Zhang Shou glanced at Ah Liu who was cleaning up the mess as if nothing had happened, and wanted to knock the boy on the head, asking him whether he wanted to harm him or trusted him too much - you know, if he had just agreed with the philosophy of the law of the jungle in front of Ah Liu, the Shuntian prefect in front of him might have a completely different impression of him.
"Although eavesdropping is not a good habit, I stood there without saying anything, and happened to hear what you said sincerely, Dr. Zhang. Too many people in this world make their fortunes by taking advantage of others, and they believe that they can only make their fortunes by taking advantage of others. There are really too few people who create wealth with their own hands in a clean way."
After Wang Jie said this, he nodded approvingly to Zhang Shou. When Zhang Shou invited him into the house, he saw that the table was in a mess and had not been cleared away yet, but he didn't care. He glanced around and a very rare smile appeared on his face.
"It's worth it that I strongly supported you, Dr. Zhang, to take over Banshan Hall in front of the emperor. There are so many academic officials in the Imperial College, and it's rare to find someone who can live in the dormitory peacefully. But it's also true that even most of the students can't stand this hardship, let alone the academic officials? I heard that Lu Zhu also lives here? It's true that like teacher, like student."
Zhang Shou didn't expect Wang Jie to praise him right away. He immediately felt that Wang Jie was being too attentive and was either a traitor or a thief. He simply asked directly, "Wang Dayin came here in person, is it because of the matter of Jiuzhangtang? Or is it to lure the snake out of its hole as mentioned before?"
“Both.” Wang Jie didn’t sit down, but stood over there, motioning Deng Xiaodai to untie the bag on his back, and took out a thick stack of test papers. He then said calmly, “These are the papers that were finally screened out. Unfortunately, even if the standard is lowered to only answering one question correctly, there are still very few people who passed. Some of them even have completely identical papers, which are suspected of plagiarism. It’s up to you to identify them.”
Zhang Shou then bowed sincerely and said, "Thank you, Mr. Wang and Mr. Song, for your hard work these days."
"It's just a favor to you." Wang Jie said it lightly, but when he thought about how he had been looking at nonsense papers whenever he had free time these days, he couldn't help but feel angry because he was exhausted both physically and mentally.
If Zhang Shou had not come up with such an idea, resulting in the papers piling up in the Shuntian government office, he would not have known that among some of the talented scholars in the capital that the county magistrates under him once praised endlessly, there were actually some who tried to fish in troubled waters and get away with it!
Zhang Shou naturally didn't know Wang Datou's complicated thoughts. After thanking Wang Jie, he smiled at Deng Xiaodai and said, "Xiaodai, you have seen so many papers with random answers and bluffs these days. Do you have any feelings? When it comes to classics and history, you may not be able to catch up with many people, but when it comes to mathematics, you are qualified to be a teacher for many people."
Deng Xiaodai originally thought that reading those papers these days was really driving him crazy, but when Zhang Shou praised him, he became a little shy: "Everyone has their own expertise. What's the point of my little ability? Song Tuiguan is really amazing. He is well-educated and proficient in mathematics..."
Before he could finish, Wang Jie interrupted him and said, "Xiao Song's math is only roughly proficient at best, not proficient at it. He is a little bit behind you, not to mention Dr. Zhang. You should follow him now and study some classics and history to lay a solid foundation. Even if Dr. Zhang doesn't expect you to pass the imperial examinations, it is always useful to have knowledge of poetry and books."