amaotonovel Chapter 1175 Be more serious
Chapter 1175 Be more serious
Even after a heavy rain, the sky over Liuyang Prefecture did not clear up; thick, dark clouds still loomed menacingly overhead.
The sun did not rise until Chen Shi (7-9 AM).
Looking at the wet stone path in front of the cell, Xin Ji felt inexplicably annoyed.
He flipped through the exam paper several times, but he didn't even open the ink stick.
That's right, he hasn't written a single word from yesterday to today.
I'm too lazy to write, and I don't need to.
"Tick-tock-"
The rainwater remaining on the roof cascaded down the eaves, splashing up droplets that vanished in an instant.
Xin Ji stared blankly at the spot where the water splashed and disappeared for a moment. For some reason, he raised his hand and patted the wall.
"Fatty, are you feeling better?"
After asking the question, he pressed his ear against the wall and listened quietly to the sounds coming from next door.
After a while, a voice as soft as a mosquito's buzz came through the wall: "Feeling better... Thank you for your concern, please answer the questions now, cough cough—cough—"
Xin Ji rolled her eyes.
Ingratitude.
Footsteps came from one end of the passageway, and Xin Ji immediately moved away from the wall and sat up straight.
After that incident, he became a key target of Hao Jun's control. Hao Jun was not afraid that he would copy other people's answers, but he was afraid that he would interfere with other students.
Time passed slowly, and before they knew it, another half hour had gone by. Xin Ji's answer sheet was still "clean and tidy".
But he was getting more and more annoyed.
Because the fat guy next door was coughing more and more violently, and the sound was like a broken bellows, he even wondered if the fat guy's lungs were coughing out.
"Hey, Fatty, are you really okay?" he asked again in a low voice.
"Cough—cough cough—" The only response he received was two suppressed coughs, followed by rapid breathing.
Xin Ji seemed to have guessed something, and leaned against the wall, she asked again, "Are you afraid of disturbing others, so you keep suppressing your cough? Let me tell you, this won't work. If you don't cough up the phlegm forcefully, something bad will happen sooner or later... So, if you really can't hold on any longer, just bang on the wall three times. I'm shameless enough to call the doctor over for you."
"clatter--"
It sounded like someone next door gently tapped the wall with the tip of a pen, as if in response.
Xin Ji pursed his lips, propped his chin up, and waited impatiently for the wall to make a sound.
After waiting for half an hour, the breathing next door grew heavier and heavier, but the expected commotion never came, and he felt inexplicably choked up.
As I said before, it's just a scholar's degree, is it worth it?
As he pondered, Xin Ji couldn't help but recall his first twenty years.
He came from a privileged background and never needed to pursue fame or official rank. His three or four close friends were just like him, treating exams as a formality or a game, and no one had ever taken them so seriously.
does it worth?
This question lingered in his mind again.
He recalled the fat man's flushed face and his words, "I am the only scholar in my family." He also thought of how everyone in the examination hall was writing furiously, while he had slept soundly without even opening the inkstone.
He suddenly realized that his privileged family background and smooth life were things that many people could only dream of their entire lives.
But this discovery did not make him excited; instead, it made him feel even more suffocated.
He suddenly felt something was absurd.
For him, the exam was nothing more than a game where "you could get a reward if you participated on time," but for the others, it was a narrow bridge to another world.
The fat man next door was arguing, the soldier who had come to reprimand him several times was arguing, and even the doctor with the gray beard was arguing.
Only he, as an outsider, sees everything as detached and insignificant.
He thought that the title of Xiucai (a scholar who passed the imperial examinations) was unimportant to the fat man, but does that mean it was unimportant?
Obviously not.
Only then did he realize that his earlier irritation wasn't due to the weather or the waiting, but rather a sense of shame stemming from feeling out of place. He had always found the exam utterly boring, but what was truly boring was perhaps his indifferent attitude.
Hearing the suppressed coughing from next door, Xin Ji inexplicably opened the ink stick and added some water to the inkstone.
Let's see.
A voice inside him said, "Let's see if you, this young master, can really outdo the others here."
While grinding the ink, I formally examined the questions on the exam paper for the first time.
As the ink thickened during grinding, the coughing from next door grew quieter until it was completely ignored by him.
So this is what it feels like to take something seriously.
......
"Boom-thump-thump-"
The exam ended at Shen Shi (3-5 PM).
Xinji almost got into a fight with the Hao Army.
Because he had a brilliant idea in his mind, but before he could put it down on the paper, the answer sheet was ruthlessly snatched away by the bugle.
Hao Jun glanced at his answer sheet with disdain and said dismissively, "Should I hand it in to the collection point yourself, or should I help you?"
Xin Qi clenched his fists.
He diligently answered the questions for half a morning and an afternoon, only to be looked down upon like this!
"I'll hand it in myself!" He suppressed his anger, didn't even take the pen and ink from the table, and walked towards the hand-in area.
The process of submitting the exam papers is roughly the same as the process of entering the examination hall. The officials also need to check the candidates' household registration and appearance.
Xin Ji handed in his paper quickly, because he was the only observer in the entire event. His paper was even treated like an orphan's paper, and was casually placed on the table behind him by the clerk.
Xin Ji endured it all, gritting her teeth as she walked toward the gate of the examination hall.
After leaving the examination hall, he was startled by the scene outside the gate; there were simply too many people.
But... no one came to pick him up.
He watched as the examinee walked out and embraced his family, listened to the examinee describe the rain of the previous night to his family, and smelled the aroma of the food brought by the examinee's family. He felt increasingly uneasy.
At this moment, the glass mirror seemed to become less important.
After a moment's pause, he turned and walked toward the gate of the examination hall, standing straight in the bustling crowd, waiting for the only examinee he knew.
After an unknown amount of time, the person finally came into his sight, looking around as if he was also looking for someone.
Xin Ji curled her lips into a smile.
The fat man must be looking for him, intending to thank him in person. So, he should take pity on the fat man and treat him to a meal.
"fat......"
He had just opened his mouth and raised his hand when he saw the fat man's eyes light up and stride toward him.
"Summon—cough cough, Qi—" the fat man shouted in his direction.
"What?" It was too noisy at the courtyard gate, and Xin Ji didn't hear clearly. He pretended to be calm and waved, "Come here first!"
Just as he finished speaking, he caught a glimpse of a candidate next to him looking at him with a very strange expression.
"What are you looking at?" Xin Ji raised his chin at Fang Ziyan, who was walking over, and then said to the strange-looking examinee beside him, "Never seen Deng Peng... little brother before? Go away."
The examinee next to him glanced at him again, then took a step toward Fang Ziyan.