My Wife is Unbeatable in the Whole World, Touch Me If You Dare!-Chapter 293 - 171 A Perfect Moment [Vote for Monthly Tickets] _2

Three gong strikes resounded, and the examination hall staff responsible for maintaining order walked past the front of each examination room, notifying the candidates one by one to put down their pens and exit the rooms gradually.

In just a short period of time, the entire Examination Hall transformed from a state of utmost silence to one of extreme noise.

"Alas, there wasn't enough time. I didn't get to answer two of the Composition questions."

"Fortunately, I saved Calligraphy for last, and I only managed to write one piece. Thankfully, it doesn't affect my grade..."

"I'm doomed. I only finished half of my painting; I don't even know if I can participate in the next round!"

Outside the gate of the Examination Hall, some people walked out with their heads held high, while others slumped in dejection.

Outside the examination area, within a hundred paces, martial law was in effect.

Li Nuo walked a good distance before he saw several figures in the distance. Approaching the carriage, Song Yu, whose legs were numb from standing, said, "Brother-in-law, why did you just come out now? I've been waiting for you for an hour..."

Li Nuo's gaze turned towards Song Yu; he had finished with half an hour to spare, yet Song Yu had left even half an hour before him.

Song Yu laughed and said, "The Imperial Examination is simple: if you know it, you know it; if you don't, you don't. Sitting there won't give you the answers, so I might as well leave early. It's so cramped in those examination rooms, you can't even stretch your legs out when lying down. It was so uncomfortable trying to sleep..."

In fact, the examination rooms in the First Examination Hall were very spacious, and Song Yu could stretch out his legs when lying down. It was only because he had slept so comfortably and snored that he had been complained about by a fellow candidate and then had been driven out by the patrolling examination hall staff.

Seeing two other figures emerge from the Examination Hall, Song Yu waved his hand and called out, "Pei Jun, Zhou Yu, over here!"

Next to the carriage, Song Jiaren looked at Li Nuo, not having had a chance to say anything, before another figure rushed to ask impatiently, "How did the exam go?"

Song Jiaren glanced at Li Anning, who shrank back behind Mumu.

Li Nuo looked at them, smiled slightly, and said, "Not bad."

Song Yu asked, "Pei Jun, Zhou Yu, how did you do in the exam?"

Zhou Yu shook his head and said, "Not well; there were two Composition questions I didn't know how to answer."

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Pei Jun also sighed and said, "I only managed to write one piece for Calligraphy, and I was a bit short of finishing the painting..."

Song Yu put an arm around their shoulders and said, "What's there to sigh about? Did you seriously expect to pass as Advanced Scholars? If we fail, then so be it. If that happens, we can all go make our mark in the military together..."

Moments later, the carriage slowly made its way towards the Song Residence.

On the way there, Li Nuo and Song Yu had journeyed together.

On the way back, Song Yu conscientiously chose to walk.

Inside the carriage, Li Nuo sat next to his wife in one row, with Li Anning and Mumu sitting opposite them.

Both were tacitly silent, with only Mumu chattering incessantly, asking questions about everything and anything.

Song Jiaren gazed out of the carriage window, lost in thought.

Li Anning's eyes also stared into the void, her heart filled with extreme anxiety.

Li Nuo's Book Department exam was what she worried about the most, and since it was the first event, if he failed there, all her efforts would be in vain, and there would be no point in looking forward to the rest...

Unlike the two women, Li Nuo was not worried at all.

Even if all the calligraphy masters and painting experts of Daxia were summoned, and given a copy of Daxia Law and the "Sixteen Classics" to consult, he had nothing to fear.

The second session of the Imperial Examination would not start until five days later.

The spring examination had only had over ten thousand participants, but the Imperial Examination had nearly a hundred thousand. With such strict grading, it was impossible to review all the Book Department exam papers in one day.

Li Nuo's carriage had not yet reached the Song Residence when all the papers from the First Examination Hall had already been categorized and sent to the grading venue.

In Daxia, the Imperial Examination was the sole path to a civil service career; the court naturally treated it with much more rigor than the spring exams, especially in terms of grading.

Take Calligraphy, for example.

In the spring exams, one examiner could decide the final result of a Calligraphy exam, with a certain element of luck involved.

