Chapter 144

The examination at the courtyard includes writing Eight-Legged Essays and composing trial poems.

An Eight-Legged Essay consists of eight parts: breaking the topic, developing the topic, initiating discussion, addressing the topic, beginning the first segment, continuing the middle segments, proceeding with the latter segments, and concluding the essay.

The topics for these essays usually come from the Four Books and Five Classics.

It also goes by another name, “zhìyì,” which means writing according to prescribed formats based on Confucian principles.

Confucian principles remained Mu Er Pang’s strong suit, but now what he needed to familiarize himself with was just the prescribed format of the Eight-Legged Essay.

And the format of the Eight-Legged Essay is actually quite similar to the structure and writing style of trial poems.

Mu Er Pang’s poems and essays at the beginning were rather mediocre, but structurally, they were meticulously crafted.

So the real challenge lay in the second part of the examination, the trial poems. After refining his skills, Mu Er Pang’s overall performance improved considerably.

His literary works gained a bit of flair. Now, his literary level wouldn’t be a drag on him in the county examination.

However, as his skills improved, the difficulty of the courtyard examination also increased.

The fellow students he competed against also showed significant improvement. Specifically, his competitors changed from people like He Qing, Zhang Zian, and Huang Junping to scholars with even better talents like Shen Aoshuang, Ren Shun, and Zhao Xiuwen.

Thus, that extra bit of flair, placed in the increasingly intense competition of the courtyard examination… weaknesses remained weaknesses.

Later, Wei Shu and the others returned from their private studies with some not-so-good news.

Though they spent the day in the Prefectural Academy, they still worried about Mu Er Pang’s performance.

They couldn’t rush back during the lunch break, so they went straight to check the results at the announcement board.

Seeing that Mu Er Pang ranked first in the examination, they forgot about having lunch and discussed the matter excitedly.

They speculated that Mu Er Pang would likely participate in the courtyard examination this year.

And from their personal perspective, they also hoped Mu Er Pang could enter the Prefectural Academy soon.

Their collective concern wasn’t just about not leaving Mu Er Pang behind, but also because once he entered the Prefectural Academy and received careful instruction from professors and mentors, their horizons would truly broaden.

It would be better for Mu Er Pang.

Lastly, there’s an age-old saying that scholars tend to look down on each other, especially those who already have achieved fame.

The atmosphere in the Prefectural Academy is thick with learning, but it’s not entirely positive.

There are some aspects, like mutual criticism and comparison, that are hard to address.

If Mu Er Pang were to wait for two more years before taking the examination, by then they would all be preparing for the provincial examination.

If Mu Er Pang only passed the courtyard examination and entered the Prefectural Academy at that time, they would inevitably part ways.

When Mu Er Pang is only fifteen years old at that time, they wouldn’t feel entirely comfortable sending him alone to the Prefectural Academy.

So, thinking ahead, they each did their part to find out more about the chief examiner, who happened to be the newly appointed educational commissioner from last year.

This educational commissioner had been in office for less than half a year, and the students in the Prefectural Academy were not very familiar with him.

Despite considerable effort, they only managed to gather some superficial information—

The educational commissioner has no fixed rank; he only retains his original title. Essentially, he’s a civil servant dispatched from the capital for a three-year term.

In provinces where literary activities are thriving, the educational commissioners are usually officials from the Hanlin Academy.

In this area, which can be considered moderately literary compared to the whole country, not all educational commissioners are from the Hanlin Academy.

The new educational commissioner is surnamed Liu, and he was originally a Deputy in the Ministry of Rites.

This Commissioner Liu is said to have come from a humble background and was particularly adept at writing poetry when he was young, gaining some fame even in the imperial court.

This was also the not-so-good news because someone who wrote exquisite poetry naturally had stricter requirements for literary works, and his choice of topics might be more challenging.

Moreover, the educational commissioner wielded significant power.

The other examiners, the headmasters and assistant headmasters, played only a supportive role.

The real authority to determine the rankings lay solely with the educational commissioner.

His proficiency in poetry and literature must mean that they hold a significant weight in his evaluation.

Upon their return from the Prefectural Academy, they first congratulated Mu Er Pang and then Mei Ruochu asked about Mu Er Pang’s future plans.

Knowing that he was indeed preparing for the upcoming examination, they passed on the information they had gathered.

After conveying the message, Cui Fei tentatively asked, “What if we wait for another two or three years?”

Waiting for two years would allow Mu Er Pang to accumulate more experience in poetry and literature, making him more confident in front of an examiner like Commissioner Liu.

Waiting for three years would mean waiting for a change in commissioners.

Cui Fei was thinking about two or three years later when Wei Shu, Wei Xi, and Mei Ruochu would certainly participate in the provincial examination and likely pass.

He was aware of his own level of competence, having wasted quite a bit of time.

If he failed the provincial examination…

Even if everyone else wasn’t around at that time, he could still be with Mu Er Pang at the Prefectural Academy.

Although he had been bullied to the extent that he didn’t dare to enter the Prefectural Academy, if such a thing were to happen to Mu Er Pang, he wouldn’t stand by idly.

Just like how everyone was protecting him now, he would definitely protect Mu Er Pang!

Lao Buyu remained silent, not giving any advice to Mu Er Pang, letting him decide for himself.

Mu Er Pang pondered for a moment and said, “The educational commissioner is a learned person. With the current commissioner favoring poetry and literature, who can guarantee that the next one won’t be the same? What I’m considering is to try the examination. If I pass, I’ll move on to the next stage. If not, I’ll turn back and continue to study my shortcomings. As long as my mentality isn’t affected, I won’t lose anything.”

His earnestness hadn’t changed.

Although he had hesitated for a while before, once he made a decision, he wouldn’t hesitate anymore.

