In reality, lightning was white. Occasionally, there would be purple, but never black. Today, on the lawn outside the Academy, everyone saw a black bolt of lightning.
The examinees looked at the black horse that was as swift as an arrow, leaping out of the herd of horses in an instant, galloping forward at a terrifying speed that no one could catch up to. They thought of the disheveled examinees who had been thrown off by the horse's hooves, and thought of the red-clothed young lady who had tears on her face as she stood outside the fence, and couldn't help but be shocked speechless.
Their eyes subconsciously followed the black lightning and saw Ning Que, who was sitting on the back of the big black horse, bowing slightly like a falling leaf. They could not understand what this young candidate had done to the naughty black horse to make it so obedient and show such amazing strength.
The meadow outside the Academy was vast, covering an area of many acres. However, the examination area surrounded by fences was not very large. Everyone was still in shock. It seemed that the girl in red had just raised her right hand to cover her open mouth in surprise when the driving test abruptly ended. To be more precise, the black horse had reached the finish line ahead of the rest of the examinees by nearly half the time with an incredible speed.
Ning Que jumped off the horse's back and wiped off a few drops of sweat on his forehead. He turned around and patted the big black horse's thick neck with satisfaction, and then heavily patted its thick buttocks. He waved his hand and left.
When the big black horse saw that Ning Que signaled it to leave, it suddenly felt that it had escaped from the horrible blood swamp and returned to the happy human world. It neighed happily and rubbed against Ning Que's shoulder to please him. Then, it hurriedly kicked its hooves and left, not daring to look back. It seemed to be even faster than during the exam.
The candidates at the entrance of the fence looked at Ning Que in silence, as if they were looking at a monster. Many people wanted to ask him how he did it, but did not dare to ask because of the strangeness he had shown earlier.
Ning Que felt the strange gazes from all around and frowned slightly. He slightly lowered his eyes without looking sideways, and walked directly to the Academy Entrance Exam area. It was not his original intention to attract the attention of the surrounding examinees and even the instructors. Showing off his talent for vanity was also not in line with his ideas. However, he knew that his results in the three subjects were a mess. If he did not perform well in the last two subjects, he would definitely not be able to pass the entrance exam.
He had prepared for years, spent so much money, abandoned his military status, and rushed thousands of miles from the grassland to Chang 'an. But in the end, he could not enter the Academy. It was really a sad D minor serenade. No matter what, he could not accept such an ending. What was the point of being in the limelight?
Just as he was about to leave the driving course, a young girl blocked his way. The young girl had thick eyebrows and bright eyes. She could be considered pretty. She wore a large red robe with a tight belt. Her youthful body was extremely taut and gave off a refreshing feeling. However, the tear stains on her face made her look somewhat delicate and pitiful.
"How did you do it?" The red-clothed girl asked angrily. "Why doesn't it listen to me?"
Ning Que thought for a while and answered seriously, "Maybe I have a better character?"
"Character?" The girl in the arrow robe was stunned and immediately said angrily, "What do you mean?"
"I mean luck."
Ning Que spread his hands and smiled innocently. Then he politely asked her to step aside and trotted to the driving course examination room.
The girl in the arrow robe was stunned. As the daughter of Yunhui General, she was beautiful and straightforward. It could be said that everyone in Chang 'an knew her. No one dared to answer her perfunctorily. So when Ning Que ran far away, she came to her senses and turned to look at the back of the lad. She stamped her feet and asked, "Who is this guy?"
At this time, a group of examinees surrounded the examination room and were talking about Ning Que. One of the young men came to the side of the girl in the arrow robe and said, "Someone just looked at the register. This lad is called Ning Que. He is recommended by the Military Ministry. He should have no extraordinary background. Miss Situ, you don't have to pay attention to him."
The girl in the arrow robe said unhappily, "If he has no extraordinary background, then how could he tame that big black horse?"
"Maybe … he is really lucky?" The young man replied awkwardly.
Another girl in crimson clothes came over and frowned at the lad on the grassy slope in the distance. She shook her head and said, "He may be recommended by the Military Ministry from the frontier fortress. It is not strange that he is good at horsemanship. But you all say he has no extraordinary background, but I don't think so. Today, among hundreds of examinees, only he came with a handmaiden, which made Her Highness embarrassed. It is obvious that this lad is too arrogant and spoiled. Maybe he is the son of a big family in Qinghe Prefecture."
"Is Qinghe Prefecture great? This is not the array of Taizu Emperor. " Miss Situ raised her eyebrows and said, "Sister Wucai, find out the details of that guy. I want to know what is going on."
Not far from these Chang 'an noble girls and childes, there were more than a dozen examinees recommended by the Military Ministry. One of them, who was in his thirties and came from the southwest border, shook his head and said to his companions, "This has nothing to do with luck. Since the lad is recommended by the Military Ministry like us, he must have served in the army at the frontier fortress. He has been close to horses all year round. Naturally, he has a few knives. But he is too young …"
As if to prove his assertion, an irritated neigh suddenly sounded in the driving course examination room, followed by panicked shouts. The big black horse that was as gentle as a little handmaiden by Ning Que's side was kicking violently. A burly examinee fell on the lawn in a sorry state, looking extremely embarrassed.
