As the more than three hundred candidates who had been queuing passed through the Dragon Gate and waited in the large courtyard, dawn was breaking. A yamen runner came forward to call out the names, and Zhan Feiyu received her examination paper.
A minor official standing by naturally recognized Zhan Feiyu and whispered, "The paper has your seat number, young scholar Zhan. Please go to your seat according to the seat number. Your cubicle is the third one on the east side."
"Thank you," Zhan Feiyu replied. After thanking him, she glanced at her seat number, thinking that with Magistrate Chen's consideration, she would at least not be assigned a smelly or drafty cubicle.
Others also began to find their assigned cubicles. Young children attending the county examination for the first time looked mournfully at the narrow, cramped cubicles that resembled privies.
Inside, there were two planks of wood, each four feet long. The cubicle walls had brick grooves, two on the top and two on the bottom. During the examination, the two planks would be placed in the top and bottom grooves, forming a simple table and stool.
"No talking!" a yamen runner nearby shouted sternly. The few candidates who had been complaining dared not speak again.
Zhan Feiyu took out the rag from her exam basket and nimbly wiped the wooden table and stool clean. She then took out the items from her basket one by one and arranged them neatly, placing the examination paper on the far right, away from food and water.
"Silence!" the yamen runner shouted three times. As all the candidates entered their cubicles, the gates of the examination hall were closed, and a profound silence fell over the entire area, creating an inexplicable sense of tension.
The county examination consisted of five rounds. The first round was the main examination, and it admitted the largest number of candidates. Those with fluent writing could be admitted. Those who failed the first round could not proceed to the next.
Zhan Feiyu looked at the examination paper spread on the table. The paper had red lines horizontally and vertically, with twelve lines per page and twenty characters per line. Two blank sheets were provided as scratch paper.
When answering, candidates were not allowed to write their answers outside the sealed line.
After a while, the iron cloud gong was struck three times, and the county examination officially began. Yamen runners, holding牌灯 (pai deng - lantern signs), patrolled the hall, and the examination questions were displayed on circulating boards.
This round had a total of five papers. The first two papers tested帖经 (tie jing - reciting classics) and墨义 (mo yi - explaining characters). Most young scholars who studied could answer them.
The remaining three questions were on the question boards, which candidates had to copy themselves.
Picking up her brush, Zhan Feiyu quickly copied the examination questions onto her scratch paper. The first question was from the Four Books: "to stop at benevolence for a minister."
Not to mention the twitching corners of the mouths of other candidates, Zhan Feiyu also realized the difficulty of the county examination questions. This first question was a short couplet.
Without allowing the candidates to complain, the minor official had already walked over with the question board. The second question was selected from the Five Classics, with one question each from the Book of Changes, Spring and Autumn Annals, Book of Songs, Book of Rites, and Book of Documents. Candidates could choose one of these questions to answer.
The third question was a five-character, six-rhyme regulated verse: "Bright Moon on Water."
After confirming that her name and seat number were correct, Zhan Feiyu began by answering the帖经 and墨义 questions from the first two papers.
The questions on these two papers were not extensive, with thirty帖经 questions and ten墨义 questions. Most candidates finished within half an hour.
After half an hour, Zhan Feiyu stretched her wrists and prepared to answer the most difficult and important first question from the Four Books.
This sentence came from the Great Learning: "As a ruler, to be benevolent; as a minister, to be respectful; as a son, to be filial; as a father, to be compassionate; when interacting with the people, to be trustworthy."
The general meaning is: As a ruler, one should be benevolent; as a minister, one should be respectful; as a son, one should be filial; as a father, one should be compassionate; when interacting with the people, one should be trustworthy.
This question took the first half of the upper sentence and the latter half of the lower sentence. The "benevolence" in the question referred to what a "ruler" said, but the question linked "benevolence" and "minister." When answering, one had to connect "benevolence" and "minister" to write the essay. The key point was that this "benevolence" was "for a minister."
Not only Zhan Feiyu was thinking, but other candidates were also doing the same. The remaining time was sufficient to answer the three major questions, and the focus was on how to write the essay well.
If this Four Books question was answered well, one might be promoted to the "hall seat" and be able to answer the questions in front of presiding officials like Magistrate Chen and Instructor Zhao during the second round of the examination.
Although the supervision would be stricter, and there might even be direct questioning, those who performed excellently would surely rank higher when the results were announced.
For the top scorers in the county examination, as long as they had genuine talent and learning, when they took the prefectural examination, the prefect would generally show consideration for the county magistrates. The top-ranking candidates would almost always pass the prefectural examination, thus securing the title of童生 (tong sheng - a student who has passed the county examination).
Time passed little by little. The February weather was still bone-chillingly cold. It had been more than an hour since dawn, and her hands and feet were already frozen.
