Do you believe him or do you believe I am the First Emperor?

On February 25, the list of candidates was announced, and 110 people were admitted.

A group of candidates gathered at the entrance of Gongyuan early to look at the list. Those who passed the exam were smiling, and those who failed cried bitterly. There were also several people who fainted. It was not known whether they were overjoyed or sad. Anyway, they were carried away.

Gao He was agile and took advantage of the crowd to sneak to the front of the list. He held his breath and looked down at his name. When he found that his name was not in the top five, he slowly exhaled with a taste of regret.

As a scholar, who doesn't want to be the top scholar?

He continued to look, hearing the joy of others shouting “Oh! I passed!” and the madness of “Why is my name not on the list?”, and Takahashi’s palms began to sweat: “I will pass… I will definitely pass…”

- ‘38th place, Takahashi.’

“!!!” Takahashi took a closer look and slowly swallowed his saliva: “Three…”

38th place!

A crazy shout came from the side: "Great! I passed! I passed! Fourteenth place! I finally don't have to hide in bed to eat snacks. Wuwuwu——"

Gao He looked to the side and found that it was a young man he didn't know. After shouting, he was now happily humming: "Purple tree, purple flower, purple flower blooms and bears purple melon, purple melon stems have small thorns, purple melon belly is filled with sesame seeds! Roasted eggplant! Roasted eggplant! Fried eggplant! Here I come——"

Gao He couldn't help laughing.

——What a wonderful person.

At this time, another middle-aged man and a young man squeezed over. The strange thing was that the young man limped and occasionally covered his buttocks secretly. I don't know who hit him.

The middle-aged man was sharp-edged and handsome, with a good appearance suitable for being an official. At this moment, he stared at the list and said, "You kid can actually get the 39th place? I thought you were going to fail."

Gao He said "Huh" softly. Isn't this the candidate who was ranked next to him before?

He looked at his next place curiously and saw three big characters "Haimingda" written on it.

The young man cried and said, "Cousin, I told you that except for a few places that I didn't remember very well, I answered all other questions well. But you didn't believe me! The imperial examination will test the Five Classics! It's normal for me to know some and not know some!"

The middle-aged man coughed and whispered something. Gao He beside him heard it clearly: "If the things you don't know are not too ridiculous, I won't be so excited that I beat you up." Gao He

glanced at the cousin with curiosity.

What was wrong that was so ridiculous that even his cousin couldn't stand it and beat him up directly?

Another yellow-faced man came over with great expectation, and read the list again and again. His face gradually turned pale as he read it over and over again: "No... still no..."

Gao He held the yellow-faced man's back to prevent him from fainting: "Are you okay?"

However, the yellow-faced man seemed to have hypochondria. He did not respond to Gao He, but turned around and staggered out, his eyes dull: "No... No..."

He staggered away and disappeared into the crowd.

This is how the imperial examination is. Some people are happy, and some are sad.

Gao He could only sigh.

*

Liang Mansion.

Liang Youwen walked into the house excitedly: "Dad! I only ranked 101st, I almost failed! But my brother is 4th! His "Book of Rites", "Table", and "Strategy" were all selected as the Chengwen!" He

finished speaking in one breath, without paying attention to Liang Rui's situation, and looked at Liang Youwu: "Brother! You are really amazing! I knew that you were good at studying since you were a child!"

Liang Youwu just nodded reservedly after hearing this. Then he looked at Liang Rui with a little joy: "Dad, I..."

The voice stopped abruptly.

Liang Youwen looked over strangely, and then he was a little confused.

In the eyes of the brothers, their father sat in a chair without saying a word, smoking a dry cigarette sullenly, and did not express any expression to his son's winning the title of Jingkui.

Liang Youwu: "... Dad?"

Liang Youwen: "Don't you never smoke?"

The smoke slightly obscured the expression on Liang Rui's face, and they could only hear him say in a hoarse voice: "Your Majesty hinted at something to me."

