Su Hua glanced at the crowd outside the car window through the curtain. "Brother, I won't see you off. Just take it easy for the next four days."
Her face is now so recognizable in Qingshui County that people look at her like they would a monkey in a zoo.
Today's main focus is on the students taking exams; she shouldn't steal the spotlight.
“Hua’er is right. Just take it easy. These are the food, utensils, and ginseng slices that the family prepared for you yesterday. Take them with you and remember to eat when you’re hungry.” Madam Su nodded in agreement and, together with Madam Zhao, placed the prepared bundle and thin blanket into his arms.
Zhao was shy, and with so many eyes watching, she only gave a few quiet words of advice.
The two Su brothers, Dalang and Erlang, burst into laughter in unison: "Father, Dalang and Erlang are waiting for you to come home. May you pass the imperial examination with flying colors and achieve great success!"
"Okay." Su Dahu nodded and agreed with a smile.
His fist clenched quietly at his side. He was determined to achieve a good ranking in this county examination and would not let them down.
The man, carrying a bundle and a thin blanket, got off the carriage and strode towards the procession.
At this moment, a commotion suddenly broke out at the inspection point at the front of the procession.
A middle-aged candidate, around forty years old, was dragged out by the officials. His clothes were disheveled, his feet were bare, and his shoes had been thrown away somewhere. He was still begging for mercy.
The officer, carrying a small, square notebook, swept his gaze sharply across the crowd. "This man dared to smuggle cheat sheets into the examination hall through his shoes. If any of you dare to do the same, once discovered, you will be permanently banned from taking the exam!"
The students and their families who came to see them off were filled with trepidation and all looked at the small notebook.
Those who are close enough can even see the words on the notebook, densely packed like a colony of ants.
The test takers fell silent, while the family members who had come to see them off began to whisper among themselves.
"What kind of pen did this person use to write on their smuggled item? How could they write such small characters?"
"I've heard there's a kind of pen made from mouse whiskers that can write five or six characters on a single grain of rice. This person's cheat sheet must be one of those!"
"Ha, you'd be better off spending that time studying for a few days!"
"Yes, from this day forward, this person's path to the imperial examinations is over..."
Su Hua marveled at what she saw. Before she traveled to the world of Yu the Great, she had seen a rat-whisker pen from hundreds of years ago, as well as silk ribbons written with the pen, in the Southern Province Museum.
Unexpectedly, upon arriving at Dayu, I actually came across freshly made mouse-shaped clipboards.
Upon hearing the words "never allowed to take the exam again," the examinee knelt down with a thud, grabbed the official's leg, and kowtowed repeatedly, crying and pleading, "Your Honor, I was bewitched just now. Please forgive me this time and do not deprive me of my eligibility to take the exam."
The student has an 80-year-old mother and a baby crying for food; they are all waiting for the student to get good grades and come home!
The student begs, please, have mercy on me...
"What a shameless scoundrel!" the officer sneered, kicking the man aside. "When you were cheating, did you ever think of your eighty-year-old mother and your crying baby? Get out of here!"
"Sir, please don't! I really know I was wrong. I've been taking the county exam since I was seventeen, for a full twenty years, but I've never made a name for myself. I only did this stupid thing because I was desperate."
The examinee, his eyes red from crying, trembled as he pulled a money pouch from his sleeve. "Sir, I have some silver here. Five taels and five mace, I'll give it all to you. If it's not enough, I can go home and get more. I just beg you, sir, to spare my life..."
Seeing this, everyone felt speechless.
To dare to bribe officials in such a public place—this pig-headed person probably wouldn't pass the exam even if they took it for another twenty years!
"This is outrageous!" The officer was so angry that his face turned black halfway through the conversation. "Quickly, drag him away! He failed to cheat and then tried to bribe the examiner. Such a stubborn person should be handed over to the county government for judgment."
The candidates in line felt a pang of sadness, and no one whispered to each other anymore.
Among them, two or three people lowered their heads and pretended to be quails, quietly leaving the group with their bedding and bundles, heading towards another alley.
The Su family's carriage was conveniently positioned, and they happened to see these people undressing in the alley. Some were wiping their arms, some were changing their belts, and some were even tearing off most of their trousers.
The Su brothers were dumbfounded. "These guys are all cheating with cheat sheets!"
“They were lucky,” Su Hua said with a shake of her head and a smile. “As long as they don’t get to the checkpoint, they can just say they forgot to take these things out.”
Su Bai couldn't help but spit out a curse, "Even if we let people like this pass the imperial examinations and become officials, they would probably be greedy and incompetent corrupt officials!"
"I've often heard people say that they're crazy about the imperial examinations, and today I've seen it for myself." Zhao sighed and looked out the car window.
"Not only are there those who try to take advantage of loopholes, but there are also quite a few candidates in their thirties or forties among those queuing up, and even some elderly people with white hair and beards."
"For someone of that age, spending so much time in the examination hall taking four exams in a row must be incredibly difficult."
"At his age, still blindfolded and taking the imperial examinations, he's gone mad." Su Erlang shook his head like a little adult. "If I were him, I would have packed my bags long ago and wandered the world. What's the point of spending my whole life buried in books!"
"Wander the world?" Su Hua couldn't help but chuckle. "With your skinny arms and legs, where on earth can you wander off to?"
Su Erlang scratched his head, "Let's go in a few years, when I'm as big as my aunt!"
Hearing the child's innocent words, the Su family members all laughed. Su Dahu, who was in line at the front, also entered the examination room smoothly.
A short while later, the gates of the examination hall slowly closed.
In front of the examination hall, the families who had come to see the examinees off gradually dispersed. The Su family left a waiter outside the examination hall before returning to the restaurant.
Just as they stepped off the carriage, a thunderbolt struck down from the sky.
The Su family looked up and saw that the sky had darkened considerably, giving the impression that a storm was brewing.
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