After having their meal at the orphanage, Huang and the others went home and completely forgot about the candidates.

There was nothing unpleasant about the few members of the Zhao family passing the exam.

After finishing the exam and handing in their papers, they found no one to pick them up, so the group walked home.

Fortunately, Feng's mother was there, and she provided assistance to the candidates.

After cooking porridge, the group ate, washed up, and went back to their rooms to sleep. As for discussing the topic, well, it wouldn't have made much of a difference.

Let's conserve our energy and prepare for tomorrow's battle.

The Zhao family, including the candidate and his son-in-law, completed the provincial examination despite being largely ignored.

After the exam, Yunyou and Zhao Qianci perked up and started asking about the exam questions, how to solve them, and how to approach the questions.

After listening to the reports from several people, the two men stroked their beards and pondered, making the candidates quite uneasy.

"Yeah, let's wait and see. I feel like we have a chance."

If it weren't for Zhao Qianci saying those words, the candidates would probably have attacked him.

Yunyou remained silent. He knew what the article was about, but he really didn't understand exams.

Zhao Qingyan almost suffered internal injuries from her grandfather's words. Now that the exams were over, she had to drag her fiancé out for a stroll.

Whenever Zhao Qingyan thought something was delicious, she would drag Xu Dongsheng along to eat it.

Whether at a roadside stall or a restaurant, Xu Dongsheng noticed a significant increase in the amount of fat on his face during the days he waited for the results to be released.

That old man wandering around is such a mood killer.

He had to interfere when the young couple was clearly radiating sweetness.

"I am Dongsheng's master. When you two go to eat something delicious, you must take me with you."

I'm not familiar with this city, so who else would I follow if not you? Besides, I have no money."

I don't know how an old monster who has lived for who knows how many years could have the nerve to say such shameless things.

Zhao Qingyan and Xu Dongsheng not only took Yunyou out for food and drinks,

Zhao Qingyan also generously gave Yunyou 100 taels of silver, hoping that he would be sensible and go out to eat, drink and buy things on his own.

"Girl, why are you giving money to the old man?"

The old man hasn't spent any money in all these years. If he gets tricked and ends up spending more money, wouldn't that spoil his mood?

The old man feels it's better to stay with you two kids.

Besides, even if you two are engaged, you're still bound to attract gossip when you go out together. With the old man with you, no one will talk nonsense.

Yunyou gave a seemingly plausible reason, which made Zhao Qingyan roll her eyes.

"You might as well just say that you're afraid we might not know our place and do something that would disgrace the family. That would be more straightforward."

After Zhao Qingyan finished speaking, Yunyou said solemnly,

"You absolutely mustn't talk such nonsense."

The old man still believes in your character, but people can talk a big game, so we'll avoid saying anything that might be considered offensive.

Zhao Qingyan nodded, "Okay, come along, I'll take you to eat some delicious food."

Zhao Qingyan plans to take Yunyou to eat something different today.

They took people directly to eat fried insects.

Seeing all sorts of insects, Yunyou retreated.

"One insect, one life; the old man won't eat it."

Besides, none of these things taste as good as pork, beef, or lamb. Honey, I'm sorry to bother you, we're not eating them."

Zhao Qingyan raised an eyebrow, her eyes filled with amusement.

"I'm definitely not eating it. It's delicious and nutritious, even better than eggs."

Yunyou shook his head like a rattle-drum, "No, no, I absolutely won't eat."

So Zhao Qingyan and her family of three ate out everywhere, while the rest of the Zhao family went shopping.

When Zhao Changgeng saw beautiful fabrics, he wanted to buy them for his wife. Zhao Qingling did the same, only occasionally remembering that she had a pair of twins.

Zhao Qingfeng, Zhao Qingluan, and little Zhao Qingbei bought things they liked.

The kids were especially happy when they were browsing in bookstores.

The ones that Huang bought were given to each of the families.

Zhao Qianci was the only one who didn't buy anything; he was just a participant in the competition.

On the day the results were announced, not a single member of the Zhao family went out to check them.

Yunyou was a little surprised, "The results were released today, why didn't any of you go out to check?"

Zhao Qianci shook his head.

"If we pass, an official will surely come to deliver the good news, and we can just wait at home. If we don't pass, what's the point of checking the list?"

I still ended up covered in sweat from being squeezed.

It would be better to go check the list in the afternoon, when there's no one around, and see where the differences lie in the top three articles.

He spoke of it casually, but a closer look revealed that the old man was actually quite nervous.

The teacup in his hand was so worn that it had developed a patina from handling, yet he hadn't drunk a single drop of the tea.

The others were also nervous, but Xu Dongsheng followed Zhao Qingyan outside, fiddling with the barbecue grill.

This morning, Zhao Qingyan went out for a stroll and brought back a sheep and thirty catties of beef.

She wants to eat grilled meat skewers.

"Dongsheng, don't rush to start a fire. Let's put the meat skewers on first. We'll only put on as many as we want to eat, regardless of the people inside."

It's such a small thing, and they all forget to eat, and now they don't even want to do their work. I'll make them crave it later.

Zhao Qingyan said as she skewered the enormous meat.

Xu Dongsheng's eyes were full of doting affection; whatever his little wife said went.

If you don't let him do too much, then he should just cut enough for his wife and himself.

No need to do anything more.

The tension didn't last long before the people inside were drawn out by the aroma.

Upon seeing Zhao Qingyan grilling meat, they all reached out to eat.

Zhao Qingyan snapped them up, only giving one skewer each to her grandparents, Yunyou, and her uncle.

"If you want to eat, cut the meat and skewer it yourself. Look at your lack of ambition, all you want is to wait for the results to be released."

The results should have been released by now. If you're in a hurry, go check them out yourself. If you're not, do something else.

It's like you can see the imperial edict just by sitting inside. What's the rush? As long as you pass, good news will come soon.

Instead of wasting this time, why not quickly wrap the red envelopes? I've already prepared the coins for the lucky money. Also, wrap some extra silver coins, each containing two ounces.

I wonder if it was one team or six teams that delivered the good news to our family this time.

The Zhao family members, who had been assigned tasks, only then remembered to prepare red envelopes and skewer meat.

With work to do, the previous tension disappeared, and everyone quickly regained their previous energy.

Just as the Zhao family was enjoying their meat skewers, there was a knock on the door.

It was Zhao Qingling who opened the door. The moment the door opened, wow, Zhao Qingling was startled.

If these officials hadn't been dressed in their celebratory attire, one might have thought they were there to ransack the house.

Normally, the officials who announce good news are two people per team. Even if all six members of the Zhao family are correct, there would only be 6 teams of twelve officials.

Seeing the number of officials double, Zhao Qingling secretly rejoiced that he had listened to his third sister and prepared thirty red envelopes.

"Congratulations to Xu Dongsheng from Zhao Family Village, Wufang Town, Qingyang County, for ranking first in the high school entrance examination; congratulations to Zhao Qingling from Zhao Family Village, Wufang Town, Qingyang County, for ranking sixth in the high school entrance examination..."