My name is Ye Lin. Just from my name, you can tell how much my family expected of me. And I did not disappoint them. At eighteen, I placed first in the imperial examinations and rode through the streets on horseback. At twenty-two, I was even appointed Junior Preceptor to the Crown Prince and granted a second-rank official's robe. My parents and clan took pride in me, while the sons of noble families saw me as a thorn in their side. It was all because of the saying, "If you have a son, may he be as brilliant as the young prodigy of the Ye family."
But a person's good fortune is bound to run out. In the early spring of my twenty-third year, the old emperor stripped me of my post and exiled me to Lingnan.
1. Fortunately, the young Crown Prince pleaded on my behalf. I was allowed to pay my way out of the sentence and escape exile
