Later, he hired a team of 16 scholars from the Jiangnan region, including Wu Yan (吳炎) and Pan Chengzhang (潘檉章), to help him edit and build on Zhu Guozhen's work.
In 1661, Wu Zhirong (吳之榮),[a] the magistrate of Gui'an County (in present-day Huzhou, Zhejiang), reported the book to Chen Yongming (陳永命), the prefecture governor.
Oboi, the regent for the then underage Kangxi Emperor, ordered officials from the Ministry of Justice to go to Huzhou to conduct an investigation.
Other officials such as Hu Shangheng (胡尚衡), Liang Huafeng (梁化鳳) and Zhang Wulie (張武烈) managed to escape persecution by heavily bribing the authorities.
Fan Xiang, Zha Jizuo and Lu Qi were saved due to the intervention of Wu Liuqi and were pardoned.
Wu Zhirong, who reported the book, received Zhuang Yuncheng and Zhu Youming's family fortunes as his reward.
Song Kui (松奎), the general of Hangzhou, and Zhu Changzuo (朱昌祚), the provincial governor of Zhejiang, along with their subordinates, were dismissed from office.
Chen Yongming, the prefecture governor of Huzhou, was removed from office and exiled to Tai'erzhuang, Shandong; he committed suicide during the journey but his body was sent back to Hangzhou and dismembered.
Wang Zhaozhen (王兆禎) and Li Huan (李煥), two teachers in Gui'an County, along with Tan Ximin (譚希閔), Chen Yongming's successor as prefecture governor of Huzhou, were executed by hanging, while their families were exiled to Ningguta.
In the novel, the protagonist Wei Xiaobao meets the widows of the Zhuang family who have escaped from exile and helps them take revenge against Wu Zhirong.