Stone Bridge Village, Xiao Mo's courtyard.
Xiao Mo, back from the provincial examination, was brewing tea with the village chief.
After returning to the village, Bai Ruxue had gone back up the mountain first, to see her little sister.
Even so, at noon and again in the evening she still came down to cook for Xiao Mo and wash his clothes.
"You're saying the last policy question was about the vassal kings?"
The village chief drank down a cup of tea, his tone surprised.
"That's right." Xiao Mo nodded.
"The vassal kings really do hold too much power these days—and troops of their own on top of it. I'm only an old xiucai, but even I've heard how loud the talk of cutting the fiefs is at court.
Sure, the last policy question only said to discuss the vassal kings, but everybody knows the politically correct answer is to cut the fiefs.
Putting that question on the paper this time is the same as laying the whole vassal kings business right on the table. Seems His Majesty really means to act."
Xiao Mo smiled. "With this provincial examination, what scholar would dare not write about cutting the fiefs? I'd say His Majesty means to use the scholars' 'voices' to put pressure on the vassal kings."
The village chief smiled too. "A year ago His Majesty took the field himself and put down the Rebellion of the Seven Kings; the vassal kings' strength was cut back a good deal. Add His Majesty's dragon majesty at its height, and the court's armies and morale now hold an overwhelming edge over the vassal kings in every region. It really is the best possible time to cut the fiefs."
"Just so." Xiao Mo nodded.
Xiao Mo had settled on writing "The Edict of Grace" precisely because, although each vassal king commanded troops, His Majesty had crushed the Rebellion of the Seven Kings; the court held an overwhelming military advantage over the provinces, and the vassal kings were more afraid of the court than anything.
The fact that this provincial examination could openly put "cutting the fiefs" on the paper meant the court was getting right in the vassal kings' faces.
Otherwise, why would the court ever let scholars discuss the vassal kings in the open?
The truth was, in Xiao Mo's view, even if the court did not dare provoke the vassal kings, even if the court's strength were locked in a deadlock with theirs, writing the Edict of Grace was still no bad move.
For if central power were not strong, anyone with eyes could see the Edict of Grace could never be carried out—yet the examiners would not fault him for it.
He was offering a different line of thinking, that was all.
The most the examiner would think was, "He has ideas—novel ideas—but he hasn't thought them through."
And even if his thinking was not thorough, the examiner's impression of him would still not come out low.
How so?
Did anyone really expect a xiucai who had only read books and never spent a single day in officialdom to govern the realm?
"Xiao Mo, how did you answer that last question?"
The village chief really was curious how Xiao Mo had answered.
Barring the unexpected, how well that last question was answered would greatly shape the examiner's impression of a candidate.
"I wrote..."
"Village chief! Village chief!"
Just as Xiao Mo was about to explain his Edict of Grace, Hu Hansan from the village came running over.
"Village chief... outside... out—outside..."
Hu Hansan was gasping for breath, unable to finish a single whole sentence.
"Don't rush, just say it properly. What's happened outside?" The sight of him set the village chief's own nerves on edge.
"Village chief! Outside—the magistrate! The county magistrate's here!" Hu Hansan said excitedly.
"The magistrate?" The village chief nearly jumped out of his skin. "What's the magistrate doing in our village?"
"Clang-bang-boom, clang-bang-boom!"
"Boom, boom, boom!"
"Boom, boom, boom!"
Just then the sound of gongs and drums came from not far off.
There were even dragon and lion dancers coming along, leaping as they advanced.
At their head, the magistrate of Qingshan County was beaming, fanning himself without pause and shouting happily at the men beside him, "Don't stop! Keep playing, keep dancing! Louder! Livelier!"
"Could it be—!"
Suddenly the village chief's heart began to pound, and a bold idea took shape in his mind.
Tomorrow afternoon was when the results would be posted.
But today, every county magistrate in Jiangnan Province would be receiving the list.
In Qi, once the list left the Examination Hall it was no longer a secret; magistrates everywhere could learn a day in advance which scholars had passed.
And the only man from Stone Bridge Village who had sat the examination was Xiao Mo.
If the magistrate could come to Stone Bridge Village at this hour, with such festivity, with gongs and drums and dragon and lion dances, then it could only be because of Xiao Mo.
"Magistrate, that's Brother Mo there, and beside Brother Mo is our village chief."
A man pointed at Xiao Mo and said excitedly.
Magistrate Sun hurried toward Xiao Mo. Neither Xiao Mo nor the village chief was about to be so graceless as to stay put; they walked out of the courtyard and bowed with clasped hands. "We pay our respects to our father-and-mother official."
"Hahaha, no need for such courtesy, you two." Magistrate Sun actually reached out and helped Xiao Mo up. "Xiao the juren! No—Xiao the xieyuan! From this day on, this official will be basking in Master Xieyuan's glory!"
"What? Xieyuan?" The village chief was dazed for a moment, even wondering if he had misheard.
He had thought Xiao Mo passing the provincial examination was already a blessing from heaven.
But Xiao Mo—Xiao Mo was first on the entire Jiangnan provincial list!
"Magistrate Sun is too kind. Without your support, Magistrate, this student would have found it hard even to pass." Xiao Mo had not expected to take the top spot in the provincial examination either.
"Hahaha, if Master Juren took top honors, it was purely on true learning. This official merely gilded the lily."
So he said. In truth, Magistrate Sun was enormously pleased with himself.
When Magistrate Sun first arrived in these parts, he had only meant to win some goodwill from the local scholars and burnish his own reputation along the way.
He had never truly believed that any xiucai of the batch he sponsored would pass.
And now not only had one of them actually passed, the man had taken first place in the provincial examination!
This was achievement! Glorious, shining achievement!
Barring the unexpected, Xiao Mo would surely sail through the metropolitan examination next time as well—and as for the title of zhuangyuan, well, that was not unthinkable either!
It was only that this young man had learned he was the xieyuan and was somehow this calm about it.
Sure enough—a man who took the xieyuan has no ordinary mind.
That juren Fan in the neighboring county, they said, had nearly gone mad with joy when he learned he had passed at the age of sixty.
Magistrate Sun looked at Xiao Mo the way a man looks at a brother lost for years; the more they talked, the more animated he grew.
The village chief was a most sensible man; he led the rest of the village away and left the magistrate and Xiao Mo to talk in peace.
Magistrate Sun talked with Xiao Mo about everyday matters, about his parents, about how he liked to spend his days.
When he learned that Xiao Mo had no father and no mother, that he herded cattle and gathered herbs to make a living, braving cold and heat alike and walking a hundred li to study under a teacher, his appreciation for this student whose family did not even count as a humble house grew all the greater.
"Xiao Mo."
Magistrate Sun took Xiao Mo's hand, his tone full of feeling.
"To see you reach what you have reached today—this official is truly glad for you, and I know you have endured no small amount of hardship.
This official has a daughter, just sixteen this year, still unwed and living at home.
If you, Xiao Mo, do not find us beneath you, then as Yue'er's father, shall this official arrange your match myself?"