Red Mansion Taoist

Chapter 124 Bachelor
Mei Zhou, a bachelor of the Imperial Academy, has been very busy recently. As the examiner of the Jinling Provincial Examination appointed by the Supreme Emperor, he needs to meet many people every day.

There is no way. In addition to having a prosperous literary style, Jiangnan is also inextricably linked to the officialdom of the capital.

If he hadn't seen him, he would have offended someone at some point.

Of course, it was impossible to get him to say more about the exam.

Because Daqian has extremely strict censorship for the college entrance examination. If the examiner did something, it would be a serious crime of confiscating the family and beheading the person.

Besides, if Mei Zhou can successfully run the trial run of Jinling Village this time, he will definitely be reused when he returns to the capital. How could he make such a mistake in this matter?

However, if someone with important connections came to ask for help, he would also send him a collection of his essays that he had prepared long ago. This was the greatest sincerity.

With this anthology, it is equivalent to understanding his preferences in literature.

There were still a few days before the big exam, and on this day, Bachelor Mei Zhou met people again in the living room.

This time the identity of the other party forced him to meet him, because the other party was Zhen Yingjia, the eldest son of the Zhen family in Jiangnan.

The two parties were seated separately. Zhen Yingjia, the eldest man, watched the servant bring tea. After the servant left, he took out a stack of banknotes and handed it over.

"Master Zhen, you should know that it is impossible for me to violate the law of Daqian in the provincial examination!" Bachelor Mei Zhou glanced at the banknote and said with a heavy face.

As a noble bachelor, a dignified fourth-grade official, and it was time before he was about to make his grand plans, he would not do anything wrong for the sake of money that would affect his official career.

"Sister Mei, what I'm asking for won't embarrass you, it's just a trivial matter!" the eldest master Zhen Yingjia said with a smile.

"A small thing is worth paying so much for Master Zhen?" Academician Mei Zhou said calmly without believing him.

"I have a problem with a student, and I don't want him to pass the provincial examination. As long as you take action during the marking, you can get a favor from the Zhen family!" Zhen Yingjia, the eldest master, explained with a smile.

Academician Mei Zhou was slightly startled. He did not expect that things would be so simple.

I never thought that the Zhen family would go so far to prevent one student from passing the exam.

You must know that a banknote is a small matter, but a favor from the Zhen family is a big deal.

The Jiangnan Zhen family was extremely powerful. In addition to the old concubine, they also had connections with King Beijing in the capital. Not to mention that the Jiangnan Zhen family had always been favored by the Supreme Emperor.

If at a critical moment, the Jiangnan Zhen family spoke up for him, it could change his official career.

"Who is this student, worthy of the Jiangnan Zhen family's attention?" Bachelor Mei Zhou smiled and picked up the banknote and asked at the same time.

Seeing his actions, the elder Zhen Yingjia knew that most of the matter was over.

"This child's name is Jia Qiang!" The eldest master Zhen Yingjia said the student's name. When he said the name, he said it through gritted teeth, which showed the hatred in his heart.

Bachelor Mei Zhou's smile froze, and the banknote in his hand fell on the table again.

"Master Zhen, I'd better take the banknote back. I'll pretend that I haven't heard anything about today's incident. Besides, I would like to advise this student to avoid making enemies." He pushed the banknote back to the eldest master Zhen Yingjia. Said in his mouth.

The eldest master Zhen Yingjia did not expect such a change. He looked at Bachelor Mei Zhou. If he hadn't known that Jia Qiang could not know Bachelor Mei Zhou, he would have thought that Bachelor Mei Zhou was Jia Qiang's teacher.

It was obvious that Academician Mei Zhou did not want to deal with Jia Qiang, and even had the idea of ​​​​persuading peace.

"In that case, just treat me as if I haven't come today!" The elder Zhen Yingjia took back the banknote and stood up and said calmly.

If it weren't for the fact that Bachelor Mei Zhou was the examiner of the Jinling Township Examination, he would have been too lazy to pay attention to officials like Bachelor Mei Zhou who didn't have much real power when they met.

Bachelor Mei Zhou sent the eldest master Zhen Yingjia away with a smile, his face full of helplessness.

Zhen Yingjia, the great master, can find another bachelor to help with everything, but the problem is that this is Jia Qiang.

He couldn't help but think of the scene at the Saint's Day in front of Jinling. On that day, he received the imperial decree to become the examiner of the Jinling Township Examination and went to the palace to express his gratitude.

"I, Mei Zhou, have met the Supreme Emperor!" Academician Mei Zhou knelt down and bowed.

"Get back on your feet!" The Supreme Emperor waved his hand and said, then turned to the side and ordered: "Give me a seat!"

Academician Mei Zhou was excited and carefully sat on the stool brought by the eunuch.

