The daily life of a peasant girl taking the imperial examination

Looking back now, I realize how ridiculous I was, judging others' knowledge based on their young age.

That's so narrow-minded.

......

At this time, the teachers responsible for copying the results next to each town school had already tallied the final scores of each town school and handed the compiled papers to the presiding teacher.

"Now announcing the results of the poetry relay: Yunshui Town School has 100 poems, Yunmu Town School has 99 poems, Yuntu Town School has 80 poems, Yuntian Town School has 60 poems, and Yunze Town School has 30 poems. According to the competition rules, each town school has received 10, 9, 8, 6, and 3 points respectively."

Upon hearing this result, everyone was convinced of its merits, and some students in Yunze Town even felt ashamed.

They desperately wanted the competition to end right now, or for them to be eliminated in this round. The gap between them was too big; it was simply shameful.

"The final round of the competition, the subject of law, is open to all," the presiding teacher announced, looking at the students from various town schools who were already seated.

The huge scroll at the top of the stage slowly opened to both sides.

—The case of the wife-killing in Linxi County, these six words appeared before everyone's eyes.

The paper was covered with densely packed information about the time, location, people involved, and details of the case.

"This case is a simulation of a real case that was concluded three years ago. Based on the above information, find the key information and list out why the husband is the murderer, what his motive was, who the murderer was, and who the accomplice was."

"The competition begins, four incense sticks' time."

Zhuge Yunshu carefully examined the information on the scroll, and she now had some general ideas.

Now that the murderer has been identified as her husband, the matter is simple: just find the murderer's motive, witness testimonies, and other evidence.

Zhuge Yunshu carefully read through the document, spread out the paper, and wrote: "The motive for the crime stems from a disharmonious marital relationship. Judging from their personalities, the man is dutiful and follows proper etiquette, while the woman is careless and often attracts unwanted attention due to her beauty. Therefore, her husband has repeatedly beaten and warned her, yet she continues to do as she pleases..."

"Therefore, after another argument between the two, her husband, unable to contain his anger, followed the deceased out and, together with a friend, murdered her..."

"The most important evidence, of course, is that there was an eyewitness among them, and the deceased's husband and his accomplices both admitted to it."

Following her own train of thought, Zhuge Yunshu wrote down the cause, process, and result of the matter on paper one by one. The whole process was smooth and efficient. In just a short while, she completed the section on law.

However, she was not the fastest; several students from the town school had already handed in their papers.

But looking at the remaining three incense sticks, Zhuge Yunshu fell into self-doubt, feeling as if she had missed something.

She carefully examined the information on the scroll several more times, until another incense stick had burned out, and finally found a line of information in a hidden corner: Neighbors testified that after the argument, the wife did indeed leave home, but her husband did not chase after her because his elderly mother was seriously ill; instead, he stayed home to care for her. However, only one elderly woman testified, her voice carrying little weight, and the deceased's brothers claimed she was old and blind.

The witness and accomplice are also highly suspicious. This person claims to have personally witnessed the deceased's husband conspiring with the accomplice to harm the deceased.

However, Zhuge Yunshu now realizes that the evidence is full of loopholes. The eyewitness testimonies do not show how the two conspired to kill the victim, nor do they show how the body was disposed of. In short, they are all ambiguous.

Another point is why the accomplice was willing to help kill someone who was unrelated to him.

Most importantly, these witnesses were all brought in by the deceased's brother, so what role did he play in their case?

Furthermore, the deceased's brother, the eyewitnesses, and the accomplices all shared a common trait: they were all addicted to gambling.

The deceased's husband was a well-known filial son in the county, known for his kindness and generosity, and was very popular. After this incident, almost no one believed that he had killed his wife.

However, the other party had eyewitnesses, and the deceased's husband's only eyewitness was judged to be old and blind.

Following this process, Zhuge Yunshu discovered that the deceased's husband was not the murderer.

But how can we prove it?

Zhuge Yunshu scratched his head in frustration, looked up and found that more than half of the people competing on the stage had disappeared.

She guessed that the remaining people must have all discovered something suspicious about the case, including Senior Sister Yi and Senior Brother Zhang, who were both looking irritable as they pondered.

Zhuge Yunshu forced herself to calm down and carefully examined the contents of the scroll. She believed that since it was a closed case, apart from necessary misleading text, the rest must be useful information.

Suddenly, Zhuge Yunshu noticed a line of text that she had overlooked:

One night, a sedan chair departed from the deceased's younger brother's house, heading to the home of a scholar in the county town. This scholar, though holding official rank, remained unmarried due to his greed and lust... and the sedan chair bearers received ten taels of silver as payment for carrying the empty chair. From that point onward, the deceased's younger brother, the eyewitnesses, and the accomplice were no longer pursued by gambling den officials for debts.

......

When the last incense stick had burned halfway down, Wang Yi, Zhang Hao, and Qin Shuangyu stepped forward at the same time to hand in their papers.

At this moment, only Zhuge Yunshu remained on the stage. Everyone watched as she slowly picked up a brush and wrote a few simple lines on a piece of paper. When the last incense stick burned out, she stopped writing on time.

"Luckily, I made it in time." Zhuge Yunshu secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Although the timeframe was very tight, she was certain that her answer was absolutely correct.

In contrast to Zhuge Yunshu's confidence, the audience below the stage was not optimistic about her.

"They're still too young, so it's normal that they don't understand the law and how cases are judged."

"He's not a child prodigy, yet he's already better than the vast majority of scholars."

"It's a pity. I thought we were sure to win the title of the town's top school in Yunshui Town."

"If Zhuge Yunshu is not good enough, aren't there two other people? If you ask me, they still have a chance to be number one."

"..."

Meanwhile, the county school teacher on the platform frowned as he looked at the papers in his hand, especially those that had been handed in after only one incense stick had burned out.

The teachers all gave them one point, considering they had only answered the simplest question, this score was already quite good.

“Look, these answers are good. The reasons are sufficient and the evidence is clear. The only flaw is that they either wrote down the murderer or did not specify the murderer.”

"Do you think we've been giving too much misinformation?"

"That's right, even now, we haven't seen a single correct answer."

"Come on, I think these are already pretty good. You have to understand how far-reaching this case was back then..."

"..."

When Song Shanzhang saw the last document that the constable brought up, he intercepted it and took it from him.

The paper contained a few lines of brief answers: the couple had a disharmonious relationship, and the wife often attracted unwanted attention because of her beauty, which led to her husband beating her... For this reason, she suspected her husband of being the murderer, which was also her husband's motive for killing.

The second line states that there is no murderer in this case, and the wife is not dead.

The third line states that there were four accomplices: the deceased's brother, an eyewitness, the deceased's husband (an accomplice), and a scholar. Since the extent of the sedan chair carrier's knowledge is unknown, he is not included among the accomplices.

"Wonderful! Absolutely wonderful! This girl is truly a prodigy." Looking at the satisfactory exam paper, Headmaster Song waved his hand and wrote a huge "10" on it.

That is, a perfect score, to express one's excitement.