After the palace examination, the process of marking the papers with names covered and sealed begins.
Although the emperor was the chief examiner, it was impossible for him to really be allowed to look at 200 papers alone.
Therefore, before he reviewed the papers, eight examiners gathered in Wenhua Hall to be responsible for marking the papers.
They will use five symbols: 'circle', 'point', 'dot', 'straight' and 'cross' to mark the good and the bad.
The examiners have different aesthetic tastes and likes and dislikes, so their evaluations of the same test paper may vary.
This is a very normal situation.
But if the evaluations differ too much, for example, if a paper circled by one minister is crossed out by another, another minister will have to be sent to check it.
After they finished reading the papers, only the ten with the best evaluations, those with at least eight circles, would be presented to the emperor. These talents had the honor of having their papers read by the emperor.
If there is one among them who particularly pleases the emperor, even if he ranks outside the second place in the exam, it is possible that he will be selected as the first place.
But this is only a possibility, at least this has not happened in this dynasty - after all, the level of the candidates is there, and it is impossible to say that someone really writes the best policy essay in the world, but is very mediocre in other aspects.
The papers of the remaining candidates will be ranked according to the opinions of the eight examiners. If the grades of the eight examinees are similar, their ranking will be determined based on their ranking in the examination.
Speaking of which, when selecting ministers to examine the papers, Emperor Xihe thought of Elder Shen again.
As a result, Mr. Shen recently took sick leave and recuperated at home. He was not given a chance to speak.
But how could such a coincidence happen in this world? Clearly, last month, Lord Shen's voice was as loud as a bell in the court.
Moreover, Mr. Chen has been working day and night for the affairs of the country and the family over the years. He can be said to be the best hard worker in the two dynasties. Unless he was sick and unable to get up, he has never taken a leave.
At first, Emperor Xihe really thought that something had happened to him, so he sent his personal eunuch to express his condolences.
As a result, the Shen family said that the old man needed to rest, and they only politely invited the personal eunuch to have tea, and did not allow him to visit the patient.
That eunuch was the one who had given advice to Emperor Xihe before. He was not very smart in big matters, but he was very perceptive in small matters.
Although he didn't see anyone, he came back and said, "The Shen family didn't look sad. I sat there for a long time and didn't smell any medicine."
Emperor Xihe also knew that the news that Elder Shen was ill was false, and that his previous guess was correct, the descendants of the Shen family were indeed among this year's tribute students.
However, it is possible that the descendants of the Shen family did not rank particularly well - among the first four, he remembered that there was a tribute scholar named Shen, who took the exam under his supervision on the day of the palace examination.
But Emperor Xihe felt that the other party should not be a descendant of Chenge’s old family.
The reason was not anything else but that the man had several classmates from the same prefecture.
Previously, Pang Ci Fu asked him to decide whether to rank according to the actual level or to avoid suspicion and disrupt the ranking on the examination list. Although he had a rough guess in his mind what was going on, he would certainly not just rely on his own guess, so he later sent people to verify it.
After confirming that there was nothing suspicious about the strange phenomenon in the Imperial Examination Hall and that the crazy Taoist had no connection with Mei Ruochu and the others, Emperor Xihe did not take any other action.
Otherwise, if it were discovered that the strange phenomena in the Imperial Examination Hall or the words of the crazy Taoist priest were arranged by Mei Ruochu and others to build momentum for themselves, Emperor Xihe would definitely not allow them to continue to take the subsequent palace examinations.
During that investigation, the relevant information of Mei Ruochu, Chen Aoshuang, Mu Erpang and Wei Xi was also submitted.
Because the focus was not on the background of these people, and Emperor Xihe did not have the time to look at the detailed resumes of several tribute scholars, many matters were only mentioned in passing.
But in those few words that were just mentioned, it was mentioned that there were actually more than four of them, but six people who died together. Moreover, the six of them graduated from the same academy in Qingzhou Prefecture. They ate and lived together in the prefectural school and were like one person.