It is a great grace to be given a throne by the Holy Spirit.

"I am trusting you in letting you go to Jinling this time. This is a big plan to recruit talents for Daqian. There is no room for failure!" the Supreme Emperor encouraged.

"I will live up to the holy hope!" Academician Mei Zhou lowered his head and promised.

"I still believe you, otherwise I wouldn't let you pass!" The Supreme Emperor smiled lightly, and then said unintentionally: "Jia Qiang, a student from the capital, will also participate in the Jinling Provincial Examination. Don't let him be bullied in Jinling. !”

Academician Mei Zhou was confused for a moment, but it took him a moment to realize that the Supreme Emperor was interceding for his student Jia Qiang.

When he left the Daming Palace in disbelief, he was sent to the East Palace by the eunuch.

Emperor Jingwen met with Academician Mei Zhou and received the same favor again, which made Academician Mei Zhou's blood boil.

But once again hearing the name Jia Qiang from Emperor Jingwen's mouth, Academician Mei Zhou was stunned.

Both the Supreme Emperor and the Emperor like this Jia Qiang. Why don't you just give him a high official position instead of letting him take the big exam.

Then I thought about how only civil servants who pass the major examinations can be accepted by the civil service system. Those civil servants who are gifted will be ostracized in various ways in the officialdom.

This Jia Qiang was so virtuous and capable that she was favored by both the Supreme Emperor and the Emperor.

You must know about the discord between the Supreme Emperor and the Emperor. No one in the court knows that the Supreme Emperor will suppress anyone who Emperor Jingwen likes. When did two saints pay attention to the same person at the same time?

It was because of the advice of the two saints that Bachelor Mei Zhou immediately changed his mind after the eldest master Zhen Yingjia said Jia Qiang's name.

If he dares to remove Jia Qiang from the provincial examination list, he may face the censure of the two saints after returning to Beijing.

After Bachelor Mei Zhou came to Jinling, he looked through Jia Qiang's information and found that he was a student of Lin Ruhai and a supervisor of the Imperial College in Beijing.

Usually, the students of the Imperial College would only take the provincial examination in the capital. This kind of examination that spans a large area is against the rules.

Of course, that mostly refers to southern bachelors going to the north to take the exam, rather than northern bachelors going to the south to take the exam.

The difference is that the writing style in the south is much better than that in the north. It will be much more difficult for a northern bachelor to pass the exam in the south.

On the contrary, when students from the south go to the north to take major exams, they are more likely to get good grades.

"Come here, send this anthology to Jia Qiang!" Academician Mei Zhou thought for a moment that it was not safe, and he ordered his servant.

When Jia Qiang received the collected works of Bachelor Mei Zhou, he was confused. He did not know Bachelor Mei Zhou. Although Xue Tong tried many methods, he was unable to obtain more information about Bachelor Mei Zhou.

Just when Jia Qiang thought that she would have to bite the bullet and perform her best in this exam, she did not expect that the examiner of the Jinling Township Examination would take the initiative to send someone his collected works.

Jia Qiang opened the collection and saw that there were annotations written by Bachelor Mei Zhou. This collection had much more content than the other collections that Bachelor Mei Zhou had sent out.

Although she doesn't know the reason, with this collection, Jia Qiang can better understand the preferences of Academician Mei Zhou, and write poetry that is more suitable for Academician Mei Zhou.

In the Jiangnan Zhen family, the eldest master Zhen Yingjia frowned. He felt that he had overlooked something.

He thought of the time when the third youngest, Zhen Yingcheng, was arrested in the capital. At that time, he asked the King of Beijing to intervene and also used the kindness of the old concubine to let the matter go.

This Jia Qiang seems to have a very close relationship with the imperial palace in the capital. Judging from the attitude of Bachelor Mei Zhou, the relationship between the imperial palace and Jia Qiang is not an ordinary close one.

Thinking of this, he took a breath of cold air. He originally thought of making some small moves for Jia Qiang in the examination room of the provincial examination, thereby affecting Jia Qiang's exam.

At this time, he put aside this idea, maybe he could wait until the news about Jia Qiang's investigation from the capital was sent back.

Since the previous matters were handled by the third master Zhen Yingcheng, even if something happened in the capital, it was Zhen Yingcheng and the second girl of the Zhen family who came forward, and no detailed information was sent back to the Zhen family.

The Zhen family's understanding of Jia Qiang was that Jia Qiang was a member of the clan who was expelled from the Jia family and had the favor of Emperor Jingwen.

Now it seems that the news is not very accurate. Academician Mei Zhou was appointed by the Supreme Emperor. Jia Qiang, who was favored by Emperor Jingwen, could not make Academician Mei Zhou lose his temper like that.

The Jiangnan Zhen family's actions against Jia Qiang fell silent after a visit to Bachelor Mei Zhou.

