Aoyama

Chapter 425 The Top Scholar's Poem, A Thing Within His Pocket

Today is the day the gates of the Imperial Examination Hall are opened.

As the eight hundred evening drumbeats from the Drum Tower ceased, the bells rang out in the examination hall. Someone shouted, "Rise and leave your seats! Anyone who moves again after the bells have stopped will be dismissed and will not be employed. Do not waste your ten years of hard study!"

A commotion erupted in the examination hall as the scholars rose to their feet and stood obediently in their examination cells. Some were still writing furiously, silently counting the tolling of the examination hall bells.

When the twelve bells ceased tolling, the official in charge of the examination hall announced loudly, "Receive the examination papers!"

Twelve examiners passed by the examination cells, collecting the papers one by one. Some papers were snatched away before they were even finished, without waiting for even a moment.

Immediately afterwards, the scholar in the cell burst into tears, crying, "It's all over! It's all over! Please allow me to write a few more lines!"

The official in charge of the examination hall shouted angrily, "Silence! What kind of behavior is this, crying and making a scene? I'll let you write two more lines, and then we'll both lose our heads! Now, step out of your cells and line up in two rows outside. Anyone who leaves the line without permission will be dismissed from the examination hall."

The examination hall fell silent again, with everyone standing in a line outside the examination cells, hands at their sides, as if afraid of doing something wrong.

The examiner collected the exam papers and took them to the sealing room, where the papers were anonymously marked.

After the names were anonymized, a special person would copy them again with a red pen. When grading the papers, the examiners would only look at the red-pen version and not the black-pen version, to prevent anyone from identifying the handwriting and engaging in favoritism or cheating.

These solemn rituals at each step were like the last fig leaf covering up the imperial examination system.

After the examiners took all the exam papers to the sealing office, the six officials who remained behind suddenly changed their expressions and said with a smile, "Gentlemen, the spring examination is now over. The rankings will be announced on the fifteenth of March. Go back and prepare your essays well, as there is still the palace examination to come."

Another official said with a smile, "When we serve in the same court in the future, we will have to rely on you all. Guards, sound the whip!"

At the exit of the examination cells, some officers set up red firecrackers. Once lit, the examination hall was filled with the crackling sound of firecrackers, and white smoke billowed into the sky.

The six officials and scholars bowed to each other in farewell, for from now on they would no longer be examiners and students, but colleagues.

Who can guarantee who's on top of whom?

The official in charge of the curtain waved to the bailiffs: "Leave the candidates here. When you open the gate, be careful that no one rushes into the examination hall. If someone breaks in, you and I will be beheaded!"

The constables bowed in unison: "Yes!"

The candidates lined up in two rows and slowly walked out.

Only then did the atmosphere finally lighten.

In the queue, someone whispered to Lin Chaojing in front of him, "Brother Lin, there is a great way to make money: many produce, few consume; those who produce are quick, those who use are frugal; then wealth will always be sufficient. What is the meaning of this sentence?"

Lin Chaojing smiled slightly and replied without turning his head, "The great way to make money lies in benevolent governance and mutual assistance between superiors and inferiors..."

As he spoke with great enthusiasm, the examinee behind him turned pale and muttered to himself, "Benevolent governance... How come I didn't think of starting the question with benevolent governance!"

At this moment, Lin Chaojing saw Shen Ye at the front of the line and immediately became interested: "Brother Shen, how did you answer the questions about the Five Classics?"

Shen Ye turned around and looked at Lin Chaojing with a half-smile: "Brother, the exam is over, what's the point of answering questions? I finally got through these days, are you going to test me again? Come on, let's drink, the classics are all in the wine, and the questions are all in the Eight Great Hutongs!"

Lin Chaojing shook his head: "Brother Shen, I still need to go home to study in order to prepare for the palace examination in fifteen days..."

Before he could finish declining, Shen Ye ignored him and made an appointment with Huang Que to go drinking at Plum Blossom Ferry that night.

Lin Chaojing could only swallow the rest of his sentence.

When they arrived at the gate of the examination hall, the gate was still closed.

A group of constables stood guard at the gate and instructed, "When the gate opens, do not linger outside; leave immediately!"

The triennial talent selection ceremony is one of the biggest events in the capital, with countless people waiting outside the examination hall.

A servant carrying a lantern and a food box waited for his master to come out of the examination hall.

There were prominent figures from various hometown associations waiting to welcome the scholars and literati from their hometowns.

Vendors carrying warm, freshly baked "Zhuangyuan Cake" (a type of traditional Chinese cake) were interspersed among the crowd.

The inn's staff were also watching closely, waiting to loudly solicit customers.

Some gambling den employees even stood guard outside the door, secretly observing who looked the best so they could go back and change the odds for the "top scholar".

