Transmigrated into a female county magistrate during a famine, leading her country to prosperity

Chapter 1171 Pei Zhaoqi's Number One Rival

At 3:45 AM, candidates began to arrive one after another, their faces tense, yet their spirits high.

At 4:45 AM, a long queue formed in front of the Examination Yuan, filled with the sounds of reciting and talking, as dawn broke.

At five quarters past dawn, when the sky was mostly bright, Shen Zheng spotted Pei Zhaoqi and the others in the crowd. Almost simultaneously, Fang Ziyan also saw her.

Shen Zheng laughed and waved at Fang Ziyan. Fang Ziyan waved back while excitedly tugging at Pei Zhaoqi.

Shen Zheng didn't even need to listen; she already knew what he was saying: "Zhao Qi, look, look! Sister Shen has come to see us!"

The next moment, Pei Zhaoqi and the other students all turned their heads and looked in the direction Fang Ziyan was pointing.

Upon seeing Shen Zheng clearly, their faces betrayed their excitement, yet none of them uttered a sound, for Fang Ziyan kept reminding them: "Avoid suspicion, avoid suspicion, we must avoid suspicion..."

Avoiding suspicion is so agonizing. The students thought, all they wanted was to say a few words to Lord Shen, and they couldn't even do that.

......

At dawn, when the sky was bright, a long queue had already formed at the entrance of the Examination Yuan.

"Boom-thump-thump-"

Three deep, resonant entrance bells rang out, and the candidates instinctively stopped talking.

Identity verification is about to begin.

"Squeak-"

The examination hall doors opened from the inside, and two gatekeepers slowly walked out. After scanning the candidates, they said loudly, "Gentlemen, although this is not your first time taking the exam, I still have to make the rules clear to you again."

"First, check your own essential items and make sure you are ready before coming for the physical examination. Once you are inside, you cannot come out."

"Second, hand over any prohibited items yourself. The instructor will keep them for you and return them after the exam."

"Third, anyone who takes the exam for someone else will be severely punished by the government."

"Fourth, if anyone is found to have cheated, he/she will be stripped of his/her scholar title and will be barred from taking the exam again for life."

"Finally, you all understand the exam room rules, right?"

"The students understand!" the middle school entrance exam candidates answered in unison.

"Alright." The gatekeeper nodded, straightened his robe, and sat down. "Line up, have your names checked in turn, and then enter the search area. After the search is completed, guards will guide you to your cells."

In fact, all the test takers know these procedures, but no matter how many times they take the exam, they will still feel nervous.

And this exam is very different.

This is both a test to prove oneself and a battle for wealth.

With a mix of nervousness and excitement, the candidates handed over their household registration books one by one. After the gatekeepers verified their names, ages, places of origin, and appearances, they walked into the examination hall in turn.

Shen Zheng sat in the service station, watching one student after another enter, until it was the turn of several students from Tongan County.

"Name?"

Pei Zhaoqi.

"age?"

"sixteen."

"Place of origin?"

"A native of Tongan County, Liuyang Prefecture".

Upon hearing this, the gatekeeper paused for a moment, then subconsciously looked at Shen Zheng in the service station.

Shen Zheng turned her head away, avoiding the gatekeeper's gaze.

The gatekeeper coughed lightly, flipped open the portrait, and began to compare it.

After Pei Zhaoqi went in, the next person was Fang Ziyan.

The question and answer are exactly the same: "Name?"

Fang Ziyan.

"..."

After the verification was completed, Fang Ziyan grinned at Shen Zheng, as if to reassure her, and then skipped into the examination hall.

Time passed quietly. Just as Shen Zheng's toes were getting numb from sitting for so long and she was about to get up and walk around, Xin Ji stood in front of the gatekeeper. The two stared at each other, neither of them speaking first.

Until the gatekeeper couldn't help but ask, "What are you waiting for?"

Xin Ji retorted, "What are you waiting for?"

