Chapter 1319: One Examination Determines a Lifetime, Part Four (Tearfully Begging for Monthly Tickets)

Hearing his son say Wu Ahuan was too fierce, Zhu Cilang was also a bit speechless.

She's such a fine Eight-Faced Guanyin, beautiful from every angle — how has she become a shrew in your eyes? No, this has to be cleared up! If Wu Ahuan really is that fierce, marrying her to Rich Wang wouldn't be very suitable. We can't let Rich Wang end up like Li Zhi.

"Is she really that fierce?" Zhu Cilang asked with a frown. "Did she bully you before?"

Zhu Hexing nodded. "Of course she's fierce — like a female bandit chief. Since I was little, I've suffered no shortage of bullying from her."

When you were little?

"Why do you still remember things from childhood so clearly?" Zhu Cilang waved his hand. "People change as they grow up. When you were little, you were sickly and looked like you'd die young — and now aren't you as strong as an ox? Would she still dare bully you?"

"Of course she wouldn't dare now," Zhu Hexing said. "Isn't she here now to take the Crown Princess exam? Naturally she has to put on a ladylike act. If she really passes, she'll show her true colors for sure!"

"You don't like her?" Zhu Cilang looked at his son's disgusted expression and frowned deeply. "She's so beautiful—"

You don't even like a sweet, innocent Eight-Faced Guanyin — then who do you like? Zhu Cilang thought to himself. Even a wise ruler like your father feels his heart stir at the sight of that girl. If it weren't for wanting to take Ake, I'd definitely have taken her myself — and this brat actually doesn't like her!

Is that a normal reaction?

"Imperial Father," Zhu Hexing said, seeming to notice his father's skeptical gaze, and grinned. "The Eight-Faced Guanyin is beautiful, true, but she lacks that gentleness of a daughter — your son doesn't much care for her."

Zhu Cilang smiled. "Too gentle and demure, and she couldn't manage the household of a Crown Prince like you, nor serve as mother to the realm in the future! Don't even think about it this time — only after five years will you be free to choose for yourself!

Off to your classes now! When the martial arts test and the interview come, you'll still need to ask for leave. Don't fall too far behind in your lectures at the Military Academy, or you won't be able to keep up."

Unlike the "imperial education" received by crown princes of past dynasties, Zhu Hexing had never been taught how to become a wise ruler meeting Confucian standards. The education he received was the same as that of the other top elite sons of the Great Ming Empire — he studied in the same classroom as everyone else, studied at the Military Academy, and even lived on campus.

And his current field of study was military affairs — in Zhu Cilang's view, the heir to the Ming throne should first become an excellent soldier, serve in the army for a period, and then enter the Royal Chamber of Commerce to gain exposure to industry and commerce.

For the Ming of today, only an heir to the throne well-versed in military affairs and thoroughly familiar with industry and commerce could become a reasonably qualified emperor in the future.

An emperor who doesn't know how to fight wars and doesn't know where the money is can never be qualified, no matter what!

Zhu Hexing brightened at these words. "Imperial Father, do you mean to let your son choose for himself?"

Zhu Cilang glared at his son. "In your dreams — We simply want you to know what kind of person is fit to become the mother of our Great Ming heavenly dynasty!" As he spoke, he waved his hand again. "Go on, go on — off to your classes!"

Zhu Hexing sighed, had no choice but to bow, and withdrew from the imperial study in the Red Fort.

Just as the conversation between the Zhu father and son ended, inside Moshan Academy, more than three hundred beauties who had come for the examination had already arrived one after another. Guided by the palace maids and female officials proctoring the exam, they entered six spacious and bright classrooms.

Ding Bapi's daughter Ding Yuying was already seated in the classroom. Before her was a half-worn desk, and beneath her was a round stool with much of its lacquer chipped away.

A slip of paper was pasted to one corner of the desk, bearing Ding Yuying's examination number — written in red Arabic numerals: No. 355!

This number was assigned according to the preliminary exam score ranking. The original plan had been to admit only 300 in the preliminary exam, but later, for various reasons, 60 more were added. So the highest number was 360, and 355 — sixth from the bottom — also showed how poor Ding Yuying's preliminary exam results were. Oh, actually, they weren't poor at all: more than 200 girls from Jingzhou Prefecture who had attended the new-style schools sat the exam, and she ranked first!

