They had to get up early tomorrow to mark the papers, so after dinner, the big guys chatted with the prime minister for a while.

When the second watch drum sounded, they all excused themselves and went to sleep in their temporary residence.

Wenyuan Pavilion is just behind Wenhua Hall, so Lord Xu naturally returned to his own residence to rest.

Xu Fan happened to come back at the same time. He helped his father into the main room and while chatting, he copied the twenty or so sentences he had written down onto two pieces of paper.

He first handed the one with more words to Xu Jie and whispered, "These are for you to consider at your discretion, father."

"Yeah." Xu Jie frowned slightly and nodded.

When Xu Fan saw it, he thought that his father was not used to this kind of thing.

But Xu Jie had already nodded, so he had nothing to worry about.

Then he handed another piece of paper with only six sentences written on it to his father and said viciously:

"For these six, the lower the ranking, the better, especially that 'Ren Jun Yi Tian Ye', it would be best if he were even admitted to Sun Shan and become a laughing stock!"

I saw my father holding the piece of paper tightly in his hand, gritting his teeth.

The young cabinet minister was overjoyed, but also secretly surprised. He had never expected that his father had such a big prejudice against science, to the point of hating it to the core...

"Don't worry, father. This is just the first step. Wait for me to inform Old Yang and have these people banished to remote corners. Then we'll see who in the world dares to learn science." The young minister quickly reassured the minister.

"Uh..." But I saw that my father's brows were frowned even more tightly, and a look of pain appeared on his face.

"What's wrong? Is there anything wrong with what my son said?" Xu Fan was totally confused.

"I need to go to the bathroom..."

But Lord Xu was seen bending down, covering his stomach with one hand and holding his son's arm tightly with the other.

~~

In the eastern warm room of the Qianqing Palace, two beautiful concubines had finished serving the emperor and were sent away by the eunuchs.

Then, it was time for Little Bee...oh no, His Majesty Emperor Longqing, to choose which bed to sleep on.

Meng Chong, who was on duty tonight as an exception, held a fortune stick and said to the peaceful and sage-like Emperor Longqing:

"Hooray, let's decide by drawing lots."

The eunuchs never expected that their emperor was a person with difficulty making decisions.

Every day before dark, he would hesitate for a long time about which lady to sleep with him, and when he was overwhelmed by the choices, he had to let everyone come.

When he finished serving the emperor and was ready to go to sleep, he would again be troubled by which of the twenty-seven dragon beds to choose... Sometimes, by the time he had calmed down and was awake, he could only stare blankly until dawn.

So I came up with this idea, letting God help the emperor decide which bed he will sleep on tonight.

After hearing what Meng Chong said, Long Qing nodded slightly and let him smoke for him.

Meng Chong shook the stick holder, pulled out a stick and saw that it said "Drunk in the Flower Shade". He smiled and said, "It's on the overpass."

This is also an improvement made in recent months. The emperor thought that names like "Left One on the Overpass" and "Right Two under the Overpass" were too unpleasant to the ears, so he gave each of the 27 rooms names like "Drunk in the Flower Shade", "Yu Meiren", "Dian Jiang Chun", "Xiang Jian Huan", "Die Lian Hua" and so on... It seems as if he is going to transform his bedroom into a club.

"Wait a minute, I don't want to move at all now."

Long Qing shook his head slightly, still in his infantile state. But he couldn't wait to ask Meng Chong:

"You didn't give yourself away, did you?"

"Your Majesty, rest assured. At my age, I am as steady as a rock."

Meng Chong boasted shamelessly.

Of course he wouldn't say it, because he said something too much and almost made Lord Xu so angry that he refused to eat, and Zhang Xianggong had to come out to fix the pot...

"have eaten?"

"have eaten."

"Nothing will happen if I eat it, right? I won't be discovered, right?"

"No, the fish is just not fresh. We didn't put any poison in it. Just poop for a day and lie down for a day and you'll be fine. You won't get sick..."

"He can't tell it's not fresh?" Long Qing asked curiously.

"First, the old servant used red stew, with plenty of onions, ginger and cooking wine." Meng Chong boasted, "Second, Lord Xu is almost seventy years old, and his tongue is no longer sharp."

