Chapter 239: Nameless, Fingernail Marks
Among the candidates who walked out of Anhe Hall were Zhu Qingyan and Xiao Wan.
Another person left the hall, but he was sitting in a wheelchair. Zhu Lan heard Qiao Youyou talk about the events at the Qionglin Banquet and knew that this person was the young master of the Zuo Xiang family, Wenren Yuebai.
The examinees who handed in their papers came to the side hall one after another. Most of them knew Zhu Lan, and they all came over to her to discuss today's questions. Even those who were not very familiar with Zhu Lan smiled and bowed to her when they saw her.
Only when Wenren Yuebai turned his wheelchair past Zhu Lan, he just nodded slightly to her out of courtesy, and then waited alone in a corner of the side hall, so quiet that it was almost impossible to notice him.
Half an hour later, all the candidates finished their examinations and came to the side hall. After the candidates had gathered, the palace servants counted the number of people, checked their identities and personal belongings, and then a group of guards escorted them out of the palace.
…
The marking room for the palace examination was located in the palace, not far from the Ziyun Hall.
On the first night of submitting the palace examination papers, the marking stage had not yet begun, and the papers were still copied anonymously.
There were nearly three hundred test papers in total. Since transcribing took a long time but the names could be covered quickly, more than a dozen transcribing officials were assigned, but there were only two sealing officials.
At this time, the test papers had not yet been delivered, and the officials who were preparing to copy them under false names were all waiting. Since they were all colleagues, they could not avoid exchanging a few words.
"Brother Zhao, I haven't seen you for a long time. You have lost a lot of weight in the Honglu Temple."
Zhao An Ning waved his hand. "We, the lower-level officials, have to do hard work. Sigh, I don't know how long it will take to seal the test papers today."
The colleague also sighed, "Oh, by the way, remember that you and this time's examiner, Lord Li Duchang, are not only from the same hometown, but also from the same year of Jinshi, right? He has now appeared before the emperor and has been appointed as one of the examiners. You should get to know him more. Who knows, he may become your benefactor in the future."
There was a slight evasive look in Zhao An Ning's eyes for a moment, "Well, I'm not very familiar with Lord Li - Hey, he's here?"
The two men looked up and saw several palace servants walking in with thick palace examination answer sheets in their hands, and placing them on the table in front of them in order.
Zhao An Ning raised his eyes and asked casually, "Is the order correct?"
Since each answer sheet consists of six or seven pages and has not yet been bound, it can be split into several copies for convenience during transportation, but it must be arranged in the original order after it is delivered here, otherwise the pages of the answer sheet will be mixed up.
"Yes, they are all marked in order."
Zhao Anning nodded and said to his colleagues, "Master Li, let's get started."
The two men immediately started to work, each of them distributed an answer sheet in order, and began to seal the parts where the titles were written and bind the entire paper. The sealed answer sheets were grouped into groups of twenty and sent to the examination room next door in shuffled order to be jointly examined by several ministers.
Compared to his colleagues who took the papers and sealed them without even looking at them, Zhao Anning was obviously slower, and his peripheral vision occasionally glanced at the remaining unsealed papers.
His mind was still recalling what his good friend Li Duchang had said to him when the palace examination had just ended.
Soon, only a small pile of papers was left on the table. Zhao An Ning estimated that there should be three answer sheets left on the table, and the one he was holding in his hand was the fourth to last.
Li Duchang said that the female candidate named Zhu Lan was the first to hand in her paper, which meant that her answer sheet must be at the bottom. If he and his colleague each had one, then the answer sheet at the bottom would fall into the hands of his colleague.
Zhao An Ning thought about it, deliberately slowed down his movements, and pretended to raise his hand to slap a mosquito.
The colleague sealed and stapled the third-to-last answer sheet, then reached out and picked up the second-to-last one.
Zhao An Ning then slowly took the last answer sheet to his side and looked at the title. Sure enough, it was Zhu Lan's answer sheet.
He remained calm and covered his name on the answer sheet as usual. Only when he was finishing it, he casually scratched the edge of the paper with his little fingernail, leaving a scratch of neither deep nor shallow.
…
There was originally some noise in the marking room, because every time a batch of answer sheets were delivered, there would be examiners scrambling for them, wishing to be the first to mark all the papers so that they could be promoted to the top.
This situation occurred because of the marking rules for the palace examination in Daliang.
There were eight examiners in total, and they did not write comments, but only graded the papers. In order to prevent the examiners from recognizing each other's handwriting, the grades were not expressed in Chinese characters, but in pictures.
There are five grades in total, marked with "circle", "point", "dot", "straight" and "cross". Circles are the best and crosses are the worst. After the examiner finishes marking the papers, he/she writes his/her rating on the back of the papers, and then other examiners will grade them in order.
Each test paper must be graded by all eight examiners, and the difference in the grades of the test papers cannot be too large. If it is found that the grades of the same answer sheet are too different, another minister will be sent to review the test paper, and a detailed investigation will also be conducted to see if there is any suspicion of favoritism or fraud by the examiners.
No examiner wants to get into trouble, so if the first examiner gives a grade of first, then he can only give a grade of first or second. Similarly, if others give a grade of poor, he cannot give a grade of first even if he likes the paper.
This rule is self-evident and has long become a tacit understanding among the examiners. Everyone wants to be the first person to give a rating.
In the examination room, the seven examiners had piles of answer sheets in front of them, some of which they had fought over. Only Li Duchang was sitting there leisurely.
Finally, the last part of the test paper was delivered, and Li Duchang stood up immediately.
The examiners nearby had already raised their heads. Even though the answer sheets in front of them were piled up like a mountain, they still didn't want to miss this last batch.
But when they saw Li Duchang standing up, they silently withdrew their gazes. After all, Li Duchang had not competed with them just now, and the number of answer sheets in his hand was pitiful. As a colleague, he was so humble, and they were embarrassed to compete with him again.
Li Duchang took over the answer sheets that had been shuffled as he wished. After marking two copies, his eyes fell on the faint fingernail marks on the edge of the lower answer sheet, revealing a faint light.
Found it!
Without thinking, he impatiently drew a circle on the back of the test paper, then turned back to read the contents of the answer sheet.
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