On August 13th, it was the same day that I got up early to take the exam.

When the genius was dawn, Li Ling and Xu Cang bid farewell to Li Moyun and walked towards the examination room with other candidates living in Zheguiyuan in more than ten carriages arranged in the store. There were more than a thousand candidates from 43 counties in Huaibei, where they were on the same road.

Such a vast team has become a major landscape in the entire Xuzhou City, attracting countless people to watch and discuss. But as everyone speculated how many candidates would jump to the dragon gate to become juren and step into the ruling class, the candidates who were in the carriage or walking became increasingly nervous.

Li Ling was calm. He had been a man for two years, at least he would not feel timid and panic on the way to the exam room. However, Xu Cang, who was beside him, had a slightly pale face at this moment and was obviously under pressure.

It was not until Li Ling called him softly three times that he came to his senses a little and looked over: "What do you say about Wen Zhong?"

"Do you feel nervous and stressed?" Li Ling looked at him with a smile.

"It's a bit too much. It's my first provincial exam after all, and I just came to the teacher yesterday. I really don't want to lose his face."

"Haha, what would you do if Master Confucian knew you were thinking this way?" Li Ling patted his friend's shoulder, "I think he wouldn't be happy. After all, since he accepted you as a disciple, he never hoped that this would become your pressure. On the contrary, you should be more confident and not afraid of exams if you have to be a famous teacher."

"How do you say this?" Xu Cang was really attracted by Li Ling's words and asked hurriedly.

Li Ling sighed: "Isn't this obvious? With the reputation and status of Confucian scholars in the sect, it is easy to support a disciple like you? So even if you do not do well this time, it doesn't matter. Maybe with his guidance, you can make great progress and wait until he wins the championship in one year. So for you, there is not much pressure on this year's provincial examination."

"That's what I said, but..."

"Listen to me, I thought about it a little longer before going to bed yesterday, and then I realized that Master Confucianism has indeed helped us a lot this time. Why did you think he invited us to the door last night?"

"Aren't you thinking about accepting you as a disciple?"

"This is just the superficial reason, but the real intention is to help us relieve stress. Think about it again, what would we do if we didn't go to his place yesterday but stayed in the inn? It was nothing more than writing articles, and then spending the night uneasy in my heart, maybe I couldn't sleep. But after that exchange, I was distracted, at least we all slept very soundly last night, so we are full of energy now."

Xu Cang thought about it and it was true, which made him feel a little more grateful to Li Ling. Because he knew very well that he could not go to Zhang's mansion yesterday, Li Ling pulled him over, and then he was the one who benefited the most...

"This is only the first level. The deepest level is that the Confucian master is at peace with our hearts. Think about it, I offended the Luo family, and they are also a large family in Xuzhou. Even if I am not afraid of them, I will feel a little nervous. If I go to the exam room like this, I will naturally feel sick. But he completely solved the problem of the Luo family last night and drove them out of Lianghuai, so naturally I got my mind.

"There is also the punishment for Luo Feng. Once he is broken, he will probably not be able to get better in less than half a year. In this way, he will definitely miss the imperial examination next year. As long as we can pass the provincial examination and pass the imperial examination next year, we will definitely be stronger than him. Even if we can't do it, we will be the same as him at most."

After this analysis, Xu Cang was really incisive and stunned for a long time before sighing: "Have the teacher even calculated these things? Could it be that... he thought of asking you to pass by when he knew that Rory Hen would come to the door?"

"That's probably true, so I said that Confucian scholars have really put their hearts in good faith to us. We should do our best to get a juren to repay him for his maintenance." Li Ling said, looking at the other party seriously, and Xu Cang's eyes flashed with determination: "You are right, I will not have any more worries. This time I will definitely be on the list!"

They spoke on their own, but they shocked and envious to the other candidates in the same car. However, no one asked if there was no friendship. Until the car stopped and Li Ling and the other two got off the bus first, they looked at each other again. Someone said softly: "Is the Confucian master they mentioned Mr. Zhang Hefeng?"

"I think they are swearing and gilding themselves on their faces. Mr. Zhang Ru has not officially accepted disciples for ten years. How could he make an exception today and only accept one student?"

This immediately won the unanimous agreement of others. They nodded one after another, and then they walked out of the car calmly. Then, like Li Ling and the others who got off the car first, they were shocked by the scene in front of them.

I saw that the examination room that I had stepped on a few days ago was crowded with people. It was three or four miles away from the real examination room gantry and horses were no longer accessible. And there were dozens of lanterns carrying high, representing the gathering point of candidates in each county. The crowd was surging, heading towards the same direction like a tide.

