It soon got dark, and the lights in the Gongyuan building were lit, and the lights were full of students racking their brains to get ahead. It's early winter, and the temperature plummets as soon as the sun sets. The already not very closed hall leaked air everywhere, and the effect of the damp and cold ground soon made the candidates under the lamp cold, and their hands and feet were cold. It's not just the coldness on the body, but the coldness in the heart is even more uncomfortable.

When the questions for the poetry essay were handed out in the evening, many of the aspiring candidates were devastated because they found that the questions were beyond their ability. In the past, I heard people say that the imperial examination was difficult, but many people did not think so. thought that he was familiar with poetry and books, and once he participated in the imperial examination, he would be a dragon and a snake, and he would be caught. Those who are famous in Sun Mountain are actually mediocre talents, so they will fall into the first place. But now, this kind of talent really understands the difficulty of the imperial examination, and it is not that they can successfully pass the test by reading some Analect universities and reading some subsets of history books.

Lin Jue didn't plan to stay up late, the weather was so cold, it was really unnecessary to stay up late to meditate on the lamp, so he boiled the tea again, baked a hot sugar cake and feasted on it, and then immediately dismantled the table and the sitting board to build the bed. After the bed was set up and the futon was laid, Lin Jue blew out the lamp early and went into the quilt to sleep.

The invigilator who was in charge of the night parade outside had never seen a candidate go to bed so early, so he approached Lin Jue's house uneasily, and called the small hole in the door and held the lantern to look inside, worried that something had happened. But the snoring sound from inside made them look at each other speechlessly, shake their heads and smile bitterly and walked away.

Lin Jue slept very soundly, and the double-layer futon specially sewn by Lu Wu was very warm, and it was made of high-quality cashmere. Although it was torn in a few places when I entered today, it was still very soft. Lin Jue was also a little tired in the past few days, so he fell asleep soon after getting into the bed.

In the middle of the night, Lin woke up. All I could hear was the night wind whistling outside, and the leaves rustling. The wind passing through the house was cold and biting, and his exposed face was numb from the cold, and then he realized that he had been awakened by the cold wind. I don't know who opened the square hole in the door, and it happened to be a string of wind in front and back, which made me choke cold. Lin Jue cursed in a low voice and got up to close the wooden board on the hole at the wooden door, but found that the lights were lit in the opposite building, and there were many people who were still meditating in the cold night and had not yet gone to bed.

Lin Jue shook his head with a wry smile, reached out and moved the plank on the square hole to close, turned around and got into the hot quilt and continued to fall asleep.

……

The next morning, Lin Jue woke up in the cold, and sat up as if he had slept in the open air all night. This dilapidated house can't play any role in keeping out the cold, but fortunately, my futon is warm enough, otherwise this night would be enough to choke.

When Lin Jue was drinking hot tea and eating baked sugar cakes, he heard a violent cough from the left and right front and back rooms. Lin Jue knew that these people must have been affected by the wind last night. When I got up last night, I saw that these people had not slept in the middle of the night, and were still meditating in the bitter cold, which was really not a wise move.

The second piece of sugar cake had not yet been eaten, and I listened to a noise outside. The soldiers paraded outside rushed along the wooden corridor in front of the building, as if something had happened. Lin Jue hurriedly leaned over the square hole on the wooden door and looked out, although the angle was not good, he seemed to see that a door in the opposite house was opened, and several soldiers carried out a person from inside. The man's body was straight, he didn't say anything, and he didn't know what was wrong.

The candidates in the surrounding buildings were all lying on the door and looking over there, and Lin Jue clearly heard someone say: "The person is gone, there is still a rope around his neck, and he was hanged last night." ”

Lin Jue was startled, and was about to ask loudly, when several invigilators scolded loudly: "Go back to the exam, don't probe your brain to speak, otherwise you will be punished for cheating." ”

Everyone hurriedly retreated, and they each ate and washed up, and they didn't dare to look at it again. Lin Jue slowly retreated, the sugar cake in his hand was cold, and he no longer had an appetite. The candidate in the opposite room had taken a photo when he came in, he was a handsome young man, and his smile was a little warm, but he didn't expect to hang himself in the room.

