On the third day of April, the day of the palace examination.

When the fourth day of the morning, it was still dark, and the whole Wanjia Inn was already bustling. No matter what kind of room the candidates lived in, the guys went to wake up responsibly. The same was true for the cross-yard where Li Ling and his friends lived. It was brightly lit at this moment, and there were also various breakfasts prepared for them to choose from.

However, Li Ling did not go to eat the more exquisite breakfast, but took the fried dough sticks and two eggs that had been prepared by the inn in the morning and started eating. The habit had to continue. After they finished eating, a friend carried the lanterns to lead the way, took them to the carriage outside the yard, and took them out of the side door of the inn and headed straight for the examination room.

It was not until after leaving the house that Li Ling and the other two knew why the inn called everyone up in the early morning. After arriving at it, there were already many pedestrians, cars and horses on the street slowly heading towards the same direction, and immediately squeezed the long street that was already quite open, just like the peak hours of commuting in later cities, so the speed of the carriage could not be raised.

Fortunately, Wanjia Inn is not too far from the examination room, and it is still early, so the few people are at ease in the car. However, because the exam is approaching, they are a little nervous, and the three of them don’t say much, just fiddling with the exam basket at hand.

Now the test basket they were holding was no longer the one they brought out from their homes, but was specially sent by the Wan family two days ago. Jian Qing and Fang Zigui wanted to refuse, but after all, living in such a separate courtyard was a big profit. I was really embarrassed to get more things, but after Li Ling's persuasion, and these test baskets were indeed much more useful than ordinary ones, they still accepted them.

These three test baskets are called baskets, which are actually like boxes. The upper and lower layers are all sealed. The materials are just the best red sandalwood. The sealing between each layer is excellent and has different uses. The first layer is slightly smaller, but it is used to hold some pastries and fruits. The second layer is slightly higher, and there are pens, inkstones inside, which are all the best things. The third layer accounts for half of the entire test basket. Among them is a small charcoal stove and several exquisite plates. It is just as the pot is placed on the stove to boil water or cook something, as well as chopsticks, spoons, etc.; and the bottom layer is rolled with a long paper roll bag made of oil paper, and a longer and larger oil paper curtain. In addition, there are several emergency medicines...

It can be said that this basket exam is to prepare everything the candidates need to use in the imperial examination. As long as you bring it with you, even if you have to stay in the examination room for three or five days next, it will be enough to deal with it. What's more cleverly is that people have put so many things into such a small half-person high school entrance examination basket, which shows the beauty of their efforts and can also infer how high the price this basket will be sold.

Even though he had seen the basket test several times before and opened it again and looked closely, Jian Qing still sighed sincerely: "It's thanks to the craftsmen in the city who have such intentions and abilities. This basket test alone has made our house more likely to win by three points."

"Yes, so this test basket is not something that ordinary people can afford. We have taken advantage of you, Brother Li." Fang Zigui couldn't help but sigh. After getting along for a few days, the relationship between the three of them became closer.

Li Ling smiled humbly: "You two are so serious. In fact, I have taken advantage of others in vain. Everyone is the same. And you have helped me a lot in the past few days and have taught me a lot of experience in the mansion exam." These two people have taken the mansion exam several times before, and have indeed taught Li Ling a lot of relevant experience in the past few days.

While talking, the carriage stopped again, and then the coachman outside said, "Several young men, the carriage in front of him can no longer pass. Please get off the carriage and walk."

Li Ling raised the curtains and looked out, and saw countless figures and lights gathered in front of him. All the cars and horses had stopped. In the front, there was also a rope pulled out by the government. It was obviously forbidden for irrelevant people to approach. Just looking at the scale in front of him, it was ten times larger than during the county examination. Even in the dark, it was seen that thousands of people gathered at this temporary examination room.

The three of them did not delay and drove out one after another. The coachman congratulated the three of them on high school and said that they would come to greet them later, so he quickly turned his head and went back. Now there are still some gaps behind him. If more cars and horses come, the area will be blocked again.

Li Ling and the other two looked at each other and walked in together. Soon they arrived at the rope. There were dozens of soldiers holding torches and steel knives standing opposite. Only those who showed their exams and were indeed candidates could enter here. The others were blocked by them.