Crowded.

But what attracted the most attention were the tables and desks outside the examination hall, where various restaurants had laid out writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones. Scholars would be invited to compose poems as soon as they left the hall. If a scholar achieved the highest rank in the imperial examination, the restaurant would display his calligraphy prominently in its establishment and host a banquet with eighty-eight tables in his honor.

These eighty-eight tables don't mean there are only eighty-eight tables; rather, one table is served after another, and the meal continues until the moon is high in the sky.

For the next three years, no other restaurant was allowed to serve the first eight dishes listed on the menu of this restaurant. If you wanted to eat these eight dishes, you had to go to this "Zhuangyuanlou" restaurant.

Lin Chaojing looked at Shen Ye: "Brother Shen, shall we compose a poem or a ci (a type of classical Chinese calligraphy) later?"

Shen Ye smiled and said, "Why bother writing a poem? In Jinling, a poem of mine could earn me the title of the best man on the Qinhuai River and offer himself to the emperor. If I write it in the capital, it will only benefit those taverns."

Lin Chaojing was slightly taken aback: "If you become the top scholar, those restaurants will host an 88-table banquet for you."

Shen Ye said nonchalantly, "Those eighty-eight tables aren't going to end up in my stomach. Besides, I don't have that many relatives and friends in the capital. A jar of good wine and four small dishes are enough."

The next moment, the official in charge of the curtain shouted, "Open the door and let them through!"

The vermilion gate suddenly swung open, but everyone inside was stunned. Only a few scattered people were guarding the gate, a scene of astonishing desolation.

What's even stranger is that the few people outside the gate are all facing away from the examination hall, looking towards Andingmen Street outside Biaobei Hutong, as if there's something even more exciting than the imperial examination.

Lin Chaojing stepped out of the examination hall and looked around in bewilderment. Even his own servant was nowhere to be seen. He asked in confusion, "Where did everyone go?"

Without turning his head, the gambling den worker said, "I don't know. Just now, someone ran into the street and shouted, 'Li Changge is returning to the capital, and Prince Fu is leading his horse.' Everyone rushed to see what was going on."

Shen Ye and Huang Que exchanged a glance. Wasn't Li Changge Chen Ji's nickname? Lin Chaojing was even more puzzled: "What's this about Prince Fu leading the horse?"

The gambling den worker shook his head: "We don't know about that."

Shen Ye laughed heartily: "Why don't we go and see for ourselves? Let's see if this Li Changge has grown three heads and six arms, and even steals the limelight from me, the candidate for the imperial examination!"

He pulled Huang Que along, and as soon as they arrived at Andingmen Street, they saw that the crowds of pedestrians were so dense that they blocked out the sun.

Shen Ye showed no restraint whatsoever as someone about to become a new Jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations), and squeezed into the crowd with Huang Que.

The streets of Andingmen are lined with buildings and brightly lit, with wine flags fluttering and lanterns hanging high on the carved beams and painted rafters.

Amidst the bustling crowd, Shen Ye pushed his way forward with great enthusiasm, feeling as if he had returned to the Lantern Festival in Jinling when he was fifteen years old, a time of great prosperity and splendor.

Shen Ye exclaimed excitedly, "Brother Huang, we arrived in the capital a little late and missed this year's Lantern Festival, but we never expected to see such a lively and beautiful scene!"

The two men pushed forward for several dozen steps before they could move no further. He grabbed a middle-aged man and asked, "Brother, what exactly happened up ahead?"

The man exclaimed in surprise, "Haven't you heard? Chen Ji, the wanted criminal who tried to assassinate the Crown Prince, has returned to the capital!"

Shen Ye's eyes widened: "Chen Ji? Assassinated the Crown Prince?"

He and Huang Que looked at each other in bewilderment. What had they missed in the past few days at the examination hall? How could Chen Ji suddenly become a wanted criminal by the imperial court after only a few days?
Shen Ye asked urgently, "Was he captured or...?"

The man, while standing on tiptoe to look, answered without turning his head: "He wasn't brought back; he came back on his own. He said he was wronged and that the real culprit, Liao Zhong, has been arrested. However, the Five Cities Garrison doesn't believe him and is confronting him at Anding Gate. Strangely enough, the Five Cities Garrison can't do anything about him and can't get rid of him."

“He’s from the Chen family on Fuyou Street, so naturally the Five Cities Military Command wouldn’t dare do anything to him,” Shen Ye asked again, “And then what?”

The man replied, "And then? This kid's got guts. So many people wanted to arrest him, but he stopped at the city gate and refused to leave. He drank dozens of bowls of wine right in front of everyone."

Shen Ye asked again, "And now...?"

