After being jilted, the entire neighboring village was filled with deep regret.

Chapter 461 An Absurd First Trial

"Wow!" Shen Congyu was so frightened that he burst into tears.

Xue Xiang glared at him, and he was forced to retract his eyes and start hiccuping.

She looked rather pitiful.

Shen Congrong immediately softened and quickly comforted him, "Don't worry, little brother, you're here with your older brother. I'll take the exam with you."

Shen Congyu hung his head listlessly. "Big brother, could you practice martial arts with me?"

Shen Congrong shook her head regretfully, "I prefer studying to martial arts."

He knows a little martial arts, just for physical fitness, but he can't do what a bodyguard or bodyguard does.

Shen Congyu looked dejected again.

At this moment, Shen Congrong secretly peeled a piece of candy and put it in Shen Congyu's mouth, and then quietly gave him an ounce of silver, coaxing him, "This is from your mother, keep it safe, are you happy now!"

Upon seeing the silver, Shen Congyu was indeed no longer upset. He accepted the silver with a grin and resumed his carefree demeanor.

This infuriated Xue Xiang.

As he spoke, Liu Tiechui went up to the high platform, struck the gong, and said loudly, "Now, all candidates participating in the preliminary examination, please listen carefully! This is the preliminary examination room. Non-candidates must leave the red line."

The examination hall had 500 seats, and candidates took turns taking the exam. Each exam lasted one hour, and candidates were required to write their detailed information on the exam paper, such as their village, name, and parents' names.

As soon as Liu Tiechui spoke, Su Tai heard many people around her cramming for exams at the last minute.

"Village chief, how do you write my parents' names?"

"Village chief, what are the characters in our village's name?"

"village head."

Su Tai wanted to laugh more and more as she listened.

Seeing that it was still early and worried that it would get hot when the sun came up, she went over to discuss it with Shen Ying and Su Changxi, and they decided that the children from the two villages should take the exam first.

Liu Tiechui was clearly aware of the situation, and arranged for younger children and older people to enter the first event.

The others watched from outside the red line.

Ma Yujie and Bai Rong, accompanied by their maids and guards, came to join in the fun.

Upon seeing the children, Ma Yujie curled her lip, "Isn't this ridiculous! Kids taking the exam? Even if they pass, will they become officials?"

Bai Rong shook her head, "Who knows! We'll try if we have the chance. That's normal. By the way, how are Xuan'er and Yuan'er's preparations going?"

Ma Yujie had a lot of confidence in her two sons, so she just smiled and didn't say anything.

The two chatted idly while watching the others respond.

Putting everything else aside, just watching the child write so earnestly is quite interesting.

"It's better than I expected," Bai Rong said with a smile.

Ma Yujie didn't say anything, but she agreed in her heart.

An hour is neither a long nor a short time; it was over while everyone was chatting.

Liu Tiechui struck the gong and shouted, "Stop writing, get up, leave the examination room in an orderly manner, and wait for the papers to be collected!"

After the officials and soldiers had collected all the exam papers and locked them in the box, Liu Tiechui allowed the second group of candidates to enter the examination hall. At the same time, he told the first group of candidates to leave immediately after finishing the exam and not to linger in the town.

Liu Xuan and Liu Yuan were among those who entered the game in the second wave.

Sitting on the high platform, Liu Tiechui looked at the candidates answering their questions below and nodded repeatedly, thinking to himself, "Fortunately, the candidates who signed up are all quite reliable; none of them are trying to slack off." Just as he thought this, he saw the people in the back row scratching their heads, and some were even scribbling on their papers. What's worse, they were even peeking and copying other people's drawings of turtles! It was simply unbearable!

Liu Tiechui angrily pointed in that direction and roared, "Answer properly! If you peek again, I'll arrest you all!"

Those people immediately became obedient.

But when they couldn't answer the questions, sitting there for an hour was like torture; it was unbearable. In the end, the candidates in the last few rows gave up and started snoring on their desks.

The onlookers pointed at them and laughed.

Liu Tiechui had a terrible headache.

After finally making it to the end of the second exam, those people didn't want to stay a moment longer and rushed out of the exam room to complain to their relatives and friends.

"I advise you illiterate people not to go in and embarrass yourselves. You can't even look, and even if you did, you wouldn't understand. Even if you did understand, you couldn't write it down. That pen is just deliberately trying to mess with me! A hoe would be much better!"

"I think you're destined to a life of toil!"

Everyone started making fun of it.

Some people did take this to heart.

Of course, there were also those who refused to believe it and were determined to go in and give it a try.

So the third exam began.

Liu Tiechui sat there watching them answer questions carefully. Good heavens, from the first person in the first row to the last one, they were all making things up.
Well, he probably wants to live a few more years, so let's just turn a blind eye!
However, even though he was lenient and didn't care, the candidates still couldn't say a word. In the end, they even started openly discussing with the people next to them. When they couldn't come up with a solution, they asked the people in front and behind them, and some even asked for help from outside the venue.

Liu Tiechui's expression was indescribable.

Bai Rong and Ma Yujie were at a loss for words.

Bai Rong said with pity, "Big sister, I think you should go back and talk to your brother-in-law. He's probably been quite annoyed these past few days."

How infuriating! All that effort put into this preliminary test, and it turned out like a child's game.

The preliminary exam, which was originally scheduled to last a full day, was hastily concluded in just half a day.

Liu Tiechui descended from the platform with a hoarse voice and asked several soldiers, "What are your plans for disposing of these preliminary exam papers?"

The soldier clasped his hands in a respectful bow, saying, "As instructed by the county magistrate, these scrolls must be sent back to the county seat for the county magistrate, the county magistrate's assistant, and the imperial envoy to review first."

Liu Tiechui felt a sense of relief when he realized that Shen Yi would also see these things. "Thank you for your trouble, officer."

The soldiers dragged several boxes of exam papers back to the county town.

Shen Yi, Lu Tong, and Tang Yu reviewed the papers overnight.

The front hall of the county government was quiet at first, but within half an hour, one angry roar after another rang out.

"Bastards! It's turtles! Which bastard drew this! Who told them to collect these things? And there's more than one!" Lu Tong was furious and almost jumped up.

Tang Yu smiled wryly and handed the stack of papers beside him to Lu Tong. "Lord Lu, even the turtles are better than this. Look at these, I don't even know what they've drawn! They look like wind, fog, clouds, and rain, but I can't make this up anymore. They're just scribbles, without even a signature. I don't even want to burn them because of the fumes."

Shen Yi raised an eyebrow and slowly said, "You think too highly of them! If they can sign their names for you, they won't scribble anything! Xiao Tai is really good; she screened out a bunch of unreliable people in the first round, so as not to upset His Highness."

Both of them agreed wholeheartedly.

That night, flames soared into the sky in front of the county government office, as if it were on fire.

The alarmed villagers, dressed in their undergarments and carrying buckets of water, rushed over to put out the fire, only to find out it was burning scrolls! Their expressions were priceless.

The next day, the story spread like wildfire as a joke.

Those who were fortunate enough to participate felt especially proud and boasted about their remarkable achievements in the examination hall.