"?" The gatekeeper raised an eyebrow and slammed his hands on the table. "Where's your household registration book? Are you here to cause trouble?"

"Making trouble?" Xin Ji pulled out his "spectator pass" from his pocket, threw it on the table, and said, "I'm here to watch the show."

The gatekeeper stared at the "Viewing List" on the table, biting his cheek repeatedly, and finally asked, "Since it's for viewing, why wasn't it stated beforehand?"

When he looked through the roster earlier, he knew that there were students watching the event. He thought they were just there to make trouble, but it turned out they were troublemakers.

Xin Ji rolled up his sleeves, looking completely matter-of-fact: "You didn't ask me beforehand. I didn't even watch the show, how would I know what was going to happen?"

The gatekeeper's cheeks puffed out even more, and he was about to retort when a voice came over: "If Young Master Xin is going to observe the scene with such an attitude, then it would be better if he did not go in."

The gatekeeper was delighted upon hearing the sound.

The person who's backing us up has arrived!

Xin Ji paused, looking at Shen Zheng in disbelief: "You don't want me to go in?"

Shen Zheng walked over slowly and shifted the blame back to her: "It's your own fault for not wanting to go in."

As she spoke, she looked at the students behind her who were craning their necks to see what was going on: "Look for yourself, how many people are queuing up behind you? You have the right to decide what to do with your own time, but you can't afford to waste theirs. If you don't want to go in, then don't go in."

After saying that, Shen Zheng raised her hand and reached for the "spectator book" on the table.

Xin Ji was shocked that Shen Zheng was serious. He quickly grabbed the "spectator's book" before she could and stuffed it into the gatekeeper's arms: "Sir, I am Xin Ji, twenty-one years old, from the capital. I have come to watch the show. I hope you can verify my identity as soon as possible. I will be very grateful!"

"..." The gatekeeper felt a sharp pain in his chest from being stabbed, and looked to Shen Zheng for help.

Shen Zheng glanced at the increasingly restless students behind her and nodded slightly.

A moment later, Xin Ji's identity verification was completed, and he grinned at Shen Zheng.

Shen Zheng smiled back at him and slowly raised her sleeve.

Xin Ji, with his sharp eyes, immediately spotted the magnifying glass in her sleeve. His eyes lit up, and he took a step forward.

Shen Zheng swiftly pulled back her sleeve and said in a low voice, "Even if you can't take the exam properly, you absolutely cannot disturb the other students. Otherwise, I won't give you this even if I smash it."

The mere mention of the word "fall" made Xin Ji's heart ache. Under the urging gaze of the gatekeeper, he repeatedly assured Shen Zheng that he would not cause trouble, and then entered the examination hall with a few backward glances.

After being admitted to the hospital, a body search was conducted. Coincidentally, the person guarding the search officer during the body search was Liu Yumin.

Xin Ji had lived for twenty-one years and never imagined that he would undress in front of Liu Yumin. For a moment, the atmosphere was extremely awkward.

At five quarters past Chen hour, Shen Zheng saw that all the candidates had passed the test. Among them, the person who caught her most attention was Pei Zhaoqi's number one rival in this re-examination - Huai Shaoyong.

Although Yu Zhengqing had previously said that no matter how many times Pei Zhaoqi took the exam, he would always be number one, Shen Zheng had read several of Huai Shaoyong's articles yesterday and found that this boy was indeed quite capable, perhaps only slightly less so than Pei Zhaoqi. In addition, since he was a student of Headmaster Hou of Luming Academy, Shen Zheng couldn't help but feel nervous for Pei Zhaoqi.

"Ding-ding-ding-"

At 9:00 AM, the sound of the cloud-shaped clappers rang out.

Shen Zheng listened to the sound of the clapperboard, looked at the gate of the examination hall, and guessed what was happening inside.

At this point, Jiang Zhiming and the other two examiners should have entered the "Zhigong Hall" to announce the "Examination Instructions" to the students.