Chapter 198

During the second round of the imperial examination, the weather remained normal, with no occurrence of strong winds or heavy rain.

Mei Ruochu and Wei Shu still felt slightly colder at their exposed location compared to others.

However, they were equipped with three pots of ginger soup and windproof face masks. Moreover, happiness is often relative, and such a small breeze was no longer enough to bother them.

Even Wei Xi’s health wasn’t affected at the beginning.

After checking their condition, Shen Cui went to see Mu Er Pang, who had been ‘specially taken care of’ by the rules.

In Mu Er Pang’s case, there was not even a slight breeze. He hadn’t even taken out his windproof face mask and had removed one of his layers of clothing.

He seemed entirely unaffected.

Shen Cui then checked his mood value.

During the previous heavy rain and wind, everyone’s mood values, except for Mei Ruochu’s, were low.

Today, however, it was unusual. Mu Er Pang, the exception, surprisingly had a good mood? His mood value was even higher than Mei Ruochu’s.

This puzzled Shen Cui.

She didn’t even have the patience to do any needlework.

She simply accompanied Mu Er Pang, watching him eat and sleep peacefully until it was time to hand in the exam papers the next day.

In the second round of the imperial examination, there were no poetry or prose questions.

Instead, there were five historical essays and two policy essays.

The historical essays required candidates to analyze historical events or figures and express their opinions on the gains and losses involved.

In a sense, it was similar to the policy essays, focusing on political insight.

Since Mu Er Pang’s weakness lay in poetry and prose, and he had been practicing historical essays for the past few months, neither Lao Buyu nor Shen Cui were worried about him in this aspect.

So, after reviewing his papers, Mu Er Pang’s mood remained very good, and he quickly began drafting his responses to the questions.

Having drafted his responses, Mu Er Pang started writing as soon as he received his exam papers on the morning of the same day.

Indeed, there was no trace of any sinister wind on his side.

He didn’t even need to use paper weights and didn’t have to worry about the ink drying out due to the wind or ink drops being blown onto the paper.

Therefore, he wrote continuously without stopping, much faster than even Mei Ruochu, who was among the fastest in the group.

By nightfall, he had already completed three questions.

After dinner, he didn’t stay up late burning the midnight oil but went straight to bed. Evidently, he was confident about the remaining questions and didn’t need to stay up pondering under the lamplight.

However, the smoother his progress, the more uneasy Shen Cui became.

The next day, when he began writing the last two questions, she compared his and Mei Ruochu’s papers.

The last historical essay question was about “The Weight of External and Internal Authority in the Zhou and Tang Dynasties, and the Qin and Wei Dynasties,”

which required candidates to discuss the merits and demerits of the feudal system and the system of provincial autonomy.

After some comparison, Shen Cui, being only semi-knowledgeable, couldn’t judge who wrote better, but she was sure that both of them were addressing the same core issues.

Mu Er Pang didn’t deviate from the topic.

In a moment of distraction, while Shen Cui was lost in thought, both Mu Er Pang and Mei Ruochu had finished the last historical essay question and begun writing the policy essay.

The topic was “The Highest Virtue in Punishment and Reward.”

This sentence left Shen Cui completely bewildered.

After spending so long studying in the academy, she was certain that this sentence was not from the “Four Books and Five Classics.”

However, only she, the amateur, was bewildered.

Mu Er Pang and Mei Ruo Chu had already started writing their essays.

Mu Er Pang still kept the habit of first thinking of the source, then writing it down on the paper to remind himself.

So, on the paper beside him, he wrote—”‘Shang Shu’ Kong Anguo’s Annotation: Suspicion of guilt should be treated lightly, while suspicion of reward should follow the majority, reaching the utmost in loyalty and honesty.”

It turned out that this source was indeed not in the original text of the book, but rather an annotation by another scholar on the “Shang Shu.”

Later, looking at what Mu Er Pang and Mei Ruo Chu had written, Shen Cui understood that the question was similar to whether there should be ‘presumption of innocence’ or not.

Similarly, they both first used ancient sage emperors like Yao, Shun, and Yu as examples, praising the importance of benevolent governance.

They also combined current events of their dynasty, expressing their agreement with ‘presumption of innocence.’

They continued to be steady and played to their normal standards, without any mistakes.

Shen Cui became even more puzzled, thinking that perhaps this time she couldn’t consider Mei Ruo Chu’s paper as the correct answer? Was he actually influenced by the rules?

So, she went to look at Wei Xi and Shen Ao Shuang’s papers.

Their progress was slower, and they had only just started writing the last question of the historical commentary.

Upon closer inspection, the core of their essays was the same as what Mei Ruo Chu and Mu Er Pang had written earlier.

Shen Cui waited a while, watching them begin to write the strategy question.

After comparing it again, she still didn’t find any problems.

By the time they finished writing the historical commentary, it was already the third day.

Mei Ruo Chu and Mu Er Pang had long finished writing, checking, and even dried the ink on their papers, just waiting for the time to come when the soldiers and scribes would come to collect the papers.

Although Mei Ruochu and the others were still being blown by the wind and feeling cold, Wei Xi’s health had dropped by 2 points, showing signs of a fever.

But overall, compared to the previous situation, her own students—especially Mu Er Pang—had done too well in this exam.

