Top Scholar

Chapter 266 Ranking
"One is that the Emperor ordered the eunuchs stationed in each province to pay an extra 10,000 taels of gold every year. Our Eunuch Wei from Sichuan was no exception. He assigned the task, and Luzhou also received 2,000 taels," Zhu Jie said in a deep voice.

"That's twelve thousand taels of silver!" Zhu Zhang exclaimed in astonishment. "Can the prefecture really come up with that much money?"

"Where would we get that much?" Zhu Jie said, "The state only has eight jars with seven lids; they just keep covering them up without giving anything away. To squeeze out two thousand taels of gold for Eunuch Wei, would he be risking his life?"

“There are pits everywhere.” Zhu Zhang nodded in agreement.

"On the day of the birthday banquet, the prefect imposed levies on our seven families again. We all cried poverty to him, but in the end, there was no result." Zhu Jie sighed and said, "Even wealthy families don't have surplus grain. It's impossible for them to just give it to us as we ask."

"Hmm, anything else?" Zhu Zhang asked again.

"And then there's the matter of the court. The cabinet, for the first time ever, rejected the emperor's decree and then collectively resigned." Zhu Jie added, "Although the emperor persuaded the three Grand Secretaries to stay, anyone with eyes can see that they will definitely clash again."

"This has little to do with Prefect Jia, does it?" Zhu Zhang said softly.

"How could it not be big? Last time it was the cabinet acting alone. Following the usual pattern, next time they'll probably coordinate with officials in the two capitals and various provinces. They'll create a situation where the people's hearts are with the emperor, and the trend is irreversible, thus putting pressure on the emperor to eliminate the Eight Tigers..." Zhu Jie's eyes lit up as he spoke, and he lowered his voice:
"Do you think it's possible that he felt the pressure from the capital, sensed something bad was about to happen, and wanted to take this opportunity to make a clean getaway?"

“We cannot rule out this possibility. Although he is only a fifth-rank prefect, he is a protégé of Grand Secretary Li…” Zhu Zhang pondered and said, “If there is any trouble, I will serve him.”

"What was the previous sentence?" Zhu Jie suddenly widened his eyes.

"What preceding sentence?" Zhu Zhang asked.

"Something's up," Zhu Jie said.

"It's difficult to maintain a pleasant countenance," Zhu Zhang replied. "Confucius said, 'It's difficult to maintain a pleasant countenance. When there's work to be done, your disciple will take on the task!'"

"Confucius said, 'It is difficult to maintain a pleasant countenance'—that is the last sentence of today's test question!" Zhu Jie picked up the manuscript paper on the table and showed Zhu Zhang the long list of questions!

"So that's how it is!" Zhu Zhang slammed his hand on the table, suddenly realizing the truth.
"I knew it! Prefect Jia had already held a remote birthday banquet, so why would he still miss his mother so much? So there was something else going on behind the scenes!"

"It seems the cabinet is about to have a decisive battle with the Eight Tigers." Zhu Jie's doubts were finally answered, but his expression became even more solemn.

"With the combined might of the three cabinet elders and the officials, eliminating the Eight Tigers should be a piece of cake, right?" Zhu Zhang said.

“That makes sense,” Zhu Jie said, frowning. “But if it was a sure win, why would our grandfather run away?”

"Is he that sensitive to rumors circulating in the capital?" Zhu Zhang asked.

“That’s what I’m most worried about,” Zhu Jie said in a deep voice. “He’s far away in Luzhou. Where does this sense of crisis come from? Could it be from his teacher?”

"Is Li Chaling pessimistic about the future?" Zhu Zhang's expression also turned grim.

“Li Gongmou, Liu Gongduan, and Xie Gongyoukan—if even Li Gong doesn’t think it’s a good idea, then we’re in trouble.” Seeing that the room was getting dark, Zhu Jie picked up a pair of copper scissors and trimmed the charred candle wick, and the candlelight became bright again.

"Perhaps we're wrong. Don't scare ourselves," Zhu Zhang said softly.

"Better safe than sorry." Zhu Jie shook his head and said decisively, "Write a letter to Lao Jiu right now, and tell him to stay out of it and not participate in the tiger hunt!"

“He’s just a lowly junior official, do they even need him?” Zhu Zhang said.

“They love using these hotheads,” Zhu Jie said worriedly. “In that kind of atmosphere, it’s easy for them to get carried away.”

"Sigh, alright." Zhu Zhang nodded slowly. Although he felt this was not very proper, he was ultimately more worried about his younger brother.

He then opened the inkwell, picked up the brush, and discussed with his second brother how to write the calligraphy...

~~
The following day at noon, Luzhou Martial Arts Academy.

In the grove, Su Tai was sitting on a stone bench, eating lunch from a bowl. His hands were trembling, making it difficult for him to pick up food.

"Ah..." She Yunlu picked up a piece of braised pork with her chopsticks and brought it to his mouth.

"What are you doing? Don't be so mushy." Su Tai was embarrassed. This grove wasn't exactly a secluded place; people would pop out from time to time.

"Do you want some or not?" She Yunluo shoved the chopsticks near his mouth, and Su Tai reluctantly ate the braised pork.

Oh my, it smells so good, so incredibly good!
"Ah..." She Yunlu picked up another piece of rice with her chopsticks.

Practice makes perfect, so this time he didn't refuse much.

As a result, She Yunluo fed him the entire lunch.

As she fed Su Tai rice, she asked curiously, "Didn't you go to accompany someone to the exam yesterday? Why are you so tired?"

"Sigh, don't even mention it..." Su Tai was almost in tears. His older brother had taken his place in the county exam before. This time, his brother was in the exam hall too, leaving him all alone.

