Chapter 161

Seeing this title, Mu Er Pang was momentarily at a loss.

Because just from the literal meaning of these four characters, it’s probably that the desires and things that the people within the four seas all want are the same?

But the things that the people collectively want are too many, such as a stable life, honest officials, reduced burdens and taxes, equal treatment, and so on.

The space for interpretation is too large, making it too vague to write about.

Moreover, judging from Liu Xuezhen’s usual way of setting questions, Mu Er Pang felt that although his questions were tricky, they wouldn’t be as empty as this.

So these four characters must have a specific source.

Only by thinking of the source could he infer the specific aspect that Liu Xuezhen was really referring to.

Mu Er Pang recalled in his mind for a while, but could only think of two lines of poetry for a moment.

One is “The bright moon in the clear sky, all say the same within the four seas”, and the other is “Within the four seas, on the Cold Food Festival, a thousand autumns for one person’s origin”.

The former is about the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the latter is about the Cold Food Festival.

Not only are they not very relevant, but they also only account for three of the characters in this title.

Unable to think of any more poems, he thought about the text itself. In the “Book of Rites,” there is also a sentence, “Rites and music extend to heaven and earth, with the four seas showing the same respect and love.”

Still, it lacks the word “desire”.

It seemed that the idea of “the same within the four seas” was not feasible.

He muttered “the four seas” and “desire”, racked his brains, and finally remembered another line of poetry, “Desiring to travel all over the four seas, not knowing who one will meet in the end.”

Now, with the three characters “desiring to travel all over the four seas,” there was no “same” character.

What seemed like a simple four characters, precisely because it was too simple, involved too many things.

Mu Er Pang thought for half an hour, connecting it with the previous question Liu Xuezhen had set about “Ping Zhongjun’s relocation”, and also broke down the current question into two characters at a time in his mind, thinking something like “the four seas… have the same desire” for its source.

For a person whose mind contained hundreds of books, this was like finding a needle in a haystack.

And when a person is completely still, they feel the coldest.

After nearly two quarters of an hour, the hand warmer in Mu Er Pang’s hand gradually cooled down, and his feet were frozen stiff.

He finally remembered a sentence, “Within the four seas, within the territory of the nation, the people who eat grains all have the same desire.”

Just from this sentence, Liu Xuezhen only cut out the beginning and end of the sentence and put them together, which was much simpler than the meaningless cut-and-paste on the exam hall’s screen.

The difficulty lies in the fact that the cut-out “the same desire within the four seas” is too common, making it easy for people to think that it was originally a coherent sentence and not think about its true origin.

If it had been directly presented as “all have the same desire,” it would have been much simpler than it is now!

This sentence is very easy to understand from the literal meaning.

It means that under the sky, throughout the country, the higher-ups should treat all the people equally and demand the same from them.

It is also the point he had already thought of, “equal treatment.”

The main idea is also very easy to write about, especially since Mu Er Pang likes to relate it to the deeds of the founding emperor.

When the founding emperor was establishing the country, he promulgated some relevant laws.

Although in terms of using allusions, Liu Xuezhen himself prefers obscure and unknown allusions.

But if you use the laws promulgated by the founding emperor to praise his achievements, who can say that the allusions used are not good enough?

After thinking of the source, Mu Er Pang’s expression did not become relaxed, but rather became somewhat strange.

Because this sentence comes from the “Annals of Master Yan.” And the person who set the question is also Liu Xuezhen.

He seemed to sense Liu Xuezhen’s thoughts through the exam paper—since “Ping Zhongjun’s relocation” was mentioned earlier, you guys must be thinking about Master Yan, so this time I’ll give you something related to Master Yan to test you.

If someone with a weaker mental endurance were to think of this, they’d probably be driven to madness!

Is the imperial exam about attitude too? Mu Er Pang resisted the urge to grumble and quickly started writing poetry.

Recently, he had been learning poetry from Shen Ao Shuang.

Although his speed in composing poems hadn’t increased, the quality of his work had improved slightly.

After finishing his poem, Mu Er Pang checked it from beginning to end and quickly handed it in.

The exam hall was too cold; his feet were almost numb.

Many scholars were physically weak and couldn’t withstand the cold.

