The Grand Examination was about to begin.
It was still at the Li Palace.
A sea of people was still outside the Li Palace.
Each of the gambling markets had long since made their preparations. The storytellers used the finest Maojian tea to rinse their mouths.
(TN: Maojian is a famous type of green tea, named after the shape of its tea leaves: "mao" (毛) means ‘furry’, which describes the fuzz that forms on the surface of the tea when brewed, and "jian" (尖) means ‘sharp’.)
In the end, however, there were still a few places that were different. For example, the expressions and eyes of those people that had come to see the spectacle were not as passionate and excited as last year's. Many people were constantly yawning, and those tourists that had come from the outlying counties and provinces had clearly decreased when compared to last year.
