[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-simultaneously-transmigrated-my-cheat-skill-is-m":3,"chapter-simultaneously-transmigrated-my-cheat-skill-is-m-simultaneously-transmigrated-my-cheat-skill-is-m-chapter-50":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Simultaneously Transmigrated: My Cheat Skill Is Myself",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2315305,4528,"Chapter 50: Provincial Examination Results Posted","simultaneously-transmigrated-my-cheat-skill-is-m-chapter-50",50,"\u003Cp>Outside the Jinan Examination Hall in the Water Margin world, the crowd was thronging.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Candidates from every county and city, along with their servants and bookboys,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>plus onlookers, had packed the area around the hall so tightly not a single person could squeeze through.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The reason for such commotion outside the hall today was that it was the day the provincial examination results were posted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Posting the list was also called “posting the board,” meaning the announcement of those admitted after the exam.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The provincial examination results were posted in September, typically on days with the Earthly Branches Yin or Chen,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>for Chen symbolized the dragon and Yin the tiger, evoking the “Dragon-Tiger List”;\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>and since it occurred in autumn when osmanthus blossoms were in full bloom, it was also called the “Osmanthus List.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was still not yet time for the posting, but the area outside the hall was already packed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Candidates with servants or bookboys could send them to check the list on their behalf,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>while poor or anxious candidates came in person.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet because the provincial examination was so crucial, unless truly unable to come,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>every candidate would show up to see the list.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, seeing it oneself was far more reassuring than hearing it secondhand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even Zhang Jie, confident in his abilities, had come early to the hall,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>urged on by Pan Jinlian, who was alternately hopeful and fearful, along with Wu Song\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>and Chen Wen, his fellow examinee.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Accompanying Zhang Jie and his group was Wang Lao, the owner of the Haoke Lai Inn where they stayed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Will I make the list this time?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I messed up one of the policy questions—I probably have no chance now.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I hope my essay catches the chief examiner’s eye.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Confucius protect me, Wenchang Emperor protect me, Kuixing Star protect me.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The candidates expressed doubt, anxiety, despair, calmness, or prayed to gods and spirits—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>each in their own way, vividly portraying the myriad faces of humanity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The onlookers, however, all wore smiles on their faces.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They were here for the spectacle and the gossip—who cared whose spectacle or whose gossip it was?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Steamed dumplings for sale!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Fried tofu balls for sale!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Cold tea for sale! Wang’s Cold Tea!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Clever vendors had begun selling snacks and small goods.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Make way! Make way!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the sun rose, a group of yamen runners escorted an official carrying a scroll made of yellow paper out of the examination hall.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Song provincial examination grading took place within the “examination halls” of each prefecture,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>primarily in designated halls such as the Zhigong Hall, where examiners were sealed in until the list was released.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The yellow list is coming! The yellow list is coming!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A sharp-eyed candidate close by spotted the scroll in the official’s hands and began shouting excitedly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The palace examination was personally administered and selected by the emperor, so its list was called the “Imperial List.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To display the Son of Heaven’s majesty, to make scholars across the land regard the emperor as their master, and strengthen rule,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>as well as to express good wishes for those who passed,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>the provincial list was deliberately written on specially made yellow paper, to echo the sound of “Imperial List” as “Yellow List.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yellow List!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The list is out!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The already noisy crowd erupted into chaos.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Tom, this many people is so loud!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Jie’s acute hearing instantly felt his eardrums vibrating at several times their normal frequency and amplitude.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He instinctively channeled Qi to shield his ears; otherwise, his hearing would surely deteriorate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The official holding the yellow list paid no heed to the excited crowd,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>and slowly made his way along the path cleared by the yamen runners to the posting site.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>According to longstanding custom, he slowly unrolled the list from bottom to top.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because the crowd was so dense, officials feared trampling, so\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>the yamen had specially selected several runners with enormous lung capacity and thunderous voices to announce the names.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Changyi County, Xu Qianxue, candidate Xu, ranked seventy-second on the provincial list!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Several runners shouted together the first name and hometown of the successful candidate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Eh! I passed! I passed!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the crowd, an old man in plain clothes, his hair and beard now streaked white, cried out in excitement.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The people around him looked at Old Scholar Xu differently.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even those who had once looked down on this poor scholar now changed their attitude.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even if Scholar Xu had merely scraped in as the last name on the list—the “Sun Shan” of “falling short of Sun Shan”—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>still, a juren was a juren, no longer a shengyuan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A shengyuan might still be poor and shabby, but a juren never was.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leaving aside the privileges of juren—exemption from corvée labor and taxes—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>merely the fact that a juren was qualified to become an official severed any link to poverty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though juren appointments were inferior to jinshi ones, who at least began as seventh-rank county magistrates,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>juren could still serve as assistant magistrates or county instructors at eighth or seventh rank.