Chapter 54 pt 2

Although the style of study in the academy is rigorous, there has always been gambling between students. Of course, this bet refers to a gambling bet. For example, betting on poems and rhetoric. This time the betting is also considered as an incentive, which means that the bet is a bit big.

The student’s name is Li Chao, and his family is also from the town. Usually, he is quite generous among his classmates. However, five liang silver is also a big deal for him, and it is obvious that Mao Badou is at the bottom of Class B, so how can it be possible that he can surpass everyone into the academy exam in March.

The student with good moral character has already spoken out to persuade him, thinking that this is Li Chao deliberately making a fool of himself. Although Mao Badou was a bit wayward, he wasn’t a bad guy, so why bother bet so big with others.

“Is it not he himself who preached that he was going to join the top scorers, so why didn’t he dare to bet at this time!” Li Chao blushed and retorted.

Here, Mao Badou squeezed his palm: “Gamble. There is nothing I dare not bet on. If I can’t get into the top scorers, I lose you five liang silver. If I get into the top scorers, remember to bring your silver. All classmates here can testify.”

“Testify, then testify. Who is afraid of you? I’m only afraid you don’t have the ability to get my money.”

At this time, a bell rang outside, and all the students dared not say much and sat down at their desks. Not long after, Meng Xiansheng arrived, and after a few words, he began to teach the scriptures.

During the rest, Mao Badou went to the latrine, and Chen Jian asked Xue TingRang: “Did you mean it?”
Upon hearing this, Xue TingRang smiled: “Tighten his nerves so that he will actually take it seriously.”

Among the four, Xue TingRang does not need to be mentioned. Chen Jian is the most hardworking while Li Datian seems inconspicuous, but he has a solid foundation in classics.

Xue TingRang had tested the three of them before, and he was very surprised. He couldn’t figure out why Li Datian, who had a solid foundation, could not make it into the top scorers.

The only explanation is that Mao Badou had damaged Li Datian, or Li Datian himself did not put studies on his mind. He had already made up his mind to study for two years and then go back to take over his grandfather’s place. How can a person who doesn’t care about it make a difference?

As for Mao Badou, the most complicated one for Xue TingRang was Mao Badou.

Mao Badou is very clever and has a very lively brain and excellent memory. As long as he can put his serious thoughts on studying, it is certainly no problem to take the imperial exam and become a xiucai.

Motivated by the three of them these days, he learned quickly, but he was a little impatient and easily distracted. There was only around ten days left before the quarterly exams, and Xue TingRang naturally hoped that he could take it seriously.

“You make sense. If the matter is not of immediate interest, I think until the day of the quarterly exams, he will not take it seriously.”

Not to mention these. It was the day of the quarterly exam in an instant.

On this day, the students all got up very early.

The breakfast food was very rich, and most likely the dining halls knew that today was unusual.

After breakfast, many students went back to the dorms to read books for a while, while others were walking in the garden while shaking their heads and carrying something on their backs.
The bell rang and all went to the lecture hall.

Check if the pen and ink are enough, and if the clear water in the bamboo tube is sufficient. Some students couldn’t keep their breath. They had already ran to the latrine several times in the morning. They just sat down and wanted to go again, so they hurried out, clutching their stomachs. One just happened to bump into Meng Xiansheng, and took leave with him, and ran to the latrine at a galloping speed.

Meng Xiansheng did not take the book today but was holding two thick stacks of exam papers.

After standing still, he gave the papers to the students in the front row and asked them to take it down and send one to each student. When the paper was finished being passed, the student who went to the latrine returned. Meng Xiansheng said, “Let’s start. It’s only half an hour. Once passed that time, I will no longer wait.”

As early as when the paper was issued, Xue TingRang had already read the above content.

This paper was engraved privately in the academy. The quality of the paper and the engraving work are very poor. The ink on it hasn’t dried out yet, and it’s black at the touch. The Qingyuan Academy is too poor and can only carve papers of this quality.

The point is not the paper but the questions on the paper.

