At the beginning of the Yin hour, Mei Ruochu, who had been waiting outside the Imperial Examination Hall for nearly an hour, finally got his turn to enter and be searched.
It was still the middle of the night, and the wind was freezing. Many examinees who had been waiting for a long time like him were already shivering and staggering from the cold.
Mei Ruochu naturally felt cold as well, but because he was holding a hand warmer in his hands and wearing special socks on his feet, his hands and feet were warm, so his condition was much better than that of others.
The person in front of him was an old scholar who was nearly 70 years old. He was old and his legs and feet were frozen, so it was difficult for him to enter the venue.
When Mei Ruochu saw him, she reached out and supported him.
Due to environmental constraints, the other party could not speak and could only express his gratitude with a grateful look.
After the old scholar, it was Mei Ruochu's turn to enter.
There is no one to guarantee the imperial examination, and only the floating votes will be considered.
But the examiner had a booklet at hand that described in detail the characteristics of the candidates. This is not like the previous exams, which were written by people from the yamen when registering before the exam, but the files of these candidates from previous exams were collected.
The examiner first looked at the booklet and the ticket and was about to leave.
After this step of identity verification, the sergeant came over to search Mei Ruochu and asked him to take off his clothes. His luck value immediately dropped by 60 points, and the examiner stopped again for some unknown reason.
"Tall and thin, with a fair complexion and no beard..." The examiner muttered the corresponding features of Mei Ruochu in the booklet, saying that it was not right.
What's wrong?
When he was still in Qingzhou Prefecture, Mei Ruochu worked hard on his own while taking on some work to help with his living expenses, and occasionally gave guidance to his classmates. It can be said that he is doing three things at once.
After arriving in the capital, he only focused on his studies and did not need to devote his attention to anything else. In order to hide his edge, he never left his house.
As the head of the mountain, although Shen Cui spent a large sum of money to rent a new house, he did not lack for food and drink. In addition, there was a capable person like Zhou who took care of the household chores and took over the kitchen work.
So Mei Ruochu, who doesn't have to work recently and has good food and drink, has become a little plumper than before. She's not fat, but her figure is no longer so thin and skinny.
In addition, he left the academy at midnight, and by now, blue stubble has already appeared, so he can't be considered "beardless".
Facing the examiner's scrutinizing gaze, Mei Ruochu was not afraid and allowed him to look at him.
The examiner then sought advice from other colleagues. Fortunately, the examination was under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Rites, and many officials and clerks from the Ministry were present at the time.
The previous provincial examination in Linnan Prefecture was again chaired by Shangshu Wang as the chief examiner, and he was also accompanied by officials from the Ministry of Rites.
Mei Ruochu made a big splash at the Lu Ming Banquet after the provincial examination. The clerk was naturally impressed by him, so he came forward to testify that he was not an impostor.
Mei Ruochu stood naked in the tent, allowing several officials to come in and out and comment on her. At this time, nearly two quarters of an hour had passed before they finally started the body search.
At this time, it was not only cold, but also an insult to the proud and arrogant scholars.
However, he has always had a good attitude and is not surprised by such things, so his mood was not affected. He just laughed at himself and thought that he always suffered during the body search. He didn't expect that the examination would have an additional step where the examiner compared the booklet and the floating ticket, and something could go wrong in this step. However, the soldiers in charge of the search all thought that he was dressed strangely. In this weather, everyone is wrapped in many layers of clothes, so I shouldn't receive any "special care" later.
Another thing I didn't expect was that in most of the body searches during the examinations, one or two sergeants were responsible for searching one person.
The standards of the imperial examination were raised, and the number of soldiers responsible for body searches was increased to five.
Only with the consent of five people can the candidate enter the venue smoothly.
The five soldiers stood still until the examiner confirmed their identities. They only started the search after the examiner left.
The leading soldier asked suspiciously, "All the candidates waiting in the hall were so cold that their faces turned pale, but how come you are not hurt at all?"
Another sergeant echoed: "Yes, now that you have taken off your clothes, your lips have turned purple from the cold. It is obvious that you are not resistant to cold. Could it be that..."
Mei Ruochu, whose lips were purple, pointed at the hand warmer and explained the reason.
The five soldiers took turns to carefully examine the hand warmer, and found that it was indeed very ordinary, with only wood ash inside.
Afterwards, they searched all the clothes that Mei Ruochu had taken off, and naturally there was no problem. However, they still felt a little uneasy in their hearts. However, those who took the imperial examination were all candidates, and they would be able to rise to the top in one step after passing the imperial examination. The clerk from the Ministry of Rites came over and pointed out that the person in front of them was a top scorer in the imperial examination, so they didn't want to go too far.
The leading soldier suppressed his suspicion and was about to let Mei Ruochu put on his clothes when another soldier stepped forward and whispered, "This is strange. This scholar looks handsome, but I don't know why he is a good person."
Another person said, "Although I feel the same way, he is not that kind of person. When he first entered the venue, I saw him helping others."
The two soldiers who spoke in front looked stern when they heard this.
Some good deeds, when done by decent people, make people think that they are kind and generous.
