After eating and drinking, Mr. Zhao put the stove under his feet, wrapped himself in a quilt made of ermine skin, curled up in the hall to take a nap. When he woke up, he found that there were still candidates who had not entered the hall.

I had to make dinner again.

It was not until dark, when nearly 4,500 candidates had taken their seats and the gate was locked, that the chief examiner handed out the test questions.

Mr. Zhao looked at the title by candlelight and it turned out to be -

'The Master said: You, did you teach me to know? To know what you know and to know what you do not know is knowledge.'

My ancestor, you have boundless power. I will blow you to pieces!

Master Zhao suppressed his ecstasy and wrote down the first question he had been preparing for more than twenty days on a piece of draft paper overnight.

He has been drinking excessively for the past six months and has noticeably lost memory and become slow to react.

Therefore, I dare not leave the first question to the last as I did in the autumn examination.

He was afraid that he would rack his brains to come up with other articles and forget the previous ones...

Facts have also proved that Mr. Zhao was right to be so cautious.

~~

The next day, after waking up from a nap, Mr. Zhao went to the toilet first, then went to the water tank at the entrance of the alley to fetch water for washing, and then boiled a pot of hot water to make tea.

Only then did he leisurely get ready to start thinking about the other two questions from the Four Books and the four questions from the Book of Rites.

Oh, I didn’t know until I tried it. I realized how badly my level had dropped…

Let's talk about the other two questions from the Four Books. They were not very difficult, but when Mr. Zhao thought about them, how could he have the same inspiration as in the Autumn Examination?

It's like eating thirty eggs in one go, very sluggish.

As a result, he worked hard all day long and only finished two questions from the Four Books before going to bed.

At this time, his five disciples had already finished all seven questions... They didn't know the first question in advance, so they finished all seven questions in one day.

Hua Shuyang and Jin Xuezeng, who were the fastest, had even finished transcribing the entire draft and had nothing to do.

In fact, the other three are not slow either.

Wang Wuyang wanted to take the imperial examination and preserve his dignity as the eldest senior brother, so he kept thinking over the draft.

Wang Dingjue wanted to be competitive and didn't want to do worse than anyone else in the exam, so he kept working on the draft.

Yu Shenxing was checking the draft over and over again because he was being cautious and didn't want to make any mistakes.

However, the three of them had already finished everything that night and went to bed soundly.

Tomorrow, there is still a whole day to copy.

But their beloved master, Zhao Shouzheng, who had an unmatched sleep quality, did not sleep well at all tonight.

He was constantly awakened by nightmares about not finishing the test paper, and he even talked in his sleep several times.

"Wait, no, I haven't finished answering yet!"

“This question is too difficult…”

"Son, think of a solution quickly..."

The candidates in the same lane were also shocked. But they were also puzzled, wondering why this person wanted to rely on his son even in his dreams?

~~

In the Princess's mansion, in the warm room of the bedroom.

"ah!"

The eldest princess screamed and woke up Liu Shanggong who was sleeping in the outer room.

She hurriedly put on her clothes and came in, lighting the glass lamp.

The eldest princess was seen sitting on the bed, hugged by a quilt, her face was pale, her bangs stuck to her forehead, and she looked frightened.

Liu Shang Gong hurriedly took some calming and nourishing soup from the stove and brought her some.

Because of the trauma of her childhood, the princess would suffer from nightmares from time to time, so she always prepared this soup at night.

Liu Shang Gong fed the princess soup spoonful by spoonful. Noticing the redness on her face, she asked in a low voice:

"Your Highness, are you dreaming about your childhood again?"

"No." The princess shook her head and said softly, "I dreamed of Zhao Lang..."

"Oh, ah?!" Lady Liu almost fed a spoonful of soup into His Highness's nose.

"Hey, how could I have a nightmare?" Liu Shanggong couldn't understand it. She thought it was more like a wet dream. Bah, bah, what was I thinking?

"I dreamed of Doctor Zhao, the top scholar." The eldest princess said softly.

"Uh..." Liu Shanggong had a hard time keeping up with the prince's pace. "Isn't that a good thing?"

"What's good about that?" The eldest princess said in a tearful voice, "If he wins the first place in the imperial examination, the emperor will definitely summon him."

"Um."

"After seeing him, I heard that he was short of money. My brother is a pushover, so he must worry about his marriage."

"Oh." Liu Shanggong finally got on the line.