In this quarterly exam, there are forty tie jing questions and ten mo yi questions, totaling 50 questions.

The so-called Tiejing began in the Tang Dynasty. It means to fill in a few words or sentences in the space of the scriptures to be tested. Moyi is to explain the meaning of a passage, and it is best to recite the passage of the scripture that relates to the question.

Since none of the students in Class B have learned to do eight-legged essays, they will not be tested. The Tiejing and Moyi are both literal knowledge. As long as you are familiar with the “Four Books and Five Classics” and “Zhu Zi Ji Zhu”, you can do well. The only difficult thing is that there are a lot of questions.

Half an hour, fifty questions. One carelessness will result in the circumstance where the time has finished but the exam has not been completed yet.

Xue TingRang looked up and found that many students seemed to be familiar with this exam, and they started to do it when they got the papers. He dipped his pen in the already polished ink and began to write.

The first question title is from the chapter sentence of Liang Hui Wang in “Mencius”——

King Qi Xuan asked, “Can you hear about Qi Huan and Jin Wen?”

Mencius replied, but the latter was empty and needed candidates to fill it up.

Xue Tingpan quickly wrote: “The disciples of Zhongni who have no way or literary matter will have no legend in future generations. The minister has not heard of it. If there is no way, then the king?”

In fact, these tiejing questions are not difficult. What is difficult is that one word cannot be wrong. Whenever a word is missed, this question is wrong. After these days of focused studing and copying, Xue TingRang can call his “Four Books and Five Classics” and “Zhu Zi Jizhu” a fluent memorization.

In particular, he has learned it many times in his dreams, and in reality he only needs to consolidate a few times to get twice the result with half the effort. This is why Chen Jian and others are very curious. It is obvious that Xue TingRang doesn’t learn much in normal times, and most of the time he is copying books, but no matter what questions are asked of him, he can answer easily.

Xue TingRang quickly finished fourty tie qing questions in one breath.

He put his pen down to rest, looked up and looked around. Most of the people were immersed in the papers. He took out the water tube and drank some water, covered the tube, and placed it away before beginning to do the rest of the moyii problems.

Moyi questions are small questions, so they seem to be many, but they are actually very quick to do.

After Xue TingRang finished, he checked again and confirmed that there were no mistakes. He took out the bamboo tube and washed the pen in a bowl that was used for a pen.

His behavior is a bit weird. You must know that almost all of the thirty students were immersed in the questions, but he has a leisurely attitude, which means that the questions were finished.

Meng Xiansheng, who was sitting in the front, focused his gaze and his eyes looked around Xue TingRang’s body.

He then went to see the hourglass again. It was just over half the time.
As the person presiding over this quarterly exam, Meng Xiansheng naturally knows the difficulty of the quarterly exam. There are too many questions and too little time. Every quarter exam has many students who cannot finish all the questions. If you can’t finish writing, those questions are not counted. It’s the same as missing the chance of being a top scorer and getting into Class A.

But Xue TingRang finished writing so early in advance. Either he knows how to do the above questions or he simply abandoned all hope and gave up.

Mr. Meng is quite familiar with Xue TingRang, and the owner greeted him when he entered the house, asking him to pay more attention to this student. Ordinarily, he looks at this person, his performance is not top-notch, and he can even be said to be unknown. Especially before he entered the house, he had only studied in a rural private school for a few years, and he couldn’t even understand the scriptures.

After thinking for a while, Meng Xiansheng opened his mouth and said, “If you are done, you can hand in the paper in advance.”

The voice suddenly sounded in the quiet lecture hall, and most of the students raised their heads as if they were waking up from a dream, and looked around blankly. It was not until one person stood up that they realized that someone had finished the exam.

How can it be! Looking down at the remaining questions on their own exam paper, they suppressed the sound of surprise in their throats. If it weren’t for the quarterly exams that prohibited loud noise, probably many people would have already screamed.

Xue TingRang raised the book bag and handed the papers to Meng Xiansheng respectfully.

Mr. Meng looked down at the paper, then went to look at him, and nodded.

Then Xue TingRang left.