Tranquility

In an instant, everyone in the room looked at the source of the sound at the same time, and saw a scholar in a coarse cloth gown staring at the three of Tangning with thick eyebrows. His extremely thin figure stood there like a long sword. Show your sharpness.

Tangning didn't take advantage of this time to slap her hand, she slapped her hand at this moment and told everyone: I'm guilty.Who knows, just as he finished thinking this way, he felt the test paper loosen in his hand.

When everyone followed the scholar's gaze, they saw the two sides of the test paper drooping towards the middle in slow motion. The arms of the two men had disappeared, only Tangning's arm was frozen there.

The corner of Tangning's mouth twitched, she retracted her hand calmly, and carefully rolled up the test paper - this was a clear proof.

Then, he held up the test paper, stood up, and said loudly: "I know that no matter how I try to defend myself, you won't believe me. Why don't you send someone to invite Mr. Min to come and uphold justice?"

The room was silent, no one moved, and no one took the initiative to speak. After all, if you are not careful, you will fall into it, and no one wants to get ahead.

Tang Ning glanced around. Zhang Youcai was staring at the scholar resentfully, while the person next to him was looking at the test paper in his hand full of annoyance.Tang Ning glanced at the scholar. At this moment, the scholar did not speak again, but squinted and Zhang Youcai stared at each other. However, Tang Ning believed that since he dared to stand up and expose the cheating, it was not because he was afraid, but because he acquiesced to his proposal. Bar.

Tang Ning looked at the two little officials again. They were not stupid. Generally, the lower the level, the more flexible they were. They quickly figured it out. Even if Zhang Youcai finally pointed out that they had been bribed, he had no evidence, so there was nothing to worry about. But the current situation is that Zhang Youcai was caught cheating on the spot by others, which is actually their negligence of duty. The current plan is to redeem the merits and notify Lord Min first.So the two pushed each other and ran out.

The corner of Tangning's mouth twitched, and then she straightened her expression and said sincerely to everyone, "Everyone, please continue. After all, it is not easy to study hard for several years or even ten years. I think Master Min doesn't want to make mistakes in today's county test. He will definitely Handle it impartially, and give everyone justice. Now that the three of us are here, and the test papers are here, under the watchful eyes of everyone, we must not dare to act rashly, and everyone can rest assured that we will wait for Master Min."

Mr. Min spent a lot of thought to think of this question, and he will definitely not be willing to let it be ruined by a fraud case, and all the students have finally got such a flattering question, so naturally they don't want to retake the exam, since both parties want to If the exam continues, then there will be no angry youths to stir up trouble, and the matter will be buffered, so Tangning will have room to defend herself.

Sure enough, everyone was not a fool. After a little thought, they understood the deep meaning of Tangning's words, so they left their seats and returned, stood up and sat down, turned their heads and returned their eyes to the desk. After a while, the examination room resumed. After returning to their original state, only Tangning and the other three were left staring at each other.

After staring for a while, a slightly fat man wearing a county magistrate's uniform and a small beard rushed in hastily.

As soon as he entered, he waved to everyone to stand up and continue the exam. After everyone was seated again, he looked at Tangning and the other three.

Tang Ning immediately stepped forward and offered the test paper with both hands. County Magistrate Min was stunned for a moment, and then accepted the test paper with a slight smile. The students taught by Min Zhi were indeed clever.

In fact, he had already understood most of the things on the way, and after just a quick scan, he understood the rest.This matter is easy to handle and difficult to handle. It is easy to handle because the truth of the matter is very clear. As a local parent official, he has more or less knowledge of the talents and morals of the students under his rule. According to the consistent performance of several people, the truth is obvious.However, it was precisely because of these few people that it made things difficult.The person taking the exam is nothing to worry about, but the remaining one is Zhang Dehuai's only nephew, one is Minzhi's only disciple, and the other is Ziyou's only son.

Although Zhang Dehuai was demoted to Yunguan, there is someone behind him; Minzhi has a good relationship with him, and his identity is mysterious; Ziyou was his best friend before his death, and entrusted his son to him. .

