Just in this moment Ning Que was staring at a man, staring with great seriousness, and staring unscrupulously. He was one of several hundreds of examinees, and that man standing in front of hundreds of examinees was speaking – at first to welcome several hundred with an admiring gaze such that he even had burning eyes, so he wasn’t worried he would be discovered by that man. And just like this staring dead on, as though to consume him with his pupils as inky as the deep night, wanting to consume that man into his memories as inky as the deep night.
That man was wearing cuffs and a lapel that were all red, but the robes were mostly black dark clothes with gold st.i.tch work. With a handsome face, and two eyebrows like swords, thin lips and a straight nose, his smile was very amiable. When he smiled the corners of his eyes would have several wrinkles – towards the view of elders, he could be said to be already forty years old, towards the view of the younger, it could be said he was about to turn thirty. In all, it could be said that this was a very charming man.
He was Li PeiYan, the second most powerful man in the Tang Empire, and His Majesty the Emperor’s sole sibling. His Highness the Prince who always had a good reputation, and it was also he who thirteen years ago, while His Majesty was by chance traveling the Great Lake and combining several important departments and offices, joined with the great general Xiahou, and had the XuanWei General Lin GuangYuan imprisoned for treason, and had all of the accused general’s household executed.
Since the first year of the Sky Opening reign and fleeing ChangAn City, to this year returning back home from Wei City, there were fully thirteen years in between. Ning Que struggled painfully to live in the world, and his hatred never stopped and never weakened. Instead because those blades in the past had split blood flows, his mind and body had suffered from those past life and death confrontations that hid the self-blame and guilt in the depths of his innermost heart, becoming more and more concentrated and more and more distinct.
There were a lot of people he absolutely had to kill in ChangAn City, and Prince PeiYan was without question the first on the list. Today at the Academy was the first time he could see the counterpart he must kill, so he watched with exceptional seriousness, wanting to put this handsome, elegant and graceful Royal Lord’s appearance baked into his brain – memorize his brow, memorize his eyes, memorize the corners of his eyes when he smiles, and memorize the appearance of how his thin lips spread when he spoke; then some time in the future, he would tear up everything.
Prince Li PeiYan smiled gently and advised like a spring breeze, “All of you young folk are the world’s outstanding talents. Today you must bring out your very best to deal with this entrance exam, but please do not be too nervous – entering the Academy requires even more hard study. After you’ve finished studies, my Tang Empire will have countless positions quietly waiting, waiting to have all of you add glory to the Empire.”
Ning Que stared at him. Lightly blinking, his eyelashes severing the spring breeze.
Prince PeiYan turned towards the left side, looking at the differing clothing of the Tang examinees, and opening both arms he brightly smiled, as though br.i.m.m.i.n.g with sunlight, “Even though not everyone is of the Tang people, but my Tang Academy has always taught regardless of background. Please do not worry about the fairness of admission – and if everyone is successful in their schoolwork at the Academy, my Tang Dynasty will still wait quietly for your service.”
Ning Que stared at him, his eyes dark and cold, his pupils darkening the daytime.
The focus could be understood as scorching – enmity only needed two different shades of dilution to be understood as awe. The students waiting outside of the Academy watched His Highness the Prince counseling his subordinates before the exam, and showing this look was very easy for people to understand, so n.o.body else discovered Ning Que’s strangeness. Only Sang Sang raised her little face and glanced at him anxiously, then stretched out her hand, touching and gently holding his slightly trembling and shaking hand.
At that moment an examinee from the Yan Kingdom aroused enough courage to exchange a few words with the Tang Prince. Without knowing what kind of joke His Highness the Prince said, it caused the initially extremely nervous examinees at the scene to laugh. Li PeiYan took the opportunity to say some other interesting stories with a smile, intending to have all the students relax a bit. The crowd of examinees also reciprocated, no longer with the previous quiet somber appearance. The ones who usually rub their hands rubbed, and the ones who usually rub their backs, rubbed their backs; the ones who usually chat chatted, and the ones who usually praise……praised.
“The Tang Dynasty indeed has an honorable prince.”
