Chapter 173 The Fortune Teller's Prediction
March 5th.
Inside and outside Chang'an, the entrances of various examination halls were crowded with candidates for the imperial examinations.
The academic examination has been over for four days and today is the day to post the results.
Only candidates who are on the list are eligible to take part in tomorrow's mathematics and etiquette exams.
As the examination hall staff posted the red list, countless candidates rushed to look for their examination numbers. Several examination hall staff were squeezed in and couldn't get out.
"One hundred and thirty-eight, I'm here!"
"One thousand six hundred and fifty-two, and I'm one of them!"
"Damn it, I didn't even pass the first subject. Try again in four years!"
…
After the book course is completed, there will be no ranking of results.
Only after all subjects are finished and the results of the thirty examination institutes are summarized, can we know who is the top scorer in the literature subject.
This is also the sense of mystery that the court deliberately maintains.
However, almost everyone thinks that the top scholar in the literature subject of this imperial examination will be born in the First Examination Institute.
Although the specific results have not been announced yet, according to gossip, in the first examination hall, there were three excellent calligraphers, one excellent painter, and one excellent writer.
In most cases, none of these three subjects are excellent.
There was no news of anyone getting excellent results from other examination halls.
This year's imperial examination happened to coincide with the twenty-year cycle, and talented disciples from all the major wealthy families gathered together, but their strengths were in the last three subjects. Book subjects have always been the strong point of students from the four major academies.
In the First Examination Institute, some minor incidents occurred during the examination paper marking process.
For example, the three excellent calligraphy test papers highly recommended by Mr. Wei were rejected by the chief examiner.
In order to seek justice for his disciple, Mr. Wei had a fierce fight with the chief judge.
Later, the court re-dispatched several examiners and sent imperial censors to supervise, and they finalized the excellent grades of the three test papers. The chief examiner was deprived of his qualifications as chief examiner by the court for deliberately lowering the students' scores for personal revenge and was never re-employed.
Although the court did not impose severe punishment, the Huang family's reputation was completely ruined.
His disciples and students immediately distanced themselves from him.
Originally, a piece of his calligraphy could be sold for hundreds of taels of silver. After this incident, the price of his works plummeted, and countless people who collected his works suffered huge losses.
Some shops and private residences that once had inscriptions by Mr. Huang took down the plaques in front of their doors. Some of them were too late and immediately ended up with walls covered with rotten vegetable leaves and rotten eggs.
On the contrary, Mr. Wei was fair and just, and dared to stand up for his students. He was exactly the kind of mentor that all students hoped for. His reputation skyrocketed, and the price of his calligraphy works also rose again and again...
This legendary event gradually spread among the students.
Those candidates who made the list have no time to gossip about these things, as they still have to prepare for tomorrow's mathematics and etiquette subjects.
Song Yu is certainly not among them.
His imperial examination this time has ended.
There were 2,000 candidates in the First Examination Hall, and after the written examination was over, there were still 1,600 left.
As expected, he failed the exam.
But he hadn't had much hope in the first place, so he couldn't say he was disappointed.
His family had already planned his future. Song Yu held Zhou Yu and Pei Jun at the same time and said, "Let's go and have a drink. We finally don't have to read those crappy books. I'll treat you tonight. You can sleep with as many of them as you want..."
Pei Jun waved his hand and said, "No, I have something else to do."
Zhou Yu also shook his head and said, "I have something to do too, you go alone."
Song Yu frowned and asked, "Brothers, what do you have that is more important than drinking with me?"
Pei Jun lowered his head and said, "I have an exam tomorrow."
Zhou Yu looked away and said, "Me too."
…
Song Mansion.
Song Yu walked into the yard dejectedly and said to Li Nuo, "Brother-in-law, you are on the list."
Li Nuo nodded. He had never doubted this, so he didn't even look at it.
Song Yu left with a sigh. How could this happen?
In fact, when he said that Zhou Yu could win the imperial examination, it was just a show of support from his brothers. In his heart, he felt that Zhou Yu couldn't even pass the literature exam.
But he passed.
Not only did he pass, but Pei Jun also passed.
Among the three heroes of Yunmeng, he was the only one who failed the exam.
This was very difficult for him to accept.
It was obvious that everyone was doing the same thing before, did they learn it secretly behind his back?
Not long after Song Yu left, Li An Ning came in from outside with a sneaky look on his face. As soon as he entered the courtyard, he couldn't wait to ask, "The spring breeze is blowing and the horses are galloping. I can see all the flowers in Chang'an in one day... Did you write this?"
Before the imperial examination was over, outsiders were not allowed to see the students' test papers.
But Li Anning has her own channels for obtaining information.
This time, in the first examination hall's essay subject, there was only one excellent test paper, and the opening poem contained this line.
