Chapter 52

It was Lin Nanji's first time to participate in a scientific expedition, and he felt both fresh and nervous.

[Wow, I wasn’t so strict during my college entrance exams. I almost searched my underwear from top to bottom.]

[I remember when I was taking a chemistry exam, a classmate had a cheat sheet in his jacket lining and was taken away by the invigilator.]

Li Chengzhen drank tea and leisurely reviewed the memorials. The spring floods in the south of the Yangtze River were fierce, and officials from the prefectures and counties in Suzhou, Hangzhou, Jiangxi, Guangdong and Guangxi submitted memorials one after another to describe the situation. The spring floods were still under control in various places. Li Chengzhen was worried that floods would increase after the summer, especially in the coastal areas. If the Japanese pirates took advantage of the opportunity to enter, it would probably cause greater losses.

When Li Chengqian heard the heartbeat, his thoughts were interrupted and he was confused. What is chemistry? What is the college entrance examination? It sounds a bit like a science exam.

Lin Nanjie passed the imperial examination, so why is it that his handwriting is so ugly and his essays are so incoherent?

I think this subject is different from that subject.

[How dare someone bring cheat sheets with them! ]

Lin Nanjie stopped the candidate in front of him and said, "Wait a moment."

The candidate was puzzled: "Sir, I have been searched and I don't have any prohibited items with me. You can't wrongly accuse me."

The person who searched him was a Jinyiwei who was transferred from the Nanzhen Police Department. He did not recognize Lin Nanqi and shouted, "Eunuch, we have checked this man and there is no problem."

Wang Wenhe heard the noise and looked towards Lin Nanjie quietly.

Lin Nanjie's expression remained unchanged. He pointed at the candidate's bag and said, "Open it and have a look."

The examinee looked a little aggrieved and opened his bag: "Everything has been checked."

Lin Nanjie picked up a brush.

The examinee said quickly, "Sir, this is the only good brush I have. I need it to finish three examinations. Please don't damage it."

Bo Zhang also looked over and said, "It looks like there's nothing wrong."

The next second, Lin Nanjie broke the pen shaft and took out a piece of paper rolled into a thin cylinder from it. He spread it out and saw densely written words on it with a very fine pen.

The candidate's face turned pale and he stammered, "I... I don't know when this was put in there. It wasn't me who did it."

The Jinyiwei of the Nanzhen Fusi looked very angry. Bai Zhang waved his hand and said, "Take him away!"

The candidate's qualification for this exam was directly invalidated. He was dragged out crying and struggling. Bo Zhang asked Lin Nanjie: "How did you know that he had a cheat sheet hidden in his pen?"

Lin Nanjie touched his nose and swore, "When I opened the package, I saw that the way he looked at the pen was wrong. As expected, I guessed it right."

Bai Zhang wondered, this guess is so accurate, no, this look is so good.

Next, Lin Nan caught several more cheaters, some hiding cheat sheets in their clothes, some hiding cheat sheets in their water bottles, some stuffing cheat sheets in their socks, some taking the exam for others, and even some twins taking the exam for others.

Bo Zhang and the Nanzhen Fusi team were gradually dumbfounded: "How do you know they are twins?"

Lin Nanjie blinked: "The position of the mole on the portrait is wrong."

Bai Zhang was so impressed that he quietly walked up to Wang Zhongcheng and said, "No wonder the emperor sent Lin Nanjie to inspect the prisons. His ability to catch cheaters is unmatched!"

Wang Wenhe had not expected that Lin Nanjie would really supervise him obediently after he came, and he was a little bit unbelievable. The previous eunuchs always sat on the chair in comfort, and were not even willing to stretch out their hands, let alone search him personally.

But Wang Wenhe did not relax his vigilance: "Keep watching, and report to me immediately if there is any abnormal behavior."

Bai Zhang agreed.

[Luckily I reacted quickly, otherwise I really don’t know how to explain to Master Bai that the twins had been taking the exam for someone else. The younger brother was smart and took the exam for the older brother, but he failed the next exam himself, so he simply exposed the older brother as well, which caused quite a stir.]

Li Chengqian paused with the pen in his hand and shook his head. The world is so big that there are really all kinds of strange things.

Wang Dehai was waiting beside him. He saw Li Chengqian suddenly shook his head and chuckled. He couldn't help wondering, what was written in this memorial that could make the emperor laugh?

Not long after, Li Chengqian laughed again and tapped his forehead with the pen, as if he had heard a joke.