Thinking of the hopes of his entire family on his shoulders, Su Tai dared not stop for a moment, working tirelessly for an entire day...

"What? What kind of physical labor did you do?" She Yunlu fed Su Tai another piece of radish to cleanse his palate. "Want me to help you next time?"

“Nothing much…” Su Tai thought of his elder brother’s instructions and shook his head, saying, “I can manage on my own.”

"You're keeping this a secret from me?" She Yunluo immediately became unhappy and shoved the chopsticks into his hand. "Eat it yourself." "Sigh, my elder brother said that secrets must not be shared with six ears, and I can't tell anyone. I haven't even told Qiu-ge'er," Su Tai said in a muffled voice.

With a wronged expression, she picked up her chopsticks and shakily shoveled rice into her mouth.

The world is vast, but eating is the most important thing; nothing can delay a person from eating.

"Really?" Hearing that even Su Lu didn't know, She Yunluo immediately felt better. She smiled and took the chopsticks back, continuing to feed him. "My mother said that it's not that I'm afraid of men having secrets, it's that I'm afraid he'll even hide his 'secrets' from you."

“Your mother is quite good at finding a way out…” Su Tai grinned.

"Sigh, what else can we do? My father had several women when he was alive. It's infuriating." She Yunlu sighed, picked up a lion's head meatball, and stuffed it directly into Su Tai's mouth.

"Ugh..." Su Tai almost choked to death.

~~
On the third day of the fourth month, the results of the state examination were released.

The candidates gathered again in front of the notice board at the entrance of Xuegong Street to check the list of successful candidates from the first round.

The red list is still divided into group cases and a secondary list.

The group had forty seats, with a large "中" (zhong) character in the middle. The top of the "中" character was longer than the bottom, which was actually the top part of the "贵" (gui) character.

Write your exam number in a circle around the character "中" (zhong). The circle is divided into inner and outer layers, with twenty students in each layer. The student in the center of the outer layer who raises the character by one is the first student. Everyone only writes their seat number, not their name, and they are arranged counterclockwise.

The candidates then saw that the outermost layer, in the center and raised one character, had the words "Yellow Number" written on it, which was clearly Su's seat number.

Then came the 'top-tier', 'king-tier', 'established' brands...

Candidates can find their ranking by checking the seat number on their respective tickets. The top ten are—

Zhu Zi is second, Su Man is third, Bai Yunshan is fourth, Xiao Tingjie is fifth, Xu Chengye is sixth, Lei Jun is seventh, Zhu Zigong is eighth, Deng Dengying is ninth, and Lin Zhihong is tenth.

Among them, Xiao Tingjie was the top student in Naxi, and Xu Chengye was the top student in Jiang'an. Even Lin Zhihong, the current top student of Taiping Academy, barely made it into the top ten, which shows how prestigious the top ten undergraduate students are!
The name Su Man aroused everyone's interest.

"Which academy does this person belong to?" everyone asked.

"They are our seniors from Taiping Academy!" Su Dan and the others said proudly.

"Then why haven't we heard of it?" the candidates asked, puzzled. Taiping Academy was a well-known institution of learning in Luzhou, and everyone knew which top students were participating in the examination this year.

"This is my second time taking the state examination, so I didn't go with the academy," Su Man explained to everyone.

"Impressive!" All the examinees cast admiring glances. "Senior brother's progress is incredibly rapid, truly rare!"

Their surprise stemmed from the fact that only one hundred people were admitted to the state examination, and the truly outstanding candidates passed on their first attempt…

Those who fail the exam can't possibly compete with the new batch of top students even if they retake it. Just barely making it into the top three is already a blessing. I've never seen anyone fail one time and then break into the top three the next time!
"Maybe I just got lucky this time and happened to come across a topic that suited me." Su Man's face showed no pride, but rather some sadness.

"Brother, this is your true strength!" Su Lu put his arm around his shoulder and squeezed his hand tightly.

"Thank you, brother." Su Man gripped his third brother's hand tightly in return.

~~
Among the last thirty outstanding candidates, there were five from Sheng Shen Zhai and nine from Zheng Yi Zhai—Lei Sheng Yuan ranked fifteenth, Qiao Feng eighteenth, Cheng Wan Zhou twentieth, Wang Chong twenty-eighth, Su Dan thirty-first, Tao Cheng thirty-seventh, and… Su You Cai fortieth!

Su Youcai rubbed his eyes hard. He was prepared to fight to the bitter end, and this time he actually passed it in one go.

Although she was last in the group's case, she was right next to her son...

This time, he didn't feel much of a mix of emotions, only overwhelming joy. He put one arm around his nephew and the other around his son, laughing heartily:
"Thank God, my luck has finally turned around!"

"Amazing! The old master is still going strong!" Su Lu and Su Man were naturally happy for Su Youcai. In fact, they were prepared to accompany him to the third exam.

It's no wonder they were so happy; young officials like Lao Gongzu especially favored young people.

Among the first forty miles, Su Youcai was the only one over thirty years old.

What defines a true talent? This is what a true talent is!

Other classmates from Zhengyizhai and Shengshenzhai also made it onto the supplementary list, so there's still a chance for them to succeed later...

This result also shows that Heshan Academy is still strong. Fourteen out of the top twenty students represent the highest level of academic achievement.

Surprisingly, Taiping Academy came in second place, also securing five seats.

Some might ask, weren't Su Man and the top officials from the two counties among the first twenty li? How come their two families occupied nineteen seats?

That's because both families attributed Su Lu and Zhu Zihe to themselves...

(End of this chapter)