Before he finished speaking, the crowd of onlookers parted in front of Shen Ye, as if a tide had been cleaved in two by a single sword.

Shen Ye saw Prince Fu approaching in a black imperial robe, holding the reins. Behind him was a drunken young man swaying on his horse, yet managing not to fall.

The boy was carrying a wine jar, pouring wine for himself and drinking it all in one go.

Under the dim lights and amidst the bustling crowd, Chen Ji sat high on his horse, while the others were all passersby. He was inexplicably taller than everyone else, and everyone had to look up at him.

“Chen Ji!” Shen Ye exclaimed in astonishment.

In the lights of Andingmen Street, white steam rose from Chen Ji's body, as if the wine he had drunk had been burned by a fire and turned into misty steam that shot into the sky.

The bloodstains on the other person's clothes resembled the large red embroidered flower on the chest of a top scholar. Prince Fu led his horse, just like a top scholar about to be paraded through the streets to attend the imperial banquet.

Shen Ye was both amused and exasperated. The day of the imperial examination hadn't even arrived yet, and the unofficial top scholar had stolen the limelight from the legitimate candidates.

As Prince Fu led his horse closer, Shen Ye stepped aside and loudly asked Chen Ji, "How many bowls have you drunk?"

Chen Ji looked down at him with drunken eyes: "Sixty-seven bowls."

The onlookers gasped in surprise. Shen Ye, smiling, asked from the crowd, "How many more bowls would you like to drink?"

Chen Ji also replied with a smile, "There are still fifteen bowls left."

On Andingmen Street, someone shouted: "What are you bragging about? Sixty-seven bowls of food will surely burst your belly."

But at this moment, Prince Fu said irritably, "He said sixty-seven bowls, so he meant sixty-seven bowls. Would I lie to you? I'm counting them!"

"That's too arrogant, even more arrogant than me," Shen Ye muttered to himself in the crowd.

The taverns along Andingmen Street were brightly lit, and the prince and the young man seemed to have stepped out of a storyteller's tale, unrestrained, arrogant, and lawless.

As Prince Fu and Chen Ji gradually disappeared into the distance, Shen Ye suddenly called out loudly, "Shen Ye, the newly appointed top scholar of the thirty-second year of the Jia Ning reign, is here! Which restaurant carries writing brushes and ink?"

A young servant in the crowd quickly said, "I have it with me!"

Shen Ye laughed heartily: "Give it here, and I'll bestow upon you my calligraphy!"

Two servants hurriedly pushed through the crowd. One unfurled the scroll and held it in front of Shen Ye, while the other squatted down, laid out the ink box, dipped a brush in ink, and handed it to Shen Ye.

Others chuckled, "The results of the imperial examinations haven't even been announced yet, how dare you, a scholar, boast that you're the new top scholar? Don't be fooled by those two lads from Bianyifang!"

Shen Ye rolled up his sleeves, took the brush, and laughed loudly: "It's nothing more than what's in my bag."

With a flourish of his hand, he wrote on the scroll: "To the tune of 'Breaking the Formation,' written on the day of the imperial examination, I met Changge and got drunk before entering the capital."

At this moment, Shen Ye closed his eyes in deep thought. Huang Que leaned close to him and asked curiously, "Brother Shen, didn't you say you didn't want to give the restaurants in the capital a free ride?"

Shen Ye opened his eyes again, pointed at Chen Ji's departing figure, and sighed, "Who could resist that?"

The next moment, he picked up his pen and wrote: "Twenty years of bitter study of classics, thirty years of wasted time. The sound of the evening drum is still hoarse after eight hundred days, three thousand miles of vain travel, so many useless scholars."

"A young man rides his horse, cleaving through the waves; let no king or nobleman hold his saddle. I dare to borrow the Big Dipper to pour strong wine, and in my drunken state, gaze upon the ancient mountains and rivers, and reclaim the kingdoms of two dynasties!"

"So-so, not shameful," Shen Ye examined the broken poem and then tossed the brush to the servant of Bianyifang.

The servant took the brush from his hand: "May I ask where you live, sir? If you call out your name at Donghua Gate, our shop will gladly come to your door to discuss who to entertain at the banquet."

Shen Ye glanced at the servant: "No need to discuss with me. Everyone who sees it gets a share. Anyone can come to your Bianyifang on that day. Beggars are welcome, women and children are welcome. You can let everyone in the world drink and have a good time. Is that alright?"

The servant grinned and said, "If you can call out my name outside Donghua Gate, what's wrong with that?"

Outside the crowd, a young Taoist priest was riding backwards on a blue ox, his brush seemingly containing inexhaustible ink, writing furiously on a wordless book.

(End of this chapter)