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the 21st century, that would be the county’s number two and the director of education!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The famed Hai Rui became an official as a juren,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>his first post being instructor of Nanping County.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not to mention that Scholar Xu, now Juren Xu, was already eligible for the metropolitan examination.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If he passed as a gongshi and then became a jinshi, might he not have a chance to enter the Hanlin Academy,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>join the Song central government, and become one of the chancellors ruling the realm?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What of Juren Xu’s white hair and advanced age?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What problem was that?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In our Great Song, where the emperor rules jointly with the scholar-officials, as long as your name is called outside Donghua Gate,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>even if your hair is white or you’re seventy or eighty, barely able to walk—you’re still a fine man!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the final years of Emperor Renzong’s reign, Han Qi returned to court, serving successively as Director of the Privy Council and Tong Pingzhangshi,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>holding rank equal to Han and Tang chancellors, and openly declared:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Only those whose names are called outside Donghua Gate are true men!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Is Juren Xu married?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Already, some wealthy landowners had begun making their move.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Calm and composed, not as mad as Fan Jin, Juren Xu blushed slightly:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“My family is poor; I’m past forty and still unmarried.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The stout landowner seized Juren Xu’s hand:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I have a daughter, sixteen years old, also unmarried—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>clearly, fate has destined us for marriage!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With keen ears and eyes, Zhang Jie watched as Juren Xu\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>and the landowner began addressing each other as “Father-in-law” and “Son-in-law.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No wonder so many go mad over the imperial exams.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Jie stroked his chin, sighing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The lines from Emperor Zhenzong Zhao Heng’s poem “Encouragement to Study”:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Wealthy families need not buy good land; books hold a thousand bushels of grain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For a comfortable home, no need to build lofty halls; books hold golden chambers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Don’t lament no one accompanies you on the road; books bring carriages and horses in abundance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Don’t grieve over lack of a good matchmaker; books hold beauties as fair as jade.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If a man fulfills his life’s ambition, diligently study the Six Classics before the window.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And here it was—Juren Xu’s “fair jade” and “golden chamber” had come knocking on his door.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Licheng, Yucheng, Zhangqiu, Changqing...”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The announcers paid no mind to the excited Juren Xu and others, continuing their steady recitation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yuncheng County, Chen Wenyun, candidate Chen, ranked thirty-sixth on the provincial list!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The runner called Chen Wen’s name midway, right beside Zhang Jie.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Good! Good!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After learning he had passed the provincial examination, Chen Xiucai did not react with the same excitement as Xu Juren; instead, he murmured to himself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet the excitement and joy in his eyes could not be concealed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Congratulations, Brother Chen, on your success.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Jie bowed to Chen Xiucai in congratulations.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Congratulations, Big Brother Chen.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wu Song and Pan Jinlian also offered their congratulations to Chen Xiucai.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Congratulations, Master Chen.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Lao, owner of Haokelai Inn, came to congratulate Chen Xiucai.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Mutual congratulations, mutual congratulations. Your essays are refined and masterful; you will surely rank above me.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Chen Xiucai smiled warmly and returned each bow in turn.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Laoyang, Jiaoshui, Jimo, Penglai, Huangxian, Muping, Wenden...”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the yamen runners called out the names, the list of preceding candidates grew shorter, yet Zhang Jie’s name never appeared.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Young Master, there are still ten names left on the list; you must be among them,” Pan Jinlian reassured him, fearing his anxiety.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet while comforting Zhang Jie, her own small fists clenched so tightly that veins stood out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wu Song, too, grew anxious, visibly restless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He regarded Zhang Jie as a brother and naturally did not wish for him to fail the exam.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Young Brother Renjie may well be the runner-up!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Chen Xiucai stroked his beard and smiled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the provincial examination rankings, the first-place candidate is called “Jieyuan,” the second “Yayuan,”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>the third through fifth are called “Jingkui,” the sixth “Yaqi,”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>and those below seventh are collectively termed “Wenkui” or designated by rank as “No. X Juren.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After these days of interaction, Chen Xiucai regarded Zhang Jie as a prodigy and held great confidence in him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Relax,” Zhang Jie gave Pan Jinlian a reassuring glance and gently took her small hand in his own.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing Zhang Jie so composed, Wu Song and Pan Jinlian finally calmed slightly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But as the names for “Yaqi” and “Jingkui” were announced—none were Zhang Jie’s—Pan Jinlian’s heart began to rise in dread.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Jie gave Pan Jinlian a reassuring glance and placed her small hand in his own.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing Zhang Jie so composed, Wu Song and Pan Jinlian finally calmed slightly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But as the names of “Yaqi” and “Jingkui” were announced,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>neither was Zhang Jie, and Pan Jinlian’s heart gradually rose.\u003C\u002Fp>",1644,"2026-06-20T14:22:35.989Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","ab67f6670d1a403b11c2b8d93bf121bf312f2de6bc2951aff977ef8c728ca226","simultaneously-transmigrated-my-cheat-skill-is-m-chapter-51","simultaneously-transmigrated-my-cheat-skill-is-m-chapter-49",601,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fsimultaneously-transmigrated-my-cheat-skill-is-m-cover.jpg"]