Chapter: 3.1 Slapping the Space Reincarnation Girl
THIS VOLUME HAS BEEN RE-TRANSLATED. ENJOY!
The male and female protagonists didn't even get to speak a word to each other, let alone get together. The second world was already completely out of the Lord God's control. After Zhou Yun Sheng returned to his XingHai space, he found that his soul power had become even more powerful than the last time. He was vaguely aware– as long as he disturbed a space, the power accumulated in this space could be absorbed by him.
This way of sustaining life was a copy of the Lord God's. Perhaps one day, when his power grew beyond the Lord God's, he would be able to break free from this prison and return to reality.
This speculation did not make Zhou Yun Sheng feel excited, on the contrary, he very much enjoyed every instant of confrontation with the Lord God.
As the energy absorbed was too large, he fell into a dormant state. When he woke up again, there were two new galaxies in the XingHai space.
Zhou Yun Sheng stood in the galaxies for a long time, then pressed the transfer button.
When he opened his eyes again, he was sitting in a simple small cubicle by himself, placed in front of him was a small long table, on it was a piece of white paper, a writing brush and an ink stone.
Was this ancient times? He pulled at his gorgeous brocade gown, then clicked on the AI on his wrist. There was a brief description of the world and detailed data on the original owner on the screen.
Here was a tribute courtyard in DaZhou Country, now was the once every three-years civil service examination. The original owner smoothly passed a series of examinations, including the prefectural exam, county exam, courtyard exam, and village exam, after breaking into the municipal exam, as long as he successfully passed, he could participate in the final palace exam.
The original's name was Shen Yi Bin, he was the Ministry of Appointments, high official Shen Hui's, eldest son. He was usually happy to partake, but not prepared to do any work in scholarly things, so this time, he could only make it through all the difficulties and arrive at the municipal exam because of the support from this world's heroine's blessings.
The heroine's name was Xie Yu Rou, she was the Seventh Prince's, Zhu Zi Qing, concubine. Previously, she died in the cold palace, but was currently reborn. During rebirth, she'd gained a medicinal space and a spiritual spring that could cure all diseases and nourish beauty.
Shen Yi Bin's older sister, Shen Qiao Dan, was also the Seventh Prince's concubine. In her past life, she and Xie Yu Rou were rivals, but because she gave birth to the eldest son, she overpowered Xie Yu Rou to become imperial concubine.
After the Seventh Prince was enthroned, her child was established as crown prince and she became the Empress, mother of the world. As the loser, Xie Yu Rou was demoted again and again, and ultimately died of illness in the cold palace. Before her death, she learned that her many years of infertility were Shen Qiao Dan's masterpiece.
It was reasonable to think that Xie Yu Rou would hate the Shen family after rebirth, how could she secretly help Shen Yi Bin? Naturally, it was all a plot.
Xie Yu Rou knew future events, she sent someone to secretly reveal the exam questions to Shen Yi Bin, and helped him get all the way from the prefectural exam to the municipal exam. At this year's municipal exam, a big fraud case would be exposed.
A palace eunuch copied the Tian Chen Emperor's handwritten exam questions and went outside the palace to sell it. The Crown Prince's followers secretly thought that this was a great opportunity to rake in money and joined hands with them to wantonly receive bribes.
The imperial exam candidates got the exam questions in advance, in order to ensure that they pass brilliantly, they naturally spent huge amounts of money to hire talented people to write their answers. After memorizing them, they entered the tribute courtyard to directly write from memory.
So, many remarkable answers would appear in this year's municipal exam, prompting the Tian Chen Emperor's great joy. But rotten was rotten, and the number of people brimming with talent were very few. So, if you ask for an essay, and I ask for an essay, inevitably, repeated essays would appear.
One by one, after picking out seven or eight identical papers, the Tian Chen Emperor's joyful mood turned into rage. He ordered the Ministry of Appointments' high official and the Supreme Court to jointly investigate the matter.
Within a year, all the candidates who bought the questions had their scholarly honor abolished and were sent back to their ancestral homes. Within Beijing, there was no shortage of noble children involved. Their fathers were all dismissed from their positions by the Tian Chen Emperor and blacklisted after investigation, for a time, there was a decline in factions.
From this day, the Crown Prince also gradually began to lose prestige and became the Seventh Prince's opportunity to seize the heir to the throne status.
In the last life, Shen Yi Bin didn't even take the Tong exam, so he naturally missed the municipal exam. But his father Shen Hui relied on his commendable service during the investigation to become the Tian Chen Emperor's favored minister, finally becoming prime minister, second only to the emperor.
