Chapter 48: Little Chen Studying with Fierce Determination

Huating Academy.

More than half a month ago, that lively and active young scholar had turned into a bookworm.

In the eyes of He Qingxuan and Ye Chongwen, Chen Ping had completely lost his former self, having become utterly absent-minded and foolish.

Aside from the basic necessities of eating, drinking, relieving himself, and sleeping, Chen Ping spent all his remaining time clutching a thick stack of poems and essays, studying and memorizing them day and night without rest.

Even when his throat was parched and his head was dizzy from reciting, he showed not the slightest intention of resting.

In his room, candles would often burn until the fourth watch of the night. After a brief nap and a short recovery, he would resume his early reading by the dim light of dawn as soon as the roosters crowed at daybreak.

At first, He Qingxuan assumed this was a heavy academic assignment left for Chen Ping by Elder Ye, which would only require a few days of hard study.

It was only now that they realized Chen Ping must have gone somewhat mad, continuously pushing his limits to the extreme.

At this rate, regardless of his mental state, he was bound to ruin his health.

As his closest friends in the academy, they could not simply sit back and do nothing. Consequently, He Qingxuan and Ye Chongwen forcefully dragged Chen Ping out of the study.

Even after stepping out of the study, Chen Ping still clutched a stack of poems and essays tightly in his grip.

He Qingxuan stepped forward to pull these exhausting and harmful papers from Chen Ping's hands.

Although Chen Ping's desperate struggle was subdued by He Qingxuan's superior strength, he still cried out with unyielding resentment: "Give them back to me! I have to memorize every single one of them!"

Ye Chongwen looked at the thickness of that stack of papers, and his scalp instantly went numb.

They were densely covered in small regular script, enough to make one's head spin at a single glance, and there were several hundred pieces that he intended to memorize entirely.

Though unaware of what shock Chen Ping had suffered, Ye Chongwen still roared at him, "Are you crazy? This is no way to study!"

"It takes more than one cold day to freeze three feet of ice, and water drops wear through stone through sustained effort. Having memorized so many poems and essays, how can you fail to understand such a simple truth? Learning relies on accumulation day by day, building up bit by bit; when did it ever become something that could be achieved overnight?"

"Just look at yourself! The signs are already showing after only a few days. If this continues, before long—at most two or three months—you'll genuinely go mad. I'm afraid even if you pass the examination, you won't live long enough to enjoy the fortune!"

As a fellow scholar, Ye Chongwen had naturally heard of such reckless and unorthodox methods of rote memorization, and he knew all too well the fate that befell many former scholars who had resorted to them.

Ordinarily, these were crooked paths looked down upon with contempt. How could someone as clever as Chen Ping momentarily lose his mind and try to take the imperial Jinshi examinations with the mindset of the Mingjing classics examination?

Yelled at in this manner, Chen Ping's previously vacant and stubborn expression finally regained a shred of lucidity.

Unable to contain his anxiety any longer, Ye Chongwen grabbed Chen Ping by the shoulders and asked nervously, "Tell me quickly, what on earth has happened these past few days?"

Worried, Ye Chongwen added, "In his letter, Grandpa only said that everything was well, told us not to worry, and said he would return in a short while. But looking at you like this, how is this a sign that everything is well?"

The two of them asked in unison.

"Are you going to speak or not? Do you mean to worry us to death?"

Naturally, Chen Ping had no intention of adding to their distress, especially since they could not help anyway, so he had to fob them off with a mixture of truth and falsehood.

He tossed the books in his hands onto the table, slapped his forehead in frustration, and sighed repeatedly, "It's all the fault of that eager-for-quick-success Magistrate Wang! He wouldn't let me take the Xiucai examination, which I was bound to pass, and instead pointed me down the treacherous path of the Child Prodigy examination!"

"Without even asking my opinion, he has already submitted my name. If I don't want to bring shame upon Huating Academy, I must exert ten times the effort to desperately memorize these books."

"He also said that since I am registered for the Child Prodigy examination, I am bound to encounter prodigies from other prefectures and provinces. If my learning falls short by then, there will be no room to make up the numbers, and it won't just be the academy that loses face."

Chen Ping concocted a lie on the spur of the moment, though in truth, it wasn't entirely a lie.

He was indeed going to participate in the Child Prodigy examination and compete on the same stage with prodigies from other prefectures, only he had understated the matter and omitted the other details.

