Chen Jin was a veteran invigilator, and he had seen plenty of students arrive late in the middle of an exam. Most of those students came from wealthy families with powerful connections, but they were hopelessly uneducated—the sort who muddled through life waiting to die.
They entered the examination hall only after their families begged or forced them to, then took a test paper and endured each exam until it ended.
For those students, exams were torture. For Chen Jin, watching them take the exams was torture too.
He simply could not understand it. If they could not answer the questions, why come all this way to waste their time?
Did they really fantasize that their minds would suddenly open wide, or that the examiner's brain had short-circuited and they would ask nothing but simple, childish questions that even people with their level of intelligence could answer easily?
In Chen Jin's eyes, Li Mu Yang was exactly the sort of student who had given up on himself but had no choice except to come.
Sure enough, after taking his paper and walking to his seat, he immediately began staring blankly into space.
"Mm, he's started fiddling with his brushes and ink—exactly like those students from before—"
"Spinning his brush—heh heh, he'd better not have hidden a cheat sheet inside the handle. I won't go easy on him if he has—"
"Oh? He's started answering the questions—"
......
Soon, the mocking smile on Chen Jin's face slowly vanished.
He had discovered something strange. Ever since Li Mu Yang sat down and began answering the questions, his arm had not stopped moving.
He did not look around like the other examinees. Even less did he pretend to answer while his brush moved in empty motions, his eyes constantly sneaking glances at Chen Jin in search of a chance to cheat.
Whenever he raised his head, it was only to stretch his muscles and bones.
Even when the tip of his brush paused, he looked as though he were deep in thought.
He really was answering the questions, and he was doing so smoothly.
Chen Jin grew intensely curious about this student. Had he misunderstood him?
He decided to investigate personally and see whether he had held some mistaken impression of Li Mu Yang.
To keep his purpose from looking too obvious, Chen Jin began inspecting the room from the right. When the invigilator came down, every student buried their heads even lower and tried desperately to look righteous and fearless, as if to say, I'm not cheating.
Chen Jin circled from the right to the left, then slowed to a stop behind Li Mu Yang.
"Mm, his handwriting is pretty good, and he's already done quite a few questions—"
That was Chen Jin's first impression of Li Mu Yang.
Very soon, he discovered something strange.
Li Mu Yang had made no mistakes. Every question he had answered was correct.
At least, after carefully checking his work, Chen Jin had not found a single error. Every question had been answered perfectly.
It was not the kind of perfection that came from memorizing the standard answers. It was genuine comprehension, followed by an answer organized and summarized in his own words.
Chen Jin was astonished. To accomplish this—to deal with every question like Cook Ding carving an ox—was something only the very best students in the school could do.
"How could he be late?" Chen Jin's favorable impression of Li Mu Yang rose sharply, though he could not help wondering. "How could a good student be late too? I hope he still has enough time."
"Mm—what's going on?" Chen Jin saw Li Mu Yang stop writing.
He followed the direction of Li Mu Yang's brush. The question was not actually difficult, merely rather obscure, and its wording was highly misleading.
"How can he not answer a question like this?" Chen Jin felt a little regretful. "Think carefully, think carefully. You should be able to find the pattern—"
"Huh? This kid actually gave up—he jumped straight to the next question and started answering it. What an impatient fellow. Still, what he did was correct. After all, he arrived far too late and had already wasted far more time than the other students—"
Chen Jin sighed faintly, then walked toward the lectern.
After taking a few steps, he could not help turning back.
Chen Jin stopped beside Li Mu Yang, extended one finger, and tapped the question he had skipped, then coughed lightly twice.
Li Mu Yang looked up. Chen Jin regarded him expressionlessly.
After thinking for a moment, Li Mu Yang understood at once. He looked over the question again, then wrote down the answer with a face full of delight.
Chen Jin turned and left, cursing his own breach of regulations inwardly. "Damn Virgo."
Fortunately, Li Mu Yang did not encounter too many difficulties.
When he finished answering the final major question, the bell signaling the end of the exam rang at exactly that moment.
He had no time to check his answers.
But Cui Xiaoxin had already told him that anything he could answer would more or less be a standard answer. Since he had spent little time studying, he either did not know something or, if he knew it, he knew the correct answer. Questions containing traps and misleading cues actually could not stump him.
Li Mu Yang checked his name and other identifying information once more, then sat where he was and waited for the invigilators to collect the papers.
When Chen Jin reached Li Mu Yang, he gave him a thoughtful look, collected his paper, and moved on to the next student.
When Li Mu Yang left the classroom, the students from all the examination halls had gathered in the academy's large courtyard.
