Chapter 87: 85 Going Home (Third Watch of the Night)
Upon learning that one of his guests was the top scorer in the Government Office Examination, the Innkeeper immediately refunded Xiao Ling’s group their room fees and provided them with the most expensive food and drinks. If the inn didn’t have a certain dish or drink, he would send a waiter out to buy it.
Despite having already passed the examination to be a schr, Fen Lin’s performance was not so outstanding, hence he had not received this kind of treatment before.
But this time, following Xiao Ling, he was treated magnificently.
Worth mentioning is that Xiao Ling did so well in the examination that his essays were circted on the same day the results were announced. However, Xiao Ling turned away the many people who came wanting to be acquainted with him.
The Imperial examination system had undergone a major adjustmentpared to the previous dynasty. While the previous dynasty held the College Examination two to three months after the Government Office Examination, the current dynasty’s College Examination took ce the day after the scores of the Government Office Examination were announced.
During these ten days waiting for the results, most candidates were extremely nervous. Once they learned they had passed, they hardly had time to breathe before the next round of examination started.
This undoubtedly increased the pressure on candidates.
The College Examination was divided into two sections, testing on essay writing and scripture copying.
The difficulty of the scripture copying wasparable to the Government Office Examination, and the essay writing was still set by the Prefecture Governor.
Xiao Ling had alreadye top in two examinations, and if he also came top in the College Examination, he would achieve the Little Sanyuan.
Pingcheng hadn’t seen a Little Sanyuan in almost ten years. All the officials in the government office had high hopes for Xiao Ling. However, to everyone’s surprise, Xiao Ling turned in a nk paper for the scripture copying in the College Examination.
The scope of the College Examination’s scripture copying was not vastly different from that of the Government Office Examination. It still required candidates to be proficient in three ssics. Nevertheless, it was more challenging in terms of question quantity and type. But a nk paper was unexpected.
Of course, unexpected things could happen in every round of examination—Once, a student identally smeared filth on his answer sheet, leading to the disqualification of his entire exam.
That happened during the Provincial Examination, which was held every three years. Thus, three years of a candidate’s hard work was wasted.
But turning in a nk paper was really unusual.
Especially when the nk paper was from Xiao Ling, who left the Prefecture Governor a deep impression in the Government Office Examination.
If the Prefecture Governor remembered correctly, there were twelve evaluators and eleven of them gave a top grade to Xiao Ling’s essay.
The only one who didn’t give a top grade was the Prefecture Governor himself.
He gave Xiao Ling the second highest grade.
However, if anyone knew that the lowest grade the Prefecture Governor gave to others was the fourth, then they could see how extraordinary Xiao Ling’s achievement was.
With eleven top grades, even if Xiao Ling performed poorly in his scripture exam, he would still be in the top ten. However, Xiao Ling was the thirdst.
This really surprised the Prefecture Governor.
He called in Xiao Ling’s paper, only to find it nk.
The Prefecture Governor ordered someone to bring out Xiao Ling’s scripture paper from the Government Office Examination as well.
If Xiao Ling had done unsatisfactorily in the scripture part of the Government Office Examination, then the case may end here. However, Xiao Ling’s scripture paper from the Government Office Examination scored the highest possible grade in every section.
Meaning, he didn’t make a single mistake.
“And he only took half of the exam time!” said the invigtor who delivered the scripts.
This invigtor happened to be the one who sat directly opposite Xiao Ling during the Government Office Examination.
The examination papers were anonymous, so after being handed in, it was impossible to tell which paper belonged to whom. But after Xiao Ling became the top scorer in the Government Office Examination, his essay was widely circted. The invigtor secretly visited the inn to get a look at this top scorer, wondering what he looked like and how he managed to write such an outstanding piece. He realized that this top scorer was the candidate who finished both the scripture and the essay sections in only half the time.
The Prefecture Governor had high standards.
Getting everything right wasn’t a big deal in his eyes. Nheless, finishing the exam in half the time was truly impressive.
Of all the people he had met, only the deceased young lord of Zhaodu had performed better than this candidate.
The Prefecture Governor immediately sent someone to the inn to ask Xiao Ling about the situation.
“I didn’t turn in a nk paper,” Xiao Ling said.
If what Xiao Ling said was true, then someone must have tampered with his paper, which would be a serious matter.
The management of Imperial examination papers was extremely strict. When each candidate handed in their paper, two invigtors would jointly collect it and put a seal on the anonymized paper to prove they had taken it away.
If a problem urred with the paper, the two invigtors were to me.
It’s noteworthy that all invigtors were paired by drawing lots after entering the examination site. Like the candidates, they couldn’t contact the outside world until the end of the examination.
It was rtively easy to bribe one invigtor, but very difficult to bribe both. Because nobody could guarantee that the two bribed individuals would definitely be paired together, or that they would be assigned to the exam site where Xiao Ling was.