Chapter 67: Accept Smilingly
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
"Fang Zhengzhi!" Meng Yushu tightened his fists. A cold glint flashed in his eyes. "Entering the First-Class Roll? Hmph! Let me see how much further you can go!"
Meng Yushu huffed coldly, turned around and left.
"Huh? Young Master Meng is going to leave just like this? Hey… Young Master Meng watch out!" As Fang Zhengzhi looked at Meng Yushu leave, a concerned look instantly appeared on his face.
Meng Yushu didn’t even bother to turn back his head, and continued to walk away hurriedly! Watch out? I think you should be the one who will have to watch out?
As he thought, Meng Yushu suddenly skidded.
"Aiyo!"
Crying out in fear, his body leaned forward exaggeratedly. Flying forward, he landed face-first onto the ground.
"I already told you to watch out, sigh…" A long drawn out sigh came from Fang Zhengzhi, then slowly placed the fruit that he had skinned into his mouth. Biting down, the sweetness was incredible...
After a moment, the examinees finally recovered from their shock.
"Brother Li, I heard you are going to finish drinking the River of Trust?"
"I believe Brother Zhang’s taste is a little more exquisite…"
Instantly, the examinees began to tease, and the crowd’s gaze quickly landed onto those two people who talked big.
"Fraud!"
"There is definitely some problem with the examination paper!"
"How can it be like this! He obviously didn’t make the roll; how can it suddenly be added in? That’s right, this is impossible!"
Under the gaze of the crowd, the two looked at one another and hurriedly found a logical explanation to the problem. Because, other than this reasoning, they simply couldn’t think of any other reason for Fang Zhengzhi to enter the First-Class Roll.
A person who had never entered a Hall of Dao entering the First-Class Roll of the theory examination?
I don’t believe, even if I die!
"Brother Li is right, let’s wait till the second round of theory examination, this Fang Zhengzhi will definitely fall!"
"Brother Zhang, I support you! Unexpected luck cannot last long, only real power will persevere!"
The two’s words were quickly resonated by the crowd. A bunch of examinees who missed the roll instantly began to make noise once again and continued to harp. But, nobody dared to make any further public pledges.
At this moment, Li Zhuangshi had also shifted his gaze away from the roll stone, but a glimmer of shock remained in his eyes. Looking at Fang Zhengzhi, he sighed inside. Thinking of his eight tedious years of studying, he was only able to enter the Second-Class Roll in the county examination.
Who would have thought that Fang Zhengzhi, a person who didn’t even enter the Hall of Dao, would actually enter the First-Class Roll with luck and self-studying?
Heaven wasn’t fair!
Similarly, he believed that Fang Zhengzhi was exceedingly lucky, and there was no relation to his abilities whatsoever.
Fang Zhengzhi didn’t bother to pay further attention to the crowd’s discussion. Humming a little tune along the way, he walked leisurely towards the inn. Power? I am the power!
A fake document became a real one?
Ha ha ha… the ancient people are indeed sincere and wouldn’t bully me! When the fake becomes real, it is both real and fake! Between real and fake, who can differentiate?
…
The second round of the Law of Dao theory examination was the day after the release of the result.
When Fang Zhengzhi entered the venue, he didn’t notice Meng Yushu and started to guess. That guy indeed had his examination qualification forfeited?
As he thought of that, he grew delighted.
The second round of theory examination had different questions as compared to the first. If the first round was described as the theory behind the Law of Dao, then the second round could be described as emphasizing the usage of the Law of Dao.
Furthermore, the direction of the questions was more flexible and practical.
Other than a few summaries and explanations of texts, a few military matters were added in. For example, during military movements, what should one do when a mountain is encountered, or when a river is encountered etc.
Furthermore, at the end, there was even a mini battle formation illustration.
The timing was also two hours, but the difficulty level virtually increased by many times.
But, to Fang Zhengzhi, it was the complete opposite. The first round of the theory examination required discussing the texts, and too many areas required writing.
On the other hand, the second round emphasized thinking.
Especially the last battle formation illustration, was an extremely simple snake formation.
How hard could this be? They were only three different variations, attack the snake head, and its tail would move; attack the snake tail, and its head would bite; or, attack the snake’s body, and both its head and tail would twist.
Fang Zhengzhi was able to surmount all difficulties along the way, and commonly used the clearest and simplest words to explain and discuss the most complicated processes. For example, for the last snake formation, he only used once sentence to summarise.
"Seize the head, flank the tail, chop the body!"
Then, perfectly ending his work, he once again began to nap happily. The total time he used was less than half an hour, compared to the first round, it was almost twice as fast.
This action naturally instantly attracted the indignation of the examinees.
Among them, there were even people who hadn’t even started writing. Yet, on this side, Fang Zhengzhi was already lying on the table and almost asleep. How could they swallow this anger?
