A peasant girl travels through time with a hospital, rising to become an empress.

Vice Dean Li took out the exam papers. The exam would last for one hour, and Nie Qianqian wisely left the study.

Gu Xiao took the exam in Vice Dean Li's study. After quickly glancing through the exam paper, Gu Xiao found that there were a lot of questions, and the one-hour time limit for answering the questions would probably be a bit tight for most people.

He hadn't expected that the entrance exam for Tiande Academy would be of a high standard, not as simple as he had imagined.

Without saying much, he picked up his pen and began to answer.

Vice Dean Li sat at the desk proctoring the exam, picking up a book to read and glancing at Gu Xiao from time to time.

Seeing Gu Xiao's calm expression and his continued writing on the exam paper, they couldn't help but be surprised, thinking to themselves: Is Gu Xiao just scribbling nonsense?

He shook his head and continued reading when he suddenly heard a knock at the door. His pageboy, Xiao Liu, said, "Vice Dean Li, it's time for you to go teach at the Fulin Class."

Vice Dean Li then remembered that he had a class in the morning. He had originally planned to send the two of them off to class, but Nie Qianqian led him to take a diagnostic test, and he had completely forgotten about the class.

After a moment's thought, Vice Dean Li asked Xiao Liu to call Master Jiang from the academy to come and proctor the exam for him.

Master Jiang was one of the younger teachers in the academy, only a little over 30 years old. He was a student personally taught by the dean of Tiande Academy. After obtaining the title of Xiucai (a degree in the imperial examination system) in his early 20s, he participated in the autumn examinations several times but failed to pass.

Despite his difficult circumstances, Master Jiang maintained a positive attitude. Knowing the arduous path of the imperial examinations, he did not give up. Instead, he accepted a teaching position at Tiande Academy, where he taught the Joyful Learning Class. He continued to study while teaching, hoping to one day pass the imperial examinations and become a Juren (a successful candidate in the provincial-level imperial examinations).

Before long, Mr. Jiang arrived in a hurry. Vice Dean Li briefly explained the whole story to him and then asked him to proctor Gu Xiao's exam.

After giving her instructions, Vice Dean Li prepared to leave. Before leaving, she glanced at Gu Xiao again and noticed that he hadn't looked up at all, concentrating intently on answering the questions on the test paper.

Vice Dean Li thought to himself that this boy's concentration was decent. If he could calm down and start learning from scratch, he might be able to achieve some success in the future.

Master Jiang had a general understanding of Gu Xiao's situation. He knew that Gu Xiao was recommended by the county magistrate to study at the academy. If it were an ordinary person, they would probably be grateful and would not dare to make demands regarding class assignment. However, seeing that Gu Xiao took the initiative to accept the placement test, he became somewhat interested in him.

Professor Jiang was much more attentive to the exam than Vice Dean Li. His eyes were fixed on Gu Xiao the whole time, but the more he looked at him, the more curious he became. From the moment Professor Jiang started proctoring the exam, Gu Xiao's pen never stopped. He answered the questions without the slightest hesitation and kept writing furiously.

Although the diagnostic test wasn't difficult, it shouldn't have been answered so smoothly. Moreover, looking at the thick stack of test papers on Gu Xiao's desk, he wondered when the academy's diagnostic test had become so extensive.

An hour passed quickly. With an incense stick's worth of time left before the exam ended, Gu Xiao finished answering all the questions. He gently blew on the still-wet ink on the last exam paper, tidied it up, and handed it to Master Jiang.

Mr. Jiang put away the test papers. "Vice Dean Li has just instructed Xiao Liu to take you to complete the admission procedures. As for which class you will be in, that will be decided based on your scores after Vice Dean Li finishes grading the papers."

Mr. Jiang's attitude was rather mild, firstly because he was a kind and gentle person, and secondly because although he didn't know how well Gu Xiao had done on the test, he appreciated Gu Xiao's serious and focused attitude during the exam.

