Do you know: I, a commoner prime minister

Chapter 50 Inexplicable

The middle-aged man led Zhou An to a less crowded street before stopping.

"Young master, I have an analysis of the chief examiner's identity, as well as information about some well-known candidates in this provincial examination."

The middle-aged man pulled out several booklets from his pocket and said with a smile, "I see that you're here to take the provincial examination, sir. These aren't expensive, so you can buy one to read in case you're in trouble."

Zhou An was somewhat disappointed and said, "Give me a copy of the information about the examinees."

"Alright!"

The middle-aged man beamed upon hearing this and held out his hand, saying, "One tael of silver!"

Zhou An frowned slightly. For a family of three or four, the total cost of food, drink, and other necessities for a month was only a few taels of silver.

"Young master, gathering this information must have cost quite a bit; one tael of silver is really not expensive."

Upon seeing this, the middle-aged man realized he had been too happy. He had assumed Zhou An, who brought his entourage, was generous, but he frowned upon hearing that it was only one or two taels of silver.

"Stone!" Zhou An said.

Shi Tou took out a tael of silver and handed it to the middle-aged man. The man took the money and happily handed him a booklet, saying, "Don't worry, young master, it's definitely worth more than you paid for."

Zhou An was too lazy to waste words with him. He took the booklet, flipped through it, and left with Shi Tou after seeing that there were no problems.

He looked through it for a while, then put it away.

"Young master, have we been tricked?"

Stone said angrily, "I'm going to find him right now!"

"Need not!"

Zhou An shook his head and said, "It's not really a matter of being fooled. Whether this thing is real or fake is actually not very useful. I'll take another look when I have time."

No matter how high their chances of passing the exam are, there's no way to prevent them from taking it.

In the absence of fraud, everyone has an equal chance.

We wandered around with the stone, sampled some local delicacies, and didn't return to the guesthouse until evening.

When the waiter saw him return, he came to greet him.

"Sir, your other two companions haven't gone out, so I didn't tell them."

"Thank you for your trouble!"

Zhou An gave Shi Tou a few coins as a reward and asked, "Have my other two companions returned?"

"Thank you for your generous treat!"

The waiter happily accepted the tip and said, "They haven't come back since they went out!"

"Thanks, sir!"

After thanking him, Zhou An took the stone upstairs.

They agreed that if they went out, they would leave a message for others.

The five of them are acting as guarantors. Tomorrow they will go to the prefectural government's examination hall to verify their identities and receive their floating tickets.

If someone goes out and doesn't return for a long time, the others won't know where to look for them.

Therefore, when Zhou An left the inn, he told the waiter that if anyone asked, he should say that he would be back in the evening.

Unexpectedly, Sun Zhigao and Guo Xun went out and have not returned yet.

I went back to my room and read for a while. Since I had eaten a lot of delicious food outside in the afternoon, I wasn't hungry in the evening, so I didn't eat.

As he was getting ready for bed, he asked Shitou to knock on the door of Sun Zhigao's room to check. After a while, Shitou returned and told him that the two had not returned yet.

Zhou An was a little worried, but it was getting late and he couldn't go out to look for the person.

"Huai De!"

Just as Zhou An lay down, two other middle-aged scholars knocked on the door from outside.

As soon as Shi Tou opened the door, Feng Xiucai asked anxiously, "Where is your young master?"

"Young master has just rested, I wonder..."

"Scholar Feng, what happened to Scholar Wu?"

Hearing the commotion, Zhou An came out wearing his clothes, and Shi Tou quickly stepped aside.

"Huai De, Sun Zining and the others haven't returned yet. We're worried something might have happened to them. Should we go look for them together?" Feng Xiucai said anxiously.

"Tongzhou city is so big, where are we supposed to look?"

Zhou An shook his head and said, "I was strolling around outside today and saw many yamen runners patrolling the streets. They are candidates taking the imperial examinations; they won't cause any trouble in the city!"

"But we agreed to go to the examination hall tomorrow morning to get the supplementary tickets, and they haven't returned yet, and they might not be back tomorrow morning either!"

