: Outside the board

Author: Emei Swordsman

: Outside the board

The paper was quickly distributed. Gu Yunji browsed the question from beginning to end, but found no content beyond the scope, which was basically within his expectations. There were even two questions that Chen He had very similar to those discussed, and he had already been familiar with them.

Having a calculation in mind, Gu Yunji planned the three days carefully based on the number of questions and the difficulty level, and then he began to answer the questions.

As time passed, the initial tension and anxiety gradually faded away. The candidates were immersed in the examination questions, and the surroundings were quiet, and only the rustling sound of writing could be heard.

Three days passed in a flash. When the examiner came to collect the papers, Gu Yunji curled up in this narrow room for three days and two nights, and his body was sore and stiff in his limbs. Even though the content of the exam was not difficult for him, he had experienced a "battle" that consumed energy. At this moment, he was dizzy and his legs were weak, and he was a little dazed.

After walking out of the examination room with slight steps, Gu Yunji saw Cheng Yan at the gate of the tribute courtyard. The other party's lips were pale and he looked weak and tired, and he was speechless.

Gu Yunji walked up to him and asked, "How is it? Do you feel okay?"

Cheng Yan pulled the corner of his lips and forced a smile: "It's okay. It's strange. Although I have been taking the exam for three days, I feel that this time I'm much more tiring than the county exam. After the exam, I feel that my energy has been drained, and there is only an empty shell left on my body."

Gu Yunji sighed: "I'm almost the same. I've been curled up in the number room for so long, and my bones are about to fall apart. The provincial examination period is long, and neither the number of questions nor the difficulty is comparable to that of the county examination. It's the most troublesome thing. I only took two and a half days to finish the question in the last county examination. I closed my eyes and rested for the rest of the day. I was still answering the questions the hour before handing in this paper, and it was not as easy as last time."

While the two of them were talking, many candidates who passed by the scene after leaving the scene were mostly unconscious and had heavy steps, and they were not very steadily walking. Some of them had dark lips, darkness at the moment, and their bodies were shaking, as if they had not eaten or slept for several days and nights.

“Thank you very much.”

“It’s okay.”

With quick eyes and hands, Gu Yunji held a candidate who was about to fall. He was filled with sorrow in his eyes. He looked at his staggering back and said to Cheng Yan: "Look, we are all in good condition. I don't know if we can last until the end of the provincial examination if we like him."

Cheng Yan shook his head and sighed: "Forget it, it's better to worry about yourself than to worry about others. Let's go back early to rest. There are two exams in the future."

Gu Yunji stopped talking after hearing this and returned to Gu's mansion with Cheng Yan.

The next morning, Gu Yunji, who had finally had a good sleep, felt that his spirit had recovered a lot. After washing up neatly, he and Cheng Yan went straight to the tribute courtyard and waited for inspection.

The second session of the provincial examination came, and the outside of the tribute courtyard was much empty, and basically only some scholars who had to take the exam were waiting. At this moment, many people were yawning and looking like they were not awake, and they were no longer full of energy as they were three days ago.

A gong sounded and the scene began to enter.

The team entering the field was about to line up when Gu Yunji and Cheng Yan were about to line up, and they suddenly heard a noise coming from the door ahead.

The inspector was cold-faced, took out the note from the food box and threw it on the ground, and slapped the table: "I'm so bold! I dared to bring the font paper into the market to cheat, someone is here!"

The young man in front of the official officer widened his eyes in horror, his face full of panic: "No, no, no! I didn't cheat! I, I, I don't know what's going on! This was not what I put in!"

"You see, it is written about the contents of "The Great Learning", but the Confucian classics were finished yesterday, and today they were taking official documents. It would be useless for me to bring this in."

The young man picked up a note from the ground and opened it to the official officer to show it, trying to defend himself: "This is really not what I put in myself. Even if I want to cheat, I can't put it in the food box so brightly. There must be a misunderstanding. Brother Guan officer, this is my second time taking the provincial examination, so you can be eased..."

The official impatiently knocked down the note in his hand and shouted: "The facts are here, and I dare to argue! As an imperial examination supervisor, I should follow my duties, only recognize the law and not the human nature! I don't care about what you misunderstand. It is the truth that you carry the paper. No matter what, you will not be able to enter today!"

"Come on! Take him down!"

As soon as he finished speaking, two strong officials walked up behind him, erecting the young man's arms from left to right, and forcibly dragging him away without saying a word.

After suddenly witnessing such a scene, the candidates around were a little unexpected. After a while, they came back to their senses and continued to line up to enter the venue.

Listening to the faint crying of the young man in the distance, someone whispered to his companion: "This person has been taking the provincial exam for the second time. Do you even know the rules of the exam? He even brought the font paper into the venue. Or... he really wants to cheat?"

"You heard that he cried so hard, he really didn't know." His companion shook his head in disagreement. "Most of these scholars who came to take the exam from other places live in inns, where there are mixed together. Eighty-most of them have had bad intentions and deliberately put notes into his food box to frame him. He neglected not to check his luggage for a while, so he was stuck?"

The man looked shocked and suspicious: "No way? Is there really such a person? Everyone has been studying hard for ten years, and fame is hard to come by, so why bother to frame others?"

My companion said disapprovingly: "You can get to the top of the exam by passing the Juren, but only 80 people will be admitted at a time in Songjiang Prefecture's provincial examination, and there are only so many places. If one opponent is less, you will have one more chance of passing the exam. There are more people with bad intentions."

"In addition to frame others for cheating, they also add medicine to food to make others diarrhea, make noises in the inn in the middle of the night so that others can't sleep well...Wait, only you can't imagine, and they can't do it. These are called the 'off-track tricks' on the imperial examination court."

Similar to Go, there are also "off-board moves" in the imperial examination. They are all used to influence the opponent's mentality and state in order to increase their chances of winning.

Hearing him say this, the people around him suddenly became alert and checked their luggage one after another, for fear that someone would have stuffed something that they shouldn't have.

Gu Yunji was secretly shocked when he heard this. Only then did he understand the true meaning of Gu Kaili's saying "Everything can happen on the imperial examination field."

Although he and Cheng Yan's luggage were prepared in advance by the Gu family and were personally watched by Gu Kaili and others, there would be no problem, but he was still a little uneasy and worried about the next exam journey.

But he was afraid of anything he was afraid of. Shortly after Gu Yunji entered the market, he saw this so-called "outside-trading move".
Chapter completed!