Since this was just a provincial exam, most people had already left the exam hall by the time he handed in his paper.

When he came out, he saw that the weather had changed again.

It was windy, and it had started sleeting.

Others had finished their exams faster than him and were waiting at the door with their sleeves pulled up.

When he came out, they didn’t linger.

They hurried back to the academy without chatting outside.

Shen Cui watched their movements on the screen and knew they were coming back soon.

She had already prepared hot water and ginger soup.

When everyone returned, they first drank a bowl of hot and spicy ginger soup, then sat on the heated brick bed, took off their damp shoes and socks, and soaked their feet in hot water.

They all sighed in relief, feeling alive again.

After recovering, Cui Fei immediately asked, “The other topics today were fine, but the poetry topic was really hard to write. ‘Four Seas Same Desire’ was too vague, and it was so cold that I felt my brain was freezing. I racked my brains for a long time before I could write a poem.”

When he said this, Mu Er Pang and the others looked at each other, their faces showing some indescribable expressions.

Cui Fei immediately understood and asked Mei Ruo Chu, “Did I write it wrong?”

Mei Ruo Chu, who had not returned yet, was everyone’s tutor.

So he nodded slightly, explained the context to Cui Fei, and asked Cui Fei to recite the poem he had written.

Fortunately, although Cui Fei didn’t fully understand the topic, he focused on how the monarch treats the people. Although he did deviate from the topic, it wasn’t too far off.

After soaking their feet, everyone changed into warm socks provided by Shen Cui and went to the classroom to transcribe their papers.

Because Cui Fei’s poetry was off-topic, Mei Ruo Chu checked his paper first.

Compared to everyone else, Cui Fei’s level was definitely a bit lower, especially since he had wasted a lot of time before. However, he had worked hard over the past year, and except for the poetry, he had improved a lot in other areas.

So getting the top score was out of the question, but second or third place should be no problem.

Cui Fei had felt half defeated earlier, but when he heard Mei Ruo Chu’s final words, his heart sank even further.

He was the type who didn’t like to compete or strive for things. He wasn’t too concerned about gains or losses. In the past, his goal was simply to pass the exam. Last year, he had only ‘competed’ once, against Li Ru Feng, to vent his anger for Cui Wu Niang.

So Cui Fei quickly relaxed his mindset and sighed, “It’s fortunate that the provincial exam is comprehensive. If it were like the academy exam, with only two types of questions, and poetry and essays accounted for such a large proportion of the score, I might…”

After saying that, Cui Fei couldn’t help but calculate.

Including this time, Liu Xuezheng had held the provincial exam for two years.

After enduring one more time, he would be able to escape from his ‘clutches’.

Later, Mei Ruo Chu finished reading everyone else’s papers.

He led everyone to compare and discuss them, so everyone had a rough idea of their rankings.

Especially Mei Ruo Chu, who often liked to guide other students in the academy, so he had a good understanding of many people’s levels and immediately gave rankings in his mind.

Although somewhat presumptuous, he felt that he should be first this time. Following him would be Wei Xi, Mu Er Pang, and Shen Ao Shuang.

Mu Er Pang and Shen Ao Shuang had always been close in level. Wei Xi, on the other hand, had entered the academy a year earlier than them and had been working exceptionally hard after feeling a sense of crisis in the past year.

His overall level was slightly better than theirs, but not by much.

Therefore, the specific rankings of the three of them would depend on Liu Xue Zheng’s decision.

Wei Shu’s performance was also normal. His ranking might not be as good as the other four, but getting first batch was definitely no problem.

A few days later, the rankings were announced in the academy.

Without a doubt, Mei Ruo Chu ranked first, in first batch, first place.

Next was Mu Er Pang, who was first batch, second place.

Wei Xi was third, and Shen Ao Shuang was fourth.

Wei Shu’s performance was stable, and he improved his ranking from last year, coming in as first batch, twelfth place.

As for Cui Fei, as Mei Ruo Chu had predicted, he was in the middle of the second class.

Except for Cui Fei, who had a bit of a mishap with the poetry question, everyone else did quite well.

And because the provincial exam, although important, did not determine life or death like the imperial exam, this matter was quickly settled.

This time, the provincial exam was scheduled earlier.

