Cultivating Immortality, Starts with Green Plum

Chapter 87: The Old Man of the Eternal List

Entering the Imperial Examination Hall of the Ministry of Rites.

Xu Ming took his sign, writing brush, ink, paper and inkstone to his own booth.

The shed was small, five feet long, four feet wide, and eight feet high, and contained only a table, a bed, a lamp, and a toilet.
Eating, drinking, defecating, urinating and sleeping all need to be solved in this place.

The only advantage is that the toilet has a lid, and it can be closed tightly, and there will be a special person responsible for cleaning it every once in a while.

As the bell rang, the examination officially began.

The test papers are distributed to each person in order, and then collected in order from back to front.

Only after the bell rings again can the candidates open their test papers and start marking and answering questions.

There are four subjects in total, namely, scholars, farmers, merchants and industrialists. Each subject has a total of twenty questions and the examination lasts for four days.

During these four days, you not only have to answer the questions perfectly, but also rewrite your test paper, trying not to make any typos and keeping the paper neat.

After all, the neatness of a person's test paper can largely determine the examiner's first impression of you.

Not to mention, if you successfully pass the examination and become a tribute student, your test paper will have to be presented to the emperor.

Therefore, an imperial examination is not only a mental job, but also a physical job.

Of course, for a warrior like Xu Ming, this kind of physical work is nothing at all.

When it’s time for dinner, the Imperial Examination Hall will be responsible for distributing food to each candidate.

These foods were all inspected by the chief examiner and the deputy examiner using their spiritual powers, for fear that someone might have mixed something in them.

What made Xu Ming feel relieved was that the food provided by Gongyuan tasted quite good, and was a combination of meat and vegetables, with a balanced nutrition.

I just feel that it’s not as delicious as Xuefutu.

In the evening, as it gradually darkened, each candidate lit a lamp one after another.

On a tall building in the Imperial Examination Hall, Xiao Mochen stood with his hands behind his back, taking in the entire Imperial Examination Hall.

Xiao Mochen would stand on a tall building and watch every night, worried that there would be a fire somewhere.

In the morning, Xiao Mochi looked towards a shed and couldn't help but smile: "This kid, is he still so energetic?"

In that tent, candidate Xu Ming got up and was doing boxing, while the other candidates were still asleep.

On the first day, most candidates felt that they had plenty of time and were not rushed.

On the second day, most of the candidates got into the state.

On the third day, some candidates found that they seemed to be running out of time and hurried to catch up.

On the fourth day, some candidates broke out in cold sweats, while others took a leisurely nap. Especially at night, those who had finished the questions were waiting for the papers to be collected early the next morning, while those who had not finished would copy them overnight.

Four days passed, and with the sound of a bell, all the candidates stopped writing.

No matter how the test results were, as the bell rang, everyone felt a sense of relief.

Xu Ming also felt like he had returned to the time when he took the college entrance examination in his previous life.

But the difference is.

After the college entrance examination, you can tear up books to fold paper airplanes and throw them down from the building. A few old Bidens will come over to discuss the questions with you. After returning home, you can have a good meal and play to your heart's content.

But the test is different.

After the examination, all candidates need to continue staying in the examination room and cannot go anywhere else.

It takes about ten days to stay there. During these ten days, the examiners will be responsible for marking the test papers, and there will also be special people coming to each booth to check, just to prevent anyone from cheating.

To be honest, unless the exam questions are leaked, which is something that will implicate the entire family, a little bit of cheating from ancient books will have very little impact on the exam.

After all, all questions are essay questions.

Most of the candidates fell into a deep sleep after the tense mood was relaxed.

Xu Ming is still practicing boxing and disciplining himself.

Of course, there are also many candidates who cannot sleep, because the results will be announced in ten days. Those who have not passed the exam can only try again in four years, but how many four years can there be in a lifetime?
The backyard of the Ministry of Rites was guarded by Xue Futu. Led by Xiao Mochen, a total of 101 officials were grading the test papers. There were 25 people in each subject of the four disciplines: scholar, farmer, merchant and artisan. Each candidate's test paper needed to be graded by three people.

All test papers are scored, and once a controversial test paper appears, Xiao Ke is required to make the final decision.

The number of people taking part in the examination reached 6000, the highest since the founding of the Wu State, but the number of people planned to be admitted this time was only 400.

This is a huge workload for the examiner.

At the beginning, the examiners may be more patient and read slowly, but the further they mark the papers, the more annoyed some examiners become.

So if your handwriting is ugly.

That could be miserable.
On the ninth day, the candidates had not taken a bath for thirteen days, and flies were flying around in the sheds.

Say it politely.

The shed was like a pigsty.
Only four hundred of them were able to achieve great success.

In the backyard of the Ministry of Rites, after the last examiner finished correcting the last test paper, he slumped in his chair due to exhaustion.

"Your Excellency, there are 6,251 candidates in total, and 25,004 test papers in total. I have corrected all of them. Here are the test papers of the top 600 candidates with the highest total scores in the four subjects. Please have a look at them."

The deputy examiner pushed a small cart and sorted out everyone's test papers. The names of the candidates had already been unsealed.

"Well, thank you for your hard work." Xiao Mochen took the test papers one after another and started to look through them.

Xiao Mochen looked through the lists from the 600th place onwards. The more he looked, the brighter his eyes became.

When he saw the test papers of the top ten, Xiao Mochen flipped through them over and over again, unable to put them down. The more he read, the more he liked them.

Each of the top ten test papers would have had a chance of getting the top prize in the vast majority of imperial examinations in the 250 years before the Wu Dynasty, and several of their essays were extremely well written.

And now, all these people have gathered together.

"It's a rare honor for an old man. You all came at a coincidence." Xiao Mochi put down the last test paper and took a deep breath. "No problem. Let's announce the results to the candidates."

"Yes"

That morning, as the examiners called out the names of the candidates one by one, every time a name was called out, one person became a tribute student.

Some people laughed out loud, while others shed tears of loss.

A total of four hundred tribute students were taken to bathe and change clothes, and then went directly to the palace to meet the emperor and take part in the palace examination.

"Boom"

"Boom"

"Boom"

Three days later, as all the tribute students came out of the palace, one by one the Blood Pagodas appeared in the imperial city. In front of the Blood Pagodas were officials holding golden lists.

[This chapter makes up for yesterday's, and there is also a 4000-word chapter. ]

(End of this chapter)