Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 271: Waiting in Line for the Examination
Xu Jie was feeling a bit unsettled.
Just yesterday morning, he had been appointed by His Majesty to preside over the metropolitan examination. On his way out of the palace, he ran into Yan Song and even took the opportunity to provoke that old scoundrel a bit. Just as he was feeling like he was on the verge of rising to prominence, the very next day, he was suddenly summoned back to the palace for no apparent reason, only to be harshly scolded in a confusing and cryptic tirade by the Jiajing Emperor.
Xu Jie was a clever man. He kept his head lowered and listened to the emperor—dressed in Taoist robes and ruler of the empire—berate him, all the while his mind was racing.
The very first moment, Xu Jie immediately concluded that it was the doing of that old thief Yan Song. There was no need to think twice. Besides him, there was no one else who could have done it.
Then Xu Jie realized a hard truth: his strong thigh wasn’t even a match for Yan Song’s little finger.
No matter. After all, his idol was Goujian.
So, from now on, he would become Goujian. The only question was whether Yan Song was ready to be Fuchai.
Besides, things weren’t all bad. Although he had fallen out of favor with the emperor, the imperial edict appointing him to oversee the examination had not been withdrawn. Surely the emperor would not go back on his word—after all, imperial words were not meant as jokes. This was good; he still had a chance to turn things around.
Neglected by the emperor and shunned by his colleagues, Xu Jie swore to do his utmost in supervising this metropolitan examination.
Time flies like a wave washing away the shore; a moment gone is a moment lost.
Life between heaven and earth is like a white colt flashing past a crack—it’s gone in a blink.
In the blink of an eye, the day of the nationwide metropolitan examination had arrived.
The format of the metropolitan exam was quite similar to that of the provincial exam, also divided into three sessions, each lasting three days. The first session started on the ninth day of the month, the second on the twelfth, and the third on the fifteenth. Examinees entered the venue a day before and left the day after each session. The test subjects were nothing more than Eight-legged Essays and policy questions.
The examination was held at the Shuntian Gongyuan, southeast of the capital.
Zhu Ping’an had already received his exam pass two days earlier. This was issued by the Ministry of Rites based on the registration information. It contained personal details, much like a modern exam admission ticket.
Zhang Siwei and Wang Shizhen’s families had arrived several days earlier and had been taking great care of them with delicious food and drink, so they could concentrate fully on the exam. Naturally, their families also accompanied them to the examination hall, leaving them with no time to look after Zhu Ping’an.
Zhu Ping’an had finished washing at the chou hour and, alone with his specially prepared examination bag, set off for the metropolitan examination.
Just as Zhu Ping’an left his inn with his exam gear, three large boats arrived at Liaocheng, within the borders of Shandong.
A stunningly beautiful young lady, accompanied by a chubby-faced maid, guards, and an older nanny, went to the banks of the river to visit the tomb of Cao Zhi. There, she burned incense and knelt in worship. While murmuring something about a toad, the beautiful lady donated a large sum of money and asked the presiding monk for a talisman that would grant her inspiration.
As the beautiful young lady silently made a wish toward the capital and carefully stored the talisman for a flood of literary inspiration close to her body, Zhu Ping’an had already reached the gates of the Shuntian Gongyuan with his bag.
At that moment, the area in front of the Shuntian Gongyuan was a sea of people. Although the authorities had prepared plenty of manpower, the scene was still somewhat chaotic.
The Shuntian Gongyuan stood inside Chongwen Gate, in the southeastern part of the capital. Juren from across the empire had gathered there for the metropolitan examination. According to the Ministry of Rites, this special metropolitan examination drew 5,121 candidates from Southern and Northern Zhili and the thirteen provinces of the Ming.
All 5,121 candidates were juren, and most had three to five attendants looking after their daily needs so they could concentrate on the examination. Altogether, nearly twenty thousand people had gathered there. Although soldiers and yamen runners had erected barriers allowing only juren candidates inside, more than ten thousand people still waited outside to see them off.
Zhu Ping’an had been staying some distance from the Shuntian Gongyuan, so by the time he arrived, this overwhelming crowd was what greeted him.
After struggling for a while, Zhu Ping’an finally squeezed his way to the front of the barricade. The official at the outer gate verified his identity and allowed him inside to queue for the exam.
The candidates were divided into fifteen large groups according to their home jurisdictions: Southern Zhili, Northern Zhili, and the thirteen provinces. After asking a yamen runner for directions, Zhu Ping’an joined the line for Southern Zhili.
Due to the large number of examinees and the unfamiliar faces, Zhu Ping’an didn’t spot anyone he knew right away.
All the juren present had already gone through county, prefectural, academy, and provincial exams, so they were very familiar with procedures like lining up. Everyone queued calmly and orderly, waiting for the exam.
However, there were always exceptions.
While waiting in line, Zhu Ping’an noticed a peculiar character.
In a line from a neighboring province, there was a rather fat man who reminded Zhu Ping’an of the last chubby nobleman he had seen riding through the crowd when he first entered the capital.
This peculiar fat man was truly a rare flower. Ever since queuing began, he had been kissing every item he carried—all of them, one by one—loudly and exaggeratedly.
For example, at that very moment, this fat man was hugging his inkstone and smooching it furiously, “smack smack smack,” before putting it into his exam box. Then he pulled out a carved brush and started another round of intense smooching…
Although it was currently Southern Zhili’s turn to enter, the fat man’s behavior still drew the attention of nearly every candidate nearby. They all stared at him as if he were an idiot.
“Uh… is this guy brain-dead? Why is he kissing everything he touches?”
“He’s probably so nervous about the exam that he’s lost his mind. What a pity. It’s no small feat to get this far. What a waste.”
“He’s probably some specially privileged son of a meritorious family—admitted to the National University through hereditary privilege and exceptionally allowed to sit the metropolitan examination. But how did someone like this receive such a privilege? What a waste of a place.”
For a while, everyone around discussed the fat man’s strange and perverted behavior, pointing and whispering. They were baffled and even scornful, feeling it was shameful to share the exam with someone like him.
But the fat man was utterly oblivious to their judgment. He continued smooching his belongings without a care in the world.
Finally, a refined-looking juren standing behind him couldn’t hold back anymore. Blushing with curiosity, confusion, and frustration, he asked the smooching fat man:
“Brother, may I ask—what on earth are you doing?”
He simply couldn’t understand it and couldn’t endure the fat man’s perverse behavior any longer.
Upon hearing the question, the fat man stopped his smooching, put down a bag of snacks, wiped his greasy hands on his clothes, and replied mysteriously:
“This is called wěn guò—‘kissed through.’ It sounds exactly like wěn guò, ‘sure to pass.’”
Kissed through?! Sure to pass?!
Oh, come on, big guy. I’ve read plenty of books—don’t try to fool me!