Ancient Imperial Examination Daily

Chapter 327 Summoning
Zhou Dongping was startled, put his hand on his forehead down, looked at Zhong An and said, "How can he have so much property? Isn't he a son of a poor family?"

Zhong An shook his head: "The time is too short, that's all the villain can find out. If the master wants to investigate these, the villain will send someone to the county to investigate."

Zhou Dongping waved his hand: "Okay, I'll just ask this. These things are irrelevant, so there's no need to spend time on them."

"Yes, sir."

Zhou Dongping thought for a while: "I remember that in the past two days, there was an examinee who was frustrated in the second round and was removed from the list. Don't scold me. I think he hasn't left yet, you can find someone to contact him and tell him to call Du Jinning to drink in the tavern."

"Yes." Zhong An agreed, hesitated for a moment, and said, "But what if Du Jinning doesn't agree?"

Zhou Dongping squinted at him: "You have been with me for so long, why do you still ask such a question? What does it matter if you agree or not? Even if he refuses to agree, he will definitely appear in the brothel tonight, and tomorrow morning, he will definitely appear in the brothel." There must be a scandal. All we want is an introduction."

Master and servant for decades, Zhong An couldn't be more clear about Zhou Dongping's temperament: self-righteous, self-willed; on the surface just and upright, upright, but in private there is no lack of means.It's just that he covers up well and knows how to manage his official reputation, so his reputation is very good.

"The villain knows what to do, so I will do it now." He bowed respectfully and retreated.

Naturally, it was impossible for Zhong An to do these things himself, and he had to order others around.As soon as he made such orders, the news leaked out and reached the ears of Yao Shuqi and Du Jinning.

Du Jinning sighed: "Go call Lianniang."

The announcement time was in the afternoon. Zhou Dongping was woken up by Zhong An after sleeping at home for more than half an hour. After arranging this matter, he continued to sleep for half an hour before being woken up again by Ah Yan.

When he opened his eyes, he was a little annoyed to get up, stared at A Yan sullenly and asked, "What's the matter?"

"Master, Master Xuezheng sent someone to tell you to come over." A Yan said.

Zhou Dongping froze for a moment, then sat up slowly, thinking about what Mr. Zhao asked him to do.

It stands to reason that Xuezheng is the one who is most aware of the hard work of the examiner when he comes to the examination.He only released the list in the afternoon, Master Zhao has nothing serious to do at this moment, so he won't come to disturb him to catch up on his sleep.Send someone to call him now, what will happen?Unless... Mr. Zhao wants to leave this place.

"What time is it?" He rubbed his face and got off the couch.

"Two quarters after the application time." Ah Yan said, but his hands were not slow, first twisted the cloth towel and washed Zhou Dongping's face, and then brought a clean official uniform for Zhou Dongping to put on.

There had been an affair between Zhou Dongping and a maid before, so Wang never put a maid in front of Zhou Dongping again.The servants and servants are the only ones serving in the outer courtyard.

Dressed neatly, Zhou Dongping didn't ask anyone to speak to Mrs. Wang, and went straight out the door to Mr. Zhao's residence.

"Come on, sit down." Master Zhao called Zhao Liang, and when he met Zhou Dongping, his attitude was quite gentle, he pointed to a chair for him to sit down, and made him serve tea, "You have worked hard these few days. "

Seeing this, Zhou Dongping immediately calmed down, smiled and cupped his hands and said, "Master Zhao is exhausted, that's the hard work."

Zhao Liang smiled, didn't answer the question, fell silent for a moment, and said, "Someone accused you of embarrassing candidates for personal grievances, is there such a thing?"

Zhou Dongping was startled, looked at Zhao Liang, and asked, "What do you mean, my lord?"

Zhao Liang only looked up at Zhou Dongping quietly, without speaking.

Zhou Dongping became more and more flustered when he saw him.

He retracted his gaze, looked elsewhere, shook his head, and said with a righteous and stern look: "I, Zhou Dongping, have been an official for more than ten years. I am upright and never follow personal interests. Even if I test candidates in the examination room, it is a love of talent." From the beginning, wanting to know the real level of the candidates is not difficult at all, let alone any personal grievances."

He looked at Zhao Liang, this time his gaze was clear and straight, without a trace of dodge: "Master Zhao also knows that I am from the suburbs of Beijing. I also only came here two years ago. I am not familiar with the place where I live. I don’t have much contact with the local gentry on weekdays. I don’t have much friendship with anyone, and there is no personal grudge against anyone. Enforcing the law impartially has offended some people, and those people still have resentment towards me."

Zhao Liang smiled, noncommittal, and tapped the test paper on the table: "Let me ask you, you are not embarrassing the candidates, why are the questions you gave in the second test so difficult?"

When asked this question, Zhou Dongping did not panic.As early as when he came up with the question, he thought of a reason to prevaricate: "The adults of the household department..." He repeated what he had said to Li Tong, and finally said, "The purpose of the lower officials is to select talents. Think about it, so the difficulty of the math questions is increased. Moreover, the test questions are the same, and the examinees are all doing a set of questions, so it’s hard to say that it’s difficult for everyone.”

Because the two test post poems did not require writing stereotyped poems, Zhao Liang couldn't catch him, so he didn't explain it.

"Twenty years ago, in Beijing, I also heard about the grievances between you and the Gu family and the Guan family."

Zhao Liang's words were calm and not loud, but to Zhou Dongping's ears it was no less than a thunderclap.

He waited for a while before he calmed down the fluctuation in his heart, and said calmly: "If Mr. Zhao didn't mention this matter, I would have almost forgotten it. I don't know what Mr. Zhao means by mentioning this matter, and it is the same as this time. what is the relationship?"

"Du Jinning is Guan Lehe's disciple, I think you know this, right?"

Zhou Dongping panicked again, but he didn't show it at all on his face. He nodded and said, "I know. It is precisely because I know that it is even more impossible for me to talk about embarrassing students because of personal grievances. If it's really a personal grudge, you won't choose Du Jinning as the head of the case."

Zhao Liang stared at him, smiled, and did not continue to ask this topic, but asked another question: "Do you know Lian Niang?"

Zhou Dongping was taken aback, his face gradually became difficult to look.Even if he denied what had happened, Zhao Liang would be able to find out if he asked a neighbor of Lianniang.

"I know." He admitted it bluntly, "but this is the family and private affairs of the subordinate officials, and has nothing to do with this government examination."

Xuezheng is only in charge of examination matters, and has no right to interfere with other government affairs of magistrates, let alone family and private affairs.So even when asked about Lianniang, Zhou Dongping didn't get too flustered.

"Half an hour ago, a woman named Lianniang asked to see me and told you that you made things difficult for candidates in the examination room because of personal grievances." Zhao Liang looked at Zhou Dongping quietly, "Otherwise, why would your wife make a fuss at home, causing your third Is it too late for an exam?"

(End of this chapter)