Chapter 16 The Immortal Academy Trial in the Painting
Wenyuan Academy was only two streets away from the Imperial Examination Hall, so its students did not need to find accommodation before the examination like students from other academies.
As Shao Yanzhe walked out of the academy gate, he saw the three people waiting across the street. He went over and greeted them, and soon the last one arrived as well.
The five people carried their examination baskets and walked towards the examination hall, while groups of people walking around them were also going to take the imperial examination.
Fifteen minutes later, they arrived outside the examination hall and spontaneously stood behind the candidates who had been queuing up for a long time.
There was still some time before the examination hall opened, and all the candidates stood quietly and waited.
Standing in front of Shao Yanzhe was Liu Mingyuan. He turned around and saw that Shao Yanzhe was holding his exam basket in his hand. He immediately showed his disapproval.
He leaned closer to Shao Yanzhe and whispered, "Brother Shao, you have to be careful with your exam basket. Otherwise, if it gets smuggled in, not only will you not be able to participate in the exam, but all four of us will also be in trouble."
Shao Yanzhe was taken aback. He glanced at the exam basket in his hand and said, "Don't worry, I didn't bring anything in."
“We certainly trust Brother Shao’s character, but we can’t prevent those with ulterior motives from trying to get us to smuggle things in,” Su Yuheng, who was standing behind him, whispered.
Shao Yanzhe looked puzzled and shocked: "There's such a thing!"
Liu Mingyuan nodded seriously: "That's right! I heard that a candidate was expelled from the examination hall and never admitted again because a small note with an essay written on it was found in his examination basket. It was later discovered that another candidate had slipped the note into the candidate's basket to reduce the number of competitors."
Oh, and also, don't let anyone get close to you. You might not even notice if someone slips a note into your clothes.
Shao Yanzhe was stunned when he heard this for the first time. He instinctively hugged the exam basket to his chest and looked at the people around him with wariness.
Seeing his actions, Liu Mingyuan couldn't help but show his admiration: "Very good. Before entering the cell, your exam basket must not leave your sight. Be careful if anyone gets close."
Shao Yanzhe nodded solemnly and said, "Okay!"
Time came quickly, the gates of the examination hall opened, and candidates began to enter.
Before entering the examination hall, candidates had to be searched by soldiers. One soldier would search the candidate's clothes for any concealed items, while another soldier would check the examination basket for any problems.
This process was very long, and Shao Yanzhe and the other four became even more focused at this point, not daring to relax, for fear that they would be tricked if they were not careful.
Suddenly, a commotion broke out ahead.
"Hmph! How dare you! You dare bring demons with you! Seize them!"
Then, a flash of white light appeared.
"ah!"
A scream rang out immediately, accompanied by the examinee's terrified shouts.
"What's going on?" Shao Yanzhe was curious and wanted to know what had happened ahead, so he subconsciously wanted to go over and see what was going on.
"Are you out of your mind?!" Liu Mingyuan grabbed him and pulled him back.
Shao Yanzhe looked at Liu Mingyuan and saw a cold expression mixed with a hint of fear on his face. He asked, "Brother Liu, do you know what's going on?"
Liu Mingyuan frowned. He glanced at Shao Yanzhe, and only after seeing the faded long robe he was wearing did he belatedly realize that Shao Yanzhe was not from a scholarly family or an official's son; he was just a commoner, and it was normal for him not to know these things.
He softened his expression and said in a low voice, "Brother Shao should also know something about ghosts and monsters. The commotion just now must have been caused by someone trying to bring ghosts and monsters into the examination hall to cheat. But the examination hall is a place where ordinary evil spirits cannot enter. As soon as they get close, they will reveal their true form and be discovered."
"That commotion just now must have been caused by officials; the evil spirit is probably dead now."
Shao Yanzhe raised an eyebrow, surprised that ancient cheating methods were quite practical, with some people even cooperating with ghosts and monsters to cheat.
The commotion quickly subsided, and the soldiers re-examined the candidates.
Soon it was Shao Yanzhe's turn with his group of five. They disdained cheating, protected their examination baskets, and made sure nothing was stuffed into their bodies. They passed the search without any surprises and entered the examination hall.
The five men were assigned cells that were not next to each other, and they separated on the way.
When Shao Yanzhe found his cell, his face turned green.
He was extremely unlucky to be assigned to a cell near the stinky one. Although there were two cells between them, he knew he wouldn't escape the fate of being assigned to the stinky cell once it was put into use.
This is incredibly bad luck!
Fortunately, the provincial examination only required one day in the examination cell, so one day shouldn't be too bad.
He resigned himself to his fate and crawled into the cell, first wiping away the dust before taking his things out of the examination basket.
He placed his brush, ink, paper, and inkstone on the table, poured water, and began grinding the ink, while waiting for the examiner to hand out the test papers.
Time was up quickly, and the soldiers began distributing the test papers.
