Mr Wu didn’t know what to say when he read through exam paper No. 1000.
The candidate had answered every question fully, but only got 179.
The score wasn’t even high enough to pass the exam, let alone be ranked among the top 1000.
Feng Wu, don’t blame me. You’re just unlucky!
At that thought, Mr Wu looked around to make sure that no one was paying attention to his corner —
Then, he quietly removed Feng Wu’s paper from the stack and stashed it in his chest pocket.
After that, he changed the 1000 to 10001.
The exam papers were registered by serial number, and the actual names of the candidates were irrelevant.
Feng Wu didn’t know that her paper had been taken away.
No one did, except for Mr Wu.
Soon, all the exam papers had been marked. The failures were sealed away while the top 1000 were sent to court for the emperor to look through.
The emperor had never requested to see the exam papers before, and it would have been all up to Mr Zuo.
However, this year, His Majesty had sent his personal steward over to pick up the 1000 exam papers.
But only Mr Lu knew about this. The junior teachers such as Mr Wu didn’t have that information.
Right now, Mr Wu was knocking on Mr Zuo’s door with Feng Wu’s paper in his pocket.
Mr Zuo frowned, but still let the man in.
Mr Wu hesitated.
Mr Zuo grew impatient. “Speak now or get out!”
“Sir, this…” Mr Wu hinted with his eyes.
Mr Zuo was about to kick Mr Wu out when the latter whispered, “…Feng Wu.”
That name was a big taboo in the Zuo family.
“Go make us some tea.”
Mr Zuo instructed his servant.
Once the servant was gone, Mr Wu took the exam paper from his pocket and laid it carefully on Mr Zuo’s table.
“What’s this?” Instead of looking at the paper, Mr Zuo stared at Mr Wu.
Mr Wu smiled obsequiously. “This is Feng Wu’s exam paper.”
Mr Zuo didn’t let his face betray anything. He cast a stern look at Mr Wu, then picked up the paper.
He frowned as soon as he recognized the texture of the paper and the text format.
“It’s Feng Wu’s paper for the entrance exam. I happened to come across it when I was correcting the papers, so I took it out,” said Mr Wu in satisfaction.
Mr Zuo stared at the paper.
He didn’t think much of it at first, but soon, the frown on his face grew bigger!
Because!
It was a perfect, impeccable paper!
It was unbelievable!
There were no mistakes at all in section one!
And section two!
And section three!
And section four!
And section five!
“I can’t deduct a single point from the answers…” Mr Wu had read through Feng Wu’s paper and had tried his best to find some error in her answers, but couldn’t.
“It’s perfect. Flawless…” Mr Zuo could do nothing but compliment the answers and his mouth fell open in amazement.
Even he, the deputy principal of Imperial College and a superior cultivator, was astonished by Feng Wu’s answers.
That was how outstanding her answers were!
“Such a talented girl… such a talented girl…” Mr Zuo then thought of Zuo Qingluan.
For he was none other than Zuo Qingluan’s uncle.