Chapter 2: Alaxuedong is Not Simple

Li Xiaonan bowed her head and body deeply to Mr. Gao, then threw herself into her eldest sister's arms, looking as though she were too weak to endure and about to faint.

"My brother is exhausted. I'll carry him back first, and he can talk to the teacher about it tonight," Li Jinzhu said hurriedly, pulling Li Xiaonan up and running off with him on her back.

"Go back and rest! No need to come tonight, let him rest well! Don't come!" Mr. Gao called out, waving his hand as he followed a few steps behind Li Jinzhu.

*Sigh, this child Xuedong is truly too frail. He has been working too hard lately, overexerting himself. Sigh, these siblings truly have it hard.*

Looking at Li Jinzhu's clothes, which were a patchwork of patches upon patches, and Li Xuedong's thin frame, Mr. Gao felt a pang of heartache for a long while before pacing back to wait for his other two students.

Carrying Li Xiaonan, Li Jinzhu ran in a single breath into the small woodshed behind the inn.

The second sister, Li Yuzhu, who was sitting by the woodshed door mending clothes, jumped up with a start, sending the old clothes in her lap scattering all over the floor.

Li Xuedong, disguised as Li Xiaonan, was sitting beside Li Yuzhu with his head bowed, dismantling an old padded jacket. Because of Li Yuzhu's sudden movement, he tumbled backward.

Li Yuzhu lunged forward, but before she could catch "Li Xiaonan," Li Jinzhu's legs gave way, and she slumped to the ground.

"It's fine, it's fine, nothing happened, everything is perfectly smooth," Li Xiaonan explained quickly upon seeing her second sister's face turn pale with fright.

Li Yuzhu let out an "oh!" of distress, her legs turning weak as she sat on the ground, wiping cold sweat from her brow.

Throughout this entire day, her heart had felt as if it were being fried in oil and boiled in water.

"Did the teacher not recognize us?" Li Xuedong asked in a low voice, crawling toward Li Xiaonan.

"No." Li Xiaonan craned her neck, looking left and right, before pushing Li Xuedong into the woodshed. "Hurry, switch places!"

Li Jinzhu and Li Yuzhu each took responsibility for one person, swiftly combing their hair and changing their clothes. Li Xiaonan let out a long breath. "Done. Eldest sister, keep watch. I'll explain the exam questions to brother."

Li Jinzhu took the needle and thread and sat by the door mending clothes, keeping an eye on the surroundings. Li Yuzhu went to the kitchen to boil water.

With their heads pressed together, Li Xiaonan explained the day's exam questions to Li Xuedong in meticulous detail—how her thought process went when she wrote the two essays and the poem, what else she had thought of, and the entire process of the exam.

After understanding everything, Li Xuedong spent the quiet hours of the night memorizing the two essays and the poem until they were perfectly ingrained in his mind.

………………………………

The next day, the results were posted in the morning, and the formal ceremony was held in the afternoon.

Just as the sun rose, two bailiffs emerged clanging gongs and posted a bright red list on the snow-white screen wall outside the county school.

Mr. Gao was a tall man. Standing at a distance, he looked calmly over the crowd toward the commotion in front of the screen wall.

He had brought three students to the exam, but he had held no hope.

He knew his three students inside and out; none of them were particularly bright, and their academic performance was quite mediocre. Furthermore, no one from his Gao Family School had ever made the list.

As Mr. Gao was once again reflecting on the items his mother had asked him to buy, he suddenly heard someone shout "Li Xuedong." He froze instantly and hurriedly looked at his two students, asking, "Was that Li Xuedong just now?"

Both students nodded together.

"I'm going to take a look!" Mr. Gao tossed out the words and ran forward, clutching the front of his long robe.

Before long, Mr. Gao squeezed through the crowd, his hat even knocked askew. Upon seeing the two students, before he could even speak, he burst into a fit of laughter. "It really is Xuedong! Sixth place! Not simple, not simple at all! Quick, find him, where is Xuedong?"

