All the members are good people, only the host is a pervert

On the fifth day of April, the provincial examination officially began. Lin Ruan and the others lined up at the entrance of the examination hall at three o'clock in the morning, and at four o'clock in the morning, the body searches for entry officially began.

Liu He and another familiar gentleman stood beside Lin Ruan and the others, acting as their guarantors. After the guards inspected her, they led her into an inner room. She was first asked to strip completely and stand naked inside. The body-searching officer used a tool similar to a metal rod to gently tap her hair. Two other body-searching officers then thoroughly searched her, examining her outer robe, inner garments, shoes, and socks. Only after confirming everything was in order were they allowed to put on their clothes and leave the inner room.

After coming out of the inner room, Lin Ruan came to a desk. There would be a special person holding a booklet with the examinee's appearance characteristics written on it to compare with the examinee in front of him one by one. Once it was confirmed that it was the examinee himself, they would be given the examination room number. After showing the number to the guard, a special guard would lead the examinee to find a seat and sit down. Then the guard would not leave and would stay in front of the examination table, responsible only for guarding this examinee.

Lin Ruan entered the inner courtyard and the first thing he saw was rows of neatly arranged examination rooms. These rooms were neatly arranged, each separated by thin wooden planks and with low fences as doors. Inside, wooden tables and benches were placed, and on the tables were written papers for the examinees to use while answering their questions.

After Lin Ruan entered the examination room and sat down, she shook the table. Fortunately, it was stable. She slowly ground the ink, her mind calm.

After an unknown amount of time, the entire examination hall fell completely silent, with only the steady, orderly footsteps of patrolling soldiers as the bell rang. Only then did a yamen runner approach with a sign. Lin Ruan quickly copied the exam questions onto a piece of paper and began to ponder them.

First came three eight-part essays. The first question was "Never tire of learning." This question, from the Analects of Confucius, was of moderate difficulty—easy to answer but extremely difficult to answer well. Lin Ruan quickly typed out a draft of over 300 words, but didn't rush to copy it. He then turned to the second question.

“When wearing brocade, one should still cover it with a plain cloth, because one hates the pattern on it to be visible. Therefore, the way of a gentleman is dim but shines brighter day by day.” This sentence is from the Doctrine of the Mean, which means that even if the way of a gentleman seems dim, it cannot be covered up and will always shine brightly.

Lin Ruan thought that this problem was not that difficult to solve.

The third question was short, consisting of only the two characters "Gu Hong." Lin Ruan knew immediately that this was the dreaded "joining" question that so many students dreaded. This was a "joining" question, where the examiner forcibly combined two sentences that belonged to separate contexts, disregarding punctuation.

The characters "Guhong" (Guhong) come from "Mencius: King Hui of Liang." The original text reads: "Mencius met King Hui of Liang. The king stood on a marsh and looked at the wild geese and deer. He said, 'Does a virtuous man also enjoy this?' Mencius replied, 'Only a virtuous man can enjoy this. Even if an unvirtuous man has this, he will not enjoy it.'"

However, the real key to the question lies in the second half of the chapter, where Mencius uses King Wen as an example to persuade King Hui of Liang to implement benevolent governance. Even Lin Ruan had to admire the question.

Lin Ruan figured out the relationship in this question and breathed a sigh of relief. The starting point was still: "benevolence", and the problem would not be difficult for her from then on.

After finishing the drafts of the three eight-part essays, only one five-character, six-rhyme trial poem remained, titled "Yangliu Reading Hall".

Lin Ruan was in no hurry to write, because it was already noon, and the yamen runners were serving lunch to the examinees one by one. Lin Ruan took a look at it and saw a mixed flour bun and a cup of cold water. He couldn't help but exclaim in his heart, "Wow!"

After dinner, Lin Ruan wrote the title on a piece of straw paper: "Fu De Yang Liu Du Shu Tang." Even the examination-style poems have a preface and a continuation, but this time the preface is a true preface, splitting all the keywords in the title into the first and second couplets, like the one Lin Ruan wrote: "Where the willows sway, the creek hall is not as good as the painting. I sing the golden thread song and read the jade box book."

After finishing writing everything, Lin Run asked the system to check for typos and taboos, and then copied all the articles neatly on the test paper using the official script. Because the test paper was not allowed to have typos, Lin Run copied very slowly, but no matter how slow he was, he successfully copied it before the papers were collected.

He sorted out the answer sheets, packed up the pens, ink, paper and inkstone, and placed them on the ground one by one to avoid any accidental contamination of the test papers. Then he closed his eyes and rested.

Then there was a sudden commotion in the examination hall. Lin Ruan couldn't see what happened, but could only vaguely hear the candidates begging for mercy, probably because they were caught cheating.

Fengwu State's laws stipulated that anyone found guilty of cheating in county, prefectural, or academy examinations would be stripped of their clothing and official titles, stripped of their official titles, and banned from taking the imperial examinations for life. This, not to mention the provincial and metropolitan examinations, was a lifelong inequality. However, some people, regardless of gender or history, harbored a lingering desire for luck.

As soon as the afternoon came, someone came to collect the papers. Some candidates who hadn't finished, losing their composure, begged repeatedly to wait a moment. The collector scolded them, and they reluctantly handed in their papers. Lin Ruan handed in his papers, neatly placing the remaining writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstone, along with his drafts, on the table, waiting for the yamen runners to take them away. This wasn't just for the academy exams; the provincial and metropolitan exams would follow suit. The main rule was that nothing could be brought in, and nothing could be taken out.

After leaving the examination hall, Liu He took them back to the Songyang Academy to await the results the day after tomorrow. The academy examination was divided into three sessions. The first session, known as the A-list, admitted twenty candidates, known as the A-list. A day later, those who didn't make the A-list took the second session, admitting fifty, known as the B-list. In other words, out of all the candidates who took the exam in Weizhou, seventy would be admitted as scholars.

One day after the announcement of the B list, there will be the imperial examination. The imperial examination depends on the examiner's preferences and may test policy essays, poetry writing, or arithmetic. The ranking will be announced one day after the exam, and the top 50 can participate in the next year's joint examination.

However, the imperial examination is not limited to scholars of this year. Scholars of previous years can also sign up for the examination. You think that fifty people are selected from seventy people, but in fact, fifty people are selected from hundreds of people.

Lin Ruan naturally made it to the top of the list. To avoid irritating others, she didn't wander around, but stayed in her room studying and preparing for the exam. She was lucky, as the exam only had one policy essay, but five arithmetic questions.

It counts, hehe.

After all, I have been to university twice. Although I studied either Chinese medicine or Western medicine, I still learned advanced mathematics, and I can do some basic arithmetic.

When the results were announced, Lin Ruan was indeed ranked first, winning the first place and officially becoming a scholar.

After dealing with the congratulations, Lin Ruan rejected Liu He's suggestion to go back with him, saying that he had some personal matters to attend to in the prefectural capital. Liu He didn't care and returned to Songyang County with her students.

Lin Ruan found a middleman and asked her to choose a house near the Weizhou Prefecture School. The top ten students in the imperial examination were admitted to the Weizhou Prefecture School for free to continue their studies. This was Lin Ruan's plan, which was why she took the examination so seriously.

The middleman took Lin Ruan to see several places, but he was not satisfied with any of them. They were either too small, too far away, or too dilapidated. He wanted to start from the foundation.