The two brothers subconsciously thought it was a political matter.

Liang Youwen thought about it, walked over, patted his father's shoulder gently, and comforted him: "Dad, I can't help you with political matters, but you can think of something happy, such as my brother being elected as the top economic official..."

But his father did not respond, but just smoked a dry cigarette, as if this was something that was not worth his happiness.

Liang Youwen immediately looked at Liang Youwu with some embarrassment: "Brother, Dad is just in a bad mood, you..."

Liang Youwu pursed his lips, suddenly glared at Liang Youwen, turned around and rushed out of the room.

Liang Youwen shouted anxiously behind him: "Brother! Brother!" He glanced at his father who was sitting on a stool and smoking a pipe, stamped his feet, and didn't know who to take care of first.

＊

In the palace, Princess Xiangyang fiddled with the glutinous rice porridge in her hand and asked curiously: "Dad, why did you hint to Liang Zhushi about that? Aren't you afraid that he will tell his son and cause Xu Yanmiao's ambush to fail?"

The old emperor drank a mouthful of glutinous rice porridge slowly and said nonchalantly: "Liang Guangcai would not do such a thing."

Princess Xiangyang: "Huh? Why? Dad, do you trust him so much? That's his own son."

The emperor smiled: "He is too upright."

＊

Liang Youwu is not an upright person.

But he thought he was a trustworthy man, so he took out a notebook from his room, brought a sword, and went to visit the chief academic officer of the Imperial College openly.

——The other party selected him as the top scorer in the exam, so it was reasonable for him, as a candidate, to express his gratitude.

In a large bathhouse nearby, Xu Yanmiao was taking a comfortable bath, and monitoring the movements of the chief academic officer of the Imperial College through the system.

With the sound of water and the rising steam, he did not notice that there were many familiar figures in this bathing place.

——Daxia official: We are just curious, what is wrong with the chief academic officer of the Imperial College? He is willing to take the risk of being discovered to help the son of a person he hardly knows to cheat?

Then.

The familiar point is wrong: [Wuhu! What was sent was actually a precious sword! This precious sword has a very interesting origin, it was actually enshrined in a century-old temple. ]

[Wow! Tai'a Sword! ]

[The sword of a general in the previous dynasty! After returning from a hundred battles, he became a monk and placed this sword in the temple, saying that it was used to suppress evil spirits! ]

The officials of Daxia listened with great interest.

And they were quite impressed: There is actually such a thing with such an origin! Thanks to Liang Youwu for taking this treasure away from someone else's temple!

[Here it comes! We meet! ]

[Huh? Wu Jijiu actually refused the Tai'a Sword? No thank-you gift... Why did he work so hard to help Liang Youwu cheat? Life was going too smoothly, so he wanted a little challenge? To see if he could escape the eagle eyes of the Imperial Guard? 】

The officials nodded frantically.

Yes, yes, we are curious too! There is no benefit in losing your head? What's the point!

If the other party just wants to be a good person... Don't make trouble, do you believe him or I am the first emperor.

【Oh! Here it comes! The main course is here! 】

Xu Yanmiao sank into the water, leaving only his head exposed. The hot water was very comfortable, so comfortable that he squinted his eyes.

【Hahaha hiccups! 】

【It turns out that he not only brought the Tai'a sword, but also an account book! Wu Jijiu's face turned green when he saw the account book! 】

【There must be something fishy about this account book, let me see - Damn it! Wu Jijiu, why are you still biting people! It's bleeding! You bit the arm that's holding the account book! 】

【Eh? What are you talking about? What do you mean by 'It's all your fault, I'm doomed'! 】

【Sure enough! There must be a big secret in this account book! 】

Liang Rui was also in the bathroom.

He bit his wrist, his teeth sank deeply, and blood oozed out slightly, like the cream swelling when a fork was poked into a cream cake.

