The daily life of a peasant girl taking the imperial examination

This farce happens almost every year.

Apart from Zhuge Yunshu and other candidates who only took the county exam this year, the other candidates and onlookers were already used to it.

Sure enough, in no time at all, the onlookers watching the rankings started discussing it again with practiced ease.

This time, the focus of the heated discussion has shifted from Zhuge Yunshu, the top scholar in the county, to her family.

Zhuge Yunshu overheard a bit and was speechless.

Then, a middle-aged man in the crowd was seen speaking confidently and eloquently.

"do you know?"

"My second great-uncle's cousin didn't marry into Yunshui Town. One of her family's helpers married a woman who gave birth to a daughter. When she reached marriageable age, she married a young man from Zhuge Village, where the county's top official was located. According to her grandfather's second maternal uncle..."

This Zhuge Village is very mysterious. Let me tell you, but please don't tell anyone. It is said that a great recluse and literary figure came to this village with his family to escape the war...

So it's not surprising that their family has two descendants with such high academic talent; after all, the family's heritage is undeniable..."

"..."

"Hey, what I heard is different from what you said. My cousin's family... they said the family of the county's top scholar was originally a high-ranking official in the previous dynasty, but they were framed by political enemies, and the whole family was exiled..."

"Wait a minute, isn't the family of the county's top official..."

Zhuge Yunshu: "..."

Zhuge Yun Chu: "..."

The rest of the Zhuge family: "..."

How could they not know that the ancestors of the Zhuge family, who had farmed for generations, had such an awesome legend?

It's truly remarkable that this rumor, after going through so many twists and turns, managed to get through... so incredibly difficult.

What's more, this is happening in front of the people they're gossiping about... Do these people even know what nonsense they're spouting?

Before Zhuge Yunshu and his family could even begin to grumble in their hearts, Wang Yi and Zhang Hao also squeezed over, caught up in the swirling rumors.

The two first gave Zhuge Laifu and Lin Siniang a junior's greeting.

Then Zhang Hao said sarcastically:

"I never imagined that Junior Sister Yun Shu had such a family background... I hope you can introduce me and offer her some guidance in the future..."

Zhuge Yunshu: "..."

This silly senior brother is such a drama queen!

Watching Zhang Hao clown around, Wang Yi unconsciously moved her feet in the opposite direction.

To anyone with a discerning eye, this action clearly conveyed a sense of disdain.

The dim-witted Zhang Hao, oblivious to this, leaned closer with a naive look on his face and said, "Junior Sister Wang, it seems we'll all have to rely on Junior Sister Yun Shu from now on!"

Wang Yi: "......"

Expressionless, unable to bear it any longer~

"...This young lady's aversion to stupidity has flared up."

Zhang Hao touched his nose, looking completely innocent: "...What's wrong? Are you kidding me?"

Hearing the voice that sounded like a coquettish plea, Zhuge Yunshu couldn't help but shiver.

Wang Yi's lips moved slightly, as if she felt nauseous.

The other younger members of the Zhuge family stared in shock.

Even the well-informed Zhuge Yun Chu had never seen such a... 'unique' man.

And he's a scholar, too.

Zhuge Laifu and Lin Siniang preferred the lively Zhang Hao.

The couple exchanged a knowing glance, then shook their heads, denying what they were thinking.

There was no way around it; after all, he was the only son of the Zhang family, and he couldn't possibly become their live-in son-in-law.

Ah, it's such a pity about that 'simple' nature~

However, Zhuge Yunshu had no idea what Zhuge Laifu and his wife were thinking. After they played around for a while, Qin Shuangyu, Qian Wenxing, Wu Mochi and Xiao An from Yunmu Town School and Yuntian Town School came over.

After a few polite greetings, Zhuge Yunshu finally learned about their group's ranking in the county examination.

Wang Yi came in third, and Zhang Hao came in eighth.

The remaining four people are ranked fourth, sixth, seventh, and tenth respectively.

If someone in the know saw this group of scholars, they would surely exclaim, "Good heavens! Of the ten people in the first eleven, you two make up eight of them!"

However, those around them were unaware of this.

They saw a group of younger scholars approaching this promising county magistrate.

This county's top official is a very influential figure in the Xia Kingdom.

As long as Zhuge Yunshu doesn't mess up in the upcoming prefectural and provincial examinations, it can be said that she is already a tacitly recognized scholar.

Thinking of this, the other candidates in the crowd felt a surge of warmth in their hearts.

Apart from a few older candidates who were too proud to admit their age, the others of similar age all crowded around Zhuge Yunshu and his group.

Most of these people were scholars congratulating Zhuge Yunshu on passing the county examination with top honors and wishing her a bright future.

Although Zhuge Yunshu found it very noisy, she couldn't refuse someone who was smiling, so she responded to each of them.

Just then, several bailiffs carried out a notice board from the county government office that was even larger than the one used to post the results of the county examinations.

And this is the answer sheet of Zhuge Yun's five examinations in Shuxian County.

Upon seeing this, the candidates in front of the list and the onlookers swarmed around it.

Upon seeing this, Zhuge Yunshu went to the bulletin board where the results of the county examination were posted, which was now mostly deserted.

The first line of the red square list reads: Zhuge Yunshu, Zhuge Village, Yunshui Town, Linxi County, with ten points in Classics, ten points in Calligraphy, ten points in Ink, and ten points in Poetry...

The imperial examinations in the Great Xia Kingdom were conducted on a ten-point scale, and Zhuge Yunshu achieved full marks in all five examinations.

Zhuge Yunshu glanced at Zhuge Yunchu's work again and found that she only got full marks in the "Tijing" and "Moyi" sections, while most of the rest were only 9.7 or 9.8.

In short, the top ten in the county examination were not far apart, all within one point.

That's right. The county examination was the most basic and simplest exam in the imperial examination system, while the difficulty mainly lay in the subsequent prefectural and provincial examinations.

In the words of Master Wang, "As the number of candidates who passed the preliminary examinations accumulated year after year, the number of candidates eliminated in the prefectural and provincial examinations increased, and as a result, in order to better select talents, the difficulty of the examinations became relatively more and more difficult."

Thinking of this, Zhuge Yunshu couldn't help but sigh.

It seems she will not only have to compete with her fellow candidates, but also with the candidates who have accumulated over the years for the top spot in the prefectural examination, or even the provincial examination...

It seems that achieving the first-stage goal of passing the imperial examinations with top honors in all three categories was particularly difficult for her.

Moreover, a prefecture-level city can have more than one county-level top scholar.

Zhuge Yunshu: "..."

The more I think about it, the more stressed I feel!

She was initially quite pleased with her perfect score in all five county-level examinations, but now she realizes that her county-level examination results are really nothing special.

There are people outside people, and there are days outside the sky.

Moreover, this was in ancient times when such a prodigy could be found in every prefecture.

Zhuge Yunshu made up her mind that she must not take the upcoming prefectural and provincial examinations lightly.