Chapter 153 Gao Yuan's Confession

Facing Zhu Hao’s rapid-fire questioning, Gao Yuan gently shook his head and said, "Your Highness, you are wasting your efforts on me. As I told you just now, I will not say a word. As for who the mastermind is, you might as well consider me the mastermind. After all, assassinating a prince is already a capital offense, so I am not afraid of taking on one more charge of fabricating imperial examination fraud!"

Hearing Gao Yuan’s impenetrable defiance, Zhu Hao slammed the gavel down heavily once more, furious, and said, "Gao Yuan! Do not be so stubbornly unyielding! Even though you have resigned yourself to death, you must understand that assassinating me is a grave crime punishable by the execution of all nine familial extermination categories. If you truthfully tell me everything you know, I can spare your nine familial categories from slaughter; otherwise, do not blame the ruthlessness of state law!"

Although angry, Zhu Hao had struck Gao Yuan’s most vulnerable point. He knew that Gao Yuan was fully aware that his crimes were unforgivable. If Zhu Hao were to promise to pardon Gao Yuan himself, Gao Yuan certainly would not believe it. However, by offering the lives of his nine familial categories as a bargaining chip, Zhu Hao successfully shook Gao Yuan's resolve. Gao Yuan could not help but think of his newborn baby son back in his hometown, and a glistening tear welled up in his eyes.

After Zhu Hao finished speaking, Gao Yuan looked at him very seriously for a long time, and then asked, "Does Your Highness mean what you say?"

Seeing that Gao Yuan’s stance was wavering, Zhu Hao quickly nodded and said, "A gentleman's word is as good as a team of four horses. Although I detest your actions, these matters have nothing to do with your nine familial categories after all. I am not a bloodthirsty man; as long as you cooperate with me, I naturally will not make things difficult for them!"

Listening to Zhu Hao’s words, Gao Yuan took a deep breath. Then, his whole body seemed to deflate as he said, "What does Your Highness wish to know? Go ahead and ask!"

Seeing that Gao Yuan’s psychological defenses had collapsed, Zhu Hao felt a surge of excitement. He quickly pressed on with his questions: "Since you just said that you did not gain any benefits from the examination case, what about the deaths of Qian Qianyi and Cheng Sanjin? Do these matters have anything to do with you? What was your purpose in doing this? And where are those twenty-three scholars currently being imprisoned?"

Upon hearing Zhu Hao’s questions, Gao Yuan sighed softly and replied, "It was indeed I who instructed Feng Gongcheng to eliminate Cheng Sanjin and Qian Qianyi in secret, and those twenty-three scholars are no longer among the living! Doing all this was indeed to cover up the truth of the examination fraud, yet I truly did not gain any personal benefit from it! While I dare not claim to be an incorruptible official, I am certainly not a greedy person either. Had that fool Qian Qianyi not been insatiably greedy and appointed that idiot Cheng Sanjin as the provincial examination top scorer, none of these troubles would have arisen, and I would not have come to today's end."

Hearing this, Zhu Hao immediately demanded, "Since you did not kill all these people for wealth, it means you had no selfish motives in this matter. Then what on earth made you do it? Could it be that you did it for the imperial court?"

Gao Yuan shook his head slightly at Zhu Hao’s words, sighed once more, and said, "I originally thought I was doing it for the imperial court. But as matters developed to this day and I sank deeper and deeper, I no longer know what I was doing it for!"

Finding Gao Yuan’s answers increasingly baffling, Zhu Hao simply cut to the chase and asked directly, "I ask you, who was the instigator behind this provincial examination in Zhejiang? Who else was involved? Confess the whole truth to me!"

Just as Zhu Hao finished speaking, Gao Yuan’s expression suddenly stiffened. Staring blankly at Zhu Hao with lifeless eyes, his mouth parted as he began, "The mastermind is—" Before he could finish his sentence, he spewed a mouthful of black blood, and dark bloody threads began to seep from his eyes, ears, nostrils, and mouth.

Shocked by this turn of events, Zhu Hao immediately shouted for someone to save him. Wang Dazhi, who had been guarding Zhu Hao in the hall, hurried forward a few steps, pressed his fingers against Gao Yuan’s carotid artery, and then shook his head at Zhu Hao. "Your Highness, he is dead!"

Zhu Hao was greatly alarmed. He had not expected Gao Yuan to die at such a crucial moment. Judging by the manner of his death, Zhu Hao knew instantly that Gao Yuan had been poisoned, or at the very least, had not died a natural death. With this thought, Zhu Hao looked at Wang Dazhi and asked, "Commander Wang, since you took Gao Yuan into custody yesterday, has he been in contact with anyone?"

Wang Dazhi shook his head slightly and replied, "This subordinate issued strict orders at the time forbidding anyone from approaching Gao Yuan. No one should have been able to get near him!"

Hearing this, Zhu Hao instructed, "Commander Wang, go and investigate immediately whether anyone came into contact with Gao Yuan from last night until now. I refuse to believe that Gao Yuan could just drop dead for no reason. Someone must be hiding behind the scenes, poisoning Gao Yuan because they don't want me to uncover the truth!"

Wang Dazhi acknowledged the order and hurried away. Zhu Hao then proceeded to interrogate Feng Gongcheng and Gao Naiqian. These two were rather straightforward and told everything they knew, but since they were merely hired thugs, their knowledge was limited, and Zhu Hao failed to obtain any useful information from them.

At this moment, Zhu Hao felt the frustration of someone about to sneeze but unable to do so. Gao Yuan’s accidental death, coupled with his final words, made Zhu Hao realize that the Zhejiang examination affair was far from simple; instead, it was infinitely more complex than he could have imagined. For a provincial surveillance commissioner to die so inexplicably right in the main hall meant that the forces and stakes involved were utterly unimaginable.

These thoughts left Zhu Hao feeling restless and anxious. Fortunately, not much time passed before Wang Dazhi returned to report, "Reporting to Your Highness, this subordinate has carefully investigated just now. Indeed, no one approached Gao Yuan from last night until today. However, this subordinate suddenly recalled one matter that might be related to the sudden death of the surveillance commissioner!"

Seeing Zhu Hao in such an anxious state of deadlock, Wang Dazhi did not dare to delay and quickly spoke, "Reporting to Your Highness, after Your Highness left last night, Left Administration Commissioner Xiao came to the scene to inquire about what had happened. This subordinate simply explained the situation to him. Commissioner Xiao said that, having been colleagues with the surveillance commissioner, he wanted to go and ask him why he had done such things. At the time, hearing Commissioner Xiao say this and suspecting nothing, this subordinate agreed. Since I was present the entire time, the two merely exchanged a few polite words and said nothing of consequence, so I had no suspicions then. But looking back now, there may have been something fishy about that visit!"