The ancient life of a master craftsman

The noisy crowd quieted down the moment the officers and soldiers appeared, and the students for this exam consciously lined up outside the exam room.The petty officials also came to the door, and they wanted to check the students' clothes and belongings to ensure that no one would bring papers into the examination room.

Li Enbai looked at the strict inspection that even the steamed buns were broken into pieces, but it was stricter than the exams of later generations. The people in front were checked with their coats off, and they were shivering from the cold, and the people behind were also nervous. Li Enbai was the only one. People are not in a hurry, not in a hurry, not in a hurry, very conspicuous.

His appearance shows that he is extremely confident in himself, open and aboveboard, and let others look at him. When it was his turn to check, the little official took off his clothes to check. He was originally dressed thinly, but he didn't seem to know the cold. , quietly waiting for the little official to finish searching.

The things he brought were also very simple. The dry food only brought a few thin sauce-flavored cakes. The little official checked very quickly, because the cakes were very thin, and the little official only needed to split them with chopsticks to see if there was anything entrained. So it wasn't messy, and the other petty official who checked the clothes and searched the body was also very fast. The main reason was that Li Enbai's coat was relatively thin, so the inspection was much faster than others.

When the little official returned his things and clothes to him, and signaled that he could go in with the officers and soldiers, Li Enbai picked up the basket, smiled slightly at the little official, and said politely, "Thank you."

The little officials were a little surprised. Although they didn't have time to answer, their perception of Li Enbai was much better.

The Song Dynasty paid more attention to literature than military affairs, and paid special attention to the imperial examinations. The examination rooms were all renovated, but the places that were only used once every two or three years would not be particularly good if they were renovated. Li Enbai looked at the small compartment and felt that the whole portrait It's like being locked in a cage.

He went in and tried it. If he lay down, no matter whether he was lying down or standing upright, he couldn't straighten his legs, and he was very aggrieved.Move the writing table and stagger the distance of a fist to the outside, so that he can still lie down diagonally like this.

Then I cleaned up the ground, and when there were no candidates on the opposite side, I took out the insect repellent spray from the system space and sprayed it on the ground. The products produced by the system are colorless and odorless, so I am not afraid of being smelled.

Then take out the moisture-proof mat and lay it on the bottom, the top is the mat allocated in the test house, this mat is used every two years, most of it has a mildewy smell, Li Enbai can smell it, but he has no choice but to put it on his neck Hang a sachet, so that when he bows his head to write, he smells the sachet.

The sachet is small in size, and it can be worn and hidden in the clothes with a red string, so it will not be found easily. After finishing these, Li Enbai took out his pen and ink, and quietly waited for the start of the exam.

After a while, there were also students in the exam hall opposite him. In Li Enbai's line of sight, he could see about five people on the opposite side, and the opposite side was the same.But apart from him, it is estimated that no one is in the mood to observe the person opposite.

After the sky was fully lit, Li Enbai heard a gong sound, which indicated that all candidates had entered the examination room and the examination room was closed.

Afterwards, a small official and two officers and soldiers began to hand out the test papers for this exam. According to Li Enbai's observation, the opposite side also had the same configuration. The officers and soldiers holding guns and fully armed played a great deterrent effect, and the entire exam room was quiet. Yes, only the voice of the little official curling up.

There are five exams in the children's exam. Because it is a consecutive exam, candidates need to stay in the exam dormitory for four nights.Because of the cold weather, a brazier will be placed between the two rows of test houses, and hot water will be supplied in unlimited quantities.However, it is not allowed to go to the toilet during the exam during the daytime. It can only be solved in the toilet in the exam room.

After listening to such examination rules, Li Enbai felt as if he was facing an enemy, so he prepared a sachet. The one he is hanging around his neck now has a light pear blossom scent, which is suitable for the most relaxing first day.

After the test papers were distributed, the gong sounded again, indicating the start of the test.Li Enbai was also concentrating on the exam. When he was concentrating, he could easily ignore everything around him. Therefore, while the others were still adapting to the hardships of the exam hall and looking around, he had already reviewed the questions and started to make a draft.

It may be that his writing speed is too fast, and when he is concentrating on something, he always has a serious and deep expression on his face, which actually puts a lot of pressure on the candidates opposite, making them force themselves to calm down Let's look at the test questions.

In this way, Li Enbai and his two rows of exam rooms are the fastest to enter the exam state in the entire exam room. When the other exam rooms are still flipping through the test papers, there is only the rustling sound of writing on paper in these two rows. .

The examiner walked around the examination room and also discovered this point. After careful observation, he finally found Li Enbai who was extremely focused and caused this situation.The examiner stood in front of Li Enbai's examination room for a long time, only to see Li Enbai's pen kept writing. Although the handwriting was not very good, it had already seen the strength of character for the first time. He stroked his beard and was very satisfied to go to other places. Koshe looked.

With Li Enbai, who has no other distractions, as a comparison, the examiner has a preliminary understanding of the candidates of this year, and overall they are still uneven.

On the first morning, Li Enbai spent a quick draft. At noon, he put down his pen and stretched. For some reason, he always felt that someone was watching him. When he looked up, he only saw a group of people. Write fast.

Unable to find the source of this line of sight, he raised his vigilance in his heart, not daring to immediately replace the sauce pancakes with new ones, so he could only ask the clerk for a bowl of hot water, and gnawed on the cooled sauce pancakes with the hot water In the process, he continued to search for who was spying on him.