“His Highness the Honorable Prince, is truly like the rumors, and appears as a bright and sunny amiable person.”
“Honorable.”
The examinees were not necessarily all flattering him, but hearing all the words sounding from nearby were of this kind, Ning Que couldn’t help but to lower his head and slightly knit his brow. Thinking of that t.i.tle for Li Yu, that honorable Tang princess, he whispered in mockery, “Aren’t they not honorable?”
“Yes, with thin porridge and no salt.”
Beside him, an examinee especially seriously replied. Without knowing when, the person standing beside Ning Que had changed into a n.o.ble’s son – this n.o.ble’s son wore an outfit of familiar silk robes – his waist was pressed between a gold belt, which a precious jade ornament hung from. At a glance if he wasn’t rich, he was wealthy, and he was also his acquaintance.
“Chu YouXian? You actually also came to partake in the Academy exam?” Ning Que turned and looked at that person, and with surprise asked, “A few days ago when I went to the Club, why didn’t I hear you mention it?”
This young n.o.ble’s son was East City’s 7th n.o.ble Lord’s most beloved only son, and also that very day Ning Que first set foot into the Red Sleeves Club and was once chosen by everyone to be berated by a few people together, he was this person surnamed Chu and because his name was ‘virtue’, his nature broad and generous, it was best to be friends with similar types. That day they first met he was prepared to invite Ning Que to have dinner with some girls, but unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be. Afterwards when Ning Que went to the Red Sleeves Club to accompany Shui Zhu’er and the other girls in chatting and ran into him a few times, and after drinking several cups of wine, they had become familiar.
Chu YouXian was wholeheartedly looking in front, his gaze was slanting squinted at Ning Que, and with his face br.i.m.m.i.n.g with pain he said, “The old man at home absolutely forced me to come to take this test, saying something about if someone in ChangAn didn’t take the entrance exam, when the time comes to marry, the bride’s family will insist on being a bit more picky, and the bridal dowry will need a bit more things sent. I was really forced by that old man with no choice, and could only come.”
Ning Que turned his head over, looking at His Highness the Prince amidst talking with each examinee and saying words of encouragement, and in a low voice he said, “The primary exam has long pa.s.sed, how did you get through?”
Chu YouXian raised his hand in front of him and gestured two words, looking forward he said, “Went through the military department’s path.”
Ning Que knew this year the examinees recommended by the military were much more than the past year. At first he thought the Court was worried about a shortage of strength in the military – how would he have thought that inside there was so much behind the scenes? Thinking that these past years he was staking his life on a Frontier fortress killing enemies, struggling to cut firewood, and toiling to acquire military merits before getting through the Primary Exam, he could not help but to get a great sense it was unfair, and in a low voice cursed several times, and lamentingly said, “2200 silvers……half a blanket could cover it all, and it could actually buy entrance into the Academy!”
Hearing this, Sang Sang who had all along stood beside him quietly couldn’t help but to raise her head and look at him, inside thinking, Master you’re not happy, why would you insist on bringing up that thing and directly saying it?
“2200? That won’t even get past the gate! My family’s old man pestered and cried, yelled and begged, and took out 22,000………and that was just enough for the entrance exam, completely not guaranteeing you can get in!”
Chu YouXian disdainfully glanced at him and said, “Our Tang Dynasty simply doesn’t have a government department that dares to take money and guarantee you can get into the Academy. Because for this, without mentioning those high officials, even if His Majesty spoke it wouldn’t matter, so you don’t need to look down on me. My old man said, today come to take a test of gold plating, afterwards be a little more confident for marriage.”
The two of them chatted like this, and Prince Li PeiYan accompanying officials and instructors walked over, his gaze directly ignoring Ning Que and Chu YouXian, and falling onto Sang Sang. Seeing this short and skinny little girl, smiling he turned his head to an instructor and said, “I hadn’t thought that there would also be a female examinee at such a young age. This is younger than the Lin Province’s w.a.n.g Ying by two years right?”