If not for Shen Hui's support, the Seventh Prince wouldn't have helped Shen Qiao Dan become the formal imperial concubine.
In this life, Xie Yu Rou secretly helped Shen Yi Bin successively pass the county exam, prefectural exam, courtyard exam, and village exam. Her goal was to let him participate in the municipal exam, then have his scholarly honor dismissed, simultaneously ruining Shen Hui's career.
Without the Shen family's glory, Shen Qiao Dan was not worth fearing.
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Zhou Yun Sheng arrived not early but not late. Unfortunately, Shen Yi Bin had already bought the exam questions and memorized answers, Zhou Yun Sheng arrived as he was preparing to reply to the question. Now he had only two options.
One was to give up the exam and leave early, but the Crown Prince's followers had a ledger, a record of all the imperial exam candidates who bought the questions. Even if he gave a blank exam paper, when the account books were exposed someday, he would still be as condemned as before.
Second was to renounce the memorized essay and write an answer to startle heaven and earth, and weep ghosts and gods.
The Tian Chen Emperor was eagerly seeking men of worth and ability, he already had a 1000 gold to buy horse bones, and 10,000 gold to hire true talent. If the learned scholar was genuine, he would certainly be lenient. Just how remarkable does the essay need to be in order to impress him, thus escaping calamity?
Zhou Yun Sheng pondered and looked at the cover of the exam booklet, this topic was very simple, actually only three words – Zu Yong Diao. It really was the Tian Chen Emperor's simple, pragmatic, and sharp theming style.
The so-called Zu Yong Diao was the tax system currently being implemented by DaZhou, it was based on the equal-field system. Presently, due to land annexation intensifying day by day, a large number of self-employed farmers have gone bankrupt and fled, or have been reduced to tenant farmers under a landlord. The equal-field system was gradually on the verge of collapse. The foundation had collapsed, and the Zu Yong Diao system was in jeopardy.
It not only exacerbated the common people's life burden, resulting in people becoming destitute, they also couldn't meet the tax quota required for the government to operate. Now, the Tian Chen Emperor was endlessly worried about tax reform.
Zhou Yun Sheng was proficient in the four arts, coupled with the AI's robust search engine, a Ya Guan Qu Song level of text could be written as naturally as breathing. He closed his eyes for only a moment, and when he re-opened them, his brush moved as gracefully a dragon.
The atmosphere of his handwriting was majestic, profound and powerful, stunning, but the content of the essay was even more amazing. It not only elaborated on the shortcomings of Zu Yong Diao, but also suggested the even more advanced Twice-Taxation System.
The Twice-Taxation System changed the practice of levying 'Zu Yong Diao' taxes according to able-bodied men, implementing a taxation criterion based on amount of property. By ensuring the principle of 'Asset-based, not people-based', not only would the state's fiscal revenue increase, the burden on the people would be lightened. It was the basis of the future generations' tax reform, and a major improvement in history.
Past Shen Yi Bin's memorized essay was also very exciting, but it only slightly elaborated on the shortcomings of Zu Yong Diao, it was not at all in-depth, forget about giving an effective, realistic solution.
Even so, the Tian Chen Emperor went through great pains to find out the true author of the essay, making an exception to let him participate in the palace exam, then hand-picking him for top scorer in the palace examination. This man was later recruited by the Seventh Prince, then served as the Seventh Prince's capable assistant, together with Shen Hui.
However, such magnificent poetry, which made the Tian Chen Emperor awe-struck, was really not worth mentioning when compared to Zhou Yun Sheng's writings.
After putting down the writing brush, Zhou Yun Sheng glanced around, then closed his eyes to recall Shen Yi Bin's life. In the end, Shen Yi Bin's scholarly honor was abolished, he was banned from ever participating in the imperial examinations, and his father Shen Hui was also relieved of his post, his excellent career destroyed in one day.
The Shen family quickly declined, Shen Qiao Dan struggled to make any progress in the Seventh Prince's household, and died from sorrow.
In contrast to the Shen family, Xie Yu Rou steadily rose to become Empress Dowager, her younger brother feigned illness to avoid this municipal exam after her warning, and in the next municipal exam, he passed brilliantly, topping the list, finally reaching the highest official position.
Shen Yi Bin loved to fool around, always seeking enjoyment. His greatest dream was only to be among the candidates who successfully passed the imperial civil service examination, to let his father see him in a new light. How could he anticipate that he would get in, but his entire family would have to pay for it.
Now, Zhou Yun Sheng would not only help him avoid this crisis, perhaps he'll pull strongly against the crazy tide and make the Shen family glorious again.
