Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 277: A Distinctly Jiajing Touch
The metropolitan examination consisted of three sessions, each lasting three days and nights. Due to two intermissions between sessions, the actual duration was nine days and seven nights. During these nine days and seven nights, all examinees had to remain inside the examination compound until the final session was completed, after which the gates would be opened and the candidates allowed to leave.
In the first session, which consisted of seven essays in the Eight-Legged Essay format, Zhu Ping’an finished quickly on the morning of the third day and carefully copied his answers onto the answer sheet. Since the second session would not begin until the fourth day, Zhu Ping’an packed away all his draft papers and answer sheets into the answer bag, hung it on the wall, tidied up his booth, laid out the bedding, and then lay down on it and fell into a deep sleep.
At noon, Chief Examiner Xu Jie led several Assistant Examiners on another inspection of the Gongyuan. Before they even reached the row containing Zhu Ping’an’s booth, the surrounding stench made Xu Jie frown.
Still determined to fulfill his duty as chief examiner, Xu Jie covered his nose with his sleeve and pressed on. The Assistant Examiners behind him held their noses and followed.
A gust of north wind blew in, carrying the pungent stench of excrement that had accumulated in the latrines for three days. The sourness of the smell was overwhelming…
One Assistant Examiner could no longer hold it in. He retched and vomited on the spot.
But no one laughed at him, because when the wind blew past, almost everyone had come close to vomiting. Now that someone had already thrown up, others felt somewhat relieved—if they couldn’t hold it in later, at least they wouldn’t be alone.
“Assistant Examiner Wang, perhaps you should return to the Mingjing Building first,” one examiner suggested.
Assistant Examiner Wang, crouched on the ground and vomiting bile, still stretched out a hand and firmly shook his head, insisting on continuing the inspection.
Once Assistant Examiner Wang had finished vomiting, Xu Jie led the group onward.
As they neared the end of the row, a rhythmic snoring sound came from one of the booths ahead.
A few more steps forward, and they saw a young man sleeping soundly in the booth, covered with a thick rabbit-fur blanket, snoring with steady rhythm.
Sleeping so soundly next to the latrine! Even we couldn’t bear it from a distance, and Assistant Examiner Wang just vomited a moment ago—yet this boy, right next to the source of the smell, right in the line of fire, was sleeping like a baby!
Everyone was stunned. Looking again, hmm, the nameplate of this booth seemed familiar. Oh! Isn’t this the same latrine boy who cooked a pot of noodles and ate loudly on the first day?!
So this boy not only eats heartily, he sleeps soundly too!
But… while he eats and sleeps well, it seems he doesn’t answer the questions. The first time they saw him, he was eating noodles. Now they saw him again, he was fast asleep. Looking around his booth, the answer bag hanging on the wall was neat and seemed untouched—as if it had been packed as-is when the exam paper was distributed.
What a pity.
If only that examinee who fainted from vomiting yesterday had this boy’s endurance, how great that would have been! The examiners sighed, thinking of the other candidate who had vomited and collapsed.
One can endure but cannot write.
The other can write but cannot endure.
Truly a pity—and truly frustrating.
Of course, the pitiful one was the examinee who fainted from vomiting. The frustrating one, naturally, was Zhu Ping’an with his rhythmic snoring.
Zhu Ping’an slept through the afternoon until the proctor came to collect the papers for the first session. Awoken by a soldier-proctor, Zhu Ping’an got up and handed in his exam to a disdainful examiner. This examiner had also participated in the noon inspection with Xu Jie and had seen Zhu Ping’an sleeping then. Now, nearly dusk and paper collection time, the boy was still asleep—clearly, he hadn’t written a thing.
Contempt!
After sealing the exam paper, the examiner gave Zhu Ping’an another look of contempt, pinched his nose, and walked away.
Outside, the rain was still falling in a light drizzle. After handing in his paper, Zhu Ping’an, wrapped in a thick rabbit-fur garment, took out some preserved fruits and dried meat from his bundle. He roasted them over the charcoal brazier, had his dinner, and then went back to sleep.
The next morning, a little after five, Zhu Ping’an woke up again. After washing up, he roasted some more dried meat over the charcoal fire and stuffed himself full. After drinking some hot water, he began waiting for the distribution of the second session’s exam paper.
By precedent, the second session, like that of the provincial examination, tested practical official writing. It covered official correspondence and judicial judgments: one discursive essay, five judgments, and one each of a zhao edict, gao proclamation, and biao memorial.
Around 7 to 8 a.m., the exam papers were handed out.
After receiving the paper, Zhu Ping’an glanced at the questions. At first, he froze, then couldn’t help but chuckle.
Of course, at the same time that Zhu Ping’an was laughing, many examinees were cursing inwardly as they looked at the exam paper.
The reason was the second session’s questions. The total workload was about the same as in previous years, but the mix had changed: one discursive essay, four judgments instead of five, one zhao edict, one gao proclamation, one biao memorial—and a newly added Qingci, a Daoist ritual petition.
In other words, one judicial judgment had been removed and replaced with a Qingci.
That gave the second session a distinctly Jiajing flavor. Qingci were emblematic of Emperor Jiajing’s reign; he was famously obsessed with these Daoist ritual petitions.
The change in the exam was unlikely to have been made by Xu Jie or his colleagues. Even with ten times their courage, they wouldn’t dare. Although Emperor Jiajing was obsessed with alchemy and Taoist practices, he had near-genius understanding and control over political power. He kept his ministers tightly in check—any one of them, even a powerful one like Yan Song, could be crushed to dust by the emperor with just a word.
Emperor Jiajing was the absolute ruler of the Ming Empire.
Moreover, due to his devotion to alchemy and high intellect, Emperor Jiajing seemed enigmatic and unfathomable. His ministers were all terrified and respectful before him. Who would dare to take liberties with an exam that determined the fate of the nation? No one had enough heads to lose!
As for Xu Jie, historically speaking, he had just been set up by Yan Song during this period and was currently being sidelined by Emperor Jiajing. He definitely wouldn’t dare make such a controversial change in the exam.
So the only plausible source of such a change was Emperor Jiajing himself. This was, after all, a special metropolitan examination granted by imperial favor, so it was entirely possible that the Emperor had personally altered the questions.
Truly, Emperor Jiajing was Emperor Jiajing.
Under Jiajing emerged the famous “Qingci Grand Secretary” Yan Song—and now even the metropolitan examination contained a Qingci question.
But this was good news for Zhu Ping’an. From his earlier reading of history, he knew a great deal about Emperor Jiajing. After receiving the Qingci Manual for Zhaijiao Rituals from the old Daoist—possibly Lan Daoxing—he had studied Qingci in depth. He was not a master, but for an examination candidate his skill was more than sufficient to stand out. He had once wondered when that knowledge might ever prove useful.
Now he had the opportunity—thank you very much.
His confidence in passing had now risen to ninety-nine percent. The first session carried the greatest weight, and he had done well. Now the specially added Qingci question touched directly on the Emperor’s interests, so it would surely draw attention. Qingci happened to be one of Zhu Ping’an’s strengths.
Zhu Ping’an looked at the exam paper and curled his lips into a smile.