Lin Province’s w.a.n.g Ying was precisely a young examinee that an Academy instructor brought back from his own village’s instruction – this year he was less than 14 years old. Earlier an official had introduced and brought His Highness to him, and the crowd hadn’t thought that on this side they would be able to see a small dark-faced little girl surpa.s.sing him in youth, only that seeing her clothing it was simply……
“This is my maid.” Ning Que gently clasped his hands in propriety and explained.
The Prince Li PeiYan knew that he had mistaken the person, and his face couldn’t help but to show a bit of embarra.s.sment. The officials behind saw and with extreme speed suddenly they quickly widened their eyes. To an Academy instructor they said, “At the opening ceremony, how can a maid be allowed inside with the flow of people?”
That Academy instructor was middle-aged, and like he completely didn’t sense the official’s anger, he lightly replied, “An ordinary maid is not at all barred from entering the Academy. This is partic.i.p.ating in the ceremony, and not to the examination hall. In a while she will not be allowed to enter and that’s all.”
Being retorted by the instructor with this, the officials were shocked till they had no way of being angry. After all no matter how high his status was, or how weighted his power was, in a place like the Academy, it did not have the slightest use. His Highness the Prince smiled in self mockery, then extended his arm and patted Ning Que’s shoulder, and without saying anything further, he led the crowd of high ministers and continued walking forward.
Ning Que used his shoulder and lightly nudged Chu YouXian, watching that instructor next to Li PeiYan, and in a low voice he praised, “Exemplary. This is what is called neither weak nor salty. More and more I like this Academy place.”
The bell rung a second time. It was the last call.
The Academy instructors explained the rules of the examination hall expressionlessly, while the examinees were so nervous they couldn’t remember because the discipline of the examination hall’s for the entrance exam was unexpectedly so lax – neither warning against talking or against questions, only that they were not allowed to tell each other answers.
Stepping with the bell’s sound, and stepping past the peach petals scattered on the limestone tiles, with their long robes fluttering the students climbed the stairs, entering various cla.s.srooms, preparing to meet the exam. Only Sang Sang stood solitary on the stone plain, and just in this moment, the spring rain again dripped a few drops. She raised her little face and squinted her eyes looking, and opened the big black umbrella she carried on her back.
The Academy Exam and the Tang Dynasty’s Imperial Exam had similar content – the entirety of it was divided into six parts: the rites section, music section, shooting section, Imperial section, literary section, and the math section, all counted separately, and then the total score for enrollment. The entrance exam would carry out the written test in the morning, and was exactly the three sections of rites, literary and math – and the very first one was what Tang people were most not good at, or perhaps to say, the least happy with – the math section.
During the test was one period of quietness – on the wall was a window that framed a clear wall of pink plum flowers, just like a picture of a peaceful and beautiful pastel art work, creating an especially suitable environment to study. However after getting that scroll of the math section, the students previously sitting behind their desks seriously with their bosoms full of danger suddenly became a mess, speaking lamentations in a low voice.
“Why is it an integrated question?” There were students painfully pulling their hair.
“Our luck is too bad isn’t it?” There were students with pale faces.
Because the rules at the examination hall hadn’t forbidden noise, the students couldn’t help but to use various ways to express their own dissatisfaction and grief. It was the hardest integrated math question in years of the entrance exam, frequently having a professor of literature and a professor of math draw up the question together. Sometimes examinees taking the test truly couldn’t even read anything of the question topic.
Ning Que got the brush resting on the table top. Letting out a deep breath in the slightly cold air, he then tore open the ink scroll, only seeing one question topic on the scroll with about dozens of words that read:
“That year’s spring, Master went traveling. Receiving fine wine from Peach Mountain, consequently he sought to climb mountains and taste peach wines, all along picking flowers and drinking wine as he went. At first he cut one catty of peach blossoms, and drank one jug of wine. Afterwards Master regretted the wine, thus he cut one catty of peach blossoms and only drank half a jug of wine, and again cut a catty of peach flowers, and drank half of half of a jug of wine. If he went on like this…….to the mountain peak, and Master drank all of the wine of his pouch, then disappointedly looked all around, and lightly asked all you students: Today how many catties of peach blossoms were cut, and how many jugs of wine were drunk?” …… ……