Jiayu Village of Red Mansions

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"Xuan Gengchen Ke Gongsheng came to see—"

The Gongsheng students who had lined up earlier, under the guidance of officials from the Ministry of Rites, filed in.Passing through layers of palace gates, walking all the way, and soon, they arrived at the Hall of Preserving Harmony. There was already a row of officials standing on both sides of the hall, leading by several princes of the Holy Majesty. Looking up inadvertently, Yucun saw Shui Zhan on the right. Standing at the two's position, the two looked at each other, and then quickly moved away.

After a while, there were three loud whips at the gate of the palace, and a eunuch sang:

"His Majesty has arrived—"

Yucun followed the crowd and knelt down, shouting long live:

"The ministers and others kowtow to my emperor, long live long live long live——"

The majesty of the emperor, the tributes who were so excited at the gate of the hall just now were all in awe at the moment, ordered all the ministers to be flat, and the sage said:

"You guys come from all directions. They are both Chinese tribute students. They are all elites among the scholars in the world. They will be the pillars of the future country. On top of the Palace of Preservation and Harmony, I will be the examiner. I will ask you a question and choose the best from the best. I hope you Waiting will live up to my expectations!"

After finishing speaking, the Holy Majesty picked up the cutting knife, unsealed the test questions, handed them to the officials of the Ministry of Rites, and said personally: "Gengchen Division Palace Examination, start!"

The official of the Ministry of Rites knelt down to accept the examination questions, got up and read to the candidates: "The subject of this palace examination: Jia Yi's theory of five baits and three appearances, Ban Gu ridiculed him for being sparse, but Qin Mu tried to use it to dominate Xirong, and the theory of Zhongxing also used the theory of precepts and single Yu , It’s not unreasonable to say—"

Officials from the Ministry of Etiquette distributed the test questions to the candidates one by one. The roll of paper was specially made, more than twice as thick as ordinary rice paper, and it was difficult to write on. Each page was twelve inches long and four inches wide, with red lines on it. 24 characters, which cannot be altered. If there is a typo, you can only scrape off the typo with a knife and write again, otherwise it will be regarded as a dirty paper, and the dirty paper will not be admitted.

Yucun took the test paper, looked at the title, studied the ink carefully, thought for a moment, and wrote: "I tried to read Jia Yi's new book, and watched his letter to Emperor Wen. Please try to use the officials of the country to rule the Xiongnu. The saying..."

When Yucun finished writing the last word, the hourglass for timekeeping was running out, so he rolled up his sleeves, sat quietly and waited.After a while, the gold ring was called to close the scroll, and an official put the scroll up, sealed it in a vermilion lacquer box in front of the Holy One, and handed it to the eunuch, the Holy One, for his personal review. , indicating the end of the palace test.

Officials from the Ministry of Rites led Gongsheng out of the palace gate, and met Zhang Tingyu and Wang Yi who came out together at the gate of the palace. They lowered their eyebrows and lowered their eyes in Yucun in the palace just now, so they didn't notice this answering classmate.

"Oh, brother Yucun, finally the exam is over, how about going to the theater with me to listen to the opera? Hengchen is so stubborn, he won't go with me!" Wang Yi immediately held his hand when he saw Yucun.

Yucun was surprised when he heard the words, Hengchen was always easy to talk, why didn't he go out with Wang Yi.

But Zhang Tingyu frowned, and said angrily: "Do you mean that this mad Dongshan went to a serious theater like Qinfangyuan! Yulun, if you want to go, go on your own. Yucun is still young. Don't mess with him!"

Yucun is so delicate and exquisite. Hearing Zhang Tingyu's words, don't you know what he is talking about?Although he didn't go out often, he also knew the Nanfeng Pavilion pretending to be an opera garden, so he shook his head and rejected Wang Yi's invitation.

Wang Yi was not annoyed when he saw Yucun's refusal, but just laughed at Yucun's pussy. It happened that Shen Jinsi came out of it at this time. Wang Yi saw him and pulled him quickly, saying that Zhang Tingyu and Yucun were not interested enough to be with him, Shen Jinsi, good brother, you will definitely Want to go with me Yunyun.

Shen Jinsi readily agreed when he heard the words, and just as Yucun wanted to say something, Wang Yi had already pulled Shen Jinsi away.Seeing this, Zhang Tingyu stomped his feet in hatred, and said, "This madman! Something will happen sooner or later!"

Because there were too many sedan chairs for the ministers and tribute students outside the palace gate, Xi Shun'er parked the sedan chairs on the square one street away from the palace gate. The prince sent someone to tell Yucun to go back to the courtyard and wait after the imperial examination, and not to wander around.

Yucun heard the message, so he would not stay any longer, bid farewell to Zhang Tingyu, and went back to the courtyard directly.

No.16 times

It is said that Jia Yucun returned to the courtyard at about noon, but at the end of the day, there was no figure of Shui Zhan.Yucun didn't expect Shui Zhan to come right away, so he didn't deliberately wait.After the palace examination was over, the burden was relieved, and Yucun was in the mood to have fun. Through the window, he saw a row of flower pots in the courtyard. It was warm in March, and these flowers and plants sprouted new buds, so he decided to go to the courtyard to have a look.Some of the flowers in this yard were left by the original owner of the yard, and some were sent by Shui Zhan. The flowers and leaves were not yet unfolded, and after a round, most of them were unknown to Yu Village.Turning to the corner again, there are several peonies sent by Shui Zhan. At the beginning of March, the peonies have not yet bloomed, but only a few red buds have emerged, and the buds have stretched out vaguely. It will bloom in a few days.