The others were probing whether he wanted to postpone the examination, actually considering his mental state.

Putting themselves in his shoes, if they had ranked first in the first two examinations but performed poorly in the third, or even failed to pass, it would be a huge blow.

Perhaps only Mei Ruochu could handle it with equanimity.

Seeing Mu Er Pang’s confidence in maintaining his mental state, they didn’t say much more.

Mei Ruochu suggested, “The common poetry topics prepared by Han Shan earlier may not be useful now. With two months left until the Perfectural School examination, we might as well try to collect some of the articles and poems written by Commissioner Liu. Starting from his works, we can devise new topics for Han Shan to practice with.”

Wei Shu agreed, saying, “Then let me and Afei be responsible for collecting information. Master, Brother Mei, and Little Xi can use the existing information to come up with topics. Once we gather more information, we can further enrich your question bank.”

They quickly divided the tasks, and there was no need for Shen Cui to intervene.

They then began to attend to their own tasks.

Shen Cui started to check the physical rewards given by the system after the results of the Prefectural Examination were announced.

This time, the reward was a “Library,” which was an exceptionally good item.

Mu Er Pang almost suffered because of insufficient reading before. Even if the question was slightly biased, as Mei Ruochu mentioned, asking about the sources of classical texts like the Eleven Classics or the Thirteen Classics, he would definitely not be able to answer.

Although he might not directly fail like He Qing or Zhang Zian, he would certainly experience significant fluctuations in his ranking compared to before, similar to Zhao Xiuwen.

This “Library” was just like a simulated study room, where Shen Cui only needed to designate a place in the academy to activate it immediately.

According to the description, it claimed to contain all the books from ancient times to the present in this plane, as vast as the ocean, without any omissions.

However good this thing may be, bringing it out abruptly now would indeed be a bit exaggerated.

Currently, there are only one or two hundred books in the academy’s collection.

Some are treasures collected by Lao Buyu himself over the years, while others are sponsored by the Wei and Cui families.

It’s already quite a fortune, and the people in the academy have an unspoken agreement not to mention it outside.

These books all have their origins and cannot be publicized. Creating a library out of nowhere would be too conspicuous. Even noble families might not have as many books. If someone with ill intentions found out about it, it could lead to trouble—

After all, there are not only family members in the academy, but also servants from the Wei family and Ayao from the Cui family. It’s not that she suspects them, but money and wealth have always been tempting.

She didn’t want to test human nature with something like this.

Moreover, after reading some of the books, the children would inevitably mention their sources in their essays.

It wouldn’t be fair to let them read but not allow them to use the knowledge in their writings, right?

As the saying goes, an innocent man carrying a jade deserves suspicion.

If it became known that Cui Wei had precious books, and now there were only a few scholars like Mu Er Pang in Cui Wei, it wouldn’t be enough to protect these books. She couldn’t come up with a good explanation for the origin of this “Library” for a while.

So she could only express her regret to the system: [The item is indeed good, but for now, we cannot use it openly. It will be a truly beneficial thing for future generations only when Mu Er Pang enters officialdom and can protect it. For now, I can only occasionally take out a few books and say they were acquired from outside, but I can’t directly let them use them. It would be better to provide another “Bone-Cleansing Pill” for practical use.]

[“But the first cultivation target has already taken the Bone-Cleansing Pill, and the effect cannot be stacked. He no longer needs such things…”] Here the system paused for a moment. [“Host, are you thinking of giving it to other cultivation targets?”]

Shen Cui responded with a yes, and the system continued: [“But, Host, as they say in your world, ‘A thousand troops cross a single-log bridge,’ and this is especially true for the imperial examinations. If the first cultivation target passes the courtyard examination, he is very likely to participate in the provincial examination with other cultivation targets. If you give the Bone-Cleansing Pill to someone else, like the fourth cultivation target, except for the instability in aura caused by the rules, his other attributes are very similar to Mu Yunchuan. If he takes the Bone-Cleansing Pill, he will have no weaknesses. It’s almost impossible for the first cultivation target to surpass him. Will he be willing?”]

As they were talking, a low cry came from Mu Er Pang in the classroom, “This poem topic is too tricky! ‘Golden flowers scatter like scattered gold.’

At first, I naturally thought it was chrysanthemums and almost finished writing about them.

Just remembered the phrase ‘The fragrant grass is not yet old, and the golden flowers scatter like scattered gold.’ It doesn’t seem to match with autumn.

These ‘golden flowers’ should be rapeseed flowers!”

Mei Ruochu chuckled softly along with him. It was obvious that he was the one who came up with this topic.

Mu Er Pang held his chest, looking wounded, and glanced at him with a plaintive expression.

Mei Ruochu quickly stopped smiling and said, “Actually, there’s another famous line in Zhang Han’s ‘Miscellaneous Poems,’ ‘If the green twigs are all verdant, the yellow flowers scatter like scattered gold.’

This line would fit the poem topic even better. But to recall the verse from ‘Chen Ji’s Old County Magistrate Brother-in-Law Visits the Green Plain to Pay Respects to Master Si Thoughts on the Award of an Official Seal’ by heart in such a short time is not easy for Han Shan.”

Mu Er Pang wasn’t really harboring any grudges.

Mei Ruochu was putting so much effort into helping him with the topics for his benefit, so he smiled and said, “That’s right. With the guidance from Master and Big Brother Mei all this time, I do have some skills.”

After that, they didn’t speak much more. Mu Er Pang changed the topic and pondered over his poetry.

After finishing this topic, there were still poetry topics from Lao Buyu and Wei Xi waiting for him.

Shen Cui’s expression softened as she spoke gently to the system: [You’re underestimating the bond between them.]