Lin Jue vaguely guessed that the reason why the young man committed suicide must be that he felt hopeless and disheartened after getting the exam questions. Maybe he has been surrounded by walls in order to study and take scientific examinations, maybe his wife and children are ragged and have no clothes and no food, maybe he has carried the hopes of the whole family and occupied all the resources of the head of the family. But when I entered the examination room, I got the exam questions that I couldn't cope with at all, and I found that I couldn't get it at all, and I thought that all my hopes were in vain, and my family's expectations were disappointed, and this sense of loss would definitely make people desperate and unbearable. So he chose to die, and chose not to suffer like this again.

Lin Jue once chose this extreme way to end his life in that life on Earth, and Lin Jue still remembers that feeling, so he empathizes with it. If people are not desperate to the extreme, how can they choose to take the road of suicide? There must be something more frightening and painful than death, a weight that is more unbearable than death.

Lin Jue was silent for a long time, and bowed to the house, then he cleaned up his mood and disassembled the bed, set up the desk, laid out the test paper, polished the ink and moistened the pen, and prepared to start answering the questions.

The long and torturous day passed quickly, and when it was dark, the lights in the T-No. 138 room were extinguished early, and the candidates inside got into the bed early to rest. He wants to use sleep to forget the tension and fatigue of his brain during the day, and tomorrow there is only one last policy article left, and he will get out of the end.

In the middle of the night, Lin Jue still woke up. But this time he was not awakened by the cold wind, he was awakened by the sound of coughing and crying coming from the left and right rooms. For some reason, the candidates in many of the dormitories let out painful cries and moans in the middle of the night, and the sound was like trapped and injured beasts, which sounded creepy and even more chilling in the dark.

The invigilators and patrol soldiers shouted at the candidates who were crying in the middle of the night, threatening to disqualify them from the exam and expel them if they continued to howl and howl. In this way, the crying and moaning in the middle of the night gradually subsided.

Lin Jue was lying on the bed, and the whistling sound of the night wind outside through the treetops was like a cry, giving people a sense of ominousness. It's just like the howls of those students just now, which makes people shudder. Lin Jue knew that the painful sound made by those students just now was definitely not because of the cold, it was a pain in the heart. Although this imperial examination is a broad road to change fate, the road is full of thorns and the road is extremely difficult. When you have given too much experience, placed too high expectations, and then found that you have no way to reach the light on the other side, the pain will be unforgettable. How could these desperate people, in such a cold and lonely night, not let out a painful groan and wail.

Lin Jue's feeling for this Gongyuan house in his heart had completely changed. Before, I still had a sense of awe and seriousness for this imperial examination, and felt that this was a sacred place. Here it is indeed possible to break through the class solidification and change the fate of the individual; But at the same time, it is also an abyss that devours people's lives and souls. The cruelest place in the world that shatters people's dreams and disillusions people's hopes.

……

On the morning of September 25, the fourth year of Da Zhou Qingfeng, with the sound of a rapid and piercing gong, the autumn examination of the undergraduate students on Liangzhejiang Road officially ended. Tens of thousands of candidates suffered for three days in the dark hall before finally seeing the light of day.

As the wooden door of the house was opened one after another, countless students who were disheveled, their hair was scattered, their eye sockets were deep, and they walked out of the house with packages and cages, as if they had been imprisoned for several years. The autumn sun was shining, stinging their eyes full of red threads, and I don't know if it was because of the stimulation of the light, or because of other reasons, many people had tears on their cheeks.

Lin Jue walked out of the house with a large package on his back. Outside, the sun is shining and the air is fresh, and the yellow leaves on the tall trees are swaying, and the sun shines down from between the leaves, mottled and swaying, sparkling. Although the scenery at this time is bleak in autumn, in Lin Jue's view, it is tantamount to the scenery of spring and Jingming, which makes people happy infinitely. Looking back at the black hole that still exuded dampness and a faint musty smell, Lin Jue felt as if he was in a different world. If possible, he would never want to return here, in the past three days, Lin Jue himself could still bear it, but what happened around him gave Lin Jue a great impact. Lin Jue took a deep breath and walked slowly towards the exit with the flow of people.

At the east and west exits of Gongyuan Street, there was a huge crowd of people who came to greet them. At the end of the autumn season, the forbidden area was lifted, so the candidates' families and entourages rushed to the exit to greet their families. All of a sudden, the streets were crowded and noisy.