The provincial graduate's hometown was Fujian. In the twenty-seventh year of Qianlong's reign, Ji Yun, Ji Xiaolan, had once served as education commissioner in Fujian. Aside from the governor-general and provincial governor, he was the highest official in charge of education, ranked alongside the surveillance commissioner. The post was usually held by a capital official from the Hanlin Academy. By that reckoning, the provincial graduate could be considered Ji Yun's student.
But this "teacher" could barely look after himself. In the thirty-third year of Qianlong's reign, he was exiled to Xinjiang because of the Two Huai Salt License Case. Even if he had been there, he could not have done much for Fujian's students. During the Qianlong era, the top three palace examination ranks were practically monopolized by candidates from Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The last Fujian native to place second, Lin Zhichun, had done so in the second year of Qianlong's reign. It seemed that no Fujian native had ever become top scholar during the Kangxi–Qianlong Prosperity.
The Fujian examination compound had one special feature: it also admitted students from Taiwan. Whenever Fujian held its provincial examination, thousands of sails crossed the sea. They usually packed their bags and departed before Minor Heat, only returning home after the results were posted in September, whether in delight or disappointment.
During the three or four months spent preparing for the examination and waiting afterward, making friends, seeking teachers, touring mountains and waters, and composing poetry and prose had become a local custom among candidates. That was why the provincial graduate had gone to the capital months early to prepare.
In the Wuzi year, the thirty-third year of Qianlong's reign, there was a provincial graduate named Lin Yuhua. In the forty-fifth year of Qianlong's reign, a severe drought struck. While serving as educational