Chapter 19: Such a Result Was Truly Astonishing!

“Effort matters more, results do not.” Master Fu Baoshi emphasized once again before lighting the incense, sitting cross-legged, and starting to play a soothing melody on his zither.

The hourglass began its flow.

The exam duration was exactly the same as the official imperial examination: four hours.

When Wuque took the mock exam paper and looked at it, he was instantly stunned!

This… this… these questions were way too exaggerated, so many of them?

A full sixteen pages, a complete ocean of questions, a full one hundred and twenty questions. No wonder it needed four hours.

Seeing Wuque’s expression, Master Fu Baoshi’s heart sank a little. He comforted him, “Your master will say it again: you only studied for seven days. Even fifty points would satisfy me. Don’t feel pressured.”

Wuque began burying his head in answering. The first section was like multiple-choice questions. There were fifty in total, worth twenty-five points.

Each question had four options: A, B, C, and D.

Looking through them at a glance, he found each question was very simple.

In just ten minutes, he finished them all.

The second section was fill-in-the-blank questions. There were forty of them, worth twenty points.

It took twenty minutes, and Wuque finished them all.

The third section was essay questions. There were twenty in total, worth thirty points.

It gave the first half of a classical phrase and asked you to provide the second half. Or it would pull out a sentence and ask you where it came from. Or who wrote it? Or which historical figure the allusion was about?

It took twenty-five minutes, and Wuque finished them all.

The fourth section was analysis questions. There were five in total, worth twenty-five points.

It would present a sentence and ask you what it specifically meant?

Or present a sentence and ask you about the historical background of that sentence, what impact it had on society at the time, and so on.

For these five questions, Wuque spent a full half hour and finished them all.

In the end, he finished the entire exam in less than an hour and a half.

In short, this Classic Texts Examination was indeed all about rote memorization. Only the last one or two questions gave a tiny bit of room for personal interpretation.

Just as Master Fu Baoshi had said, 85 points all came from the 150,000-word Essence of the Eleven Classics Compendium, and the remaining 15 points came from the other 900,000 words. Wuque still had 50,000 words he hadn’t memorized, but none of the questions came from that part.

It tested whether the foundational knowledge was solid. And Wuque had memorized almost the entire contents of the eleven classic texts, so of course it was easy for him.

He spent another dozen or so minutes checking.

After one hundred minutes, Wuque finished answering and said, “Master Baoshi, I am done.”

Master Fu Baoshi was lost in his playing. Hearing Wuque’s words, he was slightly taken aback. Had he gotten so absorbed in playing again that he lost track of time?

He glanced at the hourglass. Less than one hour had passed.

The total exam time was four hours, and you finished in less than one?

Master Fu Baoshi did not feel happy at all. Instead, his heart kept sinking. In his view, Wuque probably couldn’t do many questions and didn’t want to just write nonsense, so he ended his exam early.

At this rate, he probably didn’t even finish half the paper.

Master Fu Baoshi said, “Wuque, honesty is indeed a very precious quality. But when it comes to the real major exam, it’s best to finish writing the entire paper. Even if you don’t know, you should still fill it out.”

There was still no blame. In Master Fu Baoshi’s view, Wuque only had seven days. Even completing less than half the questions was completely normal. One shouldn’t be too harsh.

He took Wuque’s answer sheet and flipped through it casually. To his surprise, all dozen or so pages were completely filled.

Next, he began grading.

Actually, he didn’t need a pen at all; his brain could tell right from wrong at a glance. But Master Fu Baoshi still graded meticulously.

Question one, question two, question three…

Page one, page two, page three, page four…

The further he graded, the more shocked and astonished Master Fu Baoshi became.

Correct, correct, correct…

Up to page ten, all correct.

Page thirteen, all correct.

Page fifteen, all correct.

Only the last page remained.

And it was still all correct!

Full marks!!

He couldn’t find a single point to deduct.

Master Fu Baoshi looked up at Wuque, then looked back at the exam paper.

What… what was going on?

