The sweltering heat of Kyoto in July is unbearable, and the scorching sun scorches this ancient and bustling city. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

Despite such bad weather, the streets and alleys of Kyoto City are still bustling with pedestrians, including middle-aged men who go to the brewery at the end of the street with a fan to drink, rich maids who shake brocade fans and wear silk skirts to pick fat powder, and drooping children who run bare-chested after puppies all over the streets.

Horse-drawn carriages from nowhere entered the city, young men in plain robes put down their luggage at the inn, Kyoto City seemed to be slowly awakened, and a tall green vine sprouted a new sprout and climbed towards the higher roof.

...

...

The old gate of the Protectorate shows its long and far-reaching history.

There was not a single sound to be heard in the admonition room, in the past, those students with bad grades were always reprimanded here, but today there is no one to be seen in the empty admonition room. The teaching attic in the distance was also a little deserted, except for a few students yawning boredly in the afternoon as they flipped through the books in front of them, but there was no lecturer on the lecture platform.

Farther away, a high walled gate was closed, the red copper doorknob was dusty, as if it hadn't been opened for a long time, and the pitch-black courtyard door hung an ordinary door plaque with the neat inscription: "Inner Courtyard".

The main entrance of the inner courtyard had not been opened for four years, except for the proud-looking lecturers who came in and out through the side doors, and the dilapidated carriage that occasionally drove out, and no one entered or left the large courtyard clinging to the mountain behind it.

Except for the lecturers who were qualified to go in and teach and the old man who swept the floor, no one knew how wide it really was.

In the small courtyard of the examination supervision institute, there was a completely different scene, several lecturers with long beards and white hair were discussing loudly, and in front of them were placed one after another dismantled examination papers, neatly pressed on the table with a stone town.

An old man with thick eyebrows that seemed to have been connected into a line was holding a pen with an unhappy expression and sketching the exam papers in front of him, and his harsh and dark red lips were constantly saying some insulting and ugly words.

"What the hell is the answer? Li Qiubai likes to drink, so the pot must be full of wine in the end?"

"Does this student have in his brain, Taizong's garrison is because of the beautiful scenery of Belan Mountain?!"

"A bunch of stupid asses, a bunch of stupid asses!"

...

In addition to him, other exam supervisors were also talking about the strange answers they had seen. Scolding and discussions are endless. The ironclad soldier standing outside the courtyard gate listened to the scolding from inside the house expressionlessly, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but smile a little, this group of old men in the house was really the most interesting group of people in the south.

An old man in Tsing Yi finished reading the test paper in front of him that was written like a rune, and the saliva in his mouth was almost dry, he scolded and opened the next chapter of the test paper, picked up the tea and took a sip.

"Huh. The old man sighed lightly, his eyes attracted by the test paper in front of him.

The handwriting on this test paper is neat and delicate, and the elegant but unassuming font is compact and elegant, which makes people look very comfortable. The old man picked up a towel and wiped the tea on his hands and the corner of his mouth, and then slowly flipped through it.

As he slowly looked at it, the look of admiration in his eyes deepened, as if he had seen a beautiful and delicate painting, since he opened the scroll, he didn't even open his mouth to scold, he kept nodding his head in admiration, and finally said loudly: "Seconds, what seconds!"

He looked a little excited, carefully picked up the tea and took another sip, then raised his head and shouted to the fat old man beside him: "Old Tan, old Tan, come and see, I have a good volume." ”

Hearing this, the fat old man raised his head and looked at him, then picked up the file in his hand and walked over, and said, "Old Qin, I also have a good share here, much better than those stupid donkeys." ”

The old man in Tsing Yi moved to the side, gave half of the bench to him, and then said, "Then I'll take a look at your share first." ”

As he spoke, he pulled the file in the fat old man's hand and put it on the table, and the fat old man stretched out his finger and pointed at the file and said: "You see, he answered the arithmetic questions very accurately, and calculated the results step by step by the method of reverse deduction, 31/32 of a pot of wine, very smart." ”

The old man in Tsing Yi looked at it, suddenly cut it, and said: "You are not smart, look at my paper, his arithmetic algorithm is absolutely unprecedented!"

The fat old man became interested and set his eyes on the scroll in front of the old man in Tsing Yi.

"What does it mean to assume that there is an unknown pot of wine in the original pot?" the fat old man asked, as he read the scroll, then looked up puzzled.

