CHAPTER 77: CHAPTER 70: HANDING IN THE EXAMINATION PAPER

What beautiful weather.

Li Ang walked out of the examination hall feeling pleased. He stretched lazily and sat down on a stone bench under the shade of the trees in the courtyard to rest for a moment.

Mottled tree shadows dappled the ground, a cool breeze brushed his face, and the intermittent chirping of cicadas filled the air. Through the doors and windows of the examination hall, he could see students still buried in thought, their pens in hand.

This familiar and intimate feeling made Li Ang smile involuntarily. The irritation that had plagued him for days quietly faded. He placed his hand on the stone table and lightly flicked a fallen leaf, sending it flying.

TAP. TAP. TAP.

The soft sound of footsteps announced someone’s approach. He Fanshuang, a girl with willow-leaf eyebrows, walked briskly out of the examination hall, a rare, faint smile on her face.

She clasped her hands behind her back, her left hand lightly holding the index finger of her right. Bending slightly, she gently sniffed the blooming gardenias outside the examination hall, looking quite pleased.

However, when she looked up and saw there was already a student in the courtyard—and that student happened to be Li Ang—her smile quickly vanished, her expression reverting to its usual impassivity. With a glance at Li Ang, she turned and walked out of the courtyard.

What was that about? Li Ang wondered. The top student handed in her paper early, only to find someone else had finished all the questions even sooner? Is she inexplicably annoyed by that?

Li Ang chuckled at He Fanshuang’s little fit of pique and shook his head. Seeing that Song Shaoyuan and the others still hadn’t emerged, he also got up and headed towards the Vermilion Bird Gate outside the Imperial City.

Outside the Vermilion Bird Gate, Imperial Guards, clad in armor and armed to the teeth, stood in a circle to prevent the examinees’ families from blocking Imperial City Avenue.

The numerous family members waiting anxiously with parasols saw a student emerge and quickly surrounded him, bombarding him with questions. "Young master, what kind of questions were on the exam this year?"

"Young master, do you think the questions were difficult? My Third Son placed 2,600th in the preliminary exam; do you think he can pass the re-examination?"

"Young master, did you finish early?"

The noisy clamor instantly filled Li Ang’s ears. He had no choice but to take refuge behind the helpless Imperial Guards and address the crowd of parents loudly, "This year’s re-examination was quite difficult, but I believe that the students—who have cultivated their dreams with wisdom, nurtured their hopes with sweat, and crossed the vast sea of learning—will do their utmost. They will strive to meet their parents’ expectations and their teachers’ great hopes, to honor the wisdom bestowed by heaven and the ideals of their youth. After ten years of hard work, their dreams will come true, good news will spread far and wide, and their names will be inscribed upon the golden list!"

After this, he bowed deeply and quickly slipped through the stupefied crowd, arriving on Vermilion Bird Street.

"Young... uh, Eldest Son, over here!"

Chai Cuiqiao’s voice came from above and ahead. She was standing by the window of a private room in a restaurant outside the main gate of the Imperial City, waving at him. Beside her sat a young girl with a light veil covering her face.

That must be the new friend Chai Cuiqiao mentioned, Li... Leqing, right?

Li Ang went up to the restaurant’s private room and saw about twenty guards and maids outside the door—such an entourage was common for the favored children of noble families and not particularly surprising.

Before Li Ang could push open the door to the private room, it opened from the inside.

Chai Cuiqiao stood there, holding some pastries. She blinked her large eyes and asked nervously, "Eldest Son, how did the re-examination go?"

"It was alright, just so-so," Li Ang replied casually, then turned to the veiled girl and introduced himself with a slight bow, "Li Ang, from Yizhou."

"Ah..." The veiled girl seemed unaccustomed to introducing herself. She paused for a moment, then stood up and said softly, "Li Leqing, from Chang’an."

Li Leqing, not from a particular workshop district? Li Ang mused. People from Chang’an, living in the shadow of the Imperial City, were generally warm-hearted but also carried a slight pride. They usually added their workshop district to their introductions, like Yang Yu from Chonghua Square, or Chou Jinghuan from Yongjia Square. The better the conditions and the wealthier the workshop district, the more common this practice was.

Li Leqing blinked and asked softly, "Did the Li Family’s Eldest Son also finish the exam early today?"

"Ah..." No matter how many times he heard it, Li Ang still wasn’t used to the familiar title "Eldest Son." He nodded. "Yes, I finished all the questions, so I just came out early."

Pride beaming on her face, Chai Cuiqiao boasted, "Hehe, my Eldest Son is amazing! He placed second in the preliminary exam, so he could certainly rank somewhere between first and seventh this time, right?"

Li Ang rolled his eyes at Chai Cuiqiao. "What, am I going to use the Clone Technique to take multiple spots?"

The maids nearby widened their eyes in surprise. Li Leqing also tilted her head slightly. Though she had grown up in the secluded inner palace due to an innate heart condition, she still possessed some basic knowledge. Second place in the Academic Palace’s preliminary examination... That should be quite impressive, right?

"Hehe," Chai Cuiqiao proudly swung the pastry in her hand and said to the surprised Li Leqing and the other maids, "My Eldest Son isn’t only knowledgeable; his medical skills are even more profound! Just the other day, he treated a high-ranking official. Moreover, he’s also skilled in gynecology—treating abdominal pain, leg cramps, even assisting in difficult childbirths! Oh, right, he also invented..."

"Stop, stop." Li Ang, hand to his forehead, quickly interrupted Chai Cuiqiao’s boasting, which was veering off in an increasingly outlandish direction.

What Chai Cuiqiao was actually about to mention was an improved menstrual cloth. Cotton wadding and fabric production had already begun throughout Yu Country because the Academic Palace had improved cotton cultivation methods and invented the cotton gin (for removing seeds) and the spinning wheel. However, the degreasing process was still relatively primitive. The hydrophobic lipids on the surface of the cotton wadding and fabric weren’t being removed, leading to poor water absorption. Furthermore, the presence of these lipids easily attracted bacteria.

So, Li Ang had devised a method: first, tear the cotton apart, remove impurities, and wash it with water. Then, put it in a Sand Pot, pour in distilled water and a 3% caustic soda solution, (This caustic soda was produced by mixing slaked lime with soda ash, a reaction yielding calcium carbonate and caustic soda.) cover it, bring it to a boil, and then simmer on low heat for ten minutes.