070, Past Exam Questions

070, Past Exam Questions

The light in the room was not very bright. Lu Mingfei only saw Zhao Lang put something on his desk, but he couldn't see clearly what it was. He lowered his voice and asked the man, "Did you bring anything over to me?"

"Didn't you say last time that you wanted exam questions from previous years' county and imperial examinations? I found a few for you." Zhao Lang walked over to the bed and looked down at the young man lying there. "Why aren't you asleep yet?"

"I'm thinking about something and can't sleep. Have you had dinner?" Lu Mingfei sat up from the bed and asked Zhao Lang.

"...Yeah." Zhao Lang responded with a little hesitation.

As soon as he saw Zhao Lang's expression, Lu Mingfei knew that this man must have come to him without having dinner. "Wait here for a while, I'll get you some food." As he spoke, he lifted the quilt and got out of bed, picked up the clothes at the end of the bed and wrapped himself in them.

"No need to go." Zhao Lang reached out and grabbed Lu Mingfei's wrist.

"Wait a moment, it will be quick. We made pork jerky today, I'll bring it over for you to try." But Lu Mingfei would never let the young master go hungry, so he asked the young master to wait for him here. He got out of bed, put on his shoes, lit the small lantern on the table, and went out holding the small lantern.

Their kitchen is not locked, but only buttoned from the outside.

Afraid of waking up his parents who were sleeping in the room, Lu Mingfei carefully took down the button on the door, pushed the door open and went inside. He found the leftover sesame cakes they had eaten in the evening and the pork jerky they had made today. He put a portion of pork jerky on a plate and also took one...two sesame cakes.

Take one more, for fear that the young master may not be full with just one pancake.

After coming out of the kitchen, he buttoned his clothes again and then went back to his room carrying the small lantern.

His room and the kitchen were right across from each other, separated by a courtyard. He had to cross the courtyard twice to get there and back, and it was so cold outside that he was shivering when he returned to the room.

Meeting the young master's gaze, Lu Mingfei grinned subconsciously and handed the pork jerky in his hand to the young master, "Eat some pork jerky first, and heat up this sesame cake here before you eat it." There happened to be an empty plate in the room, so he put the sesame cake on the empty plate and placed it directly on the fireplace.

Zhao Lang looked at the plate that was stuffed into his hand. On the plate were pieces of burnt-brown... dried meat? It even smelled a little sweet.

"You can sit here and eat, and warm yourself by the fire. Put the plate on this small table, you don't have to hold it all the time." Lu Mingfei asked Zhao Lang to sit on the recliner in front of the fireplace to warm himself by the fire, and asked Zhao Lang to put the plate in his hand on the small low table next to him.

This lounge chair is where he usually reads and sits by the fire. The small low table is where he puts his water cup and books, and occasionally he puts some snacks on it.

He placed the small lantern on the table, leaving the candlelight inside unextinguished to illuminate the room. He then turned and picked up the copper kettle warm on the fireplace and poured a cup of hot water for the young master, using the bamboo cup specially reserved for him. "Drink some water. This is your drinking cup, no one else has ever used it."

Zhao Lang was pressed into a recliner, holding another cup of hot water. He blew on the white smoke rising from the cup, then took a sip slowly.

Zhao Lang sat on the only recliner in the room. Lu Mingfei then moved the chair he usually sat on to write on and placed it next to Zhao Lang. He then sat down to warm himself by the fire with Zhao Lang and asked him, "Why didn't you have dinner today?"

"...I have no appetite." Zhao Lang took a bite of the dried meat in his hand, chewed it slowly, and found it quite fragrant.

"Don't skip dinner so late in the future. It's easy to starve your stomach if you don't have three meals a day. Even if you have no appetite, you should eat something to fill your stomach." Lu Mingfei looked at the young man who was not much older than him. Thinking of Zhao Lang who came to Kyoto Prefecture as a hostage at such a young age, he felt a little pity and sympathy for this good friend.

In the past few years, he also noticed some changes in Zhao Lang. He was not a lively person to begin with, and he became more and more silent and untalkative in the past two years. He considered it a lot if a sentence had more than three words.

However, Lu Mingfei has become somewhat accustomed to this. If one day Zhao Lang becomes lively and talkative, he will suspect that Zhao Lang has been possessed by someone.

He looked at the boy who had grown so thin in recent years that he looked like a skeleton. Sometimes he was not sure whether Zhao Lang ate well at home or outside. But he felt that he definitely did not. People with a good appetite would never be as thin as Zhao Lang.

Sometimes he could understand Zhao Lang. He was a little wolf on the grassland, but he had been locked up in a small cage in Kyoto Prefecture since he was a child. He was like a young eagle with its wings clipped, unable to fly freely in the sky.

Seeing that Zhao Lang didn't say anything and just looked at him silently, he smiled and asked the man, "Is this pork jerky delicious?"

"Yeah." Zhao Lang responded softly.

