To The Land of Nevernight

The two were drinking tea in the flower hall, and it was gradually raining outside.It was a sudden shower, and only the crisp sound of rain hitting plantains was heard.

Wang Qin was sipping tea quietly. He was wearing a brand new Zhenghong official uniform, apparently he had come to look for Tang Shen right after returning home.Tang Shen took a look at him quietly, knowing that although his senior brother... is a bit weird in some ways, unpredictable, and unpredictable in behavior, but so far, it seems that he has no malicious intentions towards him.

Tang Shen sighed in his heart: Wang Zifeng just likes to hate people a little bit, and he just takes care of it.

Tang Shen was doing mental training for himself, when Wang Qin suddenly said, "Did you choose the five questions of "Book of Changes" in the second round of this township examination?"

Tang Shen was stunned for a moment, sat upright and said, "Yes. I heard from Senior Brother Zifeng that this year's chief examiner, Master Yang, likes "Book of Changes", so I took a chance and wrote "Book of Changes."

"Well written."

A thought flashed in Tang Shen's mind: How do you know that my writing is good.

He soon realized that Master Yang and Wang Qin were officials in the same dynasty, and that he was Wang Qin's junior was not a secret in the Imperial College, and perhaps Master Yang knew about it.Then it is not impossible for him to tell Wang Qin about the article he wrote in private.

Just after accepting this idea, Tang Shen picked up his teacup and was about to take another sip when he saw Wang Qin take out a stack of thick rice paper from his cuff.There is a thin layer of paper paste traces on the top of this stack of rice paper. Looking at the paper again, following Wang Qin's movements of flipping through it, it is impressively skillful!

Tang Shen was dumbfounded, holding the teacup with his hand in mid-air, neither drinking nor putting it down.

What the hell!

Wang Zifeng has abused his private power to this extent!

Even his country test papers were secretly brought over! ! !

This is going to be released to future generations, wouldn't it be possible to take out all the college entrance examination papers?

As if hearing Tang Shen's voice, Wang Qin raised his head, looked at Tang Shen's shocked appearance, and said in feigned surprise: "Young junior brother, I don't think you don't know that the township test papers can be obtained freely, right?"

"what?"

"In order to prevent the examiners from being unfair and lack of approval of the examination papers, any examinee can retrieve his own examination papers at will after the results are released. Children's examination papers are kept in the county office and kept for one year; examination papers of the township examination and general examination are kept in the Gongyuan for three years. year. Junior brother doesn’t even know?”

Tang Shen: "..."

How did he know such a thing!

Since the examinee can take his own papers at will, it doesn't seem so scary for Wang Qin to be able to take out his papers.

Wang Qin smiled and said, "Sit down and watch."

Tang Shen hesitated for a moment, walked to Wang Qin's side, and sat down.

The chair placed in the flower hall is a carved red sandalwood Arhat chair. Pushing the small coffee table in the center of the chair aside can accommodate two people sitting side by side.

The rural examination lasted nine days, with three sessions of three days each. Tang Shen couldn't take a bath and didn't have a good rest because he stayed inside.Being able to pass the exam exhausted his energy. Now that he has the opportunity to read what he wrote, it not only has the effect of reviewing the past, but also checks for omissions and fills in gaps.

Tang Shen looked at the two articles on Zhiyi he wrote in the first session, and when he read it now, he found that there were a few sentences that could be more in line with the original meaning and more amazing if they were expressed in other ways.He saw the comments posted by the marking officer on the back of the examination paper, which said, "The opening paragraph is extremely exciting, free and easy, turning and changing, and opening and closing well."

What is more tormenting to the examiners in the township examination and general examination is that every article, no matter how badly written, the examiner has to post a comment.The comments are wholesaled uniformly. Unless the article is so good that the marking officer can't help clasping his hands in admiration and willingly writes the comments for it, most of the comments will be posted later.

On Tang Shen's first test paper, the comments on it were the unified wholesale version, which was posted by someone.

But the five chapters of "Book of Changes" in the second scene were written by someone in the extremely beautiful Wang School running script, and they wrote them in person.

Wang Qin: "I heard it was written by Master Yang himself."

What Master Yang wrote is: "The great goodness of literature seeks to survive further away, and the stern and stern spirit is vigorously born. What others say is beyond the reach of others." 』

Tang Shen nodded.

Master Yang really fell in love with "Book of Changes".

The two brothers and sisters discussed for a while in the flower hall about Tang Shen's examination papers for this township examination.Wang Qin gave some pointers, and Tang Shen nodded frequently.When the moon was on the branch, Wang Qin called the housekeeper, "Is dinner ready?"

Butler: "It's been prepared a long time ago."

Wang Qin turned to Tang Shen and said, "Then stay and eat."

"……it is good."

After finishing the meal, Tang Shen said goodbye to Wang Qin.Wang Qin had long changed into an indigo satin gown, this color was often worn by his daughter's family, but wearing it on Wang Zifeng made him even more handsome, not effeminate, but elegant and outstanding.Before Tang Shen left, Wang Qin asked the book boy to bring him a copybook.

Wang Qin: "Although handwriting is no longer important during the test, each test paper will be copied by someone after it is collected to prevent cheating."