"Cough, cough..." A candidate in the cubicle diagonally opposite shivered from the cold and coughed from time to time.
Zhan Feiyu, who was writing on her scratch paper, looked up. A sharp glint flashed in her eyes. It was Qian Pingchao!
Recalling the beggars who had emerged on the official road that morning, Zhan Feiyu couldn't help but sneer. What a coincidence!
Qian Pingchao shivered in the cold wind. He was not short of money, but he was still a commoner. In public, he had to maintain the appearance of a poor scholar, so he wore only a few thin clothes. As the cold wind blew into the cubicle, Qian Pingchao's hands turned blue and purple.
Looking at Zhan Feiyu, who was wrapped in fox fur, Qian Pingchao suppressed the envy in his heart. Thinking of something, he lowered his head to grind ink and smiled sinisterly.
After a while, Qian Pingchao, having calmed his emotions, looked up and saw that Zhan Feiyu had already picked up her brush and begun writing. Her focused and serious demeanor and the smooth flow of her brushstrokes indicated, even without seeing the content, that Zhan Feiyu's thoughts must be flowing like a spring.
Qian Pingchao, who still didn't know how to start the essay, once again twisted his face with jealousy. Why was it that both of them came from farming families, yet he had to suffer and endure hunger and cold?
But this girl Zhan Feiyu had become a disciple of Grand Scholar Gu, and Magistrate Chen also took care of her. She was writing so smoothly, perhaps Magistrate Chen had leaked the questions beforehand! Despite his hatred, Qian Pingchao could only calm his mind and begin answering the questions.
...
At noon, the weather was not favorable. It did not snow, but it became windy.
The cold wind, mixed with unmelted snow particles, swept into the cubicles. Especially in the cubicles with poor luck, where the walls and roofs were drafty, candidates had to stop writing and constantly rub their frozen hands.
Zhan Feiyu used her paperweight to hold down her examination paper and then placed her exam basket horizontally in front of the table to block the snow particles mixed in the wind. If these snowflakes melted on the paper, they would stain it.
Although she was not very hungry, she still had to write a Five Classics question and a regulated verse in the afternoon. Zhan Feiyu took out some dried meat to supplement her energy.
The freshly made dried meat was not too hard and was cut into long strips, coated with white sesame seeds. It was made for the examination, so it tasted slightly salty.
Candidates in the opposite cubicles, gnawing on hard biscuits, looked enviously at Zhan Feiyu eating dried meat. They took a bite of their biscuits and then glanced at the dried meat in Zhan Feiyu's hand, feeling as if they were quenching their thirst by looking at plums.
The smell of food drifted with the wind. Qian Pingchao chewed the hard biscuits, which were like clumps of earth, with gritted teeth, as if he were gnawing on Zhan Feiyu's flesh and blood.
Zhan Feiyu grinned, a hint of provocation in her eyes. After eating a few strips of dried meat, she took out rice cakes from her exam basket. The rice cakes were cut as thinly as cloud slices and had a hint of sweetness, which perfectly counteracted the greasiness of the dried meat.
After eating her fill, Zhan Feiyu wiped her hands and then took out a small bowl from her exam basket, which contained peeled oranges.
In this freezing temperature, drinking cold water would likely freeze one's stomach. A few segments of orange were just right to quench her thirst. A group of candidates stared with wide eyes. They were all candidates, so why was the difference so great?
Due to the climate, oranges could not be grown in the Nanxuan Prefecture and surrounding prefectures. Even if they bore fruit, the taste was sour and astringent. It was obvious that the oranges Zhan Feiyu was eating were transported from other places and stored in an ice cellar.
After eating and drinking her fill, Zhan Feiyu moved her stiff body in the cubicle and, at the same time, thought about how to write the regulated verse.
Magistrate Chen was skilled in poetry. The topic "Bright Moon on Water" was not difficult, but it was not easy to write it brilliantly. Besides literary talent, the most important thing was the conception.
The water could be a pond, a lake, a river, or even the sea. It could be written about the spring moon or the autumn moon...
Zhan Feiyu did not aim for her regulated verse to be exceptionally brilliant; as long as it was fluent, it would suffice. Even in the county examination, the most valued were the essays, and the regulated verse was merely a touch of embellishment.
Suddenly.
"I didn't cheat..." a sharp voice broke the silence of the examination hall, startling the candidates.
The hands of two candidates who were copying their essays trembled, and their brush tips deviated, causing them to make mistakes. Their faces immediately turned pale.
Two yamen runners directly covered the candidates' mouths and roughly dragged them outside. They had just gone to the latrine and returned with a cheat sheet. Daring to cheat in the county examination was courting death!