After the three of them worked very hard, they squeezed into the rope circle and found that there was still a little crowded. However, the chaotic sound gradually became smaller as they approached the examination room. Li Ling, led by two experienced seniors, quickly arrived at a clearing space on the left side of the examination room where Jiangcheng County lanterns were picked up in front. This was the location where the candidates in the county were waiting to enter.

They came quite early, and there were only a dozen people standing under the lanterns. Seeing Li Ling and the other candidates who were sweating all showed envy because they were on the road. If not long after, more candidates rushed over, and the rear became more and more crowded and chaotic. Several candidates squeezed out their headscarves and boots, making them look embarrassed. When they arrived, they were still breathing heavily.

Suddenly, a voice sounded from the side: "Shoes, headscarves, high-quality pens, inkstones, I don't want them, I'm sold at a cheap price..."

"???" All the candidates were confused. Is this okay? Isn't it said that only candidates can come in in the area in front of the examination room? But this is not something they can question at this time, especially some candidates who were disheveled and had one foot naked because of the crowd just now, and they were more concerned about their image problems. So when they saw the seller coming, they quickly called out: "How to sell a headscarf? What is the price for a pair of boots?"

"One-price, two taels of headscarf, three taels of boots, five taels of pen, ink and inkstone!"

"So expensive?" Everyone was stunned. It was enough to buy five pairs of shoes elsewhere. "Why don't you grab them?"

"This young man's words are so ugly. The younger one is also a small business. He didn't force you to buy it. If you think it's expensive, you can't buy it."

"You..." Several candidates without a turban were annoyed. They couldn't enter the examination room at all. After all, the examination was a mansion, so how could they wear their hair and go in? After all, the few people tried to persuade them and finally cut the price down, but they still bought the headscarf boots for several times the price.

One of the candidates widened his eyes when he took a headscarf from the other party: "This...isn't this what I fell when I just came in? Did you actually sell me my stuff?"

"You guys, you can't talk nonsense. These small goods are all serious and you will never be wrong. You have to think there is something wrong. At worst, you won't sell them. I'll pay you back the money."

In the end, this person never really let someone return the money to him. After all, the money is small and his future is big.

Li Ling was watching and praised it all the time. This transaction was really profitable. Obviously, many of the headscarves and boots he sold were dropped by himself when the candidate squeezed in. As long as he collected all of them, he could sell your things to you at a high price. And at this time, you still have to buy them because this is a monopoly business, only he has them here and can't buy them anywhere else.

From this we can see the small details. If we start from the imperial examination, we can still develop great business prospects, just like various industries that have emerged from the school and the college entrance examination in the future.

Li Ling's thoughts were cut off by him for only a lifetime. When did he still have the time to think about these things? Why not concentrate and prepare for the next exam?

In this mess, the sky finally brightened. After a few gongs, a green robe official came to the door of the examination room, which was still closed. His eyes swept the room and let the candidates who were still talking to each other quickly calm down.

"Today is the annual examination, and it is also the key battle for whether you can become a child and get a good fortune. I hope that all candidates can show their true abilities and not let themselves regret it in the future! Especially..." The man paused for a moment, and his tone became more serious, "Don't think about relying on some evil ways to seek results, otherwise the consequences will be much more serious than you think! Because the prefect has issued strict orders this time, but those who cheat will not be allowed to participate in the imperial examination within three years!"

This last sentence was like a huge drum beat in everyone's hearts, causing everyone's heartbeat to miss, and some of them showed confusion.

"Okay, the time is up, let's open the door. Let's enter the door from the candidates in the capital city first, and come from each county."

With the official's order, the gate of the examination room finally opened, and then there were servants on both sides widened their eyes, looking alertly at each candidate who walked up to him, stopped him and searched his body.

This time, the servants assigned by these government offices were more dedicated than ever before, because the yamen had made it clear that as long as a candidate with a snag was caught, the servant would get a reward of 200 entries. This made them wish that all the candidates on the scene could be found and brought by a snag, and that would make a fortune...

Of course, this is impossible. Especially after seeing this scene and listening to the official's warning, some candidates who were still lucky had secretly thrown the cheat sheet and other things aside, and then walked forward easily.

It was not until then that Li Ling knew why the mansion examination had to come so early. It turned out that it was so troublesome to just enter the door. They had to search all of them. They were thousands of candidates.
Chapter completed!