitude and give some gifts.

……

Royal study room.

When Eunuch Zhao at the door saw Xie Chengze coming to see the emperor, he quickly bowed and saluted, "Second Prince, the emperor has ordered that you can go in directly."

"Okay, Eunuch Zhao." Xie Chengze nodded at him and then entered the inner room.

Eunuch Zhao glanced at Xie Chengze with slight surprise.

Why does the Second Prince feel a little different today?

In the past, when he said this, the Second Prince ignored him and went straight into the imperial study. But today, he responded politely and even called him Eunuch Zhao affectionately.

You know, Eunuch Zhao hasn't heard the Second Prince call him "Eunuch Zhao" for nearly ten years. When he was young, the Second Prince was very sweet and polite, always calling him Eunuch Zhao and secretly giving him sweets. But later...

Oh, let’s not talk about it.

On the way here, Xie Chengze was recalling the plot of the original book.

In the original book, although Xie Chengze's talent was mediocre, he was ruthless enough. Not only was he indulged by Emperor Jian, but he also had two masters protecting him closely, killing people, setting fires and destroying corpses for him. Therefore, there was nothing he couldn't accomplish until he met the powerful male protagonist Shen Yuan, and he kept hitting a wall.

And today is Shen Yuan's first appearance.

Shen Yuan is the grandson of the Grand Tutor, who once taught the Crown Prince his homework. Therefore, Shen Yuan had many opportunities to interact with the Crown Prince when he was young. However, the Grand Tutor later retired and took Shen Yuan away from the capital to travel around. Only recently did Shen Yuan return to the capital and prepare to enter the officialdom.

The Grand Tutor was extremely talented, and Shen Yuan had been extremely intelligent since childhood, and was eloquent, which made him very much loved by Emperor Jian. Therefore, when Emperor Jian heard that Shen Yuan had returned to the capital, he immediately issued an oral order for him to enter the palace.

Afterwards, on his way to meet the emperor, Shen Yuan met Xie Chengze, who had come to the emperor to ask for the position of invigilator of the spring examination.

When the two men fought for the first time, Shen Yuan was surprised by Xie Chengze's beauty, which was indistinguishable between male and female. Xie Chengze pretended to be nice to him, wanting to recruit Shen Yuan to become his capable subordinate.

But when the original owner proposed to supervise the Spring Examination, Emperor Jian asked Shen Yuan for advice on a whim. Shen Yuan's words "The Second Prince is too beautiful, which may easily distract students and be detrimental to the atmosphere of the examination hall" completely angered the original owner, who was very proud and vindictive.

The original owner hated it most when people said he was more beautiful than a woman. What was the difference between that and calling him a "sissy"? So he always secretly made things difficult for Shen Yuan and looked for ways to humiliate him.

However, today, Xie Chengze went to the Ministry of Revenue first, so he did not meet Shen Yuan on the way.

But after stepping into the imperial study, Xie Chengze saw a neat figure in white, standing in front of the desk.