I'm in the Red Mansion

Chapter 231 The Tao is one foot high, the devil is one foot high

Hearing Jia Cong's question, Kou Xiang said, "If they want to plot against you, they have many ways to do it."

"Of course, the examination papers for the palace examination must be copied under a false name, but don't we need someone to copy them?"

"Your handwriting has become unique and well-known."

"They just need to do some tricks among the people in charge of copying and find your test paper based on the characteristics of your handwriting."

"Then do some tricks when copying it."

"Then the examiner who is responsible for marking the papers can use this trick to lower your ranking!"

Hearing this, Jia Cong could not help but frown again and asked: "Master, this is a palace examination. Aren't they afraid of offending His Majesty by doing this? Aren't they afraid that His Majesty will execute all nine generations of their clan?"

Kou Xiang smiled and said, "If they want to do it, they will definitely be able to do it perfectly."

"Besides, they will never let Your Majesty catch them."

"For example, although the palace examination is presided over by His Majesty himself, the examination papers still need to be corrected by the ministers."

"They will present the top ten rankings along with the test papers to His Majesty, and then His Majesty will decide the top ten rankings."

"The top three are all chosen from this. In other words, the top ten are actually decided by the examiners. Your Majesty only decides the final ranking."

"And what they want to do is just to push your ranking down to below the top ten, but not too low."

"If you rank below ten, you will miss out on the chance to be the top scholar."

"Even if Your Majesty asks, they will find excuses to evade."

"How can the essays of candidates who are selected into the top ten in the palace examination be bad?"

"They just ranked you outside the top ten, not at the end. Even Your Majesty should not be too harsh on them."

Hearing this, Jia Cong couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

He really didn't expect that even in the palace examination, there would be so many tricks.

And, just as the master said.

If Prime Minister Qin and the others really want to plot against me in this way, there is really nothing I can do.

Although Jia Cong really didn't have much obsession with the title of top scholar.

But it is always unpleasant to let others control you.

Besides, if you can get it, it would be a good thing to have the title of top scholar.

Why should I give it to others?
Thinking of this, Jia Cong couldn't help but say: "As Master said, they will probably do something with the calligraphy."

"If I change my handwriting so that they can't find my test paper, will they be unable to cheat?"

Hearing this, Kou Xiang couldn't help but laugh and said, "If you can really change your handwriting, you can really catch them off guard."

"But a person's handwriting is probably not easy to change in a short period of time."

"But you can give it a try. Of course, the master won't let them do anything so easily."

Prime Minister Kou gave Jia Cong some more instructions, and then Jia Cong said goodbye to Prime Minister Kou and returned to Ningguo Mansion.

After returning, Jia Cong began to think about calligraphy.

Now his calligraphy has already reached a state of perfection and full experience.

He has long been eclectic and can easily master all major calligraphy styles.

What he had to do was actually just change to a font that he didn't usually use, and then try to write the characters a little worse.

It is not easy to write well, but it should not be that difficult to write badly, right?

Next, Jia Cong asked Xiangling to grind ink for him, and he began to do experiments himself.

Jia Cong soon discovered that, with his perfect calligraphy skills, it was not so easy to make it bad.

His calligraphy has reached a state of freedom and ease.

Just write casually and it will be an extremely beautiful font.

It's not that easy to write badly on purpose.

However, it’s not completely impossible.

Jia Cong even had an idea, wondering if he could develop a new school similar to the ugly calligraphy of later generations, which specialized in ugliness as beauty, but of course, it couldn't be too ugly.

If you are too ugly, you will be ranked last in the palace examination, which will be a joke.

It is not impossible to make the font a little uglier while keeping the font structure and skeleton perfect.

In the next few days, Jia Cong studied ugly calligraphy.

Unexpectedly, after a few days, I did make some progress.

……

As for Prime Minister Qin, just as Prime Minister Kou had expected, he really began to make arrangements against Jia Cong.

As the prime minister, Qin Xiang was actually not a narrow-minded person.

Although Jia Cong plotted against the youngest son of Prime Minister Qin at the last apprenticeship banquet.

However, Qin Xiang had no resentment towards Jia Cong. On the contrary, he admired him very much.

It’s a pity that Jia Cong is a follower of Kou Xiang and is not from the same faction as them.

Moreover, Jia Cong is not only a sharpshooter, but also has saved the emperor before, and is highly valued by the current emperor.

Now he has won five prizes in a row. If he wins the title of top scorer again, it will be six prizes in a row!
Once this happens, he will surely become famous, and the pro-war faction will also gain power.

This is something that Prime Minister Qin absolutely does not want to see.

Therefore, Prime Minister Qin planned to plot against Jia Cong in the palace examination and make sure he would not win the top spot.

Prime Minister Qin ordered people to find a few pieces of paper written by Jia Cong, and then secretly took these words to the palace to show some people.

During the palace examination, if an examination paper with such handwriting was found.

When they were copying, they would leave some obscure marks on the paper.

These marks are actually just strokes in certain specific fonts that are slightly different from the normal stroke order.

If you don't pay attention, it's hard to see.

Even if someone finds out, it cannot be considered cheating.

Because this is just a personal writing habit.

As long as this trick is used, Jia Cong's test paper will be easily found during the palace examination.

Most of the officials in charge of marking the papers were from their faction.

At that time, it would be enough to slightly lower Jia Cong's test paper when grading the papers.

As long as he is outside the top ten, he will definitely not get the title of top pick.

In this way, their goal was achieved.

Before we knew it, it was already April.

There is little time left before the palace examination.

Prime Minister Qin has made all preparations before the exam to ensure that everything goes well.

As for the candidates, they have been rubbing their hands and eager to try.

This palace examination is the least stressful one.

Anyway, I won’t be deposed, so it’s enough to get a good ranking.

The palace examination is different from previous examinations.

Before the palace examination, there will be a re-examination.

Probably because they were afraid that someone might impersonate someone else, the examination was held in the Baohe Hall.

Candidates such as Jia Cong first went through a re-examination.

The re-examination process and marking time are kept simple and expedited.

After the exam, the papers were graded very quickly and all of the more than 300 candidates who took the exam passed.

Next, they will prepare to take part in the palace examination in Baohedian on April 21st.

(End of this chapter)