This flattery is such a headache, deciding who to flatter and how to go about it.
Su Ke also held his writing brush, hesitant.
The Chief Examiner for this Spring Imperial Civil Service Examination was Lord Gao, with several other different-natured examiners present. If you flattered one, you might offend another. After much thought, it really wasn’t easy being a person these days!
It was just writing an essay, but one couldn’t simply follow their own thoughts, it had to be arranged according to others’ expectations.
He stopped working on the essay and carefully put away his dossier before piecing together two wooden boards, preparing to take a nap first and continue writing after waking up. After all, there were still two days left.
Just as he was about to lie down, his gaze shifted and caught a moving silhouette in the distance.
He concentrated to get a better look.
Then he relaxed.
An official errand person carrying a tray was slowly walking along the corridor, with a pile of candles upon it. Whenever a student wanted to buy candles, the errand would stop and pause.
Intermittent knocks of varying lengths sounded from the windows nearby, prompting a flash of urgency in Su Ke’s thoughts.
When the errand reached Su Ke, he imitated the knocking patterns he’d just seen, two short and one long against the window, and casually placed a few copper coins on the windowsill. A shadow soon appeared, fumbling by the window. After touching the coins, it hesitated for a mont before retracting.
In an instant, Su Ke broke into a cold sweat! He quickly retrieved the copper coins and instead took out a silver ingot and placed it near the edge of the windowsill.
The shadow outside the window paused for a bit longer than before, and after a mont, three candles were passed through the window, one of which was placed slightly farther away from the other two.
The hand withdrew, and the silver ingot vanished without a trace.
Su Ke’s heart thumped wildly!
His hands trembled as he picked up the candles!
After so thought, he collected all three candles. Especially that single one, he kept it in a separate place and then staggered back to his bed to sleep.
In the pitch-dark exam number, sight was of no use, but his ears beca all the more sensitive. For instance, the sick student next door seed worse, his coughs getting more serious. Or the sound of the inspection official’s black gentlen’s boots scuffing the floor far and near. Or the sound of soone peeing and hitting the respectful bucket...
The more he wanted to sleep, the less he could, tossing and turning restlessly. He simply started to ponder how he should answer the exam question, eventually drifting off into a foggy sleep, unaware of when exactly he fell asleep.
What he didn’t know was that during his sleep, many significant events were transpiring throughout the examination hall.
When Su Ke suddenly woke up, he realized that the sun was already high above. He quickly washed and rinsed himself, then sat down again, imrsing himself into answering the questions.
He had his thoughts and perspectives on the question from last night, and now as he picked up his brush to write, his thoughts flowed like the Yellow River’s unstoppable eastward course.
"Righteousness moves the heavens while auspiciousness unveils with the sun. Upholding the virtues that extend blessings, demonstrating vibrant hues that earn praise. Assessing the ons from Sweden and knowing the broad influence of pristine customs. Embracing the yang essence, embodying the Qian trigrams in the monarch’s position, illustrating the virtues of earth, representing the royal qi within the Imperial Family..."
Countless attempts could miss the mark, but flattery never does.
He had figured it out last night, if he had to flatter, it was better to flatter his Fourth Brother-in-law, more clever and appropriate. Flattering the Emperor, at least no one could find fault with it, and it would avoid any misstep.
In fact, "The is supre" whether in ancient tis or modern, remains the unchanging essence of essay writing in exams.
"Vast is the heavenly pivot, and boundless the sacred decrees. When virtues resonate, ons will surely align. The five colors spread on the celestial path, all people look up to the peaceful thoroughfare. Enough to illuminate through ages, casting light upon the lands below..."
This composition ingeniously blended "praising the sun" with "praising the sage," using the sun’s five colors to symbolize the Emperor’s Grace—a dossier like this, no matter in which sage ruler’s hands it fell, would be absolutely impeccable in its resolution.
Written eloquently and swiftly, it was only upon setting down the pen that the realization of how quickly the composition had been completed dawned on . Could it be that I truly possessed an innate talent for flattery, rely underutilized until now, thus remaining unnoticed?
After deleting and reducing, fixing the rhy and rhythm, Su Ke recited it repeatedly and only then, content, confird the final response.
Having written the answer neatly in small characters on the dossier, by the ti I finished the last character and set down the pen, the last trace of the Golden Dusk Sun was slanting through the window above .
The second examination had finally concluded!
Having successfully completed two dossiers, Su Ke felt he had done adequately and did not anticipate any significant issues.
However, since ancient tis "there is no first in literature, no second in martial arts," which implies that it is easy to decide the victor in a contest of arms, but far more difficult to distinguish the superior in literary compositions.
The Spring Imperial Civil Service Examination dossiers were no different; not only did they test the students’ literary foundations, but most importantly, it relied on the Review Officers’ personal preferences and opinions.
Those who succeeded, apart from those truly exceptional in literary talent, owed much to the words "timing" and "fortune"!
Ti, luck, life!
All I could do was to strive to do my best, leaving the rest to that thing called fate to arrange.
The dossier from the second round was collected, and imdiately soone pasted a na on it and took it away.
Everyone quietly waited for the third round of exam questions to be distributed.
Lord Gao, the Chief Examiner, was currently full of anxiety. He had good reason to worry! Last night, the inspection official had co back and forth several tis, seemingly finding sothing, yet seemingly finding nothing. As the Chief Examiner, if the inspection official really caught wind of cheating, and he remained oblivious to it, not only would he lose the credit for acting as Chief Examiner, but he would be imnsely grateful if his efforts were considered enough to spare him his life!
But what exactly was the problem?
Yet he still couldn’t grasp the issue.
Nevertheless, the examination had to continue, and under no circumstances could it affect the progress of the Spring Imperial Civil Service Examination.
"Go, distribute the dossiers," he ordered fiercely.
He had hardened his resolve! Since he would be eating and living in the examination hall these next few days, he would endure the hardship and keep vigilant. He refused to believe that under his watchful eye, anyone could still manage to cheat!
At this mont, Su Pan’er also had heard about His Majesty’s concern for the situation in the examination hall.
After pondering for a mont, rembering how Little Yanyan had cleverly resolved the previous crisis, she wondered if she should send Yanyan again? Probably just one more intervention from Little Yanyan would imdiately make Qin Yi suspect what was going on.
Just as she was hesitating over her decision, Jiu Lan brought her a ssage.
Princess Anping had reappeared!
Ever since Princess Anping and the Princess Consort Huainan, Jun Ruoxue, were rescued together, later Su Pan’er found Jun Ruoxue in the Liu Family’s abandoned mansion and successfully escorted her out of Shengjing.
Afterwards, she had not heard any news about the two of them.
This ssage couldn’t have co at a better ti. After so thought, she decisively stood up and headed straight for the Imperial Study, never expecting to find it empty.
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