"Li Mu Yang—" Cui Xiaoxin stood prettily behind him in a white dress, a dragonfly hairpin rising from her long hair. In a sweet voice, she asked, "How did it go?"
"I think it went all right. I answered every question." Li Mu Yang nodded at Cui Xiaoxin. "I arrived late, so I didn't have time to check. I hope I didn't get too many wrong."
"You arrived late?" Cui Xiaoxin was snow-bright and clever. She instantly caught the flaw in his words. "Did something happen?"
"It's nothing." Li Mu Yang shook his head. He did not want to tell Cui Xiaoxin that Killer Crow had changed targets and gone to his home to seek revenge. That would only make her worry about him. The problem had already been resolved, so why add to someone else's troubles?
Cui Xiaoxin saw the worry in Li Mu Yang's eyes and knew he was concerned about something. But since he did not bring it up, she could not press him too closely. "If you need any help, don't hesitate to ask me—"
"I won't stand on ceremony with you." Li Mu Yang nodded with a smile.
"Mm. Then keep working hard." Cui Xiaoxin raised a fist toward Li Mu Yang and made an encouraging gesture.
"You too." Li Mu Yang smiled. "I know you're formidable. There shouldn't be any question that can stump you—so let's meet beside Weiming Lake."
"We definitely will." Cui Xiaoxin's voice was firm.
After resting for half an hour, the second exam began.
Li Mu Yang and Cui Xiaoxin were not in the same examination hall. After encouraging each other, they parted once more and fought for their futures.
......
After finishing the two subjects, Li Mu Yang ignored everyone and ran straight toward home.
Cui Xiaoxin had handed in her paper early. She had originally wanted to pull Li Mu Yang along to eat lunch near the examination hall, since many students did not go home at noon and instead ate something good nearby.
She sat beneath a smoke-basket tree in a corner of the academy grounds, reading a novel. When she saw Li Mu Yang come out of the examination hall, she was just about to call his name when she found him running straight past without even turning his eyes.
Cui Xiaoxin looked puzzled, closed her book, and walked outside.
Ning Xin Hai appeared behind Cui Xiaoxin and said respectfully, "Miss, the carriage is up ahead. Shall we return?"
"Let's go back," Cui Xiaoxin said.
"Yes, Miss." Ning Xin Hai acknowledged her.
The carriage traveled a long way, yet Cui Xiaoxin was still thinking about the worry in Li Mu Yang's eyes—and the way he had tried to conceal it.
"Uncle Ning—" Cui Xiaoxin suddenly spoke. "Go to Hubu Lane."
"Yes, Miss." Ning Xin Hai remained expressionless and ordered the coachman to turn around.
Li Mu Yang pushed open the courtyard gate and ran straight toward the main hall. When he saw Yan Xiangma sitting there with a pale face and a weak body, groaning incessantly, he was badly startled. "Were you attacked by another assassin?"
If it had not been an assassin, then how had Yan Xiangma—who had still been lively and energetic when Li Mu Yang left, the same Yan Xiangma who could slice a green-gold tabletop into pieces with a fan—ended up looking like this?
"It's far more terrifying than an assassin's attack—" Yan Xiangma said weakly. "I drank a bowl of medicine."
Li Mu Yang went straight to Li Sinian, took her pulse, and asked, "How do you feel?"
"Much better." Li Sinian looked at Yan Xiangma with a grin. "This idiot drank a bowl of laxative all by himself—"
"How many times do I have to explain it? It wasn't laxative. It was an antidote—" Yan Xiangma was nearly frantic. He looked at Li Mu Yang. "You judge for yourself. They were poisoned by Smoke Barrier Poison, so out of the goodness of my heart, I had someone brew a packet of medicine to detoxify them. But then they suspected I had ulterior motives and might have poisoned the medicine to harm them. Am I that kind of person? To prove that I hadn't drugged it, I drank the whole bowl myself—"
After checking his parents' condition, Li Mu Yang finally let his heart settle completely. A relieved smile, rare on his face, appeared.
Even during the exams, he had been worrying constantly about the safety of his parents and younger sister. Now the exams were over, and his family was healthy. Nothing could have made him happier.
Li Mu Yang walked over to Yan Xiangma and watched him explain himself until his voice went hoarse. "And then the poison knocked you down?"
"I told you, it isn't poison! It's a laxative—a laxative for purging the toxins. Do you understand what detoxification means?" Yan Xiangma had originally thought Li Mu Yang would understand him. He had not expected Li Mu Yang to suspect him of poisoning the medicine too.
Yan Xiangma was now close to tears. If he had known this would happen, why had he gone looking for trouble and put on this thankless farce in the first place?
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