Chapter 90: The Writing test:

"Hello, everyone I hope you have a good rest. Today is the test of your essay writing. The essay question is: Do you think women should be allowed to become officials? Right, then best of luck and you have until the incense runs out. You may begin now," I stated as I lit the incense. 

I remember as a Kid, I too wrote this essay question and the emperor liked it a lot. I wonder what the younger generation would write about. 

The incense began to burn slowly and since I was pretty bored I decided to write on as well.

In my first paragraph, I wrote about how women and men should be treated. This is what I wrote:

The religious scriptures say that we should discriminate against people due to their religion or gender. So why should we discriminate against people of different gender? Buddha said that we should treat people without prejudices against them.

I then continued writing about how women should receive an education:

People describe women as dumb and only useful for procreation. However, this was not the case. If all women have the chance to learn and receive an education. I believed that they would be able to become an officer and help the country.

There is no such thing as fate deciding women are less than men. Everyone should be given a chance to be educated no matter their gender....

I continued writing a lot more and in the end, I added the conclusion:

Therefore, imperial Uncle, I hope you can take my words into consideration and pass the law that women are also allowed to be educated. Perhaps we might find that the future generation of ladies is smarter than old-generation males.

I was sending this letter to my imperial uncle back in Chang'an. I have written a similar essay back when I was around 10. However, my imperial uncle only praised me for my skills and did not agree to my request. I hope that this time he will. This time the request was clearer and I even added statistics. Hopefully, he will agree

I'm also sending the best essay from the students to him. I hope he understands what the young generation thinks and will go along with it. As the old saying goes the new generation is the future of the country. 

So these people writing their essays, shouldn't disappoint me. I'm sure there will be a lot of things for me to look forward to reading.

The incesene will last for 1hr. They had 1hr to write a decent-sized essay, about 2 A4-sized papers.

I continued watching the incense as I had finished the exam in less than an hour. There was about 30 minutes left. Finally, there was only 15 minutes left. I stood up and announced to the students that they only had 15 minutes left.

Finally, the incense burnt up all of its last parts. I stood up and shouted, "Everyone, please put your pen down and hand your paper to the teachers on the side,".

The teachers all stood up and began collecting the papers. I noticed that one student was still writing when I'd already told them to put their pens down. I gave him the benefit of the doubt that perhaps he didn't hear or understand the rules. "Anyone who continues writing will be disqualified," I added. He was still writing. Now there is no way he doesn't understand that you shouldn't continue writing after the time has run out. 

I gestured towards the literacy leader Liu Kin and he realised what I wanted. He took the student out and disqualified his right to be in the moon valley. "Let this be a reminder to all of you. The Moon Valley is not a cult it will not allow anyone to cheat or not listen to rules," I added as everyone bowed and filled out. Today was the only exam. There would be more tomorrow. Tomorrow was the drawing exam and the Game of Go exam. 

I later received all of the papers from the teachers. Along with the literacy teacher and my two junior brothers, we spent the rest of the afternoon marking the exams. Let me be honest some of the answers made me boil with rage whilst some made me feel like I should send them to my imperial uncle.

Again Wei Xian came number 1 tied with Xiu Ying. I was not surprised by this. Wei Ying always got the best marks in literacy and Xiu Ying would always be first in almost everything. Mei Xiang came in the middle of the rank along with Wei Ying. This essay really allowed me to see everyone's scores and how much they have improved. It would be kept with the set of data from before. 

Most of the people who lost the martial arts test had joined the moon valley's outer disciples. However, some also left.