The old man in Tsing Yi blew his eyebrows and glared and said: "Oh, you finished reading, you are more anxious than me, I didn't understand when I read it just now, you will know after reading it." ”

The fat old man read it carefully, and then the more he read, the more his brows furrowed, and after a long time, he raised his head and thought for a long time, and then raised his finger and gestured in the palm of his hand.

When the deduction was finally completed, he raised his head and looked at the old man in Tsing Yi with a surprised expression, and exclaimed: "Wonderful! This candidate has created such a wonderful solution, it is unbelievable!"

The old man in Tsing Yi was very satisfied with his expression, stroked his long beard and said softly: "At first, I couldn't understand it, I thought it was a stupid student who made things up, but later I found out that this was extremely correct. ”

The sound of the discussion between the two attracted the examiners who were still correcting around them, and several people gathered around and asked curiously what happened.

The old man in Tsing Yi smiled and pretended to hand them the scroll mysteriously.

They all picked up the test paper and read it carefully and curiously, then they all looked at each other in amazement, and then began to discuss it loudly, and the chatter was even more noisy than before.

"This student is gifted and intelligent, and he must be a great mathematician in the future, and let him study with me, and I promise to train this child. ”

"Hey, don't worry, even if he is outstanding in arithmetic, he may not be able to enter my National Protectorate!"

"Well, I think too, let's see how he answers the rest of the questions. ”

"Let me see, I want to know how he answered the essay questions that the dean got this year. ”

...

The old man in Tsing Yi snatched back the test paper and said, "Be quiet, let me change it, and return to the position quickly." ”

The fat old man smiled and said, "Lao Qin, you change it quickly, we will watch from the side, if this student does not answer well, we will not be too lazy to look at it." ”

"Yes, Vice Dean Qin, you change it quickly, we trust your judgment. We've changed too many bad papers, and if there's a good one, let's all take a look. ”

Everyone echoed for a while, and looked at the old man in Tsing Yi respectfully, it turned out that this old man was actually the vice president of the Protectorate Academy!

The old man in Tsing Yi waved his hand, motioned for everyone to get out of the way, and then picked up the pen and corrected it carefully.

"Well, this historiography question is well answered, and the analysis is very detailed, but it is still one-sided, you must know that Taizong did not simply consider these factors back then. The old man in Tsing Yi said to himself with a smile on his face.

The fat old man stood behind him, looked at the scroll and said, "But he definitely didn't know that the main reason why Taizong was stationed in Beilan Mountain back then was that he was waiting for someone. ”

The old man in Tsing Yi flipped through the file and said, "If he knew about me, I would have to think carefully about his age." ”

As he spoke, he laughed happily, as if remembering some interesting past, and the fat old man behind him also smiled.

Back then, the person who Taizong was waiting in Beilan Mountain was naturally the dean. And this matter, except for their group of old antiques, only the generals who joined the army back then know about it, and now these people are almost in their old age.

The fat old man sighed slightly and said, "I think our group of people have grown old like this, and the dean still hasn't changed." ”

The old man in Tsing Yi shook his head and said admiringly: "Of course, he is the dean." ”

After speaking, he retracted his expression, looked at the exam paper in front of him, and carefully revised it with a pen. Every time he turned a page back, the expression on his face had to change several times, which confused the older examiners standing at the table.

The noisy room was now silent, except for the kettle bubbling and making a loud boiling noise.

The ironclad soldier standing in front of the door turned his head curiously to look at the people in the room, and found that there was nothing unusual, and then turned his head again, the afternoon sun was already shining obliquely on his cold armor, and the soldier looked coldly ahead, with a facial expression.

After a long time, the old man in Tsing Yi turned the scroll back to the first page, and then he held the pen as if he was trying to think about something.

Everyone looked at him in bewilderment, but no one spoke, just waited quietly.

As if he had finally made some important decision, the old man in Tsing Yi picked up his pen and wrote down a line of words heavily. Then he gently put down the brush in his hand, carefully rested it on the pen holder, and exhaled a long breath.

I saw that on the first page of the frontispiece, there was a dignified and inky black line of big characters: "On the first, Qin Zhuang Xian Criticism".

There was still a dead silence in the room, as if the air had been drained, but some heavy breathing could be faintly heard, drowning out the sound of boiling water on the stove.

