After everyone changed their clothes, Zhou, who was waiting at home, fished out the freshly-cooked watermelons from the well.
This watermelon was also grown in Shuiyun Village in the past, but the variety was not very good, with thick skin and little juice, and it was not particularly sweet, and the price it sold for was not low. Shen Cui has never bought it.
This city is a prosperous place after all. The watermelons bought here, except for having a few more seeds, taste almost the same as the ones Chen Cui ate in later lives.
It is still windy and rainy outside. Listening to the sound of wind and rain and eating a bag of sweet and crunchy watermelon is a very enjoyable experience.
After eating, Wei Shu, Wei Xi and Mei Ruochu wrote down the test questions and asked Lao Buyu to judge them. Mu Erpang's level was not as good as before, so Lao Buyu did not let him do the questions but just let him listen along. It is always beneficial to listen more and learn more.
Later, when Wei Shu saw Mei Ruochu's retest paper, he laughed even more and said, "Everyone says that Brother Mei is modest. For this poem, you still told me to 'sit on the red chair'?"
Mei Ruochu continued to smile without saying a word, and kept silent about the little accident that had happened to him.
Lao Buyu was in a good mood. According to his experience, the three students were sure to become scholars!
Earlier he was worried that he would not be able to fulfill the ten-year agreement, but now it’s only been two years and there are already three scholars around him. I’m afraid we don’t have to wait for ten years at all, we can fulfill the promise ahead of time!
If he hadn't gotten into trouble for drinking before, he would have secretly vowed to quit drinking, but he might have been unable to resist having a few drinks again.
The class was in the dark, and when the class was dismissed, everyone realized that they hadn't seen Chen Cui since they finished eating the watermelon.
In this small courtyard, Chen Cui does not need to act as a time gain switch and watch over them every day, but she has already developed the habit of accompanying them and will not be lazy.
Everyone thought that she might be tired from running around during the day, so they decided to go see her and then go to rest.
Mu Erpang was responsible for knocking on the door and asking her if she had gone to bed. Is it convenient for me to go in?
Chen Cui naturally hadn't rested yet, so she put away the needlework basket and said, "Come in, I haven't slept yet."
Several young men came in one after another, and after confirming that she looked fine, they all felt relieved.
"Why is mother sewing again?" Although she put her things away, a piece of thread fell on the table. The embroidery threads she used were all bought from the system, and they were quite different from what Zhou used daily. The sharp-eyed Mu Erpang saw it immediately, and after saying this, he pretended to be jealous and said, "Mom used to sew for Brother Mei. Now that they have finished their exams, who are you sewing for?"
Shen Cui immediately surrendered to the young housekeeper and said, "I'm used to doing this. I just do some when I have nothing to do. Okay, okay, I won't do it."
Mu Erpang smiled, "Sewing at night hurts your eyes. If you really like it, you can do it during the day."
When they woke up the next day, Chen Cui suggested, "You guys finally finished the exam, don't stay at home these few days, just follow what we agreed on before and go eat snacks, go to the bookstore, climb the mountain, and have a good time."
By having fun like this, you don’t have to worry about the test scores and the announcement of the results.
What young boy doesn’t like to go out? Not to mention Mu Erpang who was traveling far away for the first time, and Mei Ruochu who had been so unlucky before that he never dared to go out casually. Wei Shu and Wei Xi had long been thinking about taking them out for some fun.
The next few teenagers began to discuss travel plans.
The summer heat has not yet passed. The others are still fine as they are all young and strong, but Wei Xi definitely cannot bear it.
So they agreed to go out and play for half a day every morning, and then come back for lunch when the sun got hot. In the afternoon and evening, I still have classes and review lessons.
Lao Buyu is not young anymore, and he had traveled a lot before and seen all kinds of landscapes, so he said he wanted to rest at home.
Chen Cui did not go with them either, saying that the weather was too hot and she was too lazy to move. She only privately asked Mu Erpang to take Mei Ruchu with him.
After they finished breakfast and went out, she went back to the room and took out the sewing basket.
Chen Cui is now very good at sewing belts, practice makes perfect. In the past, she had to rush and it would take her a whole night to sew one belt.
Now even without the time gain, I can do two in the morning.
She made four pairs in two days, and took them all out at once and asked Mei Ruochu to wear them, which raised his luck value back to 80.
Afraid that her fat son would be unhappy, she immediately promised herself to rest well afterwards, sleep when she was supposed to, eat when she was supposed to, and treat herself like a pig!
Mu Erpang was actually just worried that she was working too hard. Seeing that she looked unaffected even though she was secretly doing needlework, he did not feel unhappy.
Mei Ruochu then realized that she was not Ku Xia at all, but was doing this.
He was grateful and apologetic. He was naturally grateful for Shen Cui's care for him, a junior, but he felt sorry because although he knew the belt could bring him good luck, he had already handed in the paper... He was afraid that when the results came out, he would be sorry for Shen Cui's kindness.
But since she had already done it, he didn't refuse and put on the belt immediately.
…………
The day before the results of the provincial examination were announced, the academician and a group of principals and assistants marked the papers and determined the rankings.
