Volume 5: Overlord of the Sea Chapter 580: Rising Star
During the last peace between Chu and Wei, the third imperial examination was held as scheduled...
The most eye-catching person this time was undoubtedly the King of Chu’s adopted son "Deng Ai", who entered the imperial examination hall at the age of fifteen!
In addition to his identity, it was also because of the reputation Deng Ai had accumulated over the years. In astronomy and geography, articles and mathematics, reasoning and civil engineering... Deng Ai visited famous teachers and high friends in all aspects, and everyone who came and went praised him.
Although because of his identity, some people must have attributed all this to his status as the "adopted son of the King of Chu", but news spread quickly in the State of Chu, and many high-ranking officials in the court and famous people in the opposition favored him, so he also had a large number of supporters.
In a blink of an eye, it was the end of October and the day of the imperial examination. Starting from the second session, Bai Tu was only a general examiner and did not actually supervise the exams, so he would not be isolated in Jinling University.
But on the final day, he felt a little nervous as he waited for Deng Ai to return to the palace to report.
Bai Tu was very principled. When the child came back, he would first let him take a bath and change his clothes, and then have a family dinner... If Deng Ai didn't bring it up, he would definitely not ask about the result.
In the end, Deng Ai couldn't stand it anymore. His adoptive father seemed to be afraid that he would not do well in the exam. After the family banquet, he took the initiative to ask for credit to Bai Tu: "I am deeply grateful for your cultivation. This time, I will definitely get the first place in the six subjects to repay you!"
When Bai Tu heard this tone, which was even more arrogant than Fa Zheng's, he hurriedly comforted him: "Xiao Ai, you and I are father and son, there is no need to say these polite words... To be the top of the six gates, just work hard!" He was afraid that Deng Ai would be under too much pressure.
After all, the top six...
There are only seven subjects in the imperial examination!
So, apart from the "engineering" which is not too distracting, the other six subjects are all "reserved"?
Those who don't know would think that Bai Tu had opened a huge backdoor for him...
Another half a month later, it was the day for the announcement of the results. When all six subject lists were released, this time... the "backdoor theory" really became popular!
Military science, ritual science, household science, criminal science, civil science, civil science…
Deng Ai really took the lead...for six times in total!
Among the seven lists, except for engineering, Deng Ai is "pinned" to the top of the others. At first glance... I thought the title of this imperial examination was "Deng Ai"!
As the whole country was shocked, it was inevitable that some people sinisterly fabricated the "backdoor theory". Some of them were just gossiping, while others had ulterior motives.
Just because of Bai Tu's reputation, most conspiracy theories in Chu attributed this to "the officials below wanted to flatter the King of Chu", "the King of Chu was actually unaware of it", "the King of Chu was also deceived by his adopted son and the corrupt officials" and so on...
Directly accuse the King of Chu?
If this were to be done, it would probably immediately trigger a backlash - after all, in the eyes of the Chu people, the King of Chu is omnipotent.
Of course, this statement is a joke to those who really understand the imperial examination process.
The one who finally decides the ranking is the King of Chu himself, okay?
And theoretically, when it comes to the King of Chu, the answers are not anonymous...
In other words, Deng Ai's ranking was originally made by Bai Tu himself!
However, regarding the huge controversy caused by the imperial examination results within just five days after they were reported by the Bufeng Guard, Bai Tu simply asked them to pay attention to the "mastermind behind the scenes" and did not even provide much guidance in the official bulletin.
As for memorials suggesting a "thorough investigation of the imperial examination system", Bai Tu kept all of them and did not send them out.
Bai Tu had actually anticipated this scene a few days ago - the final ranking was nominally made by Bai Tu himself, but in reality the order had already been arranged by each department.
Bai Tu does have the right to rearrange the order of presentation according to "preference", but in fact, Bai Tu has not done so so far.
Although the imperial examination is now also based on a scoring system, it is different from the academic examination after all, and the questions in the imperial examination are highly subjective!
Letting Bai Tu personally oversee the selection was not only to show that the "imperial examination" was done by Bai Tu and those who passed the examination should remember Bai Tu's kindness, but also to give Bai Tu the opportunity to select talents who "match his will".
This time, Bai Tu did not change the order on purpose. The examiners of other departments did not expect that, in addition to himself, Deng Ai would rank first in five other subjects...
Bai Tu had indeed reviewed them one by one, and although there were a few outstanding talents emerging, in terms of the imperial examination answers, there was a clear gap between them and Deng Ai!
In order to make sure that he did not inherit the habit of "spoiling his adopted son", Bai Tu also showed it to Jia Xu in private, and they came to the same conclusion, so... Bai Tu did not deliberately avoid suspicion.
Instead, after the current public opinion results appeared, Deng Ai locked himself in the room for a whole day, and Zhang Qiying reluctantly went in until dinner time...
Bai Tu also went to see the brat when he thought he was going to rest - how old is he to dare to keep a girl overnight?
Of course, it turned out that Bai Tu was overthinking. When Bai Tu arrived there, Zhang Qiying was about to leave...
Afterwards, Bai Tu had a sincere talk with Deng Ai. Deng Ai... was obviously much more humble than before, and seemed to have understood some principles beyond "talent"!
It has to be said that although Deng Ai's growing environment was completely different from that in history, and even the opposite, his "naivety" and lack of consideration for others were "perfectly" preserved.
Thinking back to before and after the imperial examination, when he was full of confidence and wanted to win all the titles to bring honor to his adoptive father, Deng Ai now just felt ashamed.
Deng Ai did not think that the current result was due to his adoptive father opening a backdoor, but he had clearly realized that some things... could not be considered only from a technical perspective!
He even thought that it was because he was too arrogant that his adoptive father did not take away his first place in order not to hurt his self-esteem.
Deng Ai in history was born in an ordinary family and had a stutter. He did not like to make friends, so he had the weakness of being aloof and "not considering the people's hearts". But the current Deng Ai has Bai Tu as his backer, has a good family background, and not only has he corrected his stuttering long ago, but his image and personality are all first-class. As a result... he has begun to become detached from the masses and "not consider the people's hearts".
Bai Tu felt that he had not lost out since Deng Ai understood this point this time.
And now there is criticism outside...
Bai Tu didn’t care at all, because in two days, he would naturally have a way to completely reverse public opinion!
Seven days after the results are announced, the new successful candidates will go to Jinling Ji to awaken their official seals.
With Deng Ai's ability, plus the bonus of being the top of the imperial examination list, and plus... Bai Tu had already discussed with Jin Lingji that he would provide the maximum degree of official seal expansion at that time - as long as the ability is strong enough, directly getting a gold seal and a purple ribbon is no problem!
The current Jinling Ji is capable of doing this, and the cost is completely within an affordable range...
By then the voices of doubt will naturally disappear, and then Bai Tu will publish the test papers so that everyone can see the difference with their own eyes - it doesn't matter if you don't understand it, the columnists of the Dibao will write analysis reports for you!
As for the people behind the scenes who wanted to stir up trouble this time, Bai Tu could also take advantage of the situation to harvest a group of them. It is estimated that the other princes will be sad and heartbroken for these people who were buried and bribed with great difficulty...
