#87 - The old man is old
Entering the Gongyuan of the Ministry of Rites.
Xu Ming, holding his nameplate, brush, ink, paper, and inkstone, headed towards his examination cell.
The examination cell was small, five chi long, four chi wide, and eight chi high. Inside, there was only a table, a bed, a lamp, and a chamber pot.
Eating, drinking, relieving oneself, and sleeping all had to be done in this place.
The only good thing was that the chamber pot had a lid, and it could be sealed tightly. Moreover, there would be dedicated people responsible for cleaning it at regular intervals.
As the bells rang, the metropolitan exam officially began.
The exam papers were distributed to everyone in order, and after the papers were collected, it was done in reverse order, from back to front.
With another ring of the bell, the candidates could open the exam papers, read the questions, and start answering.
There were four subjects in total: scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants. Each subject had twenty questions, and the exam lasted for four days.
During these four days, you not only had to answer the questions perfectly, but also had to transcribe your answers, striving to avoid even a single typo and maintaining the neatness of the paper.
After all, the neatness of a person's exam paper could greatly determine the examiner's first impression of you.
Not to mention, if you successfully passed the metropolitan exam and became a Gongshi (a successful candidate in the metropolitan examination), your exam paper would be presented to the Emperor.
Therefore, a metropolitan exam was not only a mental task but also a physical one.
Of course, for a martial man like Xu Ming, this kind of physical labor was nothing.
When it was time for meals, the Gongyuan would be responsible for distributing food to each Juren (a successful candidate in the provincial examination).
These foods were all inspected by the chief examiner and the deputy examiner with spiritual power, for fear that someone might have mixed something into them.
What made Xu Ming feel relatively gratified was that the food provided by the Gongyuan did taste quite good, and it was a balanced diet of meat and vegetables.
It just felt not as delicious as the Blood Floating Pagoda's food.
In the evening, the sky gradually darkened, and each candidate lit their lamps one after another.
On a tall building in the Gongyuan, Xiao Mochi stood with his hands behind his back, taking in the entire Gongyuan.
Xiao Mochi would stand on the tall building every night to watch, just in case there was a fire somewhere.
In the morning, Xiao Mochi's gaze fell on an examination cell, and he couldn't help but smile: "This kid, still so energetic?"
Inside that examination cell, the candidate Xu Ming got up and was practicing boxing, while the other candidates were still asleep.
On the first day, most candidates felt that the time was very ample and they were unhurried.
On the second day, the vast majority of candidates entered the state.
On the third day, some candidates realized that they seemed to be running out of time and hurried to catch up.
On the fourth day, some candidates were sweating profusely, and some candidates leisurely took a nap, especially in the evening. The candidates who had finished the questions waited for the papers to be collected early the next morning, and those who had not finished the questions transcribed them overnight.
Four days passed, and with another ring of the bell, all the candidates stopped writing.
Regardless of how well they had done on the exam, with the sound of this bell, everyone had a feeling of relief.
Xu Ming also felt like he had returned to the time when the college entrance examination ended in his previous life.
However, the difference was:
After the college entrance examination, you could tear up books and fold paper airplanes, throw them down from the楼上, and some old *bies (derogatory term for someone)* would run over to compare answers with you. After returning home, you could eat a good meal and have fun to your heart's content.
But the metropolitan exam was different.
After the metropolitan exam, all the candidates needed to continue to stay in the examination cells and could not go anywhere.
They needed to stay for about ten days.
During these ten days, the examiners would be responsible for grading the exam papers, and there would also be dedicated people to inspect each examination cell, for fear that someone was cheating.
In fact, to be honest, unless it was something like leaking exam questions, which would implicate the three generations of the family, a little bit of classical small cheat sheets had very little impact on the exam.
After all, all the questions were essay questions.
Most candidates, after loosening the tight string in their minds, lay on the bed and slept soundly.
Xu Ming was still practicing boxing, disciplining himself.
Of course, there were also many candidates who could not sleep, because after ten days, the results would be announced. Those who did not pass the exam could only come again four years later, but how many four years does a person have in their life?
In the backyard of the Ministry of Rites, guarded by the Blood Floating Pagoda, led by Xiao Mochi, there were a total of one hundred and one officials grading the exam papers. There were twenty-five people for each subject of scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants. Each candidate's exam paper needed to be graded by three people.
The exam papers were all graded with a point system. Once there was a controversial exam paper, Xiao Ke needed to make the final decision.
The number of people participating in this metropolitan exam reached 6,000, which was the most since the founding of the Wu Kingdom, but the number of people to be admitted this time was only 400.
This was a very large workload for the examiners.
At the beginning, the examiners might have been more patient and read at a slower pace, but the more they graded towards the end, the more bored some examiners became.
So if your handwriting is very difficult to read.
Then it might be very bad.
On the ninth day, the Juren had not taken a bath for thirteen days, and flies were flying around in the examination cells.
To put it bluntly.
The examination cells were like pigsties.
It's just that four hundred of these pigs can rise to prominence.
And in the backyard of the Ministry of Rites, as the last examiner finished grading the last exam paper, the whole person was also exhausted and slumped in the chair.
"Your Excellency, there are a total of six thousand two hundred and fifty-one candidates, and a total of twenty-five thousand and four exam papers. Your subordinates have all finished grading them. These are the exam papers of the top six hundred candidates with the highest total scores in the four subjects. Please take a look, Your Excellency."
The deputy examiner pushed a small cart and sorted out everyone's exam papers. The names of the candidates had already been unsealed.
"Okay, thank you for your hard work." Xiao Mochi took the exam papers one by one and read them.
Xiao Mochi looked back from the six hundredth place, and the more he looked, the brighter his eyes became.
When he saw the exam papers of the top ten candidates, Xiao Mochi flipped through them again and again, admiring them so much that he couldn't put them down. The more he looked, the more he liked them.
The exam papers of the top ten candidates, each of them, if placed in most of the metropolitan exams in the first two hundred and fifty years of the Wu Kingdom, would have the hope of getting the Jieyuan (the top scorer in the provincial examination). Several articles were written extremely well.
And now, these people were all gathered together.
"The old people of the past are on the list for thousands of years. You have all come at the right time." Xiao Mochi put down the last exam paper and took a deep breath. "No problem, let's announce the results to the Juren."
"Yes."
That morning, as the examiners shouted out the names of the Juren one by one, one person became a Gongshi for every name shouted.
Some people laughed loudly, and some people shed tears of disappointment.
A total of four hundred Gongshi were taken to bathe and change clothes, and went directly to the palace to meet the Emperor and participate in the palace examination.
"Dong"
"Dong"
"Dong"
Three days later, as all the Gongshi came out of the palace, the Blood Floating Pagoda members had already appeared in the imperial city. In front of the Blood Floating Pagoda members were the officials holding the golden list.
This chapter makes up for yesterday's, and there is another big chapter of 4000 words.
