Chapter 144 Eating instant noodles in the Imperial Academy
She first took out everything in the lunch box, put the shriveled noodles into the upper layer of the lunch box, and added some water to soak them.
Some quicklime powder was poured into the lower layer of the food box, and Zhu Lan poured clean water into it again. A white mist rose up, and the water reacted with the quicklime, immediately releasing a large amount of heat, which directly heated the water to boiling, bubbling.
Zhu Lan quickly put the lid back on the food box containing the soaked noodles, then took out some of the dried and minced meat and sprinkled it on the noodles, added a pinch of salt, and finally fastened the lid of the entire food box tightly.
The food box was specially made by Zhu Lan, and it had excellent heat preservation performance. The boiling hot water in the lower layer soon heated up the instant noodles in the upper layer. After a while, Zhu Lan opened the lid of the food box, and a fragrance immediately hit her face.
Hot instant noodles with beef flavor!
Here, Zhu Lan was enjoying his instant noodles, while the candidate next to him was pitifully gnawing on a steamed bun that had already gone cold. He smelled the aroma of meat and noodles coming from somewhere and couldn't help swallowing his saliva. Suddenly, he felt that the bun in his hand no longer smelled fragrant.
After Zhu Lan had eaten and drunk his fill, he felt sleepy again. He lay down on the wooden bed in the cell and fell asleep again in a short while.
Finally, it was the morning of the ninth day of August. After the salute, the first session of the provincial examination officially began.
The first test was to "Post Scriptures", which meant filling in the blanks from memory. The contents of the questions were all from Confucian classics, and part of the original text was covered for the candidates to fill in.
This part was the easiest for Zhu Lan. Her memory was far superior to that of ordinary people. She could remember everything she read, so she could do the sutra-posting task with ease.
The provincial examination was divided into three sessions, each lasting three days.
At the end of the first day, Zhu Lan had completed all the sutra-posting questions.
After the sutra, there is a poem titled "Spring rain is as precious as oil."
There were still about two days left, so Zhu Lan was not in a hurry. Instead, he read the questions over and over again, then lit some insect repellent incense and lay back on the wooden bed to rest.
After reading the question several times, your brain will also think about it subconsciously, and maybe when you open your eyes tomorrow, you will have a good answer.
Jiangzhou City is located in the south, and it rained a few days ago, so the air was filled with a damp smell.
The sanitary conditions of the Imperial Examination Hall were naturally not as good as those of the Academy. At night, the examinee in the room next to Zhu Lan was half asleep. When he opened his eyes in a daze, he was shocked to see a thumb-sized cockroach lying on the wall in front of him. He was immediately awakened by fright.
He stretched out his hand to hit it with his shoe, but the cockroach was faster and flew straight into the sky and came towards his face!
“Aaaaaaah——!”
Of course, he was not the only one who experienced this. Screams could be heard one after another near Zhu Lan's cabin.
The scent of insect repellent lingered at Zhu Lan's nose. She reached out to push the cotton ball stuffed in her ears back in, turned over and fell asleep peacefully.
The next morning, many students had dark circles under their eyes, but Zhu Lan looked full of energy.
As soon as she opened her eyes, she already had an idea for the title of the poem in her mind.
"Spring rain is as precious as oil." This question seems simple, but it actually contains a mystery.
The Rain Water solar term is called the "season for arable farming" in the south, because spring ploughing can begin after the Rain Water, and all crops will be full of vitality after the spring rain.
When most candidates receive this topic, their first reaction is to focus on describing the importance of spring rain to farming. Those with a broader knowledge base can even explain their understanding of agricultural development in poetry.
However, Zhu Lan believes that the knowledge that this question wants to test is not limited to farming.
The saying that spring rain is as precious as oil seems to be correct, but in fact it does not apply to all regions.
In modern times, Zhu Lan's hometown is in the north, which is not very rainy. The spring rain follows the two rainy seasons of autumn and winter. In addition, the temperature rises quickly and there are many windy days, which often lead to continuous droughts. Therefore, there is a saying that "spring rain is as precious as oil."
However, the Jiangzhou area is already rainy now, and the probability of drought is actually very small, and spring rain is actually not rare.
Therefore, to solve the problem, Zhu Lan decided to start from the geographical environment, and discuss the rainfall problems in the north and south regions by category, and then introduce that the farming characteristics of different regions are largely affected by the climate.
The last step is to point out the importance of adapting agricultural policies to local conditions.
While organizing his thoughts, Zhu Lan drew a mind map with a pencil on a piece of draft paper, and then began to draft answers and make revisions.
Finally, he copied it carefully onto red-lined paper.
The content of the second exam is "Test of Meaning", in which candidates need to discuss their understanding of a classic article.
In order to make the answer stand out, Zhu Lan decided to take some small risks and implicitly incorporate some understandings made by later generations without violating the mainstream values of the era.
Some of these views may be a little ahead of their time, but now that the imperial court wants to select reform talents, this may be the best opportunity to stand out.
The topic of the third policy essay is "Clearly Distinguishing the Ultimate Theory of Rewards and Punishments". This question involves the relationship between the reward and punishment system and national governance. It requires exploring how to reasonably reward and punish in order to reflect fairness and promote national stability and development.
This question was not unexpected to Zhu Lan.
The person in charge of setting the questions this year was Zhou Xianqing, a minister of the Ministry of Rites. Zhou Xianqing came from the Ministry of Personnel and once served as the Minister of Personnel. Zhu Lan had read through his articles and found that Zhou had written many letters to the emperor, advising on improving the court's reward system, and believed that "merit should be rewarded instead of virtue".
After thinking for a while, Zhu Lan quickly wrote down his topic in pencil: "On the Principle of Reward and Punishment: Rewarding Merit and Virtue, Establishing a Country through Clear Laws."
Thanks to Cen Songbai's previous reply and guidance, Zhu Lan did not choose to blindly cater to Mr. Zhou's political views, but chose to conduct in-depth research in the areas that he was concerned about and talk about his own views truthfully.
After the last exam, the examiner began to collect the examinees' papers one by one. When collecting the papers, most of the examinees looked haggard, and some even looked dazed.
When the officer in charge of collecting the papers for Zhu Lan's cell came to Zhu Lan, he saw that the female student in the cell had a ruddy complexion, was calm and composed, and was in a very good mental state, with even her hair combed meticulously.
He was wearing a blue shirt and sitting upright in the room, with his pens, ink, paper and inkstone neatly arranged on the wooden table in front of him.
The examiner couldn't help but take a closer look at the name on the paper. He felt it was familiar. Then he thought that there was a very young female winner of the county examination a few years ago named Zhu Lan.
The official who collected the papers secretly agreed in his heart. Just looking at the boy's condition, he knew that he would become a great man in the future.
The gate of the Imperial Examination Hall was finally opened, and thousands of examinees walked out with either frivolous or brisk steps, including Zhu Lan.
She waited for a while at the agreed place and saw Qiao Youyou and Xiao Wan walking out together.
"Lanlan, thanks for coming up with this way to make instant noodles. Haha, I even added some homemade sauce to it.
You don’t know, I can hear the drooling of the people next door even from my cell!"
Qiao Youyou said happily, it seems that she did well in the exam, and Xiao Wan also had a smile on her face.
Liang Zhou and Zhou Da also came out and talked with Zhu Lan and the other two, exchanging their respective answers.
The five people waited outside the Imperial Examination Hall for a long time, until almost all the candidates in the hall had left, but there was still no sign of Zhao Sicheng.
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