Chapter 57: Additional Questions, True Skills Shown

Chapter 57: The Bonus Question Reveals True Talent

Those who served in the capital's county yamen, from the runners to the esteemed secretaries, were all sharp as tacks.

The moment Ning Xishi registered, they got the news—this was the rightful second son of the esteemed Heavenly Official, the Minister of Rites! He had also once been the male wife of the rebel Xie Jingxing. Either way, none of those titles were something the county magistrate could afford to mess with.

However, they'd originally assumed Ning Xishi wouldn't bother subjecting himself to such hardship, so they hadn't given it much thought.

Unexpectedly, before dawn broke, when the names of examinees were called out loudly outside, Ning Xishi actually answered the roll call.

The high-and-mighty young master had truly swallowed his pride and come to take the county examination.

Yet his reputation in the capital had indeed been slowly improving. It was said that at a literary gathering last autumn, he had composed a couplet that was exceptionally clever and well-crafted, and even his handwriting had real style to it.

It had won praise from many scholars and men of letters.

It was even said that Wang Qifeng, the top provincial graduate of Shaozhou, had repeatedly admitted his own calligraphy wasn't as good as Ning's.

Everyone knew Wang Qifeng of Shaozhou had both brains and backbone, and a temper to match his stubborn streak. For him to utter such words showed that Second Young Master Ning really had the goods.

The county magistrate had originally announced the start of the county examination and was about to brew a pot of tea and take his time sipping it. But now, seeing many examinees flipping through their papers back and forth, seemingly assessing the difficulty, while Second Young Master Ning had already lowered his head and begun scribbling away, he grew curious and stepped down from the platform.

Second Young Master Ning's seat was at the very edge—he'd specifically arranged it that way. From there, one could catch the breeze, offering considerably more comfort and freshness than being stuck in the middle of a row.

You have to understand that the county examination lasted an entire day, during which examinees could not leave their seats, and the paper strip pasted atop their heads couldn't come off. That meant eating, drinking, and everything else all had to be handled in place.

The farther in you sat, the more miserable it got.

However, in this bitter cold of the second lunar month, given the yamen's limited setup, the magistrate could only do so much.

Ning Xishi saw a pair of white-soled, black-topped boots stop beside him and knew the county magistrate himself had arrived.

Those seated before and behind him, seeing the magistrate's boots pass by, all got nervous and scared. Some even tried to rise and bow, but the magistrate waved them back down.

Ning Xishi, with his head hunched down, was pretty uncomfortable and only wanted to finish quickly so he could remove the headband. His indifference, however, made the magistrate feel that Second Young Master Ning had real poise, unbothered by what was going on around him.

Looking more closely at Ning Xishi's answer sheet, he saw that the young man had nearly finished the first page.

Although the first page consisted mainly of memorization and recitation questions, being able to write every character correctly, with even sizing and real elegance, put him in the top ten of any answer sheet the magistrate had ever graded.

From this, it was clear the rumors were true!

Just then, Ning Xishi reached an essay question. The county examination questions were not difficult, and the essay was just a vague "learn from the past" kind of thing. Ning Xishi had been personally taught by Ning Lanzhi, who could quote from all sorts of sources like nobody's business. As a result, Ning Xishi had become quite familiar with the whole of the Zizhi Tongjian.

He barely had to think before he started writing.

The magistrate was taken aback for a second, for anyone encountering an essay question would first jot down an outline on the scratch paper beside them before composing their answer.

This Second Young Master Ning had some nerve.

But the magistrate soon had no time to dwell on Second Young Master Ning's audacity, for he discovered that the young man was writing fluently, with historical examples to shed light on the present appearing on the page one after another—some of which the magistrate himself had only known by name.

The magistrate almost started to suspect the examination paper had been leaked in advance.

After all, while county examination papers were composed by each county magistrate, they still had to be submitted to superiors for review, since the papers needed to show a certain level of quality, representing the foundation of a county's literary heritage.

Could it be that his superior, seeking to suck up to the Heavenly Official, had leaked the examination paper to Minister Ning?

But no—his superior was a man of such unwavering integrity that he wouldn't even give the censors the time of day. Would a guy like that leak exam papers?

Yet Ning Xishi wrote so exceptionally well that, at this rate, he could pass the county, prefectural, and academy examinations in a single year, and perhaps even earn a clean sweep of all three exams if competition wasn't too fierce.

The problem was that Second Young Master Ning's former reputation as a good-for-nothing playboy was simply too notorious, leaving the magistrate unable to wrap his head around it.

Feeling doubtful, he grew worried that the questions had indeed been leaked, so he remained standing there, watching Ning Xishi work.

Sitting diagonally ahead of Ning Xishi was a man of about twenty-eight or twenty-nine, who had secretly smuggled in a cheat sheet. The notes were hidden super sneakily—wrapped in oiled paper, tied to a thread, and swallowed down to his stomach.

He had planned to surreptitiously consult them, but with the magistrate standing beside Ning Xishi—that is, diagonally behind him—he was shaking like a leaf, too scared to even pull them out. He just had to tough it out and keep writing.

Ning Xishi finished page after page, and when he reached the final sheet, the magistrate finally confirmed that this Second Young Master Ning really knew his stuff.

He even knew all the standard exam phrases cold, able to produce them on paper without drafting.

After all, even if the questions had truly been leaked, memorizing the answer to every question and writing them all down without missing a single one required considerable ability.

The entire paper came to at least five thousand characters. Being able to memorize five thousand characters flawlessly in just a few days... that was a talent in itself.

At this point, the magistrate already knew it was Ning Xishi's genuine ability.