Wang Dehai looked around in astonishment, but no one spoke!

Then he glanced at the letter out of the corner of his eye. It showed the flood forecast for Jiangnan this year. Is this... funny?

Wang Dehai was becoming more and more confused. Could there be something wrong with the Emperor?

Li Chengqian noticed Wang Dehai's frightened expression, put away the smile on his face, and cleared his throat: "Go get another pot of tea."

Wang Dehai looked at the tea he had just changed in his hand, was silent for a moment, and picked up the teapot to change it.

[Huh? I met a familiar face.] The heartbeat sounded again.

When Jiang Hanwen saw Lin Nanjie, he was also shocked. He only knew that Lin Nanjie was the eunuch in front of him, but he didn't know that he could come to supervise the examination room. Judging from the attitude of the people around him, he was very respectful, so he must be very powerful.

There was some contempt in Jiang Hanwen's eyes. He would never associate with these eunuchs. It was simply an insult to the scholars of the world.

While the Imperial Guards were searching Jiang Hanwen, Lin Nanjie slowly walked over with a smile on his face and looked behind him: "Master Jiang, we meet again? Why don't you see Lu Chengzhou?"

Jiang Hanwen raised his chin and said, "He forgot to bring his bag, so he went back to get it."

"I'm coming!" A breathless and appealing voice came hurriedly, "I finally caught up."

When Lu Chengzhou arrived, he stretched out his arms for the Jinyiwei to check and cooperated very well. Bo Zhang took a look at his bag and saw only an inkstone and a brush. He was surprised and said, "Is that all you have?"

Lu Chengzhou looked like he was ready to die bravely: "I'm not going to pass the exam anyway, so why should I bring so many things with me?"

The search was almost over when Lu Chengzhou arrived late. Lin Nanjie couldn't help but support him: "The discipline of this scientific expedition is strict. Do not do anything that will affect the fairness of the scientific expedition."

As he spoke, he glanced at Jiang Hanwen.

Lu Chengzhou didn't listen at all and planned to go to sleep as soon as he got in.

Jiang Hanwen said sternly: "Of course, a gentleman never disdains to resort to shady tactics."

Lin Nanjie added: "Private connections will not affect the imperial examinations."

Jiang Hanwen's expression froze when he heard this, and he glanced at Lu Chengzhou with a little disdain.

Lin Nanjie didn’t know whether these people had listened to him or not, but it didn’t matter, he would continue to arrest them.

There were three examinations in total, each lasting three days, for a total of nine days and six nights. During these nine days, the candidates had to eat, drink, defecate and urinate in the Gongyuan, and the examiners were no exception.

The first test was the Four Books and Five Classics. Questions were drawn from each of the Four Books and Five Classics, one question from each of the Four Books and four questions from each of the Five Classics, for a total of 20 questions, but only seven of them needed to be answered. The candidates wrote furiously, with Lin Nanjie, Wang Wenhe and Bai Zhang monitoring the whole process.

The first exam officially started the next day.

Lin Nanjie looked at each candidate carefully and noticed that Bai Zhang looked at him from time to time.

"Master Bai, what's the matter?"

Bai Zhang touched his nose and said, "Why don't you arrest anyone?"

Lin Nanqi looked puzzled: "Everyone answered seriously, why do we need to arrest them?"

Bai Zhang chuckled and said, "That's right. You caught every one of them accurately during the inspection yesterday. I guess these candidates are scared."

Lin Nanjie blinked his eyes and said, "With the two adults here, the cheating candidates will already be guilty, so I can catch them smoothly."

Bai Zhang agreed with them, and said in a low voice, "Don't tell me, if Lord Wang puts a stern face on them and pokes them, they will be scared to the point of peeing their pants."

Wang Wenhe: …

His face was cold: "I heard it!"

Bai Zhang and Lin Nanjie looked at each other and fell silent.

Wang Wenhe couldn't bear to watch it and felt that Bai Zhang was being too embarrassing.

An exam lasted three days, and Lu Chengzhou slept for two days. Wang Wenhe and his father were old friends, and he was furious: "This kid is incorrigible!"

Lin Nanqi and Bai Zhang quickly pulled him away.

Lu Chengzhou raised his head in confusion. Who? Who was speaking in the examination room? So bold?

I didn’t start answering questions until the third day.

The examiners of the imperial examinations had all experienced the imperial examinations. They could roughly tell who performed well and who did not perform well by patrolling the examination rooms.

