At the first hour of the night, Haozhou Prefecture, which should have been asleep long ago, was lit up everywhere, and became even noisier as it approached midnight. Students from all over the city were either walking or riding in horse-drawn carriages, heading towards the Imperial Examination Hall.
The college entrance examination is tomorrow. However, the entrance procedure for the imperial examination was extremely cumbersome, requiring body searches, inspection of items in the examination basket, and students having to find the examination room, so entry had to begin at midnight.
At this moment, at the entrance of the Imperial Examination Hall, some people had already taken the lead and there were more than a dozen carriages parked on the side. The sons of wealthy families or several students from well-off families got together, hired a carriage and reserved seats in advance, so that they could rest and take a nap in the carriage before entering.
The two most luxurious ones belong to Shen Qing's family.
This is Song Kaiji's second time taking the college entrance examination.
When the couple had just become sworn brothers with Magistrate Lin, he sent Song Kaiji to the official school in Anping County. The teachers in the school knew that he was Magistrate Lin's distant cousin and taught him very attentively. Although Song Kaiji had no basic knowledge, he was not completely illiterate and his learning progress was still very fast.
But he is a modern man after all, lacking many of the consciousness that the ancients had engraved in their bones, such as taboos, understanding of the relationship between the monarch and his subjects, calligraphy, and some of the writing styles of ancient Chinese. It was not until Lin County Magistrate completed his term in Anping County that Song Kaiji barely passed the examination for students of higher learning.
Magistrate Lin had been in Anping County for three years and had made outstanding achievements. In addition, Shen Qing provided him with many rare items to bribe his superiors. After his three-year term ended, he was immediately offered a vacancy and promoted to the position of Tongzhi of Haozhou. He was promoted from the seventh rank to the sixth rank, and it was not far from Anping County, so County Magistrate Lin was very satisfied.
Shen Qing's family's velvet flower and jewelry business had already expanded to the provincial capital. With the presence of County Magistrate Lin - now he is Tongzhi Lin - the older sisters of the Xie family have also left the Jiaofangsi. Although their place of origin is still registered in the Jiaofangsi, they have some freedom and no one will care if they are not in the Jiaofangsi. Now the two of them help Shen Qing look after the shop.
This time when they came to the capital city for the college entrance examination, several of Song Kaiji's friends who acted as guarantors for each other stayed in the small courtyard behind the shop - the inns in the capital city had already been overcrowded.
However, Shen Qing and Song Kaiji, along with Quan Jie'er L, moved into Tongzhi Mansion. As the exam was approaching, Tongzhi Lin gave Song Kaiji some special treatment. In addition to the academic knowledge, he was also repeatedly told about the things to pay attention to in the exam.
Lin Tongzhi looked at Song Kaiji with a speechless look. He was obviously smart and a fast learner. He took out the essay from the last college entrance examination and read it. Except for the poor handwriting, the essay was still very good. But it was stamped with a "shit" stamp!
You should know that the imperial examination tests not only knowledge, but also the candidate's physical fitness, self-management ability, and even luck! If one has poor health, the talents selected by the imperial court with great difficulty will fail to acclimate to the local climate as soon as they take office, and all their efforts will be in vain no matter how good their knowledge is! Or if you are meeting your superiors or even His Majesty, and you cannot hold back your urine or feces or you urinate excessively, thus polluting His Majesty's eyes, you will also be doomed.
Therefore, during the imperial examination, this group of people had to be screened out in advance. There were even many students who were carried out halfway through the exam and were screened with their lives. It's cruel, but that's the mechanism of feudal society.
The college entrance examination is already considered a relatively easy entry-level test. Each exam lasts only one day. The results will be announced the next day after the first day. The second exam will be held on the third day, for a total of three exams. Each examination was not even like the provincial examination which lasted for three days, and the students had to stay in the examination hall at night. Unable to hold back this, Lin Tongzhi was very disappointed with Song Kaiji!
Song Kaiji was wronged, Song Kaiji felt wronged! In fact, compared with other candidates, he had the most convenient place. After all, he had space. Not to mention bringing some food, even if he brought cheat sheets, he could perfectly avoid body searches. But he was afraid that someone might accidentally see him and cause trouble, so Song Kaiji bought food and hot water from the yamen runners that time for convenience.
The college entrance examination is in February, which is a cold month, so he wants to eat something hot to feel comfortable. Although the food in the examination room is expensive, his family has plenty of money! But who would have thought that he started to have diarrhea soon after eating it. No wonder when he was buying food, several people in the opposite booth looked at him in shock. Song Kaiji thought they were shocked at his financial resources, but it turned out they were shocked that there was such a fool who dared to buy it!
Damn it! Are these yamen runners worthy of his money?
Lin Tongzhi looked at him with a puzzled look: "The next three generations of yamen runners are not allowed to take the imperial examinations. It's not that everyone is bad, but there are always those who are jealous, so we must be on guard against others."
Song Kaiji didn't know about these twists and turns. He also bought meals when he took the Tongsheng exam before. However, the Tongsheng exam was held in Anping County, and the leading yamen runners were Miao Yu and Tieshan. The meals and hot water given to Song Kaiji were naturally clean and delicious.
This kind of mistake must never be made again!