No matter how unwilling Magistrate Min was, the time for the exam finally came. All the students put down their pens one after another, dried the ink, rolled up the test papers and put them in the paper tubes, and the clerks put them away one by one.

Suddenly, a childish voice sounded: "My little brother, I haven't received my test paper yet."

Everyone was familiar with this voice. He had just said a long paragraph. That's right, it was Tangning's voice.

Tangning walked to her seat, picked up her paper tube, and smiled at the clerk who collected the test papers, "This is my test paper, please keep it well, this test paper was sealed before the incident happened, it is indeed me If you have any questions about the article, you might as well check the handwriting after the results come out. Master Min, what do you think?"

It wasn't until the students realized that Tangning had already written the article, and they were all horrified. No matter how good his article was, this person has such a talent at such a young age. Judging by his calm and unhurried manner just now, he must have a bad character Excellent, child prodigy is nothing more than that, so the eyes of everyone looking at Tang Ning became complicated.

Master Min glanced at everyone calmly, and smiled kindly at Tangning, "It's okay, you'll know when the list is released." Seeing that the official had already put away the paper tube and sealed it, he straightened his face and said yes The crowd said: "Students, I am aware of what happened in the examination room today. The nature of this matter is serious and the impact is extremely bad. I will deal with this matter in public today to set the record straight."

As he spoke, he called Tang Ning, Zhang Youcai, the scholar and the student who took the exam, and asked them to stand in front of them and said to the four of them, "This matter is caused by the four of you, why don't you tell what's going on, Zhao Qian, you come first."

Zhao Qian, that is, the scholar heard it, and immediately stood up and said: "At that time, I heard someone coughing several times, and I was dissatisfied with him disturbing the examination room, so I followed the sound and saw the three of them holding the same examination paper. This is in your hand, my lord."

County Magistrate Min nodded and looked at Zhang Youcai. Zhang Youcai flinched. Magistrate Min sighed and nodded, "Tangning, why did you take that exam paper?"

"My lord, these two people are sitting in front of the students. I happened to see them pass the exam papers. I guessed that the two of them were cheating, so I wanted to intercept the exam papers and report them to the adults for judgment."

County Magistrate Min looked at the person taking the exam again. The man's face was struggling, and he pointed at Tangning, "He was the one who snatched my exam paper from behind. Mr. Zhang saw it. Mr. Zhang was the one who stopped it."

As soon as the words fell, Zhang Youcai nodded in agreement before County Magistrate Min could respond.

The four insisted on their own words, and there was no flaw in what they said. The situation that was originally quite clear was a little confusing.The surrounding audience also whispered to each other, discussing in succession.In fact, judging from the fact that Tang Ning had already written the article, there was no need for him to grab other people's test papers. Everyone knew such a simple truth, but out of unspeakable jealousy, no one said it, and some even directly affirmed it. It was Tangning who was young and couldn't write well by herself, so she snatched other people's exam papers.

Tangning didn't rush, she just waited for County Magistrate Min to ask him to defend himself, but before County Magistrate Min could speak, Zhao Qian was enraged by the people's more and more excessive words. He pointed at one of them and scolded: " You yourself are narrow-minded, old, and have mediocre qualifications, so you can't look down on others who are young and talented. Without evidence, you slander others at will, and behave like this. No wonder you haven't even passed the exam for more than ten years. Seeing that you might as well go home early and take the children, and don’t lose face to us scholars here.”

The ancients were the most taboo about others being inferior to women. Although Zhao Qian didn't scold him that way, he didn't have the same meaning when he was told to go home and bring the children. The man's face turned red when Zhao Qian broke his mind, "You, you, I , I'm just talking about the facts, he has done something shameful, so why don't people say it?"