As soon as he saw the young master eating meat, Lu Mingfei knew that Zhao Lang liked to eat this meat jerky. "I was discussing with my mother today that we should make some pork jerky and sell it on the stall in the future. If someone pre-orders it, we will buy more to sell."

"We don't have much pork jerky today. My mother and I will make more tomorrow. When you come over, I'll prepare some for you to take home and enjoy slowly."

They only cooked three pounds of pork today, and the finished product might not even weigh three pounds. They had to save some to take to the stall tomorrow to let customers try the new product, so he couldn't take too much at once to give away.

As for the original plan of cooperating with Zhao Lang, Lu Mingfei did not bring it up after all.

He knew that if he proposed this, Zhao Lang would definitely be willing to provide funds and manpower to open a food processing workshop with him, and he would also give him a larger share of the dividends. However, he did not want to take advantage of Zhao Lang, nor did he want to cause unnecessary trouble for Zhao Lang and his family.

They just maintain a simple friendship, and that's fine as it is now.

"No, this is enough." Zhao Lang took another piece of meat jerky and put it into his mouth. He didn't have much appetite at first, but when he ate such sweet meat jerky that became more fragrant the more he chewed it, he couldn't help but want to eat more.

However, Lu Mingfei had already made up his mind that when Zhao Lang came again next time, he would definitely prepare a large portion of pork jerky for Zhao Lang to take home and eat slowly.

Turning around, he took the papers from the table and flipped through them. He discovered that Zhao Lang had not only obtained the past exam questions for the county and academy exams, but also the provincial and palace exams. There were also some essays that looked like they were written by some powerful figure. He looked up and met Zhao Lang's eyes. He asked him, "Where did you find these past exam questions and essays?"

"I asked someone to get it." Zhao Lang didn't elaborate on how he got these exam papers from previous years. He looked at Lu Mingfei and said, "If you want something in the future, just tell me."

"Anything is fine?" Lu Mingfei teased the heroic young master with a smile.

"...Yeah." Zhao Lang looked at the young man with a smile on his face. Although he hesitated for a moment, he still agreed.

Lu Mingfei looked at the innocent young master and decided not to cheat this innocent child.

While Zhao Lang ate, he sat here and read the materials in his hand, looking over the examination questions for the county examination, the imperial examination, and the prefectural examination, to roughly understand the test points and format of these three examinations. If he could pass these three examinations smoothly, he would be able to obtain the status of a scholar. Although a scholar could not become an official, he was not considered a commoner. He would not have to kneel and greet officials in the future. If he failed the subsequent examinations, he could find a job as a minor official in the government with the status of a scholar, and there would be a chance to get in.

Next are the provincial examination and the metropolitan examination, and the last one is the palace examination.

The imperial examination model of the Great Yan Dynasty was quite similar to that of the Tang and Song dynasties. Compared with the eight-legged essay system of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the current imperial examination model was relatively freer, with fewer restrictions on candidates and no template-based rules.

However, compared with the talent selection methods of later generations, the talent selection methods of this era are still relatively simple and too focused on liberal arts.

However, these rules are not something that a small civilian like Lu Mingfei can change. What he needs to do now is to understand the examination format here, review the test questions in hand, memorize the key points of the test, and prepare for the exam in February next year.

By the time he finished looking through the things in his hand, Zhao Lang was full.

The two chatted for a while, and then heard the sound of the night watchman outside. Lu Mingfei poured some hot water from his wooden basin for washing his face and helped the young master wipe his face and hands. Then they lay down on the bed and went to sleep.

When lying down, Lu Mingfei suddenly asked Zhao Lang a question: "Have you thought about what you want to do in the future?"

After a long while, just when he thought Zhao Lang said he hadn't thought about it, the person next to him said "hmm" softly.

"If you already have a goal in your heart, just move towards it firmly. Don't look back and don't retreat! Zhao Lang, I believe in you. You are an eagle in the sky and no one can tie you down!" Lu Mingfei turned his head and looked at the young man lying beside him and encouraged him.

Zhao Lang turned his head and met the eyes of the young man who was looking at him.

This time, without waiting for Zhao Lang to speak, Lu Mingfei reached out and patted Zhao Lang's arm, closed his eyes and went to sleep, "Go to sleep, we have to go to school when we wake up." There was no other way, both of them were still students!

After a long while, until he heard the even breathing sound from the boy next to him, Zhao Lang felt that his anxious heart slowly calmed down at this moment. As if he was infected by the boy's sleepiness, he closed his eyes.

On winter nights, most people in Kyoto Prefecture were asleep at this time, and only the night watchmen were still patrolling at night.

There was also a secret guard hiding in the dark, with his arms folded across his chest, leaning against a pillar with his eyes closed to rest.

If they didn't know that the young master in the house was still young and their prince was also young and ignorant, they would almost suspect that their prince would leave the huge palace to sleep every day and run to someone else's house to share a small bed with others. Maybe he had some special thoughts about the young master in the house... Author's gossip:

I won't update tomorrow morning, I'll update this book at 8 o'clock tomorrow night.