Chapter 196

Mu Er Pang was the one who had been dozing off. He had been sitting against the wall, embracing his arms and reciting poetry.

Suddenly, there was a loud noise, startling him, and he instinctively looked outside.

The only thing he could see was the unfamiliar examinee in the opposite room, who was also startled.

Their eyes met.

The examinee across the way looked young, probably in his early twenties.

The commotion outside quieted down again—after all, those who had reached this stage were seasoned exam-takers. Unless it was a life-or-death emergency like a fire in the exam room, it wouldn’t cause them to panic.

After regaining his composure, he looked at the young man with curiosity.

A soldier came over to warn everyone not to make noise and to maintain order.

The examinee wanted to ask the soldier what had happened, so he encouraged the younger-looking Mu Er Pang with his eyes.

Mu Er Pang wasn’t going to play along. He rolled up his sleeves, hunched over, and focused his gaze on the coal brazier in the corner of the doorway.

After staring blankly for a while, Mu Er Pang suddenly felt chilly.

He noticed that the smoke from the coal fire was drifting more vigorously with the wind, and the little warmth it provided had dissipated.

He realized it wasn’t just his imagination.

The wind had indeed picked up significantly.

The loud noise from earlier was probably from a nearby building collapsing or being damaged, which resulted in less cover for the exam area nearby, hence the stronger wind.

Such incidents could affect anyone’s mood, especially since they had to stay there for several more days.

Mu Er Pang looked up at the examinee across from him who had tried to coax him into looking outside earlier.

It seemed the examinee had also figured this out, as he suddenly looked embarrassed and disheartened, with no further interest in prying.

Mu Er Pang ignored him and quickly unpacked his bundle, putting on the spare set of clothes prepared by Shen Cui.

…

Mu Er Pang, still unaware of what exactly had happened, and Shen Cui, sitting in front of the “monitor” outside the exam venue, were even more puzzled.

They saw the young examinees on the screen all start to pack up their belongings, wrapping themselves up tightly.

Shen Cui realized that something was amiss with the regulations, causing these children to feel cold.

So, it wasn’t just a coincidence that they were assigned to the same area. It was actually the deliberate arrangement of the regulations.

Each of them wore an inner layer, three outer layers, plus the spare set Shen Cui had prepared, totaling five layers of clothing.

Yet, despite this, they all sat with their arms crossed, clearly feeling cold.

Fortunately, not long after, each of them was given an additional thin blanket.

The blankets were uniform and looked quite old, obviously issued by the exam venue.

Normally, these items would be distributed to the candidates just before nightfall.

But today was an exception, probably because the officials in the exam hall were aware of the situation and adjusted the procedure accordingly.

Later, Shen Cui noted how many times they drank the ginger soup from the thermos and realized that even with the extra clothes and blankets, it wasn’t enough; the young men were still feeling terribly cold.

The thermos was the largest available in the system store, holding enough ginger soup for five large bowls.

When Shen Cui prepared it for them, they said they didn’t particularly like the taste of ginger and preferred just hot water.

After all, it was early spring, and they figured they might feel a little cold at most during sleep, but they already had blankets, so they didn’t need the ginger soup.

Shen Cui insisted, saying that although it might not taste great, ginger soup was better for keeping warm than hot water.

If they really couldn’t stand the taste, they could mix it with plain water when it was served in the exam hall.

Naturally, they didn’t dare refuse Shen Cui’s kindness, so they all brought it along.

In theory, such a heavy thermos should have been enough for them to drink for three days, but judging by the current situation, it would probably last at most a day and a half.

The thermos belonging to Wei Xi, who drank the most, was already nearly empty.

Seeing this situation, Shen Cui couldn’t help but worryingly remark to the system, “If I had known, regardless of what they said or whether their bags would be too heavy, I should have filled three thermoses for each of them.”

She rarely lost her composure like this.

It was because she was powerless to help them from the sidelines that she felt even more helpless.

The system reassured her, saying, “Host, don’t worry. Once the ginger soup is finished, there’s still the medicine you prepared.”

When they were short on supplies during the provincial exam, she always prioritized buying medicine for Wei Xi.

This time, with more resources at her disposal, Shen Cui naturally didn’t hesitate to buy double the medicine for Wei Xi and a single dose for the other young men who weren’t prone to illness.

For now, there was no use in panicking, so Shen Cui suppressed her anxious feelings.

