Chapter 56

After announcing the start of the first round of the competition, the voices in the venue quickly quieted down.

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, each academy sent their representatives.

The students filed out one by one, and the atmosphere suddenly became serious.

At Cuiwei Academy, the representative for the calligraphy competition was naturally Wei Xi.

His face was calm, exceptionally solemn, not smiling casually, showing that he was still very nervous.

Seeing him, Shen Cui said, “Just do your best, your are very strong. Show them what you’re made off! Beat them All !”

Lao Buyu hurriedly said, “Don’t say that, he still needs to perform at his normal level, if he can avoid a little punishment, that’s something!”

The two of them mentioned this on purpose, naturally to add some humor. Just to freeshen up the athmosphere.

Mu Er Pang also reached out and pinched his fingers, using the warmth of his palm to cheer him on.

With their teasing, Wei Xi’s expression did loosen up a bit.

Yes, he wasn’t here to win any honors for himself; all he wanted was not to embarrass himself in front of others and protect his academy’s reputation.

Wei Xi smiled slightly, nodded, indicating that he had relieved his tension, and then followed the others off the stage.

Each round of the competition had at least one participant and could have up to five. If there were more than one participant, the scores would be averaged among the five.

To be safe, other academies sent out five participants for the next round of the competition.
If a smaller academy couldn’t find five students skilled in calligraphy, they would also send two or three people to prevent anyone from underperforming.

At Cuiwei Academy, there was only Wei Xi, and he was the first to compete. No one knew each other’s capabilities, so it wasn’t surprising that Wei Xi suddenly became nervous.

Dozens of test papers were laid out one by one, and Wei Xi was arranged in a corner.

After all the students were in place, Ling Qingming announced the exam question.

“Please write down from memory the ‘Analects of Confucius, Chapter 1: Learning.’ ” As he finished speaking, an orderly lit a stick of incense nearby.

The “Analects of Confucius, Chapter 1: Learning” was nearly five hundred characters long. For students who practiced calligraphy daily, writing this passage in the time it took for a stick of incense to burn was not a very difficult task.

The difficulty lay in writing quickly and well.

The venue became even quieter, and the judges, including several principals from old academies, a total of six people including Ling Qingming, walked around the venue with their hands behind their backs.

Wei Xi rolled up his sleeves, picked up the brush and dipped it in ink, and began to write on the paper.

For a moment, the venue was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

Soon, the stick of incense burned out, and the orderly struck the gong. The students all put down their brushes.

The orderlies stepped forward one by one to collect the students’ papers.

Although the judges had a rough idea of the students’ abilities from walking around the venue, the students’ handwriting would also be posted on a bulletin board. Later, the orderlies would push the bulletin board, mounted on a wooden wheel, around the venue so that everyone present could see.

After coming down from the stage, because of his good mentality, Wei Xi’s performance was considered stable, and he had a hint of a smile on his face.

Each participating academy could get a stand. There was usually only one chair with armrests and two stools on the stand for the principal and teachers to sit on, while the students naturally stood.

After the other students returned to their stands, it was as if nothing had changed.

When Wei Xi came down, Shen Cui, Lao Buyu, and Mu Er Pang immediately stood up to greet him.

“Are you tired? Are your hands sore?” The weather at the end of August still had the lingering heat of late summer. Shen Cui saw a layer of sweat on Wei Xi’s head and fanned him with her hand.

Mu Er Pang brought over a tea cup and said, “Junior Brother, have some hot tea.”
Lao Buyu couldn’t intervene and could only say, “Sit down and rest for a while.”

The three of them escorted Wei Xi back to the stand. Wei Xi sat on the chair in the middle, which belonged to the principal. After drinking the hot tea and taking the handkerchief from Shen Cui to wipe his sweat, his nervous and uneasy emotions completely disappeared, and he smiled, saying, “I didn’t disgrace myself. There shouldn’t be any problems with the preliminary exam.”

Although everyone was focused on writing their own characters, when the others left the stage, the orderlies came to collect the papers, so they could see each other’s handwriting.

Wei Xi didn’t dare to boast that he wrote the best, but he also wouldn’t be worse than others.

While they were talking, the judges quickly gave their scores after a brief discussion.

With dozens of people participating in the preliminary exam, they didn’t have enough time to give detailed assessments for each person, so they divided them into four categories: excellent, good, fair, and poor. If they encountered results from their own academy, the principal of that academy would not score it, only looking at the assessments of the others.

In the five rounds of the competition, only those who scored “good” or above in three rounds would have the opportunity to enter the next round.

Don’t think that this “good” rating is easy to get. As the orderlies pushed several bulletin boards around the venue, Shen Cui took a glance. Although she didn’t understand calligraphy, the handwriting on each paper was elegant and pleasing to the eye. At least it was on the level of Mu Er Pang, who had been practicing for eight months and couldn’t catch up with.

Lao Buyu was also watching beside her, and his gaze was involuntarily drawn to the handwriting on several papers.

Obviously, many people’s handwriting was indeed very good, so good that it was eye-catching.

But since Wei Xi had said so, they all waited patiently to hear the scores.

Soon, Ling Qingming went up to the stage to announce the results according to the academy rankings.