Li Nuo nodded.
Li An Ning waved his fist violently, his chest trembling, and said happily: "I knew it was you, it's worth it that I stole those files for you!"
She looked at Li Nuo and asked, "You are also the best in painting, right?"
Li Nuo said: "I don't know."
He couldn't give her a definite answer until the results came out.
Li Anning said confidently: "It must be you!"
Li Anning did not ask any more questions. He had confidence in Li Nuo's law skills. He was a law reformer, so even if his law skills were not excellent, they would not be too bad.
Thinking of calligraphy, she sighed inwardly.
I heard that the three best calligraphers were all disciples of Mr. Wei.
There is no hairpin flower small regular script written on Jiashang and Jiadeng.
This shows that his calligraphy is at best just below average.
The excellent performance in the two subjects actually established enough advantages, but the calligraphy eliminated this huge advantage, making the position of the top scholar in calligraphy more uncertain.
She didn't say these words that might affect Li Nuo's mood, but just said: "I won't bother you anymore, you should prepare well for tomorrow's exam..."
As she left, she ran into two figures.
Song Jiaren held Mu'er's hand and looked into her eyes, but they separated the next moment. There was no verbal exchange until Li Anning left.
However, when she walked into the room, Song Jiaren looked back at Li Nuo who was sitting in the yard.
There seems to be a choice in my eyes...
Song Yu failed the academic exam, and the next morning, Li Nuo came to the examination hall alone.
It was worthy of being an imperial examination. Li Nuo remembered that during the spring examination, more than half of the candidates were eliminated after the book subject, but the book subject of the imperial examination only eliminated less than a quarter of the candidates.
I'm afraid that this quarter, like Song Yu, entered the four major academies through connections and money.
Those who can pass the entrance exams to the four major academies are the best who have been selected through the spring examination and will not be eliminated so easily.
While everyone was waiting at the entrance of the examination hall, they were still discussing in low voices.
"In one examination hall, there are three excellent calligraphers. This is probably the first time."
"There is also a genius in the painting department. I heard that even the examiners are ashamed of themselves."
"And the article was also rated excellent. Articles are never rated excellent."
"The spring breeze is blowing, the horses are galloping, and I can see all the flowers in Chang'an in one day... Damn, this poem is so well written, why can't I write it!"
…
As the door of the examination hall opened, the candidates filed in and came to their examination rooms.
Today is the second imperial examination, but there are two subjects.
Like the spring exam, students must complete the answer sheets for mathematics and etiquette within one day.
Almost everyone will choose to answer the mathematics subject first, because this subject requires a clear mind. If you wait until the afternoon to answer it, your mind will be fuzzy and it will be easy to make mistakes.
Li Nuo also chose to answer the mathematics subject first.
Although there are still twenty questions and the question types are similar, the difficulty of the imperial examination questions is much greater than that of the spring examination.
Taking equations as an example, the spring exam tests two variables, while the first question in the imperial examination tests five variables. In terms of the amount of calculation, they are completely not on the same level.
If someone is careless and makes a mistake in a number when calculating, it will be difficult to detect even after checking.
Li Nuo relied entirely on himself for mathematics. He would first calculate on a rough piece of paper and only after verifying that it was correct would he copy it onto the official test paper.
Time passed by minute by minute. When he finished writing the last two questions, Li Nuo glanced at the questions and was slightly stunned.
It’s not that these two questions are too difficult, but…
Weren’t these two questions the ones he gave to his wife in the first place, asking her to use them to embarrass the four old gentlemen?
One of the questions is a variation of the general’s horse-watering problem, which is more difficult.
One is the problem of optimal strategy.
Although not the original question, they all belong to the same category.
Mr. Chen seemed to have said that in this imperial examination, in order to screen out talents in mathematics, there would be some slight changes in the mathematics questions, and he was referring to these two questions.
To be honest, these two questions are not difficult, and the solving process is not complicated, but you need to have the correct thinking. If you only know how to study the nine numbers mechanically, you probably won’t be able to solve these two questions.
There are 20 questions in mathematics, and only 10 of them need to be answered correctly for the valid score to be calculated.
After that, each correct answer will increase your rating by one. If you answer all 20 questions correctly, it's an excellent rating, and if you get one wrong, it will deduct one rating.
After answering these two questions, Li Nuo took a short break and opened the envelope containing the exam questions.
This subject was not difficult. He lit up the portraits of Zheng Zhi and the doctor of the Ministry of Rites at the same time and began to write without thinking.
When Li Nuo had finished answering the two questions on etiquette, most of the candidates in the first examination hall were still answering the questions on mathematics.
I don’t know how many people looked at the last two questions in the math section with a confused look on their faces.
