The Prime Minister's Darling novel Chapter 88

Chapter 88: 85 Going Home (Third Watch of the Night)_2

Despite this, Governor Luo still called over the persons in charge of collecting the papers for an interrogation. Both of them insisted that they had done nothing improper.

“What about the blank paper?”

“We are not sure, the examinees will cover their papers with a blank paper before handing them in. This is to prevent us from seeing their handwriting.”

Resident Adviser Zhuang nodded and then turned to Governor Luo and said, “After being handled by these two, the test paper should then have the names concealed, right? Names are not revealed until all exam supervisors have finished marking the papers. Now, I am very curious how that person recognized Xiao Liulang’s paper and successfully swapped it with a blank one?”

Governor Luo pondered for a while then replied, “There are two possibilities: distribution of papers and paper marking. Xiao Liulang was first in the College Examination, and by tradition, he would sit first in the Imperial College Examination. The first paper distributed would be his, so there could be an opportunity to tamper with it in advance, and he would still be able to identify the paper even after names are covered.

Alternatively, an examiner could have had access to Xiao Liulang’s paper from the College Examination, remembered his notes, and then identified Xiao Liulang’s paper from among those being marked.

No matter which it was, there must have been someone corrupt among the paper markers!”

The markers for the College Examination and the Imperial College Examination are not in the same batch, to prevent anyone remembering any examinee’s handwriting which could subsequently affect judgment of that examinee’s test.

However, it’s not impossible that someone might have secretly got hold of the College Examination papers. The security level of the papers greatly decreases once marking is completed.

Apart from Resident Adviser Zhuang, the other eleven examiners were confined to the secret room, subjected to Governor Luo’s harsh interrogation.

Under severe punishment, Governor Luo managed to identify the criminal.

He was one of the paper markers, a man surnamed Wu, who worked meticulously at the Imperial College for twenty years. He was usually so honest that he seemed like an antique. Governor Luo initially thought he was the least likely suspect.

It seems that not betraying others is not a matter of high moral standards but of insufficient incentives.

“That man offered me a thousand taels of silver to destroy Xiao Liulang’s test paper. I originally planned to stain it with ink to make it look like Xiao Liulang had accidentally dirtied his own paper. I’ve seen many such cases which just end up being discarded, no one checks. However, before I could act, Officer Wang, who I had distracted earlier, returned.

I startled and spilled the ink on myself. There was no time to find more ink, so I replaced it with one of the blank papers that happened to be nearby.”

“What did the man look like?”

“He covered his face, I didn’t see clearly.”

Of course, for those who failed the exam, a retest would undoubtedly be an unexpected opportunity. _{ƒгeewёbnovel.com}