“Hongle Academy, excellent. Wenjun Academy, excellent. Qingzhu Academy, excellent…”

“Yuejian Academy, good. Hanbo Academy, good. Cuiwei Academy, good…”

Ling Qingming didn’t continue with the rankings below “good,” giving everyone a bit of face.

For a while, there were both joy and sorrow in the competition venue.

Of course, Cuiwei Academy was on the joyful side. Although they didn’t get an excellent grade, not being eliminated in the “calligraphy” round far exceeded their expectations.

If it weren’t for the reserved reactions of the people from other academies, maintaining the demeanor of scholars regardless of success or failure, they would have wanted to cheer immediately!

After a short rest of over an hour, the second round of the competition began.

“The second round, archery! Please have the students from each academy come forward in turn!”

Mu Er Pang, who had been cheering Wei Xi on earlier, was up next. A nervous expression appeared on his chubby face.

Before anyone could comfort him, he steadied his mind, “It’s just right to have archery in the second round. If it had continued with music, Junior Brother would have been exhausted!”

After saying that, he took a deep breath and lined up to go on stage.

As Lao Buyu had expected, Qingzhu Academy did not have an archery field.

The students were divided into five groups and lined up in five long queues. Each person would be given four arrows to throw in order.

During the calligraphy round, the literati inside and outside the venue could still maintain their composure. However, for the pot-throwing event, which had an element of entertainment, the atmosphere suddenly became much livelier.

Mu Er Pang was in the middle of the line. The people beside him were all watching the performance of the people in front, occasionally there were soft cheers or expressions of disappointment.

Mu Er Pang kept his eyes straight ahead, not looking at the others. He only repeated in his mind the key points and rules of pot-throwing.

Soon it was his turn. With four arrows in hand, Mu Er Pang closed his eyes, shut out the environment and the increasingly noisy crowd, and quietly felt the direction of the wind.

At this moment, he seemed to have returned to his academy, with his teacher and junior brothers lecturing in the main hall, and his mother sitting on a reclining chair on the porch, smiling at him.
The current competition was not much different from his usual practice.

His heartbeat returned to a normal, steady rhythm. He relaxed his whole body, standing with his legs shoulder-width apart. When the orderlies announced that they could start throwing, he didn’t hesitate and immediately threw the pot!

Someone anxiously said, “Is this chubby kid stupid? The first arrow is crucial. How can he just throw it randomly?”

“Maybe he’s from some unknown small academy. Although someone shouted to start, there was no specified time…”

The discussions around him abruptly stopped because Mu Er Pang’s first arrow hit the pot’s mouth!

In fact, it’s not surprising that others thought his action was reckless, because according to the scoring rules of pot-throwing, hitting the pot with the first arrow, called “Youchu,” was worth ten points, while hitting with the second and third arrows was worth five points each. If the fourth arrow also hit, it was called “Youzhong,” worth twenty points. However, if the first arrow missed, and the second, third, and fourth arrows hit, they were considered “Sanjian,” worth one point each.

From this, it can be seen how crucial the first arrow was!

But no one expected that Mu Er Pang’s seemingly reckless first arrow would actually hit!

Mu Er Pang didn’t pay attention to the reactions of others. He quickly threw the rest of the arrows.

Unfortunately, he had only practiced for three months, and only the second arrow hit. Combined with the ten points for “Youchu,” he scored fifteen points in total.

After throwing, he followed the orderlies’ guidance to leave the stage.

Shen Cui, Lao Buyu, and Wei Xi naturally went to greet him.

He first talked about his performance, then slapped his forehead and said, “I was so focused on my own throwing that I didn’t pay attention to others at all. I don’t know if that’s considered a good score.”

Fortunately, because pot-throwing was a scoring system, unlike the calligraphy competition that required subjective judgment, the top five academies with the highest scores were rated excellent, while the fifth to eleventh places were rated good. The rest of the academies were not ranked.

Ling Qingming quickly announced the results.

Cuiwei Academy, once again, pinned down Liang’s grade and won this round.

After two consecutive matches, as long as the match doesn’t go wrong, then even if Shen Cui’s new identity doesn’t appear, the initial test will be no problem!

Although Shen Cui had already set up the disguise data beforehand, as long as she didn’t use it, the 500 shopping points would not be spent.

She was happily thinking about saving these 500 points when the third match involving ‘Le’ began.

However, what surprised her was that this match was not about playing musical instruments, but about dancing!

Although Wei Xi practiced dancing in addition to playing the piano, the dance at this time was not for entertainment like in later generations, but solemn and serious, performed for the purpose of worshipping mountains, rivers, or ancestors.

Such dancing was not only for aesthetic enjoyment but also a great test of physical strength.

Wei Xi didn’t practice regularly because his physical fitness was not enough for him to dance for a whole performance.

Not to mention that other academies all sent out five people to dance in a group, and the students from each academy wore uniform dance costumes, were selected for their similar height and body size, and looked very alike. Just standing together was already eye-catching.

And Wei Xi’s solo dance, even if he managed to endure it, would be difficult to surpass the effect of others who had been training for a long time and had perfect coordination in group dances.

The faces of several people from the academy became serious, and finally, Shen Cui decided: “This match is about dancing, so the next match is probably about musical instruments. Xiao Xi, conserve your energy, we forfeit this match.”

Well, these shopping points, after all, cannot be saved.