Gu Xiao: "Then I'll have to trouble you, Master."

Gu Xiao opened the door and saw Nie Qianqian waiting at the door with a smile on her face. When she saw him come out, she asked, "How was it? Were the questions difficult?"

Seeing her waiting outside like this, Gu Xiao felt a surge of joy and smiled slightly, saying, "It's not difficult."

Nie Qianqian guessed that the placement test should not be too difficult for Gu Xiao, and waved the food box in her hand, "Wait for me a moment."

After saying this, he went into the study, bowed to Master Jiang, and handed him the food box. "Master, you have worked hard supervising the exam for my husband. It is past lunch time in the academy's canteen, so I specially bought some food for you from outside."

Mr. Jiang was taken aback. He had just been wondering where he could grab a bite to eat since the cafeteria was probably closed, when he saw Nie Qianqian smilingly presenting him with a food box.

Nie Qianqian wanted to give a gift, so naturally she wouldn't give anyone a chance to refuse. Master Jiang declined several times, but couldn't resist her insistence, so he accepted it. She felt even more favorably disposed towards Gu Xiao and his wife.

If it were Vice Dean Jiang with his cold demeanor, Nie Qianqian wouldn't have bothered with this. However, since this Mr. Jiang seemed much more agreeable, she naturally wanted to do her husband a favor.

After the two left, Master Jiang did not rush to open the food box to eat. Instead, he first opened Gu Xiao's test paper, as he was very curious about how Gu Xiao had done.

I was stunned as soon as I opened the exam paper.

Master Jiang read the exam paper from beginning to end and then from end to beginning twice before he dared to confirm that this was no ordinary entrance assessment exam! This was clearly the most bizarre exam paper in the history of Tiande Academy, personally prepared by Dean Qiu!

He couldn't possibly have mistaken this exam paper; it was too vivid in his memory. He had taken this exam when he first passed the imperial examination and was full of confidence, but he left most of the paper blank and only got about 50 points, which severely damaged his self-confidence.

In the following years, he continuously improved his studies, taking the same test again and again, gradually raising his score by 60, 70, 80 points...

But what about Gu Xiao? How could he possibly fill out the entire exam paper on his very first try?!

What exactly happened? How could it be this set of exam papers? Did Vice Dean Li take the wrong exam papers?

The two sets of exam papers are completely different; it's impossible for them to have been mixed up. Or was it something Vice Dean Li did intentionally?

What puzzled him even more was how Gu Xiao could answer all the questions correctly.

He was so preoccupied with worry that this was the test paper, something Gu Xiao could have answered perfectly, and he was frantic.

If Gu Xiao really did take this test for the first time and answered all the questions correctly, wouldn't he be a genius?

Thinking of this, his heart began to pound uncontrollably.

Stubborn by nature, he forgot about eating, carefully bound Gu Xiao's exam paper, and took it out to find Vice Dean Li. He had to get to the bottom of this matter, otherwise he wouldn't be able to eat, let alone sleep.

He went straight to the erudite class, only to find that the class had already finished for the day. He then inquired about where Vice Dean Li had gone and learned that she had left the academy after class due to family matters.

Master Jiang was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan. He was about to go to Vice Dean Li's house to hitch up the academy's carriage when a student from the erudite class came over and told him Vice Dean Li's last wish: that Master Jiang could help grade Gu Xiao's exam paper.

Vice Dean Li guessed that Gu Xiao wouldn't be able to answer many questions, and that Jiang Fuzi could grade the paper at that level.

But the truth is that Gu Xiao answered the entire test paper!

Mr. Jiang was at his wits' end. How could he possibly grade Gu Xiao's paper? This paper was originally set by Dean Qiu himself, and all the formal exams were graded by the dean himself.

He pondered for a moment, then said urgently to the coachman, "Quickly! Go to Dean Qiu's house."