Chapter 65 Spring Mei Cheng'an didn't chat with the people in the Ministry of Rites for too long, because they had to start getting busy. He just walked around the room, checked the various tasks with the booklet, said hello to his new friends, and then left. They were all busy and had no time to pay attention to him. On the seventh day of February, Mei Cheng'an went to visit the Examination Hall. Although it was called the Examination Hall, it was actually the Thousand-Step Gallery, a must-go place on the way to the palace. What is the Qianbu Corridor? It is a pedestrian corridor about one kilometer long. If you want to enter the palace, you must get off your horse, sedan chair, or carriage and walk all the way in. There is a wind and rain corridor on both sides of the pedestrian avenue. This wind and rain corridor is supported by countless equally spaced pillars, and the gaps between the pillars are the examinees' cells. At this time, a partition was added between each pillar, a bell was hung on it, a bed board was laid inside, and the examination table was near the bottom of the platform. Mei Chengan went in and felt it, and found that the space was quite spacious. The craftsman who replaced the pillars had good skills. At least from the appearance, there was no difference between golden nanmu and ordinary logs, as they were all painted. There are large black vats placed every few meters on the pedestrian avenue near the wind and rain corridor, and people are constantly pouring fresh well water into them. Well water can generally be left for about a week. After a week, the water will basically spoil. Drinking spoiled water will cause mild nausea and dry retching, or severe diarrhea, and the stomach will not be able to bear it. Therefore, filling the well with water should not be too early or too late. Filling the well with water now is enough to cover the water needs of the candidates in the next few days. In addition to the Qianbu Corridor, the area between the Outer Palace Gate and the Inner Palace Gate was also temporarily occupied, and several groups of cells were built and arranged very compactly. Mei Chengan took a quick look around and found that it was a little cramped compared to the Qianbu Corridor cells, but the space for candidates to move around was about the same size.
Mei Cheng'an stood on the three white marble arch bridges between the Imperial Palace and the Thousand-Step Gallery and looked at the Jinshui River below for a while. After being in a daze for a while, he went home, completing his check-in for today. On the eighth day of the second lunar month, Mei Cheng'an did not go to the Ministry of Rites or the Examination Hall, but went to the Longmen Bridge in accordance with the custom of celebrating the National Spring Examination. The Longmen Bridge is actually a very high wooden arch bridge. Mei Cheng'an's first reaction when he saw the bridge was that it was abnormally curved. How to describe it? It was like an ordinary bridge that was squeezed from both sides to the center, causing the bridge deck to bend at a weird angle. The inclination angles on both sides were also frighteningly high. The highest point was about six or seven meters from the ground. You know what, as I reached the highest point step by step, I really felt like a carp leaping over the dragon gate, or a mortal being turning into an immortal, and a sense of heroism emerged spontaneously. In fact, it is because the inclination angle is too high. When you climb the bridge, there is only the bridge in front of you and the steps are dense, which makes it difficult to climb up. The inclination angle changes as you go higher, and the steps become slightly wider. Especially when you reach the highest point, your view suddenly becomes wider, and it is just a natural change of your state of mind. Longmen Bridge, check-in completed. On February 9th, the Spring Examination officially began. After having breakfast, Mei Cheng'an changed into his light-colored, wide-sleeved reading outfit and headed for the examination room. He didn't plan to wear official uniform. After all, he was not a formal staff member. He was just a bystander, a person who should slip away. When they arrived at the security check area of the examination hall, the atmosphere was quite serious, with many more guards standing guard. Mei Cheng'an greeted the officials from the Ministry of Rites present and started strolling around. There were several areas separated by screens on both sides of the gate, some for checking the candidates' information, some for checking the candidates' belongings, and some for checking the students' health. The candidates had not arrived yet, so Mei Cheng'an simply turned around and returned to his seat. Yes, in addition to the main seat, the people from the Ceremonial Department also prepared a seat for him on the side. This is the benefit of being familiar with the place and having good relationships. Otherwise, there would be no place for him to sit here. It would be good enough to let him in to see. Mei Cheng sat here quietly, watching as more and more candidates gathered outside the gate, all crowded together in one place. The place was densely packed with people. These were the ones who had set out early and had already crossed the Longmen Bridge. The subsequent candidates were still rushing here in an endless stream. As soon as the morning hour arrived, the Minister of Rites who was in charge of examining the candidates stood up, straightened his clothes, said hello to Mei Cheng'an and went to the gate. The Minister of Rites spoke briefly and to the point, giving some words of encouragement and warning to the candidates, and then announced that the candidates could enter. The guards at the door only let in a small number of people at a time, and the candidates who came in were automatically divided into two teams. Since the different areas inside had clear division of labor and it was an assembly line mode, the verification speed was not slow. Even so, it took a full hour to check all the thousands of candidates. Guo Baokun came in later, probably because he was too disdainful to squeeze with those candidates. When he saw Mei Chengan, he waved to him and exchanged glances with him, which attracted a lot of attention. The most classic scene is when a candidate is found to have cheated in and is kicked out of the examination room. He then cries and begs for another chance but no one responds. In the end, he can only pack up and leave in disgrace. Mei Cheng'an couldn't understand it. This was the Spring Examination, the most important exam in the life of a Qing State student. It wasn't the first time that the examination was so strict. Why were there still so many people willing to take the risk of bringing in cheat sheets in an attempt to get away with it?
