The first subject of the Dayan exam is Yi Li, which is located in the Taicheng Department. Men and women are not separated, one is in the East Courtyard and the other is in the West Courtyard. There is a long queue in front of the two doors. Everyone has to be searched before entering to prevent the candidates from smuggling anything. The only difference is that there are several female servants in charge of the search in front of the West Courtyard.
Yu Shu queues with the crowd and looks at the candidates in front and behind her. She finds that there are not many old people here. They are all young girls in their teens. They are well-dressed and obviously come from a good family.
Yu Shu is wondering if she will meet Ji Xingxuan here, but there are too many people here. She glances around and doesn't see the signature veil of the fourth daughter of the Ji family, so she doesn't pay special attention to it. Anyway, she is here, so she is not afraid of running into her.
One by one, Yu Shu goes to the door. She is patted up and down by the female servant, and her book box is turned over. Finally, she gets a number plate. After registering at the writing officer, she is led into the gate of the Taicheng Department and is assigned to a line. Once there are more than 30 candidates, they are led along the high wall to the examination hall of the Inner Courtyard under the guidance of several officials.
"Don't whisper or look around. Follow the people in front!"
Under the orders of the officials, the candidates keep quiet and the atmosphere is very dull. No matter if they know the people in front of them or not, they just look down at the road in front of them. Everyone is afraid of making a mistake and losing the great opportunity of the three years, so they don't dare to act rashly.
Before entering the hospital, Yu Shu imagined what the examination hall would look like. She thought it would be a prison like the place she saw in the TV series. However, when she is really led to the place, she finds that it is not a closed place, or rather, it is even worse than the prison examination hall.
Rather than calling it an examination hall, it would be more accurate to call it an extremely spacious rooftop. There were entrances on the east and west sides, and sixteen flights of stairs leading up to it. On the rooftop, there were hundreds of short tables and chairs set up in a crisscross pattern. Many examinees were already seated on their seats. Dozens of felt blankets were laid out on the walkway … There was a fence every ten steps. Red, green, and white banners were fluttering in the wind.
Yu Shu was stunned speechless. It was such a cold day, and they still had to take an outdoor test!
No matter how unwilling she was … she still obediently followed behind the examiner. Relying on the number plate in her hand, she was arranged to sit in the examination hall. The moment her butt touched the chair, a gust of cold wind blew over, causing her to shiver. She quickly hid her hands in her sleeves … in case her hands froze and she couldn't write properly. She took the opportunity to sneak a glance at her surroundings.
It was rumored that the number of female transvestites in the Grand Examination was, at most, less than ten percent of the number of male transvestites. In this examination hall, she estimated that there were no less than five or six hundred seats. Each seat was separated by a distance of half a zhang, and there were two servants patrolling along each aisle. Just by moving their heads, they would be able to see all the seats around them.
Apart from that … there was a warm shed on the south and north sides respectively, with a few examiners seated inside.
The sound of drums could be heard from the front. After twelve times … Yu Shu saw a servant at the front carrying a stack of papers and handing them out. She unhurriedly opened her book box and placed paper, ink, and other materials on the table. She wasn't in a hurry to grind the ink. When she received the papers, she first scanned through them.
There were a total of six questions, and all of them were based on the theory of Yi Li. In Yu Shu's eyes, four of the questions were solutions. As long as one seriously read through the various parts of the Yi Li, one would be able to answer all of them. However, the two dialectical questions were the most difficult. One must know that she was a true science student, and the most troublesome thing for her was to ponder over words.
Thus, when most of the examinees around her had begun to write with great speed, she was holding onto the papers and worrying. Over the years, the Yi Li examination papers would usually have one dialectical question … It was rare for there to be two this year. She could only say that she was unlucky.
Fortunately, Yu Shu had a good attitude. She took the time to grind the ink and pondered for a while before picking up the brush to answer the papers. She wasn't in a hurry. Even if there were questions that she couldn't answer, she had to write neatly.
The examination went on until noon. Yu Shu had written everything that she could and pulled apart everything that she could. The wind blew on her nose, and her stomach was growling with hunger. Her hands were so cold that they had long lost their senses. She finally put down the brush and glanced at the front. Seeing that many of the examinees were empty, she sniffled and slowly raised her hand.
Thus, an examiner came forward and marked the end of her paper with a red brush. He tied her up with a rope and gestured for a servant to take her away from the examination hall.
As soon as she got off the rooftop, Yu Shu rubbed her palms fiercely. As she blew into her palms, she lightly stomped her feet. She wished that there was a pot of fire for her to jump into right now. It was really freezing. No wonder this examination had to be held for three days after the end of the examination. If it continued like this, seven thousand out of eight thousand examinees would fall ill. What was the point of continuing with the examination?
After exiting the Taicheng Department from the west gate, Yu Shu's steps finally relaxed. The next subject was Fengshui. She didn't intend to go there. She was waiting for the next subject, Astrology. In between, she could relax for a few days.
Oh, right, she almost forgot that she still had to see Bi Qing and Qiu Biao being beheaded on the third day of the New Year.
