Mr Wu didn't know what to say when he read through exam paper No. 1000.
The candidate had answered every question fully, but only got 179.
The score wasn't even high enough to pass the exam, let alone be ranked among the top 1000.
Feng Wu, don't blame me. You're just unlucky!
At that thought, Mr Wu looked around to make sure that no one was paying attention to his corner —
Then, he quietly removed Feng Wu's paper from the stack and stashed it in his chest pocket.
After that, he changed the 1000 to 10001.
The exam papers were registered by serial number, and the actual names of the candidates were irrelevant.
Feng Wu didn't know that her paper had been taken away.
No one did, except for Mr Wu.
Soon, all the exam papers had been marked. The failures were sealed away while the top 1000 were sent to court for the emperor to look through.