Chapter 29 Chapter 29 Huiyuan
Like the provincial examination, the metropolitan examination consisted of three sessions, and everyone had to eat and sleep in this small space.
Jiang Ru was afraid he would starve to death, so she filled his basket with heavy food, enough to feed him for almost half a month, let alone nine days.
After the three exams, the candidates felt as if they had been granted a pardon and rushed to leave. Pei Wu also mingled into the crowd and moved forward with the flow of people.
He had always taken his exams at a leisurely pace, but this time, Jiang Ru had said she would pick him up, and he couldn't let her wait any longer.
He was in relatively good spirits, but after staying there for too long, he felt dizzy and his head was heavy. When he walked out of the cell, he felt as if he had been through another world.
As usual, Jiang Ru waited at the front of the crowd. When Pei Wu was about to approach, she reached out and grabbed him. It was a wonder that Pei Wu, who was so tall, was so easily pulled away by Jiang Ru.
He subconsciously looked at Jiang Ru's hand and realized that Jiang Ru hadn't brought him any food, so he continued to stare at Jiang Ru's hand in disbelief.
He stared for a long time, then realized there really wasn't any, and lowered his eyes dejectedly. However, not long after, Jiang Ru pulled him to the front of a restaurant.
The restaurant wasn't very big; it specialized in antique soup. Jiang Ru walked briskly ahead, while Pei Wu followed behind, completely bewildered.
The pot on the table was already bubbling and steaming, and there were several plates of meat on the side. Jiang Ru poured the meat from her plate into the pot and pointed to the person opposite her: "Sit down quickly."
The steam blurred Pei Wu's vision. Before he could react, Jiang Ru put several pieces of meat into his bowl. Jiang Ru looked at him affectionately and said, "Eat up."
Pei Wu slowly picked up his chopsticks, took a bite, and then said in a low voice, "I thought you hadn't brought me any food."
Jiang Ru was busy cooking vegetables when she heard this. She paused for a moment, then laughed: "What's so good about those? Meat is much tastier."
Previously in Jinzhou, Jiang Ru arrived late and was lucky to be able to buy any food. She was also short of money and could only treat Pei Wu to a meat bun, but she couldn't afford this antique soup.
Thinking that Pei Wu had been taking the exam for so many days, and the early spring weather hadn't fully warmed up yet, he must have had cold hands and feet during the exam. It would be good for him to eat something hot.
However, they were in Bianjing now, and the imperial examination had just ended, so the restaurants were packed. Jiang Ru had to pay extra to get a table.
Jiang Ru: "You have no idea how sought-after the seats at this restaurant are. Luckily, I told them in advance, and the waiter managed to reserve a table for me."
Jiang Ru almost spent all her savings on this meal; it was too expensive. After thinking for a moment, she told Pei Wu, "If you pass the imperial examination in the future, you must repay me for how good I have been to you."
Pei Wu stared at her intently and said, "Okay."
The restaurant gradually filled up with people, and the surroundings were noisy. They sat at both ends, enjoying this rare moment.
After finishing the antique soup, Pei Wu felt warm and cozy in his stomach, and the two of them packed up and returned to the clubhouse.
Inside the guild hall, the others returned one after another. Zheng Qiuhong returned late, and as soon as she saw Pei Wu, her eyes filled with tears: "Brother Pei, the questions for this imperial examination were really difficult."
He asked Pei Wu about his approach to solving the problem. Pei Wu gave some casual advice, but Zheng Qiuhong shook his head repeatedly and sighed, saying that he was ashamed of his own inferiority.
Having just finished the exam, the candidates were in the most emotionally charged moment, and none of them were idle. They were engaged in a heated discussion in the courtyard.
Jiang Ru closed the window, shutting out the noise from the courtyard. She had been living alone in the clubhouse these past few days, and in her spare time she would go out for a stroll and even buy a few storybooks to read.
Ancient storybooks were much bolder than modern ones. She couldn't read the words before, but now she can, and she read many of them in a row, so engrossed that she forgot to eat and sleep. She only put the storybooks away when Pei Wu finished his exams.