It went so smoothly that it made her inexplicably uneasy.

Soon, on the day when the second round of the imperial examination ended, Shen Cui and Lao Buyu went to the agreed place to meet them.

When they came out of the exam room this time, Mu Er Pang and the others were in the same group as before.

Except for Wei Xi, who was not feeling well, everyone’s expression was much more relaxed than before.

Wei Shu and Mei Ruo Chu worked together to lift Wei Xi onto the carriage, and then the rest of them got on the carriage and headed back to the academy.

After getting on the carriage, Wei Xi fell asleep directly.

Wei Shu cleared his throat and asked everyone, “The wind was much lighter this time, and we didn’t suffer much. Is everyone feeling the same?”

Mei Ruo Chu and Shen Ao Shuang nodded, while Mu Er Pang said, “I was even luckier. This time, my exam seat was quite far from the front, so there was hardly any wind. When the sun was shining during the day, it was quite hot. I even took off a piece of clothing because I was sweating.”

Wei Shu and the others naturally wouldn’t envy him, so they just laughed and bumped him with their shoulders. “You lucky brat!”

Mu Er Pang chuckled.

Soon, when they returned to the academy, Wei Shu quickly carried Wei Xi into the house, and Shen Cui followed to feed him medicine and rice soup.

When she came out, Lao Buyu had already led the others to have dinner.

Although they had suffered much less this time, they still sat in the exam room for three days straight, so after eating, they all began to feel drowsy.

Shen Cui urged them to wash up, and everyone went to rest on their own.

Another night passed, and Shen Cui sent them off from the academy in batches.

In the final round, after confirming that Mu Er Pang could eat and sleep well and had no mistakes in his answers, Shen Cui still felt somewhat uneasy.

When the sky was bright the next day, the young men sat in their cells again.

Except for Mu Er Pang, who was in a good spot like he said, the others were still near the windy area, feeling cold.

Shen Cui couldn’t help but mutter to the system, “Could it be that I’m having delusions of persecution? The rules created strong winds and rain, but they didn’t seem to affect them at all, and now they can’t come up with any new tricks, so they’ve given up? But that’s not right. Even if they’re at their wit’s end, they wouldn’t kindly move Mu Er Pang out of the windy spot, would they?”

The system’s current ability level in this plane is still a bit below that of the rules, so it can’t give an answer.

It can only advise, “This is the final round. Let’s remain unchanged to deal with whatever changes come. After the exam, we can try to deduce its purpose.”

For now, Shen Cui could only do this.

She continued to monitor the young men’s various statistics while keeping them company during the exam.

In the third round of the imperial examination, only two eight-legged essays were tested.

From the previous topics, it was evident that Pang Cifu sought no mistakes in the first examination he presided over. Therefore, in this final round, he did not pose any tricky or difficult questions.

The first question was: “Use when appropriate, hide when unnecessary.”

This phrase comes from the Analects of Confucius, spoken by Confucius to his disciple Yan Yuan.

It means that if I am useful to the current world, I will actively take action and display my talents.

If I am not needed, I will hide my abilities and bide my time.

It discusses the attitude of dealing with the world with a balance of using, hiding, advancing, and retreating.

This question was not considered difficult even for Cui Fei, who was slightly less capable among the group.

After pondering over the paper for a morning, he had already begun to write.

By the time he finished, others had already started writing the last question.

The last question was: “Attain benevolence and reach the alley.”

Cui Fei immediately put down his pen, checked the previous question, and prepared to fight a protracted battle with this question.

Wei Shu started scratching his head while adding more incense to calm his mind.

Mei Ruo Chu, Mu Er Pang, Wei Xi, and Shen Ao Shuang, on the other hand, were slightly smoother.

After thinking for half a day, they began to write.

Shen Cui glanced at Mu Er Pang’s draft paper and saw that he had written two sentences on it: “Zihan said: ‘Profit is spoken of concerning benevolence, and concerning duty and humanity.'”

The other sentence is: “The disciples of the Dao in the alley said, ‘Great is Confucius! He is learned and yet has no pretensions to knowledge.'”

She understood that this last question of the final round was a combination question.

However, this combination question was quite fair, because both of these sentences are from the Analects of Confucius, making them relatively easy to relate to.

Moreover, the first sentence talks about how a gentleman should speak less of profit and more of benevolence and righteousness, while the second sentence is about being humble, both of which are virtues of a gentleman.

Putting them together in an essay is not considered unrelated.

So, by noon on the last day of the exam, even Cui Fei, who wrote the slowest, had finished writing and put down his pen.

Next, they just needed to wait for the time to be up so they could leave.

And just like that, all three rounds of the imperial examination were completed.

Shen Cui was still puzzled, but she didn’t miss the time to pick them up.

She and Lao Buyu went to wait outside the exam hall ahead of time.

When they arrived, many people who were picking up examinees had already arrived.

There was a lot of discussion among the crowd, with some people saying angrily, “Why are there so many disasters and difficulties in this year’s imperial examination? First, a watchtower collapsed, then two or three days of strong winds and heavy rain. Many candidates fell ill. And this last round… I’ve never heard of a toilet exploding for no reason! If you were sitting near the toilet, how could any candidate take the exam normally?”