I proved immortality through the imperial examination.

Chapter 32 Test
At this point, the pale-faced fat man suddenly stopped talking.

"Please enlighten me, Brother Meng?"

Zhou Mengyu and Li Peng clasped their hands in a fist salute at the same time.

The pale-faced fat man glanced at Xue Xiang and snorted, "Looks like some people don't want to know. I'm too lazy to tell you."

Zhou Mengyu quickly tugged at Xue Xiang's sleeve, leaving Xue Xiang speechless. Was there really such an arrogant guy?
He had no choice but to clasp his hands in a gesture of respect and ask for guidance.

The pale-faced fat man lowered his voice and said, "The renowned female Taoist priest from Canaan has come with Mr. Yin Chuan. I heard she is also interested in tutoring students. Otherwise, do you think you could have caused such a stir?"

"Who is this female Taoist priest?"

"I heard she came from Shenjing. Her face was covered by a white veil, and her voice was like the imperial edict. Even famous scholars like Mr. Yin Chuan were friends with her."

"Indeed, it is those whose faces are covered that are the most beautiful in the world."

Li Peng said with a smile.

"Beauties are better when they're a little shrouded in mystery."

The pale-faced, chubby man winked and made faces, looking like a kindred spirit.

"Why are you two unhappy? Do you look down on me?"

The pale-faced, chubby man glared at Xue Xiang and Zhou Mengyu.

"No, it's mainly because I have a poor imagination and I'm not interested in hazy beauty, so I can't enjoy it."

Xue Xiang spoke fluently without hesitation.

"Poor imagination? You're quite a character. I'm a big Meng De, born into the Meng family of Shannan. My father and grandfather both had immortal talismans."

Meng De made no attempt to hide his sense of superiority. "How should I address you?"

"Xue Xiang is not worth mentioning."

"Xue... Xiang? Oh, you're not Xue Xiang from Jiufen Mountain, the one who works in the newspaper business, are you?"

Meng De let out a loud shout, attracting the attention of many people.

"It is indeed I."

Although Xue Xiang did not want to cause trouble, he also did not want to hide his true intentions.

"Your serialized novel, 'The Mortal Realm,' is great in every way, except for the protagonist. He keeps mentioning that the protagonist is too thin and stiff. Cultivators should be like me, with full flesh and bones, a waist ten spans wide, and an imposing presence..."

Mengde was very talkative.

Xue Xiang gave a few perfunctory replies and was about to leave when he suddenly heard a voice say, "When did a lowly official like me dare to aspire to the proper path of the imperial examinations?"
"How many words do you recognize? How many lines of literature have you read? Yet you dare to pretend to be a scholar."

A tall young man strode over, followed by several people.

Zhou Mengyu whispered, "The one who shouted is Su Ziming, your boss Su Suiran, and he is his third uncle."

The others following behind were mostly sons of officials from the city.

Xue Xiang nodded, walked to the flower bed on the left, brushed the snow off the stone railing, and sat down, seemingly ignoring the mocking remarks.

"What's wrong? Pretending to be calm and not hearing? I'm talking about you, Xue Xiang from the Seventh Courtyard, a lowly official from Jiufen Mountain."

Su Zimo stopped a zhang away from Xue Xiang and pointed at him, shouting.

Su Suiran is his third uncle and the pride of the Su family. The Su family originally expected that Su Suiran would naturally remove the "Dai" (代) title from his head, but unexpectedly Xie Haiya arrived out of nowhere.

With Xue Xiang stirring up trouble, Su Suiran, who was once able to rival Xie Haiya, is now in a much worse position within the Seventh Academy. Su Ziming and the Su family will undoubtedly hold Xue Xiang accountable for this.

Whether something is vulgar or refined does not depend on one's social status, but on one's conduct.

Zuo Zongtang slept in the latrine, a place of filth, but his aspirations were lofty and pure, which was considered very elegant.

King Liang demanded the zither, and although he played its melodious tunes, his actions were a cunning and forceful act of plunder, despised throughout history.

Brother Su, using your position to criticize Xue, has made hurtful remarks. Who is vulgar and who is refined is a matter of public opinion.