Since ancient times, anything related to the account book has never been a trivial matter.

What did his son find out? !

Why didn't he tell him?

The official next to him looked at him sympathetically.

So miserable.

It would be better not to have a son like this.

【Let me look through...】

【Ah? ! If this is the case, then you can't blame Liang Youwu entirely. You yourself are not a good person either. 】

What the hell!

What the hell!

The officials present were so excited that they raised their white, tender, and slightly plump bodies from the water.

Normally they would not be so excited, but this time, it was a matter of losing their heads! If the person who took the bribe was not Liang Youwu, but the chief academic officer of the Imperial College, they would have suspected that Liang Youwu was deeply in love with the chief academic officer of the Imperial College.

There is a precedent for this! Didn't his brother like the old lady so much that he could rush forward even though he knew that the other party was the emperor's mother-in-law?

—— Fortunately, Liang Rui didn't know what they were thinking, otherwise he would definitely splash water on their faces.

【Ugh, shameless! 】

【His son’s business failed and he owed a full nine thousand taels of silver. When someone came to his house to pay him back, he embezzled public funds to help his son fill the hole. 】

【At that time, he was not yet the chief academic officer of the Imperial College, but only the magistrate of Tongcheng! He was still a young and inexperienced magistrate who lived on his monthly salary. It was the first time he embezzled public funds! 】

【For fear that this part of the account would be discovered, he secretly took the salt from the warehouse and resold it. He sold it for nine thousand five hundred and sixty taels, and he still embezzled five hundred and sixty taels. 】

【But he couldn’t make up for the lost salt, what should he do? He was so worried! Wow! What a coincidence, the warehouse was left over from the previous dynasty. It had fallen into disrepair and accidentally caught fire.】

【This is indeed true! The warehouse caught fire, isn't it normal to have some losses! 】

"Actually..." An official whispered to his colleague: "If it wasn't for what Xiao Bai Ze said, I would have suspected that the fire was not an accident."

The fire in the granary was actually secretly set by the officials themselves - this kind of thing has happened before.

There were also people who were so arrogant that when Yu Shi went from the central government to the local government to inspect the warehouse, they used means to make the warehouse explode in front of Yu Shi. Yu Shi was directly unconscious in the explosion, and the warehouse caught fire in the explosion, causing Yu Shi to be burned to death in the warehouse.

- It was so audacious.

Of course, this happened once, and the old emperor dealt with it severely.

【It was a rare occasion that there was a real fire, not a fake one, and he was not afraid of an investigation. From superiors to subordinates, as well as the county magistrates of several nearby counties, they all came to him to help settle the accounts.】

The official who was speaking was stunned for a moment, and whispered to his acquaintance, "I have never seen such a thing."

Can they find other warehouses to settle the accounts? How? They said that Tongcheng County borrowed things from their warehouse for something, and as luck would have it, there was a fire?

【Wu Jijiu was so generous! Come and help one by one! If he had not forgotten to pay attention to the limit and accidentally helped too much, this sequel would have been a perfect ending!】

What limit? How could he accidentally help too much?

A group of central government officials picked up the melon, their faces full of curiosity, just waiting for Xu Yanmo to show them something new.

[I don't know how this account was added... It's really one person who dares to report, and one person who dares to add.]

[It's so funny, so that's how it is. The county magistrate also has his own circle of friends. He finally has a warehouse that is not afraid of being traced, and he didn't tell his friends immediately.]

[Friends also have friends.]

[Wu Jijiu didn't look at it carefully, and handed it all to his subordinates. His subordinates drank two taels of wine, accepted some gifts, and then accepted everything, promising to help them settle the account.]

[Later, when the account was calculated, Wu Jijiu was simply confused——]

['How much? How many warehouses in this county where I work have been burned? ? ? 800 dan of pepper, 80,000 liang of silver, 30 million copper coins, 2,400 dan of rice? ? ? '】

【Hahahahahaha——】