However, the longer Emperor Yongzheng looked at her, the more curious he became about her talent. He walked over to Qingyin and stopped behind her.
Upon closer inspection, the examinee's movements remained unhurried and unhurried, without any pauses or nervous fidgeting. Emperor Yongzheng suddenly felt a mischievous urge.
Normally, when he walked behind a candidate, that person would be so nervous that their hands would tremble or they would slow down their writing speed. The previous candidate was like that. However, this candidate seemed to be unaffected. Emperor Yongzheng suspected that the candidate might not have heard him, so he deliberately coughed lightly.
The other person paused for a second while holding the pen, but then continued writing, and even wrote faster and faster.
Emperor Yongzheng nodded in satisfaction. Not bad. Such a young age and such a composed attitude. For this alone, he admired him greatly. Emperor Yongzheng thought that if the candidate's essay was still quite exquisite, even if it was not very satisfactory, he could still give him the third-highest rank.
So he shifted his gaze to the exam paper, where the candidate had already written most of the essay.
Once he started, he couldn't stop. He personally selected the questions for this provincial examination. Recently, the Jiangnan region was hit by floods again, which angered him. He punished the corrupt officials in the area, but none of the officials in the court could offer any suggestions on how to deal with the floods. Emperor Yongzheng was annoyed. When he heard someone report about the palace examination questions, he waved his hand and included the questions in the candidates' exams.
However, he didn't have much hope that any candidate could solve this problem, but he has clearly discovered a gem.
The candidate described the existence and significance of each step of the water conservancy construction in detail, especially the flood-prone areas, making it seem as if the candidate had experienced them firsthand. This made the descriptions particularly authentic and further validated the feasibility of the candidate's methods.
The more Emperor Yongzheng looked at the candidate, the more excited he became. He grew increasingly fond of the handsome candidate. If it weren't for the fact that the palace examination was still in progress, Emperor Yongzheng would have loved to pull the candidate away and explain his methods to him.
However, after this, Emperor Yongzheng overturned his previous idea. He felt that the previous third-place winner was not worthy of such talent and demeanor, and the first place winner was well-deserved.
With a whispered reminder from the eunuch, Emperor Yongzheng gave Qingyin a deep look before finally moving behind the other examinees.
This time, however, he spent significantly less time behind the other candidates, basically glancing at their articles for a few seconds before leaving. But after reading Qingyin's article, reading the other candidates' articles was like tasting a gourmet feast and then eating these bland dishes – tasteless yet too good to throw away.
The more Emperor Yongzheng looked at it, the more he realized the value of the previous candidate's qualifications.
When the time was up, all the candidates' exam papers were collected by the examiners, and the candidates were taken to a separate room to wait for the exam results.
The examiners meticulously graded the papers, their brows furrowing as they read the essays. This time, His Majesty's question on the floods in Jiangnan was much more difficult, yet the candidates' answers were terrible. Some simply copied the flood-solving methods of previous dynasties, while others were far-fetched, failing to consider even the people's livelihood and just filling in random answers.
After flipping through several pages of articles, the examiners' faces grew increasingly grim. Oh no, could it be that this year's candidates won't be able to choose even one good one?
The examiner grading the papers was silently anxious when this essay appeared before him. He would look at the handwriting first, and regardless of how well the essay was written, the handwriting was undoubtedly excellent. The strokes flowed smoothly and powerfully, and just by looking at it, one could imagine the character of the writer, who was probably a young man in his prime, gentle and refined.
The handwriting was so good it looked like a collectible sketch. The examiner who graded the papers happened to be a collector of handwriting. He usually liked to collect drawings with good handwriting, so he secretly hoped that the candidate who wrote this essay would do well, and that he could make friends with the candidate in the future and have him write a poem that he liked.
With an appreciative gaze, the examiner carefully read the article. But this time, he no longer merely looked at the handwriting; he meticulously savored the content. The more he read, the brighter his eyes became. "Ah, yes, that's it!" he exclaimed. "But with a bridge built above, won't the water below suffer?" "Oh, oh! The water is diverted to the neighboring county, irrigating farmland and nourishing seedlings!" he thought. "Ingenious! Truly ingenious! Each link is connected to the next." Whenever he raised a question, the author explained its significance and solution in the next sentence. The examiner, who had initially favored conservative methods for dealing with floods in Jiangnan, was now deeply impressed by the article.
The key point is that after reading the article, the examiner secretly felt that the floods in Jiangnan were nothing special. Damn it, this article is so well written that he even had a terrifying thought that he could do it.
Looking around at his colleagues, all of whom were subtly frowning, the examiner rubbed his eyes, which were sore from focusing too much on his work. He knew he couldn't keep this confidence to himself, so he coughed lightly. "Why don't you all take a look at this article first?"
"..."
"Okay, okay!"
"Absolutely amazing!"
How did this person even think of that?!
When the final exam papers were presented to Emperor Yongzheng, he saw the familiar essay at the very front and eagerly picked it up, reading it with great absorption.
The more he read, the more he liked it. Sometimes, when he hadn't thought about how to solve a problem, Emperor Yongzheng would not look at the answer first, but would think about the reason for its existence. Having read this article before, he also knew the candidate's thought process when answering the question.
After thinking for a while but still unable to find a reason, Emperor Yongzheng suddenly felt enlightened when he read the article again.
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