Zhao Yan's lips curled into a cold sneer. "If Your Imperial Highness has such idle leisure, you would do better to ponder why His Majesty tore up your memorial yesterday."
The Crown Prince's Adam's apple bobbed. The roar of his father's fury condemning him for forming cliques and engaging in self-interested plots seemed to echo in his ears once more.
Three days ago, he had submitted the roster of candidates for the autumn imperial examinations. Among those carefully selected names—descendants of Eastern Palace retainers and sons from marital alliances with his mother's clan—His Majesty had used cinnabar to circle seventeen names of those who secretly communicated with him.
Chapter 35