Now that Pei Wu has been brought back, she opened the book and continued reading what she hadn't finished.
Just as she was engrossed in reading, there was a sudden knock on the door. Jiang Ru hid the storybook under the mattress before running to open the door.
Pei Wu came to call her, wanting her to go shopping together, but Jiang Ru looked guilty. Pei Wu subconsciously looked behind her, but there was nothing unusual in Jiang Ru's room...
However, before he could even take a closer look, Jiang Ru immediately turned the tables: "Well, Pei Wu, you didn't even dare to look into a young lady's room before, but now you're being so presumptuous."
Pei Wu was speechless, realizing he had overstepped his bounds, so he lowered his eyes and promised, "I won't watch anymore."
This interruption allowed Jiang Ru to successfully conceal the fact that she had been secretly reading a storybook, and she even pretended to be magnanimous to comfort Pei Wu: "It's alright, it's okay, you can read it if you want, I won't say anything."
Pei Wu felt even more ashamed: "I won't look at things indiscriminately anymore."
Jiang Ru: "..."
Just when she thought she had finally managed to teach this little stick-in-the-mud to be less rigid, she was about to go back to square one. Jiang Ru took a deep breath and said, "Raise your head."
Pei Wu hesitated before looking up, but Jiang Ru stepped aside and said irritably, "Look, look, did you see anything wrong?"
Pei Wu glanced at it hastily and shook his head.
"Right? I didn't hide anything." Jiang Ru confessed without being asked.
Pei Wu hadn't realized anything at first, but after her reminder, he turned his gaze back to the room.
With his keen eyes, he immediately noticed the small bulge on Jiang Ru's bed, but he said nothing and cooperated by saying, "Hmm, no."
Meanwhile, the examination papers in the examination hall had been compiled and were on their way to be copied. In order to prevent cheating, the Great Xia Dynasty would usually ask a specialist to copy them before asking the examiners to rank them.
After several days of non-stop copying, thousands of papers have been delivered. The examiners are isolated in their rooms and have been grading the papers for several days before the rankings are finalized.
The chief examiner for this year's imperial examination was Song Pingzhang, a vice minister. He was over fifty years old, with gray hair and a faltering gait, so much so that he had to get close to the examiners to see them clearly.
After the examiners finished grading the papers, he was placed last. He had to carefully review each paper before ranking them.
When Song Pingzhang read one of the papers, he narrowed his eyes. This paper was ranked third by the other examiners, but Song Pingzhang picked up his pen and crossed it out of the original ranking, removing it from the bottom.
The examiners exchanged glances, none daring to utter a sound. One of them mustered his courage and said, "Prime Minister Song, this was originally ranked first, but now..."
Before he could finish speaking, Prime Minister Song glared at him and cursed, "Nonsense!"
This time, absolutely no one spoke up.
Immediately afterwards, Song Pingzhang continued to review the papers. He didn't read them very quickly, and time passed by minute by minute. When the moon was high in the sky, Song Pingzhang finally finished reading them and rearranged the rankings before ending the session.
After he rearranged the rankings, the list was completely overhauled. When his subordinates copied down the rankings, they saw that Chen Gou, who had previously been ranked second, had fallen to the bottom and failed the imperial examination.
Chen Gou was the second son of the Minister of Revenue, and even the examiners had to give him face, but Song Pingzhang didn't care at all.
Besides Chen Gou, Song Pingzhang ranked the top scholar in the provincial examination. Originally, he was only ranked third, but Song Pingzhang personally proposed him and commented that he was the only one who could be the top scholar.
Such arrogant behavior left one wondering whether he was being provocative or genuinely ignorant. The official copying the rankings looked up with difficulty at Hanlin Academician Lin Zhou.
Lin Zhou was the deputy examiner for this imperial examination. Rank is higher than rank, and Song Pingzhang's rank was also higher. Even if he argued, he couldn't win. He could only glance at the name of the top scholar and said helplessly, "Let him be."