Zhao Qian didn't give in at all: "It's just a villain's side story, how can you believe it easily? The coughing sound I heard at that time must be the voice of this Mr. Zhang, and everyone must have heard it. Mr. Zhang is not sick. Why did he cough? If he was sick, why did he cough a few times, but at that time? After that, we didn’t hear him cough halfway, hum, presumably the cough was not a cough, but a code word?”

At the time when the examination room was quiet, Zhang Youcai's coughs were indeed very loud, and everyone heard them. Moreover, he was in the period of changing his voice, and his voice was so distinctive that it was difficult not to let people remember it.

Seeing that the crowd did not refute, Zhao Qian continued without breathing, "Since Mr. Zhang is acting filthy, isn't this Mr. Gao who protects Mr. Zhang the same as Mr. Zhang? If so, the truth is not obvious?"

After speaking, not only everyone was convinced, but Tangning also looked at him with admiration. He was sharp, sharp in thinking, and sharp in cursing.

The person who was scolded was poor at speaking, but Mr. Gao was not calm, "This is just your inference, but there is evidence, occasionally itchy throat and cough."

Zhao Qian was about to speak, but was stopped by Tangning. This matter was aimed at him anyway. If he didn't show up at this time, not only would he have a reputation for cheating in front of the county's students and the county magistrate, even if Zhao Qian or The county magistrate clarified that his status in the circle of scholars will also plummet. At this time, he cannot retreat!

Tang Ning silently scanned the crowd, his calm and clear eyes made those who harbor evil intentions unconsciously dodge, he smiled slightly, and his slightly immature voice was full of calmness: "I think everyone will write their own words at the end after finishing the article. Name and place of origin, right? Why don't you take a look at what is written on Mr. Gao's test paper."

The county magistrate of Min immediately opened the examination paper and looked at it. The corner of his mouth could not help but twitch, and then he turned the examination paper to everyone, and saw the words on the seal: Student (blank) Village (blank) sincerely worship, Jingle, February 21, 25.

Tang Ning pointed to the blank space and asked, "Master Gao, why did you leave out your name and birthplace like this? Could it be that Mr. Gao knows the art of gossip in the Book of Changes and figured out that I will snatch your exam paper from behind, so that you can leave your name blank?" Out?"

Mr. Gao glared at Tangning. The main reason he was free was to let that idiot Zhang Youcai know the format of Mi Feng, but he couldn't say anything about it. He could only search for a reasonable explanation.But Tangning didn't want to wait for his answer, and continued, "Everyone, do you still remember seeing me pinching the test paper?" As he spoke, he took the test paper from County Magistrate Min, facing him face to face, and pinched the paper on the paper with his hand. In the middle of the edge, ask, "Is that so?"

"If I really snatched the test paper from behind, then I shouldn't be holding the test paper like this, but like this." Tangning turned the test paper over as she spoke, and everyone suddenly realized.

The matter was resolved satisfactorily in this way, but the one who was most satisfied was not Tangning or Zhao Qian, let alone Mr. Zhang and Mr. Gao, but County Magistrate Min, because he didn't have to worry about it. Tangning and Zhao Qian did all the things that offended others. He just In the end, he came out to smooth things over and banned Mr. Zhang and Mr. Gao from the exam for three years.This punishment is neither light nor severe, and County Magistrate Min is not afraid of offending the Zhang family, so he has no choice but to let your Zhang Youcai be exposed in public, and he has no choice but to cover it up.As for Zhao Qian, who offended Zhang's family, how could he not be able to protect him like a local snake.

A few days later, the results of the first eight-legged essay test in the county examination came out. Tangning won No.1 as expected. Of course, this is only expected for those who are familiar with him, but it is unexpected for those students who do not know him. For a while, rumors continued.However, Lord Min posted Tangning's exam papers under the list. After reading it, everyone could only shut up. Then, Tangning took the remaining four exams in a row. After posting it to the bottom of the list, the students were finally completely convinced.

Since then, Tang Ning has made a name for himself in Cangping County. Of course, as he has gained a place among the scholars in the county, his paintings have gradually spread from the small circle of women's families to the circle of scholars.