"What deserves to be the top candidate?" The Emperor, having just finished handling state affairs, entered the hall and heard the remark.
"Your Majesty," the officials knelt as the Emperor entered. The academician who had read the essay presented the paper. "We all believe this paper should be ranked first this year."
"Oh?" The Emperor's interest was piqued. He took the paper, scanned it, and his eyes lit up just as theirs had. "The calligraphy is truly exquisite. If it weren't on an exam script, I might think it was the work of a master."
After praising the script, his eyes swiftly moved down the page, taking in ten lines at a glance. A casual look turned into a startled focus, and he promptly went back to read it carefully from beginning to end.
"Excellent! Truly excellent!" The Emperor grew more satisfied with the paper as he read. "Not only is the script superb, but the answers are too!"
"Hahaha!" After finishing, he was immensely pleased. "If my court were full of such capable individuals, how could the nation fear a lack of prosperity and strength!"
"Your Majesty," seeing the Emperor so delighted, a perceptive academician quickly presented the other three good papers. "Besides the one in Your Majesty's hand, we found three other commendable answers."
"Indeed?" The Emperor had thought the paper he held and the one he saw earlier were pleasant surprises enough. Finding more was beyond mere surprise; it was exhilarating.
The Emperor picked up the three other papers and scanned them. While not as stunning as the first one he had seen, they were thankfully no longer filled with hollow, incomprehensible prose.
"Good, very good," the Emperor felt consoled after reviewing them. "Who says you can't do something if you haven't studied it before? Look here, we have proof that you can!"
"If there were only one or two, you could say they were exceptionally talented. But five in a row proves it's the protesting students who have the problem."
"Given the same three years, why did some learn while others didn't?"
"Instead of reflecting on themselves, they blame the questions—completely reversing black and white!"
Mentioning this, the Emperor couldn't help but resent the previous Emperor. He should have been a decisive founding ruler, but after ascending the throne, he believed the civil officials' nonsense that he was illiterate and unfit to govern. He overly emphasized culture over military affairs, turning his capable elder brother into a bookworm who didn't even know how to deploy troops.
How could such an emperor deserve his loyalty?!
If he hadn't rebelled, someone else would have eventually. So, it was better that he did it himself!
The Emperor never regretted his actions. Now, seeing these five exam papers, so different from the literary-focused court officials, he was even more convinced he was right.
If he hadn't taken the throne and reformed the exams, how many outstanding talents like these five would have been buried in obscurity?
He walked to the imperial desk, took a vermilion brush, and personally marked the paper he was extremely satisfied with: "Such an answer should be a model for the world. Ranking it as Jieyuan top provincial graduate alone is almost an injustice."
If this weren't the provincial exam, the Emperor would have named this candidate as Zhuangyuan top metropolitan graduate.
What a pity—
The Emperor sighed, then remembered: since the provincial exams are here, the palace exams aren't far behind.
He stopped regretting it.
"The others are also good," the Emperor didn't forget the other candidates. "After the results are posted, have the well-answered current affairs papers printed and distributed to all prefectures. Let those protesting students see—those who claim they 'haven't learned it, can't do it, it's unfair,' who shout that current affairs are useless—see how others answer!"
If this still couldn't silence the public criticism, then the world was truly rotten beyond repair, and only drastic measures could save them!
"Yes," the academicians responded in unison.
Xu Huaiqian, far away in Xinghua Village, knew nothing about court affairs.
After the provincial exam, they stayed in Changnan Prefecture for half a month. They had planned to enjoy a family vacation, but the prefecture was full of protesting students.
Xu Huaiqian found them extremely annoying. When they learned he was also a candidate, they pestered him daily to join their protests.
Xu Huaiqian thought they were foolish. If the Emperor dared to reform the exams, it proved he wasn't to be trifled with. Their loud protests wouldn't reverse the reform; instead, it would backfire.
However, nothing is absolute. Maybe they could succeed sometimes.
Regardless of the outcome, he didn't want to get involved in this mess. He decided to take his family back to Xinghua Village early to harvest the Sichuan peppercorns.
Nothing was more important than his wife's determination to buy a house.
