Chapter 170: 115 Perfect answer sheet! (Two updates in one)_2

The man slowly chewed and enjoyed his food.

The aroma of the meat mixed with the smell of pickled vegetables pervaded the entire examination site, driving all the exam candidates to the edge.

With such challenging exam questions during the daytime and such terrible weather, wasn’t it enough of a torment? Why would anyone want to eat such fragrant food in the examination site?

Did you really come to take the exam?

Who brings such a lavish spread to an exam?

If not for the ban on candidates talking with others, they would have screamed, “Brother, share me a bite. I got you covered wherever you go in the future!”

Adding insult to injury, how could there be no mosquitoes in the hot night?

Xiao Liulang and his two companions applied some mosquito repellent and slept soundly. Whereas the candidates, who had spent the night fighting mosquitoes, came out of the exam site with dark circles so heavy they could barely keep their eyes open.

Fortunately, on the day the exam was over, a heavy rain fell in the provincial city, cooling off the weather.

On the 11th day, the candidates entered the examination room again.

The second exam was a discussion on the Five Classics. Each discussion wasn’t required to have many words, not less than three hundred would suffice. In previous years, it often revolved around people’s livelihoods and official careers, such as commerce, agriculture and irrigation, the division of duties in the six departments, and so on.

Yet, this year, they started off with a discussion on the pros and cons of reducing the power of the feudal lords, which directly stunned the candidates.

Which fearless examiner set such a sharp and sensitive question?

In Zhan Country, exam questions for the rural examinations were set by the cabinet every year, then inspected by the emperor. It was only after the emperor’s approval that they were box-packed, sealed, and sent off to major provincial cities.

The exam questions issued uniformly by the court were consistent. However, it didn’t rule out an individual or accidental situation, such as leaking or damaging the questions. Therefore, the court usually prepared eight sets of exam papers.

The chief examiner randomly drew the questions on the spot during the examination. Whichever set was drawn was used, and as far as they were concerned, there wasn’t a precedent of all the provinces getting the same set of questions.

Unluckily, the chief examiner of this provincial city drew the most difficult set this year.

Among these candidates, there were newbies like Xiao Liulang and also those who had been taking exams for most of their lives with graying hair.

Those who have taken exams a number of times all recognized that this year’s questions are not simple; they didn’t follow the usual pattern…

Over the years, the examiners have had their own preferences. So, when answering questions, candidates try to cater as much as possible to the examiner’s preferences. That’s also the reason why every year, people pay a hefty amount of money to learn about the examiners’ backgrounds and life stories.

But the issue is that the reduction of the feudal lords is not an ordinary livelihood issue. It can’t be decided by the examiner’s preference, but rather by the stance of the court.

If the court advocates for limiting the power of the lords, then the examiner surely wouldn’t give high marks to a pro-feudal powers paper. Otherwise, wouldn’t that be tantamount to the examiner publicly rebuking the court and the emperor?

Based on the court’s appeasement policy towards the Lin Family, the candidates could roughly understand the court’s stance on the feudal lords. At least, there was absolutely no chance of limiting the power of the lords within the next decade.

To play it safe, the majority of the candidates chose to go along with the court’s winds, beautifully articulating the drawbacks of reducing the power of the lords in their scholarly papers, and lauding the court’s current appeasement policy.

In a certain examination room, Xiao Liulang, without any hesitation, penned down – the measure of reducing the powers of feudal lords, needs to be taken ASAP!

For the last examination, they entered the room on the 14th, and the exam started on the 15th. The content for this one was the “eight-legged essay”.

This was Lin Chengye’s weakest area. During the child exams, he never scored highly on the “eight-legged essay”. He barely managed to achieve the scholar’s degree by relying on his scripture recitation and miscellaneous essays.

However, this time he looked at the question on the exam paper and inexplicably felt that it wasn’t as tricky as the usual ones Xiao Liulang set for him.

Plus, Xiao Liulang had taught him some tips on the “eight-legged essay” and made him memorize a few well-contrasted flattering phrases that didn’t make much sense. But it could make the overall tone of the essay appear sophisticated and grand!

And he effortlessly wrote it all down!

After all, when you don’t understand, just add filler content! Never leave it blank!

Lin Chengye felt that he did a great job of filling in (even he couldn’t understand what he was filling in). Although he won’t score highly, he shouldn’t fail like before.

After the three-round examination was over, the candidates were exhausted to the point of looking visibly thinner. Butler Zhou waited early in the morning at the Imperial College.

Looking at each candidate walking out, visibly thinner, he was worried sick about his Young Master Xiao Liulang.

Soon, Xiao Liulang and his two companions came out.

No matter how crowded it was, Xiao Liulang was always the one who would be noticed first.

Butler Zhou noticed Xiao Liulang first, followed by Lin Chengye walking beside him.

Just as Butler Zhou was about to say, “Young master, you’ve lost weight,” his words got stuck in his throat.