Chapter 115: The Head of the Provincial Examination Case 2/2

Zhou Shanchang’s eyes lit up as he looked at Li Qingzhi’s policy paper with rare admiration.

Li Qingzhi’s policy paper was only a thousand words.

His writing speed had been getting faster and faster recently, and these thousand words took about forty minutes to write.

By the time he finished writing, Zhou Shanchang had also finished reading.

“Excellent handwriting! Excellent article!” Zhou Shanchang looked at Li Qingzhi excitedly. “Zixiao, would you like to be my disciple?”

Peng Jingliang: “???” Teacher, what’s wrong with you? Just a moment ago, you were worried that I would be deceived by Li Qingzhi, and now, in the blink of an eye, you want to take Li Qingzhi as your disciple?

Li Qingzhi said, “Thank you for your kindness, Zhou Shanchang, but I already have a teacher.”

“Do you want to come to my academy to study? We have many books in our collection,” Zhou Shanchang added.

“I would naturally be willing, but my home is in Chongcheng County, so I’m afraid I can’t stay in the prefectural capital for long,” Li Qingzhi replied.

“You can move to the prefectural capital, or you can borrow books to read even if you don’t stay here,” Zhou Shanchang said as he carefully admired the policy paper Li Qingzhi had just written.

As for exposing Li Qingzhi’s true colors… Well, hadn’t he already done that?

This Li Qingzhi was just a knowledgeable person! As for Li Qingzhi writing praise for Magistrate Guo… With Li Qingzhi’s knowledge, why would he need to flatter a county magistrate?

And Li Qingzhi is concealing his abilities before the county examination… Wait a minute, hadn’t his disciple mentioned that Li Qingzhi’s arm had been broken by Hong Hui’s younger brother?

He suspected that Hong Hui was jealous of Li Qingzhi, which was why he let his younger brother do such a thing!

Li Qingzhi was really pitiful; first, he had suffered from a serious illness, and then he had his arm broken by someone.

The more Zhou Shanchang looked at Li Qingzhi, the more he liked him. He also felt that Li Qingzhi was pure-hearted, which was why he didn’t care even when Zhou Shanchang deliberately made things difficult for him.

He completely forgot that not long ago, he thought Li Qingzhi was too cunning.

Did Li Qingzhi need to be cunning? No, he didn’t.

Everyone surrounded him simply because they admired him, right?

With such talents, why would Li Qingzhi still need to pursue fame and fortune?

Zhou Shanchang’s enthusiasm for Li Qingzhi completely overshadowed Peng Jingliang.

The people around them: “…” It seems that Peng Jingliang lost to Li Qingzhi in the competition. Look, even Peng Jingliang’s teacher likes Li Qingzhi so much.

Only Peng Jingliang felt quite frustrated. What’s wrong with his teacher? Why has he always been trying to sow discord between him and Li Qingzhi?

In the current situation, if he were a bit more petty, he might become dissatisfied with Li Qingzhi.

Fortunately, he had witnessed Li Qingzhi’s abilities and knew he couldn’t compare, so he wouldn’t be jealous!

Thanks to Zhou Shanchang, Li Qingzhi stood out in this literary gathering.

The next day, most of the scholars in the prefectural capital were talking about Li Qingzhi, saying that he was probably the top scorer in the prefectural examination.

This news naturally reached Magistrate Zhang’s ears.

Magistrate Zhang did indeed intend to appoint Li Qingzhi as the top scorer. There were over a thousand participants in the prefectural examination, and Magistrate Zhang couldn’t possibly read through every paper.

He quickly glanced through them, picking out those with insufficient word count, messy handwriting, and incomprehensible content at the beginning.

These people were destined to fail.

Then he went on to look at the remaining papers and set aside those that were answered well.

By the time he got to the second and third rounds of the examination, Magistrate Zhang had already started reviewing the papers he had collected earlier. Now, he had read through all the papers he needed and was waiting to rank them.

Among all the papers, Li Qingzhi’s paper was undoubtedly the most pleasing to the eye and well-written.

If he didn’t choose Li Qingzhi as the top scorer, that would be unfair!