Both questions are related to military formations.
One question was about drinking water for war horses, and the other was about food and fodder supplies. They seemed to be very practical, but they had never learned this kind of questions before, so they were completely confused and had no idea how to solve them.
After thinking for a while, they still had no clue, so they could only put it aside and start answering the questions from the etiquette department.
They don’t know how to answer those two questions, and others may not know how to answer them either.
At this moment, in an examination room somewhere, Zhou Yu looked at these two questions with a look of surprise on his face.
Although the teachers had never explained these two questions to him, he had heard Brother Li explain a similar question to one of them at the Song residence, and he vaguely remembered how to solve this kind of question...
For the question he knew the answer to, he quickly wrote down the solution.
He had no idea how to answer the other question, so he skipped it and took out the question from the etiquette department.
Looking at the piece of paper taken out of the envelope, Zhou Yu was delighted at first, then stunned. The next moment, his hair stood on end and his scalp felt numb...
Two months ago, he saw an old fortune teller at his doorstep.
The old man had a granddaughter with him. Feeling sorry for the old and young, he gave them a silver ingot.
The old man took the money and insisted on telling his fortune.
Zhou Yu never believed these things, but he was in a good mood at the time, so he asked the old man to help him calculate.
The old man pinched his fingers randomly and said that he could become prime minister in the future.
Zhou Yu almost laughed out loud when he heard this. His father was only a fifth-rank official in the Imperial Guards, and he couldn't even pass the imperial examination to become a Jinshi. How could he be a prime minister? What the hell!
Because the old man made him laugh, he rewarded the old man with a silver ingot.
Then the old man wanted to tell his fortune again.
Zhou Yu didn't think much about it at the time, and just joked that if he really had the ability, he could calculate which questions would be in this year's imperial examination.
There was too much content in the Five Rites, so Zhou Yu barely read it.
Unexpectedly, the fortune-teller actually knew the five etiquettes. He randomly pinched his fingers and told him the five etiquettes, which were:
Ji Li: Offer sacrifices to ancestors.
Guest etiquette: The foreign king is paying homage.
Military ceremony: watching the archery in front of the archery officer.
Jiali: The princess gets married.
Funeral rites: The Crown Prince mourns and offers sacrifices.
In the examination room, Zhou Yu looked down again and found that the imperial examination paper on rituals was exactly the same as the one calculated by the old man.
The Five Rites include hundreds of ceremonies.
Auspicious ceremonies include offering sacrifices to the Five Emperors, offering sacrifices to the Hundred Gods, offering sacrifices to the Great God, offering sacrifices to the Five Mountains, the Four Towns, the Four Seas, the Four Rivers...;
The etiquette and rituals for kings and envoys of different countries are different;
The auspicious ceremonies include the ceremonies of eating and drinking, marriage, the ceremonies of capping, the ceremonies of archery for guests, the ceremonies of feasting, the ceremonies of eating meat, and the ceremonies of celebration.
Military ceremonies include going to war, hunting, etc. Funeral ceremonies are even more particular. Not to mention the differences within the royal family, even officials of every rank have different funeral ceremonies, with details that are outrageous.
Each ceremony has different procedures and regulations. It is impossible to memorize them all, but for the same ritual, most of the procedures are the same. As long as you can answer these, you can at least get a B in the etiquette subject.
But if you want to achieve higher results, you have to work ten, dozens or even a hundred times harder.
This is naturally not worth the cost.
In this subject, it is not easy to get a score below B, and it is equally difficult to get a score above A.
Sometimes, it depends more on luck.
Zhou Yu was very lucky. He passed the imperial examination with all the knowledge he had memorized.
He didn't know why, but after returning home that day, he spent several days, somehow, memorizing the five etiquettes that the old man had mentioned, exactly...
Looking back now, he himself finds it baffling.
What's even more terrifying is.
That was two months ago. At that time, the examiners for the imperial examination had not yet been determined, and naturally the topic of the ritual subject had not yet been determined.
Not to mention that the old man was not an examiner. Even if he was an examiner, these five questions were not set by him directly, but were randomly selected from hundreds of etiquettes...
He could actually calculate the imperial examination questions two months in advance!
Zhou Yu's heart was in turmoil, and he even forgot that he was in the imperial examination room. When he thought of the old man's face again, he felt a little chilly...
now.
Outside the examination room.
Butler Wu leaned against the carriage, holding a dogtail grass in his mouth, and suddenly remembered something.
The fortune teller had said before that the young master had several other destined marriages.
He was dismissive at the time.
Now think about it, if the young master is like the old master and wins the first place in six subjects, he may really get to marry the princess. Wouldn't that be the fulfillment of the old man's prophecy...
(End of this chapter)
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