The emperor originally thought he had hidden well and wanted to continue listening, but he didn’t expect someone to point at him randomly.
After giving the chief eunuch a wink, the emperor came out from behind the pillar, appearing majestically with a straight face, frightening the others that they fell to their knees.
As for Jing Heguang…
He doesn’t have to kneel, he just needs to stand and salute. He is even standing shirtless in the pool.
The emperor had a dark face. After a few moments of silence, he finally said: “My palace has not been so lively for a long time.”
“Students deserved to die!”
“Servants deserve to die!”
Everyone present, whether they were prospect Jinshi or the young eunuchs who were serving them, were all shocked.
Jing Heguang is not afraid. Based on his understanding, the current emperor is still very good. He takes good care of his family, country and the world, so he has a good reputation for caring about his people.
As expected, the emperor narrowed his eyes and stretched out his hand to point at the long-faced man.
“Take him out. I’m also afraid of people like him becoming officials.”
Jing Heguang followed the emperor’s gaze and looked at the long-faced man, and then froze.
He saw the long-faced man’s legs quivering, the water surface was slightly yellow, and the few people beside him moved pitifully and secretly away from him.
Jing Heguang cursed in his heart. Although he was standing far away, he was so disgusted that he still moved a few steps away and couldn’t help but reach out and cover his nose.
The long-faced man was already frightened, so when he saw Jing Heguang’s disgusted expression, he stretched out his hand and said ‘You, you -‘ to Jing Heguang twice before he fainted and fell into the water!
Jing Heguang: he fell…
He’ll smell like that!
Jing Heguang couldn’t bear it anymore.He quickly jumped up onto the bluestone ground wearing wet pants and escaped from the sea of suffering.
The emperor on the side tried hard to hold back his laughter, then finally coughed twice before he stopped.
The guards who were called in by the eunuch showed no expression on their faces and dragged the long-faced man out mercilessly.
****
In the blink of an eye, Jing Heguang was sitting in the third seat in the first row, with the palace examination papers on the table in front of him.
Since he has entered the palace to try out, of course he has to do well!
Jing Heguang wanted to go back in glory, so that Zhang Xingyu could look at him with bright eyes full of admiration.
Putting aside those other thoughts, Jing Heguang sorted out his writing ideas and immersed himself in answering the questions seriously.
The others were nervous for a moment, but quickly calmed down to do the questions. Only those who had spoken to the long faced man were afraid, causing their minds to become muddled so they couldn’t even write a few words even after so long.
Soon, these people discovered that time passed too fast!
In the blink of an eye, the time hourglass was changed, only half of the exam time was left!
In the blink of an eye, both hourglasses were gone.
The chief eunuch rang the bronze bell: “The time is up! You must stop writing. Anyone who violates this rule will be revoked and will never enter the exam again.”
Jing Heguang glanced at his neat and perfect answer sheet, then looked away with satisfaction, and then heard…a low sobbing.
Looking at the source, it turned out to be an acquaintance, the one who said he smelled like a pig.
The man was probably afraid of losing his dignity in front of the emperor, so he had to hold back his tears. His eyes were red and he looked miserable.
Jing Heguang: Can’t laugh.
Who told them to laugh at others! The pig heads cut off by his family Xingxing are cuter than these guys!
After collecting the papers, Jing Heguang and the others went to have lunch, while the main hall was busy marking papers. The results of the palace examination would be announced directly at the next meeting.
Jing Heguang’s meal was accompanied by crying sounds, so he ate it quite deliciously.
After lunch, many people started chatting in small groups. They were from the same county, or people they had known earlier, so now they had companions.
Jing Heguang thought he was going to kill the hour chatting with Little Yellow Peach, but he didn’t expect that several people came over and politely discussed the topic of today’s palace examination with him.
Jing Heguang took a quick look and guessed that these people were probably from poor backgrounds like him and knew how difficult it was to work hard and earn money diligently.
Like this, Jing Heguang showed no secret to their inquiries and expressed some of his opinions.
Jing Heguang is now well-read, his knowledge spans thousands of years, his outlook is good, and his words are full of useful information, which makes these people fascinated!
The few people closest to them thought: Jing Heguang is so talented! So imaginative and creative!
They had never heard anything like Jing Heguang’s ideas before!
Seeing that these people were listening intently, the others unknowingly opened their ears.
Then their feet, somehow, moved towards Jing Heguang!
Slowly, Jing Heguang was surrounded by many people.
After Jing Heguang shared his views freely and wanted to hear other people’s opinions, he found that he was surrounded!
Jing Heguang looked around blankly and said, “Now that Heguang has finished speaking, let’s listen to your opinions next, shall we?”
“No, no, no. I have to think about what you said for a while.There are many things that I didn’t expect at all.”
