Examination Student

"You..." Yu Lü trembled with rage from head to toe and was about to speak when he heard the shouting continue below. "In the seventeenth year of Chengshou, Linhua County County Examination, eleventh place... Su Ziji."

After the chief clerk drank some water, he finished reading the top ten and began again. Though the posted list had five names on the upper sheet and fifteen on the lower, that was only for those striving to seize the top spot. For ordinary scholars, passing was already a good thing!

Many who had thought they would not place in the top five waited eagerly for the fifteen names on the lower list to be revealed.

Su Ziji had not expected the eleventh name called to be his own.

"Congratulations, Brother Su! Congratulations, Brother Su!"

"Brother Su, you passed! Congratulations!" Yu Lü and Zhang Sheng came to their senses, while the heart Su Ziji had been holding clenched finally dropped back into his stomach.

At least he had passed. As for what rank he had received, truthfully, Su Ziji did not care. The remaining nine names were called out one after another, and unsurprisingly, Zhang Sheng was not among them.

Su Ziji and Yu Lü offered Zhang Sheng some comfort, but Zhang Sheng took it well. "This was something I expected long ago. Don't worry, at most I'm a little disappointed—not truly saddened. You two, though: one County Examination Laureate, one eleventh place. You have to treat me to a meal in celebration."

Those who had passed in the tavern were also congratulating one another. Boss Zhang, seated in the corner, wore an ugly expression, as dark as pig liver.

"Boss..." The thugs were dumbfounded as well, exchanging hesitant looks, when one student shouted, "You petty villains, do not foul this place! Brother Su, I'll lend you one tael!"

"Brother Su, I'll lend you two taels!" Someone came to their senses, and people began generously opening their purses. Of the remaining fifteen taels of silver, twelve were gathered in no time.

There were still three taels short, but the students could not scrape any more from their persons.

"Still short three taels!" Cao Jincai's heart had nearly leapt out of his throat. He knew some of the inside story, knew Boss Zhang was not after a few taels of usurious interest—he wanted to seize this Examination Student's ancestral graveyard. And with the methods of the Taoist priests from Mount Tong Temple involved, he could not afford to botch this.

Spittle flew as he spoke. "Even those of us on the streets must follow rules. We won't take a single coin we shouldn't take, and we aren't afraid to face an official over what we should!"

"Forget merely becoming an Examination Student—even if you became a Provincial Graduate, my words would be the same!"

"Either repay the money now, or use your family graveyard to repay it. I'll count it generously and credit you thirty-six taels of silver!"

"Well? Sign the contract cleanly, and not only can you clear your debt, I'll even give you three taels so you can continue your studies and go to the prefectural city to sit for the Provincial Graduate examination."

By this point, the matter had become crystal clear. Several bystanders showed indignation and touched the purses at their waists, but Boss Zhang swept them with his gaze, and the onlookers withdrew their hands.

They were not scholars, with a scholar's dignity. If Boss Zhang set his sights on them, they would suffer for it.

Seeing silence all around, Cao Jincai laughed loudly and was about to press further when someone said, "Wait!"

"Who?" Cao Jincai felt that nothing had gone his way today and roared in anger. The man he saw was of average build but quite young. After casting a cold glance around, he turned to Su Ziji. "I am from Tao Hall and have read some books myself. Unfortunately, I never passed the examinations. Since you have become an Examination Student, may I read your essay?"

Su Ziji happened to have brought his draft. Looking over, he saw that although the young man spoke mildly, there was a faint sternness about him. Understanding dawned on him, and he smiled at once. "Please offer your guidance!"

As he spoke, he took out the draft and handed it over. The young man gave it a single glance and smiled. "Your handwriting is passable, but it is somewhat square and clean, yet constrained and rigid. Even if you wish to learn Academy Pavilion Script, it must be even, rounded, full, upright, elegant, and smoothly harmonious before you can be said to have entered the gate."

Academy Pavilion Script referred to the standard calligraphic style used in examination halls, formed by the Imperial Examinations system. It had already appeared in the previous dynasty, but since it was standard, it naturally suffered from the flaws of a thousand identical writings and stale imitation piled atop stale imitation.

