Chapter 182: Passing The Exam
The officer posted the proclamation.
Everyone craned their necks to look at the names on the list.
Zhong Lanhua and Zhang Zhaodi pushed against each other, neither yielding.
“Even if you look here, it’s a waste of time. How could that incompetent person in your family possibly pass as a Xiucai scholar? If Xiucai was that easy to pass, everyone would go take the exam.” Zhong Lanhua sneered.
“Oh my, if that excrement lump in your family can pass as a Xiucai scholar, why couldn’t our clean, handsome, unparalleled good son-in-law who lives with the wife’s family pass as a Xiucai scholar? Heaven has eyes.”
“Enough, stop arguing, quickly check if their names are there.” People nearby tried to mediate.
Zhong Lanhua and Zhang Zhaodi each snorted coldly at the other, craning their necks to look at the names on the list.
Jiang Yihuan had no mind to listen to their quarrel; from earlier, she had been searching for Xiao Yanci’s name. She started from the first one and kept going down, her face growing darker the more she looked.
Zhong Lanhua originally didn’t know many characters, and now she felt even dizzier looking. She tugged at Jiang Yihuan beside her and urged, “Found it yet?”
Zhang Zhaodi was just about to ask Jiang Jing and Zhang Yingdi beside her, but heard Zhang Yingdi point to the middle position and say, “It’s there, Wangshu’s name is there!”
“Wangshu is on the list?” Zhang Zhaodi asked delightedly. “Look carefully, confirm it, is it really?”
Jiang Jing chimed in beside her, “It’s brother-in-law’s name.”
“And Zhong Chushan, Chen Buyu…” Zhang Yingdi said, “Just their names are further back. Our Wangshu’s name is ranked in the thirties!”
“Anyway, they’re all on the list, means they all passed, it’s the same.” Zhang Zhaodi said happily.
“That’s not the same.” The middle-aged woman nearby said, “The higher the ranking, the better the place. Your son-in-law who lives with the wife’s family is in the thirties, shows he has real strength!”
“Thank you, thank you, everyone is very strong.” Zhang Zhaodi grinned from ear to ear.
She was happy, and seeing Zhong Lanhua pulling a sour face beside her made her even happier.
“Your excrement lump didn’t pass? No need to be disheartened, taking it again next time is the same. That one in your family was completely drained when he left the examination hall, nearly didn’t make it, and now he still preserved his life, that’s a blessing in misfortune.”
“Who says our Xiao Gege didn’t pass?” Jiang Yihuan pointed at the name on the proclamation. “His name is there.”
Zhang Zhaodi looked in the direction she pointed but couldn’t recognize it, and asked Zhang Yingdi beside her, “Take a look, is it Xiao Ci’s name?”
Zhang Yingdi said, “It’s his name, but it’s in last place.”
“Last place? Hahaha… Previously boasting like that, saying future top scholar, innately brilliant, and in the end got last place.” Zhang Zhaodi laughed exaggeratedly.
Zhong Lanhua was furious.
She rushed in front of the officer and said unconvinced, “There’s something wrong with this list, something fishy, did you falsify it?”
Jiang Yihuan didn’t expect Zhong Lanhua to have such nerve, actually daring to go question the government office.
She hurried forward to pull Zhong Lanhua, “Mom, don’t talk nonsense.”
“I also want to ask, why are the rankings on the list like this?” Xiao Yanci stood not far away, angrily looking at the names on the list.
In his previous life, he had clearly gotten first place; how could he possibly get last place this time?
This time’s exam questions were clearly the same as in his previous life, and he had answered even better than last time. Even with Zhou Wangshu this anomaly, there was no reason for such a result.
There was only one possibility: something was wrong with this list.
With Xiao Yanci raising the question, the candidates who didn’t make the list also began to doubt the fairness of the grading.
The officer, seeing this, flew into a rage: “What a scholar you are, so lacking in knowledge and skill, yet you don’t look for the reason in yourself, and dare to slander the County Magistrate.”
“If the grading is fair and just, what’s there to hide from us?” Xiao Yanci said. “I demand our exam papers be made public.”
“Right, not to mention others, but people like Zhong Chushan and Chen Buyu actually made the list, this can’t help but make one suspect the fairness of the exam.” A scholar said.
“We also demand our exam papers be made public. Even if we truly are inferior in skill, we want to die knowing the truth.”
Magistrate Chen walked out from the county office.
Everyone stopped talking and bowed toward Magistrate Chen.
“You want the exam papers made public? This official stands upright with a clear conscience, nothing I dare not agree to. Men, bring out all the candidates’ exam papers.”
By the time Su Yaoguang and Zhou Wangshu arrived, the county office was already in an uproar, and the exam papers had already been made public.
Zhong Chushan and Chen Buyu’s exam papers, which the crowd of scholars looked down on, were the focus of attention. When they looked at the two’s papers, they had to admit they lost fair and square.
Unbeknownst to them, those incompetent people they looked down on had progressed at an astonishing speed. Not to mention their answers being more insightful than theirs, just their fine handwriting showed they had put in effort privately.
The few hundred people on the list indeed stood up to scrutiny. Only Xiao Yanci was the exception; his exam paper content was actually quite good, even worthy of first place. But his handwriting was a messy scrawl, now big now small, now thick now thin, and there was a strange smell on the paper, which tormented the examiner who graded it.
“I heard during those few days of the exam you felt unwell, and to avoid leaving traces of going to the outhouse, you didn’t even go to the outhouse, but relieved yourself right there. Your spirit is admirable, but your behavior is shameful. Do you know the servant who cleaned your area was so disgusted he didn’t eat for days. If your paper wasn’t truly well-answered, you wouldn’t even get last place.”
Magistrate Chen greatly disliked Xiao Yanci, the troublemaker, and didn’t give him any face, directly exposing his embarrassment in front of everyone.
Xiao Yanci’s face was unsightly.
These past few days he had been trying hard to ignore that matter, and now it was dug up again; that feeling was like exhuming a corpse from the grave, especially revolting.
Xiao Yanci specifically looked at Zhou Wangshu’s answer sheet.
He realized he had underestimated Zhou Wangshu.
Though Zhou Wangshu’s answer sheet was solid and proper without anything particularly outstanding, such solid propriety was already quite rare, enough for him to deserve the Xiucai scholar title.
However, he hadn’t lost.
This time it was just bad luck.
Next time, he would definitely take care of his health and absolutely not give the other a chance to ride roughshod over him like this.
Xiao Yanci had no choice but to accept this result.
Seeing Xiao Yanci stop making a fuss, Zhang Zhaodi knew the matter was settled.
She said to Zhou Wangshu, “My two godsons are really impressive; they seem so carefree usually, but who knew when they make a sound, it’s a shock!”