Although Emperor Xihe had never seen the descendants of Chenge's family, how could the children of the prime ministers of the two dynasties mix with ordinary people, be inseparable, eat and live together? There is still a bit of airs.
This is a bit difficult to deal with. He really wants to leave the first-class position for the descendants of the Shen family.
If nothing unexpected happens, as long as the top four people do not perform poorly, they will take the top four places in the palace examination.
Emperor Xihe did not intend to use the imperial power to disrupt their ranking. After all, Mei Ruochu and the others had already registered with him and would be used by him in the future. He abused his power to squeeze the descendants of the Shen family in so as not to disappoint them.
Moreover, if we do this, if the upright Mr. Shen finds out, he will probably be unhappy.
In his heart, he only hoped that the descendants of Chenge's family could at least secure the second place, and then they would also be Jinshi, and after passing the examination, they would also be able to enter the Hanlin Academy, and later on, they would also be able to join the cabinet.
But don't fall into the top three. Tong Jinshi will no longer have the possibility to inherit the mantle of Lord Shen.
On the third day after the palace examination, the examiner completed the grading and selected ten papers to be presented.
After the morning court session that day, Emperor Xihe came to the Wenhua Hall to conduct the final review of the papers and determine the rankings.
Among them, there were also special readers who could read aloud to the emperor, thus reducing his burden.
However, the emperor of this dynasty was young, but all the ministers who could be used were old, so Emperor Xihe skipped this step and started to read the papers himself.
After looking at them, Xihedi selected five that he was most satisfied with.
The best one among them, Feng Cai Luan Zhang, was written with every word being a gem, and was comparable to the one written by Mu Yunchuan in the previous subject. Needless to say, it was definitely written by Mei Ruochu, who had been known as a child prodigy since childhood.
Needless to say, this person's ranking is naturally number one.
The remaining four people each have their own strengths. Some are good at writing about agriculture and sericulture, some are good at writing about education, and some are not particularly outstanding, but they don’t have any obvious shortcomings either.
Emperor Xihe ordered the names on the ten papers to be removed, hoping to see the names of the descendants of the old family of Chenge among them. In this way, even if they could not make it into the top four, they could still get fifth place.
As for the fake household registration that Lord Shen asked the late emperor for, and it was "falsified" in the previous examination to show other imperial examiners, it certainly didn't matter.
But when it comes to the palace examination, one must provide a true picture of one’s household registration. Otherwise, someone with ulterior motives would find evidence against him and accuse him of taking advantage of his seniority, begging for favors from the previous emperor, and not taking the current emperor seriously.
After opening the box, Emperor Xihe realized that he was wrong. The scholar surnamed Shen among the four people was actually a descendant of Shen Ge's old family.
This can also be said to be a case of the lamp being dark, which made Emperor Xihe quite pleasantly surprised.
Then there is no doubt that Shen Aoshuang is the real runner-up.
There were still three left among the five people he had selected, namely Mu Hanshan, Wei Xi and a tribute scholar named Li Zifeng.
Emperor Xihe knew the first two people, but he had no impression of the last one. After asking the officials from the Ministry of Rites, he learned that Li Zifeng's ranking in the exam was not bad either, at eighth place.
Then naturally Li Zifeng would be ranked fifth.
As for the third place in the imperial examination and the first place in the imperial examination...Emperor Xihe pointed at the papers of Mu Erpang and Wei Xi, pondering to himself.
…………
The few days before the results of the palace examination are announced are the first time that the young men can take a complete rest and relax since they embarked on the road to the imperial examination.
When the list is announced, they will have their own futures and will be busy with other things.
But now that the results have not been released, we still have to keep a low profile.
So they did not go out, but stayed in the academy, reading a random book.
They have been reading these books for so many years that they know every word by heart, and they are also concerned about their grades. Even Mei Ruochu's concentration is not as high as usual.
Chen Cui simply took out the third volume of her "Rouge's Cultivation Records" and asked them to help study it.
