Xue Ji saw the hesitation in Xu Lang's expression, but now it was almost time for the exam to start, and he couldn't delay the exam for groundless speculation and doubts.

Xu Lang saw that he was worried, and unconsciously broke out in a cold sweat, subconsciously looked at the officials around him who were busy performing their duties, lowered his voice and asked a little nervously, "What's wrong?" What did you find?"

Xue Ji sat in the position of the chief examiner, his brows furrowed, and after hesitating for a moment, he made a decision: "It's just a guess. No matter what, let the officials on patrol keep an eye on it, and report it immediately if they find any clues."

"Yes."

Xu Lang was much more serious, bowed to Xue Ji slightly, and then went down to order the officials.

Xue Ji remembered something again and called out to him, "Where is Chen Shao now?"

Xu Lang was stunned, Chen Shao? Why did you ask about him? After hesitating for a while, he said, "It should be in the Criminal Department, this exam is about to start, you want to find him?"

Looking at the sky, it must be too late to deal with it now, and besides, this is just speculation, not conclusive evidence, how can the exam be delayed because of this.

Not long after Xu Lang left, a familiar figure walked over.

"Lord Xue."

"Lord Xu."

After some greetings, the two sat down separately.

Xu Yan looked at the old and young candidates who entered the examination room one after another, and a sense of relief arose in his heart.

"There are more examinees this year than ever before."

Xue Ji casually flipped through the roster on the table at hand, he didn't mention it and didn't pay attention to it, this look is really a lot more than before.

"The court is full of talents, and Your Majesty's merits are in the future."

As soon as these words came out, both of them were happy. Xu Yan shook his head with a smile, looking at Xue Ji beside him as if he had seen a monster, and was amazed: "Even you started to say this."

Xue Ji's face was full of helplessness, and he said with a wry smile: "If you watch it a hundred and eighty times, you can also learn."

Except to pat him on the shoulder with sympathy, Xu Yan didn't know what else to do for a while.

After a while, the hour came. According to the process, Xue Ji should order the exam to start at this time, and the eyes of the surrounding officials, whether it was the candidates, were all focused on him, or anxious, or full of expectations.

The official of the Ministry of Etiquette hurriedly came and whispered, "My lord, it's time for the exam."

Xue Ji tidied up his shirt and cuffs slightly, slowly stood up, and glanced at the huge sundial in the Gongyuan, which was neatly finished. So he put away the rest of his thoughts, his expression was very serious, he waved his arms, and ordered in a deep voice: "Start the exam."

With this order, some officials of the Ministry of Etiquette shouted loudly, only to see thousands of candidates in the examination room at the same time lifting pens, or burying their heads in hard thinking, or writing hard, and making a rustling sound when turning the paper.

"You're guarding here?" Xu Yan turned his head and asked Xue Ji. "I'm going to do two rounds."

Xu Yan was directly promoted from King Ning's Mansion without going through the imperial examination, and seeing so many candidates huddled in a narrow cubicle and meditating, he couldn't help but be curious and wanted to take a closer look with interest.

Xue Ji was happy to sit here and readily agreed.

At a glance, these candidates are either apprehensive or high-spirited, with a vision for the future, and every word determines their future.

These are all things that Xue Ji experienced more than 20 years ago, and even now he is standing in a position that was once out of reach, he still empathizes with it and can feel the nervous mood of these thousands of people.

The work of invigilation is extremely boring, just go back and forth, or sit in the position of the examiner, can't chat with people, and can't go in and out at will.

"My lord, long live the lord is here!"

Xue Ji had just rested in the Hui Pavilion for a while, and then he heard the officials below hurriedly come in to report, and he thought he had heard a mistake, and he was stunned for a long time without reacting.

"Who do you say is coming?"

The official was a little timid, and repeated again: "Long live the Lord is here......

Xue Ji finally heard what he said, and he was suddenly shocked

, Obviously, there are officials from the Ministry of Etiquette outside to ensure that nothing goes wrong, and there has been no chaos so far, but when I heard that His Majesty was here in person, I still couldn't help but worry.

He hesitated for a moment, then suddenly remembered something, raised his head and asked, "Your Majesty came to the Tribute Academy, didn't the candidate's excitement affect the answer?"

