The journey of the only child of a peasant family to take the imperial examination

As the stench from the toilet became stronger and stronger, coupled with the hot weather, Zhang Pingan felt that he had lost his sense of smell and his head was swollen. He had only one thought in his mind, which was to finish answering the questions carefully.

Zhang Ping'an gritted his teeth and waited until the invigilator collected the test papers in the evening, then he breathed a sigh of relief.

I really had no appetite. For dinner, I only ate a few bites of dry biscuits and drank two sips of water. Then I was led by the yamen runner to the toilet. It was already late at night. Although I felt dizzy from the smoke, I still had to rest well. The college entrance examination would last for three consecutive days, and I still had to get through the next two days. Two wooden boards put together made a bed, so I could only curl up and sleep.

He was half asleep and half awake the whole night, and there were occasional sounds of snoring and swatting mosquitoes around him. He didn't sleep well at all. Fortunately, it was summer, and Zhang Ping'an brought a quilted robe as a blanket, so he didn't have to worry about catching a cold.

Just after the hour of Yin on the second day, the sound of a gong was heard in the examination room. The examinees all stood up in a hurry, put away their boards and started to eat breakfast. There was no condition to wash up. Zhang Pingan saw that the students in the examination room opposite him had messy hair, and thought that his hair should be similar.

Perhaps because he had stayed in this smelly environment for too long, Zhang Ping'an felt that the stench was not so obvious today. However, he still had no appetite. He forced himself to eat half a pancake and then waited for the rolls to be distributed.

However, there was a student in the examination room opposite him who actually started a fire and cooked white noodles. Zhang Pingan really admired this man. His character was beyond his reach!

Because the exam would last for three days and two nights and the candidate could not leave the exam room during the exam, Zhang Laoer specially prepared a small pot and dry noodles for his son, as well as dry firewood chopped into the size of chopsticks. The weather was hot and other food could not be kept well, so the food was specially prepared for the examinees. However, Zhang Pingan was in no mood to light a fire and cook noodles.

A quarter of an hour later, the papers were handed out. Zhang Pingan scanned the questions from beginning to end, and had a rough idea of ​​what he was doing. He dipped his pen into ink and began writing without stopping, answering three questions in a row. He needed to answer them quickly and efficiently while his mind was still clear. Otherwise, everyone would start to use the toilet again, and with the midday sun shining, the smell might make him faint.

When other people went to the toilet one after another and passed by his examination room, Zhang Pingan realized that his stomach had been growling for a while and was no longer so hungry. Now he was not that hungry anymore.

I was planning to chew two more dry biscuits to make do, but I found that the weather was too hot and the biscuits were too dry to chew.

Zhang Ping'an had no choice but to put the pancake in a bamboo tube to soften it, then forced himself to eat a few bites and continued answering the questions.

At this time, the chief examiner Yang Xuezheng was inspecting the examination room and walked to the side of the Chouhao cell. He was accompanied by three or four yamen runners, making it hard not to notice him.

Invigilation was one of Yang Xuezheng's duties, but Zhang Ping'an didn't see Yang Xuezheng coming to inspect yesterday. He guessed that he might have just walked around the front a few times. After all, the smell in the stinky room was really unpleasant.

Zhang Ping'an had previously heard Mr. Fan say that Yang Xuezheng and his brother-in-law were of the same age, and he had thought that they should be about the same age, both in their forties or fifties.

But when I saw him today, I found that he was no more than 35 years old. He had a dignified appearance and was not old at all. He could even be said to be handsome. It was hard to imagine that he was already a third-rank official of the imperial court. He definitely deserved the phrase "a successful career".

Staring at others for a long time is a very impolite behavior and will also make people feel disgusted. Zhang Ping'an just glanced at them and lowered his head to continue answering the questions. Yang Xuezheng also left quickly accompanied by the yamen runners.

Zhang Ping'an answered the questions in one breath until after 3 p.m., and finally put down his pen exhaustedly. He finally finished today's test paper.

After finishing the work, Zhang Ping'an boiled a small pot of water and cooked a handful of dry noodles. Although they were tasteless, at least they were hot.

The food on his body was already rotten, so there was no need to be picky. After eating, Zhang Ping'an curled up on the board and fell asleep. He was too tired in the past two days.

The next morning, Zhang Ping'an got up at the end of the Yin hour as usual and prepared to make some bread to eat. However, the bread smelled like shit. He didn't know if it was a psychological effect or something else, so he prepared to cook noodles instead. When he smelled it, he found that the noodles also had a bad smell.

But this was the last day of the exam, and it was crucial. Even if it was really shit, he had to eat it first. There was no other way, Zhang Pingan suppressed his nausea and ate a small pot of noodles. After he finished eating, his throat felt nauseous and he had to hold it back with great difficulty.

The situation of the people around was similar. From time to time, muffled retching sounds and the scolding of yamen runners could be heard.

After a while, there were flies buzzing around, and they were the kind of green-headed dung flies. It was easy to guess where they came from.

Zhang Pingan didn't plan to eat today. After the test paper was distributed, he picked up his pen and started answering.

I don’t know if it’s because it’s the last day, some people know they have no hope of passing the college entrance examination, so they no longer worry about whether they will be stamped with shit and displease the examiner, but there are more people going to the toilet today than the previous two days combined.

Zhang Ping'an's forehead was throbbing with pain, and he could only pull his thigh to stay awake and calm. No wonder the ancients said that one should hang the head on the beam and prick the thigh with a needle. Pain really can make people sober.

It was not until the sun was setting that Zhang Ping'an finished writing the last word and put down his brush, waiting for the paper to be collected and to leave the examination room.

Although he had only eaten a small pot of noodles and three and a half pancakes in the past three days, Zhang Pingan didn't feel very hungry now. He just wanted to take a good bath and have a good sleep after he got out.

An hour later, a bell rang inside the examination hall, and a yamen runner circled around, banging a gong, reminding everyone, "It's time to collect the papers!"

Only after the invigilator has collected the papers can everyone line up to leave the examination room.

The moment he stepped out of the examination room, Zhang Pingan took a deep breath and found the air outside so fresh. However, he didn't notice that most of the students around him were walking around him because they smelled so bad.

Zhang Laoer and Liu Sanlang were waiting outside the door. They even rented a car and kept a close eye on every candidate who came out. So they noticed Zhang Pingan as soon as he came out. However, Zhang Laoer found that his son had become stupid after taking the exam for a few days and didn't even notice that he was standing in front of him.

"Son, are you okay? Why do you smell so bad?" Zhang Laoer asked worriedly. He took the exam basket from his son's hand and pulled him into the car.

Zhang Pingan finally reacted and smiled with a pale face: "Oh, I'm fine, I just seem to be overwhelmed by the stench of the toilet"!

After that, he sat on the car with the force of Zhang Laoer, which frightened Zhang Laoer so much that he ordered his eldest son-in-law, "Sanlang, hurry up, let's go back to the inn and find a doctor to see Ping An."

The driver was an old man. After hearing this, he started driving and laughed, "Your Highness, this is still good. He can take a bath and have a good sleep and he'll be fine. In previous years, I've seen people lose their lives because of exams. This is really nothing."

"What? There are people who lost their lives because of exams?" Zhang Laoer asked in surprise.

Zhang Pingan was slow to react and realized that his father thought he had done something stupid. He smiled helplessly and said, "Dad, I'm really fine. I just need to take a shower."