In the end, I was surprised to find that it was the examinee on the opposite side. They seemed to do whatever they saw him do. Li Enbai was full of question marks, why?Why does it feel like everyone on the opposite side is warning him?But he shouldn't have any fame yet.

After discovering the source of the line of sight, Li Enbai let go of his heart, as long as he didn't harbor malicious intentions.He had already eaten one-fifth of the chilled sauce pancakes, and the lunch distributed in the examination room arrived late, which was a bowl of porridge and a black steamed bun that was as hard as a rock and made his throat crack if he swallowed it.

Although the sauce cakes are cold, they are all baked with good noodles and oil. The sauce on top is Li Enbai's favorite slightly spicy taste. No matter how you look at it, it tastes much better than black steamed buns, so Li Enbai doesn't plan to touch that steamed bun at all. .

There were many people who simply planned the same as him, and the black steamed buns were like a decoration until they were taken away by the officials at the end of the lunch break.Li Enbai spread the bedding provided by the test house on the mat, and it also had a strong musty smell, and there was also a faint sour smell.

Li Enbai originally wanted to lie down and rest for a while, but he couldn't stand the smell, so he pulled back the bedding and spread it out to dry, trying to reduce the smell a little.He himself sat down in front of the desk, propped his chin with his hands, and squinted for a while.

In the afternoon, he checked the draft made in the morning, and if there was no problem, he copied the draft on the test paper, because the afternoon was pure copying, so he was not as focused as in the morning, so he had the energy to look around and see someone Scratching their ears and cheeks, some people are writing hard, some people are blushing...

An exam has different forms, but it is also interesting.

In the middle of the night, Li Enbai quietly took out a thick dress from the space and spread it under his body, so that he could barely sleep for a while, and then quietly when it was not dawn. keep it.

The second day, the third day...

Li Enbai stretched his legs vigorously, now he doesn't care about the smell on the quilt, he just wants to move his legs, but if he stands up, he can't stand straight, so he can only sit on the quilt Lift your legs up.There was only a little sauce-flavored biscuits left in the basket, which was definitely not enough, and he would never touch the black steamed buns provided in the examination room, so he could only find a way to secretly get food from the system when the night was dark.

The black steamed bun was taken away at noon on the first day, and it appeared in their dinner at night. Li Enbai took a look, and the degree of dryness of the outer skin was obviously left over at noon, or it was taken away at noon.

On the fourth day, Li Enbai's complexion inevitably became lack of energy and blood, and his eyes were very black and blue, but he felt okay, and he could hold on for another day.

It's just that God likes to test a person, especially when he is very careful, and with the sound of puffing out of nowhere, a stench gradually permeates.

Li Enbai felt bad when he heard the sound, and after a while when he smelled the stench, he almost vomited. He quickly took out the sachet hanging around his neck and sniffed it. The scent of pear blossoms filled his nostrils, and he felt better.

The stench is still pervasive, and someone has already started yelling, as long as you bear it, you can go to the toilet at night, and it is unreasonable to have to go to the toilet in broad daylight.

The petty officials held small gongs and warned everyone to be quiet, and the scene got out of control for a while before it quieted down. However, as the first stench spread, everyone seemed to have opened some shackles, and the stench was everywhere this day.

Li En's face was as white as paper, and he wished he could stuff the sachet into his nose and cover his mouth and nose to cover up the bad smell.He could hardly concentrate, the last day was full of torment, and it felt like an extremely long time. He almost stayed up all night and survived until the end of the last day's exam.

At the moment when it was over, he hurriedly packed up his things, he didn't even want to wait for the clerk to take them out, he seemed to run away, but was reprimanded by the officers and soldiers holding guns, so he had to cover his mouth and nose with his hands, and waited anxiously to leave.

When it was time to leave the venue, he walked like flying, crossing the crowd left and right, and took a deep breath after leaving the gate of the examination room, as if the whole person had come to life.

When he saw the Liu family's carriage and Yunli next to the carriage, he immediately relaxed, "Lizi, I'm here."

His words had a feeling of rejoicing for the rest of his life, which made Yunli, who was originally nervous, wonder, "Brother En, what's wrong with you?"

Li Enbai vaguely smelled the lingering stench following him in the examination room, and immediately changed his expression, "Lizi, let's go back quickly, I have to take a shower and change into clean clothes!"

He spoke in a hurry, grabbed Yunli's hand and got into the carriage, Yunli could only go back to Liu's house with him first.Hearing his urging, the coachman drove the carriage back to the other courtyard of Liu Mansion.

"I'll take a shower first, and we'll talk after I'm done!" Li Enbai plunged into the side room where the bathtub was placed.

Yunli didn't have time to speak, seeing him in a hurry and smelling the faint smell on the road, she probably knew that he thought it was dirty, so she went back to the bedroom and waited for him.

After a while, Li Enbai entered the bedroom with wet hair, "Lizi, I'm fine."

Yunli had already made the bed, and pulled him to lie down. Li Enbai was really sleepy, so he lay down obediently, with his head resting on Yunli's lap, and Yunli took a cloth towel to help him wipe his hair, "Brother Enbai, How did you do in the exam? Are you sure?"

"Well, I'm sure." Li Enbai yawned, falling asleep while Yunli rubbed her hair with moderate force.

Yunli felt her legs sinking, and seeing that Li Enbai had fallen asleep, she reached out to cover his head, and with the other hand, dried his hair more gently.

He noticed that his neck was a little red, and opened his clothes to see that Li Enbai's body was rubbed red, and it seemed that he had washed it very vigorously. Taking a bath is really difficult for him.

Touching his haggard face, Yunli kissed him on the cheek, "Sleep well."