Chapter 208 Results Announcement (Second Update)
She dreamt that Xiao Liulang lived up to everyone's expectations and came in first place, causing the biggest upset in the history of the imperial examinations.
No one expected that an unknown poor country boy could defeat Prince An and win the top prize. Those who spent a lot of money to buy Prince An's first place were all devastated. Gu Jiao made a fortune, turning 1,000 taels into 11,000 taels.
The neighbors also made a fortune.
Gu Jiao felt strange when she dreamed about this part of the dream. Hmm? This time, her husband won't be unlucky?
As it turned out, she was too optimistic.
It was indeed a surprise that Xiao Liulang came in first place this time, but the biggest surprise this year was that Prince An didn't even make it to the bottom of the list.
It is utterly baffling that Prince An, with his talent and intelligence, failed to even pass the imperial examination.
Prince An himself didn't believe it, so he went to the Ministry of Rites to check the exam papers, only to find that there was no exam paper for him at all; his exam paper had vanished!
The emperor ordered a thorough investigation, which eventually revealed that a copyist had tampered with and taken away Prince An's examination paper.
Gu Jiao didn't see in her dream who was instructing him.
If anyone else had encountered such a situation, they could only lament their bad luck. However, given the power of the examination hall, the emperor would not allow Prince An to suffer such injustice. Furthermore, with many candidates questioning their results at the examination hall, the emperor, after some deliberation, decided to restart the imperial examination.
Restart the test.
Qingfenglou has placed another bet.
This time, more people placed bets on Xiao Liulang. Everyone had discovered this dark horse. Not many people bet on him to win first place, but the amount bet on him to be in the top three reached an unbelievable amount.
In an attempt to embezzle this huge sum of money, Qingfeng Tower went so far as to approach Xiao Liulang and try to bribe him to fail the imperial examination, but Xiao Liulang refused.
When Qingfenglou tried to use force instead of gentle persuasion, Xiao Liulang thwarted all their attempts.
When it comes to wits, Xiao Liulang has never lost.
Of course, he also seems to have never won when it comes to luck.
On the day Xiao Liulang entered the examination hall, his carriage collided with another candidate's carriage, and he was seriously injured, preventing him from entering the examination hall smoothly.
As for Prince An, his situation wasn't much better than Xiao Liulang's. There was a slight mishap at the examination hall on the day of the exam, and the exam didn't start until close to noon, so it went on into the evening.
Prince Ke'an suffered from night blindness. He couldn't see at night, so he didn't finish the exam and ended up failing miserably.
After waking up from her dream, Gu Jiao sat on the bed in a daze.
"Is it really that unlucky?"
To prevent the tragedy from happening, the safest way is to help Xiao Liulang avoid the car accident on the day of the re-examination. This is not difficult, as Gu Jiao knows the location and time of the accident.
The reason it is considered the safest method is that Prince An was unable to finish the exam due to darkness. Without Prince An, Gu Jiao was confident that Xiao Liulang could easily win the entire exam.
Another way is to directly prevent Prince An's exam paper from being taken away. As long as Prince An's exam paper is successfully graded, there will be no need for a retake, regardless of the score.
However, this method carries a certain risk—you must know that the first imperial examination is conducted during the daytime, and Prince An performed normally. What if he came in first place?
After thinking for a moment, Gu Jiao decided to hand over the decision-making power to Xiao Liulang.
Gu Jiao put on her clothes and opened the door.
With a creak, the door to the west room opposite opened.
The two looked at each other in surprise.
"You're still awake?"
"You're still awake?"
The two spoke in unison.
"You go first," Xiao Liulang said.
"Oh," Gu Jiao said, "I'm awake."
Xiao Liulang came out carrying an oil lamp and said, "Me too." He paused, then added, "Get up and have some water."
The water was on the table near Gu Jiao. Gu Jiao poured him a bowl of water and handed it to him, saying, "If your rival fell into the water before the exam, would you save him?"
"No," Xiao Liulang said without hesitation, holding his teacup.
"Why?" Gu Jiao blinked and looked at him.
Xiao Liulang calmly put down his teacup: "Because I have no rivals."
Gu Jiao's lips twitched: "..."
So arrogant?
After Xiao Liulang finished his tea, the two went back to their respective rooms.
However, Gu Jiao did not go to sleep. Instead, she changed into her little black clothes and sneaked out of the alley.
She went to the clinic and entered her small courtyard through the back door.
Gu Chenglin now lives in her courtyard.
After completing his task, Gu Chengfeng climbed over the wall into the courtyard and then went into Gu Chenglin's room.
He began to take off his night clothes.
Halfway through undressing, as he unbuckled his belt, a cold, soft voice suddenly came from the darkness: "No need to take it off anymore, put it back on."
Gu Chengfeng was so frightened that he stumbled forward and nearly crashed into a pillar to his death!
He quickly tightened his belt, turned around, and stared in horror at a small figure sitting in the chair, exclaiming furiously, "What are you doing here?!"
