On the first day of the Lunar New Year, the various academies of Longyuan Kingdom would post their recruitment notices.

Before dawn, the gates of various colleges and universities were already crowded with people.

In front of the prestigious college, the queues stretched for several blocks.

Butler Zheng stood in the queue, rubbing his hands together and yawning sleepily.

Before him stood the renowned Puxi Academy, famous throughout the four kingdoms.

Puxi Academy was established by the founding emperor of Longyuan Kingdom. It boasts a strong faculty and allows children of people of slave status or above to take entrance exams.

The founding emperor issued an imperial edict stipulating that all educational affairs of Puxi Academy shall not be interfered with by any royal family or noble clan, and any violator shall be executed without mercy.

With the premise of being allowed to operate independently, Puxi College's education was at the forefront for a time, nurturing many outstanding talents.

However, Puxi Academy only admits 35 students each year, and in recent years, it has even officially opened its recruitment to three other countries.

However, the quota of 35 people remained unchanged, making the already hard-to-get admission spots even more difficult to obtain.

Even so, the area in front of Puxi Academy was still packed with people.

Since admission is granted through an equal examination, everyone naturally wants to give it a try.

What if my child gets chosen?

Among the crowd in front of Puxi Academy, besides parents who wanted their children to enroll, there were also many literati and government officials.

They gathered here not to compete for admission spots, but to see the entrance exam questions for Puxi Academy this year.

As the top-ranked academy among the four academies, the entrance exam questions for Puxi Academy are always a hot topic of discussion.

Just as night fell, Steward Zheng arrived at Puxi Academy with several servants to wait for them.

He had previously arranged for Mu Yanming and Mu Yanhong to arrive early so they could stand at the front and see the entrance exam questions first.

However, in the past two years, there have been many people from other countries, so there are an unusually large number of people. He came to queue up the night before, but he was still in the third row.

There were quite a few people lying on the ground with blankets in the first two rows, looking like they had moved in a day or two earlier.

Butler Zheng sighed silently. The only reason someone would go to such lengths is probably for the sake of their child.

Although there were many people in front of Puxi Academy, no one dared to cut in line.

After all, if someone cuts in line at this time, they will receive a curse that your child will definitely fail the exam.

It wasn't until dawn, at the hour of sunrise, that the gates of Puxi Academy slowly opened.

The previously sleepy eyes immediately widened, and they craned their necks to look at the academy gate.

Butler Zheng patted his face. "Wake up! We're about to put up the enrollment notice."

Several students, around twelve or thirteen years old, wearing the blue and white school uniforms of Puyuan College, walked out with composed expressions.

They pasted two large sheets of paper on the side of the door and said to the crowd below the steps, "The admission requirements and entrance exam questions are here. Please check them yourselves."

After saying that, they walked into the academy together.

After the academy gates closed, the crowd surged forward like madmen.

Butler Zheng adjusted his hat and squeezed through the crowd.

When he got to the two notices, one of his shoes was gone, and even his sock had a hole in it.

On the left are the admission requirements. As always, there are many long points that can be summarized as follows: no country is restricted, parents are not slaves, and children under five years old are eligible to submit entrance exam essays.

The questions on the right are from the entrance exam.

Butler Zheng didn't rush to look at it. Instead, he took out paper and pen from his pocket and prepared to copy down the question.

But when he looked up and saw the entrance exam questions, he was dumbfounded.

On a large sheet of paper, only two words were written: "banana".

What kind of question is this?

What kind of articles can be written about using bananas?

The scene erupted in an uproar, everyone completely bewildered by the question.

In the past, the titles were usually based on the words of famous people, or on timeless articles and poems, or on interesting riddles.

This was the first time anyone had ever seen such a strange question—just two words, and it was about a fruit.

Many scholars sighed in bewilderment and went home to search through ancient books and articles, hoping to find some clues.

When wealthy parents learned of the topic, they spent a lot of money to hire writers to write articles and pass them off as their own children's.

For a time, the streets and teahouses of the four countries were filled with intellectuals discussing bananas.

Even the bananas in the market were sold out.

Steward Zheng ran back to the Mu family barefoot, carrying a bunch of bananas in his arms. He waved his hand and shouted, "Old Marquis, General, the question is out!"

The Mu family sent many people to check the admission notices in front of various colleges, and Steward Zheng was the last to return.