Chapter 224: Chapter 97: County Examination (9)

She quickly tried to remedy the situation, picking up a ladle to scoop out all kinds of seafood and diligently filling the bowls of the younger ones.

"Eat up, everyone have some more. It’s not often we get to eat something this good, so let’s finish it all. Who knows when we’ll have a meal like this again? Don’t stand on ceremony with your mother."

Everyone at the table laughed and began to eat with gusto.

’Besides, the food was already cooked. It would be a shame not to eat it.’

’It wasn’t as if they ate this way often. It had been many years since the last time, so they had to make sure to remember the taste.’

After the meal, no one left. Instead, they all sat together and chatted.

De’an said that by the end of the examination, the candidate in the cubicle next to him had a complete breakdown.

The main reason was that he’d caught a cold during the rain a couple of days prior, and his nose wouldn’t stop running. He had no choice but to stuff a handkerchief up his nose, which made it hard to breathe. He felt dizzy and light-headed, and at one point, he even dozed off for a moment. By the time he jolted awake, it was already late afternoon, and he still hadn’t finished the first question.

It was a true pity. Anyone in his shoes would have broken down.

Zhao Jing said that in the "alley" of cubicles in front of him, there was a candidate who had tampered with his writing brush. The brush must have been hollowed out to hide a cheat sheet inside.

The trick had fooled all the constables, and he had even passed the first few sessions of the exam without a hitch. But during the final session, a patrolling constable happened to walk by and let out a sudden, soft cough. The candidate wasn’t even looking at his notes at the time, but his guilty conscience got the better of him. He was so startled that he dropped his brush, and it fell to the ground, revealing the secret hidden inside.

Upon hearing this, Chen Song’s eyes widened again. "What? People are still smuggling in cheat sheets? The absolute nerve of them!"

With one incident after another during this county examination, the Lord County Magistrate was already vexed enough. He had chewed out the constables at the county government for it.

The last few days had passed without incident, so he’d thought the Magistrate’s warnings had taken effect. But who knew? Some people truly won’t shed a tear until they see the coffin.

Chen Song said, "This is absolutely despicable. If my colleague hadn’t discovered it, the cheater would have gotten away with it completely. If he’d been allowed to pass the Child Examination and this method got out, who knows how many spots would have been taken by those who didn’t deserve them. This practice cannot be allowed to spread. The County Magistrate will certainly hand down a severe punishment."

A three-year ban from the examinations would be getting off easy. This candidate will surely be barred from ever setting foot in an examination hall for the rest of his life.

"It’s a shame for the other scholars in his guarantee group, though..."

Under the five-candidate mutual guarantee system, if one person gets in trouble, the others are all held responsible.

No matter how well they performed, they would inevitably be dragged down with him. In the best-case scenario, their scores for this exam would just be nullified. In the worst, they could be barred from the examination hall for three years.

Chen De’an was shaken and couldn’t help but sigh in relief. "Thank goodness our group was all from the Zhao Village. We all know each other well, and with my father and Mr. Zhao keeping an eye on things, no one would have dared pull any stunts."

Speaking of people from the Zhao Village, Xu Suying thought of Chen Lian. "He didn’t make it past the first session, did he?"

"That’s right."

It was Chen Song who answered again. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

On the second day of the county examination, Chen Song was inspecting the spring planting in the surrounding townships on behalf of the County Magistrate. When he passed by the Zhao Village, he saw Li’an working in the fields with a few hired hands.

He walked over at the time and asked him why he wasn’t studying for the next session.

Li’an quietly told him that his answers on the Four Books were utter nonsense and his essay was so bad a dog would have snubbed it. He also said his poem was a jumble of disconnected lines that read like a dog’s tail tacked onto a sable coat.

He said if someone like him could pass, then everyone in the entire county would be a Scholar.

He knew his own limits and was certain he wouldn’t pass the first round, so he figured he might as well not wait for the results. Getting the spring planting done was the more important task.

After all, his father’s leg had broken for a second time—in the very same spot. If he didn’t recuperate properly this time, Li’an was afraid it would lead to a chronic problem. Besides, his grandfather was getting old and still had to manage the flatbread stall in the county town; Li’an didn’t want to get in his way.

So, he had no choice but to come back and hire people to get the family’s few acres of fertile land planted first.

"Would his mother and grandmother have been happy about that? Didn’t they push Li’an to keep studying?"

"It wouldn’t have mattered if they did. Li’an had made up his mind, and nothing anyone said could change it."

Besides, the old family home has almost no income right now, but their expenses are high. The old lady needs medicine from morning till night. When it came to a choice between her own life and Li’an’s future, she chose the former without a moment’s hesitation.

That’s also why she turned a blind eye to Li’an’s decision.

As for Mrs. Li, nobody knew what she was thinking these days.

She was still selling simple meals in the county town, but she wasn’t putting much effort into the business. She used to work the entire day, but now if you go looking for her, she’s gone by the afternoon. No one knows where she goes off to.