Madam, protect me!

Let’s not talk about the imperial examination. For Li Nuo, he has to deal with the spring exam at the beginning of next month.

There is less than a month left before the spring exam. As Li An Ning said, he can no longer indulge in love affairs.

Li Nuo asked his wife to go back to the Song family first.

He planned to intensively study before the exam. His photographic memory can only let him remember the content of the book. He still needs to work hard to understand and apply it.

Time flies, and it’s been half a month.

Li An Ning walked out of the Ministry of Justice with an extremely disappointed expression on her face.

It has been half a month, and he has not come to the Ministry of Justice once. Even if he has no way, he can always comfort her, right?

She went to the Song Mansion and found that Li Nuo was not there.

After asking around, she learned that Song Jiaren had returned half a month ago, but Li Nuo had been staying at the Li family.

She came to the Li Mansion, and the housekeeper Wu took her into a courtyard.

In the courtyard, two maids from the Li Mansion were cleaning and whispering.

"Young Master has been studying very hard in the past half month, from morning till night..."

"I heard that Young Master seems to be going to take the imperial examination."

"Isn't it said that the imperial examination requires ten years of hard work? Young Master has only been ready for more than half a year. Can he pass it?"

"I don't know. I heard that the imperial examination is very difficult..."

...

Li Anning walked to the door and saw the figure sitting behind the desk, reading seriously. The anger in her heart suddenly disappeared.

Even though she knew that he could not change the result, she was still a little moved in her heart.

Li Nuo looked up and said in surprise: "Why are you here?"

Li Anning walked into the room and said lightly: "Is it not okay to come and see you?"

She looked at the scattered books on the table and asked: "How are you preparing? How confident are you?"

Li Nuo asked: "What confidence do you mean?"

Li Anning rolled his eyes at him and said: "Of course it is the confidence of passing the imperial examination. Is it like your father, the confidence of passing the six subjects?"

Li Nuo thought about it and said: "Seven or eight points."

Of course, he is 100% confident of passing the imperial examination.

He really doesn't have the ability to be the champion in six subjects at present.

But it's okay. There is still more than a month before the imperial examination. He still has a lot of room for improvement. He has made some arrangements in advance.

Li Anning looked at Li Nuo. At this moment, she really had some hope in her heart.

What if... he can really be the champion in six subjects like his father?

But soon, she shook her head in self-mockery and threw this unrealistic idea out of her mind.

At worst, she would just walk away.

Anyway, she would never marry someone she didn't like!

...

There is no time in the book. Time passed quickly and it was February in a blink of an eye.

On the first day of February, the spring examination officially began.

In previous spring examinations, only two or three thousand people participated in the entire Gyeonggi Province.

The spring examination is the same as the imperial examination. All six arts are tested. Although the difficulty is much lower than the imperial examination, each subject must be rated above B.

And even if you pass the spring examination, you can't guarantee that you will be admitted.

The reform of the imperial examination system this time cut off the possibility of entering the academy through other channels. The number of candidates who signed up for the spring examination increased suddenly, reaching more than 10,000, several times that of previous years.

All candidates were divided into different examination halls.

Chang'an, a certain examination hall.

Li Nuo sat in a small examination room with several test papers in front of him.

The spring examination was the same as the imperial examination. The first day of the examination was the calligraphy.

The calligraphy was divided into four parts.

Calligraphy, painting, law, and articles.

The time started from Chenshi in the morning and ended at Xushi in the evening.

It was about 7 am to 7 pm, twelve hours, to complete four small subjects.

Which subject to write first and which subject to write later, candidates can choose according to the situation.

Generally speaking, most candidates will choose calligraphy.

This small subject is the simplest and takes the shortest time. You only need to write a calligraphy work of less than 100 words. If you are fast, you can finish it in a quarter of an hour.

The content of calligraphy is unified, and there is no restriction on the style of writing.

The calligraphy for this spring exam is a passage from the Sixteen Classics, with about seventy characters.

Li Nuo picked up the pen, and as soon as he thought about it, the portrait of Gu Yanran on the code was lit up.

He thought for a moment, and then quickly wrote down his pen, and it was done in one go.

During this period, Xiao Gu has not made much progress in other styles of calligraphy, so he can only use the hairpin flower small regular script.

Putting the completed calligraphy test paper on the other side to dry, Li Nuo opened another piece of rice paper.

Painting in the calligraphy subject is generally a topic-based painting.

The painting topic for this spring exam is "Clouds roll and clouds spread, mountains and rivers are endless", and the requirement is to use ink painting.

Compared with color ink painting, ink painting is much easier. Li Nuo lit up Han Zhuo's portrait, thought for a moment, and started painting.

Han Zhuo is better at painting figures, but his landscape paintings are not bad either.

This painting took Li Nuo more than an hour to paint.

After finishing the painting, he took a few cakes from the food box he brought with him to fill his stomach.

Time is limited, and he still has to answer the law and essay questions in the afternoon.

After a short rest, Li Nuo opened the law test paper.

The form of the law test paper is very simple, with a total of 20 questions. Each question is a real case, and the candidates need to make an accurate judgment based on the "Daxia Law".

This requires an extremely good understanding of the "Daxia Law". It cannot be too light, too heavy, or wrong.

These are a piece of cake for Li Nuo. The entire Daxia Law is in his mind. He can't make any mistakes in this subject.

Even so, it took him a lot of time to finish writing these twenty questions.

After answering the law test paper, Li Nuo didn't dare to rest and immediately opened the last test paper.

This paper tests articles.

The book opens with a propositional poem.

"Riwan."