Jia Qiang began to read through Mei Zhou's collected works. Through the annotations, he became more familiar with Mei Zhou's writing style.

The day before the Jinling Township Examination, the Jinling City Guards blocked the streets near Gongyuan, and the atmosphere of the examination permeated the entire Jinling City.

Early the next morning, Jia Qiang did not let anyone from the Xue family take him there. A carriage driven by Jia Jinjiang took him to Gongyuan.

Jia Jingang stayed outside and sat on the carriage, while Jia Qiang walked to Gongyuan by herself.

After checking his identity certificate and carefully checking everything on him and everything he brought, he was able to enter the Gongyuan.

He was still a little worried about the Zhen family causing trouble, but he was not afraid. With the inventory there, if someone really wanted to frame him, he would have a way to deal with it.

Fortunately, nothing happened, and the examination seat assigned to him was very comfortable, ventilated and away from odors.

Jia Qiang, who was sitting in the examination room, looked at the books neatly stacked in the inventory. This kind of examination made him feel extremely at ease.

No matter how tricky the questions in this exam are, if he hasn't seen them before, he can check them out in the inventory.

Within ten miles, he can also read books and information by controlling Jia Jingang.

In fact, there are many things that can be done with the game panel in exams.

However, he did not relax his studies because of the existence of the game interface. Only through studying could he truly integrate into Daqian's official system.

The big exam started and after the papers were handed out, his eyes narrowed slightly.

Because of the title on the paper, he had seen it in the annotations of Mei Zhou's collected works.

He couldn't understand even more why the dignified Jinling Township Examination Examiner, Bachelor Mei Zhou, a fourth-grade official, would leak the test questions to himself because of his official position.

Yes, what Bachelor Mei Zhou did was to leak the test questions. If Jia Qiang hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn't have believed that such a thing happened.

As for the answer, it is the answer written by Bachelor Mei Zhou himself. Can we say whether it is standard or not?
Jia Qiang doesn't have any mental mysophobia. Since he has the most perfect answer, he will not waste it.

As for writing poetry, he chose a suitable poem from his past life memory and copied it down.

Since the main article didn't require much thinking, he ended the problem early.

He couldn't practice the 'Tai Xu Jing' in the examination room, so he could only sit blankly.

I fell asleep during the examination at night, and the next day's questions came. They were still written in the annotations of Mei Zhou's collected works, and they also had standard answers.

After Jia Qiang finished answering the questions, she looked at the collected works of Bachelor Mei Zhou in her inventory.

If this collected works of Bachelor Mei Zhou were seen by others, it would probably put Bachelor Mei Zhou directly in jail.

He decided to burn the collected works of Academician Mei Zhou after he returned. After all, it had helped him. No matter what the reason was, Academician Mei Zhou could not be implicated in this matter.

Although the title of the third day is not in the annotations of Mei Zhou's collected works, it is also within the scope of Mei Zhou's collected works.

In the afternoon of that day, a sergeant came to collect the papers and sealed the names on the papers at the same time.

Jia Qiang walked out of the examination room and saw Xue Pan at a glance.

Xue Pan opened his mouth wide and shook his arms vigorously. He stood out among the group of people.

Jia Qiang wanted to say she didn't know this guy, but when Xue Pan saw him, she excitedly called her uncle while running.

Fortunately, all the students were in low spirits at the moment, and some students were shaky due to the three days of exams, so no one paid attention to Xue Pan's behavior.

"Why are you here?" Jia Qiang asked with a smile.

"My father asked me to come. We have prepared a banquet at home, waiting for you to come back!" Xue Pan replied. He looked at Jia Qiang curiously, then looked at the other students, and then said: "You are in such good spirits. It’s like they haven’t slept in days.”

"I have a strong body. If I take the exam with your physique, you will be just like me after three days!" Jia Qiang replied jokingly.

"Really? I'll take part in the next hometown exam too!" Xue Pan said excitedly.

"Have you passed the scholar examination?" Jia Qiang asked lightly.

Xue Pan's spirit immediately dropped. He then remembered that not everyone could participate in the provincial examination. Even scholars needed to be recommended before they could participate.

Jia Jinguang came over in a carriage. No matter where he was, Jia Jinguang was extremely eye-catching.

Xue Pan is a thug who is not stingy and is scared when he sees Jia Jinjiang.

"Don't get in the car yet!" Jia Qiang urged.

Xue Pan then slowly got on the carriage from the other side of Jia Jinguang. Although he was a little confused, he felt very sensitive. He knew clearly that Jia Jinguang was someone he could not afford to offend.

It is his sensitive feeling that is the reason why Xue Tong did not give up on him because of his bad temper. In business, sensitive feeling is very important.

(End of this chapter)