Magistrate Zhang had always believed that officials must be fair… Li Qingzhi, without a doubt, would be the top scorer in this prefectural examination.

Magistrate Zhang was eager to deal with the affairs of Linhu County, so he quickly read through the papers.

Three days after the prefectural examination ended, the results were announced!

Similar to the county examination, the prefectural examination was held annually, with about fifty to sixty people being admitted each year.

Those who passed the prefectural examination became tongsheng, eligible to participate in the provincial examination in the provincial capital.

After passing the provincial examination, they would become xiucai and start enjoying some privileges, such as exemption from corvée labor.

One day in advance, the prefectural government announced that the results would be posted the next day. Early in the morning, Zhu Xunmiao and the others got up, eager to see the announcement at the government.

Li Qingzhi also got up early. Seeing their eagerness, he said, “Let’s go quickly, and on the way, we can buy some food to fill our stomachs…”

“Buying food is unnecessary for us; let the servants do it,” Zhu Xunmiao said, pulling Li Qingzhi along.

When they arrived at the county yamen, it was still early in the morning, but many people had already gathered there, and they couldn’t get to the front rows.

Zhu Xunmiao was a bit unwilling and wanted to push forward, but Li Qingzhi held him back, saying, “Let’s wait for the government officials to post the results before we push forward.”

“True, let’s just hold this position for now, and we can push forward later!” Zhu Xunmiao said.

During the county examination, Zhu Xunmiao wasn’t anxious at all because Magistrate Guo had informed his father in advance that he was on the list.

But for the prefectural examination… Zhu Xunmiao wasn’t so sure.

“Yes, let’s push forward later,” Li Qingzhi said, opening the food box that the servant had brought and taking out a steaming bun to eat.

The bun was filled with pork, and it was delicious!

“Would you like some buns too?” Li Qingzhi invited Zhu Xunmiao and the others.

“I have no appetite,” Zhu Xunmiao replied.

Neither did Xu Qifei. Seeing this, Li Qingzhi wanted to finish the remaining buns!

But it wouldn’t be right to eat them all; he needed to leave some for Zhu Xunmiao and the others… Li Qingzhi took out some coins and gave them to the servant, asking him to buy a few more rice dumplings.

There were two kinds of rice dumplings in Hexing Prefecture: one was plain glutinous rice with nothing else, or just a red date, and the other was savory meat rice dumplings. The ones sold on the street were mostly the latter.

After washing the glutinous rice and mixing it with soy sauce, it was wrapped in layers of fatty and lean pork… This way of making meat and rice dumplings was very fragrant.

The servant quickly brought back two rice dumplings for Li Qingzhi, which he placed in the dish from their food box.

Li Qingzhi picked up the plate and a pair of chopsticks, and in just a few bites, he finished one rice dumpling.

The people around them… Those who didn’t know Li Qingzhi were fine; they thought he was just here to watch the excitement. But those who knew Li Qingzhi…

Why wasn’t Li Qingzhi anxious at all?

Well, if they had Li Qingzhi’s abilities, they wouldn’t be anxious either.

Speaking of which… They had hurried over after waking up this morning, and many of them hadn’t eaten breakfast. Seeing Li Qingzhi eat so deliciously suddenly made them hungry.

Zhu Xunmiao turned around and, seeing Li Qingzhi enjoying the food so much, felt hungry himself. He took a bun from the food box and started eating.

Noticing that people around them were watching, he felt a bit embarrassed. However, when he saw Li Qingzhi starting to eat the second rice dumpling… It seemed fine to eat, right?

Just as he was thinking this, the officials from the ceremonial department arrived.

He quickly stuffed the remaining bun into his mouth and squeezed forward…

Li Qingzhi stopped eating too, lest the crowd pushing forward knock the food out of his hands.

Food was precious; it couldn’t be dropped! Li Qingzhi held onto the food box and looked toward the direction where the list was posted.

He was tall, and the list was posted relatively high… If he was among the top scorers, he could see from here.

His vision was optimized and very good!

Just as he was thinking this, Li Qingzhi saw his name in the first position.

He was the top scorer again.