Chapter 132
The imperial examination lasted for three days. On the last day, just after noon, carriages stopped at the gate of the examination hall. By the time the examination was about to end, the gates were crowded with the families of the candidates. Finally, the gates of the examination hall opened, and they eagerly awaited the opening.
However, it wasn't until a quarter of an hour later that candidates began to emerge. They looked dazed, and their entire being inexplicably exuded a sense of silence.
"Second, Second Brother, what's wrong?" After a while, a parent finally couldn't help but grab his son's hand, his eyes filled with worry and concern.
The young boy's wandering gaze gradually focused. He opened his mouth, tears welling up before he could speak, and choked out, "Mother, I have no talent for studying. All these years of hard work have been a waste of my life. Alas, it is too late to regret!"
The young Erlang looked up and wailed, while the other students also showed expressions of sorrow, as if they were witnessing the death of a rabbit or the fox.
An atmosphere of utter despair permeated the entire entrance to the examination hall.
Cui Zui silently lowered the carriage curtain, turned to look at Cui Zhuo, who had been sitting silently in the corner since getting into the carriage, sighed and patted his shoulder, "It's not your fault. Compared to Master, even this old man feels inferior."
"Luckily, I abandoned my literary pursuits for martial arts long ago." Cui Zui secretly rejoiced.
The candidates entered the examination hall full of vigor, but returned silently after each exam, plunging the entire capital into an indescribable silence. This gloomy atmosphere would not disappear, but would only transfer to the examiners.
After receiving the questions from Xue Jin'an, Master Cen and Cui Pengfei wisely asked him to write a set of reference answers. However, some old-fashioned people who considered themselves to have some academic level immediately showed disdain upon hearing that the paper had the handwriting of the "Perfect Gentleman" and said that they did not trust the answers he wrote.
Master Cen hesitated for a moment, then offered a few words of advice, but the other party wouldn't listen. Cui Pengfei then took out the original exam paper and had the old-fashioned folks do it on the spot. Once the papers were handed out, the whole room fell silent.
"I've left the printed answers here. Feel free to take them if you want to check them after you're done," Master Cen said, giving them a final sliver of dignity.
Finally, all the answers were taken away without missing a single one, and everyone buried themselves in grading the papers. No one ever said a bad word about the Perfect Prince again.
While the old scholars were engrossed in grading the papers, the two chief examiners chatted about the "Perfect Prince" as they patrolled the area.
The two old foxes first tested each other and exchanged cryptic remarks. Although Cui Pengfei did not reveal who the Ten Perfect Prince was, Master Cen had already made a guess, since Cui Pengfei had only had close contact with one prince.
Master Cen was somewhat surprised by the identity of the Perfect Prince, but not so surprised, after all, this was the Seventh Prince! Ever since he received the first assignment at midnight, Master Cen had been trying to find him. However, he had already tested all the princesses and princes in the palace, and finally locked onto the Seventh Prince.
He has only met the Seventh Prince once in private so far. The Seventh Prince has a bad reputation, but his strength is truly remarkable. If it were him, it would not be surprising if anything happened to him.
Master Cen's only regret was that, given his status, he absolutely could not have any contact with the Seventh Prince; if discovered, it would only harm him. Fortunately, he was an open-minded person, and knowing who the other party was was enough for him.
Cui Pengfei was quite surprised by the Seventh Prince's connections. He generally looked down on Confucian scholars and often clashed with great Confucian scholars, but this did not mean that he looked down on these great Confucian scholars, especially Master Cen. Master Cen was perhaps more suited to teaching than to being an official. Most of his students were pragmatic and few stayed in the capital. Their political achievements were not bad, and given time, they would all become pillars of the country.
This is why the emperor was unwilling to let Master Cen go and insisted on keeping him in the palace to teach. By capturing Master Cen, the emperor essentially had a list of half of the officials of the Great Qi Dynasty, especially the middle and lower-level officials who were useful and capable, most of whom were from the Cen faction.
Cui Pengfei was pleasantly surprised. Even though Master Cen never took sides, as long as Master Cen's faction remained unmoved, it would be a great help, further stabilizing the Seventh Prince's future. For this reason, Cui Pengfei was willing to temporarily set aside his grudges with the Confucian scholars and have a proper talk with this man.
The two tacitly avoided mentioning Xue Jin'an's name, exchanging cryptic remarks.
As their witty banter continued, without anyone knowing who started it, they inexplicably began to compare themselves, engaging in a heated debate that lasted for several days in an attempt to prove who was the best teacher of the Perfect Young Master.
