On the morning of the eighteenth day of the seventh month, the Examination Hall bell rang three times, and the examination ended.
The curtains of the examination cells lifted one after another, and the candidates filed out, their expressions varied.
Wei Nisheng emerged carrying his bundle, his face somewhat pale.
Anyone who called three days in an examination cell comfortable was lying.
Cui Fu had already been waiting with the carriage outside the Examination Hall for half an hour.
When he saw Wei Nisheng emerge, he hurried forward, took his bundle, and looked him up and down.
"Young master, you've lost weight."
"Three days without eating or sleeping properly. How could I not?" Wei Nisheng smiled.
Cui Fu said nothing more and helped him into the carriage.
The carriage rattled along the long street. Wei Nisheng leaned against its wall with his eyes closed.
He still gripped the square Literary Balance jade seal, his thumb stroking the words "National Auspice," over and over.
The wind lifted a corner of the carriage curtain, letting the Capital's autumn sunlight spill inside.
It fell across Wei Nisheng's face. He opened his eyes and watched the streets slip backward outside the window.
The Autumn Provincial Examination was over.
All that remained was to wait for the results to be posted.
The twentieth day of the seventh month, in the tenth year of Jinghe, at the Yingtian Prefecture Examination Hall.
The examination had ended two days earlier, but the Examination Hall's gates remained tightly shut.
The candidates had left; the examiners remained confined.
Until the results were posted, every examiner had to stay within those high walls.
Eating, drinking, relieving themselves, reading and grading papers, debating and settling rankings-not one of these could be dispensed with.
What was happening outside, who had impeached whom