Chapter 61 The examiner actually lit a candle
There are three sessions of the Spring Examination, on the 9th, 12th and 15th of February. Students will enter each session early in the afternoon of the day before.
On the afternoon of February 8th, the entire general's mansion came out to escort Bai Qing'an to the entrance of the Imperial Examination Hall.
"Go ahead, don't be nervous, just do your best." Bai Yunfeng patted his son's shoulder. "We'll be waiting for you here the day after tomorrow morning."
Bai Qingan glanced at everyone and said, "Dad, Mom, brothers and sisters, I'm going in now."
He turned around, took a deep breath, and followed the other students to the door.
There are invigilators responsible for body searches at the entrance of the Imperial Examination Hall. They will check what everyone carries with them. Generally, students are only allowed to bring pens, ink, dry food and identity cards.
Bai Qing'an passed the inspection quickly and smoothly. He looked back at his family and followed his fellow examiners to the single room assigned to him.
"Bai Qing'an, right?" After arriving at the venue, the examiner once again checked the ID card information with the candidate, then pointed to the private room next to him, "Room 25, your first exam will be completed in here."
"Yes!" Bai Qingan responded respectfully.
The examiner glanced at him and continued, "The questions for this exam will be distributed at 1:15 AM tomorrow morning. You have twelve hours to answer them. The day after tomorrow morning at 1:15 AM, we will collect the exam papers. The first exam is over, and you can go home and wait for the second exam."
Bai Qingan was already familiar with this and nodded again, "Yes, I understand!"
At this time, the examiner took out three candles from his cloth bag and handed them out. "The candles can be used to illuminate the test at night. There are flints in the private room..."
Seeing that Bai Qing'an didn't reach out to take it, he urged again, "Hurry up and take it!"
Bai Qing'an glanced at his fellow examiner nervously and stretched out his hand hesitantly. At this moment, he saw Mr. Jiang appear out of the corner of his eye.
"Bai Qing'an, what are you thinking about?" The examiner was clearly getting impatient. "Hurry up and take the candle. Don't you want it?"
Bai Qingan closed his eyes, gritted his teeth, and shouted in a hoarse voice, "I'm sorry, examiner, there's something wrong with this candle. I can't accept it."
The examiner's expression changed instantly. "Bai Qing'an, what are you crazy about? What makes you say there's something wrong with this candle?"
"There's something wrong with this candle." Having already taken the first step, Bai Qingan could only choose to trust his younger siblings. "I want a replacement candle."
The commotion here had obviously attracted a lot of people's attention. Jiang Heci also heard the noise and walked over.
"What's going on?" he asked with a serious face. This morning, Xiaotuanzi and the others told him to come to the Imperial Examination Hall at this time. Could someone really dare to do something at this time?
"Master Jiang!" The other examiner straightened up a bit when he saw Jiang Heci, and said respectfully, "Master Jiang, this student is causing trouble for no reason. He actually said there was something wrong with the candle in my hand and asked for it to be replaced. He didn't even check the candle carefully at all, and he's completely making up stories."
Jiang Heci frowned and turned to look at Bai Qing'an, "Bai Qing'an, what's going on?"
"Mr. Jiang, there is indeed something wrong with this candle, but... it may not be able to be lit." Bai Qing'an's face was covered with layer of cold sweat.
He knew clearly that if there was no problem with the candle, he... would definitely be kicked out of the Imperial Examination Hall.
"Maybe?" Jiang Heci became more and more confused. He didn't think Bai Qingan was such a careless person.
The examiner next to him immediately said, "Mr. Jiang, this guy is talking nonsense. These candles were all prepared by the Ministry of Rites. There's no way there's a problem. He's just looking for trouble."
Jiang Heci looked at Bai Qing'an again, "Bai Qing'an, let me ask you, are you sure there's something wrong with this candle? If there's nothing wrong, can you bear the consequences?"
"Master Jiang," Bai Qing'an wiped the sweat from his forehead, "This student... can be sure that there is definitely something wrong with this candle."
Jiang Heci ordered coldly, "Click!"
"Mr. Jiang," the examiner said, clearly hesitant, "this candle is definitely fine!"
"Click!" Jiang Heci's voice rose a few notches, and it was obvious that he had made up his mind.
The examiner looked at Bai Qing'an unhappily, then took out a tinderbox, lit it, and then went to light the candle.
Bai Qing'an didn't blink at all, and was extremely nervous.
He watched his fellow examiner light the candle.
For a moment, he was so scared that he almost sat on the ground.
Did my brother and sister make a mistake? There's nothing wrong with this candle.
Bai Qing'an couldn't believe it, he still stared at the lit candle.
"Mr. Jiang, look, there's nothing wrong with the candle." The examiner turned around and was about to blow out the candle.
"Wait a minute!" Bai Qing'an suddenly shouted.
"Mr. Jiang, this Bai Qing'an is just making trouble out of nothing. I'm going to find someone right now and kick him out of the Imperial Examination Hall immediately." The fellow examiner said gritting his teeth.
"Look, Mr. Jiang," Bai Qing'an suddenly became excited, "the candle is going out, it's going out..."
As soon as he finished speaking, the candle had gone out. "Mr. Jiang, there's really something wrong with this candle. It went out by itself."
"This is impossible!" At this time, the examiner tried to light the candle again. However, this time, no matter how hard he tried, the candle could not be lit.
Bai Qingan breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that what his younger brother and sister said was true, so... was it also true that his sister could predict the future?
He felt more sweat on his face.
Jiang Heci immediately sent someone to replace the candles for Bai Qing'an, and tried all three candles to make sure there was no problem before giving them to Bai Qing'an.
"Thank you, Mr. Jiang!" Bai Qingan was extremely grateful.
Jiang Heci was furious. "Don't worry, I've already looked into this matter for you."
He turned and walked away.
The following exams were conducted as scheduled. Bai Qingan did not encounter any other accidents and successfully completed the first exam.
On the morning of the tenth day, he was the first to leave the Imperial Examination Hall. Seeing Li Suining and others, he solemnly said, "Thank you!"
"Is everything going well?" Wei Ranzhu was the first to ask with concern after getting on the carriage.
"It went very smoothly." Bai Qing'an nodded, then looked at his younger siblings and couldn't help but say, "Thanks to these children."
Li Suining and others understood that there seemed to be something wrong with the candle.
Little Dumpling was particularly happy. She helped her elder brother pass the first exam successfully, which was simply amazing.
After returning to the general's mansion, Bai Qing'an immediately called his younger brothers and sisters to the courtyard opposite him.
He asked about the stars again. Although he still found it unbelievable after hearing what Li Suining and others said, it seemed that Li Suining could really see the future.
He sat in silence for a long time before he tentatively asked, "So, tonight, sister will know what the topic of tomorrow's ce quiz will be?"
"Yes!" Bai Ruian nodded excitedly. "Brother, you'll know tonight what the test will be like the day after tomorrow. You can prepare in advance and you'll definitely win first place."
Li Suining tilted his head back and asked, "Big brother, do you want to know what we're going to take the exam on the day after tomorrow?"
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