The Thirty-Second Chapter of Heaven's Questions

  February 10th arrived soon, and the third watch of the night was awakened by the old clan elder. When Yun Zheng walked outside, he found that many people were standing outside, all of whom were men in uniform attire. Just as Yun Er had just stepped out of the door with his arms around Ruo Rou, the old clan elder snatched Yun Er away and pushed Ruo Rou back into the house, strictly ordering him not to come out.

  A tiger-headed human-bodied statue was brought out, the old tribal chief personally took clear water to wipe this statue that had been stored for many years, and then asked Cang Er to come over and clean it again. This is the privilege of the old and young tribal chiefs.

  After the statue was washed twice, the old patriarch ordered Yundage and Yuner to kneel down. He personally held the statue and prayed devoutly. Then he saw Cang'er pouring wine into the mouth of the tiger head with a ceramic jar. Yundage followed the old patriarch's orders and opened his mouth to receive the wine. After a while, the wine flowed out from the chicken's position after being poured into the tiger's head. Yundage wanted to refuse, but he thought that doing so would result in him being beaten to death by the old patriarch. So he endured and swallowed several mouthfuls. It turned out that the wine brought by the old patriarch today was definitely a good wine that had been filtered, with a sweet flavor of maltose. Yuner saw that Yundage seemed to be drinking comfortably and stood up to drink as well. The old patriarch affectionately scratched Yuner's nose and said to him: "You're still young, wait until you grow up, this black tiger wine will definitely have your share. Drinking the black tiger wine means being one of our own people."

  "I don't drink Black Tiger beer either, I'm also one of us!" Yun Er Nai replied in a soft and gentle voice, causing the old clan leader and other men to burst out laughing.

  After Yun Zheng finished drinking, others dispersed immediately. Cang Er carried the Hei Hu Shen statue and went straight to the mountain, it's unknown where he hid the statue.

  The old clan leader checked everything, the pen, ink, paper and inkstone were all there, and after checking the paste, he put some rice cakes and five or six boiled eggs into a basket. After double-checking, he went down from the bamboo building and personally hitched up the Cloud Ridge family's ox cart, carrying Cloud Big, Cloud Second, and the cured meat to Dou Sha Pass.

  Yun Da will think that the lineup is a bit too grand, he just went to take an exam for a child, and from the village to Dou Sha Guan is only ten miles away, why send more than a dozen fully armed hunters to accompany him? This is not going to take an exam, but rather like going to attack Dou Sha Guan.

  The bean paste gate opens only when the rooster crows, but today is an exception. A bamboo basket was lowered from the city wall, and Yun Zheng put the luggage into the bamboo basket. Before long, the small door opened, and the hunters were not allowed to enter the gate. Only the old tribe leader drove a cow cart carrying Yun Zheng's family into the gate. The military officer on the city gate even sent an old soldier to guide them, and they were very respectful along the way.

  "Three people went in before you, but none of them looked like a young student. They all had white beards! You're the first one who looks like a young scholar. In my opinion, at your age, 70 or 80 years old, what's the point of still struggling? You should focus on teaching your grandsons to recognize characters instead."

  Listening to the old soldier's chatter, Yun Zheng asked suspiciously: "Are you sure you saw clearly? This is a child's test, not an imperial examination or a court exam. There shouldn't be people in their 40s and 50s participating, should there?"

  The old clan leader smiled and replied on behalf of the old soldier: "What's so strange? A 60-year-old old boy who is already a glory in the village, only our village can be considered a genius with a treasure like you."

  After finishing, he looked at Yun Erxiao, who was sleeping in the arms of the cured meat, and laughed even more happily. He pointed to Yun Er and said to the old soldier: "Big brother, this child will be able to take the imperial examination in a few years, and by then, he should have become a scholar."

  "No way! Cloud Conference became the champion." Yun Er heard the old clan leader talking about him and immediately jumped out.