Master Cen: "I knew this perfect young master before he became famous. Of all the teachers, he only listened to my class and took the initiative to write an article for me. This is a predestined fate."
Master Cen emphasized the word "proactive".
“It was just a coincidence.” Cui Pengfei smiled bitterly. “Although I met him later, we were like kindred spirits, and we got along very well, which led to our teacher-student relationship.”
Master Cen stroked his long beard and chuckled: "Confucius said, 'Among three people walking together, there must be one who can teach me.' Everyone in the world can be a teacher; the word 'teacher' is just an empty title."
Cui Pengfei flicked his tea leaves and said lazily, "A false reputation is better than no reputation at all. At least he will call me 'teacher,' and I will have no regrets."
Master Cen: "..."
Cui Pengfei: "..."
The two stared at each other, their eyes seemingly blazing with fire. Although they were both smiling and appearing amicable, the atmosphere was tense and fraught with danger.
“That rascal Jiang Wen really knows how to torment an old man,” Master Cen suddenly said.
Cui Pengfei wholeheartedly agreed: "This kid is still too idle."
*
No matter how difficult the imperial examination was, the results still had to be released. Unexpectedly, the title of top scholar did not go to Cui Zhuo of Jiangnan Prefecture, nor to Tan Lingyue of Jinyang Prefecture. Instead, it was a surprise that it went to a middle-aged scholar named Du Yin Du Boqing from Huaibei Prefecture. It is said that he had failed the exam several times before, and his sudden rise to the top was truly astonishing.
Du Yin was indeed somewhat famous, but he was not famous for his talent, but for his admiration for the "Perfect Gentleman". He, along with Tan Lingyue of Jinyang Prefecture, Liu Zheng of Jiangnan Prefecture, the great scholar Liu Gu, and a man named Tian Chengmin, formed a small group and had publicly stood up for the "Perfect Gentleman" on several occasions.
Some people were unconvinced by this unexpected turn of events. Fortunately, the examination hall would post the exam papers of outstanding students. Du Yin was indeed slightly inferior in terms of talent and learning. His handwriting was the standard official script used in the imperial examinations, which had no special features. After looking at it for a long time, all he could do was think it was neat and tidy. His essay was a bit too rigid in both structure and style. It was a very standard three-part essay, which is something that today's candidates would despise and dislike, but which would gradually be promoted and developed with the times.
This is an unavoidable problem for students who have taken the imperial examinations too many times. They have already summarized a set of templates that are easy to score points on, so they will subconsciously try to fit into the templates.
What truly set Du Yin apart from the rest of the students were the arithmetic problems and the essay questions based on pictures. After reading these two questions, all the dissatisfaction and doubts in everyone's hearts were dispelled, because Du Yin was the only student who could complete the enormous amount of calculations correctly!
Yes, even though the exam lasted three days and each paper gave them a day and a night to answer the questions, many people still couldn't finish the calculations. Those who couldn't finish the calculations still managed to finish them, but many others racked their brains and spent the whole night writing down only the word "answer".
They finally realized what it meant to "not know how to do arithmetic problems."
A simple arithmetic problem was enough to convince the students. Then look at his policy essay. Although the writing was not fancy, each policy was well-reasoned and supported by evidence. He wrote about how to govern the region from the perspective of the four social classes: scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants. To make it more intuitive, he also wrote a project to predict the tax revenue after the region was governed, following the format of the arithmetic problem. The calculation was not as complicated as the original problem and many influencing factors were omitted, but it was still quite good.
The two examiners made annotations in red ink beside the document:
The elegant handwriting reads: "Although there are some suspended parts, it is still usable."
The somewhat unrestrained cursive script reads: "It has the style of the person who set the question."
This basically confirms that the person who set this question is the wicked "Perfect Prince".
Du Yin's position as the top scholar in the provincial examination was secured, and everyone congratulated this middle-aged scholar who had risen to prominence overnight. However, Du Yin himself felt that he was somewhat unworthy of his position, especially since his group of five included the genius Tan Lingyue, Liu Zheng, who ranked second in the provincial examination in Jiangnan Prefecture, the great talent Liu Gu, and even Tian Chengmin, whom others considered unknown. Du Yin felt that Tian Chengmin's policy essays were more incisive and practical regarding land reform.
Incidentally, Cui Zhuo ranked second in this imperial examination. Du Yin's brilliance was precisely Cui Zhuo's weakness. He managed to finish the arithmetic problems, but he really stumbled in the policy essay. He was able to guess the location in the map because Cui Pengfei had traveled to many places and he had heard a lot and remembered it. His essay was ornate and beautiful, but he himself knew how much of it was actually useful.
