Spring Wind and Rain Enters the Imperial Exams [1]

The sun slowly rose, lessening the chill in the air of the exam hall. The nervous students finally had a chance to warm themselves. They rubbed their hands endlessly to make sure that their handwriting on the page did not appear too stiff; penmanship was one grading criterion for the examination paper, so although the exam had already started a while ago, many of them were still only making mental notes and weren’t in a hurry to start putting pen to paper. It seemed that many of the scholars in the exam hall had experienced suffering of their own.