Xu Qing’s article was as if it was written with Shen Mo’s pen, in Shen Mo’s style, creating a piece even better and flawless than what he had written in the past.
The initial Four Books questions already demonstrated Xu Qing’s own Heavy Sword Style.
In the latter Five Classics questions, it indicated that Xu Qing, using his weaker Sharp Sword Style, wrote an article even better than Shen Mo’s past self.
The significant meaning behind this, outsiders couldn’t comprehend, but Shen Mo, being the Chief Examiner, must have seen it very clearly.
"Denying my Five Classics questions is denying the past you."
"If you think I’m not up to standard, then your level during the past provincial and examination was even more inadequate."
After finishing seven articles, Xu Qing couldn’t help feeling exhilarated.
"I hope I’m not competing against thin air." Xu Qing appeared relaxed and at ease.
He had already exhausted his own Heart Intent, the rest was up to others to worry about.
Following his review of the answer sheets for the Five Classics questions, the first session of the exam soon ended.
After the first session’s papers were submitted, the papers were collected by the examiners, and after a strict process, the rewritten papers were eventually sent to the examiners for grading.
After receiving the papers, the Chief Examiner Shen Mo had his fellow examiners draw lots and, based on the results, they took their bundle of papers.
These papers were from the Four Books questions and didn’t need to be categorized according to the Five Classics Room.
Thus, even if one knew the teachers in advance from the Five Classics Room, they still needed their article’s level from the Four Books questions to reach a certain height to have a chance in the subsequent selection.
Unless all the fellow examiners had already colluded in advance and were aware of which critical texts they needed to pass. Hence this drawing method couldn’t prevent the examiners from cheating.
But such cases were extremely rare.
The more people involved, the higher the risk of something going wrong.
The fellow examiners reviewed the papers in a large hall, without private individual rooms. To the side, there were supervisors from Inner Supervision and several surveillance officers, sitting right beside the examiners, watching their entire paper grading process...
Whenever the examiners encountered a paper they thought was of the quality worth recruiting, they would "recommend the paper," presenting their reasoning for recommendation and then submitting it to the Chief Examiner and Assistant Chief Examiner for review.
The Assistant Chief Examiner would review it first and if approved, he would write a "selected" mark, write down his reasons, and then forward it to the Chief Examiner.
If the Chief Examiner also approved, he would then write a "pass," detailing the reasons for selection, which essentially confirmed their successful passing of the exam, and thereafter, it was a matter of ranking.
Generally, if the Assistant Chief Examiner opposed a paper, the Chief Examiner wouldn’t pass it either.
However, this time the Assistant Chief Examiner, appointed by the Court for balance, was a retired Assistant Minister of Rites from the Heavenly Capital, surnamed Wang, merely here in his retirement.
He naturally wouldn’t offend anyone, as long as the fellow examiners submitted papers, he would mark them "selected," and whether they passed or not, it depended on the Chief Examiner Shen Mo’s Heart Intent.
Shen Mo saw his cooperation and couldn’t really say much.
He would just have to work a bit harder.
The advantage of being the Chief Examiner was that the papers submitted were all of a certain standard and wouldn’t feel tedious.
He wasn’t too exhausted from reading one paper after another.
Yet, during the long process of review, he inevitably felt a lack of enthusiasm.
Until he saw a certain paper, his eyes lit up, and after reading it, felt as if he had tasted a divine brew:
"Truly a masterful piece, every word a gem."
By now, he had guessed the owner of the examination paper, inwardly praising, "Well done, Xie Wenyuan."
"With your level of writing reaching such heights, I’m afraid Xu Qing cannot surpass you."
Shen Mo inwardly sighed, what a pity.