Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I am an emperor. Through a careless accident, I transmigrated to another world and ended up possessing the body of some pathetic pushover.

The moment I opened my eyes, I saw a crowd gathered around my desk, pointing and whispering.

“Xu Jin, and you still say you didn’t cheat? You copied your way all the way to first place!”

“If I’m in first place, who could I have copied from?” I asked instinctively.

Do not misunderstand. I was not confessing, nor was I defending myself. I was simply confused.

“The person I supposedly copied from didn’t get first place. What, did they just not feel like it?”

The other party’s ugly face flushed red. “You… Who knows? Maybe you brought cheat sheets.”

I searched through the original body’s memories, matching the people in the class to their names one by one.

The person who had stepped forward to slander me was called Li Jia. He was the class monitor, and he had once been first in the grade.

Calm and composed, I sat down and poured myself a cup of water.

“Fine. Tell me, then. How exactly did I cheat?”

Li Jia stood up, blinking his tiny, piercingly intelligent eyes, apparently preparing to perform some grand deduction.

“First of all, your grades used to be average. There’s no way you could have become first in the grade so quickly.”

“Second, someone saw you acting suspiciously during the exam and making a lot of little movements.”

…

As I listened to his analysis, the surrounding students nodded one after another.

“Li Jia has a point.”

These people were like half-wits, believing whatever anyone told them.

Li Jia slandered me, and they immediately convicted me, as if Li Jia’s words were an imperial decree.

No, wait. My words were the imperial decree!

“Based on all of the above, your score this time was entirely due to cheating.”

After finishing his impassioned nonsense, Li Jia sat down and took a couple of breaths.

“Are you done?” I asked.

“I believe I’ve made myself very clear.”

I nodded, then poured myself another cup of tea.

“What you say doesn’t count.”

Li Jia: …What?

“What you say doesn’t count. Only what I say counts. If you dare spout nonsense again, I will execute your entire clan.”

A few low chuckles came from around us.

“Whose little emperor wandered out today?”

Me: …

Forget it. This was another world, after all. I would do as the locals did.

The previously tense atmosphere lightened quite a bit.

“Actually, what Xu Jin said makes sense too. Li Jia doesn’t have any proof.” The fence-sitters began to waver.

People with brains would not believe rumors. People without brains would only parrot what others said and would never think independently.

Since Li Jia’s words could mislead them, then naturally, my words could sway them as well. So I decided to add more fuel to the fire.

“Li Jia, the real person who wanted to cheat was you.”

“What nonsense are you talking about?” he shouted, pointing at me in agitation.

“During the exam, you were sitting next to me. You wanted me to pass you the answers, but I refused. So you held a grudge and deliberately retaliated against me.”

“So that’s what happened!” The crowd suddenly saw the light.

“Xu Jin, I didn’t cheat! The exam seats were so far apart, there was no way to pass answers. And the proctor was watching us very closely. How would I dare speak? Also…” Li Jia no longer had the presence of mind to slander me.

I picked at my ear, finding him nothing but noisy. After all, a true rumor-monger never bothered listening to anyone else’s defense.

“Why are you getting so worked up? Feeling guilty?” I questioned.

“You’re obviously framing me!”

“I don’t know. During the exam, I clearly saw you opening your mouth at me the whole time.” I questioned him again.

“Maybe… I was silently reading the questions without realizing it.” Li Jia began to doubt himself.

“You were just throwing mud at me a moment ago. Isn’t this because you’re holding a grudge and trying to accuse me first?” I continued to press him.

“I… Anyway, I didn’t cheat!”

“Oh,” I said leisurely. “I don’t believe you.”

“Just you wait. I’ll go find evidence right now!”

Li Jia panicked, leaving the rest of the crowd looking at one another.

“Actually, both of them have their own version of events, and both sound reasonable. No one knows what the truth is.”

“Why don’t we check the surveillance footage and see who’s right?”

Because of my counterattack, Li Jia’s one-sided conviction of me had turned into a confrontation between both sides.

I waved a hand and rejected the idea. “I do not need to prove myself to anyone.”

This was not the first time Xu Jin had been slandered for cheating.

Her grades had been average at first, but she was intelligent and hardworking. With every exam, she improved a little.

Step by step, she had risen to first place, and every bit of effort she had put in along the way could be traced.

And yet, every time she improved, someone threw dirty water on her.

Xu Jin had proven herself countless times: publishing her exam papers and notes, retaking exams, checking surveillance footage… But what was the result?

No one apologized to her. They would only pass down a lukewarm verdict:

“Fine, you didn’t cheat.”

Their posture was arrogant, as if they were judges, and Xu Jin was the one on trial.

…

In the end, Li Jia obtained the surveillance footage and proved that no one had cheated.

“Xu Jin, did you see that? I didn’t cheat, and I never spoke to you during the exam, either.”

He had already placed himself in the lower position, waiting for my judgment.

I nodded lightly and granted him a pardon.

“Mm. You are innocent.”

Though, of course, you had been innocent to begin with.

But so what?

I am the emperor. Whatever I say is the truth.