Chapter 180: Missing person
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
After the 180 names were announced, Fang Zhengzhi’s name was still nowhere to be seen. It would seem that Fang Zhengzhi had failed to be ranked.
Su Donglin did not wander far. Upon seeing Fang Zhengzhi’s name missing from the Second-Class Roll, he walked over.
"Congratulations!"
"You too!" Fang Zhengzhi replied.
"Me too?" Su Donglin was taken aback. He was clearly being sarcastic, but Fang Zhengzhi didn’t seem to get it.
Just as he was about to reply, one of his servants shot him a look.
Su Donglin had no choice but to keep quiet.
However, he snorted to himself, "I will let you be happy for a while, after the First-Class Roll is released, I will see where you can hide!"
...
After Qin Yumin released the Second-Class Roll, he waited for a while so everyone could soak it in. Then, he coughed lightly.
"I believe that everyone knows that the Chief Examiner of the Imperial Examination is the great Han Zhangfeng. The emperor has also sent King Duan and the Ninth Prince to assist him."
"Now, I would like to invite Official Han to release the First-Class Roll!"
After Qin Yumin finished, he looked respectfully towards the Imperial Academy. All of the messengers and soldiers also became extremely serious.
The moment Qin Yumin finished his statement, a line of people exited the Imperial Academy.
The leader of the pack was dressed in white. His clothes were adorned with golden embroidery of beasts. The beasts were the symbol of the Empire’s armies.
There was only one person in the empire who could wear this design on his clothes. He was the person who controlled the armies, King Duan.
To the left of King Duan was a young man. He looked slightly younger than King Duan, possibly in his early twenties. He was dressed in green, and there was an Ink Lotus on his clothes.
He looked rather pale, but had an aura of elegance about him, except, it was slightly too much...
Even though the youth walked to the left of King Duan, neither Qin Yumin nor the academics, or even the common people took a second look at him.
Even Han Zhangfeng, who was dressed in white official robes, had more looks in his direction than the youth.
"We respectfully welcome King Duan, Ninth Prince, and Official Han!" Qin Yumin led the academics in a deep bow.
King Duan nodded lightly as he turned to look at Han Zhangfeng, "Official Han, can you kick off the First-Class Roll?"
"Sure!" Han Zhangfeng did not hesitate as he walked to the front of the stone.
Then, he retrieved a ink colored box and opened it.
Without a second word, he placed the inkstone inside the grooves of the stone.
In an instant, the First-Class Roll glowed golden. It was as almost as bright as the sun and it stained the entire sky golden.
All of the candidates struggled to open their eyes.
However, no one wanted to shut their eyes. They all wanted to see who had made it to the roll.
Su Donglin did not look at the stone. Instead, he looked at Fang Zhengzhi. He did not believe that Fang Zhengzhi could make it.
He saw Fang Zhengzhi looking at it.
However, his expression was still one of boredom.
Very quickly, names began to appear on the stone. Then, a scream of surprise could be heard.
"Xing Qingsui!"
"Who would have thought that he would have been on the First-Class Roll?!"
The first voice was of surprise, the second one was one of doubt.
It seemed like a good thing.
However, not everyone saw it as a good thing. The fact that Xing Qingsui’s name is on the First-Class Roll meant that he was not in the top three.
Then...
Who could be better than Xing Qingsui?
Su Donglin?
They quickly thought about Su Donglin. However, before long, Su Donglin’s name appeared as well.
"Su Donglin is on this roll too?"
"What... what’s going on?"
Everyone looked at each other in disbelief. In everyone’s view, the only person who could defeat Xing Qingsui was Su Donglin.
But Su Donglin had only made it to the First-Class Roll.
This threw everyone into confusion.
Being in the advanced stages of the Heavenly Reflection State meant that he was the top candidate in the Imperial Examinations.
So, who could defeat Su Donglin?
The key issue here was that it wasn’t just one person. Three people had better scores than Su Donglin.
"Congratulations young master Su!"
A voice rang out.
This voice was like a thorn in Su Donglin’s side. His expression immediately darkened.
He clenched his fists so hard they were turning white.
The person who said this was none other than Fang Zhengzhi.
Furthermore...
Fang Zhengzhi had looked so innocent and sincere when he said that.
It was almost as if he was congratulating a friend.
Su Donglin was fuming, but he decided to suppress it. He saw that Fang Zhengzhi was quite happy, showing no signs of sadness at all.
Did he make it as well?!
Su Donglin looked to the roll as he thought about it.
Then, he realized that Fang Zhengzhi’s name was not there.
"Hahaha... then I must congratulate Young Master Fang for missing out on this one too!" Su Donglin found a sliver of consolation from this.
Top three?!
That was an absolute joke.
There was saying, "The more you do, the more mistakes you make." Even if one person did the six highest scoring papers on the examination, he could not beat the one person who concentrated on doing one.
"Nangong Mu’s name is not there!"
"Nangong Mu’s name is missing!"
Someone in the crowd suddenly remembered that Nangong Mu, a visitor from the Nangong family, had also come to participate.
More importantly, Nangong Mu had a brother.
He was Nangong Hao, the first talent of the empire.
Could someone like him miss out on the ranking?
Definitely not.
That could only mean one thing. Nangong Mu was in the top three, and he possibly topped the rankings.
All of the officials turned to look at the youth, who was standing under the shade of the trees.
He was wearing an unassuming t-shirt. His ordinary features became rather outstanding and his white patches of hair fluttered in the breeze.
"It is no wonder he is Nangong Hao’s younger brother!"
"With a brother like Nangong Hao teaching him, isn’t it quite expected of him to make the top three?"
"I heard that Nangong Mu had the ability to pass the Imperial Examinations two years ago, but he gave it up."
"It seems that it had something to do with Chi Guyan, but no one knows the details."
None of the commotion seemed to affect Nangong Mu. His gaze was still calm, almost lifeless.
"Why does it feel like... there is one name missing from the roll?!"
Just as all the officials were focused on Nangong Mu, a question arose from near the front.
A missing name?!
Even though this sounded ridiculous, it caught the attention of everybody. However, they quickly realized what this person meant.
The First-Class Roll contains 20 names. Taking away the top three, 17 names should have been released.
However...
There were only 16 names on the board?!
"There really is a missing name!"
"It’s not a missing name, it’s a missing person!"
"Could they have missed it out?"
All the confused gazes concentrated on Han Zhangfeng.
However, Han Zhangfeng’s expression did not change.
He simply looked towards King Duan, who was standing nearby.