Chapter 32: The Last Scene
The second exam is over.
Someone came over immediately to collect the papers. Zhu Hao paid attention to Lu Bing, the youngest person present, and found him standing there with a blank look on his face. He then saw that Lu Song, who was responsible for maintaining order in the distance, was nowhere to be seen. He immediately understood.
This topic...
It is not entirely true to say that Sui Gongyan was pedantic. The questions he asked were within the scope of "quality-oriented education" and were not limited to the Four Books and Five Classics. The questions were not very difficult, and there seemed to be nothing wrong with using them to test the cultural knowledge reserves of test-takers. However, Zhu Hao always felt that there was an evil spirit about this person.
After the answer sheets are collected, the next step is to mark them.
Sui Gongyan completed it alone.
Half a day later, he picked out a dozen papers and put them aside, and threw less than half of the papers aside. He roughly meant that only these dozen papers had a chance of being selected.
A clerk went over to check carefully, and finally said with a smile: "Thirteen people answered two questions correctly, and six people answered three or more questions correctly."
There are six questions and twenty-three candidates, but only six answered three or more questions correctly. This shows how biased the questions are. Now we have to see whether thirteen or six people will be shortlisted.
Thirteen people are a bit too many, but six people are a bit too few.
The clerk read it again and said with a smile, "One person answered five questions correctly, ranking first."
Zhu Hao felt something was wrong when he heard this.
Judging from the reaction of Mr. Jing next to him, the person who answered five questions correctly was most likely him. He was a little frustrated just now, probably because he felt regretful for not knowing the answer to a question, but then he realized that he was the one who answered the most questions correctly among all the candidates, and he immediately became proud again.
Zhu Hao immediately raised his hand.
What if I'm stupid?
How could I not know that I was completely right?
"Wait, there seems to be another test paper here ."
Jiang Lun, who was watching the fun from the side, saw Zhu Hao's abnormality and frowned. He immediately leaned over to look through the discarded test papers. Then his eyes lit up, "This boy got all the questions right. Why is the test paper here?"
The clerk was a little surprised: "Sir, what you said is... impossible, right?"
Jiang Lun handed the paper to the clerk and said, "Take a look at it yourself. What's wrong? This boy is Zhu Hao. I know him. He is from a military family. His father was a centurion who died for his country while suppressing bandits. His mother was a chaste woman bestowed by the court. This kind of background can be said to be of good family background and very much meets the selection requirements of the palace."
Jiang Lun blocked any excuses Sui Gongyan might have come up with in advance...Don't make a fuss about someone's background.
The clerk was dumbfounded after seeing it.
It’s true that they are all correct.
"Mr. Sui, look..."
The clerk didn't know what to say.
The muscles on Sui Gongyan's face trembled twice. He did not reach out to take the paper, but said nonsense: "Oh, maybe I made a mistake just now."
What a ridiculous but omnipotent reason.
Misjudged?
You old thing, I thought you didn’t see me, but it turns out you recognized me from the very beginning, but you pretended not to know me and didn’t even glance in my direction. You were just waiting to cause trouble for me when the papers were being marked, right?
If Jiang Lun hadn't found my paper in time, there would have been no point in me standing up to defend myself, as you would have definitely asked someone to kick me out!
What a bastard!
This Sui Gongyan lived up to his initial judgment. He was actually a petty and corrupt scholar. He actually transferred his jealousy towards Mr. Lu onto him, a nominal disciple.
The clerk said, "That means the seven people who answer three or more questions correctly can stay and ask Yuan Changshi to do the final assessment. Mr. Sui, what do you think..."
Sui Gongyan raised his head and glared at Zhu Hao fiercely, his tone was quite impatient: "My mission is completed, the rest, you guys can handle it yourself."
Perhaps because he was a little angry that Zhu Hao's paper was found, Sui Gongyan left in anger after finishing the exam.
Everyone present looked at each other, somewhat confused.
Why are you suddenly angry?
Just because Jiang Lun pointed out that you read a test paper wrong?
Or did you deliberately not let the kid named Zhu Hao get elected? He is a child of a military household, so he should have no grudge against you, right? Why are you targeting him so much?
Others didn't understand and gave up thinking about it. They just thought that maybe Instructor Sui was in a bad mood today. Only Zhu Hao understood what was going on.
Jiang Lun, Dianli and others left one after another, and the children who were not selected were escorted out of the palace by the guards, leaving only seven people on the scene.
And Lu Bing, who Zhu Hao initially thought was a close relative, was actually eliminated! ?
This was beyond Zhu Hao's expectations.
But it was clear after thinking about it. The questions should have been made up by Sui Gongyan on the spot. Maybe there was another set of questions originally, but he didn't use them. As a result, Lu Bing, who was waiting for ready-made answers to pass the test, was completely at a loss when faced with a pile of questions that seemed like a mystery...
