Once outside, they saw the courtyard was indeed teeming with people.

Many of the faces were unfamiliar, but there were familiar ones among them, of course: their friends from the Zhao Village, the stipendiary scholars the two had found to act as guarantors, and De’an’s fellow students.

Seeing this, Zhao Jing and Chen De’an hurried over to meet with their friends, then led them to find the stipendiary scholars.

With the stipendiary scholars acting as guarantors and their friends from the Zhao Village providing mutual guarantees, Zhao Jing and Chen De’an were, as expected, the first to complete their registration.

They each paid the two-tael silver deposit and asked Li’an if he wanted them to wait.

Chen Lian had also registered for the county exam this year, and his mother was already dreaming of him becoming a Scholar. She even said that if he truly achieved that rank, she would arrange a marriage for him with a bride from the county seat.

Chen Lian knew he couldn’t marry a bride from the county seat, and he didn’t want to. He liked Chunyue and only wanted to marry her. Unfortunately, Chunyue’s family only consisted of her blind, elderly mother, and their circumstances were so poor that his own mother would almost certainly disapprove.

The thought of his mother already boasting to everyone that he was guaranteed to pass this time made Chen Lian’s head throb.

He waved them off. "You guys go on. It’s still going to be a while for me. I won’t meet up with you later; I’ll head home with Zhao Can and the others after I’m done. The exam is almost here, so I need to get home and study. A little last-minute cramming is better than nothing."

Since that was the case, De’an didn’t press him. After saying goodbye to their other two friends, he and Zhao Jing followed Chen Song out.

Chen Song was still on duty, so he wouldn’t be heading home just yet.

He made a point of telling Chen De’an and Zhao Jing, "Once you leave the county government office, go straight home. Don’t go anywhere else."

Worried the two boys might not take his warning to heart, he lowered his voice and told them, "Last night during the Lantern Festival, the Wang Family’s sons went out to see the displays. A lantern canopy collapsed and one of them had his arm injured."

These were the twin sons of the Wang family’s youngest son, the one who served as an education official in the Prefecture.

Apparently, the two had been buried in their books at home for days. The Wang family matriarch, worried her grandsons would study themselves silly, took advantage of the lantern festival to have the household steward take them out for a stroll.

But as they were walking near one of the lantern canopies, it suddenly snapped. The lanterns hanging beneath it tilted, igniting their paper shades, and in an instant, a wall of flame rushed toward them.

The two Wang sons could never have expected such a sudden disaster. They were completely unprepared. The older son, in shielding his younger brother, had his right arm—his writing arm—badly injured by the falling debris.

The younger son didn’t fare much better; it’s said the flames even set his clothes alight.

If every household hadn’t prepared vats full of water outside their doors as per the County Magistrate’s order, and if the constables hadn’t been on standby to extinguish the fire immediately, there’s no telling how much bigger the incident might have become.

The fire started quickly but was also put out quickly, so it didn’t cause a major disturbance.

Since no one from the Chen family had gone out the previous night, this was the first they were hearing of it, and they were understandably shocked.

Chen De’an asked his father, "Was it an accident, or was it intentional?"

"It was most likely intentional. The canopy’s frame had knife marks on it. But there were too many people in the area to find the perpetrator right away. It’s obvious, though, that their targets were the Wang family’s sons. The goal was to keep them from taking the exam."

De’an wasn’t particularly famous, and Zhao Jing hadn’t built up much of a reputation in the county seat either, on account of his three-year delay.

’But what if?’

’What if the mastermind was casting a wide net, trying to take out every potential threat at once?’

’Those people are sinister and vile; there’s no dirty trick they wouldn’t pull.’ They couldn’t just wander around outside knowing the dangers.

"Stop asking so many questions and hurry home. Wait until I get back tonight, and you can ask me anything you want to know then."

Xu Su Ying was waiting right outside the government office.

It wasn’t easy to get into the county government office. She wasn’t there to cry injustice, take the Scholar exam, or act as a guarantor for anyone. Even if the officials had wanted to turn a blind eye and let her in, it would have had to be when no one was paying attention.

Today was clearly not an option. With so many people watching, if they let her in, those old Scholars, who loved to spout classical platitudes, would lecture the staff until their heads spun.

Xu Su Ying wasn’t the type to make things difficult for others, so she waited patiently outside.

She vaguely overheard Chen Song’s warning, and her heart leaped into her throat. She immediately grabbed both boys by the arm.

"I’ll take them home. You get back to your work. Oh, have you had breakfast yet? If not, I can buy something and bring it to you."