Bianzhou.

On the second day after Xie Wanqing moved into the Prefectural Magistrate Mansion, the Li Family’s case was indeed solved.

She certainly did not personally visit the government office with a big belly; everything was relayed by Ji Chengfeng, the Chief Judge.

Li Wenhao was framed; there was no doubt about it.

However, the target wasn’t just an ordinary Scholar like him.

Among those who fell ill after eating the Li Family’s pastry, there was a popular candidate for the top prize, who was the real target.

And Li Wenhao was nothing but a scapegoat.

The case was simple; Ji Chengfeng went through the dossiers and found that one of the victims was the top-case-holder of Anle County that year, with high hopes of winning the laurels. He immediately dispatched someone to inquire about his relatives.

He also invited several Scholars who were still bedridden to come over.

They were all young, inexperienced civilian Scholars; the highest-born among them was just the son of an official, and they could not hide anything before the inquiries of a Standard Third Rank official.

Even if they intended to conceal, it was quickly detected.

The problem indeed arose from the pastries.

However, there was no issue when the pastries left the Li Family’s pastry shop; the poisoning occurred after Li Wenhao took the pastries to the gathering, where one of his friends secretly maliciously added the poison.

To avoid suspicion after the incident, the Scholar who poisoned also ate the poisoned pastries himself.

Only Li Wenhao, who had no interest in his homemade pastries, escaped the ordeal; the other four fell into the trap.

Li Wenhao naturally became the first victim.

And the Scholar who poisoned was a twenty-year-old, attending the autumn examination for the second time, held once every three years, which he might miss this year because of the illness caused by consuming the Li Family’s pastries.

To observers, he seemed to be a truly innocent victim.

No one would suspect the other Scholars accompanying him of sacrificing their three years’ effort to frame a trivial Li Wenhao.

Three years is an exceedingly precious time for young Scholars.

But when the benefits are vast enough to buy those three years, there’s always someone ruthless enough.

And there, Li Wenhao encountered such a situation.

The Scholar who poisoned was surnamed Xu, from Xu Family Village outside Bianzhou City; his family was very wealthy locally but slightly lacking within the city.

He came to the city for the examination, befriending Scholars like Li Wenhao with similar family backgrounds.

One of them was the top-case-holder.

Not long after befriending the top-case-holder, someone approached him, offering a packet of poison, instructing him to find the right opportunity to plant it in the other’s food.

The top-case-holder, from an ordinary family and newly acquired Scholar status, was not heavily guarded against people.

Moreover, they were close friends, often gathering together, making it easy.

The hard part was finding a scapegoat to extricate oneself.

If poison was placed in a restaurant’s meal, the shop wouldn’t be easily wronged, so many candidates were there, why only you have issues.

The authorities would certainly investigate thoroughly.

Only when they gathered privately, ideally with food brought by one of the friends...

If an incident occurred during a Scholars’ gathering, it would be easier to handle.

At this moment, Li Wenhao became the sole choice.

Li Wenhao brought pastries three times in total.

Each time, they were very popular.

On the fourth occasion, Scholar Xu poisoned them.

As expected, he was extricated as a victim while Li Wenhao became the scapegoat.

For a Scholar born of the rural countryside, his calculations were remarkably meticulous.