But being a cautious man, he thought for a moment, then stepped forward and produced an additional question, handing it to Ning Xishi. "I see that your answers contain substance. This question has troubled me for a long time, and I would like to see your response."

Ning Xishi had been writing for nearly two hours, his hand growing sore, and now the magistrate was adding a bonus question?

Seeing Ning Xishi cast a puzzled look from his awkward hunched position, the magistrate also realized that the young man, being tall, must find it truly uncomfortable to keep bending over his paper.

So he personally removed the headband from Ning Xishi's head and placed it between Ning Xishi and the person to his right.

"Since you have already completed your paper, you naturally need not be bound by this horizontal string any longer. This question is indeed a bonus—it won't count toward your score, nor will it affect anyone else's results. Simply write as you please."

The magistrate was so gentle and sincere that despite harboring a hundred unwillingnesses in his heart, Ning Xishi couldn't bring himself to refuse. He lowered his head and continued writing.

Without the headband constraining him this time, Ning Xishi didn't have to bend his neck so severely, and he felt far more at ease. He wrote as if guided by divine inspiration, faster than on any of the previous essay questions. Since no length limit was imposed, he leisurely filled the front of the page and then turned to the back.

Seeing this, the magistrate's last trace of doubt vanished.

—Second Young Master Ning was, by heaven, a genius!

He had only recently gained a reputation for studying seriously, yet his literary talent was already this remarkable, and even his calligraphy was exceptionally neat, bearing the mark of a master.

Had he been diligent in his youth, he might well have become a second Ning Lanzhi!

The magistrate didn't even wait for Ning Xishi to raise his hand to submit. He personally picked up Ning Xishi's answer sheet and carried it to his desk at the front.

Ning Xishi, meanwhile, placed his brush and ink into his book basket, picked it up, and headed outside.

A yamen runner monitoring from the rear saw this and hurried over to lead the way.

This was also the rule—to prevent those who had finished from exchanging answers with those still taking the exam, someone had to escort them out.

Zhang Jiye was a former boon companion of Ning Xishi's from the Imperial Academy, and he was also taking this examination. He hadn't seen Ning Xishi in a while—the last time he'd gone out alone with Ning Xishi had been before last year.

He had come to take the county examination only because rumors in the capital said Second Young Master Ning had turned over a new leaf, prompting his father to beat him soundly: "You spend all day trailing after Second Young Master Ning. Now he's going to take the examinations, and what about you? You're still at home playing with your birds and flowers—I'll beat you to death!"

Zhang Jiye was an only son, and his mother had always doted on him, but this time she too sided with his father: "Jiye, our family was never a match for the Nings' wealth and influence. Moreover, the Ning family already produced a Ning Lanzhi, enough to bring glory to their ancestral halls. Now that their second son has also begun to strive, you simply must study hard!"

Zhang Jiye: "..."

He gritted his teeth and studied bitterly for five months. His parents hired three tutors for him daily, leaving him dizzy and bleary-eyed, dreaming even in his sleep of "The way of great learning lies in illuminating bright virtue..."

After this period of intense study, he found the county exam papers no longer looked like complete gibberish.

Mainly because his tutors were all renowned scholars from the capital, one of whom had even served as a county magistrate in earlier years and was deeply familiar with the principles behind county exam questions. By following the proper format, Zhang Jiye found it far easier than those students who lacked proper guidance.

But when he heard the magistrate say that Ning Xishi had finished, he was also quite shocked. Fortunately, the last two questions had been guessed by his tutors, so he simply wrote down what he had memorized and had no major problems.

Just as Ning Xishi was leaving, he quickly turned in his paper and chased after him.

"Xishi, Second Young Master Ning, wait for me."

Ning Xishi's heart sank when he heard that. His memories seemed sealed away, only bubbling up now and then when something jogged them.

The guy running after him clearly knew him, but Ning Xishi had no clue who he was!

But there was no dodging it. Ning Xishi handed his book basket to Dongshuang beside him and turned around to see a young man about his age running out with his own book basket.

Dongshuang whispered a reminder: "Zhang Jiye, the only son of Inspector Zhang."

Ning Xishi kept his cool, watched Zhang Jiye run over, and spoke first: "Oh? You're taking the county exam too?"

"Ugh, don't even get me started. It's all because my folks forced me. These past six months have been absolute hell!" Zhang Jiye immediately began complaining as soon as they met. "But even that was nothing compared to this county exam. The dude next to me was so nervous he kept ripping ass the whole time—I almost died from the stench!"

As he said this, Zhang Jiye went to sling an arm around Ning Xishi like he used to, but Ning Xishi spun out of the way.

"After what you just said, how could I dare get close to you?"

Zhang Jiye's eyes got all watery: "We haven't seen each other in so long, and you're still giving me a hard time."

But he lowered his head and sniffed his own clothes, feeling that the stench still hadn't faded, so he didn't dare try to embrace Ning Xishi again. He said, "Ugh, before this, I'd only heard from my tutors that the county exam wasn't easy—freezing cold and you have to keep writing the whole time. I don't mind the cold, but they actually put a chamber pot under the desk for everyone, so you eat, drink, and relieve yourself right at your seat. This young master is done with this crap! The guy next to me would eat steamed buns right after using the pot—do you have any idea how traumatized I was!"

Ning Xishi thought, damn, that sounds rough.

Fortunately, the magistrate had been by his side the whole time, and those around him, mindful of their dignity, didn't dare relieve themselves in front of the magistrate, which left him with some peace and quiet.

==========Author's Note:==========

Good night