Chapter 77 - 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.