"When the time comes, the king's orders will be hard to disobey. How dare Zhao Lang refuse?" The princess rubbed her legs anxiously and said, "When he marries a girl of seventeen or eighteen, what will I do?"

"Ah..." Seeing that Her Highness was about to burst into tears, Lady Liu patted her back and comforted her:

"Don't worry, it's absolutely impossible. Master Zhao won't be the top scholar."

"Hey, do you look down on Zhao Lang?" The eldest princess stopped crying and looked at her scrutinizingly.

"Absolutely not..." Liu Shanggong quickly used her skills as a master of mending pots to remedy the situation for herself, saying, "Because dreams are the opposite of reality!"

"Ah, then I will be ranked last in the exam?" The princess was unhappy again. "Zhao Lang is the best, no one can beat him in the exam!"

"..." Liu Shang Gong was completely speechless and drank the calming soup in the bowl in one breath.

She felt like she needed this more.

"This one is cold. I'll change another bowl for Your Highness."

~~

The third day is also the last day.

Mr. Zhao, who had a nightmare all night, went to the toilet listlessly with dark circles under his eyes.

How could he still be as calm as he was yesterday morning? He didn't even have time to eat, let alone make tea. He quickly started to work on the four questions from the Book of Rites... He looked so embarrassed, like a monk who started writing a book at noon.

There was only half a day left, and I had to leave time to copy the papers, so I had to make do with what I had.

At noon, the three disciples had meticulously copied the seven articles.

Once the ink is dry, put it in a roll bag and start cooking today’s meal.

Yu Shenxing beat two eggs, wrapped them in steamed bread slices and fried them until golden brown, then enjoyed them with a satisfied look on his face.

Wang Wuyang cooked some dragon beard noodles and ate them with tea eggs, enjoying it very much.

Wang Dingjue was so stubborn that he didn't want any food to be left over, so he prepared four dishes and a soup. All he needed was a pot of wine so that he could entertain his guests.

Anyway, you can't hand in the paper early, so you can do whatever you want.

But their poor master didn't bother to light the fire. He just ate some dried longan and continued to think about the third chapter of "Book of Rites".

Unfortunately, this year's "Book of Rites" was quite difficult, so Zhao Shouzheng didn't finish it until sunset.

Seeing that he would not have enough time to finish the last article, he quickly laid out the answer sheet and copied the six completed articles onto it.

According to the examination rules, if a candidate is not good at writing, he or she can skip one question from each of the Four Books and Five Classics and will not fail the exam.

Having said that, everyone else answered seven questions, but you only answered six...

When the examiner is marking your paper, regardless of the quality of your essay, you have already lost in terms of perception.

This gap can only be closed if the rest of the articles, especially the first one, are much better than others...

But it's no use saying anything now. Mr. Zhao would be very lucky if he could transcribe six articles of about 3,000 words without making any mistakes.

At this time, the candidates had already started to hand in their papers, but Master Zhao was still there, copying every stroke with his eyes wide open.

Wow, if you make sloppy corrections on the paper, you will also be deducted points...

~~

The examination room is located downstairs in Mingyuan Building.

The supervising official sits high up in the hall, supervising the official who receives the papers collecting them.

After the examiner has verified the identity of the examinee, he or she will conduct an initial check on the test paper received.

If it is found that the test paper is damaged or has been added or altered with more than 100 words, the corners of the test paper will be cut off and the reasons will be stated.

The violators selected by the examinees, the transcription office and the reading office were written down with a blue pen and posted outside the entrance of the Imperial Examination Hall, which was called "the blue list".

Those who made the blue list would be disqualified from taking the Chinese exam if their test papers never reached the examiners...

After checking, the examinees will be given a seal ticket, and then every fifty test papers will be sealed with a number and put into a box.

Therefore, just for the process of collecting the papers, the four examiners were busy from dusk until dark.

~~

When most of the candidates had handed in their papers, there were still some candidates like Mr. Zhao who were studying hard all night long.

According to the rules, candidates who have not finished copying after dark can be given a candle, but they must stop writing when the candle burns out.

Mr. Zhao worked hard and finished copying the six articles when the candlelight was only the size of a thumb.

Then he quickly checked it again in the last candlelight, and then hurriedly ran to the examination room with the test paper in his hand.

At this time, there were only a few candidates left in the examination room.

Mr. Zhao handed over the test paper with both hands despite the strange look from the examiner.

Only then did he let out a long sigh of relief...

ps. The fifth update, 9000 votes plus more, please give me monthly votes and recommendation votes~~~~