So, what exactly should be done? Support the Seventh Prince's bid for the throne?
Zhou Yun Sheng slightly shook his head, rejecting this idea. Currently, Xie Yu Rou had already become the Seventh Prince's favored concubine thanks to the space and spiritual spring. Plus, Shen Qiao Dan was plotted against by her, resulting in her repeatedly making mistakes, provoking rejection, and being sterilized by drugs.
He was afraid that helping them would be futile. Rather than helping the Seventh Prince ascend the throne, giving Xie Yu Rou a big advantage free of charge, it was better to support another prince.
The Tian Chen Emperor had twelve sons, but the Crown Prince, the son of the first wife and the eldest, was the most favored. However, perhaps due to being praised too highly, in these past few years, the Crown Prince's behavior became increasingly reckless, after this fraud incident, the Tian Chen Emperor started losing patience with him.
If the Crown Prince became stable, it wouldn't be difficult for him to regain the emperor's heart, then where would the rest of the princes find the opportunity to snatch the throne? But he didn't know if the Crown Prince had the possibility of recovery. He'll go examine him later, if he wasn't any good, he'll find another prince.
Thinking this way, Zhou Yun Sheng unconsciously fell asleep, prompting the inspecting official to secretly shake his head.
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After the municipal exam, the examiners worked around the clock to grade the exams. Due to this topic being important to the country, the Tian Chen Emperor inevitably had the idea to pool wisdom for mutual benefit while the candidates were taking the exam. Therefore, he went to the tribute courtyard to look over the grading in person.
An examiner took out an exam paper, bowed and said,
"Your majesty the Emperor please see, this scroll is worthy of first place!"
"This small official also has a fantastic exam paper." Another examiner offered one.
The Tian Chen Emperor took them, with only a rough glance over, he was full of praise.
The examiners continued grading papers while he read, but suddenly, one of them knocked over an ink stone, revealing a face full of horror.
"What's wrong?"
The Tian Chen Emperor slowly looked over.
"Reporting to the Emperor, this small official here actually, actually, has an exam paper that is indistinguishable from a previous one."
The examiner's face was deathly pale. He knew that this situation meant that someone had leaked the exam questions and found someone to answer on their behalf, and this was done on a large-scale.
The Tian Chen Emperor's eyes darkened, he took the exam paper and hastily read it. After reading it, his tone was unprecedentedly severe,
"Find them, find all the identical papers and hand them to me!"
The examiners didn't dare neglect, they immediately buried themselves in the examination papers to search. Not long after, they dug out eight or nine identical answer sheets, but one person held an exam paper and stared foolishly for a long time, not willing to let go, his fingers trembling slightly.
The Tian Chen Emperor saw this and walked over, still with a stormy, gloomy expression. But after reading two lines, he was stunned, immediately after, his brows raised in joy, and finally, he actually slapped the table in amazement, laughing heartily,
"Excellent, excellent, I didn't expect my DaZhou actually had such a richly talented individual, moreover, I actually encountered him! This is my blessing!"
Due to being too pleasantly surprised, the Tian Chen Emperor disregarded the rules and directly opened the seal covering the examinee's name – Shen Yi Bin? Who was Shen Yi Bin? It sounded somewhat familiar.....
"Responding to the Emperor, Shen Yi Bin is Official Shen Hui's eldest son."
An examiner answered, then shook his head and sighed.
This one was a well-known sloth in Beijing, if he could write such a beautiful essay, the rest of the scholars should collectively hang themselves. It must've also been written by a proxy.
The Tian Chen Emperor's thoughts matched the examiners, his face suddenly turned furious, saying in a heavy voice, "Arrest Shen Yi Bin, be sure to investigate who gave him this answer!"
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T/N:
This is why I didn't want to translate stories in an ancient setting or xianxia, just look at the amount of notes. This whole chapter was just idioms galore. Don't skip them, I worked hard for them. I used mostly quotations so if you wanna learn more google the quote.
I'm a much better translator now, but translating ancient settings still suck. Idioms still suck.
Tong- Child, this refers to the first couple of exams I think
A 1000 gold to buy horse bones – Idiom. Someone who thirsts after talent
Zu Yong Diao – Chinaknowledge.de "the common taxation system was based on three types of taxes to be delivered by each adult male. The first type consisted of grain (zu), the second of silk fabric or linen (diao), and the third in corvée labour (yong)."
Equal-field System– Wikipedia "or land-equalization system was a historical system of land ownership and distribution in China used from the Six Dynasties to mid-Tang dynasty."
four arts- zither, Go, calligraphy, painting
Ya Guan Qu Song– Idiom. excellent literary talent