Wu Xiucai said somewhat irritably, "What kind of people have been assigned to this joint guarantee arrangement?!"

Zhou An was somewhat displeased upon hearing this, as it implicated him as well.

Feng Xiucai tugged at Wu Xiucai and said, "Huai De's words make sense. It's not easy to find them now. They may have gone to Wanxianglou, but they may not have. Let's wait for them to come back first."

"When they come back, I must give them a good talking to. If they do this again, I'll go to the government office to sue them!" Wu Xiucai said angrily.

Although the joint guarantee system is meant to allow them to supervise each other, once the guarantee is in place, everyone suffers the same loss. If someone uses this system to manipulate others, the others will have no choice but to submit to the manipulation in order to make their own references.

Similar incidents have occurred before, where someone threatened other members of the joint guarantee and demanded benefits as the provincial examination approached.

Some people chose to swallow their anger, while others took it to the authorities.

Finally, the imperial court made relevant regulations, stipulating that if any member of the joint guarantee harms the interests of others, they will be punished if a majority of people report it.

In severe cases, the individual will be stripped of their existing academic titles and will be barred from participating in the imperial examinations for life.

"Then let's wait until they come back tomorrow and talk to them properly. If they still don't behave, we'll report them!" Zhou An said.

Feng Xiucai looked at Zhou An with some surprise. He knew that Zhou An and Sun Zhigao were from the same town, and the two had chatted a lot on the way here.

That's why he advised Wu Xiucai to be tolerant, since the two of them were in the minority and couldn't sue Sun Xiucai.

Now that Zhou An said this, I understand that they are not on the same path.

Feng Xiucai was immediately relieved and said, "Alright, we'll have a good talk with them tomorrow. It's getting late, so I won't disturb your rest any longer!"

After seeing the two off, Zhou An shook his head and went back to his room to sleep.

The next morning, when Zhou An and the others woke up, Sun Zhigao and Guo Xun had indeed not returned.

They ate breakfast and waited for more than an hour before the two returned.

The two men looked tired, and upon seeing the three of them, Sun Zhigao quickly smiled and apologized.

"I'm so sorry, I used to study at Tongzhou Academy. Last night, my classmates from Tongzhou Academy treated me to dinner, and I drank too much in the excitement."

"We agreed to go to the examination hall to exchange for the floating tickets first thing this morning. You didn't come back all night and caused such a delay, which is already bad enough."

Scholar Wu sneered, "He was clearly out having fun in a brothel, the smell of rouge still lingers on him, and he claims to be drunk. It's bad luck to be guarantored by people like you!"

"How dare you talk like that?"

Guo Xun said somewhat angrily, "We're back now, and Zining apologized to you, but you're still making a fuss!"

"We won't let this go?"

Scholar Wu glared and said, "Have you ever thought about what would happen to us, the people responsible for your safety, if you went out to have fun and got sick from eating something bad? If you continue like this, we'll report you to the government!"

"you…"

Guo Xun was about to say something when Sun Zhigao quickly stopped him and pulled him aside.

"Brother Guo, be patient. There's no point in arguing with them. Once we pass the imperial examination and obtain the title of Juren, they'll have their turn to fawn over us!"

Sun Zhigao whispered a word of advice: "If they really go to the government office to sue us, it will still be troublesome even if nothing happens."

"Aren't you and Zhou An good friends? Why are they suing us?" Guo Xun asked, frowning.

Sun Zhigao shook his head and said, "Although we are from the same town, I have failed the provincial examinations several times. They may not think much of me. They may have already won me over, otherwise they wouldn't dare to say that."

Upon hearing this, Guo Xun immediately stopped making a scene. He had dared to say that before because he thought that Wu Xiucai and the others couldn't sue him.

Sun Zhigao pulled Guo Xun back to apologize to the others, but Guo Xun glared fiercely at Zhou An.

Zhou An frowned slightly. Is this guy crazy?

He didn't even say a word, yet inexplicably developed hostility towards him.

Sun Zhigao adopted a very humble attitude, and Feng Xiucai and the others' expressions softened somewhat.

The group then left the inn and headed to the examination hall.