The papers were graded anonymously, but Cui Pengfei could still recognize his grandson's handwriting. He didn't interfere and even put his grandson's paper in Master Cen's grading group. When the papers were finally separated, someone wanted to put Cui Zhuo first, but Cui Pengfei stopped him.
According to Cui Pengfei's opinion, Cui Zhuo's ranking should be lowered further. He said, "His writing is ornate but useless."
“There are many who write empty words. He may not have many points, but they are useful. Moreover, he has done a fairly thorough analysis of the place. It’s just that he doesn’t know anything about farming. This is a common problem among scholars.” Master Cen saw things very clearly. In every imperial examination, nine out of ten candidates’ policy essays were empty talk and wishful thinking. Cui Zhuo’s level would rank in the top three in any examination. He said, “You are too harsh on him.”
Cui Pengfei frowned and remained silent.
Master Cen waved him away, saying, "Go away, do you know that family members should avoid each other? Don't affect our ranking."
Cui Zhuo's ranking did not drop any further.
“Brother Du, why belittle yourself? You’ve been studying the Ten Perfections Exam Questions so diligently these past few days that you’re practically obsessed. It’s only natural that you did well on the exam.” Tan Lingyue said, even making a self-deprecating joke. “Besides, I also used some tricks on the policy essay questions.”
Tan Lingyue ranked third in this imperial examination. His essay mainly focused on educational reform. His father was the head of the Jinyang Prefectural School, so he came from a family with a strong academic background. His approach to this topic was somewhat opportunistic.
"Well, the only thing I did reasonably well on was the essay question." Tian Chengmin, who barely made it onto the list, put his hands in his pockets. His face, which already looked like that of a warrior, became even more menacing when he smiled. He wasn't upset at all about getting the lowest score; in fact, he was so happy that his mouth was practically stretched to his ears.
Liu Gu also smiled and offered a few words of comfort, then pointed to Liu Zheng, who was dressed in fine clothes beside him, and joked, "We all performed exceptionally well. Even the only one who didn't do well didn't say anything."
Liu Zheng did not perform poorly in arithmetic problems. He lost some points due to carelessness, but his thinking was completely correct. However, he wrote about commerce in his policy essay. He came from a merchant family and knew a lot about this subject. Perhaps he knew too much about it, because his writing inevitably carried a hint of money.
Furthermore, his advocacy for opening treaty ports and organizing fleets to sail the seas touched the bottom line of most officials in the court, so naturally Liu Zheng received a low score and was ranked only fifteenth.
This ranking was quite good for other students, but for him, who ranked second in the Jiangnan Prefecture provincial examination, second only to Cui Zhuo, it was a rather poor result. However, after finishing writing, he roughly guessed that his ranking would be lowered, so he was not discouraged.
Liu Gu's ranking was outside the top twentieth. He had been imprisoned for his remarks and suffered some setbacks, almost being stripped of his official status. Therefore, he was somewhat more restrained in this exam.
Liu Zheng glanced at Liu Gu, tapped his forehead with his folding fan, and sighed in a very cooperative manner, deliberately saying, "You, who won first place, are here feeling sad and upset. I really think you're being hypocritical, like you've gotten the benefits but are still acting innocent."
Du Yin lowered his head in embarrassment.
"Alright, stop looking so gloomy. How about I treat you to some fun at Jiu Tian Yi today?" Liu Zheng suggested.
"This...isn't this a bad idea?" Du Yin hesitated, showing some unease. "We'll be entering the palace for the imperial examination soon. Wouldn't going to Jiu Tian Yi now be too much of a distraction from our studies?"
Tian Chengmin patted his shoulder, "It's okay if we don't play, let's go and absorb some of the aura of the Perfect Prince and ask him to bless us with good results in the palace examination."
"Let's go." Tan Lingyue, the youngest of the group, was the most proactive, and immediately set off towards Jiu Tian Yi.
Du Yin couldn't help but get excited at the thought of the Perfect Young Master. He muttered to himself, "Should I show him the questions I got wrong last time? And the questions this time, I—"
Before he could finish speaking, a dried fruit coated in sugar was stuffed into his mouth.
Liu Gu had always suffered from morning dizziness. Ever since his experience in prison, his health had been poor, and this dizziness would occur frequently. Fortunately, eating something would relieve the symptoms, so he always carried some easy-to-carry dried fruit with him.
Liu Gu, who had manually sealed his mouth, said irritably, "I know, I know, let's just write down the exam paper from memory and show it to Young Master Shiquan, and ask him to give us some feedback."
Liu Gu never expected that his words would come true.
What he didn't expect was that at this time, Jiu Tian Yi was filled with big shots.
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