Jiang Cang was really unlucky. Among hundreds of candidates, only a dozen bad ones were picked by him.

Just as Mr. Jiang Er thought, the candidates who were assigned to the bad numbers would be lucky enough to get out alive, let alone pass the exam.

Jiang Cang was a person who was unwilling to be mediocre. He had been determined to pursue a career in scientific research since he was a child, so he naturally had plenty of perseverance. That’s why he managed to hold on for more than two days before he couldn’t stand the stench anymore and succumbed to the feeling.

At this moment, Jiang Cang was lying on a shelf and being carried inside. He had already woken up.

"Cang'er——" Xiao stumbled over and her head buzzed when she saw her son's appearance.

My son, who was full of energy when he entered the examination room, now had a yellowish face with plump cheeks that were deeply sunken, and looked like a terminally ill consumptive patient.

How could her son become like this!

"Cang'er, what do you think?"

Jiang Cang tried hard to open his eyes and looked at his panic-stricken mother, and smiled bitterly: "Son has disappointed you..."

After saying these words with difficulty, Jiang Cang rolled his eyes and fainted.

"Cang'er, Cang'er——" Xiao cried heartbreakingly. At this moment, she felt like the sky was falling.

At this time, everyone, led by Old Madam Feng, rushed over.

Jiang Er said angrily: "What's the use of crying? Why don't you call a doctor right away!"

The eldest son just has bad luck, not that he has no ability. Now that things have come to this, he can only wait three years. The most important thing right now is to take care of his health, which is the prerequisite for everything.

Although he comforted himself in this way, looking at his eldest son's miserable appearance, Mr. Jiang Er still felt suffocated.

Having ability but no luck is the most frustrating thing.

Jiang Cang was mainly tortured by the examination environment. He asked the doctor to prescribe some medicine, and his condition gradually improved.

After he recovered, he suddenly felt listless.

After ten years of studying hard, I should have made a stunning debut in the autumn examination, but due to bad luck, I couldn't even finish the first exam. How could this not make me frustrated and painful?

What made Jiang Cang even more miserable was that he had answered the Four Books questions extremely well. Not only could he pass the imperial examination, he could have easily gotten into the top three.

There is a saying about the provincial examination: The first of three examinations is the most important, and the first examination is the most important of the four books.

The first round has seven questions, three from the Four Books and four from the Five Classics. The three questions from the Four Books determine the score of the first round, so candidates will choose to do these three questions first.

Jiang Cang endured the stench and did three questions from the Four Books with great skill, but unfortunately he failed to persevere on the last day and all his efforts went to waste. Feeling uncomfortable, Jiang Cang couldn't help but write down the answers to the questions and recited them over and over again like a madman.

After seeing Jiang Cang's answer, Mr. Jiang Er also wanted to vomit blood.

He was a genuine Jinshi who had studied in the Hanlin Academy. He certainly had good vision and could see how brilliant his son's answers were.

The more this happens, the more my heart bleeds.

What a pity, such a pity.

When a person's strength remains unchanged, the fluctuation of his grades depends a lot on luck. This time, the four-book questions clearly suit Jiang Cang's taste. Who knows what preferences the question setter will have after waiting for another three years?

This is a great move that has already been made!

Mr. Jiang Er had received a lot of "comfort" from his colleagues in the past few days, so he made up his mind to pass on Jiang Cang's answers.

Soon, people who paid attention to the imperial examinations learned one thing: the eldest son of the Duke of Dongping had the talent to be the top scorer in the imperial examination, but his luck was so bad that he was assigned a bad grade and did not persevere in the examination.

As a result, Jiang Cang's withdrawal from the exam became something that people felt was a pity.

Xiao was hit harder than Jiang Erlaoye and his son. She couldn't eat for several days and soon became so sick that she couldn't get out of bed.

Many people came to visit the patient one after another, and Xiao felt even more heartbroken when she heard about her son's condition from these people.

When Mr. Jiang came over, Mrs. Xiao couldn't help sobbing and said, "Cang'er's answers have been spread out. Now everyone feels sorry for him and says that he has the talent to win the first prize. How can Cang'er bear it if he hears this..."

Hearing Xiao's gasps, Mr. Jiang felt upset and even had an absurd thought: If this woman hadn't discussed the pros and cons of the dormitory with him that day, perhaps Cang'er would not have been so unlucky.

It's all because of that stupid woman's crow mouth!

"Don't cry, what do you know!"

Xiao stopped sobbing and raised her pale face with difficulty to look at Master Jiang.

Xiao came from an ordinary family and always listened to Master Jiang on important matters.

"There are countless candidates who withdraw from the autumn examination due to illness. Cang'er is a talented person, but the names of those who withdraw from the examination will not appear on the list of top candidates. Who would know that he is talented? Do we have to explain it to everyone ourselves? If we spread the content of his answer sheet now, those who have vision will feel sorry for him and remember Cang'er's talent. When Cang'er takes the exam again in three years, he will definitely attract attention, which will be extremely beneficial to him." Elder Jiang II explained patiently.

To put it bluntly, Mr. Jiang Er was building up momentum for Jiang Cang under the worst-case scenario, in preparation for the provincial examination three years later.

In Ci Xin Hall, Old Madam Feng was annoyed and sighed heavily when she heard the rumors outside.

She didn't think it was an exaggeration to say that her eldest grandson had the talent to be a top scholar. When her eldest grandson was young, Mr. Enlightenment had predicted that he was a good student and that it would be a good thing for both father and son to be top scholars in the future.

Both father and son became Jinshi, what a glorious thing!

Old Madam Feng suffered from angina whenever she thought of this.

If the eldest grandson is incompetent, there is nothing we can do about it. But it is really sad that the eldest grandson clearly has such ability but missed the provincial examination due to bad luck.

For more than ten days, the atmosphere in the Dongping Marquis's Mansion was gloomy, which made Jiang Zhan embarrassed to show off. He went to work for the Jinwu Guards obediently every day and quickly adapted to his new identity.

After the three exams, the results were soon announced, and the top scorer immediately came into the public eye.

The newly crowned champion was actually a young man, none other than the jade-like young man Zhen Heng, who was famous in the capital.

The day after the results were announced, there was a Deer-Ming Banquet to entertain the new candidates. Zhen Heng was like the moon surrounded by stars, and I don't know how many bottles of fine wine he accepted from his fellow candidates.

There are always people who look down upon young people who are proud of themselves. Some people even said something sarcastic: "It's a pity that the eldest son of the Duke of Dongping, Jiang Cang, didn't finish the exam. I have seen his answers and he is indeed talented enough to be the top scorer."

Zhen Heng was not the kind of nerd who would pretend to be a gentleman when someone was stymied. He also did not seem to have learned from his father to swallow his anger. He immediately raised his eyebrows and smiled, "Have you seen my answer?"

He said he would not hire anyone to bring him pen, ink, paper and inkstone, and he proudly wrote out the first passage from the Four Books from memory. Then he threw down the pen, fell asleep on the table.

Who could not forgive the young champion for being a little arrogant after drinking?

The answers that Zhen Heng wrote down from memory were quickly passed around by the examiners present, and then spread outside at an astonishing speed.

If Jiang Cang is a talented person who is good at studying, then Zhen Heng is a genius. When the two answers were compared together, Jiang Cang's answer, which was originally regretted by countless people, was immediately overshadowed by Zhen Jieyuan's amazing and brilliant answer.