Farm Girl's Manor
Chapter 742 Shocking Four Seats (3)_1

Chapter 742: Chapter 742 Shocking Four Seats (3)_1

Among the several essays I had already seen, two discussions were quite good and received very reasonable rankings. Emperor Huian nodded in satisfaction, but when he saw the one marked as "exceptional" further back, only pure surprise and delight remained in his eyes.

After evaluating the one marked as superior, Emperor Huian had no more interest in the remaining three essays. He nodded to the Grand Scholar to indicate that he had no objections to the evaluation results and returned the examination papers and outcomes to him.

The Grand Scholar, seeing the thousands of students stretching their necks, eagerly awaiting the outcome, did not keep them in suspense and declared, "In this palace examination, there is one ’exceptional,’ four ’superior,’ two ’medium,’ and three ’inferior’... Zhao Gao, Qin Hui, and Wei Zhongxian are ’inferior’... Meng Haoran and Du Fu are ’superior’... Mo Qingze is ’exceptional’!"

No sooner had the words been spoken than a buzzing sound of discussion rose in the great hall, mostly expressing astonishment at Mo Qingze’s ’exceptional’ grade.

In Great Chu, whether it’s the autumn or spring imperial examinations, as well as evaluations at academies and schools, they all use the rankings of ’inferior,’ ’medium,’ ’superior,’ ’special,’ and ’exceptional’ to judge the students’ performance.

From this, it is evident that attaining ’exceptional’ is no easy feat. There are two firm requirements for receiving ’exceptional’: one, no more than three mistakes on the examination script, and two, an essay that is impeccably argued and enlightening to read. Especially the latter point, if one evaluator deems it ’exceptional,’ that would be one thing, but to be unanimously awarded ’exceptional’ by more than a dozen people is simply unimaginable!

"Tsk, tsk, I always knew Mo Qingze was a diligent student, often praised by the masters. I didn’t expect that in such a short period he’d receive ’exceptional,’ truly remarkable! He must indeed have great talent; no wonder he dared to propose the palace examination!" a fellow student from Changshan Academy remarked with admiration, clearly in agreement with Mo Qingze’s results.

No sooner had this statement been made than it received the concurrence of other Changshan Academy students: "Indeed, each of us from Changshan Academy is impressive and would never stoop to using despicable shortcuts. Mo Qingze is indeed innocent, and we did not wait in the piercing cold breeze outside for him in vain!"

While there was a tinge of envy in their hearts, the reputation of Changshan Academy was preserved, and they had impressively shown their face in front of Emperor Huian and the nobles – this was what mattered most! The greater the fame of the academy, the more implied benefits these students would receive, and thus their smidgen of envy quickly turned into admiration for Mo Qingze!

"I didn’t expect the result to be like this. With such an outcome, could it be that Mo Qingze did not cheat after all?" a student who had harbored suspicions about Mo Qingze asked uncertainly to the person beside him, unsure of how to accept it.

An irritated companion rolled his eyes, "Our cohort’s autumn examination produced a Xie Yuan who only achieved ’special,’ and yet Mo Qingze actually surpassed even that. With such capability, could he possibly have cheated?"

Similar conversations were taking place among many students, some supporting Mo Qingze, some discarding their doubts, and, of course, there were those unwilling to accept the reality and convinced of ’backstage manipulation’:

"Hmph, let’s not forget that he has the daughter of a meritorious County Lord. Who knows if all this wasn’t arranged beforehand?"

"Exactly, obtaining ’exceptional’ is harder than reaching the heavens; it’s not something that can be easily attained. Moreover, this involves the Crown Prince. Only by clearing Mo Qingze of suspicion can the Crown Prince be out of harm’s way. It’s not impossible that it was all prearranged!"

There were indeed quite a few voices like this, but they kept their volume low, not daring to speak loudly for fear of courting disaster.