"Lord Hui, Your Majesty is dressed in regular clothes, and he didn't make a noise, and the candidate just lowered his head to answer without noticing."

This is also something he can think of, how could Qin Xu ignore it. Xue Ji breathed a sigh of relief, calmed down, put down the tea cup in his hand, shook his sleeves, hurriedly got up and walked out of the warm pavilion, and went to greet him.

As soon as he came out, he saw the abrupt figure in the distance, Xue Ji paused, and couldn't help frowning. The officials present were all dressed in official uniforms, and His Majesty was dressed in ordinary clothes...... It's eye-catching enough.

Before Xue Ji approached, he subconsciously wanted to salute and say goodbye, but when the words came to his lips, he remembered what the situation was now, and it was not easy to make a noise. So he put his hand to his mouth and whispered, "Your Majesty, I haven't noticed anything unusual yet."

Qin Xu just nodded, didn't say much, turned around and went to the other side, it happened that Xu Yan was in front, he stopped outside a candidate's cubicle, and looked at the article on the paper with interest.

Xu Yan saw the figure walking towards him, and a trace of surprise obviously flashed in his eyes, and he opened his mouth, but he didn't make a sound. Xue Ji followed Qin Xu's footsteps, and the three of them took a look.

Qin Xu looked around for a while before whispering, "Let's go to the Warm Pavilion."

Xue Ji instructed the officials below to call Xu Lang to take over, and then followed Qin Xu and Xu Yan back to the warm pavilion in front of him, and raised his eyes to look at the square table next to the main seat, and the tea he had drunk half of just now had not been removed.

Qin Xu just glanced at it and sat down on the side without paying attention at all.

"The candidates sitting in the examination room today may be the pillars of my Great Zhou tomorrow, so they must be watched carefully. If something goes wrong, it's my society that is bad."

Xue Ji and Xu Yan glanced at each other, and they both said yes.

Qin Xu sat in the warm pavilion for a while, watching the movement outside through the window, until the sky gradually darkened, almost night, and then got up and moved back to the palace.

This year's Spring Festival exam lasted for three days in a row, and when the bell rang for the end, the dust had settled, and both candidates and officials breathed a sigh of relief. By the time these thousands of people left one after another, there were only a few chief examiners left in the Gongyuan.

Xu Lang instructed the officials below to seal the candidates' answer sheets, and ordered someone to check each compartment, and then returned to the warm pavilion to report to Xue Ji.

"It's been hard these days, go back and rest early, and it's time for Ming'er to judge the papers."

Xue Ji waved his hand, then got up and walked out of the warm pavilion, Wang Qu was already waiting outside, and when he saw him come out, he hurriedly stepped forward to say hello.

"The master worked hard, and the lady prepared wine and food and waited in the house."

"Hmm."

It is not difficult to see that Xue Ji's face was full of exhaustion, and when he returned to the mansion, he couldn't be interested in seeing a table of wine and food, so he accompanied Shen Yurong and Su Yu to dinner, and went back to the room to rest.

For ten days after the spring festival, the Gongyuan was lit up day and night, and it was still lit up until late at night. Several chief examination officials were busy, but they did not dare to be negligent at all, in addition to carefully reading the examination papers in their hands, they also had to pay attention to whether there was anything wrong.

After judging the papers, you have to sort out the top three lists, and order someone to copy them and post them when the list is released.

was really busy pulling out his body, until the list was posted, Xue Ji didn't take a closer look at the name on it.

He didn't pay attention, but someone did.

In other words, it was premeditated.

Just the day after the release of the list, there was a lot of rumors in Beijing. Just listen to the street bazaars, teahouses and wine shops, the rumors are boiling, everyone knows.

"Xie Zhixi, the first in the second class, how do I remember that he was a gambler?"

"This kind of person who doesn't learn and doesn't know how to get into the second class can really make people in the world feel cold."

"People are next to the masters, what's so difficult to get a second class."

As soon as this remark came out, the audience was in an uproar.

The women here are all women who love to chew the root of their tongues when they have nothing to do, and as soon as they heard that there was a secret, they immediately came up and asked them again and again

Among them is delicate.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Your Majesty has just cleared the court, who dares to put his hand on the spring squirt?"

I saw that the man pretended to be profound, stroked his beard and chuckled.

"Don't you know that Xie Zhixi is the protégé of the current prime minister?"