Xue Xiang's voice was clear and bright, and his green robe accentuated his tall and elegant figure, making Su Zimo seem like an unreasonable villain.

"You scoundrel, you even dare to attack people in secret!"

Su Zimo clasped his hands in a fist and said loudly, "Gentlemen, we scholars are gathered here to discuss poetry and literature. How can we allow vulgar officials to tarnish this gathering?"

In your opinion, should such a mediocre official be allowed to reside here?

"Chase them away!"

"I am ashamed to be ranked among vulgar officials." "Zhaoyewu has always been a place of high moral character in the hearts of Confucian scholars; how can it allow an upright official to stand here!"

"........."

Su Ziming's appeal was not remarkable, but a few words of agreement were enough to form public opinion.

"Master."

Zhou Mengyu's face was pale.

"A true man should be able to walk the world without the magnanimity to swallow insults."

Xue Xiang grabbed a handful of snow and crushed it into a ball in his palm.

He's not foolish enough to hastily leave just because someone says a few words.

"You who call yourselves Confucian scholars, yet you gather a crowd and make a ruckus, and dare to call yourselves refined?"

A crisp female voice rang out, and a woman in green robes stood in front of the wooden hall corridor, her face covered with a light veil.

"Is this the female Taoist priest?"

Li Peng asked in a low voice.

Meng De shook his head, "Rumor has it that the female Taoist priest covered her face with a white veil."

"Two things."

The woman in green said loudly, "First, Mr. Yin Chuan has not returned and has entrusted my wife, Yuan Jun, to take care of Zhaoyewu for the next few days."

Second, Mr. Yin Chuan stated that his energy is limited, and he will only accept thirty people.

As soon as she finished speaking, the audience erupted in cheers.

There were fifty or sixty students present, but only thirty would be accepted, meaning nearly half of them would be eliminated.

"But the highest bidder wins?"

"Mr. Yin Chuan, you can't be that mercenary, can you?"

"..."

Amidst the uproar, the woman in green declared loudly, "Of course, we will select the best candidates. My lord will prepare a test paper, and the top thirty in the exam will be admitted to the school."

This argument is fair, and even those who feel they lack the knowledge would not dare to refute it.

Just past noon, the servants of Zhaoyewu brought in a basket of meat pies and a vat of rice porridge.

After a quick meal, everyone went into the wooden hall to begin the examination.

The wooden hall didn't have many seats, so everyone sat on the floor, with a round stool in front of them serving as a desk for answering questions.

Xue Xiang received the exam paper and began to read it.

He had seen past city exam papers, and the content of this exam paper was very similar, also divided into three parts.

First, basic historical knowledge.

Secondly, memorizing the meaning of the classics.

Thirdly, the policy essays were finalized.

All questions are in question-and-answer format, with each question listed in its point value, totaling 100 points.

The essay section on policy and strategy accounted for a full fifty points, and this was precisely the part that Xue Xiang found most difficult.

He certainly has a photographic memory, and lately he has been reading various Confucian classics and commentaries by famous scholars with great enthusiasm.

However, writing a definitive statement is very similar to solving a math problem. If you can only memorize various formulas, but do not deeply understand the meaning of the question and grasp the rules, it will be difficult to make a high-scoring answer.

In addition, the topics for the essays were similar to those for the eight-legged essay, and were also excerpted from different Confucian classics to form the topic.

For example, the essay he received at this moment was titled: "The people of Yuanquan are in disarray, what does Heaven say? Let us discuss how to appease the hearts of the people in this region."

With just one glance, Xue Xiang could tell that "Yuanquan Hunhun" came from Chapter 3 of "Zhengyan" and the full sentence was "Yuanquan Hunhun, Bushe Zhouye";
The phrase “天何言哉” comes from the first chapter of the Book of Songs, and the full sentence is “天何言哉，四时行焉，百物生焉”.

The two sentences were mixed together, leaving Xue Xiangzhen somewhat confused.

He had no choice but to put aside the essay questions and work on the first two types of questions first.

For questions that required pure memorization, he had no difficulty at all. Except for one question that asked him to write down all the reign titles during the reign of Emperor Gong, which was a blind spot for him, he was confident about all the other questions.

(End of this chapter)