On the tenth day of the first month of March, the twilight of spring was beautiful, Cheng Yan and Gu Yunqiao got married and officially became husband and wife.

Regarding the matter of the two of them's heirs, Gu Yunji couldn't bear to hurt his friend's body on the one hand, and on the other hand, he was worried that his sister would change her mind and regret it in the future.

Whether to sterilize with contraception in this way, whether to let Cheng Yan drink the extermination medicine, and when to drink the extermination medicine, it is up to the couple to decide, Gu Yunji chose not to interfere, and he didn't ask.

On the day of the wedding, Cheng Gu's two families were decorated with lights, the guests were noisy, and they were full of joy, and the excitement was no less than when Gu Yunji and Xu Shuhua got married. As the bride's brother and the groom's best friend, watching the two get married, Gu Yunji had mixed feelings in her heart, and she couldn't tell what her mood was.

There is not only the joy of my sister marrying a good home, but also the relief of Cheng Yanmi to learn that she has a heart, and when she thinks of the little girl who used to call her brother and brother behind her, now that she has grown up and married a woman, a strong melancholy suddenly rose in her heart.

Gu Yunji's heart struggled with various emotions all day, but after all, it was the love of his brother that prevailed. Especially when the banquet dispersed and he was about to leave the Cheng family, Gu Yunji's reluctance to his sister reached its peak, and he even didn't want to leave, and was finally persuaded to go back by Xu Shuhua.

After returning to Gu's house, looking at the courtyard where Gu Yunqiao lived, the utensils were as usual, but the people who lived in it were gone. Gu Yunji's heart was empty, and he couldn't adjust for a while, so he could only ask Xu Shujing for experience and ask him how he got out of this low mood of being separated from his sister.

However, Xu Shujing is not very experienced, he is more than ten years older than Xu Shuhua, which is equivalent to bringing her up single-handedly, and his reluctance to his sister is more serious than Gu Yunji. Back then, he personally carried his sister out of the door and sent him to a sedan chair, but now his niece is almost two years old, and he hasn't completely come out.

At this time, seeing that this bastard boy who "kidnapped" his sister actually dared to ask himself this, Xu Shujing was suddenly angry, and the old accounts were turned out, and he scolded Gu Yunji for taking advantage of his absence to bewitch his sister, and said for a while that the way of heaven is good for reincarnation, and Gu Yunji also has today, so he should let him taste this taste.

All in all, Gu Yunji failed to gain experience, but after the quarrel with Xu Shujing, he felt much better.

Seven days after Cheng Yan and Gu Yunqiao got married, Jingfeng's eight-year examination officially ended, and before Gu Yunji's feelings about his friend and sister tying the knot faded, he was "arrested" to read the papers, locked up in the Ministry of Rites for several days, and couldn't go out until the end of the papers.

There are three main types of officials who mark the papers, namely the same examiner, the deputy examiner and the chief examiner. In the first part of the marking, the examiner should conduct a preliminary screening of the candidate's test papers, select the excellent answer sheets, mark them with a blue pen and indicate the reason, and then recommend them to the deputy examiner.

The deputy examiner will screen the papers for the second time, and select the better ones from the answers recommended by the same examiner, and recommend them to the chief examiner. The examiner has the greatest decision-making power, and in the papers recommended by the deputy examiner, if he thinks which one is good, he can directly decide, and the candidate corresponding to the answer sheet will be admitted.

The general process of marking is like this, and the work of selecting the best 300 out of six or seven thousand answers is quite large. After the selection of which 300 people are admitted, it is not finished, because the ranking still has to be determined.

In this process of determining the ranking, the examiner, the deputy examiner and the chief examiner all have the same powers, and each person takes turns to read 300 test papers, and if he thinks he has answered well, he will draw a circle on the paper, and if he has not answered well, he will cross it. After the circulation, the ranking is determined according to the number of circles and crosses on each volume, and the ones with more circles and fewer crossings are ranked first, and those with fewer circles and more crossings are ranked last, and the controversial ones are discussed additionally.

As the saying goes, there is no first and no second, and being given up by a certain examiner does not mean that the paper will not be answered well. In order to avoid missing talented people, the imperial court stipulated that each answer sheet should be judged by at least two fellow examiners, and as long as one person felt good, he could be recommended to the deputy examiner to enter the next round of screening.

After the answer sheets for the 300 admissions are confirmed, the chief examiner and deputy examiner will also randomly check the dethroned answer sheets to check whether there are any outstanding papers that have been missed. If so, they can be added to the admission list at any time after discussion and discussion.

It can be seen from the marking process that the imperial court has tried its best to ensure the fairness of the examination, but due to the limitations of the examination method and the technology of the times, the subjective will of the marking officer has a great influence, and it is impossible to ensure 100% fairness and justice.

Gu Yunji served as the same examiner, and seemed to have the least power, but he could directly contact the candidates' test papers for the first time, which was the easiest link to breed fraud in the imperial examination. The candidates' answer sheets were re-transcribed by a special person, and the name was pasted out, and the candidates' personal information could not be seen, but the means of fraud emerged in an endless stream.

Some candidates buy off the examiner who marks the paper before the exam, agree to use specific words when answering the paper, and the examiner finds his paper according to the words and recommends it to the deputy examiner, so as to increase the probability of being admitted.

However, this also requires the candidate to have a certain strength, after all, if the answer is too poor, even if the same examiner strongly recommends it, the deputy examiner will not admit it. Therefore, in order to ensure that they are admitted, some candidates simply "do it in one step" and directly bribe the examiner who has the final decision.

For example, when the dynasty was first established, in a certain year, several scholars from the same township as the chief examiner visited his home, wanting him to be accommodating and give a little "guidance" to the future generations of his fellow villagers. However, the examiner was furious when he heard this, and while scolding "Pi Xiuzai", he brushed his sleeves away.

A few of the scholars thought they had touched a nail, but they were very discouraged and stopped mentioning the matter. However, some of the clever ones heard that there was something in his words, and used the word "Pi Xiuya" in the answers to the questions in the subsequent examination. As a result, all the candidates who wrote "Pi Xiuya" were admitted.

Later, in order to avoid the recurrence of similar fraud, the imperial court stipulated that when the file was marked, the officials could not talk to each other. In particular, the chief examiner and deputy examiner can only read the test papers recommended by the subordinates, and cannot directly check the test papers of the candidates.

Gu Yunji didn't think too much, just diligently judged and recommended the papers, so as to be fair and upright, and minimize the impact of his subjective preferences.

Seven days later, all the papers were reviewed, and the examiner took the lead to leave, and the chief examiner and the deputy examiner left the name seal, proofread the candidates' information, and prepared the final admission list. However, after seeing the prepared list, the examiners did not dare to present it to Emperor Jingfeng.

After flipping through the list and reading it several times, Cai Zhichuan, the chief examiner of the Ministry of Rites at the time, rolled his throat, and his eyes were in disbelief: "The three hundred tributes admitted here...... Why are there so few scholars in the north?! ”