No one knew about this. After the rankings were copied down, the candidates' names would be posted on the yellow list on the east wall of the South Courtyard of the Ministry of Rites. The night before, several people lined up outside the yellow list, some even sleeping on the ground, just waiting to see it as soon as possible the next day.
At dawn, amidst the expectant gazes of the crowd, the yellow notice was unveiled and posted on the wall. People were already packed together outside the low wall, and some even tried to climb up the wall, but were quickly stopped.
However, this first list was just a nominal list; the real list would be announced later. The list only had rankings, not names, which immediately drew boos from the crowd.
Jiang Ru and the others arrived a little later and stood outside the crowd. They could only see heads crowding around the front, let alone the list of names.
The scholars from the guild hall said yesterday that they would come to guard the results, but she didn't believe it. Now that she has seen them, she realizes how prescient they were.
Since there was no chance to go inside, Pei Wu suggested, "Let's have breakfast first, and then come back to look around after we've eaten our fill."
They got up very early this morning, their stomachs were empty. Jiang Ru got up in such a hurry that she even tied her hair up crookedly, with one side of her hair sticking up and the other side crooked and sticking up.
Jiang Ru was still reluctant, but Pei Wu suppressed a laugh and said, "Let's go back and re-do your hair."
Even so, Jiang Ru still needed him to urge her for a long time before she was willing to leave.
It wasn't just the candidates taking the exam; many ordinary people in Bianjing were also joining in the fun. In addition, wealthy merchants were also waiting to see the results and get ranked, hoping to build good relationships with the new graduates.
Therefore, almost everyone in Bianjing was crowded into the Ministry of Rites, while the rest of the city was desolate. Jiang Ru and Pei Wu went to eat a bowl of soup noodles because their stomachs were growling from waiting for so long at the Ministry of Rites.
After finishing a bowl of soup noodles, Pei Wu said, "Let's go back to the guild hall first."
Jiang Ru was impatient and obviously didn't want to go back and wait, so she immediately refused: "No, I want to see the list now."
Pei Wu didn't argue with her, but when they passed a jewelry store, he took a step and led Jiang Ru inside.
Jiang Ru went in and glanced around: "What are you doing here? Are you buying a mirror?"
Pei Wu shook his head and pointed to the bronze mirror.
Jiang Ru leaned closer. Her face in the mirror wasn't too blurry, so she could clearly see that one of her braids was sticking up high, while the other braid was missing a tuft and was sticking out.
Jiang Ru was speechless: "Why didn't you say so sooner?"
Pei Wu explained, "I already said that when I left, but you..."
Unfortunately, Jiang Ru didn't listen to her explanation at all. She turned around angrily and left quickly, so fast that Pei Wu couldn't catch up.
Pei Wu finally caught up with Jiang Ru at the guild hall. Just as he was about to apologize, several people rushed in from outside the courtyard and said, "Pei Wu, you've won the imperial examination!"
Pei Wu was caught off guard by this sudden news. Logically speaking, the list of successful candidates should not have been announced yet, so how could he have received the news so early?
Just as Pei Wu was beginning to have doubts, Jiang Ru, who had just gone into the room to tie her hair up, returned sometime earlier. She leaned forward and asked with great surprise, "Is it really true?"
The group chattered amongst themselves, and Jiang Ru couldn't hide her joy as she pulled Pei Wu to leave the guild hall.
Before the others could say anything, Jiang Ru had already pulled Pei Wu away.
The number of people outside the Ministry of Rites had not decreased. Before Jiang Ru and Pei Wu even got close, some acquaintances had already congratulated Pei Wu, and it seemed that the relationship was a done deal.
After much effort, the two squeezed through the crowd and finally saw the people on the list. The one ranked first was Pei Wu.
Pei Wu of Jinzhou was the top scholar in the imperial examination.
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Author's Note: There might be another chapter later, so please check back tomorrow morning. I really won't be updating until 3 or 4 AM.
Pei Wu was originally third, and Chen Gou was originally second; it was a typo before.
After the revisions, Pei Wu ranked first, while Chen Gou was eliminated.
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