As if sensing Ren Anle's gaze, he raised his head. His face calm and steady, with a clear and frank look in his eyes that he was ready to die.
Ren Anle was slightly stunned, and then understood that this man had entered the Da Lisi with the intention of certain death.
"Is the man in the hall Du Tingsong?"
"Back to Your Excellency, the student is."
"Wu Yue said he got the exam questions from you. Did he tell a lie?"
Du Tingsong did not answer, but asked, "Do you have any proof, Your Excellency?"
Ren Anle raised an eyebrow and opened the evidence presented by the magistrate from the side. She then took another examination paper from the tray and unfolded it.
"He did not throw away the exam questions you gave from Wu Yue that day. When the magistrates searched him, they found two copies on his body. At first I thought he had prepared an extra copy for fear of missing it, but later I realized that the two papers had different handwriting. Du Tingsong, this is your examination paper from the imperial examination. Just compare the two handwritings to see whether you are the one who provided the paper or not."
The hall was silent. Almost no one knew that two papers with different handwriting had been found from Wu Yue's body, and that the full officials of the Da Lisi had really had something to fall back on when they gambled their future by ringing the Qinglong Bell.
Huang Pu breathed a long sigh of relief. Only now was the case really presented to the public.
Du Tingsong glanced towards Wu Yue and was silent for half a second before saying, "There's no need to compare the handwriting. The exam questions were given to Wu Yue by me."
Unlike the overbearing Gu Qishan, Du Tingsong, the son of the Minister of Household Affairs, has a good reputation in general. The exam candidates in the hall were somewhat incredulous to hear Du Tingsong admit it himself.
"Why did you give the exam question to Wu Yue?"
"Your Excellency also knows that if you get to the top three, you will bring honor to your ancestors and become a man of honor. I have always been good friends with Wu Yue, so I told him about the test questions, but I didn't expect him to pass them on to someone else."
Hearing Du Tingsong's calm and dull reply, Wu Yue, who was kneeling at one side, buried his head even lower and unconsciously moved his body towards the side.
Ren Anle looked down the hall and asked again, "Where did your exam question come from?"
The hall suddenly became quiet. This was the answer that almost everyone wanted to know. If Du Tingsong's exam question was also obtained from other candidates, this case would be considered a shocking one.
The left minister's face sank like water, with a hint of unusual tightness. The right minister glanced suspiciously to his left.
"Lord Ren, I begged for the exam question from Lord Li." Du Tingsong lowered his eyes and slowly replied, "Lord Li is my teacher. I was so distressed about the imperial examination that I went into the Li residence late at night and begged so hard that my teacher could not bear it and told me the exam question.
"Oh? Then why did Lord Li's apology letter not mention you at all, but instead said that the person he gave the exam question to was Wu Yue?"
"The teacher knew that the test questions he had given me had been exposed, so he wrote a letter of guilt and killed himself to protect me."
Du Tingsong knelt on the ground and pleaded, "Lord Ren, I am responsible for all the crimes of the imperial examination cheating. I am ashamed of His Majesty, my teachers, and my parents. I wish to die as a token of my guilt!"
When Du Tingsong admitted to all his sins in the courtroom, the Left Minister exhaled lightly and his stiff body relaxed.