The provincial education commissioner would just have to wait until the last day to review all the test papers, make some adjustments or modifications to the rankings, and then have someone remove the papers, cover the names, and copy them before posting the results.
The next morning, the principal and his assistants who helped mark the papers left.
They came from a place more than 500 miles away. The court did not give them any salary. They were all invited by the academicians of successive generations, so they were equivalent to volunteers.
Now that the matter was settled, the academician held a banquet to entertain them and allowed them to practice.
During the dinner, people clink glasses and chat with each other, so naturally they have to find some topics to talk about. They didn't have much interaction in normal times, and what they talked about most was what happened during the grading process in the past few days.
After three rounds of drinking, a headmaster got drunk and started reciting poetry with a red face.
When scholars and literati gather together and recite poems after drinking, it becomes a beautiful topic.
The academician did not think the other party was rude. Instead, he felt that he had a bit of the boldness of a madman.
The headmaster first recited the famous lines that were popular at the time, and then began to recite the poems he had seen during the marking process.
As the academician listened, he realized something was wrong and turned to ask the clerk beside him, "Who wrote the poem that Principal Li just recited? It's so elegant and I've never heard of it before."
The clerk was stunned by his question and smiled apologetically: "Your Excellency may have drunk too much and forgotten that the poem was written by a candidate who passed the college entrance examination this time, right?"
The academician did drink quite a bit of wine, but the work of others was finished and he had to continue tomorrow, so what he was served with today were low-proof rice wine, fruit wine, etc., and he did not get drunk.
This academician also came from a poor family and worked hard for half his life to climb to his current position.
His talent can be called outstanding, and even at this age his memory is still far beyond that of ordinary people.
This time, as the chief examiner, he was required to review all the test papers, but he was not impressed at all by this exceptionally outstanding poem.
The clerk has followed him for many years and it is impossible for him to lie to him, so the only possibility is that... the academician remembered it.
In the middle of marking the papers, he saw a wrinkled paper, and he took it out and put it aside without even looking at it - he himself was a member of the imperial examination family, and no one knew the hardships and difficulties involved better than him. He was as easy-going as he could be with the candidates. For example, when a soldier in front of him repeatedly said that a student was dressed strangely and did not look like a good person, he had confirmed that there was no problem with the body search, so he would never make things difficult for the person just because he thought the other person's words and actions were a little strange.
Similarly, he would not be intolerant of students who were not well educated or lacked talent. The most intolerable thing is the other party's attitude problem.
It would be fine if it were those exams that required you to stay in the examination room for several days, but anyone can easily make mistakes under the high pressure for several consecutive days. But an exam like the college entrance examination only lasts for half a day, and this student actually messed up the test paper like this. Either he is careless or he has a bad attitude. No matter how talented he is, such a person cannot pass the test in his eyes!
Of course, the academician also felt that with this kind of attitude towards the imperial examinations, it would be impossible for anyone to have extraordinary talent.
Later, everyone else on the paper looked at it except him...which means that the poem was on that paper!
The academician's expression changed unnaturally several times. He found an excuse to leave the banquet in the middle of it, then quickly asked the clerk to find the paper.
After seeing this, the academician realized what kind of talent he had dismissed. This poem will definitely stand out in not only the college examination, but also the provincial examination or the metropolitan examination!
But this scroll...
The clerk had been following the academician for many years, otherwise he would not have tried every possible way to make up for him in the past. So he explained, "I heard from someone later that it rained heavily before the exam was handed in that day, and for some reason there was a leak in the exam room. This exam paper... I think it was dripped with rain at that time."
"It's such a coincidence?" The academic official frowned, "Why didn't you report it earlier?"
The clerk was speechless. Everyone has shortcomings. To put it nicely, this academician is impartial and incorruptible. To put it bluntly, he is stubborn and inflexible.
He had already dismissed the candidate and seemed very dissatisfied with him. If he continued to explain, wouldn't he be asking for trouble?
It is estimated that other presidents and colleagues also thought so, which is why they did not say anything at first. Only at the last moment did they recite the contents of the test paper under the influence of alcohol and take the opportunity to criticize the academician.
The important event of marking the papers is coming to an end, and they will leave tomorrow. The term of office of the academician is three years, so it is unknown when we will meet again. Even if I make the academician unhappy, it is not a big deal.
In fact, the academician did not wait for the clerk to answer, but looked at the test paper for a long time without saying a word. In his opinion, the poem was exceptionally outstanding, and it would surely be widely circulated if it was circulated one day.
At that time, others will certainly wonder how such a good poem could be rejected?
What we know is that this candidate was unlucky and the rain ruined his paper. If you don’t know, you might associate it with fraud and favoritism.
As a fellow scholar, the academician knew only too well the power of verbal criticism and pens from scholars.
Moreover, a person who can write such poems, even if he is demoted by him this time, will definitely make a big splash in the future as long as he does not encounter such an accident again!
If we serve in the same court in the future, I’m afraid we’ll have a feud over this matter!
The academician thought about it carefully and broke out in a cold sweat. The alcohol he was already feeling, which was only about 50% to 60%, immediately dissipated.
"Go and ask the dean and his friends, and we will re-arrange the rankings overnight!" the academician said finally.
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