There are only two words in the question. There is no restriction on style or word count. Candidates can express themselves freely.

The evening is dusk, and the meaning of the title is very simple. Li Nuo quickly searched for poems about dusk in his mind, and quickly wrote four sentences without thinking too much.

Feeling unwell in the evening, I drove to Guyuan.

The sunset is infinitely beautiful, but it’s almost dusk.

The subsequent questions are of a variety of types, involving politics, economics, systems, military, law, and history. They test accumulation. Basically, they select a passage from the "Sixteen Classics" and ask the candidates to interpret it and give their own explanations. view.

In this month, Li Nuo not only memorized the "Sixteen Classics" by heart, but also scanned all the popular and unpopular translations. Answering these questions was undoubtedly at his fingertips.

The essay questions in the spring exam are much simpler than those in the imperial examination. As long as you have a solid foundation, you can basically answer them.

About an hour in advance, Li Nuo finished answering the calligraphy test.

There is no need to check again. Even if he makes a mistake, he cannot change it.

If the test paper is dirty, there is suspicion of marking the test paper, which will affect the final assessment.

He sorted out the test papers, folded them, placed them on the table in the examination room, and then walked out of the examination room.

When they left the examination hall, Madam and Mu'er were already waiting by the carriage.

After the calligraphy test, all candidates' papers will be reviewed.

In order to save resources, candidates with scores below B will be eliminated directly and will not need to participate in subsequent tests.

The imperial court had summoned the examiners long ago. After the first exam, the examination room was closed and intensive grading was carried out.

They need to mark all the examination papers within one day and publish the list of candidates who have passed this subject.

This matter requires a lot of work, and gentlemen from major academies have been seconded in advance.

It was late at night, but the lights were still brightly lit inside the examination hall.

The test papers for each subject are divided into categories and marked by dedicated personnel.

"The handwriting is as good as a dog crawling, and people like this are here to make up for it. Even if it is the spring exam, we can't let everyone in, C!"

"It's just the spring exam, not an imperial examination. Don't take it so seriously."

"Stop being so nagging, hurry up and review. If you finish reading early, you can go back early..."

In a certain room, several examiners were reviewing papers and chatting.

The test papers of the calligraphy subject are the best for marking. Basically, you can draw a conclusion just by looking at them.

It took three examiners less than one night to review 2,000 test papers.

Although the three of them are not considered masters in calligraphy, they are all quite accomplished. Even the imperial examination papers are not very interesting to them. It is really a torture for them to read the calligraphy test papers of the Spring Examination.

At a certain moment, an examiner picked up a test paper, looked strange, and said softly: "Hey, this test paper is not bad..."

Among the piles of waste paper, he finally saw a good one. His eyes lit up and he even felt better.

But soon, a strange expression appeared on his face.

This word is good or good...

But why is it in small regular script with hairpin flowers?

Whose grown man practices hairpin flowers and small regular script?

This type of font is generally practiced by women, and is also known as "daughter style".

If a man writes in small regular script with hairpin flowers, he will be laughed at if he tells it.

But from a pure calligraphy perspective, this handwriting is really good.

Soft, clear, elegant and elegant, it was really pleasing to the eye. After looking at the garbage for a long time, not only his eyes were purified, but his soul was also washed.

He was extremely curious, who could write such wonderful hairpin regular script?

However, for the sake of fairness, there are only numbers and no names on the test papers for the Spring Examination and Imperial Examination. Only after the results are compiled can we know who the test paper came from.

He handed the test paper to the other two people and said, "Look at this test paper. This test paper is a bit interesting."

The person next to me had just put down a test paper rated C, took it casually, glanced at it inadvertently, and could no longer look away.

He held the test paper in both hands, put it in front of his eyes, looked at it for a long time, stroking the short beard on his chin, and exclaimed: "What a hairpin in small regular script. Could it be that there are women among the candidates?"

Another person was also attracted by his voice. After coming over to take a look, he expressed the same exclamation as him.

Candidates will be carefully inspected before entering the examination hall. It is naturally impossible to blend in with a woman. What is unexpected is that there is a man who can write such beautiful hairpin regular script.

The examiner who first discovered the test paper looked at the two of them and asked, "What do you think this test paper should be?"

“Excellent!”

“Considering it’s excellent!”

There are generally nine levels in the imperial examination, but there is a first level above the first level, which is called excellent.

Only when you can't find any problems with a test paper or your performance in the test can you get an excellent evaluation.

"That's exactly what I meant."

The examiner nodded, wrote the word 'excellent' on the test paper with a red pen, and then put it aside.

At this time, in another room of the examination hall, an examiner admired the painting in his hand and exclaimed: "I didn't expect that there would be such a superb painting skill in the spring examination. Even if it is a formal imperial examination, this person's painting can compete for a place. This painting should be ranked first..."

Soon after, similar exclamations sounded in the other two examination rooms.

"The law is flawless, this is a good seedling of the legal school!"

"Good poem, and the meaning of the classics is also remembered very well. The excellent one may be controversial, but it is also worthy of a first-class!"

...

At this moment, Li Nuo didn't know what happened in the examination hall.

After a whole day of examination, he was already exhausted and fell asleep early.

In the dream, he won the top prize in six subjects alone. His Majesty married Princess An Ning to him as promised. He held his wife's hand with his left hand and hugged An Ning with his right hand-then he was woken up by the cold.

Li Nuo turned his head and took a look, silently loosened his wife's hand, turned over, and continued to sleep.

At the same time.

Princess Mansion

Li Anning was lying on a large and gorgeous bed, hugging the quilt tightly. I don't know what she was dreaming about, but a happy smile appeared on her face...