Autumn Examination Ends, Examination Hall's Mystery Remains

Lin Shou returned to the Corpse-Stitching Shop.

He had already witnessed the effects of the Ruler of Preaching and Teaching. It had taught the big black dog a set of regular script and a collection of three hundred Tang poems.

With the power of sudden enlightenment, even a dog could learn it—nothing to be arrogant about.

It could naturally teach humans as well, from knowledge like Tang and Song poetry to arts like the Beast-Making Art, the Human-Substitution Art, and even the Classic of Burial or the Classic of Haoran Qi—anything knowledge-based could be taught, though the limitations were considerable.

The Ruler of Preaching and Teaching required literary talent to impart knowledge.

As the saying goes, if your learning is insufficient, don't mislead others.

Lin Shou currently had seven wen of literary talent, enough only to teach simple little knowledge like Tang and Song poetry or calligraphy. Complex arts like the Beast-Making Art were far beyond his reach, let alone the Classic of Burial.

Lin Shou figured he wouldn't have much use for it anytime soon anyway. He wasn't a teacher, nor did he have students. It was only good for training small animals like that big black dog for fun.

When he came back earlier, he saw two young gentlemen fawning over the big black dog, likely having discovered this divine canine that could compose poetry and write characters.

Lin Shou had used the Ruler of Preaching and Teaching once, and had bestowed a stroke of fortune upon the big black dog.

He had given it three hundred Tang poems, the entire treasure of Tang dynasty poetry and culture. What fate awaited this big black dog from now on was worth watching.

In the following days, Lin Shou continued to solo the Autumn Examination dungeon, stitching corpses and opening boxes every night, never tiring of it.

His literary talent in the Temple of Literature shot up steadily, until the last day of the Autumn Examination, when he had fifteen wen of literary talent.

However, besides Confucian classics, he had also opened a Legalist classic and an Eclectic classic.

After reading these two, Lin Shou could sense literary talent within them, but he couldn't incorporate them into his Temple of Literature for his own use, because the Classic of Haoran Qi he cultivated was based on Confucian theory, with Confucian thought as its foundation, and couldn't accommodate other schools of thought.

Still, Lin Shou didn't mind. The Great Jing Dynasty revered Confucianism as the foremost doctrine, and the imperial examinations' Four Books and Five Classics were all rooted in Confucianism, with the widest reach and the most texts. If he had to choose one school among the Hundred Schools of Thought to build his Temple of Literature around, Confucianism was definitely the most suitable.

Of course, if there was ever a possibility to accommodate all the various schools of thought in the future, that would be even better.

After several days of corpse-stitching during the Autumn Examination, besides the improvement in his Temple of Literature's literary talent, he had also obtained some small trinkets powered by literary qi, like some stationery and some calligraphy techniques.

Additionally, he had watched quite a few Lanterns of Life, witnessing the bitterness of small-town exam grinders under the scourge of the imperial examinations.

Those who went mad, turned foolish, fell ill, became depressed, ruined their families from studying, let their fields go to waste, or had their wives run off with other men—these were probably the necessary sacrifices under a flawed system.

Leaving these lamentable matters aside, Lin Shou did discover one strange thing in the Lanterns of Life of many corpses.

Every night in the Examination Hall, a "person" would wander around looking at the examinees' papers, then leave a few comments—either "mediocre talent" or "can pass," things like that.

Lin Shou initially thought it was an examiner making rounds, but after seeing it several times in the Lanterns of Life, he noticed the "person" wore shabby, plain clothes, not official robes—definitely not an examiner.

An examinee? Examinees entered their small cubicles and were absolutely forbidden to come out. Leaving would result in immediate disqualification and expulsion from the Examination Hall. How could an examinee wander around at night for so many days?

Moreover, most of the deceased Lin Shou stitched who had encountered this "person" either suddenly went mad or committed suicide after hearing its comments.

Could there really be a ghost in this Examination Hall?

Lin Shou looked at the Examination Hall before him. The statue of the Master at the entrance had been replaced with a new one, and three banners for summoning gods and souls fluttered in the wind. Though it was broad daylight, there was an indescribable gloom and eeriness.

Did ghosts really exist in this world?

Lin Shou had pondered this question more than once. This world was filled with strangeness, and tales of ghosts and gods were common.

But he had never actually seen a ghost.

Today was the last day of the Autumn Examination.

After the daytime exam, the examinees would leave, and the Examination Hall would close. There would be no corpses today.

This year's Autumn Examination was unprecedented—not a single corpse-stitcher had died, because Lin Shou had taken on all the corpses. Except for the three bodies on the first day, the other corpse-stitchers hadn't received any corpses for nine days.