Seeing the cuteness of the tender flower buds, Yucun couldn't help reaching out to touch them, thinking that he had been concentrating on preparing for the exam a few days ago and had no time to distract him. He only knew that Shui Zhan had sent a few peonies, but he didn't know what kind of peonies they were. Seeing that the flower soil is a little dry, I think everyone is busy with his scientific research these days and has no time to take care of it!

Thinking in this way, Yucun went to the big vat by the well to water the flowers with a ladle, but unexpectedly, someone grabbed his waist from behind, and was so startled that the ladle fell from Yucun's hand, splashing water all over his body.

"Why are you so careless?"

The warm breath blew warmly behind Yucun's somewhat sensitive ears, and a deep voice said, "Does Yucun miss me?"

Yucun was only wary of being startled, knowing that the person was coming, and gently but not refusing to open his arms around his waist, Yucun took a step back, slightly lowered his eyebrows, and said: "Today we are at the Hall of Supreme Harmony. seen."

Seeing Yucun retreating, Shui Zhan thought it was because he was shy and not annoyed. Seeing the pots of peonies behind Yucun, he had personally selected and sent them over a few days ago, so he naturally recognized them, and said, "Thirteenth brother a few days ago. I got a few pots of good flower seeds, and gave them to me. I told me that this pot of white peony has layered petals when it blooms, and it is the most elegant. It is different from ordinary jade peonies. The elegant appearance is only comparable to this white peony, so I sent it to you, but do you like it?"

Yucun nodded slightly, and said, "This Huayazi is quite cute."

Shui Zhan was also happy to see that Yucun liked him, and seeing that Yucun was wearing thin clothes and splashed all over his body just now, he was afraid that he would catch a cold again, so he took him into the house instead of going to the living room of the south room, and went straight into the main room. Fang Yucun bedroom.

Walking to the table by the window and sitting down, Shui Zhan stared at Yucun who was opening the cabinet to find clothes with great interest.

Yucun took out his clothes and was about to take them off when he suddenly saw Shui Zhan staring at him and said, "What are you looking at me for?"

Shui Zhan wanted to tease Yucun a few words, but he was afraid that he would get annoyed and put on his wet clothes without changing, so he turned his back to Yucun and said:

"I won't watch it, you can change it quickly, so you won't catch a cold later!"

Going to the window and sitting down beside the table, Shui Zhan listened to the sound of changing clothes behind him, and his heart was full of charm.Seeing the mess on the table, all in Yucun's handwriting, he flipped through the doodles on the table that Yucun hadn't had time to put away, including the two or three pages of the Analects that he had sketched out because of nervousness before the imperial examination, and picked them out and carefully detailed them in his hand. After looking at it twice, he said with a smile: "It turns out that Yucun also has such agitated and lost time, and I also know that you are always so calm and breezy!"

Yucun concentrated on changing his clothes, and only walked up to Shui Zhan, seeing that he was flipping through the "Analects of Confucius" which only had characters but no meaning, and did not reply.

Shui Zhan saw that Yucun didn't answer, but he also knew why he was nervous, and said again: "Father's policy theory is read by the emperor himself, and I can't know the results in advance. Don't worry, with Yucun's talent and learning, coupled with father's The impression in front of the emperor, the grades are naturally not bad."

There is only one chair in Yucun’s bedroom. After Shui Zhan sat down, he had to stand by and wait on the bed. Hearing what Shui Zhan said, he said, “It’s the result. Very lucky, there are more than [-] gongshi in the palace examination, which one is not waiting like this? Yucun only has one ordinary scholar."

Hearing what Yucun said, Shui Zhan felt that he was being obedient, and he liked him even more. He nodded slightly, sat for a while, and then left.

The palace examination is said to be reviewed by the emperor himself, but the ministers below will review the papers first, and select the best ones to review with the emperor before the ranking can be determined.

On this day, the examiners reviewed the test papers and selected the ten most outstanding ones from the many test papers, and handed them to the emperor for review. Because the emperor personally reviewed the test papers, there was no problem of fraud, so the papers were not ambiguous.

The Holy Majesty looked at the papers presented on the case, and braced himself to review them. After about half an hour, he asked the examiners below, "Who do you think among them is the top three?"

The examiner looked left and right, and quickly recommended one person to come out and reply, saying: "Report to the Holy Majesty, I will discuss with you, Ji Yu, Jia Hua, and Wang Lu are the top three in the palace examination."

The emperor didn't make any comments when he heard the words, he just flipped through the examination papers and found a paper that was formally written in a pavilion style but still not concealing its wildness, and said: "You think that the paper 'I heard that the king will not hesitate to correct it' is so good. ?”

The examiner kneeling on the ground looked at the colleague next to him, and after a brief exchange, he said: "The ministers think that Wang Yi's literary talent is good, but his words are unruly, and there are many shocking words, which are more than exquisite, and he loses his stability. He can hardly be ranked among the top three." position!"

The emperor heard the words and said: "A young man should have a bit of vigor, and if he is dying, it is difficult to become a great weapon!"

I flipped through the test paper again, and suddenly saw that the characters in the test paper were sparse and beautiful, which can be said to be the best