For example, when several examiners passed by Jiang Hanwen, they couldn't help but show praise. His handwriting was neat and elegant, and he answered the questions with ease, so he should get a good ranking.

Lin Nanjie was still patrolling with Bai Zhang. Lin Nanjie's reputation had spread throughout the examination hall. Wherever he patrolled, the examinees lowered their heads and answered seriously.

Lin Nanjie stopped beside a candidate and looked at the paper he was answering. The candidate noticed someone beside him and his pen trembled. Lin Nanjie recognized the person who was with Jiang Hanwen that day.

The candidate also looked up at him: "Sir, I'm nervous."

Lin Nanjie smiled and said, "You're not cheating, why are you nervous?"

The candidate dodged his gaze for a moment: "Of course I am nervous about the examination."

Lin Nanjie's eyes lingered on his paper for a moment, then continued to inspect it. Bai Zhang asked quietly, "Any questions?"

Lin Nanjie didn't say anything, but gave Bai Zhang a look and walked to the next examination room. He walked around and stopped behind a candidate. The next examination room was the same. After several examination rooms in a row, Bai Zhang finally saw the clue.

The contents of the papers of those candidates were unrelated, but they all contained words and phrases taken from a poem. If only one or two people were not suspicious, but five or six were like this, something would be wrong.

Bai Zhang's expression changed: "Don't make trouble. I'll go find Lord Wang."

Lin Nanjie nodded.

[I finally let Lord Wang know. Lord Wang is ruthless and will definitely not let this go.]

[This cheating method is very well hidden. In the past, the examiner was informed and a high score was awarded as long as a certain sentence was used. This time, the cheating method was to use a poem, separate the words and sentences from it and use them in one's own article. The method is covert. If it were an ordinary examiner, he might not take it seriously, but Lord Wang is more serious and will definitely investigate it to the end. ]

After Li Chengqian finished reviewing the memorial, he drank a sip of tea and felt relieved. Since it was not cheating that was discovered during the inspection, it must have something to do with the examiner.

The imperial examinations not only affected the fate of scholars, but were also the fairest opportunity for advancement for the common people of the world.

Li Chenghuan's eyes gradually darkened. He would not let this matter go.

After hearing what Bai Zhang said, Wang Wenhe was shocked. He grabbed Bai Zhang's arm and said in a low voice with a serious expression and frowned, "Are you telling the truth?"

Bai Zhang said, "It was Eunuch Lin who discovered it. I am not sure, but it seems not right."

Wang Wenhe nodded coldly: "Come on, take me to see it."

After the inspection, Wang Wenhe looked very suspicious and made up his mind: "I'm going to see Lin Nanjie."

When Lin Nanqi was called aside by Wang Zhongcheng for questioning, he felt a little flattered and bowed quickly, "Sir Wang."

Wang Wenhe suddenly had to ask about a matter of eunuchs cheating in the imperial examinations, and his face looked a little unnatural, especially when the emperor proposed to let the eunuchs patrol the palace, he was the first one to jump out and disagree.

But now, as the fairness of this scientific examination was at stake, he had to ask with a straight face: "You said someone cheated. Is it possible to be sure?"

Lin Nanjie seemed not to notice the impolite look on Wang Zhongcheng's face, and said a little embarrassedly: "I'm afraid that you will laugh at me if I say this. I like to read storybooks in private. I learned a poem from a storybook, "Walking up in the morning, the traveler is sad for his hometown." It happened that I also saw the words of this poem on the papers of several candidates. I dare not be careless, so I will let Master Bai take a look first, and then report it to Master Wang."

Wang Wenhe's brow did not calm down.

In such a huge examination room, with thousands of examinees, even if he looked around, he could only see the examinees' small movements. As for the answer sheets, there were thousands of them, and each one was different. It was extremely difficult to piece together a poem from them.

Wang Wenhe's serious expression showed some tentativeness: "Did you hear any rumors in advance?"

Lin Nanjie remained calm on the surface, but in fact he was shocked:

[As expected, the older you are, the wiser you are. Wang Zhongcheng actually guessed that I knew about it in advance. It's a pity that I can't tell you, otherwise I can't explain it clearly.]

Li Chenghuan in the teahouse raised his eyebrows when he heard this. Being in front of the enemy, he didn't reveal any news to the emperor. Even if the way of revealing it was unconventional, could he still keep it secret?