Two thousand people gathered in such a square of three or four acres, which really gave people a feeling of being crowded with people and needles that could not be inserted into them. But what was even more shocking was that there was not much noise in all of this, and everyone seemed so polite, no longer as messy and loud as they were in the examination.

After all, the candidates who can come here are all students, and they are all scholars with status. How could they walk and scream like before? So in this way, although it was messy, the order at the scene was quite well-organized. After Li Ling and the others found the location of the lanterns in the county, they lined up and leaned up.

It was crowded for a long time. When the sky gradually brightened, they finally came under the lanterns. More than 20 students from the county had gathered here. They didn't say much to each other, but just nodded to each other. This time, the location of Jiangcheng County was very good, only about ten feet away from the main entrance of the examination room, and the teams from the other two county towns were separated by the middle.

As time came, a melodious bell rang, followed by a loud shout with a long tone: "Open the dragon gate--!"

The main entrance of the examination room of the provincial examination is the real "dragon gate", which means that the carp leaps into the gate and turns into a dragon! After all, only by passing the provincial examination and becoming a juren can one truly enter the official and gentry class and will no longer be a commoner.

In the sluggish creaking sound, the gantry door, which was more than three meters high and more than six meters wide, slowly opened, and then the examiner came out. However, unlike the examination in the court, the official did not rush to speak or let the candidates enter directly, but asked his subordinates to put a huge brazier in front of the gate first, and then someone beside him muttered something.

Because the distance was not far, Li Ling really heard the other party clearly: "God of kindness comes, resentment of gratitude comes, revenge comes, revenge comes..." If there weren't so many people at the scene, it was a little dawn again, and just chanting the Dharma, it would really be a kind of divine thing.

It is said that the ghosts and gods in the examination room are the most effective. If there are candidates who do evil or even kill people on weekdays, the enemies' souls will make trouble when you take the exam, which will make you confused or dirty the test papers and fail. And if you do more good deeds on weekdays, you will be protected by the ghosts and will ensure that everything goes well.

This is certainly a superstitious statement, but it also has a certain positive effect. After all, as a student, they already have a certain ability and capital to do evil.

Of course Li Ling doesn't believe these things, and he has many enemies in fact. Of course, his biggest enemy, Zhuang Hong, has not become a ghost yet. He has to wait until next month to formally decide the autumn finals. Then in February, the examination... Bah, he wants to come, Li Ling can make him die of ghosts...

Regardless of whether this method is useful or not, at least the candidates still ate some portions in their minds, and then waited for the paper in the brazier to burn, the examiner took a step forward and said loudly: "I won't say much about other things. I will keep my door closed for three days after entering the provincial examination and will not open until noon on the fifteenth day. Therefore, if you have a bad disease and cannot survive for these three days, I still hope that you can think twice. It is still time to withdraw at this time."

If there is any difference between the provincial examination and the previous examination, time should be the most important point. It took three days and nights, and candidates could only answer questions in their own examination room. This is a big test and temper for every candidate. Obviously, there have been many things in the past.

But since we have reached this point and the provincial examination is still once every three years, it is naturally impossible for anyone to retreat. The examiner had already expected this, and the statement just now was as usual, so he said again: "Then let's enter according to the number of seats in each county."

"Brother Zhuowu, is there something missing?" Li Ling looked at the team of candidates closest to the examination room and successfully entered the examination room, and said with some confusion.

Xu Cang also discovered the problem and said strangely: "Yes, why didn't the body search?" You should know that the body searches in the previous government and hospital examinations were quite strict, and there was no reason why it was not necessary to search in the more important provincial examinations.

Another candidate in the team smiled when he heard this: "You came to the provincial examination for the first time so I don't know the whole story. This is the preferential treatment of our students by the court. After all, we all have fame and fortune. If we let those rude soldiers and servants fumble around us, it would be too disgraceful!"

"Then don't search your body, it doesn't matter even if there is something really involved?" Li Ling frowned. He always felt that things would not be that simple.

"You will know the reason after you go in." The other party kept it in a silence and smiled.

It was not until this time that Li Ling realized that the first team had been in for a while, but the second team had not been allowed to enter the examination room. Could it be that the problem lies in this?

After waiting for a while with such doubts, the people in Jiangcheng County were allowed to enter the examination room. After walking along the open aisle, the leaders of the team took them to the side and came to a foggy monument: "You all go in and wash them, change into clothes, and then come out to get the examination basket, and go to the examination room."
Chapter completed!