If an examiner specialized in and favored Regular Script, and if a candidate used cursive script, it was possible that the paper's grade might be lowered.

However, this would not happen in the Imperial Examination. In Calligraphy, each candidate's paper would be evaluated by five different examiners, and a final tally would be made at the end.

These five examiners, each proficient in a different script style, would have their highest and lowest evaluations discarded, and the average of the three remaining scores would determine the final grade.

It was this fair system that greatly reduced the possibility of cheating in the Imperial Examination, earning the trust of candidates.

At the First Examination Hall, just for the calligraphy segment, there were fifteen examiners appointed.

All the examiners were in their own rooms, fervently grading the papers.

Wei Xun, with his hands clasped behind his back, occasionally stepped in to take a look.

As the person who set the calligraphy questions and the chief examiner for this round of the Imperial Examination, he didn't need to grade the papers himself, but under certain conditions, he could overturn the judgments of the examiners.

Today was the last day of the Book Department's paper grading.

By noon tomorrow, the total grades for the Book Department needed to be compiled and the list of examinees entering the next round of exams announced.

The grades for the calligraphy segment had been completely tallied.

In the First Examination Hall, two thousand examinees had produced six thousand calligraphy papers.

Among them, there were no exceptional ones.

There were eleven A+ grade papers.

And nineteen Class A grade papers.

This year's calligraphy papers were different from the past; thirty papers of Class A and above didn't mean there were thirty examinees who reached Class A. Among them, there could also be individuals who had more than two papers.

But as examiners, they could only give grades. They wouldn't even mention the examinees' names, let alone their numbers, which were all sealed, completely eliminating the possibility of examiners' fraud.

According to the rules, all papers graded Class A and above had to be reviewed by the chief examiner.

In this process, the chief examiner could make final adjustments.

Wei Xun swept his gaze over the papers, his face revealing surprise.

There was no Hairpin Flower Small Regular Script to be found.

This was the Imperial Examination; examinees would unlikely not use their most proficient script style.

The only possibility was that Li Xuanjing's son, who had performed exceptionally well in the spring examinations, hadn't managed to perform at his peak level in the Imperial Examination, resulting in his calligraphy score being below Class A.

A person isn't a machine, and can't always maintain their best condition. There were times when Wei Xun himself wasn't in the right state of mind, and the characters he wrote then were ones he didn't want to look at a second time...

In that case, there was nothing he could do.

He certainly couldn't pick out the Hairpin Flower Small Regular Script paper from six thousand papers to drop it by two grades...

The chief examiner couldn't do as he pleased either. Such an obvious move, if discovered by the patrolling examiners, would ruin the rest of his life.

Based on his original plan, if there were any papers using Hairpin Flower Small Regular Script that received Class A or higher, he could have pushed them down to A- or B+ grade, but if Li Xuanjing's son made mistakes himself, he had no one to blame.

He had been targeting you, yet you failed to show your mettle...

An examiner took out three papers from the A+ grades and said, "Master Wei, please take a look at these three papers, should we promote them to exceptional..."

These three papers, rated A+ by all examiners, didn't mean they were only worth A+.

The Imperial Examination differed from the spring examination; for every exceptional grade in the Imperial Examination, there must be extensive discussions, and finally, the chief examiner would give final approval before it could be validated. Afterwards, the court would also inquire about the exceptional papers.

All the examiners believed these three papers qualified to be promoted to exceptional.

Wei Xun picked up these three papers one by one, stroked his beard, eyes filled with appreciation.

In these three papers, he saw a reflection of himself.

The owners of these three papers, if not his disciples, must have copied his calligraphy for a long time, and could be considered carriers of his mantle.

Normally, determining an exceptional grade should be done with caution, especially for calligraphy and painting, which require subjective judgment by the examiners. Each exceptional paper will be re-examined by the court, and if there were any issues, examiners would be held accountable.

Therefore, even for the papers that examiners greatly admired, they would at most award an A+.

But he truly liked these three papers and even considered finding their authors to take on as disciples after the Imperial Examination.

After much deliberation, Wei Xun nodded and declared, "These three papers should be rated as exceptional!"

An examiner hesitantly said, "If the court inquires..."

Wei Xun waved his hand and replied, "Let the court inquire if they will. If anything arises, I will shoulder the responsibility alone!"