Chapter 58 Sensozuka Leaves
"Bring me the exam paper," Shao Yanzhe said, his face still wary.
Mr. Liu glanced at him, and when he looked away, he inadvertently glanced at the jade hairpin pen in his hand.
"good."
Soon, a thin, green willow branch appeared, wrapped with an exam paper. When it reached Shao Yanzhe, the branch broke off, and the exam paper fell into his hands.
He glanced around but couldn't find a place to spread out the exam papers, so he simply used his literary energy to create a desk, spread out the exam papers, and began to read them.
This exam paper is very difficult. The first question on the first exam paper is a question about the Analects. This question requires refuting the old commentaries of Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi, and also requires citing the Book of Documents and Mencius for mutual verification. Furthermore, it requires explaining the relationship between education and the enlightenment of the people. To write a good answer requires a great deal of ability from the test taker.
The first question was already difficult, and the following questions were even more difficult than the last.
For Shao Yanzhe, the easiest question on this exam paper was probably the one requiring him to write a five-character, eight-line poem.
Chen Xuyan glanced at it briefly before looking away.
This is way too difficult!
He felt that if he were to finish this exam paper, he would rather eat it.
Mr. Liu glanced at Chen Xuyan, seemingly seeing through his thoughts, and couldn't help but glare at him.
"Don't just stand there, finish this test paper!"
As he spoke, he handed Chen Xuyan a test paper.
Of course, the exam content was very simple.
But it was difficult for Chen Xuyan. With a pained expression, he took the test paper, found a spot, and started writing.
Mr. Liu paced back and forth between the two. As time passed, Shao Yanzhe answered more and more questions, so Mr. Liu stood still behind him.
His hands were clenched tightly, his eyes fixed on Shao Yanzhe's exam paper. When he saw Shao Yanzhe finish writing the last stroke, his eyes widened and gleamed with a strange light.
"Mr. Liu, I have finished the exam."
Shao Yanzhe put down his pen, checked the paper three times, and then looked at Mr. Liu, waiting for him to grade the exam.
Even though Mr. Liu had been watching him write the exam paper the whole time, he still wanted to read the essays he had written, so he took the exam paper and eagerly began to read it.
When Shao Yanzhe saw him like this, his eyes flickered slightly. He lowered his eyes, shook his slightly sore wrist, and then with a thought, he dispersed the table made of literary energy in front of him.
Aside from the person who started it, probably no one else present noticed that this table, made of Wenqi (a type of ancient Chinese writing material), was missing a very inconspicuous stroke in one of its characters.
His gaze, seemingly casual, fell upon Mr. Liu, who was holding the exam paper. As he looked away, his eyes swept over a spot on Mr. Liu's sleeve without lingering, as if his gaze had been aimless and merely a casual glance at Mr. Liu.
Mr. Liu, engrossed in the exam paper, noticed his gaze but didn't pay it any mind. Instead, he was more interested in the article on the exam paper in his hand.
The essay on this exam paper had a very unique and insightful perspective, and its arguments were quite novel. It was the first time he had ever seen such a brilliant essay.
After a long while, after reading it countless times, he finally pulled himself out of the article.
He looked at Shao Yanzhe, his eyes filled with complex emotions: "You're quite good!"
Shao Yanzhe cupped his hands in thanks to Mr. Liu: "Thank you for your praise, Mr. Liu. I also think it's very good."
Mr. Liu was taken aback; it was the first time he had ever seen such an unhumble scholar.
However, he was also a very talented scholar.
Judging from the exam paper in his hand, he would definitely be in the top five in the provincial examination.
In other words, Shao Yanzhe was halfway to passing the imperial examination.
It's a pity that such talent is buried here.
Mr. Liu looked at Shao Yanzhe with a complicated expression, and finally said, "You've passed. Take Chen Xuyan and leave!"
As he spoke, he waved his sleeve at him, and a crack appeared not far away.
Shao Yanzhe glanced at it and thanked Mr. Liu, saying, "Thank you, Mr. Liu."
Hearing the conversation between the two, Chen Xuyan, who was standing nearby, looked excited. He opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but out of fear of Mr. Liu, he did not speak and just obediently followed Shao Yanzhe's side.
Shao Yanzhe glanced at him, his gaze fixed on Mr. Liu, and saw him walk to the center of the space and sink back into the ground. The cocoons entwined by the willow branches remained as they were before, layer upon layer.
Let's go!
Shao Yanzhe said something, then turned and walked toward the crack behind him.
Chen Xuyan followed behind him very obediently.
Shao Yanzhe glanced outside and, after confirming that there were no problems, let Chen Xuyan go out first. Before leaving, he took one last look behind him, and the endless cocoons behind him became the last image he saw.
"Thank you so much, Brother Shao! You saved my life, and I will follow you from now on!" Chen Xuyan patted his chest and said.
Shao Yanzhe glanced at him and said, "There's no need for that. I'm doing this for myself; saving you was just a side thing."
Chen Xuyan didn't care. Instead, he said very seriously, "Brother Shao, I don't need to know if you saved me on purpose. I just need to know that you saved me. Just because your motives weren't pure, does that mean I should deny the fact that you saved me? Brother Shao, I'm not joking. I will definitely keep my promise!"
Shao Yanzhe was stunned for a moment, and didn't know what to say.