Moreover, her Confucian studies and mathematics had both gone quite well; it was only because her French was too poor that her score was dragged down. Now her French had been brought up to standard, so her confidence had also grown.

Thinking of this, she scooped up a little clear water from a small bucket half-filled with water beside her and began grinding ink, while at the same time raising her head to look at the examination questions hung high up. For secrecy, no printed exam papers had been made. Zhu Cixuan and Pan Yuchen had only received the Confucian studies and mathematics questions from Emperor Zhu that morning; then Zhu Cixuan had written them out in large characters on big sheets of xuan paper, which were then hung before the writing board in the classroom. The candidates copied them down themselves; if they could not see clearly, they could go up to the front to copy.

All examination stationery was brought by the candidates themselves: brushes, pencils (for drawing), quill pens (for writing French), various rulers and compasses, ink, and inkstones. All examination paper, including the notebooks used for drafts and copying the questions, was uniformly distributed.

Ding Yuying swept her eyes over the Confucian studies questions. Some were easy, some difficult — but she could do them all, and getting a high score shouldn't be hard. As for mathematics, that was no problem either: the new-style schools of Jingzhou Prefecture used the same mathematics textbook as Laoshan Middle School, and she had learned it very well. These two subjects tested memory, logical thinking, and rigor — all of which Ding Yuying possessed.

For her, what would truly determine her standing were French and martial arts.

While Ding Yuying was carefully reviewing the questions, the slacker girl Ahai, No. 360, sitting behind her, was somewhat bewildered — she could recite the Confucian Classics by heart and could do addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, but the principles in the "Zilun Gewu Pian" she did not understand, and the math problems harder than basic arithmetic she could not do either.

But she didn't much care about her exam results, whether she got into the women's college or not, or even the title of secondary consort — as long as she could keep sleeping with Zhu Hehao, she was satisfied.

The great favorite whom Crown Prince Zhu Hexing had rejected, the Eight-Faced Guanyin Wu Ahuan, had already begun answering questions by this time.

Xu Erlin had already prepared a "full-clearance plan" for her. Ahuan's Confucian studies, mathematics, and natural philosophy were all passable — she couldn't get 100, but she could score between 80 and 90. Thanks to Xu Erlin's efforts, her French had improved rapidly, and her exam score wouldn't be low. As for martial arts, that was certainly a perfect score. According to Xu Erlin's analysis, apart from the interview, no candidate could be excellent in all five subjects — everyone was more or less lopsided. Martial arts was the weak point of most top-scoring candidates, so Wu Ahuan's lost points in Confucian studies, mathematics, natural philosophy, and French were not fatal.

And Wu Ahuan wasn't too bad in the four academic subjects either — she could at least get four 85s, plus a 100 in martial arts, for a total of 440 points. She was, in fact, a sports-specialty student with decent school grades, and she was also very beautiful — her competitiveness was still very strong.

Whether she could become Crown Princess all depended on the interview! If she could score 100 in the interview, then 540 points would be in hand, and her hopes of becoming Crown Princess should be very great!

As for the interview's key points, Xu Erlin estimated they would be appearance, military studies, and finance. Wu Ahuan's appearance and military studies were no problem, but her knowledge of finance was lacking. Still, Xu Erlin had proposed a way for Wu Ahuan to cope.

The other great favorite, Zheng Min, also had a capable person behind her — her aunt, Princess Kunxing. The Princess had also assessed Zheng Min, and she felt that Zheng Min should be able to score 380 in the four subjects of Confucian studies, mathematics, natural philosophy, and French; her martial arts was a bit weaker, but 70 points was still attainable, so her total across the five subjects would be 450 points. A guaranteed win was impossible — the key would come down to the interview score!

Moreover, Princess Kunxing had also guessed the three key points of the interview. Appearance was no problem for Zheng Min — though she wasn't as beautiful as the Eight-Faced Guanyin, she had the soft charm of a Jiangnan woman, just as alluring. In addition, as a daughter of the Zheng family, her financial acumen was not low; her only problem was that her military studies were somewhat weak.

The same pre-exam assessment also applied to the three girls Luo Xiaohe, Shen Xiulan, and Wei Qingxiu. All three were top students, and their martial arts was merely average — sixty or seventy points at most. To stand out among a crowd of competitors, they would have to rely on the fair and impartial Emperor Zhu's interview score.

(End of Chapter)