We don’t have any good ideas. Your view is good, Heguang!”
Several people nearby shook their heads in refusal.
They are all children from poor families, and their understanding of the overall situation is indeed lacking compared to children from wealthy families. However, they also have their own advantages. They pay attention to details and are very solid in both work and writing. People further away have some ideas, but they are too embarrassed to say it!
They were just here to listen, and because they previously looked down on Jing Heguang, they didn’t have the nerve to speak at this moment.
The more sincere one also praised Jing Heguang a few words in embarrassment.
Jing Heguang felt relieved when he saw how friendly they were and continued talking with the people he just met to pass the time.
While we were talking, time passed by unconsciously.
***
After the papers were reviewed in the palace, the chief eunuch came to summon everyone and asked them to come to the front of the hall to wait for the roll call.
The candidates were divided into two rows and stood in a long queue.
The eunuch’s high-pitched voice sang: “The top scholar in this exam is Du Sinian.”
A thirty-year-old scholar who was holding back his excitement walked out in front of Jing Heguang: “Student Du Sinian is here!
The first place is also called the zhuangyuan. When Jing Heguang was talking before, Du Sinian nodded secretly, admiring him in his heart.
Du Sinian thought he would miss out on being first place, but he never imagined that he would get first place! He was even more surprised.
Seeing that the top scholar responded, the eunuch continued: “Second place in this exam is Jing Heguang.”
Jing Heguang clenched his fists, held his head high and walked out to salute: “Student Jing Heguang is here!”
After calling the second place, third place is next.
As a very likely candidate to be the imperial son-in-law, the tanhua(3rd) has attracted the attention of many people.
After calling the tanhua’s name, the eunuch then called the chuanlu(4th place). The first three people are in the first class and the first name in the second class is called — Chuanlu. Later, the chuanlu will be the one to call the future Jinshi.
Chuanlu is not in the first class, so he has to do hard work as soon as he takes up positions.
While Chuanlu was doing his job, he also had to watch the first to third go to face the saint.
Jing Heguang entered the hall.
The emperor narrowed his eyes and glanced at the three of them before saying, “You three are among the top three outstanding students in this exam. I should praise you, but I don’t have that intention today.”
The emperor was disappointed and said: “I didn’t expect that, including all the people outside, most of the people inside would look down on butchers? Then don’t they also look down on merchants, farmers, let alone night watchmen and emptying nocturnal fragrance1Ancient china industry that involved cleaning chamber pots/latrine, getting rid/transporting urine and feces…”
As the emperor was talking, everyone in the palace heard the sound of ‘heng shi heng shi’ – the sound of a pig.
Jing Heguang was the most familiar with the sound, so his expression changed.
The emperor smiled and looked at Jing Heguang: “You hear it, what is that?”
Jing Heguang said: “It sounds like…a pig’s cry.”
“That’s right.” The emperor raised his head and chuckled, “Since they don’t like it, I will let them kill a few pigs before going back. By then, they will all be people who have killed pigs, so no one should be able to despise anyone.”
The ministers in the hall lowered their heads, hiding their twitching faces, for fear that the emperor would look at them!
They knew that the emperor might be angry, but they didn’t know that the emperor would be so angry. He completely ignored the gentleness of a scholar. It seems that they should be better to people in the future.
The zhuangyuan and tanhua turned pale,their legs trembling a little.
The two of them thought in panic: The second-class and third-class scholars outside are going to kill pigs. They had already entered the hall, the emperor wouldn’t make them go out to kill pigs with the second-class and third-class scholars too, right?!
The zhuangyuan and tanhua are both from good families, but they have never seen a live pig in their lives!
Most of the Jinshis and fellow Jinshis outside are like this. They have never seen a live pig, and now they have to directly kill a pig…
Although it’s actually the butcher in the palace who kills the pig, they still have to catch the pig and hold down its legs while it is being killed.
Seeing those big strong fat pigs jumping around, all the Jinshi were dumbfounded!
The chief eunuch on guard saw that they didn’t move and urged: “My lords, please hurry up. Don’t delay the parade. They are waiting outside.”
After hearing that they still have to parade through the streets. These second class and third class Jinshi had to move even if they didn’t want to.
However, as soon as they moved, the pigs also moved happily, grunting and running around.
Children from poor families are more receptive. Although they have never killed pigs with their own hands, they have killed chickens and ducks at home, and some have even fed pigs. At the worst, they have also seen live pigs.
After being at a loss for a moment, several people from poor families gathered together and rushed to catch a smaller pig that was running around.
Those who moved slower found that the pigs left for them were bigger, fatter, and more difficult to deal with!
However, all Jinshi’s thoughts at this moment are generally the same.
— Terrible! They will never forget this day in their lives!
At the same moment, Jing Heguang in the palace: Does he really not have a big boss protection halo?
