Zhu Qi turned around and looked at Wei Chong in a daze, "Brother Wei, I... I'm actually on the list."
"I passed the exam."
"Tell me, is there smoke coming out of my ancestral grave?"
Wei Chong was originally smiling slightly, but when he heard Zhu Qi say that he was on the list, he immediately froze in place.
"Congratulations!" Wei Chong said with a stiff face.
But he was complaining in his heart, it was strange that someone as careless as Zhu Qi actually passed the exam.
At this moment, a student who lived with them in Tongfu Inn came out of the crowd, panting, and ran to Wei Chong.
"Wei Chong, go and take a look. It seems your name is not on the list." The student's tone was full of shock.
"What? No? How is this possible? Did you see it wrong?" In an instant, Wei Chong's face turned pale, as scary as paper.
He pushed through the crowd like a madman and squeezed towards the list.
At this point, most people had already finished looking at the list, and the crowd was thinning out.
Wei Chong quickly made his way to the top of the list.
He looked up at the list nervously, checking each name carefully.
After reading the ten names in the first row, he felt even more uneasy.
His name wasn't even in the top ten.
Maybe he was unlucky and didn't make it into the top ten, he consoled himself, gritted his teeth and continued reading.
However, I looked at the second line, the third line, and all the way to the tenth line, but still nothing.
"How is this possible, how is this possible..." Wei Chong muttered to himself.
"Behind, behind, there must be..." Wei Chong muttered softly and continued to look down.
There were a total of 360 students admitted to the imperial examination, and the list was very long.
The more Wei Chong looked down, the colder his heart became.
When he read the thirty-sixth line, his legs went weak, his head spun, and he fell to the ground.
"Wei Chong, what's wrong with you?"
The people around him called his name and helped him up.
"No... no... impossible... I must have missed it." Wei Chong struggled to get up and read the list again from beginning to end.
However, it is still not on the list.
"Wei Chong, your name is indeed not listed here. You need to be more open-minded." A student whispered.
The students around him all looked at Wei Chong strangely.
"His essay was so good, but he failed the exam. How strange."
"That's right, it's really puzzling."
"Could it be that the ink stained the test paper and there is no score?"
"How is that possible? The chief examiner of this joint examination specifically ordered stricter supervision, fearing that the candidates' papers would be stained by ink and affect their scores."
"It is said that this time, no candidate's test paper was stained by ink."
Amid the students' discussions, Wei Chong dragged himself towards Tongfu Inn like a lost dog.
As soon as Wei Chong entered the inn, the owner came up to him and said enthusiastically, "Wei Caizi, you are finally back. The emperor's messenger is still waiting for you here!"
Wei Chong was startled by the shop owner's enthusiasm. He took two steps back and looked into the lobby. Sure enough, he saw a man in a maroon satin robe sitting inside, with two little followers standing behind him.
Judging from the style of the clothes, it should be the uniform of the chief eunuch in the palace.
Wei Chong's extremely depressed face suddenly brightened up.
The reason why his name was not on the list must be that the emperor appreciated his articles and specially invited him into the palace, perhaps to directly appoint him to an official position.
Wei Chong's mind was instantly filled with all kinds of imaginations about the emperor favoring him.
"Sir, are you looking for me?" Wei Chong put on a smile and walked up to the eunuch leader.
The eunuch raised his head proudly, glanced at Wei Chong, and said lazily, "Are you Wei Chong?"
"Yes, that's me." Wei Chong responded hurriedly.
"I'm here to read the imperial edict to you on the orders of His Majesty the Emperor." The eunuch said slowly.
Wei Chong's face blossomed into a huge smile. He suppressed his excitement and fell to his knees with a thud: "Student Wei Chong accepts the order!"
In the blink of an eye, dozens of students had gathered in the inn lobby. Seeing the eunuchs from the palace come specifically to announce the imperial decree to Wei Chong, they were all filled with curiosity.
"Is the Emperor going to give him an official position directly?"
"Maybe."
“No wonder it’s not on the list.”
"Tsk tsk tsk, worthy of being the talented Wei scholar, the emperor personally issued an imperial edict."
"This time his path to success is secure."
The onlookers were talking about it in a flurry.
The eunuch stood up, straightened his stance, and read aloud, "The Emperor, by the Mandate of Heaven, decrees: Candidate Wei Chong, with such audacity, has plagiarized someone else's old essay, a grave taboo in the imperial examination. Considering this is his first offense, he will be spared punishment, but his punishment is to be barred from taking the imperial examination for the rest of his life. This is decreed."
"Thank you, Lord." Wei Chong said with all his strength, then he fell to the ground and fainted.
"Oh my god! Wei Chong's article was plagiarized!?"
"He actually plagiarized?"
"Humph! I've been calling him a genius for so many days."
The shop owner also rolled his eyes fiercely: "It's really unlucky that such a person lives in the shop."
"I thought you were here to announce good news, but you're accused of plagiarism. Ugh! What bad luck!"
Wei Chong was carried into the room to rest.
He was no longer a talented scholar, but a shameless plagiarist who was investigated and punished by the emperor. No students gathered around him like fans anymore.
Because Zhu Qi passed the exam, other students urged him to treat him to a drink and he never returned to his room.
Wei Chong lay alone in the room and did not wake up until it was time to light the lamps.
He was in a terrible mood.
He took out some copper coins, went to the street and bought a jar of wine, drinking it while walking aimlessly.
"Why? Why? This is not fair!" Wei Chong roared.
I don't know how long he walked, but he finally became drunk and unconscious and collapsed on the side of the road.
A tall and handsome figure quietly walked up to Wei Chong and helped him up.
He called out, "Wei Chong! Wei Chong, wake up!"
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