Chapter 124

"Let's go, let's go, don't mind him," Lv Xiucai said. As an old candidate, he naturally wouldn't care about such heckling, and led Wang Er and Song Zhe into the exam hall.

The provincial exams were held in two parts. The first part was called the draft, where candidates only wrote their seat numbers instead of names. The second part was the formal essay and poetry, with an exam time of one hour.

Since there were only 3 slots for Xiucai, only 6 candidates could advance to the second part from the first part where there were 48 candidates in total. The rest would be eliminated.

As the actual proctor of this exam, Teacher Liu took the place of the elderly chief examiner to issue commands.

Seeing that all candidates were seated, it was time. Just as he was about to announce the start of the exam, he suddenly heard someone say, "The county magistrate is here!"

Teacher Liu was shocked, but he quickly went to greet him.

"Greetings to you, sir."

"No need for courtesy," said County Magistrate Song. "I'm just here to take a look."

It was nothing for the county magistrate to observe a county exam, but what troubled Teacher Liu was that he not only came to watch, but also brought a group of yamen runners.

But he must be leaving soon, Teacher Liu thought.

Without thinking too much, he promptly announced the start of the exam.

With old candidate Lv Xiucai around, Wang Er had done his homework well. He wrote his essay smoothly and effortlessly, and the final poetry piece was also a poem he had prepared long ago.

Although not as great as his mother's work, he believed it should catch the examiner's discerning eye.

As time flew by swiftly, under the blazing sun, both candidates and examiners were drenched in sweat.

Teacher Liu kept invigilating while looking at County Magistrate Song, hoping he would leave soon.

But to his surprise, County Magistrate Song didn't show any sign of leaving at all, and the yamen runners also stood still around the exam hall, staring intently at every candidate.

"Time's up, stop writing!"

At Teacher Liu's command, all candidates stood up and left the hall. The examiners collected the answer sheets.

"County Magistrate Song," Teacher Liu said, "we're going to start grading now."

"Just grade them here, I'd like to observe as well."

Teacher Liu's mouth twitched, but since the magistrate wanted to watch, he had no choice but to grade the papers on site.

The learning levels of the candidates varied greatly, and soon a large portion was eliminated, leaving a dozen or so relatively outstanding ones. The examiners had to pick 6 top candidates from them to advance.

"I think this one's good," Teacher Liu took out one answer sheet - it was Li Xian's.

As Li Xian's mentor, he was extremely familiar with his handwriting, and picked out his paper first. Combined with Li Xian's decent learning, it was natural for him to pass the first round.

Soon the remaining 5 candidates were selected. Chief Examiner He Shanzhang took a quick look and had the seat numbers announced.

Outside the academy gate, a teacher held up a slip of paper and started reading out loud. "Seat A4!"

Li Xian responded, "It's me."

"Congratulations Brother Li, congratulations!"

"Seat B9!"

"Seat A7!"

"Seat D11!"

"I actually passed?" Hearing his own seat number, Song Zhe was baffled. "No way, I really passed?"

Wang Er just shook his head seeing his reaction.

Although Song Zhe liked to fool around, he had been very diligent in his studies since coming to their family, thanks to Lv Xiucai's effective teaching. It was no wonder he could pass the first round.

"Seat B6!"

"Seat B6 is me!"

Hearing his own seat number, Wang Er heaved a long sigh of relief in his heart.

After all it was his first such exam, he was inevitably nervous.

"The last one is Seat D1!"

"Congratulations Teacher!"

Seat D1 belonged to none other than old candidate Lv Xiucai.

But Lv Xiucai was clearly unruffled by this result.

He had participated in dozens of provincial exams, passing the first round every time but failing at the second.

"Nothing to congratulate, we'll see at the next part."

"Congratulations Teacher, congratulations Brother Wang," Song Zhe was already satisfied to pass the first round. "Let's go, lunch is on me today!"

...

The provincial exam second round tested essay writing.

The essay topics were prepared in advance by the Education Commissioner of Yizhou Prefecture, placed randomly in envelopes and distributed to each county.

Only right before the exam could the chief examiner open the envelope and announce the topic.

The topic for Baichuan County this time was: Governance.

Judging from the topic, candidates were required to write an essay on state governance, which was already quite difficult for Xiucai candidates.

But Wang Er already had a sense of what to expect for this topic.

His mother had taught him many times about how to govern when he became an official. He just needed to summarize and quote some classics and he could complete it. Lv Xiucai even more so, he started writing as soon as he picked up the brush.

Li Xian also wrote very fluently.

Only Song Zhe was a bit stuck, scratching his ears and cheeks, but still managed to write quite a lot compared to the other two clueless candidates.

After two hours, the 6 candidates put down their brushes, wrote their names at the top of the papers, and left the hall.

The answer sheets could not be graded immediately after collection. They had to be transcribed first to prevent handwriting identification of candidates.

After transcription, the names were covered with slips before handed to the examiners for grading.

"It's getting late, let's be quick."

The examiners graded separately, discussed the papers, and finally picked the top 3 answer sheets.

The results came out quickly.

Li Xian was the best - a Bing Sheng who would receive a stipend along with the title.

Second was Zhang Zhan, a Zeng Sheng.

Third was Hu Ling, a Fu Sheng.

The latter two were also Xiucai, but without qualification for a government stipend.

"County Magistrate," Teacher Liu came before Song. "The results are out, would you like to review them?"

"No need for me to see them."

Grading was not part of his duties, and Song had no authority over it either.

The reason Teacher Liu still asked was clearly to show off.

But he knew something was fishy about the results. There were too many doubts.

It was no wonder that Li Xian from the academy ranked first, but Zhang Zhan and Hu Ling were just mediocre talents that Captain Zhang already inquired about for Song. So the likelihood of their cheating was very high.

However, without solid evidence, he could do nothing for now.

Of course, there were still ways.

As long as someone reported cheating at the exam, he could conduct a thorough investigation.

Li Yao, would she report it?

Seeing that Song had no opinion, Teacher Liu was secretly gleeful.

Even the county magistrate was powerless in this matter, still at his mercy, wasn't he?

"Then let's seal the papers and announce in the morning."

"No," Song said, "announce it now."

"Isn't that against convention?"

"The results are already out and won't change," Song said. "Announcing early will let the candidates know sooner, what's wrong with that?"

Teacher Liu thought: you said that.