"Faker! Sleep all you want!"
"The second round is much harder than the first, yet he didn’t even use half an hour?!"
"He must miss the roll! Else I refuse to give in!"
The crowd of examinees were indignant, but couldn’t do anything. If people wanted to sleep, would one still dare to make noise? This was the examination venue of the theory examination!
The examination ended, the papers were submitted and the examinees exited.
The second day morning, the results were released again.
Compared to the first round of theory examination, the second round evidently had much lesser people. After all, after a round of selection, some people had already returned back to where they came from.
However, there were a few people who missed the roll who didn’t rush to return home. Instead, they invited their friends to stay in the Huai An County to admire the flowers and admire the moon, and at the same time, prepare to admire Fang Zhengzhi miss the roll.
"Guess the top three in the theory examination!"
Fang Zhengzhi was leisurely walking around in front of the roll stone when he suddenly heard a sound coming from the betting station below the tree. His eyes instantly lit up.
Even though the second round of examination results weren’t officially released yet, but his hundred silver pieces seemed like they could be collected in advance!
Without further ado, he instantly slipped away to the front desk.
It was still the same boy servant from last time.
"Hi, I previously betted that Meng Yushu would not make it to the top three, my betting slip is here!" Fang Zhengzhi placed the betting slip in front of the boy servant.
When the boy servant who was busy shouting saw Fang Zhengzhi, a bitter look instantly appeared on his face.
"Young master indeed has great foresight; young master has actually won the only bet! I wonder if young master can tell me your name?" As the boy servant kept the betting slip, he fumbled around in his pockets, but his face looked as if his flesh was being cut apart.
"Fang Zhengzhi!" Fang Zhengzhi didn’t hide. After all, he was a famous person now.
"You are Young Master Fang, Fang Zhengzhi?!" When the boy servant heard Fang Zhengzhi’s words, his expression of having his flesh cut apart instantly changed. He looked at Fang Zhengzhi as if he had seen a relative.
Looking at the boy servant’s moved expression, he felt somewhat confused. Don’t tell me he had already become so famous? Even a boy servant knew his name?
"Young Master Fang, can you come over for a moment!" The boy servant at this moment managed to regain his senses, and instantly fished out a hundred silver note and placed it in Fang Zhengzhi’s hands. Then, he made a beckoning sign towards Fang Zhengzhi.
With money in his hands, Fang Zhengzhi naturally didn’t fear anything else. Anyway, there was still some time before the official release of the results, hence he followed the boy servant to the side.
"Young Master Fang reporting Meng Yushu had done us a great favour this time. All of the money betted on Meng Yushu had entered my wallet. Betting has betting rules, since Young Master Fang had been of great help, my master had passed down instructions to reward Young Master Fang greatly if we meet him!"
As he spoke, he fished out another two pieces of hundred silver notes and passed it respectfully to Fang Zhengzhi.
The great reward was two hundred pieces of silver? Fang Zhengzhi instantly smiled. As the saying goes, accept smilingly, accept smilingly. If one didn’t smile, how could one accept?
Hence, Fang Zhengzhi gave a very cultured and affable smile, then quickly kept the silver notes into his pocket.
Without a trace of politeness.
"Thank you very much!" Fang Zhengzhi expressed his gratitude.
Being given money in the early morning, and furthermore, it was insisted that he take it! This was simply double the happiness! This master seemed to have a rather good personality.
Fang Zhengzhi had gambling ethics, hence he bore a good impression of such people who followed the gambling rules as well.
"My master usually resides in the capital city, these two days we just happened to pass by the Huai An County, and just happened to hear about Young Master Fang’s doings, and even received such a huge help from Young Master Fang. Hence, we were instructed to tell Young Master Fang if we meet him that if Young Master Fang doesn’t mind, our master is willing to organise a feast for missing the roll and make friends with you. Then, personally send Young Master Fang out of the city and ensure your safety the entire way!"
When the boy servant said the word, master, he was filled with pride.
Yet, Fang Zhengzhi frowned slightly. He initially thought that a magpie was announcing good news, yet who would have thought that he would meet a crow’s beak making inauspicious remarks. Feast for missing the roll? Miss your head!
"I’ll leave the feast for missing the roll for your master to eat alone! And at the same time, help me pass a message that the mountains won’t change, and the rivers would always flow." Twitching his mouth, Fang Zhengzhi turned around and walked away.
As he walked, he mumbled softly, "Having such bad luck in the early morning, I thought it was a master with some foresight? Who knew that it would be like this! If I encountered that person, if he is a male, I’ll smack him with a rod, if she is a female, I will bang bang bang on the spot!"
"If she is a female, I will bang bang bang on the spot?" Staring at Fang Zhengzhi’s leaving figure, a strange expression appeared on his face, as if he didn’t know how to react. "What is bang bang bang supposed to mean?"