I just need to take off all your clothes, how can you hide? You should know that if you are caught cheating, not only will you fail the exam this time, you will also be unable to take exams in the future. You will be put on the blacklist and disqualified from taking exams for life. If they are older and have only a few chances to take the exam, it is understandable that they want to give it a last-ditch effort. But the irony is that those who were caught were all young candidates, while the older ones were well-behaved. Mei Chengan really has nothing to say. The takeout ones were nothing, they were purely embarrassing. The most outrageous ones were that some people hung the cheat sheets on a string and put them into their stomachs, and some people stuffed the cheat sheets into their genitals. These two kinds of things really made Mei Chengan dumbfounded and horrified. After retching for a long time, Mei Cheng'an sighed, these guys are real talents, they are all werewolves, and they have racked their brains to cheat. After all candidates have entered the examination room and the test papers have been distributed, the examination will officially begin after three bells ring. Mei Cheng'an took a quick walk around the examination room. Guo Baokun was in the middle of the Thousand-Step Corridor. He just smiled and nodded from a distance but did not go over to look in order to avoid any gossip. After returning to the rest area, he chatted with the Minister of Rites for a while, then picked up a test paper and started reading it. The Spring Examination paper is more than one level more difficult than the Boy's Examination. It is roughly divided into five parts. Classics, history books, poetry, essays, and current policy. Mei Cheng'an only glanced at the classics, history, and essays, which were not difficult. He mainly looked at the propositions of poetry and current policy. The poetry topic was quite simple, requiring candidates to write a poem describing the various natural scenery of spring. While writing poems about spring, Mei Cheng'an seemed to be lost in thought. As his memories turned, he remembered a lot. Bai Juyi's Early orioles compete for warm trees, And new swallows peck at the spring mud. Zhu Xi's "One can easily recognize the face of the east wind, and the riot of colour always brings spring." Wang Anshi's spring breeze has greened the south bank of the river again, when will the bright moon shine on me again? These poems all describe spring. He couldn't remember the first half of the last two. He did remember the poem by Bai Juyi, but that poem described the splendor of the Qiantang River in spring, so it was not appropriate to apply it to the poem. So, that's the only song left. "Does Cheng'an have any ideas?" A voice came from the side and woke Mei Cheng'an up. Mei Cheng'an looked back and found that it was the Minister of Rites who was bending over and leaning behind him with a smile on his face. Mei Chengan's voice was calm. "Master Liu, please stop making trouble. The Spring Examination is the home ground for the examinees. Why should I join in the fun?" The Minister of Rites nodded. "Yes, if you do it, I'm afraid you will steal all the limelight from the other candidates. But you can tell me secretly, and I promise not to tell anyone else before the results of the Spring Examination are announced." Mei Chengan rolled his eyes. “No idea.” The Minister of Rites chuckled.
"You said you were panicking. I came over when you started to daydream and stared at you for a long time. I saw a smile suddenly appear on the corner of your mouth as you were thinking. It was obvious that you had the answer in your heart. Just tell me, otherwise I won't be able to sleep tonight." Mei Cheng'an remained unmoved. At this moment, there was not only the Minister of Rites beside him. There were also several officials from the Ministry of Rites standing a little further away. On the surface, they were looking at the examinees' answer sheets, but in fact they were leaning sideways and stretching their ears to eavesdrop. Once he says it, it will spread throughout the Ministry of Rites in no time. "Master Liu, you misunderstood. Just now a mosquito bit the corner of my mouth, and I moved my mouth to drive it away." The Minister of Rites looked around. "Nonsense, it's only the beginning of February, where are the mosquitoes? You're trying to evade me by asking if I could be a little more careful. It's so obvious." Mei Chengan's mouth twitched. "You know I'm trying to evade you, but you're still asking, Sir Liu. Don't waste your energy. Don't ask any more questions. Asking shows you have no ideas." Seeing Mei Cheng'an's firm stance, the Minister of Rites sighed deeply. "You still don't believe in my ability to keep secrets. Well, never mind. You can always tell me after the Spring Examination results are announced." Mei Cheng'an hesitated for a moment and nodded. His main concern was not about whether he would be in the spotlight or not. He was mainly afraid that the examiners would see his poems in advance, which would easily affect their grading of the candidates. After all, there is no standard or answer for poetry, and the subjective wishes of the examiners account for a large part. Once the results are announced, it won’t matter anymore, everything is settled. After receiving a positive answer, the Minister of Rites returned to his seat with satisfaction, and Mei Cheng'an began to read the Current Policy Theory again. If we were to say what the hottest topic in Qing Dynasty last year was, it was naturally the new policy. The topic of this policy essay is also related to the new policy. The general meaning of the topic is to ask candidates to write about the significance of the implementation of a certain new policy and the specific details of its implementation. Mei Cheng'an roughly organized his thoughts on answering the question in his mind, and since he felt it was not difficult to answer, he skipped it. He put down the test paper, pinched his eyebrows, stood up, walked around the examination room, and then played yo-yo. Three days passed in a flash, and as the candidates dragged their tired bodies out of the examination room, the Spring Examination finally came to an end. Thanks to the reward from [Meng Po, have you ever drunk your own soup], thank you. (End of this chapter)