Zhan Feiyu remained unaffected. After confirming that the format of her regulated verse was correct and the rhymes were not wrong, she began to transcribe it onto the examination paper, stroke by stroke.
This way, she only had the second Five Classics question left to write.
More noise came from not far away. A candidate, severely chilled, accidentally knocked over his inkstone, and the ink stained his paper.
"Sir, please be merciful and give me another paper..." The candidate, who was already over thirty years old, cried like a child, "Sir..."
Qian Pingchao looked at the unmoving Zhan Feiyu with a dark gaze. That dead girl was only nine years old after the New Year, yet she was so composed!
The middle-aged candidate, crying as if he had lost his parents, looked at the confiscated paper with wailing. Suddenly, he rushed forward like a madman. The yamen runners did not catch him, but he broke free and escaped.
"What are you doing?" an angry shout rang out. The middle-aged candidate had knocked over the inkstones of two other cubicle candidates.
With a ferocious and crazed smile on his tear-streaked face, the middle-aged candidate fiercely smeared his right hand in the inkstone and then slapped it onto the paper of the neighboring candidate.
The young candidate who was answering the question was the youngest this year, only seven years old. He stared blankly at the black handprint on his paper, stunned for a long time before reacting.
"Damn it!" Zhan Feiyu was startled. Seeing the middle-aged candidate charging towards her like a madman, she immediately stood up, placed her paper on the stool behind her, and swung her exam basket like an iron disc.
With a bang! Others' exam baskets did not contain much, but Zhan Feiyu's basket had been prepared by Yin Wuyan and still had a lot of food in small bowls. Coupled with Zhan Feiyu using all her strength.
The middle-aged man cried out as he was hit, and the two yamen runners also arrived, grabbing his arms and pressing him to the ground. "Don't move!"
Magistrate Chen walked over with a dark expression. The courtyard examination was held twice every three years, and there were always some incidents in each county examination, but this year was the most serious. His own paper was stained, and the man had gone mad and destroyed three people's examination papers.
"Sir." The two yamen runners also had grim expressions. They had failed to stop the middle-aged candidate, which was their failure.
The first two candidates whose papers were stained sat in their cubicles, suppressing their anger. If they had known the rules, they would have rushed forward and beaten the culprit to death.
The youngest candidate finally reacted and burst into tears, "My paper... my paper is ruined..."
Zhan Feiyu looked back at the paper placed on the stool. After bowing, she asked, "Reporting to Sir, this student's action was out of necessity. I ask for your leniency regarding the violation."
"It's fine, it's not your fault." Magistrate Chen would naturally not blame Zhan Feiyu. If she hadn't reacted quickly and hit the candidate with her exam basket, her paper might also have been ruined.
If it were a minor issue, at most, she would be expelled from the examination hall, but the middle-aged candidate's behavior was too malicious. Magistrate Chen, with a stern face, said coldly, "Take him to prison! We will decide his fate after the county examination."
As for the three innocent candidates whose papers were stained, Instructor Zhao intended to intercede, "Sir, the papers of these three were ruined. There are spare papers, could they be replaced?"
The expectant gazes of the three candidates turned to Magistrate Chen. They had also been harmed by this mad candidate.
"No." Magistrate Chen refused decisively.
Hope was instantly dashed, and the three stood in their cubicles with stunned expressions.
Although Zhan Feiyu sympathized with the plight of the three, she could also understand Magistrate Chen's decision. Although the three were innocent, rules could not be broken. In the future, could other candidates request new papers for other reasons?
"Sir, I want to appeal..." The middle-aged candidate, detained by the yamen runners, struggled fiercely and shouted, his bloodshot eyes fixed on Zhan Feiyu, "She cheated! She had a cheat sheet in her cubicle! I just saw it!"
A single stone stirred up a thousand waves! Not to mention Magistrate Chen, the registrar, and Instructor Zhao, the presiding officials, even the other candidates in the examination hall were stunned.
Cheating? More than three hundred people were participating in the county examination today, but few believed that Zhan Feiyu would cheat! The circle of scholars was not that large, and Zhan Feiyu was quite well-known.
During her enlightenment at the Lin family's private school, she was called a child prodigy, but the scholars in Sixian County did not recognize her. A girl of seven or eight years old, who had been studying for less than a year, her title of child prodigy was likely exaggerated.
However, after the Winter Solstice Literary Gathering, Zhan Feiyu's talent had been recognized. Later, when she went to the county school, not only the teachers of the county school but also the students spoke highly of Zhan Feiyu.
And the case of the poisoning of Scholar Wan pushed Zhan Feiyu's reputation to its peak. The examination papers posted outside the county yamen were visible to everyone. Both her calligraphy and her policy questions were admirable.
And today was only the first round of the county examination. With Zhan Feiyu's talent, she really had no need to cheat.
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