Wuque started from zero, only spending seven days skimming these classic texts.

Master Baoshi would have been very satisfied with just fifty points, but instead, he got a perfect one hundred.

This… this was too exaggerated.

Too unbelievable!

He knew there were geniuses in this world, but… but this was taking genius to an extreme.

After a long moment, Master Baoshi said, “Didn’t you say there was still a bit you hadn’t finished memorizing?”

Wuque said, “I finished memorizing the 150,000-word Essence of the Eleven Classics Compendium. You were sleeping at the time, so I didn’t wake you. I just took the remaining eleven classic texts to read and memorize. In the end, there were still 50,000 words I hadn’t finished. But this exam didn’t have questions from that book.”

So that’s what he meant by ‘a bit’!

Nearly one million words?!

In just seven days.

This completely overturned his understanding. Master Baoshi very, very much wanted to believe Wuque, but he simply couldn’t believe it.

After a good while, Master Baoshi asked, “Wuque, did you… did you already learn all eleven volumes of the classic texts in previous years? Don’t worry, I can completely understand if you wanted to amaze us all.”

Then, he slapped his own forehead. “I’m being foolish, don’t overthink it.”

Master Baoshi remembered again: seven days ago, Wuque, right in front of him, spent a whole half-hour memorizing the Sunset Record he had just written—that essay was freshly written, no one else had seen it.

Could there really be such a genius in this world?

That was truly astonishing.

Just then, a voice came from outside. It was Page Xiao Chong.

“Master Baoshi, something has happened. The master asks you to come over.”

Fu Baoshi was just about to tell Wen Daozi the good news. Hearing this, he was taken aback. Then he said to Wuque, “You come along too.”

…

In the main hall of the courtyard, a total of nine people were seated, not counting Wuque.

“Master Jing is in trouble. His fate is unknown!” Wen Daozi said slowly.

Hearing this, everyone’s expressions changed.

Then, Wen Daozi pointed at Wuque and said, “This is Shen Wuque, son of Shen Gong’ao.”

Everyone present, except for Wen Daozi and Fu Baoshi, glanced briefly at Wuque and didn’t look a second time.

First, Wuque was infamous. Second, at such a critical moment, who would care about a fool who got played around by a woman?

They all looked down on spoiled young masters, and this Wuque before them was even worse than that. Their only impression of Shen Wuque was: a shameless, groveling fool.

Wen Daozi said, “Wuque, this Master Jing is our most outstanding master of the Mathematics. Fifteen years ago, he calculated pi to 17 decimal places, renowned throughout the world. The pi used by the entire world today is the one he calculated.”

Amazing!

The great Zu Chongzhi only refined pi to seven decimal places. And this Master Jing refined it to seventeen decimal places, and it’s used universally. He was absolutely a master-level figure.

Although Wen Daozi lost the political struggle and was exiled by the Sky Scholar City to this desolate island, his subordinates were truly talented, all masters.

Wen Daozi continued, “After you finish learning the Classic Texts Examination, the next subject you should study is the Department of Arithmetic. The teacher I picked for you was precisely Master Jingyu.”

Even so, they didn’t need to look like the sky was falling.

“Of course, there is an even more important matter.” Wen Daozi said, “Mi Daoyuan and I have reached the most critical decisive battle of the Pact of Nine Duels. Today, Master Jing was supposed to represent us in the peak duel in the Department of Arithmetic against Mi Daoyuan’s side. Now that his fate is unknown, we are bound to lose this battle for sure.”

Wuque only knew that this Mi Daoyuan was the current Mountain Master of Tianshui Academy, a Scholarium giant. He was the one who drove Wen Daozi from the Mountain Master position years ago, the victor of the Scholarium’s high-level political struggle a decade ago.

“What is the Pact of Nine Duels?” Wuque asked. “If we lose this peak duel today, what will be the consequence?”

Wen Daozi said slowly, “I will be expelled from the Scholarium Council. The Reformist Faction I represent will be utterly defeated and will have no place to stand in this world.”

…