The district examination, which was scheduled for late February. was the first stage of the county-level exams. Normally, the date of the exam and series of cumbersome registration procedures would be announced a month before the district examination. Fortunately, Rongxuan Academy always did group registrations, and thus saved a lot of trouble for the examinees. 

Tanggu Town’s testing location was next to the yamen, which was located in the north and faced the south. It was a decent size. According to the teachers’ introduction, in the south side of the examination hall, there was a door on the east and west side, and it was surrounded by wooden fences. The examinees had to line up in two rows and could only enter after a full body search. After entering the wooden fences, there was a large courtyard and the main entrance. 

After entering the main entrance, there was a big courtyard. This was the place where the examinees had to wait for their names to be called. On the north side of the courtyard, there were three large halls, in which the examiners sat and called the names of the examinees. There were also numerous rows of simply constructed seats, which was the place for examinees to take their exams. 

Unfortunately, in ancient times, there was no such thing as checking out the testing location in advance. Otherwise, Yu Xiaocao would have really wanted to take a look at the examination hall. 

Today was...