Shen Qing took away Song Kaiji's arm that was around his waist, stood up and checked the examination basket carefully. In addition to the four treasures of the study and the fire starter for the exam, there were a few pieces of cooked mutton in a bamboo tube. The thick mutton fat wrapped most of the meat, so there was no need to worry about it going bad; then there were two white flour cakes that were baked to a crispy surface, and two empty bowls.
Clothes were also prepared. As the weather was cold, Shen Qing specially found some white double-faced woolen cloth. It was said that the wool content was extremely high and a thin piece could maintain a temperature of 37 degrees. He made a middle coat for Song Kaiji and an outer robe with windproof material.
Sister Quan was beside him, staring at the things in the examination basket with her big black eyes, without saying a word. Shen Qing heard the noises outside becoming increasingly noisy, and it seemed that more and more people were coming. She lifted a corner of the curtain and looked outside, then turned back to call Song Kaiji: "Husband, wake up, it's time to enter!"
Song Kaiji opened his eyes quickly, with something on his mind. He fell asleep but did not sleep well. I rubbed my eyes and looked outside. Sure enough, some people had already started queuing up. A few people from the Imperial Examination Hall also came out from the side door, preparing to search them.
Song Kaiji picked up Quan Jie'er and kissed her, then rubbed against Shen Qing's shoulder and hummed, "I'm going."
Shen Qing was a little amused and took Quan Jie'er L from his arms. "Don't be nervous. It doesn't matter if you fail the exam. Being a student is pretty respectable now."
"Pooh, pooh, pooh, you will definitely pass the exam! We still have so much land waiting for tax exemption!" They have bought a lot of land over the years. Song Kaiji pinched Shen Qing's face and thought, even if he fails the exam, he can just keep taking it. He is not even 30 yet, so young! after all……
Four students got off the carriage next door and came over to greet Song Kaiji. One of them was Miao Tongsheng.
Miao Tongsheng is still taking the exam, why did he give up after failing twice!
Except for Miao Tongsheng, everyone else called Shen Qing "Sister-in-law" respectfully when they saw him. "If it weren't for Sister-in-law's arrangement, we wouldn't have been able to take a nap before entering the venue, and we would have had to endure the cold for half the night."
"They even arranged a place for us to stay! I saw many people couldn't find an inn, so they had to share a bed with the men who did odd jobs. It's hard to imagine that after the exam, we have to live in a house like that...
Miao Tongsheng was also happy: "Thank you, Qingge'er L."
In addition to the examination basket for Song Kaiji, Shen Qing also prepared one for Miao Tongsheng. Forget about the others, they are not relatives and it is hard to say what could happen to them. Several people understood this truth and did not argue with it.
They called Song Kaiji to line up quickly, but Song Kaiji didn't follow them immediately. He lowered the curtain and kissed the two on the face, "Don't wait here foolishly. Go back to sleep. I'll go back by myself tomorrow."
"I won't wait foolishly. Once you go in, we'll go back to sleep. Ning asked me to go shopping tomorrow, and we've already decided where to go." Shen Qing said with a smile, "Just take the exam without worry."
When he said that, Song Kaiji felt a little jealous again. He covered Quan Jie'er's eyes and asked Shen Qing for a kiss before jumping out of the car.
When midnight arrives, a string of firecrackers burns out, the gong is struck three times, the gate of the Imperial Examination Hall opens, and a clerk begins to call out names. Only those whose names are called have to check their household registration information before they can go in and be searched.
This process was very long. Since I was from a poor family and only wore two layers of clothes, I was shivering from the cold. Song Kaiji was fine, this double-faced woolen clothes was actually really warm.
The body search went smoothly, except that the yamen runner touched his double-faced woolen undershirt and was hesitant as he had never seen such material before. He used a knife to cut a corner to confirm that it was single-layered before letting Song Kaiji in.
When the exam basket was taken back, the pancakes were torn into very small pieces and the mutton was chopped into pieces.
Song Kaiji touched the torn cuffs and felt a little distressed. This was the shirt that Qingqing had made for him herself!
After checking everyone, the gate of the Imperial Examination Hall slowly closed. Shen Qing held Sister Quan and looked around until she could no longer see anyone. Then she reluctantly said to the driver, "Let's go back."
On the other side, Song Kaiji and other students rested in a room for two hours. After everyone had been checked, they were taken to the identification rooms by the clerks. Song Kaiji was lucky. He was not assigned to the smelly cell next to the toilet, nor to the hot cell next to the kitchen. Instead, a classmate of his who had guarantied for each other was assigned to the smelly cell. He let out a low howl and was scolded by a yamen runner.
The bailiffs distributed candles, and then the test papers. Song Kaiji took a look at the question in the candlelight and immediately had a simple idea in his mind. He immediately moved the candle away for fear that sparks would splash onto the test paper. He waited until daybreak and had a rough draft in his mind before he began to write.
At this time, local officials such as the prefect, the governor, Lin Tongzhi, and the academician of Haozhou Prefecture also entered the venue, some sitting at the top of the table, and some looking around from the bottom. Lin Zhizhou pretended to look at several people around Song Kaiji before he came up to Song Kaiji, looked at the test paper, stroked his beard and nodded.
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