Zhang Zai's wild joy was like a beautiful dream.
But Wei Nisheng was not dreaming.
He still stood before the results board, moving his gaze away from the line "Zhang Zai, native of Xi’an Prefecture, specializing in the Book of Changes," and continuing downward.
The nineteenth line, the twentieth, the twenty-first...
He read very slowly, scanning line after line, missing not a single character.
He saw the candidate ranked twenty-eighth.
"Shen Yi, native of Guilin Prefecture, specializing in the Book of Rites."
He also saw the candidate ranked forty-fifth.
"Wei Shouzheng, native of the Capital, specializing in the Book of Documents."
He read all the way to the fiftieth line. His name was not there.
So Wei Nisheng started again from the top. Still nothing.
His hands began to grow cold.
Not from the weather, but from a chill he could not control.
Wei Nisheng stood before the board, the crowd still surging around him.
Some cheered, some sighed, some clutched their heads and wept, and some threw back their heads and laughed.
The jumbled sounds drifted past his ears as though through a thick cloth, muffled and indistinct.
From the first line to the fiftieth, then from the fiftieth back to the first.
Nothing.
Wei Nisheng, native of the Capital, specializing in the Spring and Autumn Annals.
He had silently recited those words countless times, yet he could not find them anywhere on the board.
"I can't find it..."
Wei Nisheng felt everything around him receding.
The jostling crowd and clamorous voices all ebbed away like the tide.
Only he remained, standing on a bare stretch of beach, clutching a handful of sand he could not hold.
Fu Niang stood beside him, rising onto her toes and tilting her head back, searching the board again and again.
She scanned