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"Silver notes or silver ingots—which will you pick up?"

"...I... I, a man of dignity, how could I casually stoop to pick up another person's money! This is completely contrary to the teachings of the sages. The sages say..."

"The sages? Hmph." A disdainful cold snort. Lord Li the Chief Examiner lifted his hand, his gaze never leaving the roster. "That'll do. You may leave. Next."

A red slash marked through the examinee's name in the hall, eliminating yet another candidate.

The same question continued, yet not a single one of the book-learned fellows outside the door managed to pass smoothly.

"Silver ingots, silver notes—which one do you pick up?"

"Naturally, the ten-liang silver note!"

"..."Next."

"..."

"Silver ingots, silver notes—which one do you pick up?"

"The five-liang silver ingot!"

"Next."

"Silver—"

"Next!"

What silver this, silver that? These were the "talents" polished under paper, brushes, ink, and inkstones, refined through layer upon layer of examinations, and stuffed full of classical learning? Li Chenjing shook his head, dropped the thick roster, took a light sip of clear tea, stood up, walked over to the door of the examination room, leaned sideways against the doorframe, and through the crack in the door secretly sized up the examinees who were thrown into chaos by his eccentric test question.

"Just what kind of question is that Li Chenjing asking anyway? What does it have to do with governing a country or brilliant military formations? I reckon he just has weird quirks and is deliberately making things difficult for us!"

"I'd long heard that the Prime Minister's son resented talent and loved making things difficult for academy students back at Dongxu Mansion. Seeing him today, it really is true!"

"I hear that although he holds the position of chief student at Dongxu Mansion, he can never win the emperor's regard and personal appointment. He spent several years at Dongxu Mansion without being personally appointed to an official post by the emperor, while students who entered the academy after him have already become court officials. He's still stuck in the same place, bearing the emperor's cold shoulder. He must be jealous of us latecomers who are about to be appointed as officials because of this!"

"Ha! If he resents talent, why doesn't he petition the emperor himself? Isn't the new Qingzhou Warden being recruited this year? Since he doesn't enjoy the emperor's favor anyway, he might as well go to some tiny, remote place far from the emperor to serve as a petty warden, satisfying his craving for officialdom—wouldn't that be even better?"

"That Qingzhou is a place for banishing and exiling officials. If you go to a wretched place like that, what official career is left to speak of? You even have to enter a prison cell. Supposedly it's for managing prisoners, but aren't you locked up in the cell yourself? Even a fool wouldn't petition to go there!"

"Hard to say. If we fail to answer his ghost of a question, who goes to Qingzhou to be a prison inmate is anyone's guess! It might just be the few of us brothers getting kicked off to that impoverished rural backwater by a single stroke of his grand brush!"

"Um... several seniors..." A faint voice drifted from the corner, completely failing to catch the attention of the several examinees who were discussing with great relish, "Might I have a word? This scholar... seems to know the answer to Lord Li's question."

"What?!"

Upon hearing these words, several examinees all whipped their heads around. Even Li Chenjing, leaning against the doorframe, raised a brow and looked toward that inconspicuous man—man-child?—huddled in the corner.

He was not tall, thin and small, clad in a long robe that nearly dragged on the floor, his ten fingers intertwined into delicate little knots, standing awkwardly on the spot like a young woman, possessing zero presence squeezed among the multitude of examinees. His facial features were blocked by others making them impossible to see, yet an indescribable sense of familiarity welled up.

His little frame could barely stand steadily, yet he claimed to know the answer to his question? Hmph, interesting.

"What is the answer? Let's hear it, then."

"That's right! Silver notes and silver ingots—which one are you going to pick up?"

Scratching his head, he looked somewhat conflicted. "If it were me, seeing silver notes and silver ingots, I'd definitely pick up both. It's free money, so why not take it? Besides, nobody stipulated that picking up money off the ground means you can only choose one."

"..." T-two of them? Is that allowed?

"Wouldn't a normal person pick up both?"

"..." Hey, who are you calling abnormal?

"Heh." A soft chuckle escaped from the throat, and Li Chenjing nodded slightly, lifting a brow as he looked at the man-child outside the door.

Good lad, well scolded.

Those blockheads who had studied themselves stupid were indeed not quite normal, knowing only how to mechanically recite texts and chant scriptures, picking up the leftovers of others' words without understanding how to adapt to circumstances and integrate knowledge. What difference was there between them and fake monks chanting scriptures without comprehending the Dao?

Glancing sideways, he wanted to see what sort of person that little imp who had seen through his intentions was, yet the little imp had disappeared into the crowd of people at some point, and searching everywhere failed to yield a trace of his shadow.

Never mind. He had to be one of the examinees; otherwise, he wouldn't have appeared here. He would certainly see that brat's true face later.

This brat was raw material for molding; what kind of even more tricky question should he think of to test him?

Pondering, Li Chenjing walked out of the examination room through the side door, walking with furrowed brows toward the small dark room at the end of the corridor—the outhouse.

Raising a hand to push open the door, his black boot lifted to step across the threshold before a "thud" kicked against some object huddled near the door. Lowering his gaze accordingly, he saw a short, furtively crouching figure trembling with its back turned to him. That very set of garments belonged to the little examinee who had just cracked his difficult question.

"Who, who, who is it?! Can't you see someone is relieving themselves inside? Why are you casually pushing the door open? If you need to pee, can't you wait in line?"

"You're relieving yourself?"

"Y-yes, I am!! Although the doctrines of Confucius and Mencius don't explicitly stipulate it, peeing and such things should also be done in line! As a man of letters, don't you understand first-come-first-served, or Kong Rong yielding pears? Out, out, out!"

What did this have to do with the doctrines of Confucius and Mencius, or Kong Rong yielding pears? However, that was not the point; the point was...

"You like to squat while relieving yourself?"

"..."

"A man squats to relieve himself?" Having a bit of cleverness was a good thing, but if this little scholar harbored any unspeakable weird quirks, as the Chief Examiner he would never stoop to accommodate them. Dongxu Mansion was not a place where men with peculiar habits could pass themselves off as ordinary.

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