After the Shangyuan Festival, Lu Jing refused all entertainment and began to adjust his state, writing two or three articles a day to practice.

There are three sessions, one on three days, the first on the 9th of February, the second on February 12, and the third on February 15.

Different from the township test, the first day of the entrance examination, the last day of the exit, no one is allowed to enter and exit during the period, and the three test topics are four books of literature and art, trial poems, five scriptures and the art of strategy.

There are two capitals and 15 provinces in this dynasty, and there are about 5,000 people who have entered Beijing to take the examination this year. The number of students admitted to the first few subjects is about 100, and the maximum number of students admitted to the previous course is nearly 200.

Due to political reasons, Jinke has released news that about 300 people may be admitted, which is much higher than the admission rate of previous years.

Just after the eighth day of the first month of February, Lu Zhiyu asked An Lan and Sizhu to come to Lu Jing's study with an examination basket.

"Brother, this is the exam basket that Sister Lin and I prepared for you, hehe, take a look, there are many good things that Sister Lin has prepared by herself!" Lu Zhiyu smiled happily.

Lu Jing smiled dotingly: "Sister has worked hard, sit down and rest for a while." ”

Lu Jing opened the examination basket as he spoke, and saw that the first layer was placed with pen, ink, paper, inkstone, word circle, candlestick, incense stove, exam paper bag, charcoal and other necessary utensils for scientific research, and they were all available and arranged in an orderly manner. ”

"Hehe, this aromatherapy ball and inkstone are commonly used by Sister Lin, and they are temporarily lent to my brother, but I begged Sister Lin for a long time before she agreed!" Lu Zhiyu happily invited Lu Jing to say.

Then he urged: "Brother, open the second floor, there are still good things!" ”

After Lu Jing praised his sister for a few words, he opened the second layer according to his words, and saw that there were dates cakes, red orange cakes, ginseng slices, longan meat and other foods, which were dazzling and delicious, and he was warm for a while: "It's hard to prepare so much for you, these are enough for me to eat for several days." ”

"And what, brother!" Lu Zhiyu continued to urge, these are all carefully prepared by her and Daiyu in the past few days, and many of them are made by themselves.

"Hmm!" Lu Jing continued to look and found that there were kettles, towels, leather coats, cushions, etc., and couldn't help but sigh with emotion: "You guys are so thoughtful, thank you Sister Lin for me!" ”

Seeing that my sister was also looking forward to it, she smiled and said, "Of course, there is also my most intimate and sensible little sister!" ”

"Hee-hee, thank me, I don't have to!" Lu Zhiyu heard Lu Jing's praise, and smiled contentedly: "As for Sister Lin, I will help my brother tell me!" ”

"Hehe, go and rest, you've been busy for the past few days, so you don't have to get up early tomorrow to send me off!" Lu Jing said with some distress.

Now some things in the house are in the hands of his sister, and these days his sister has bothered to prepare these things for him, he is both relieved and a little distressed, and at the same time thinking that Daiyu has been paying silently, and his heart is warm.

"I can do something for my brother, and my sister doesn't feel tired!" Lu Zhiyu said with a smile, thinking that she would get up early tomorrow to send her brother.

"I'm not here for a few days, you can find Sister Daiyu to come over and accompany you, if there is anything, go directly to Uncle Lin!" Lu Jing explained.

During the nine days of the examination, he could only stay in the Gongyuan and couldn't take care of his family, so he asked Lin Ruhai a few days ago and asked him to take care of Zhiyu on his behalf.

Lu Zhiyu nodded obediently and said, "Brother can take the exam with peace of mind, don't worry about me!" ”

The brother and sister talked again, and Lu Jing asked his sister to go back to rest, and then he put all the items he had prepared into the test basket prepared by Daiyu and his sister.

After everything was cleaned up, he found Lu Bei, Lu Zheng, and Lu Lian to arrange everything in the house in the past few days.

Yinglian had been waiting for Lu Jing in the room, and when she saw Lu Jing coming back, she hurriedly untied Lu Jing's wide clothes: "Master, you sleep, Yinglian is guarding Ye tonight." ”

Lu Jing gently hugged Yinglian: "You can sleep too, I have already arranged it, and I won't miss the hour tomorrow." ”

Yinglian shook her head stubbornly and said, "Yinglian is not at ease. ”

Lu Jing persuaded for a while, and seeing that Yinglian still insisted, she was moved in her heart, so she directly hugged her to the bed, closed her eyes, and fell asleep with her delicate body in her arms.

Although Yinglian was forced to be carried to the bed by Lu Jing, she made up her mind to guard Lu Jing, so she was held by Lu Jing without moving, and she did not alarm Lu Jing.

At first, I didn't sleep, but then I fell asleep in a daze, and I woke up several times on the way, and when I saw that it was still early, I lay motionless and quietly, and I fell asleep unconsciously.

Until she heard the sound of rustling, Yinglian woke up again and saw Lu Jing getting dressed, and sat up busily, revealing a snow-white patch.

Lu Jing hurriedly pressed Yinglian on the bed, covered her with a quilt, and then kissed her affectionately on the forehead: "You sleep well, I'll clean up and leave." ”

Yinglian struggled to get up and serve him, but he forcibly stuffed them back into the brocade quilt.

Yinglian lay on the bed, quietly watching Lu Jing leave, silently praying in her heart, hoping that her uncle would be able to go to high school.

At the second moment of the first month, after Lu Jing cleaned up, he walked out of the room and saw that the lights in the house had not been extinguished all night, and he was extremely emotional.

Almost everyone in the Lu family stayed awake all night, and they kept praying in their hearts that Lu Jing could go to high school.