After receiving the exam paper, Shao Yanzhe opened it and read it from beginning to end. The questions were not difficult for him. After reading the questions once, he had a general idea of the essay.
When it was announced that he could start answering the questions, this time he did not write the answers directly on the test paper, but took out a draft and wrote the answers on it.
He deliberately slowed down, and it took him an hour to finish writing all the answers.
Shao Yanzhe glanced at the completed answer and breathed a sigh of relief; he was finally done.
He put down his pen, looked up, and saw the examinee opposite him answering questions nervously with his head down.
He relaxed his eyes for a moment, and then began to check his answers for any errors or omissions, and to see if there were any areas in his writing that needed improvement.
After checking, he picked up his pen and began copying the answers onto the exam paper.
This time he was more careful, making his handwriting neater. By the time he finished copying the questions, it was already afternoon.
After the ink on the exam paper had dried completely, Shao Yanzhe carefully rolled it up and put it away properly.
Fortunately, the test takers were all focused on answering the questions, and most of them only needed to urinate, so they didn't smell anything unusual for the time being.
His stomach had been growling for a long time, so he moved the charcoal brazier over, placed a clay pot on it, poured in water, and started boiling it.
After the water boiled, he put in the pre-treated rice, and within fifteen minutes, the rice popped.
At this point, he shredded the dried meat and threw it into the casserole. When it was almost done cooking, he finally threw in the side dishes, stirred it, and brought it to a boil again before taking the casserole out and placing it on the table.
Smelling the aroma of rice and meat in the air, Shao Yanzhe felt even hungrier, so he found a spoon and started eating.
As he was eating, he felt someone watching him. He took a bite of porridge and looked up to see three examinees opposite him staring at him resentfully. They were holding hard, dry biscuits, taking a bite and glancing at him, as if they were biting him.
Shao Yanzhe didn't feel embarrassed at all. He had made the food himself, so why couldn't he eat it?
After eating his fill, he felt a little sleepy. Since he had finished the test, he lay down on the bed, covered his head with a black cloth as a blanket, and fell asleep.
The other candidates opposite him glanced at him and saw that he had stopped answering questions and started snoring away. They couldn't help but shake their heads and sigh.
It's unclear whether this candidate came to take the exam or to sleep.
They were only distracted for a short while before refocusing on their exam papers and figuring out how to write the answers better.
Just then, they heard a noise and instinctively looked over. They saw a middle-aged man in a scarlet official robe walking towards them, accompanied by two officials from the examination hall. They immediately guessed that this middle-aged man must be the examiner for this year's provincial examination.
As test takers, they had some knowledge of the invigilators.
The examiners who could preside over the provincial examinations were usually provincial education commissioners, but of course, it was also possible that the imperial court would directly send officials to supervise the examinations.
Judging from the official robe worn by the middle-aged man, it is generally the robe of a fourth or fifth-rank official.
Realizing this, the candidates who saw the middle-aged man subconsciously straightened their bodies and their writing posture looked much more elegant, trying to leave a good impression on him.
As the middle-aged man walked along, the candidates he had his eye on quickly matched him with those in the booklets in his mind.
He deliberately approached the candidates and examined their exam papers. When he found that the content of their papers was substantial, he nodded in satisfaction.
Seeing this, the examinee who was paying close attention to his expression couldn't help but look at the examinee with a hint of jealousy. But when he saw that the examinee was actually the top scholar in the county, he had to admit that they were indeed no match for him.
The middle-aged man inspected each candidate, hoping to find any hidden gems that had gone undiscovered. However, apart from the ten candidates he had his eye on, the essays written by the rest of the candidates were really not very good.
He couldn't help but feel a little disappointed, and then he stopped in front of a cell and looked inside with great interest.
A minor official following him noticed that the middle-aged man was behaving differently than before, so he stepped forward to check the situation.
After he got a clear look at the situation inside the cell, he couldn't help but twitch his lips.
The examinee is really at a loss for words. The exam is only halfway over, and this examinee has already started to fall fast asleep.
Does this mean they're just giving up on the exam?
The middle-aged man shared the same thought. When he looked at the examination cells, he couldn't help but show a look of disdain. He wondered how such a good-for-nothing could have passed the preliminary examination!
He flicked his sleeve and turned to walk back.
The minor official then followed.
They had just turned around when the student they thought had given up the exam slightly lifted the blanket covering his head and stared at their backs.
The middle-aged man noticed the gaze, turned his head to look, but didn't find anything wrong. Just as he was about to take a closer look, a candidate entered the stinky cubicle, and instantly, an indescribable odor filled the air.
His face immediately turned green, and with an ugly expression, he flicked his sleeve and quickly left.
Shao Yanzhe, who was wearing a hood, was frowning. He felt that the middle-aged man looked familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had seen him before.
With his memory, he shouldn't be unable to remember!
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