  They arrived at the county yamen with smiles, and upon seeing the people gathered in front of the gate, they couldn't help but laugh. Liu Doutou was patrolling back and forth at the entrance with a sword slung over his shoulder. The old registrar sat behind a desk, registering names, with an incense burner on his table that held a thick, coarse incense stick; the flame on top flickered uncertainly in the morning breeze.

  Liu Dutou saw Yun Zheng coming and smiled at the old steward, saying: "The real master has arrived, whether he can become a dragon depends on whether he can first crawl out of the muddy pond. If you want to leap over the Dragon Gate, you must first transform from a loach into a carp."

  Yun Zheng went forward to pay his respects to Liu Du Tou and Lao Zhu Bo, although the procedures for his own examination had been personally handled by Lao Zhu Bo, Yun Zheng still respectfully presented a letter of introduction to ask Liu Du Tou and Lao Zhu Bo to verify it.

  "Our county's Tongzi exam isn't too particular, the test is held right in the public hall, and there are only five people in total. I think that among them, you're the only one who can pass, so even if you don't want to take it, you have to take it anyway! What a great bargain! Other counties don't have such good fortune."

  Yun Zheng smiled and replied, "From now on, whenever you meet someone, just say that I am the champion of Dou Sha County. After gaining everyone's attention, even if they beat me to death, I won't tell them that only five of us took part in the exam."

  Yun Zheng's words made everyone present burst out laughing, even the few old children waiting at the door to take the exam opened their mouths and laughed foolishly, probably also thinking about whether they could use this bridge section themselves.

  When the incense was burned out, the old steward coughed lightly and shouted: "Open the dragon gate!" Then two bailiffs opened the main gate of the yamen to invite the examinees in. Yun Zheng did not encounter a body search checkpoint, which made sense, after all, there were only five people taking the exam under the county magistrate's nose, what kind of tricks could they play?

  Entering the main hall, I found it extremely empty and desolate. There were no water and fire signs that I had seen before, nor any yamen runners holding water and fire clubs. Behind the main hall, there was no painting of a red sun on a blue sea, but only a middle-aged man with a pale face sitting above, not wearing official attire or an official hat, with three short whiskers under his chin. If he mixed into his white hair when it turned gray, these three short whiskers would also grow to chest length.

  I thought the county magistrate would say a few words, but he didn't even raise an eyebrow, just waved his hand, and immediately the bailiffs hung up the notice in the most prominent place.

  Yun Zheng raised his head, chuckled and sat down at the farthest table, leaving some room for the four old men to breathe. Each of them stretched their necks like a chicken's, narrowing their eyes in an effort to see the words on top clearly.

  The book hasn't been read much, but unfortunately, his eyes have gone bad, it's not worth it.

  The whole world is full of fill-in-the-blank questions, and most of them come from the Analects. Since Zhao Pu said that half of the Analects can govern the world, the study of the Analects has been very popular in the Song Dynasty. Yun Zheng calculated that as long as he answered all the questions about the Analects correctly, he would pass the Tongzi exam. As for those few questions from the Book of Songs, they were simply giving away points.

  Adjusted my mood a bit, not for the sake of answering questions, but to write every word well. If I lost my own child's trial case because of font or taboo, it would be too unjust.

  As soon as the topic was opened, a stick of incense was lit. The county magistrate sat sideways and read books, and when he saw the wonderful places, he could still recite: "Thin dusk thunder, what to worry about? Severe not offering, what does the emperor want? Hidden in the hole, what cloud is it? Jing Kun becomes a teacher, what is his length?"

  Having reflected and changed, what more can I say? Wu Guang contended for the state, but in the end, it was Yu who won. How could Huang Xiang wear (the crown) from the ancestral temple to the hills and valleys, and then hand it over to his son Wen?

  Yun Zheng looked at the county magistrate with a shocked expression. What kind of injustice was in his heart that made him recite "Tian Wen" like this?