Tang Shen also knew about this. In addition to the ambiguity system during the examination, the imperial court would also hire scholars who were good at writing, and let them copy each examinee's paper.In the end, what the examiner sees is not the original paper, but the transcribed version.This greatly prevents the phenomenon of scientific examination fraud.

Wang Qin: "Even so, it is very important to write well."

Tang Shen's heart tightened, thinking that Wang Qin was going to open the back door for him again.He hesitated for a moment, then asked cautiously: "Brother, what do you mean..."

"because I like it."

"..."

Wang Qin pressed his fan to his lips, and said with a smile, "I'm just joking with you. When it comes to the palace examination, if you are selected as the top three candidates, and the Holy Majesty reads your article in person, then you will naturally know the benefits of it."

Tang Shenhuai returned home full of indescribable words.When he opened the copybook, he suddenly found that it was Wang Qin's own copybook.After a little thought, he understood: Wang Qin wanted him to change the font!

A wise man cares a lot, and he must not lose anything.

Before, what Wang Qin asked him to learn was Zhong Taisheng's "Famen Temple Stele". Zhong Wei was once the top four Confucianists in the world. His handwriting was vigorous and powerful, and he was recognized as the best regular script in the world.There are countless students in the world who learn Zhongti, and this type of font can be learned quickly and written well.However, when it came to the palace examination, even if all the candidates present wrote the bell style, Wang Qin would not let Tang Shen write the bell style.

He arranged everything for himself.

Looking at the copybook, Tang Shen felt complicated.

Wang Zifeng treated him as a senior brother, but he did his best as a teacher and student.

The test will be held in the spring of the next year, so Tang Shen got ready early.Unknowingly, the number of Juren in Shengjing increased.Talented scholars from all corners of the country came to Shengjing one after another, preparing to take part in next year's examination.

Tang Shen stayed in the Imperial College, even if he didn't deliberately listen to the news, some classmates would eagerly tell him.

"Have you ever heard that Xie Yuan, the last member of the Jiangnan Tribute Academy, arrived in Shengjing yesterday and found a room in the west of the city?"

"But Wang Xiao from the Jinling Mansion? I heard that he has some distant relatives with the Langya Wang family."

"It's him! He was supposed to take the exam two years ago, but he said, 'I'm not sure about being the champion this time', so he gave up the exam. Now that he has come to Shengjing, it seems that he is bound to win the champion. .”

"So what? Liu Fang and Mei Shengze from the Zijian of our country are the idlers."

Mei Shengze bowed his hands humbly: "All of you are overrated, and Jing Ze also won the Asian award this time, with outstanding talents and learning."

One sentence pushed Tang Shen to the forefront.Although he knew that his friend was praising him, Tang Shen gave him a helpless look and accused him of dragging himself into trouble.But on the surface, Tang Shen was very calm, he cupped his hands: "I don't dare to think about being the number one scholar, let's talk about it after passing the exam first!"

16-year-old champion?

This is even scarier than "No. [-] Scholar Wushuang Wang Zifeng"!

Don't say that Tang Shen didn't think about this kind of thing, none of the students of Guozijian thought that Tang Shen could win the first prize.

The days passed quickly, and it was winter in a blink of an eye.

Tang Shen was writing and reading at home that day.It snowed heavily yesterday, and the Imperial College was on holiday for three days, so Tang Shen was studying at home.He took a sip of tea when he heard someone knocking on the door outside the house.

"Please come in."

The wooden door was pushed open with a "squeak", shopkeeper Lu patted the snow that was falling all over his body, and walked in.

"Heh, it's snowing so hard. My little master, Shengjing is really too cold. How has our Gusu Manor ever had such a heavy snowfall!"

Tang Shen smiled, and pointed to the charcoal basin in the center of the room: "Go and enjoy the fire."

Shopkeeper Lu immediately walked to the charcoal basin and leaned closer to the fire. "But it's much more comfortable. Xiaodong, I went to Qianlilou again at noon today."

Tang Shen put down the brush, looked up at him with serious eyes: "What's the matter?"

Shopkeeper Lu said: "There is good news and bad news. Which one do you want to listen to?"

Tang Shen: "Say everything."

Tang Shen didn't give face, but shopkeeper Lu had nothing to say.He said helplessly: "The good news is that Qianlilou is the largest restaurant in Shengjing. Apart from it, there are 320 restaurants in Shengjing, and none of them have made the rosary offering. Not even one has done the rosy offering!"

This means that Shengjing is a huge market to be developed!

Tang Shen's eyes lit up, and he said, "Where's the bad news?"

Shopkeeper Lu said: "At first, I just wanted to know how to do restaurant business in Shengjing. I never thought that after I got in touch with Shopkeeper Xing of Qianlilou, I found out that the little boss knows who is standing behind Qianlilou?" Waiting for Tang Shen to speak, Shopkeeper Lu looked up to the sky and sighed, "It turned out to be that Xiaoyao Prince, the Sixth Emperor Uncle Zhao Ao!"

The author has something to say: Xiao Tanglang: In fact, brother treats me very well. All I know is that he is... likes to hate people!I just endure it.Speaking of which, why is senior brother so nice to me?

Old Wang next door: Raising children is quite fun.