On the day the Examination Office posted the results, a clerk arrived with paste and brushed away the name of the top candidate, Shen Yanzhou, replacing it with Third Young Master Cheng. Su Fuli refused to report who had stolen the seal, which child was barred from claiming it, or which book and page the rule came from. He turned and walked into the office. Shen Yanzhou questioned him three times in front of everyone, but all he got was, "Go home." More than three hundred onlookers walked around him, and not one of the seven other candidates stopped. After everyone had left, he waited until the crowd was gone, then slipped a finger under the wet paste at the bottom corner and tore away only a narrow strip on the left.