Yet when carried to its utmost, uprightness gave rise to elegance, refined grace, and lustrous beauty; it could truly be called smoothly harmonious. Su Ziji had heard of this, but he was helpless as well. He was merely a poor scholar and had only been here for a few days. There was truly nothing he could do.

But after the young man said that, he accepted the manuscript, sat down, and carefully leafed through it. Cao Jincai saw this and flew into a rage, thinking that each one was more arrogant than the last. He was about to shout when Boss Zhang shot him a vicious look, forcing him to stop.

After reading for a long while, the young man handed the draft to a middle-aged man. "Your basic foundation is fairly solid, though that is nothing rare. But your essay on the classics has some real heat to it. Yet you only placed eleventh among the Examination Students. Is Linhua County's literary cultivation truly this strong?"

The middle-aged man also read it without speaking. Looking over the pages, he nodded. "The essay on the classics is indeed not bad. The five-character examination poem, however, can only be called ordinary."

Su Ziji said, "Poetry prizes talent and feeling, but my talent and feeling are lacking."

The young man burst out laughing. He felt inside his sleeve, and with a smack, tossed over a silver ingot that struck the table. Everyone looked and saw that it was a whole piece of official silver, weighing five taels, fine and deeply white at the base—ninety-eight purity patterned silver.

"Is the silver enough now?"

"Who are you? Who?" Cao Jincai asked in shock and fury.

The young man sneered. "The silver has been repaid. As for asking my name, and your dissatisfaction, you may come find me at the Chen Family Inn. Now, you have offended my eyes. Why have you not scrammed yet?"

Cao Jincai still wanted to speak, but Boss Zhang looked the young man over several times and began to sweat faintly. He rose, collected the silver, and went downstairs.

After walking a few steps downstairs, Cao Jincai, puzzled, called out, "Boss?"

Before his words had fallen, there came a smack, and Boss Zhang landed a heavy slap across his face. "Idiot, keep your eyes open—Lao Zhuang, explain it to them."

"Yes!" Lao Zhuang pulled a long face and took out the silver for everyone to see. Seeing their gloomy confusion, he said in a muffled voice, "This is official silver from Chengping Commandery. It carries a bluish sheen and is of full purity. Look at the stamp on it—this is official silver newly minted this year!"

"What is official silver? It is minted by the authorities and submitted to the national treasury, then distributed downward from the treasury. Chengping official silver was newly minted less than a month ago. Why is it already circulating?"

"And who could make it circulate?"

Lao Zhuang's nickname was Information Broker. By this point, even his lips were trembling.

"You mean... this is someone from the higher authorities?" Cao Jincai was no fool. Thinking it over, he sucked in a cold breath.

"Nine times out of ten." Boss Zhang gritted his teeth. "And a noble person entitled to use official silver."

"Then what do we do now? How do we explain this to the Taoist priests of Mount Tong Temple? They truly have magic arts—they're damned eerie." Cao Jincai said unwillingly.

In truth, the Taoist priests of Mount Tong Temple had privately promised him silver as well.

"No matter how sinister they are, are they more formidable than the authorities? Tell Mount Tong Temple that as long as those two do not leave, they can forget about us making a move." Boss Zhang swept them with a vicious glare.

These fools simply did not remember the purge in the commandery several years ago. The authorities had not even deployed iron-armored troops; merely three Patrol Inspectorates joining forces had loosed arrows like rain. In one day, the Flying Fish Gang, passed down through the jianghu for a hundred years, had vanished like smoke and scattered clouds, while the famed Eighteen Arhats had all fallen into pools of blood beneath a volleying arrow formation.

Though their gang leader Duan Sicong escaped and struck back, killing the county magistrate, he instead provoked the court's wrath. Famous constables gathered, more than a thousand garrison troops cast a net across the land, and though Duan Sicong possessed formidable martial arts and fought for three days and three nights, killing one hundred and nine men in succession, he ultimately exhausted himself to death within heaven's net and earth's snare.

Fighting the authorities? Was that not courting death?

This was no longer an age of chaos!