Chapter 174

After they settled down, Shen Cui also activated the new feature in the academy system.

This was an upgraded feature from the original one after Shen Aoshuang joined and the academy reached level 5—previously, Shen Cui could only view the Q-version avatars of students one by one, but now she could see all students on one screen.

Unlike the future monitoring systems that compile feeds from different sources, where the young men were located formed a complete picture.

In their examination room at the moment, on the screen, each person appeared as a small square.

Mu Erpang was in the upper left corner, Wei Shu was in the middle, Wei Xi was in the upper right corner, Cui Fei was in the lower left corner, Shen Aoshuang and Mei Ruochu were sitting close together, both in the lower right corner.

However, the other squares on the screen, representing people who were not Shen Cui’s students, were just blank, she couldn’t observe them.

But that was fine, because each Q-version avatar in Shen Cui’s view was only the size of a thumbnail, so if they bent down to use the chamber pot, Shen Cui would simply have the system blur the image, avoiding privacy concerns.

Speaking of which, Shen Cui couldn’t help but complain a bit—the system actually charged for blurring images.

It cost 10 points per person per exam, so for this rural exam, Shen Cui had spent 60 points.

Normally, this wasn’t a big deal since the academy’s daily operations generated a stable income of 90 points.

But now, with only one or two hundred points left in her pocket after buying equipment for the students, asking her to spend 60 shopping points was like cutting into flesh?

But what had to be spent had to be spent, especially since this was the students’ first simultaneous examination.

She couldn’t afford any mishaps.

With still half a day left before the exam, Shen Cui saw everyone sitting calmly at their desks, then she checked Wei Xi’s condition.

Actually, until she knew about the existence of the “Bone Washing Pill,” Shen Cui had always thought that Wei Xi’s body had been well nurtured by her. It was only occasionally that he felt unwell and declined a bit.

Now that she knew the dimensional rules were still affecting them, and Wei Xi in the original plot had fallen ill after this exam and died not long after, she couldn’t help but worry.

Sure enough, Wei Xi’s physical condition hadn’t deteriorated yet, but his mood value was much lower than usual.

Apparently, he was starting to feel uncomfortable.

Inside the examination room, entering such a cramped space at the beginning of August was a test for everyone.

Wei Xi had always thought that his body had become similar to an ordinary person’s over the past few years, but now, for no reason, he felt a bit suffocated in his chest.

After holding his chest for a while and not feeling any better, he reached into his luggage and took out a handkerchief pack—Shen Cui had packed identical luggage for them after packing, and she had specifically instructed them that it contained different items tailored to their individual situations.

Sure enough, Wei Xi felt several small bottles inside.

The bottles were labeled with various tags like ‘chest tightness,’ ‘chest pain,’ ‘dizziness,’ etc., obviously the system’s medications for common ailments that Shen Cui had prepared for him.

He opened the bottle labeled ‘chest tightness’ and swallowed a pill.

The discomfort gradually subsided, and Wei Xi’s mood value returned to normal, which relieved Shen Cui.

She then glanced at Wei Shu.

Wei Shu’s various values hadn’t dropped, but this mood value… seemed a bit too high!

Numbers didn’t lie, and at this moment, Wei Shu in the examination room was indeed feeling a bit nervous like everyone else, but more of it was excitement.

Three years had passed, and in these three years, he had only experienced simulated examination rooms.

Finally, it was time for real action again!

Shen Cui found it both amusing and speechless.

In the entire academy, over these years, only Wei Shu had persisted in reporting to the simulated examination room every few days.

So, when it finally came to the real thing, he was actually excited?

This state of mind was naturally not quite right, and Wei Shu knew it himself.

So, he took out his own small package, which didn’t contain common medications but some calming incense.

After lighting it with a match, Wei Shu’s mood value returned to normal.

Shen Cui then went to check on Cui Fei—since getting married, he hadn’t lost any more weight, so his weight remained at 75kg.

Although this weight wouldn’t affect his health anymore, his bulky figure was still very conspicuous among scholars.

The most direct reflection was that his Q-version avatar almost filled up the square.

Seeing him curling up, Shen Cui felt sorry for him.

But Cui Fei seemed to be accepting it well. At this moment, in the examination room, he was just glad that he had lost half a person’s weight in the past three years.

Unlike the last time he came for the exam, his whole person was stuck in the examination room.

He had to lie sideways to finish the three days of examination, and even lying down to rest became a luxury.

When he finally left the examination room, half of his body was numb.

