The Pampered Concubine Gu Jiao Niang

Chapter 10: Beating

After entering the examination room, Xiao Liulang saw Gu Jiao leave with her back basket.

She was going to the market to sell the wild mushrooms in her basket along with the dried wood ears. She had other things to do as well.

The reputation of Tianxiang Academy was far-reaching, and there were many people who came to take the exam, both locals and those like Xiao Liulang who came from other places.

Each candidate held a letter of recommendation from a village school, county school, or prefectural school and entered the corresponding examination room.

Due to their different levels, Xiao Liulang and Gu Dashun were assigned to different examination rooms.

Xiao Liulang sat in the last row.

The steps of Tianxiang Academy were high, and most of the students who came to study were at least Xiucai. It was not easy to pass the Xiucai exam these days. Gu Dashun was lucky to pass before he was twenty.

Xiao Liulang was only seventeen and the youngest of all the candidates.

He was also the most handsome.

Unfortunately, he was a cripple.

The other candidates looked at him strangely, but their attention did not last long as they started filling out the exam papers.

In the morning, they took the poetry and essay exam, and in the afternoon, they took the classics exam.

Most of the candidates had ink in their bellies, so it was not difficult for them to write a poem or essay on the spot. The difficulty lay in the classics exam in the afternoon.

The questions for the classics exam were all original texts from the Four Books and Five Classics, and the candidates had to strictly use the eight-legged essay.

The eight-legged essay consisted of eight parts: breaking down the question, taking up the question, starting to talk, starting to tackle the question, the first argument, the middle argument, the final argument, and the conclusion. No metaphors were allowed, and candidates had to use the tone of the sages. The annotations could only come from the Cheng-Zhu School, and there were many restrictions on the candidates.

Adding to the difficulty was the fact that the questions for this exam were very difficult. After a day of exams, the faces of the candidates were almost all pale.

When Xiao Liulang came out, his classmate had been waiting outside the examination room for half an hour.

"Liulang! Over here!" His classmate waved at him.

Xiao Liulang walked over with his crutch.

His classmate said, "I just heard a lot of people complaining about the difficult classics exam. It's all because of you guys. If you hadn't had an accident and taken the exam with me, it wouldn't have been so hard... it's all because of that wicked woman!"

Xiao Liulang gave him a disdainful look and furrowed his brow.

His classmate continued, "By the way, she hasn't been bullying you these days, has she? I was so worried that you wouldn't be able to come today."

Indeed... he had almost not made it.

Xiao Liulang paused.

Suddenly, he felt something and looked up to the front.

The exam had just ended, and the street in front of the academy was bustling with people.

A slender figure, with a small basket on her back and her arms folded, leaned against the wall, seemingly indifferent.