Sure enough, upon hearing about the Child Prodigy examination, both He Qingxuan and Ye Chongwen shuddered involuntarily.

The Child Prodigy examination sounded wonderful, serving as a shortcut to the imperial examinations specially opened for prodigies under the age of fifteen.

On this path, the number of competing individuals was not large—at least far better than the thousands of troops crossing a single-plank bridge in the mainstream imperial examinations.

However, this did not mean that participating in the Child Prodigy examination would be easy.

On the contrary, because the slots for the Child Prodigy examination were mostly monopolized by powerful and influential aristocratic families, fairness was severely compromised from the start.

Therefore, for a student without deep-rooted connections who wished to succeed through this path, the level of hardship and difficulty was absolute hell.

Putting aside the students from scholarly families who had been imbued with learning since childhood—whose natural talents, even if mediocre, were elevated by family edification and discipline so that their learning remained decent—even those who entered the Child Prodigy examination like Chen Ping were investments made by local officials, each one as rare as a phoenix feather or a unicorn's horn.

Thus, when Chen Ping explicitly stated that he was about to take part in the Child Prodigy examination, He Qingxuan and Ye Chongwen no longer thought his previous reckless application to studying was a form of self-torture.

Patting his chest with lingering fear, He Qingxuan solemnly said to Chen Ping, "Even if you've been recommended for the Child Prodigy examination list, you must never pin too much hope on it."

"When I was in Jiangxia, I once had people inquire about news regarding this matter, and the dark dealings behind the scenes are simply too outrageous to bear!"

"Take a guess: what were the backgrounds of the eighteen students who successfully attained the Jinshi background in the last Child Prodigy examination?"

Learning that Chen Ping had merely gone mad from studying, Ye Chongwen also breathed a sigh of relief, rolled his eyes, and muttered, "What other backgrounds could they have? The vast majority undoubtedly came from powerful clans in the capital and various provincial capitals."

"Even for the descendants of wealthy clans in prefectural capitals, wanting to pull off this shortcut requires traversing thousands of hardships."

The principle that there are no high-born families among the humble and no commoners among the nobility applied just as well in this world.

Anyone with even the slightest background throughout the realm was crystal clear about these inside stories.

Since everyone was well aware of the shady dealings behind the scenes, why did officials like Magistrate Wang still enthusiastically pursue it?

This touched upon a convention of the Child Prodigy examination.

Although the Child Prodigy examination had long been carved up among the powerful and elite, they dared not swallow every single slot whole without leaving even a shred for the children of commoners, lest they provoke public resentment.

After all, the Child Prodigy examination was ostensibly established specifically to select prodigies for the Dayu Dynasty.

In the previous Child Prodigy examination, out of the eighteen students who attained the Jinshi background, three came from ordinary households. This served to inspire those ignorant commoner scholars.

This half-hidden corruption was thus whitewashed into a heartwarming tale.

The imperial court supposedly disregarded family background; as long as one possessed both virtue and talent, even a humble origin could bring glory to one's lineage.

Yet, after all, very few impoverished families could afford to send their children to study, and three slots were neither too many nor too few—just the right amount.

In other words, if Chen Ping participated in the Child Prodigy examination, he would have to compete with all the genuinely impoverished commoner scholars across the realm for those few meager slots.

Naturally, Chen Ping would not be discouraged by this. He smiled indifferently and said, "As long as there is still a single slot left to fight for, I will exert a hundred times the effort."

"At least I don't believe that other prodigies can also rote-memorize a thousand imperial examination poems and essays!"

Faced with Chen Ping's borderline arrogant confidence and reckless statements, He Qingxuan and Ye Chongwen rolled their eyes simultaneously.

Having only left the academy for half a month, how had that modest, polite, and uncontending Chen Ping developed a skin thicker than a city wall?

Ye Chongwen let out a strange squawk, "Could it be that the wind and sand at the road construction site were so fierce that in this short span of time, they ground Brother Chen's face into a callous as thick as oxhide?"

He Qingxuan nodded very solemnly, indicating that this hypothesis made a lot of sense.

Chen Ping touched his face. Although it had become a few shades fairer, it was still primarily a dark-yellow complexion, prompting him to sigh with a trace of melancholy.

Could it be that not only was the path of the imperial examinations rugged and bumpy, but the path of the pretty-boy aesthetic had also become impassable?