"I'm looking for you," Gu Jiao said.
Gu Chenglin turned over.
Gu Chengfeng's roar caught in his throat. He gritted his teeth and glared at Gu Jiao: "Then why didn't you say something sooner? I...I...I..."
You only said anything after I'd already taken my pants off!
Gu Jiao stood up, walked past him, and left the room: "I'm leaving."
This departure was clearly not a farewell; she wasn't being polite to him. So, was she inviting him to come along?
Where to go?
Gu Chengfeng's wary gaze fell on her small figure: "What are you going to do?"
"Are you coming or not?" Gu Jiao turned around and pointed to Gu Chenglin on the bed. "If you're not coming, kick him out tomorrow."
Gu Chengfeng gritted his teeth, "You win!"
Gu Jiao walked forward, waving to him with her back turned: "Don't worry, there will be a reward, you won't be treated unfairly."
Tomorrow is the day the results will be released. We must find Prince An's exam paper before the results are released and put it in the last stack of ungraded papers.
Thanks to the rules of the examination hall, all officials in the inner hall were not allowed to step out of the inner curtain before the results were announced. They ate, drank, and relieved themselves all inside. Therefore, although the copyist had kept Prince An's examination paper early on, he never had the opportunity to take it out and dispose of it.
"Why did you bring me here?" Gu Chengfeng asked, standing under the wall of the examination hall.
Gu Jiao raised an eyebrow, looked him up and down, and gave him a look that seemed to say, "Don't you know what you're doing?"
Gu Chengfeng trembled with rage, clenching his fists and forcing out a few words through gritted teeth: "Steal what?"
...
Fifteen minutes later, Gu Chengfeng successfully infiltrated the inner main hall.
All the officials were asleep, with only the imperial guards patrolling around the palace, keeping watch.
Gu Chengfeng searched through each room one by one.
The copyists were all men, around the same age, and as for their appearance, in the dark, they all had the same nose and two eyes.
However, to become the number one thief in the capital, Fei Shuang had her own identification skills.
He quickly found a copyist whose appearance and figure matched Gu Jiao's description.
Gu Jiao didn't say where he hid the test paper; this part wasn't in her dream.
Gu Chengfeng searched high and low and finally found Prince An's exam paper in his shoes.
Hidden in the shoe, no wonder no one noticed.
Gu Chengfeng was wearing a mask.
But that taste...
Gu Chengfeng suppressed the urge to vomit and used two fingers to pick out Prince An's exam paper.
There were two exam papers in total: one was written in ink by Prince An himself, and the other was copied in red ink by a copyist.
Gu Chengfeng first filed the ink scrolls, then put the vermilion scrolls into the last stack of exam papers awaiting review.
Of course, it wouldn't work to just put them in like that, because this last stack of exam papers were selected by the first few examiners after they had reviewed them, and they all had the grades they had given.
Prince An's vermilion scroll had been hidden from the beginning, so it had not yet been reviewed by anyone.
Gu Chengfeng had no choice but to imitate the handwriting of the other examiners and haphazardly wrote a few "A" marks. Surprisingly, they looked quite decent.
These days, you can't be a thief without some talent.
After doing all this, Gu Chengfeng left the examination hall.
Gu Jiao covered her nose and looked at him with disgust: "You stink."
Gu Chengfeng: Yes, yes, I smell terrible. Who the hell am I smelling so terrible for?!
"Where's the payment?" Gu Chengfeng coldly stretched out his hand.
With a flick of her finger, Gu Jiao sent out a copper coin that landed squarely in Gu Chengfeng's palm.
Gu Chengfeng looked at the lone copper coin in his palm and almost cursed out loud!
He risked being beheaded to break into the examination hall, touched the candidates' exam papers, and ended up only getting a copper coin.
One copper coin!
Gu Jiao turned her small body away, put her hands behind her back, and walked back with a graceful and imposing air: "You're welcome, see you later."
Gu Chengfeng coughed up blood: "..."
The next morning, the copyist woke up to find the exam paper missing from his shoe. He was terrified, worried that a colleague or the guards might have discovered it.
He waited anxiously for someone to pick him up, but as the morning passed, it seemed that no one knew about it.
On the contrary, when we went to grade the papers, the hall was filled with an indescribable stench. Upon closer inspection, we found that the stench was coming from a particular exam paper.
Why didn't I notice how bad the exam paper was yesterday?
To avoid influencing the CEO's judgment of the exam paper, the CEO handed the paper to a copyist: "Take this and copy it again."
"……yes!"
Another copyist was assigned to transcribe the exam paper, and he copied it meticulously.
At noon, all the exam papers were graded.
In the afternoon, the Inner Hall was opened, and a list of officials was delivered to the Emperor under the escort of the Ministry of Rites and the Imperial Guards.
The emperor reviewed it and then had it stamped by the cabinet.
The next morning, the examination hall finally released the results to all the students in the country.
Guess who came in first place?
(End of this chapter)
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