"Okay, as long as it works, you'll have made a contribution." Long Qing nodded, feeling that he had gotten rid of the idea of ​​becoming a monk, and sat up. "Of course, there must be no sequelae."

"Ah, I am satisfied to be able to share the worries of Your Majesty. Rewards and the like are not important."

Meng Chong quickly put on slippers for the emperor, used his shoulder as a handrail, helped Longqing up, and slowly walked up the stairs.

"Oh, I played a little too crazy and my legs are shaking." Long Qing sighed.

"Your Majesty is in the prime of life. After a good night's sleep, you will be full of energy and vigor again!" Meng Chong hurriedly flattered.

"You know quite a lot." Emperor Longqing patted him on the shoulder with a smile and slowly went upstairs.

~~

The next day, the examiners were waiting at the gate of Wenhua Palace for the arrival of the Prime Minister.

Who knew that after waiting for a long time, all the candidates' papers were delivered, but Xu Jie still did not show up.

The officials could not help but whisper to each other, feeling that this was inconsistent with Lord Xu's rigorous style.

They all looked at Zhang Juzheng.

Yang Bo said: "Taiyue, go and see what happened to Yuan Fu."

Zhang Juzheng nodded and was about to walk towards Wenyuan Pavilion at the back, but he saw Xu Fan coming towards him with dark circles under his eyes.

"Young Minister, why hasn't the Prime Minister arrived yet?" Zhang Juzheng asked knowingly.

"Oh, don't mention it. Maybe the fish we ate last night was not fresh. My father had vomiting and diarrhea all night. He got better after he saw the imperial physician and took medicine."

Xu Fan said expressionlessly, "He really can't get out of bed, so I'll tell you all to read the papers first and come over when he's better."

"Well, let the Prime Minister take a good rest." Yang Bo said with a smile: "It's just a formality anyway, there's no need for him to force himself."

He is a senior and courteous Minister of Personnel, so he is naturally qualified to speak such truth.

"It is still necessary. It's the imperial court's talent selection ceremony, hehe..." Xu Fan laughed dryly. He was so anxious that his mouth was full of blisters and he couldn't speak. He then gave Zhang Juzheng a look, bowed to everyone, and left.

Zhang Juzheng felt so annoyed, thinking why did Bu Gu keep flirting with him? Is it because I’m handsome?

But it was impossible to pay attention to him now, so Zhang Xianggong looked at everyone with dignity and said, "Everyone, let's start reviewing the papers."

"Okay, please." Everyone asked Mr. Zhang and Old Yang to go first and enter the Wenhua Hall.

Duke Chengguo, who served as the supervising official, had already been waiting inside.

Seeing that the examiners were in their positions, he tore off the seal on the box, opened the lock, took out a bundle of test papers, opened it, and handed it to Zhang Juzheng.

Zhang Juzheng passed it to Yang Bo, Yang Bo passed it to Wang Ting, and so on...

There were forty test papers in a bundle, so in the end, only Mr. Zhang had none.

However, Mr. Zhang is in overall charge and does not need to review it personally.

The examiners began to look through the test papers one by one. They had to first pick out the two most favorable ones and recommend them to Zhang Juzheng.

Prime Minister Zhang will pick out a dozen of the best test papers, put them in a box and present them to the emperor tomorrow, asking him to rank the top ten.

The remaining papers are actually not important.

The bigwigs would pass the papers around, take a quick look, and give comments based on their feelings. After the emperor decided on the top ten, they would open the covered names on the papers and fill in the names based on the rankings of the imperial examination.

Because firstly, the time for marking the palace examination papers was too short; secondly, to be honest, the real reflection of the level of the candidates was the ranking in the joint examination... After all, it was the result of repeated marking and evaluation by 20 examiners. Of course, it was more accurate than their blind review.

So why waste your time? Just do it for your own good…

Well, that’s how the bosses do things.

Just when the big guys were letting themselves go, they suddenly heard the eunuch's iconic shrill voice outside the Wenhua Palace:.

"Your Majesty has arrived!"

ps. Thanks to the new leader '日哥12345', I think the five chapters today are very well written, so please give me monthly tickets and recommendation tickets~~~~