Li Xuedong had placed sixth in the inner circle. Mr. Gao's other two students were both outside the circle.

Magistrate Huang had issued a notice stating that any student outside the circle who wished to participate in the subsequent exams was permitted to do so.

Li Xuedong's sixth-place finish greatly encouraged Mr. Gao. He immediately decided to let the other two students follow along through the rest of the exams, just so they could broaden their horizons.

In the afternoon, Magistrate Huang met with the twenty students from the inner circle and the thirty from the outer circle in the main hall of the county school.

According to their ranking, Li Xuedong stood in the very first row.

Magistrate Huang did not conduct random questioning or testing. Instead, he selected one essay from each of the top ten students' works on "Shiyi" (literary arts) and explained them in detail, noting what was good and what was lacking with extreme thoroughness.

Standing outside the hall, Mr. Gao craned his neck, listening with immense admiration.

Magistrate Huang was a legitimate scholar who had passed both the provincial and metropolitan examinations; his level was truly superb!

After finishing the commentary on the ten papers, Magistrate Huang looked at the top ten students one by one. He walked up to Li Xuedong, stopped, and smiled. "Li Xuedong, lift your head. Do not be afraid."

With a racing heart, Li Xuedong lifted his head and looked at Magistrate Huang.

The wrinkles on Magistrate Huang's thin face were deep, but his eyes were bright and gentle.

"This piece of yours, *On Being Human*, follows the Doctrine of the Mean. Your interpretation is good—excellent! Continue to study hard." With a smile, Magistrate Huang patted Li Xuedong and moved on.

Li Xuedong finally let out a breath, feeling a layer of cold sweat on his back.

When Magistrate Huang had called him, he had thought the Magistrate had discovered that "A-Nan" had taken the exam in his place.

Impersonating a candidate was a grave offense!

The next day, the third exam was held in the morning, and the fourth and fifth exams were held in the afternoon.

The morning session consisted of half a day: one "Shiyi" essay, one "Jinglun" (classic discourse) essay, and a hundred-word recitation of legal statutes.

During this exam, Li Xiaonan continued her principle of "following the crowd" when submitting her paper—neither first nor last. She immediately threw herself into the arms of her eldest sister, Li Jinzhu.

Mr. Gao looked at the "real Li Xiaonan disguised as fake Xuedong," who appeared utterly exhausted, with immense concern and affection. He repeatedly urged Li Jinzhu to carry Xuedong back immediately, noting there was still an hour and a half before the afternoon exams began, so Xuedong could get some sleep.

The two afternoon sessions each lasted one hour. The topics included "Shiwen" (prose), poetry, "Jinglun," or "Pianwen" (parallel prose)—students could choose one from each session, followed by a recitation of the first two lines of the morning's legal statutes.

For the fourth session, Li Xiaonan chose a "Shiwen" piece; for the fifth, she chose a five-character poem with eight rhymes. When she finished, she maintained her exhausted appearance, slumped onto Li Jinzhu's back, and escaped back to the inn.

***

After a six-month hiatus, I am back with renewed vigor!

Updates will be posted daily at 8:00 PM. I intend to challenge myself to maintain a regular schedule until the end of this book. Please give me your encouragement!

...

This story continues to use the Northern Song Dynasty as its background, but there will certainly be many changes made for the sake of the narrative, so please do not be too pedantic.

The imperial examinations in this chapter are mostly drawn from the *Records of Qing Dynasty Imperial Examinations* published by the Palace Museum Press, which contains many details regarding the exams.

The imperial examination system began in the Sui and Tang dynasties and was basically finalized by the Song dynasty. The broad framework has remained largely unchanged since then, but the details, such as the scope of the exam topics, have certainly been in constant flux.

This is for reference only; there is no need to investigate too deeply.

After all, I am writing an entertainment novel, not a research paper, right?

Finally, please vote!

(End of Chapter)