…
…
Ning Que did not know what the examinees in the driving examination room were talking about him. If he knew that his military companion praised him for having a few knives, he would probably praise himself silently in his heart, "I have three knives."
In addition to knives, horses, and bows and arrows, the skills he was best at in his life were probably the skills he had honed in order to survive in the forests and grasslands. With only one knife and a quiver of arrows, he was confident that he could fight with a cultivator in the lower state of Seethrough. If he could survive, it would be very easy for him to pass the exam of Toxicology.
Toxicology was different from driving. There was no need to compare the scores of other examinees to make a judgment. That was why he had tried his best in the driving examination room, trying to get as far away from other examinees as possible. At this time, he drew his bow and aimed at the target a hundred steps away, but he did not think too much about it. He only wanted to hit ten rings with each arrow.
If those examinees whose foreheads were drenched in sweat and whose arms were trembling from nervousness while drawing their bows knew that this fellow's minimum requirement was to hit ten points with each of his arrows, they would probably die from anger.
But that was what Ning Que thought and did. He pulled the bow, placed the arrow, and loosened his fingers. As the bowstring moved, the standard feather arrow of the Tang military would shoot out and accurately hit the bullseye on the target.
As soon as the first arrow hit the bullseye, he had already taken out the second arrow from the quiver on his back. He repeated the action of drawing the bow and loosening his fingers. The arrow once again brushed the hard bone ring on his finger and hit the bullseye without any surprise.
His movements were not fast, and the target a hundred paces away did not show any miraculous scene of a lightning bolt piercing through the target or a back arrow splitting the shaft of the front arrow in half. Just like that, he shot arrow after arrow steadily, but gradually formed a kind of beautiful rhythm, the humming of the bowstring like a soothing melody in the spring wind.
Ning Que's calm demeanor, impeccable posture, rhythmic movement of the bowstring, and extremely accurate archery. As the number of arrows in the quiver decreased, Ning Que gradually attracted more and more people's attention. More and more people gathered behind him, including candidates, instructors of the Academy, and even two generals from the Military Ministry who came for inspection.
At this time, in the eyes of the crowd, the lad who stood on the lawn and drew his bow seemed to have turned into a calm soldier who had been on the battlefield for a long time and would not blink even if thousands of cavalry came rushing at him.
The general watched Ning Que shoot the last arrow and said to the attendant beside him, "Find out which general taught this lad. If he can't enter the Academy this time, immediately return him to the military."
After a short pause, the general rubbed his gray hair and said in a low voice, "Keep it a secret. His original troop will definitely call him back. We, the Yulin Royal Guards, have to steal him."
…
…
At dusk, His Majesty and Her Majesty had already returned to Chang 'an City, leaving only the Prince and various department chiefs to preside over the remaining parts. The six exams had finally ended and it was time to publish the results.
Hundreds of examinees stood quietly on the wide stone platform, tip-toeing and craning their necks to look at the empty screen wall. They were like hundreds of large geese that had been starving for days, stretching their long necks, waiting to be fed by someone.
Several instructors of the Academy slowly walked out of the building and bowed slightly to the Prince. After the officials of the Ministry of Rites confirmed it, the instructors stepped on the wooden table, dragged a bucket of rice milk, and casually pasted a piece of red paper on the screen wall.
The sound of waves roared. Hundreds of examinees were like hundreds of big geese who had finally seen their food. They could no longer suppress their emotions and rushed toward the screen wall.
Ning Que held Sangsang's cold little hand and was pushed around by the crowd. But in the end, he still managed to fight his way out and squeezed to the bottom of the screen wall. The first thing he saw was the list of Etiquette and Calligraphy.
At the bottom of the paper, he found his name.
"Ning Que … the last in the D class."
The results of Calligraphy were the same.
He rubbed his head in annoyance and muttered to himself, "It can't be. Even if I answered blindly, I wrote so many words, and my handwriting is so good. Could it be that the examiner who corrected my paper was a female examiner?"
Someone behind him could not help but burst into laughter and ridiculed, "I thought he was a genius like the third young master of the South Jin Kingdom. It turns out that he is just an uneducated man with only martial arts skills."
It was the girl in the arrow robe who laughed at him. She was probably unwilling, so when the results were announced, she left her companions and desperately squeezed to Ning Que's side. She wanted to see what kind of flower this guy would be.
Ning Que did not know that this noble lady of Chang 'an was Situ Yilan, the daughter of Yunhui General. He stared at her with great boredom, turned around and squeezed out of the crowd with Sangsang's little hand.
The girl in the arrow robe turned around in surprise and shouted at his back, "Don't you want to see the results?"
Ning Que did not look back and calmly said, "A +."
The girl in the arrow robe and the people around her heard this and were so shocked that they almost fell to the ground. They thought where did this guy come from? How could he be so confident and arrogant that he knew he would get A + without even looking at the results?
Sangsang raised her little face and gave him a puzzled look.
Ning Que looked at her and explained with a smile, "They are not as good as me at pretending to be deep and cool."
…
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