The first two volumes of this storybook sold well in Qingzhou Prefecture. Before leaving Qingzhou Prefecture, Cui Wuniang asked her to take time to write the third volume, and said that after all the volumes were finished, she would make a hardcover collection. Later, Cui Wuniang even thought about expanding the market in the capital.
This third volume is the final chapter, and Chen Cui takes it very seriously. After all, it is her own story, so she still wants a good ending. Secondly, the money has been almost used up recently, and after settling down in the capital, he is counting on the subsequent income from this book.
But after writing for several months, she still felt unsatisfied.
Since they have no other entertainment activities at the moment, let them do this.
When he heard that the book was written by his own mother, Mu Erpang frowned and said, "My mother hid it from me and it was so hard for me!"
Chen Cui rubbed him, "Wasn't I afraid that you would be distracted before? Now that the exam is finally over, I dare to order you around."
Mu Erpang wasn't really annoyed. He turned around and started to help discuss with the others. "Brother Mei and Junior Brother are good at poetry and prose, so you will be responsible for filling in the poems. Brother A Fei and Ao Shuang are good at drawing, so you will be responsible for drawing the illustrations. Brother Wei and I will be responsible for polishing the overall text."
Once they have something to do, and it doesn't make them feel bored, their concentration level will be instantly maxed out.
In a blink of an eye, it was the day before the ceremony of announcing the imperial examinations, and with the joint efforts of the six of them, the script had been polished.
Chen Cui put away the manuscript and urged them to wash up and rest early.
She herself read the storybook from beginning to end. It's true, reading the manuscript after they revised it word by word is like tasting delicious food, leaving a lingering taste in your mouth.
Later, when it was quiet outside, Chen Cui put down the notebook, got up and went outside, wanting to make sure that they had slept peacefully and would not go back to attend the ceremony with panda eyes.
As a result, after she went out, she did not see any students still outside, but only saw Lao Buyu with his hands behind his back and looking up at the moon.
"Master, are you worried about tomorrow's gold medal list?" Shen Cui asked after approaching.
Lao Buyu said how could that be?
"I've read all their essays for the palace examination, and none of them performed badly." He sighed softly, "I just didn't expect that the 'ten-year agreement' would be fulfilled so quickly."
Chen Cui didn't quite understand what he meant. Lao Buyu couldn't possibly expect his students to pass the exam later.
Lao Buyu also realized that his words were ambiguous, and immediately said, "That's not what I meant. I'm naturally happy that they all passed the exam so quickly. But from now on... from now on..."
Chen Cui understood now that the students would go their separate ways in the future and naturally it would be impossible for them to stay together every day like before.
She was about to comfort them by saying that all good things must come to an end, and that even if the students were no longer together in the future and had their own families and careers, the feelings they had developed over the years were not fake and they would continue to keep in touch with each other.
Before he could finish his words, Lao Buyu continued, "What am I going to do in the future?"
Well, it seems that he is not using this moon to feel sad about the impending separation.
Chen Cui stopped talking with amusement, "Teacher will still stay in the academy in the future, teaching and educating people, and Er Pang and others who have passed the exams will honor you, so you can live your life as usual!"
Lao Buyu's face lit up with joy, "Will our academy still exist in the future?"
It’s no wonder that Lao Buyu thought so. After all, Chen Cui invited him to teach in the beginning and later set up the academy, all with Mu Erpang as the starting point.
When the golden list is released tomorrow, Mu Erpang will definitely be on the list. By then, Shen Cui would be a legitimate official wife, with the income from the storybooks, fame and money. If it were someone else, they would definitely not want to work so hard.
Of course, Chen Cui also values friendship and will arrange a place for him to be a teacher, but if she, the head of the mountain, is gone, Cuiwei will really exist in name only.
"Of course I am." Shen Cui nodded. Fearing that Lao Bu Yu didn't believe her, she added, "And I'm already arranging the 'enrollment matters'. Soon, new students will be here."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