Many people were waiting for the examinees in front of the gate. Some were family members, and some were maids and manservants. When they saw the examinees coming out, they hurriedly went forward to welcome them, helping to carry the bookcase and hand the hand stove.
Originally, Yu Xiaoxiu and Jing Chen wanted to come and pick up Yu Shu. But she refused them because it was troublesome. In fact, she didn't want them to wait outside in this cold weather.
But now, she saw people greeting her when she came out. She was alone, so she couldn't help but feel a little envious.
The coachman, Lao Chui, was waiting for her on the street. When he saw her figure from afar, he waved at her as if he was afraid that she couldn't see him. Yu Shu was happy. She quickened her steps and trotted to the side of the carriage. She thanked him, "Hey, Lao Chui, I'm sorry to make you wait outside in this cold weather."
Lao Chui smiled and pulled the curtain of the carriage, "I'm fine. Miss, you must be cold. Get in the carriage and sit down."
Yu Shu nodded and hurriedly climbed into the carriage to avoid the wind. She immediately shivered because of the warm air inside the carriage. She breathed a sigh of relief and couldn't help but praise Master Xue.
"Miss, you have been hungry for the whole morning. Do you want to find a place to eat first before going back?" Lao Chui asked.
Yu Shu took a piece of cake from the plate on the table and stuffed it into her mouth. She swallowed it and waved her hand at Lao Chui, "No, please send me home."
When Yu Shu returned home, the first thing she did was pour a basin of hot water to wash her frozen hands and face. Jing Chen saw that her nose was red from the cold, so he moved the stove in his room to her room and stoked the fire.
Yu Shu set up the pot and threw a piece of ginger into it to boil. She sniffed and said to Jing Chen, who had come to the kitchen to look for her, "I can't take it anymore. I have to go back to bed. Jing Chen, look at the stove. When the water is boiling, pour it into a bowl for me."
After saying that, she ran into the room, took off her shoes and jacket, shook off the quilt, and got on the bed. She covered herself tightly.
Kim Bao was sleeping at the end of the bed. It was woken up by her movement. It quickly jumped to the side of the bed to her pillow and chirped at her. Its thin tail gently swept her forehead. It seemed to be acting coquettishly. It was hungry.
"Go away, I'm still hungry." Yu Shu pushed it down with one finger and reached under the pillow. She rummaged around and found a pouch. She took out the yellow frost stone hidden inside and rubbed it in her palms. Not long after, she felt her palms warm up.
Now that she knew that this small bead was very precious, she didn't dare to take it with her today. She was afraid that she would accidentally lose it when she searched her body.
Holding the Yellowfrost Stone in her hand, Yu Shu lay on the bed and looked at it. This small yellow bead, which was as big as a marble, was smooth. If she looked closely, she could see some natural stone patterns on it. It was different from jade. She still remembered that she saw Ji Xingxuan wearing it on her hand in the library of Taishi Shuyuan. It was hanging with a red string, and it looked very beautiful.
Thinking of Ji Xingxuan, Yu Shu's thoughts jumped to another thing — the exam paper that Yun Hua Yi Zi took in the Grand Yan Examination.
She used that exam paper to exchange for the Yellowfrost Stone. Now, it was in the hands of the Ji family. At the same time, it proved her guess. There was an old question in this year's Grand Yan Examination. It was the three-star question from twenty years ago. At that time, she was focused on how to get the Yellowfrost Stone back and didn't think much about other things. Now that she thought about it, Yun Hua Yi Zi's answer to that question was really interesting.
"A son will be born in this year. Great fortune will bring disaster."
This sentence, literally, meant that a person who carried great fortune and disaster was about to be born.
Thinking about this answer, she couldn't help but think of Jing Chen. She didn't know anyone who had great fortune, but from what she knew, there was no one who was more worthy of the words "bring disaster" than Jing Chen of Tianchong's Ketu Star.
What was interesting was that this exam paper happened to be twenty years ago. This was a written question, so the examinees back then didn't actually see this celestial phenomenon. She didn't know when the person who came up with this question saw this celestial phenomenon. If the celestial phenomenon happened to appear that year, then Yun Hua Yi Zi's answer would be thought-provoking.
This person who carried great fortune and disaster should be around twenty years old. He was about the same age as Jing Chen.
If it wasn't for the fact that Jing Chen didn't fit the description of "carrying great fortune", she would really suspect that the person who came up with this question was him.
The same question appeared again after twenty years. Yu Shu couldn't be blamed for thinking too much. She always felt that this matter wasn't that simple. Maybe there was a deeper meaning behind it. Twenty years ago, Yun Mu Feng, who answered this question, became Yun Hua Yi Zi. Then, twenty years later, what kind of future would the person who answered the same question have?
Yu Shu's finger lightly stroked her chin. She smiled coldly. Due to all kinds of considerations, she didn't plan to answer this question. Because of this, the Astrology exam that she was originally very confident in would be ruined.
However, if she couldn't take advantage of it, then Ji Xingxuan wouldn't be able to pass the exam smoothly. Regarding this question of three stars, whether or not it was what she thought it was, she had to mess it up.
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