Chapter 76 (2/2)

The rest of the candidates were sweating when confronted with the bows and targets.

This is what Ning Que wanted, He raised his bow and pulled the bowstring back to his nose, releasing the string. A loud smack resounded through the air, as the arrow accurately struck on the bulls-eye.

Ning Que had already drawn and knocked his arrow before his previous shot hit the target, and aimed for the bulls-eye. As expected, it hit again.

His marksmans.h.i.+p was slow and unremarkable. However he steadily shot arrow after arrow rhythmically, as if playing a comfortable melody.

He possessed a cold demeanor, standing in standard style, the tempo of his shots, and the extremely accurate marksmans.h.i.+p. As each arrow left his quiver, he attracted more and more attention. Candidates, examiners and even two commanders from the military watched as Ning Que drilled arrow after arrow into his targets..

In their view, the young man who held the bow had turned into a veteran warrior who wouldn’t even blink in the eyes of an raging opposing army.

The commander watched as Ning Que shot his last arrow and told his subordinates, “Investigate his past, tell me which general taught him his skills. If he doesn’t get admitted into the college, recruit him into the military immediately.”

After a while the commander touched his grey hair and and said in a low pitched voice, “Keep this a secret, his original force wouldn’t be willing to let him go if they knew of his skills. If we, the Yu Lin force would need to get him with stealth.”

At dusk, the six grand examinations had results had finally ended. The emperor and empress returned into their castle in Chang An City. The prince and officers were to stay behind and handle the remaining procedures and formalities. The results would be announced soon.

Hundreds of candidates stood silently on the large stonyfield, staring at the board standing on their tiptoes like hundreds of hungry gooses waiting to be fed.

A few of the examiners walked down the stairs and politely greeted the prince. After confirming with all the officers, the examiners stepped up to the wooden table and glued a large red paper to the board.

Instantly the candidates started to make a large commotion. Like hundreds of geese which had finally received their food, they couldn’t suppress their emotions and rushed towards the board.

Ning Que was pushed back by the crowd. Finally, he found his way to the board and squeezed into a spot in front of the board. He could finally look at his academic results.

At the bottom section of the paper he ound his name.

“Ning Que…. Grade D, Lowest.”

His results for the writing test were also of the worst level.

He rubbed his head angrily, mumbling, “This is unexpected. I wrote a lot of nonsense, but I did write so many words. Plus my calligraphy is good. Could it be that my grader was a female?”

[EN: No idea what this is supposed to mean, I hope it isn’t s.e.xist]

The people behind him couldn’t stop themselves from laughing, and teased him, “I thought you were a genius from Nan Ji. But you are just an uncultivated wild man.”

The young woman who taunted him was the red robed girl. Maybe she had a personal grudge against him, but when the results had been released, she left her companions and squeezed in next to Ning Que, trying to figure out his results.

Ning Que was unaware that this girl was the daughter of the General Yun Hui, Miss Si Tu Yi Lan. Thus he stared at her dully before turning away, holding Miss Sang Sang and walked out of the crowd.

The red-robed girl turned to him in surprise and shouted, “Why aren’t you looking at the rest of the results.”

Ning Que didn’t even bother to turn back, calmly replying, “Distinction.”

[EN: No idea what distinction means, but that was what was provided to me.]

The girl and the people behind were astonished by his reply. How egotistical could he be? How could he know his results without looking at the board.

Miss Sang Sang raised her small face and looked at him, confused.

Ning Que gazed at her and explained with a smile, “The are far inferior than me when it comes to pretending to be cool.”

<script>