"We'll talk about that later. Let me send you back into your body first."
"good!"
"Brother Zhou, it's almost 3 AM, why hasn't Brother Shao returned yet? Could something have happened to him?" Liu Mingyuan paced anxiously around the room.
Zhou Jiming sat at the table with a cup of tea in his hand. When he heard Liu Mingyuan's words, he couldn't help but roll his eyes at him.
"Brother Liu, don't jinx it! Brother Shao is so capable, he'll definitely be fine!"
Upon hearing this, Liu Mingyuan immediately spat three times: "That's right, Brother Zhou is right, Brother Shao will definitely be fine!"
As soon as Liu Mingyuan finished speaking, the corpse tied to the pillar moved and made some slight noises.
"Waaaaah!"
The anxious crowd immediately stood up, staring warily at the struggling corpse.
"He...he's not going to go berserk, is he?" Chen Yunhe was so frightened that he stammered.
Wen Yanqing glanced at Xuan Yao, who was standing silently beside Shao Yanzhe, and after a moment of deep thought, guessed, "Could it be that Brother Shao rescued him?"
“But Brother Shao hasn’t woken up yet.” Zhou Jiming glanced at Shao Yanzhe, who was still lying on the bed, looking very conflicted.
"No rush, it should be soon," Wen Yanqing said.
As soon as he finished speaking, everyone saw Shao Yanzhe, who had been keeping his eyes closed, open them.
Their faces lit up with joy, and they surrounded them.
"Brother Shao, you're finally awake! How are you feeling?" Zhou Jiming asked with concern.
Shao Yanzhe sat up, and seeing the undisguised concern in everyone's eyes, he smiled and said, "I'm fine, don't worry."
"That's good."
Everyone was truly relieved now.
"Waaaaah!"
Just then, another noise came from the pillar.
Everyone's attention was drawn to it.
"Brother Shao, you rescued Chen Xuyan?" Liu Mingyuan asked.
Shao Yanzhe nodded: "Yes."
He looked towards the pillar and saw the person who was tightly bound. Only then did he belatedly realize that the person was tied up with ropes and might suffocate.
He quickly got off the bed and ran over to untie the person.
"Phew! I'm finally alive again, I almost suffocated again!"
Chen Xuyan sat panting in the pile of ropes, his face still pale, but his eyes had regained their lifelike quality, which made him look only a little strange in terms of skin color, not as terrifying as before.
"I've made some progress regarding Mr. Liu's matter," Shao Yanzhe said.
"Tell me about it," Wen Yanqing said, looking at him.
Everyone else was looking at him, waiting for him to say something next.
After pondering for a moment, Shao Yanzhe described to them the scene he had seen in that space.
Upon hearing this, everyone gasped in shock.
“Thousands?” Zhou Jiming’s face showed a mixture of shock and doubt.
The same applies to others.
The thousands of cocoons represent the thousands of people buried there!
"As expected of an old monster who has lived for over a thousand years, with this plan, he has harmed almost one person a year, making him even more despicable than the most vicious criminals," Liu Mingyuan said.
The people around him nodded in agreement.
Shao Yanzhe continued, "I left a little trinket on him. Judging from the feedback, Mr. Liu's background is somewhat complicated. He doesn't seem like an ordinary monster. It seems that he has a stronger resentment."
Zhou Jiming wasn't surprised: "He's preserved thousands of dead people, so he must harbor a lot of resentment, which is understandable. But there's one very important thing: Brother Shao, have you found Mr. Liu's weakness?"
Shao Yanzhe nodded and said, "Found it."
Everyone stared at him in surprise: "What is it?"
Shao Yanzhe said, "He seems to be afraid of my literary talent."
"This shouldn't be! Logically speaking, monsters seem to prefer scholars!"
As Zhou Jiming spoke, he glanced at Xuan Yao. He had inadvertently seen Shao Yanzhe send him literary energy, and Xuan Yao looked quite pleased with it.
“That’s right, ghosts and monsters like it very much, but if they want to be harmless, they need to change their methods. What I mean is that my literary energy seems to be able to cause irreversible damage to Mr. Liu.”
As Shao Yanzhe spoke, he couldn't help but recall the last glimpse he took after leaving that space.
He then discovered that the number of willow branches in that space had decreased significantly, and the willow branches he had destroyed were scattered all over the ground, showing no signs of being recovered.
This is very wrong.
“But that’s not exactly a weakness, is it? We can’t exactly have you fight Mr. Liu, can we? I don’t think you’d be a match for him,” Zhou Jiming said.
"That's true. After all, Mr. Liu is a thousand-year-old demon, while I have only possessed literary energy for a month at most."
"Brother Shao, you are underestimating yourself. Our literary talent is far inferior to yours."
"That's right, I've only just begun to grasp the basics of literature."
"I'm a little better than you."
The group began discussing the matter of literary talent, and Shao Yanzhe couldn't help but chuckle. Weren't they discussing Mr. Liu? How did they get off topic?
Finally, Shao Yanzhe steered the conversation back on track: "Alright, let's discuss that later. I'll try to help you solve the marking problem first!"
He immediately drew everyone's attention.
Zhou Jiming asked excitedly, "Brother Shao, can you remove the mark from that willow tree demon?"
Shao Yanzhe said, "Give it a try!"
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