Top Scholar

Chapter 30 Release of List
"I have a damn thing to say, but I don't know if I should!" The chubby Su Lang chimed in, his lips pouting so much they could tether a bull. "We'll accept any difficulty the questions are, but they can't be beyond the syllabus!"

"Where is the outline? Who gave you the outline?" At this moment, several members of the Cheng family walked over and, upon hearing Su Lang's words, mocked, "When the academy admits students, it can set the questions however it wants. Let me teach you a trick: once you learn how to write essays based on given topics for a while, you'll know how to answer them."

The Su brothers ignored them and stopped to let them pass.

"Blame it on your lousy clan's poor academic performance!" The Cheng family member, oblivious to the danger, continued his taunts even after they had walked past.
"That's true. If your teacher knew how to write an essay on a given topic, he wouldn't have failed the county-level exam..."

Before the Cheng family scion could finish speaking, he received a heavy kick to the buttocks and fell face-first into the mud.

This caused all the test takers to burst into laughter.

"Hey, which bastard kicked me?!" He propped himself up and looked back angrily, only to see that the five Su family boys were still in the same position, arms crossed, pretending to be indifferent.

"Stop pretending, it was you guys who did it." Several brothers helped him up and glared angrily at the Su brothers.

"Don't make false accusations. We scholars use words, not fists," Su Dan said with a cold laugh. "He clearly fell down by accident."

"You're talking nonsense! Who would have a footprint on their butt if they fell to the ground?" The Cheng brothers angrily pointed at the shoe print on the man's buttocks.

"He fell to the ground, and you guys accidentally stepped on him." The Su brothers were quite relaxed; since they had both failed the exam, they were already invincible.

"If you dare slander someone again, you little bastard, I'll beat your mother to a pulp!" The chubby Su Lang rolled up his sleeves, and the other brothers also started rubbing their hands together, ready to fight. "If that Cheng kid dares to make a sound again, I'll loosen your bones!"

They were barefoot, while the Cheng family members were wearing shoes; they were very confident they would pass the exam...

"Gentlemen, don't fall for their vicious scheme to take us all down with them!" At this moment, a young man from the Cheng family reminded his companions.

"Thanks to your reminder, brother, we almost let the thieves succeed." The Cheng family members realized what had happened and quickly ran away without even saying any polite words.

"Hahaha!" The Su brothers laughed loudly, their faces tilted back, and their frustration seemed to have lessened considerably.

~~
Ran and egg.

Upon exiting the academy's gate and seeing their family members eagerly awaiting them, the brothers' faces fell again.

Su Lu was no exception. Feeling deeply ashamed to face his father and brothers, he walked up to Su Youcai, bowed his head, and said, "I'm sorry, Father, I failed the exam..."

“I’ve heard about it all. It’s not your fault. It’s your father’s fault for not teaching you properly.” Su Youcai gently rubbed his head and said softly, “Didn’t I tell you? You were able to persevere until the last game, which was already beyond my expectations.”

He paused for a moment, then grinned and said, "Besides, the results haven't been released yet, have they? What if my son is on the list? Wouldn't it be pointless for you to comfort him?"

"Yes." Su Lu nodded. Of course, he hadn't given up hope, but this time the chances were really slim...

Su Youcai still had other students to comfort, so after finishing speaking, he gave his second son a wink, signaling Xia Ge'er to take over.

Su Tai then came over to take over the shift and cautiously said to Su Lu, "Why don't you cry a couple of times too?"

"..." Su Lu was immediately at a loss for words, but when she looked at her second brother, she remembered all the hardships he had endured for her, and her nose began to sting.

"Stop crying, hold it back!" A sharp shout rang out, and Chun Ge'er stepped forward, sternly reprimanding him, "Men of the Su family shed blood and sweat, but not tears!"

"I didn't mean to cry," Su Lu quickly explained, "The wind was so strong it made my eyes squint."

"Hmph." Su Man, unusually, did not expose him and softened her tone, saying, "You've only been learning for three months, while others have been learning for six or seven years or more. It's already a miracle that you were able to compete with them until the last match."

“It’s meaningless, no different from those who were eliminated this morning.” Su Lu shook his head and smiled bitterly, “In the end, I’ve only embarrassed my elder brother.”

"Don't talk nonsense, you didn't!" Su Man looked remorseful: "I said that to encourage you..."

As he spoke, he raised his hand and slapped himself across the right cheek, muttering, "You can't speak properly, you deserve to be hit!"

"Brother, please don't be like this. I know you're doing this for my own good!" Su Lu quickly comforted his strong-willed older brother.

“I won’t allow you to say that either. You’ve already proven your talent and perseverance, how can you say it’s meaningless?” Su Man waved her hand, indicating that she was fine: “It’s not like you can only take the imperial examination by attending Taiping Academy…”

He became more and more guilty as he spoke. Not to mention other places, just take the military households of their three guards as an example. In the past few decades, all the scholars who passed the imperial examinations came from this academy.

The counterexample is his second uncle, who refused to believe in that superstition, and the result was...

“Even if no one has been able to do it before, then you can be the first one…” Su Man finished speaking and raised her hand to slap her left cheek.

"Big brother, please don't do this!" Su Lu was dumbfounded. How could he have gotten addicted to slapping people's faces?

"Brother, don't scare me." Su Tai was also frightened.