If someone like Mei Ruochu, who made them feel that he was not a good person for no reason, did it, they would feel that things were not simple - more than 5,000 people participated in the examination, but only 200 to 300 were selected. In an exam with such fierce competition, even if you are the top scorer in a province, you should hope to have fewer competitors. Why are there still people rushing to help?
The five soldiers looked at each other. Since they were in charge of the imperial examination, they were important figures in the army.
When marching and fighting, we often rely on intuition. If they really let people with ulterior motives get away with it, the consequences would be something they could not afford.
The leading soldier paused while delivering the clothes and said, "Then let's check again!"
Another half hour passed, and Mei Ruochu was almost unconscious from the cold all over, and the second round of search was finally over.
Mei Ruochu was the last one to enter the venue. After he put on his clothes, the five soldiers in charge of the search became frightened and carefully escorted him into the venue.
Fortunately, Mei Ruochu had a firm mind. If it were someone else, they would have thought that the situation would get better at first, but in the end it got worse and worse. Their mentality would have collapsed before the exam even started.
Chen Cui let out a long sigh of relief when she saw Mei Ruochu, who was blurred on the screen, was finally able to enter.
At this moment, Mu Erpang stood up. He was the second batch to enter.
Naturally, Shen Cui didn't need to worry about his admission, so she just accompanied him to have breakfast, checked his luggage, and sent him out of the academy.
Not long after he left, Wei Shu, Wei Xi, Cui Fei and Chen Aoshuang all got up.
They were all among the third batch to enter. They had not yet finished their breakfast, but Mu Erpang, who was one batch ahead of them, had already entered smoothly.
Mu Erpang was led by the soldiers into the Imperial Examination Hall, and he felt that the place was terribly huge.
The main gate alone has five bays and is surrounded by three layers of high walls. The court and government offices are tall and majestic, and there are watchtowers at the four corners for inspection and surveillance.
At this time, the sky was not yet bright, and in the semi-dim light, the overall environment of the Gongyuan was too quiet, giving people a gloomy feeling.
Many people feel timid as soon as they enter such an environment.
Mu Erpang was not afraid. Instead, he thought that since this place looked so good, the environment in the cell must be good too!
As a result, the soldier in charge of leading the way turned around and led him to the examination hall, where a low examination hall that stretched as far as the eye could see came into view - well, this environment is even worse than that of the provincial examination hall!
Soon he arrived at his examination seat and realized that his visual observation was correct. The number room is indeed smaller than that of the provincial examination.
Every inch of land in the capital is extremely valuable, and this is even reflected here! I don’t know how many years of salary I will have to save to buy a decent place for my mother to open a school after I pass the exam.
Mu Erpang sat down in the room while laughing at himself, then took out a rag and wiped the board skillfully. After wiping the board, he waited for the papers to be distributed. He sat back with his legs bent, feeling bored - the place was too small, he couldn't even lie down halfway.
Not long after he had packed up and sat down, the third group of Wei Shu, Wei Xi and others began to enter.
Likewise, everything went smoothly and they soon reached their examination seats.
When the sky brightened, just like the previous provincial examination, the light curtain in front of Shen Cui was divided into small grids.
Mu Erpang and his Q version figures appeared in the cubicle.
During the previous provincial examination, the grids of several people were quite far apart, it was no exaggeration to say that they were from far apart in the world.
This time they all gathered in the cubicle at the lower right corner of the light curtain.
Whether it was a coincidence, or a new rule issued by the court to arrange candidates with similar hometowns in the same area for the convenience of management, or a deliberate arrangement of the law, Shen Cui did not know for the time being.
At this time, she stared at the light screen for a while and found that the grid, that is, the room number, was smaller than before.
Mu Erpang has grown a lot in the past two or three years. He is no longer short and is almost as tall as Shen Aoshuang and Cui Fei.
Unfortunately, except Cui Fei and Shen Aoshuang, everyone in the academy is tall, far exceeding the average height of men nowadays.
So if he was suffering so much, let alone others.
Mei Ruochu, Wei Shu and Wei Xi's postures were all very awkward, and you could tell just by looking at them that they were extremely uncomfortable.
Especially the sturdy Cui Fei, who happened to be wearing an orange coat that day.
His chubby Q-version figure was stuck in the small grid, just like a fat orange cat that had made a mistake and was locked in a cat cage.
Only Shen Aoshuang, who was about the same height as Mu Erpang and extremely thin, could barely maintain a posture that looked relatively comfortable.
Chen Cui was really helpless in this regard. She only thought that the imperial examination was just the last one. The palace examination required her to write the papers in the Golden Palace in front of the emperor. Although the psychological pressure would definitely be greater when answering the questions under the emperor's nose, at least she would not have to suffer in the environment.
The first day was the same as the previous provincial examination, no papers were distributed, and everyone just sat and waited.
As they couldn't lie down, everyone in Cuiwei leaned against the wall with their arms folded, some in a daze, some dozing off.
Chen Cui took the needle and thread to work, looking up at them from time to time, and thought that the first day should be spent peacefully.
However, when she accidentally raised her eyes, she saw that the boys were all trembling, and then they all looked towards the front of the grid——
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