In the peppercorn field, Chen Liejiu and the others were harvesting. They wouldn't let Xu Huaiqian help, afraid the thorns on the trees would prick him.
"A-Jiu!" Bored and sticking close to his wife, Xu Huaiqian had no choice but to pick a cluster of bright red peppercorns and tuck it behind Chen Liejiu's ear. He playfully recited an ancient poem: "I see you as a lovely pepper plant; you give me a handful of peppercorns."
Chen Liejiu stopped harvesting, took the red peppercorn from his ear, and looked at Xu Huaiqian curiously: "What does that mean?"
Xu Huaiqian explained: "It means 'I adore you.'"
Hearing this, Chen Liejiu's lips curved into a smile: "I adore you too!"
As he continued harvesting, he chatted with Xu Huaiqian: "But when I was working as an escort, I heard people say peppercorns also symbolize having many children and much happiness. There's another poem, how does it go?"
"'The fruit of the pepper plant multiplies and fills the basket,'" Xu Huaiqian recited instantly.
"Right!" Chen Liejiu smiled at him. "A-Qian, may the fruit of the pepper plant multiply and fill the basket!"
At first, Xu Huaiqian didn't understand why Chen Liejiu suddenly asked about this.
It wasn't until all five mu of peppercorns were harvested that Xu Huaiqian suddenly realized—his wife had flirted back!
He said he loved him.
His wife said he loved him too and wanted to have many children with him.
Having children was out of the question, but Xu Huaiqian was still very touched by his wife's confession.
For several days while drying the peppercorns, he stuck close to Chen Liejiu. His wife was just too smooth—he could even flirt back effortlessly.
Xu Huaiqian suspected that if his wife could study, his achievements would definitely not be inferior to his own.
"A-Jiu, would you like to study?" Xu Huaiqian asked Chen Liejiu while they were drying peppercorns at home.
Chen Liejiu was puzzled: "Why do you ask?"
"Just occurred to me," Xu Huaiqian felt no embarrassment in front of his wife. "If you could study, your results might be better than mine?"
"Then I still wouldn't like studying," Chen Liejiu shook his head. "I can handle running around outside all day, but sitting in a school every day? I couldn't stand it."
Chen Liejiu had seen how Xu Huaiqian studied.
Sitting in school, sitting at home, book never leaving his hand, reciting and writing every day. He couldn't persist like that day after day for years.
"However, if one day women and men could openly study, that would be wonderful," Chen Liejiu sifted through the peppercorns on the winnowing basket. "Then the girls and men in the village wouldn't envy their brothers who get to go to school."
As the villagers of Xinghua Village and the Chen clan grew wealthier, almost every household sent their children to study with Zhang Bingwen's grandfather, Zhang Jiming.
This was good, but it made life harder for the girls and men in the village. With their brothers attending school, the household and farm work fell onto them.
Whenever Chen Liejiu passed through the village and saw these girls and men working in the fields—catching insects, feeding chickens, weeding—he wondered: Why can their brothers study while they are stuck doing farm labor, watching enviously as their brothers dress in new clothes and go to school each day?
Is it just because they are women or men?
This was a problem rooted in the feudal system. Xu Huaiqian didn't have the power to change it yet.
But he was impressed that his wife had such awareness. The person he fell for was truly different!
"How about this, A-Jiu," Xu Huaiqian suggested. "Go talk to the village elders and the clan chief. Propose building a school in the village."
Xu Huaiqian couldn't change the world's mindset, but he might be able to change the villagers' minds in Xinghua Village.
Chen Liejiu turned around: "Hmm?"
"Too many want to study now. Teacher Zhang's school can't hold that many students." Just the households in Xinghua Village numbered over a hundred, not to mention the three hundred households of the Chen clan.
With so many children crammed into Teacher Zhang's school, how could he teach them all by himself?
Xu Huaiqian shared his idea: "Since so many children in our Xinghua Village want to study, why don't we build a larger school in the village and hire three or four teachers?"
"Hire three or four teachers?" How big would that school need to be?
"Build it big. Ideally, each classroom could hold about a hundred people." Xu Huaiqian whispered to Chen Liejiu, "Then we can use the extra space for the village's girls and men to study."
Chen Liejiu was doubtful: "Would that work?"