Unlike before, after the exam, all the scholars in the academy had to attend classes for nearly a month before the Lunar New Year holiday.

This year, Wei Shu and Wei Xi didn’t plan to return to the capital.

This was suggested by their parents. Although they missed their two sons very much, the journey was already long, and this year there were snow disasters in various places, making it even more unsafe.

Moreover, there was less than two years left before the government exam. After the brothers passed the government exam and became juren, they could go to the capital to participate in the Capital examination, and the whole family could reunite.

So, they might as well take this longing for their family as motivation and strive hard during this period.

Shen Ao Shuang also said he didn’t need to go home.

In the hearts of Shen Cui and Mu Er Pang, he was the ‘little pitiful’ who was not favored by his family, so he was not surprised by this either.

Before the end of the twelfth month, Lao Buyu also returned from outside.

Although he looked a bit tired, his spirits were exceptionally good, and he seemed to have rejuvenated, looking several years younger.

Didn’t he think he wasn’t qualified to be a judge before he left?

Although he was encouraged and affirmed by everyone in the academy, and he boldly went, he still had some uncertainty.

He wondered if those headmasters were just reluctant to refuse the old headmaster’s face and didn’t truly respect him.

After going there, Lao Buyu realized he had overthought things. No one was dissatisfied with him being a judge.

Instead, many of the headmasters who were also judges politely asked him for advice on how to educate a ‘triple talent’ and several scholars.

Even Ling Qingming did not receive this kind of treatment, despite Mu Yun Chuan from Qing Zhu achieving six top ranks in the examinations.

Everyone had seen Mu Yun Chuan in the previous academy competition and knew he was exceptionally gifted, a rare talent in the world.

Such a person, whether in Qingzhu Academy or any other academy, would definitely acheive great things.

It didn’t show how skillful Ling Qingming was in teaching, and other headmasters thought they could do the same.

On the other hand, in Cui Wei Academy, three years ago during the academy competition, it was definitely a very rudimentary setup.

They directly forfeited several small matches and didn’t even make it to the finals.

They only advanced to the semi-finals because the headmaster of Hong Le helped them.

As for Mu Er Pang, who became a ‘triple talent top scorer in exams’, he could only participate in the archery competition back then and didn’t know anything about other competitions.

In addition, Wei Xi, who left an impression for being physically weak, and ‘Zhang Sheng’ who was good at calculations, had a physical disability.

This academy had gathered the old, weak, sick, and disabled.

To cultivate such students into a ‘triple talent’ under these conditions, wasn’t it a miracle?

This made Lao Buyu very happy.

He came back and said while smiling, “When my senior brother first saw me, he was so proud. He even told me to be humble. His expression clearly said, ‘My academy produced a six time top scorer’, while yours only produced a triple talent. There’s nothing much to say.’ But when he turned around, the other headmasters complimented him while only surrounding me, asking for advice. This made him so angry; his face got darker every day!”

Shen Cui listened to his words, imagined the scene, and also smiled.

The scholars in the academy gathered together neatly.

Since its establishment, Shen Cui had never had a New Year’s celebration with so many students before, so she wanted to have a lively time.

Before she could figure out how to make it lively, Lao Bu Yu continued with another piece of good news.

This year, the academy competition was hosted by the renowned Wen Jun Academy, on par with Hong Le.

Although the headmaster of Wen Jun Academy, Liu ShanChang, was not as prestigious as the headmaster of Hong Le, he was also a famous teacher, especially good at predicting and solving exam questions.

In modern terms, Liu Shan Chang was a teacher particularly good at exam-oriented education, able to grasp the preferences of each year’s examiners very well.

“Our provincial education official is also surnamed Liu. Although he and Liu Shan Chang are not relatives, it can be considered a coincidence. Liu Shan Chang accepted his invitation and will come to our province’s prefectural academies to give lectures after the spring of the coming year.”

To receive lectures from a renowned teacher for free, for the several youths in the prefectural academy, wasn’t this a great thing?!

Therefore, the spirits of the few youths were lifted upon hearing this.

Cui Fei had been preparing for half a year and finally found the right time.

Taking advantage of everyone’s presence, he leaked a bit of news, adding to the joy.

“Half a year ago, my family arranged a marriage for me. It’s almost finalized… I might be getting married shortly after the new year.”