Lu Zhiyu got up as soon as the fourth watch was over, and she had been waiting for Lu Jing: "Brother is going, and he will definitely win the Toad Palace." ”

"Don't worry!" Lu Jing nodded vigorously and said, "Go and rest." ”

"Brother, go!" Lu Zhiyu stroked her hand and smiled.

Hearing this, Lu Jing nodded, stared eastward, and was suddenly full of energy, and then waved his sleeves and led people to set off.

"Girl, let's sleep, the slave maid just inquired about it, and Uncle Lu has already left!" Zijuan persuaded.

Lin Daiyu was unconscious, like a sculpture, standing in the courtyard, staring westward, and muttered in a low voice: "The moon is cold and the stars are cold, and the red decay and emerald are not asleep." The road is blocked and long, and there is no choice but to look forward to the full moon every day. ”

Lu Jing took Lu Lian, Wu Ze, Chen Ji and Lu Wusi all the way to the Gongyuan, and after three quarters of an hour, they came to the Gongyuan.

Located in the southeast of the inner city of Beijing, the Tribute Courtyard has a history of hundreds of years, and during the reign of Emperor Yan Kang, there were many large-scale repairs to the Tribute Courtyard. In order to isolate the temple from the outside world, it was surrounded by a high wall, which was one and a half feet high, and covered with thorns. In order to strengthen supervision, watchtowers were built at all four corners of the Tribute Courtyard.

There is an archway outside the gate of the Tribute Courtyard, the gate is divided into left, middle and right three, and the main gate is hung with the ink plaque of the word "Tribute Courtyard".

Two zhang away from the main gate, there is a gate, at this moment, the street outside the gate, has been crowded with exam-taking moves, three or five candidates gathered together, talking softly, relieving the tension.

After Lu Jing found Ge Yin and Li Yi, the three of them got together and said some words of encouragement to each other, during which most of the Jiangnan scholars came over to greet Lu Jing.

As soon as the time came, three cannons rang out in the Gongyuan, and the gate opened.

Two teams of armored soldiers ran out with indifferent expressions and stood on both sides of the road.

Not long after, the chief examiner Xu Jingnian appeared at the gate of the Gongyuan with the three deputy examiners.

After Xu Jingnian glanced at the many moves, he began to preach the old calendars of previous years to the candidates, and finally encouraged everyone.

Subsequently, Xu Jingnian ordered that the candidates be allowed to enter the gate.

After entering the Yuanmen, go along the inside is the instrument gate, through the instrument gate is the dragon gate, the dragon gate in the title: "Tiankai Wenyun", the east question: "Ming Jing to take the scholar", the west question: "for the country to seek talents".

The passage between the instrument gate and the dragon gate is the search channel before the candidates enter the venue.

Cui Zhifeng, the Longmen official, arched his hand to thousands of candidates and said: "This official is the Longmen official of the current examination, and the responsibility of this official lies, in addition to verifying the correct body, there will be some offensive actions, you are all understandable people, and this official will not repeat it." ”

"But this official still has to advise you, it is not easy for you to come to this point, and it is better to throw away the things you shouldn't bring!"

Once it is found out, the student status will be cancelled immediately, the scientific examination will be prohibited, and the flail number will be carried for a month, which is equivalent to decades of hard work, and it will be ruined in one day.

Cui Zhifeng saw that no one reacted, sneered, and said no more, every year there are many lucky candidates, he has seen too much, and then ordered everyone to start searching.

Several old scribes stood at the door and began to roll call, comparing the candidates' regions, names, places of origin and other personal information, and if they were correct, they would enter the next level.

The inspector searched the clothes and hats of the soldiers one by one, because of the cold spring, and at the same time took into account the face of the old man.

The inspector just asked the crowd to take off their hats, take off their coats, untie their shirts, and the innermost layer of thin single clothing, which was just a symbolic search, but even so, many candidates were shivering from the cold.

The search officer was extremely strict with the search of the examination basket, everything in it was taken out and checked one by one, and food such as pastries was also cut into large pieces indiscriminately with knives.

They are all veterans of the years, well-informed, and have excellent eyesight, and it is almost difficult for a group of people to escape under this strict search, and more than a dozen candidates have been searched out because of luck.

These dozen people immediately knelt in front of Cui Zhifeng crying bitterly, begging him for mercy.

Cui Zhifeng squinted at them in disgust, without the slightest pity, and directly ordered someone to drag them out.

After passing the search and receiving the corresponding test number, they will enter the corresponding number lane and test room.

The number lane is four feet wide, arranged by the dense number house, arranged with "thousand character text", the wall of the lintel at the entrance of the lane is written with the number of "Yu", "Zhou", "Chen", "water" and so on, the number of houses in each number is different, there are 50 to more than 100 rooms.

There is a gate at the entrance of the alley, and is equipped with a signal light and a water tank, and there is a toilet at the end of each row of houses, and the number house near the toilet is nicknamed "stinky number".

In each alley, there are 10 handymen who act as the trumpet army, and are responsible for delivering tea and hot meals to the candidates.

There is no door in the house, separated by a brick wall, each house is three feet wide, four feet deep, the back wall is eight feet high, the front eaves are six feet high, the eaves can be touched by raising your hand, only one person can sit. There are upper and lower sills on both sides of the side wall, which can support wooden boards, the upper board is a table, the lower board is a stool, and the combination is a bed.

After the candidates enter the number room, all the sitting and lying, answering the questionnaire, eating and drinking, and convenience are all in this small world.

After Lu Jing passed the search, he rearranged his clothes and hats and Kaolan, and stepped into the dragon gate with a calm attitude.