"How did you answer all six questions correctly?" After the place became quiet, Master Jing stared at Zhu Hao with disbelief and suspicion.
Zhu Hao spread his hands and said, "I know, so I can answer correctly. If you ask me something I don't know, I naturally can't answer it...Are you satisfied with this answer?"
Master Jing frowned: "Did you know the question a long time ago?"
Zhu Hao smiled and thought, at such a young age, you know that this kind of exam has problems of early leaking of questions and cheating. You are quite knowledgeable, but you still lack vision. If you were a discerning person, you should have seen at a glance that I am not a relative. Otherwise, how could I be conspired by the examiner even though I got all the answers right and almost got eliminated?
"As a person, don't have too many dark sides in your heart, and look at the beautiful things in the world more... This scholar surnamed Sui asked the questions on the spot, can't you see that? Unless I am a worm in his stomach, how could I know the questions in advance?"
Zhu Hao explained to Master Jing with a smile.
Master Jing had a stern expression on his face and kept staring into Zhu Hao's eyes, obviously not believing what he said.
Outside the Moon Gate, the guards returned after sending the children out. They gathered together and whispered, "...Teacher Sui is really angry today. He sat there with a fierce look on his face, as if someone owed him a few hundred dollars... Maybe he won't have many days of good life in the palace !"
Zhu Hao's heart moved when he heard this.
Is this useful information?
If Sui Gongyan continues to stay in the palace as a teacher, and if I take classes with him in the future... I will be in trouble.
This person is narrow-minded. He failed to trip me up during the selection. Will he be nice to me in class in the future? Don't let him not be able to enter the class and report me every day. In the end, I will be kicked out of the palace in disgrace...
no.
Zhu Hao secretly made up his mind that such a person must not be allowed to stay in the palace, and the trouble must be eradicated as soon as possible.
…
…
Just as the third exam began.
Zhu Hao and Master Jing were obviously isolated. There were seven candidates left. After asking each other, they could guess that Zhu Hao and Master Jing were the two who answered the most questions correctly.
However, Master Jing was the son of the county magistrate, so he naturally became the biggest competitor and was not accepted by others.
The only one who can really talk to Master Jing is Zhu Hao.
"Hey, your name is Zhu Hao? Do you know all the six questions?"
Several children walked towards Zhu Hao together.
The one asking the questions was the oldest of the candidates, two or three years older than Zhu Hao and Jing Gongzi, much taller, and spoke with a domineering tone.
Conflicts between children are often resolved with fists. Zhu Hao's performance was too outstanding and obviously hurt other people's interests, so they came to put pressure on him.
Zhu Hao nodded and smiled, "Yes, I know all of them. How about you give me a few more questions to test me?"
Before the other party could react, Master Jing asked, " Who is Taishigong?"
Zhu Hao smiled after hearing this.
Master Jing was too competitive and could not accept his own failure. He always felt that Zhu Hao was a pre-selected relative of his. He knew the question in advance and had prepared the answer. Because the Legalists had mentioned Sima Qian's remarks in the previous assessment, he simply asked a question that seemed to be "taking a step back".
If you don’t even know Sima Qian, how can you understand what he said?
Then you are cheating!
"Mr. Jing, someone is trying to intimidate me. Can you please stop causing trouble? Don't you see that if I can't answer, they will point the finger at you... Don't you know that we should be of one mind?"
Zhu Hao did not answer the question, but began to shift the blame.
You guys are here to target me, and I'm just giving you a kind reminder, why don't you also deal with this arrogant guy next to me?
Speaking of people with connections, who can compare to the son of the local county magistrate?
Master Jing was waiting for Zhu Hao to give an answer when he suddenly noticed that the other five children were looking at him unkindly, with questioning and jealous expressions on their faces. He suddenly realized that he seemed to have been fooled.
Just as a group of children were arguing for face, the guards who were talking in low voices suddenly fell silent, straightened their backs and looked to the side.
A few children sensed that the atmosphere was unusual and followed the guards' gaze, only to see several people entering the yard led by an old man in Confucian robes.
When the old man approached, the guards bowed and greeted him: "Greetings, Mr. Yuan."
"Meet Yuan Changshi!"
Zhu Hao was shocked. This person turned out to be Yuan Zonggao, the number one strategist of Prince Xing and the one who made the greatest contribution to Zhu Houcong's ascension to the throne in the future.
In history, the Jiajing Emperor initiated the Great Ceremony Debate, and the instigator was Yuan Zonggao. Yuan Zonggao was a top civil official who was able to propose the Great Ceremony Debate to the powerless little emperor, which seemed extremely crazy but brought centralization to the emperor. His vision and strategy were incomparable to ordinary people.
Yuan Zonggao smiled and nodded in return to the guards, then waved his hand: "Alright, alright, I am here only to give some questions to the students who are eligible for the selection, to test their knowledge and insights, you just need to do your job."