As for Shen Aoshuang, Shen Cui watched him for a while and found him sitting there motionless, as if he were asleep.

Later, when she saw him take out a fan to fan himself, she realized he wasn’t asleep, just in a state of deep concentration.

This was a habit he had before joining Shen Cui—because his five senses were far inferior to ordinary people’s, he usually acted aloof and arrogant, rarely moving.

Lastly, there were Mei Ruochu and Mu Erpang.

Mu Erpang’s various values were only slightly lower than Mu Yunchuan’s.

At this moment, none of his values had changed.

He simply joined two planks together, then found a comfortable position to lie down and closed his eyes to rest.

Seeing him like this, Shen Cui knew he was bored again, reciting in his mind.

Lastly, Mei Ruochu. His values hadn’t changed at all, but he had already put on his face mask.

That was a special mask Shen Cui had purchased in the system, which could block most of the odor—Mu Erpang had told her after completing the provincial examination that some people secretly relieved themselves at their own examination seats to avoid being marked.

This time, since they were all scholars taking the examination, the court had arranged chamber pots in the examination rooms.

There was no need to be secretive about such matters anymore, but the smell in the examination rooms would definitely be worse.

So, Shen Cui had prepared this for everyone.

Just half a day into the exam, and Mei Ruochu had already used his face mask. Shen Cui couldn’t help but feel a mix of pity and affection for him.

But for someone as experienced as Mei Ruochu, this kind of issue was nothing serious at all, and his mood value remained unaffected.

Once Shen Cui confirmed that all her students were in a very stable state, the sky outside also began to darken.

Having essentially sat with them for a whole day, Shen Cui stretched lazily, got up, and prepared a simple dinner for herself and Lao Buyu.

After dinner, Lao Buyu also felt a bit restless, so he decided to go for a walk.

Shen Cui took her needle and thread back to her room, then continued to monitor the movements of the young men.

She watched as they ate fried rice or bread crumbs, then put in earplugs and went to sleep to prepare for the main exam the next day.

Seeing that they had all entered a deep sleep, Shen Cui also put down her sewing.

Early on the morning of the ninth day of August, the examination papers were distributed.

Shen Cui couldn’t help but feel that her students from Ciuwei were like a single entity.

Although they appeared differently before the exam, once they received the papers, their movements were particularly neat and uniform.

They first started by rapidly counting the pages, their movements as practiced as bank tellers counting money, depicted by their Q-version avatars, making them look adorable and charming.

After counting, they all picked up their pens and began writing their personal information at the top of the page—name, birthplace, age, physical characteristics, and the names of their ancestors for three generations.

When they finished filling out their personal information, they all put down their pens and began reading the questions.

Shen Cui was extremely concerned, so she enlarged Mu Erpang’s avatar a bit and used his perspective to look at the papers.

There were no topics like memorizing the classics or writing the content of the original text in the rural exam papers.

After all, the candidates for this exam had already passed the preliminary examination.

These three types of topics were like free points for them and couldn’t truly reflect their abilities.

So, the exam paper began with nine questions on the classics.

As a semi-literate person, Shen Cui vaguely remembered that this quote came from the “Great Learning.”

Thinking about it, she got up and went to the classroom to find a book and flipped through it, and she actually found it.

The book she picked up was Lao Buyu’s, with Lao Buyu’s annotations—”Wealth can adorn a house, morality can cultivate body and mind, a broad mind leads to a tranquil appearance, and a comfortable body and mind. Therefore, a gentleman must have sincere intentions.”

Even with her limited literacy, she could understand this.

As for the young men, it was even easier for them to break the code quickly.

By the time she had decoded one, they had already outlined their answers and started writing.

Shen Cui switched her view and found that everyone’s main ideas were almost the same, and no one had deviated from the topic.

However, due to her limited ability, she couldn’t tell who wrote better.

At this moment, she wasn’t interested in the questions on the classics but in the “plus” version by Liu Xuezhang—what kind of poetry and prose questions Wang Shangshu would ask.

Unfortunately, as if they had made an appointment, none of the young men flipped to the poetry and prose questions. It seemed that everyone was worried that Wang Shangshu’s poetry questions would be too difficult and affect their performance on the earlier questions.

Shen Cui waited patiently.

After a while, she noticed that Mei Ruochu was the first to finish the nine questions on the classics.

She enlarged his screen and went to see the poetry and prose questions.

There were three questions in total.

The first question was, “Green shade grows after spring’s remnant.”

The second question was, “Bian Juan.”

The third question was, “Blow a myriad.”