The other corpse-stitchers were initially puzzled, waiting several nights without any bodies being delivered. Later, when they asked the clerks at the Bureau of Corpse Management, they learned that Little Nine had taken on all the "dangerous" corpse-stitching work. This moved the old corpse-stitchers deeply.

Seventh Master and Eighth Master, who usually looked after Lin Shou the most, scolded him for being foolish. A kid so young, risking his life for old fogeys like them! They were old, dying wouldn't matter much, but Lin Shou was still so young. If something happened to him because he was stitching corpses for them, wouldn't that be a terrible loss!

Lin Shou couldn't explain, so he just helplessly spread his hands and muttered to himself, This solo run of the Autumn Examination dungeon, I really came out ahead...

Still, Lin Shou had his doubts.

Every year, corpse-stitchers died during the Autumn Examination, so the bodies should have been problematic. But why hadn't he encountered a single incident?

Was it because his righteous qi was too strong, keeping evil at bay? Or was it, as the Bureau of Corpse Management's registrar said, his fate as a Heavenly Sha Lone Star?

Lin Shou had hoped that through the Lanterns of Life, he might discover the reason for the annual deaths in the Examination Hall, but he hadn't.

After several days, aside from that "Sharp-Tongued Examiner" in the Examination Hall who might be human or ghost, the corpses Lin Shou stitched all seemed normal from their Lanterns of Life. Though there were many accidents, each death had a clear cause, with no unscientific methods of dying. At most, it was just too much coincidence, a cluster of incidents.

The only corpse Lin Shou thought might be truly sinister was the one from the first night—the pile of minced entrails in a basin.

Unfortunately, that corpse had appeared too early, and he hadn't gotten it. He only secured the exclusive corpse-stitching business for the Autumn Examination later, so that body had already been sent to No. 1 Shop. Naturally, he never got a chance to see that corpse's Lantern of Life.

Tch, eerie.

That was all Lin Shou could say. The secret of the deaths in the Examination Hall remained elusive, even with his ability to see the dead's Lanterns of Life.

If he wanted to investigate further, he'd have to wait three years for the next Autumn Examination.

Lin Shou sat at the cold tea stall outside the Examination Hall, watching the last examinee leave the venue as the hall closed.

He shook his head. He had sat here all day, watching the faces of every examinee as they came out, until everyone had left and the hall was shut. He still hadn't seen that "Sharp-Tongued Examiner" from the Lanterns of Life.

Lin Shou stood up and left. The strangeness of this Examination Hall remained a mystery. He would come back to investigate in three years.

The Autumn Examination ended.

The Bureau of Corpse Management submitted this year's Autumn Examination performance report to their superiors. Sun Xianfu, the Director of the Bureau, was quite surprised to hear that not a single corpse stitcher had died this time.

Later, when the registrar told him it was Lin Shou from No. 9 Corpse-Stitching Shop who had taken on all the stitching work, handling nearly every corpse from the nine days of the Autumn Examination alone and surviving, he couldn't help but sigh in admiration—bold courage, a fortunate fate.

At the same time, the name Lin Shou stuck in Sun Xianfu's mind. In the past, they only remembered corpse stitchers by their numbers. This was the first time since Sun Xianfu became Director of the Bureau of Corpse Management that he had remembered a corpse stitcher's name.

As for Lin Shou, he returned to his daily routine—reciting the Classic of Burial, cultivating feng shui, running funeral services to bury the dead, studying to nurture the Temple of Literature, occasionally visiting a teahouse to listen to storytelling, and finding time to drink with a few friends.

Thus passed some days, until one day, a corpse was delivered to the stitching shop.

This corpse was connected to the leprosy outbreak from a few days prior. At the time, many leprosy patients had been rounded up and isolated in the Six Afflictions Pavilion. The Imperial Medical Academy seemed to be developing some treatment, purchasing large quantities of snake gallbladder from the public at no small price.

This, in turn, drove many people to catch snakes on An Mountain near the Capital City. The deceased had been one of that snake-catching crowd.

His elderly mother brought him in. Lin Shou initially assumed he had been bitten to death by a snake, but when he lifted the straw mat, he immediately knew something was wrong—how could this be a snake bite?

Both of the deceased's eye sockets were hollow and empty—his eyeballs were gone.

The corpse felt off in weight. After asking the family, Lin Shou opened the chest cavity and found the entire body empty inside. The old mother collapsed to her knees, wailing.

"There are demons and monsters on An Mountain! My poor son went up the mountain to catch snakes and was devoured clean by them!"