Nightfall

The instructors each shook their heads, showing that they didn’t understand why, and thus someone piqued interest in this examinee called Ning Que. s.h.i.+fting ahead to both his rites section and literary section exam papers, at first those instructors were curiously wanting to see whether this examinee could enter the top cla.s.s, but unexpectedly they saw two trash exam papers of flowery decorations without a single thing, and couldn’t help but to angrily and heavily smack the table, pa.s.sing the exam paper for everyone to see, and lamentingly say:

“In the exam papers over the years, who has seen such a beautiful and neat paper, such perfect hairpin flower small script before? But who has also seen an examinee so ignorant and incompetent! Absolutely must be Ding-rank at the end! Truly angering this old man!”

An instructor holding that exam paper shook his head in admiration, and smiling he said, “Even though the characters have written nonsense, but this hairpin flower small script is truly very pleasing to the eye. Just on these characters alone raised him to Ding-rank.”

“Unthinkable!” The very first instructor that showed pity angrily said, “A male examinee specifically wrote such beautiful hairpin flower small script – his intentions are inconceivable! What did he want to do? He wanted to insult the intelligence of the instructors at our Academy, and maliciously challenge the dignity of the Academy!”

A very simple strategy in the examination hall had been elevated into the high degree of intelligence and dignity, and very naturally these two exam papers had been considered as trash and lowered to the very lowest of the Ding Level.

At the moment, Ning Que did not at all know that his own literary section and rites section had already been sentenced to death, but he was very clear that these two sections could not get a very good score. Now the music section had already been abandoned – like that could he get through the entrance exam, and become an official student of the Academy? All of it would depend on whether he could get high scores on the shooting and the Imperial sections, and they absolutely had to be the highest scores.

On the gra.s.s of the Academy pairs of horses were whining; examinees carrying number plates entered the exam field in succession, and then were randomly paired with the army horses of the exam field. The Tang Dynasty promoted martial spirit – most of the candidates didn’t antic.i.p.ate choosing a horse instead of driving a carriage.

The examinees who hadn’t had their turn standing outside of the fencing were intently watching – watching some of the examinees gallop their horses calmly and freely and zig-zagging; watching some examinees pathetically falling onto the gra.s.sy ground, covered in mud from head to toe; watching some of the army horses neighing and leaping. If not for those army officers urgently hurrying to intercept, perhaps some those examinees would’ve been kicked. The examinees generally understood that the Imperial section of the exam still had some element of luck – if you could randomly pick a calm, obedient and healthy warhorse, the chance of getting through naturally rose higher by a bit. But if you chose a stubborn, ill-tempered warhorse, not falling off was considered good.

Since they were being used as mounts for the entrance exam of the Academy, before the event the military first did a bit of a selection process. Most of the horses all appeared strong and powerful and seemed extremely disciplined – quietly standing aside, watching the fluffy green gra.s.s underfoot and the peaches and apricots dotting beyond the fence, and hadn’t done anything they shouldn’t.

On the gra.s.s field, a black stallion attracted the gaze of all the examinees – gazes of alertness and restlessness, and even alarm. Already three examinees had been thrown off by that temperamental wild horse, and after a female examinee wearing bright red clothing was thrown off, that fierce horse unexpectedly tried to use its hooves to stomp her. The scene at the moment truly could be said to be perilous.

Seeing that red-clothed female examinee being helped beyond the fencing and crying quietly, the faces of those examinees that still hadn’t gone up became extremely unsightly; each silently prayed to Clear Sky, and even started to secretly ask Buddha, praying that they would not come across that fierce horse.

After the results of the lots had come out, the examinees waiting to go up finally let out a breath, then threw sincere gazes of compa.s.sion and sympathy at that poor fellow – there is always someone with bad luck, and the one with bad luck was a male protagonist. This was probably exactly the principle of without having weathered stormy hards.h.i.+p, how would you see a rainbow? Without coming across a fierce horse, how could skills be shown?

Under the gazes of sympathy, Ning Que slowly walked entering the gra.s.s field surrounded by fencing, his expression super calm, but inside he was silently muttering curses. With skills born and polished from the Gra.s.slands, setting right a fierce horse with rambunctious temperament was naturally nothing, only that he was thinking of wanting to get high scores on the Imperial section; if he had to spend time taming the horse, he was worried that time would be too tight.

On the gra.s.s field, all the warhorses wore mouthpieces, and that unruly black stallion was no exception. But what was curious was, this black horse leaned on the side of the fence, and no matter how the officer pulled it, it wouldn’t move – extending its head to reach the peach trees beyond the fence, with its tongue rolling and swallowing several young peach blossoms, chomping chomping chewing, completely in spite of the inconvenience of the mouthpiece across its mouth.

The black horse chewed on pink peaches, from time to time chased its tail, appearing extremely happy. It’s appearance looking like it needed whacks and even more whacks.

The officer in charge of this horse wiped the sweat on his forehead, and helplessly spread out his hands and walked towards Ning Que, sympathetically saying, “No one knows what’s with this horse today. I feel like it’s a bit crazy for peach blossoms. You be careful.”

The officer exited out of the fence, and Ning Que walked to the side of the horse’s neck, extending his hand and patting the coa.r.s.e and thick horse neck. That horse impatiently tilted his head and squinted a glance at him, its gaze full of disdain and resentment.

In regards to taming horses, Ning Que had several hundreds of tricks, but in this moment he had to strive for time, so he pretended like he completely hadn’t seen the black horse’s provocative look, and with a faint smile he said, “Big Black, be nice to me.”

The youth with a dimple smiled very innocently, and spoke with a very innocent tone, “Or else I’ll butcher you.”

The black horse suddenly became fearful and restless – it didn’t know why random threats from this youth beside him would make him become a pathetic rocking horse, it only knew it clearly felt peerless, truly icy-cold killing intent. The mane on its neck was blown into disorder by the wind, and its four hooves suddenly became stiff – from its slightly ajar mouth, those pink and velvet-like blossoms streamed falling from its mouth.

Warhorses didn’t understand human speech, but knew human nature, especially warhorses that had long been on the battlefield. They could sense what was true killing intent, and what is true danger.

Ning Que killed men when he was four, when he was five he killed, when he was six he killed, killing people until he was sixteen. From ChangAn he slaughtered to Min Mountain, slaughtered to Wei City, slaughtered to the Gra.s.slands, slaughtered to Shu Bi Lake, and then slaughtered his way back again to ChangAn City. Beneath his blade, he didn’t know how much blood it spilled, or how much blood it sprayed from heads he cut. The Lumberjack of Shu Bi Lake rampaged across the Gra.s.slands and even the most powerful wild horse chief sniffing his scent would surrender.

People probably couldn’t sense Ning Que’s danger, but horses definitely could, especially when he said he would butcher you.

Outside of the fencing a burst of shocked cries sounded; whether they were examinees preparing to go up, or those alert officers ensuring the safety of the examinees, all of them shot their gazes at one corner of the gra.s.s field, their gazes with expressions of shock and incredulousness.

In that spot of the gra.s.sfield, Ning Que was pulling that big black horse, slowly walking to the starting line. The big black horse previously showed its exceptional unruliness and violence, compared to now it was quietly, compliantly behaving, appearing like a well-trained maid.

Sang Sang standing at a distant gra.s.sy slope put the big black umbrella under her b.u.t.t and sat. Using her hand she covered her little mouth and yawned. On her small face was an expression full of boredom – in the mortal world, probably only she had never been worried about her master’s life.
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