"It's nothing, I'm angry with myself. I hate that I don't know how to comfort people!" Su Man said indignantly.

"Sigh, Big Brother is really too strong-willed." Su Lu sighed and said, "Don't worry, I'm really fine."

This also shows that the eldest brother truly treated his younger brothers' affairs as his own...

"In short, I won't allow you to give up your studies, and I will never give up on you either," Su Man said through gritted teeth.

"Yes, elder brother." Su Lu nodded hurriedly, afraid that he would provoke Chun Ge'er into slapping himself.

Even his uncle came over to kindly try to relieve his stress: "You must be exhausted these days. Take a good rest before the New Year, don't think about anything, we can talk about everything after the New Year." But none of the three boys responded...

Seeing the awkward silence, the uncle could only manage an awkward laugh to save face, saying, "Besides, the results haven't been posted yet. Maybe Qiu-ge'er will just get lucky..."

"Father, you don't know how to talk properly either." Chun-ge'er couldn't stand it anymore.

"Fine." The uncle slapped himself as well.

~~
My uncle's words, though rough, were true. Before the results were posted, even if you thought you hadn't done well, you would still hold onto a sliver of hope...

So all two hundred candidates and their families stayed and waited outside the mountain gate.

The wait was agonizing. Little Fatty Su Lang had hoped to devour all the delicious food before the results came out, but he couldn't eat a thing; it tasted like cardboard…

Fortunately, the academy was efficient and quick. The two hundred papers were graded and ranked in no time, copied onto large red paper, and brought out before nightfall.

Two students, nicknamed "Cow and Horse," applied plaster to the gable wall and pasted on a three-foot-long, one-foot-wide strip of red paper.

The leader announced loudly from the side, "The candidates on the list should report for duty on the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, bringing their household registration certificate and tuition fee. Latecomers will not be accepted!"

No one listened to his clamor at this moment. The candidates and their parents rushed over and surrounded the red list.

Of course, the academy also bears some responsibility. The results were posted so late that people who were a little far away could not see them clearly. How could everyone not push forward?
The teacher at the academy was almost knocked over, but fortunately two students from the cattle and horses came to his rescue and helped him escape from the crowd.

But people outside kept pushing their way in, craning their necks and staring intently at the list, searching from top to bottom for their sons' names.

Su Lu was also in the crowd, but he wasn't tall enough or strong enough to squeeze to the front. Standing on tiptoe, he could only see a dozen or so names at the top, and a quick glance revealed no one with the surname 'Erlang Su'.

He was frantically trying to figure out how to see the names at the back when suddenly someone lifted him up high under his arms...

Su Lu turned around and saw that it was his second brother lifting him up. He grinned at his second brother and quickly continued to look at the list. Now he could see everything except for the last row of characters.

Finally, at number 40, I saw a 'Erlang Su'!
Upon seeing the name, Su Lu loudly proclaimed, "Second Brother Su Dan! You passed the exam, Jiao Jing'er!"

The man who chewed the essence, Su Dan, was dry and thin, and couldn't squeeze in at all. He was pacing anxiously outside when he heard Su Lu's voice. He immediately jumped up and down.

"Haha, I passed the exam! Dad, I passed the exam!"

"Quickly help us take a look..." Su Lang urged Su Lu.

By this time, Su Lu had finished looking at the list and said to his second brother, "Put me down."

"How is it? How is it?" Before Su Lu's feet even touched the ground, everyone asked him as he swayed.

"No, but there's one row at the very bottom that you can't see." Su Lu shook his head.

"Sigh, it's almost certainly over..." Su Dan and the others sighed in unison. Even so, who wouldn't read the entire list before they saw it? They wouldn't admit defeat until they saw the coffin.

So we'll just have to wait.

The brothers watched as adults struggled to squeeze out from the layers upon layers of people.

On the sweat-drenched faces, some beamed with elation, some could hardly hide their disappointment, and others wore a mixture of joy and sorrow…

The teenagers' emotions were much simpler. When they heard from their parents that they had passed the exam, they would jump for joy; if they failed, they would be extremely sad...

Su Lu and the others, however, only found the crowd noisy. Finally, when the dense crowd thinned out, the boys slipped in like fish, reaching the base of the wall to look at the bottom row of characters…

However, the name 'Erlang Su' no longer appeared among those names.

Now everyone had completely given up hope. The chubby Su Lang chuckled self-deprecatingly, "Finally, I've given up. Let's go home."

"Let's go home." The boys nodded dejectedly and turned to leave.

"Wait a minute!" Chun Ge'er squeezed in at this moment. He was exceptionally meticulous. He counted the names on the red list and asked, "Isn't it supposed to be a sixty-year cycle of admissions? Why is one missing?"

His classmate, Niu Ma, who had come to post the list, replied: "How could there be one less? So many eyes in Daonan Hall are watching. There are exactly sixty spots in total, no more and no less."

"If you don't believe me, count them yourself." Su Man pointed to the red list.

There were still many people around looking at the list, and upon hearing this, they immediately started counting: "Two, four, six, eight, ten..."

"fifty-nine!"

"There are fifty-nine!" The crowd quickly finished counting and immediately shouted excitedly. "You must have made a mistake?!"

My last fantasy after the results were released was that the examiner had made a mistake.

Seeing a coffin and still wanting to rise from the dead is...

(End of this chapter)