The first day passed, and the young men’s health remained relatively stable.

Wei Xi lost 1 point, but after noticing his discomfort, he immediately took a pill, and his health returned to normal.

Before dawn the next day, the exam papers were distributed, and the young men began checking the papers diligently, resembling cashiers counting money.

However, if you looked closely, you’d notice their movements were stiffer and slower than usual.

Shen Cui still felt somewhat worried, but worrying wouldn’t change anything at this point. So, she enlarged the screen and focused on their exam papers.

By immersing herself in the task, she hoped to avoid getting distracted.

The first part of the imperial exam, similar to the provincial exam, focused on Confucian classics and poetry.

However, there were fewer questions this time: five on Confucian classics and two on poetry.

The first question on Confucian classics was “Being neutral without leaning towards strength. How strong is it to be flexible?”

Because Shen Cui wanted to fully engage herself, instead of immediately checking the young men’s answers, she decided to look up the original text herself.

After some effort, she found the passage in “The Doctrine of the Mean”:

“The superior man is affable, but not partial; the mean man is partial, but not affable. The superior man is neutral, but not stubborn; the mean man is stubborn, but not neutral. The superior man is accommodating, but not yielding; the mean man is yielding, but not accommodating. The superior man is sincere, but not boastful; the mean man is boastful, but not sincere.”

There weren’t any annotations by Lao Buyu in the book, but Shen Cui had been exposed to these texts over the years.

After some pondering, she could decipher their meaning.

The passage essentially means that a superior person should be affable but not partial, neutral but not stubborn, accommodating but not yielding, and sincere but not boastful.

It emphasizes the importance of maintaining integrity regardless of the circumstances.

As for the repeated phrase (“How strong is it to be flexible”), it implies that this is the true strength.

While the question wasn’t difficult, it conveyed a message:

The examiners shifted their focus from assessing the examinees’ individual capabilities to evaluating their ability to contribute to society as a whole.

After deciphering the question, Shen Cui checked each of the young men’s answers on the screen.

She compared them and confirmed that they all understood the meaning well; none of them faltered on the first question.

Her worries lessened—it seemed that the cold environment didn’t affect their ability to think.

However, they were writing much slower than during the provincial exam.

By the time Shen Cui solved a question at the provincial exam, they would have finished most of the Confucian classics questions.

Mei Ruochu, the fastest one, had only reached the third question.

Furthermore, their writing was sporadic. Mei Ruochu would pause frequently to warm his hands with a hand warmer, fearing that stiff hands might affect his handwriting.

By the time he finished all five Confucian classics questions, it was already nightfall.

Zhou Shi prepared dinner and knocked on the door.

Shen Cui watched her students on the screen while they drank ginger soup and ate fried rice, casually eating her own dinner.

Both Lao Bu Yu and Zhou Shi were concerned about them, so there wasn’t much conversation at the dinner table.

As they were almost finished eating, Lao Bu Yu suddenly looked out the window and recited slowly, (“Fear the clouds in the south in the morning, and the clouds in the north in the evening”).

At this time, he had no intention of reciting poetry; instead, he was referring to the weather.

Shen Cui understood, “Is there going to be a change in weather?”

Lao Bu Yu nodded with concern. “It looks like there will be strong winds and heavy rain tonight.”

Having read various books, he had some knowledge of astronomy and meteorology, so his judgment was likely accurate.

Sure enough, that night, a fierce storm swept through the entire capital.

Shen Cui was already sleeping uneasily, and the loud noises from outside immediately woke her up.

She sat up, wrapped in her clothes.

The screen opened, and the young men in the exam venue were already awake, startled.

Shen Cui carefully observed them and saw that they weren’t wet, indicating that at least there was no leaking in their room, which eased her mind a bit.

But the wind in their room was… a bit too much!

On the screen, Mu Er Pang and Mei Ruochu, among others, struggled to pick up things while their hair flew wildly in the wind.

Every now and then, they squatted down or leaned over to retrieve items.

However, if they weren’t careful, the items scattered on the floor would disappear from the grids—they were clearly being blown outside.

They spent nearly half an hour rearranging everything, bundling them back into packages and wrapping them in blankets before resting again.

The items that had disappeared didn’t reappear in the room, indicating that they had been blown away by the wind.

The storm lasted for two full days, only stopping abruptly after they finished their first round of exams.