Everyone stared at the test paper in front of the old man in Tsing Yi, and after a long time, a cough sounded came, and the quiet hut exploded in an instant, and it was extremely noisy, like a bowl of cold water poured into boiling hot oil.

Everyone squeezed hard to the table and asked loudly, "Vice Dean, is this really a first-class exam paper?!"

You must know that there are three levels of grading of test papers, which are divided into A, B, C, and there are three sub-grades within the three levels, which are upper, middle and lower. And the old man in Tsing Yi actually directly gave him a "first-class" rating for the test paper in front of him! And this means that if there is no accident, the test paper in front of him is very likely to be the best paper in this year's small exam!

"It's really fake, the last time it was rated as a roll on the first grade was eight years ago!"

"Vice Dean Qin, let's take a look, how did he answer?"

"Oh, don't squeeze me, let me see first. ”

The old man in Tsing Yi smiled, stroked his beard again, and then said to everyone: "That's right, this is a test paper on the armor, you can read it, be careful not to break it." ”

After speaking, he slowly pushed the test paper to the table and let everyone flip through it. The first person who was crowded in front opened the test paper and read it carefully, and a few people around him also pasted their faces, only a few people who didn't squeeze over hurriedly urged in the back.

"Tsk, this word is really good, it looks much better than those ghosts dancing, and it is even more rare and there is a faint hint of unique style. ”

"Oh, what's so nice about this dictation question, you turn it back... ”

"Don't squeeze it, my old bones are going to be scattered by you. ”

The courtyard was noisy, like a fish market in the early morning. In fact, it's not that they are making too much fuss, but according to their concepts and cognitions, this year's exam questions themselves are already extremely difficult. If it weren't for the dean's already sent them the answers and explanations, they would have struggled to answer some of these questions.

And in such a situation, there can still be a "Jiashang" volume that has not been seen for eight years, how can this not make them excited?

An old man with white eyebrows carefully looked at the astronomical question about "sunrise and sunset" in the river, and his gray eyebrows jumped violently, like a summer grasshopper. Even the corners of his deeply sunken mouth trembled slightly, and after a while, he looked up at the old man in Tsing Yi and exclaimed, "How could he know the answer to this question! Impossible, how could he answer this question so correctly." Vice Dean, did someone leak the question?!"

The old man in Tsing Yi smiled at him, signaled him not to be excited, and then said slowly: "We only got the questions when the exam papers were sent to the examination room, and the military department was personally escorted by heavy cavalry, so the time is short, and there is no possibility of leaking the questions at all." ”

He raised his head and looked at the white-eyed old man in front of him, and continued: "And this is the dean's own question, if you want to leak the question, it can only be revealed by the dean himself, do you think a character like the dean will give a nameless little student a question?"

Everyone was silent, what a figure the dean was! How could he possibly have the time and energy to vent a question to a scholar?

Then there is only one answer left in this matter, this candidate is a veritable "A student" who has no possibility of falsehood!

The white-eyed old man trembled his hands and sighed leisurely: "It turns out that there are still such smart young people in the world, and our group of people are really old. ”

The old man in Tsing Yi waved his hand and said, "It doesn't have to be a young man, you must know that the age limit for the examination of our Protectorate is only under thirty years old. ”

The white-eyed old man replied disappreciatively: "Even if you are thirty years old, it is a terrible life." ”

Indeed, thirty years old is still too young for them.

The fat old man was still standing behind the old man in Tsing Yi, and he also saw everything just now, and he said softly: "I really want to see the name of this candidate." ”

"Isn't that decent?" replied the old man standing on the right.

The files of the small test are all sealed with the name of the paper, and the candidate's name and place of origin are written in the seal.

"Eh, isn't this already out of the picture, so it's okay to take a look. The fat old man said disapprovingly.

Everyone was a little itchy when he said this, and they looked at the vice president and sought his opinion. The old man in Tsing Yi looked at everyone looking at him, hesitated for a long time, and then said hesitantly: "Then... Take it apart and take it apart?"

Everyone laughed, the fat old man was already impatient to hold the file in his arms, he raised his hand and gently tore open the seal, took out the handwriting of the handwriting of the test papers, and opened the gold leaf on the seal.

Then he gently spread it out, and saw two words neatly written on the place where the name was registered: "River".