Before the exam results were posted, the team announcing the good news was already on their way, heading towards the home of An Jingzhi, the top student.

In ancient times, transportation and communication were inconvenient. An Jingzhi and his son walked for several months, and the An family waited for them to come back every day.

The children playing at the village entrance saw several officials walking towards their village from afar, and they ran to report to the adults.

"The police are coming! There are police!"

After hearing this, Village Chief An put down his work and rushed to the village entrance. Before he could speak, the officials on the opposite side asked him with a smile:

"Excuse me, is this An Jingzhi's home?"

Village Chief An was stunned for a moment before reacting. He quickly replied, "Yes, yes! The third house after those two is his." Didn't we hear that the An family's son was taking the imperial examination? Why did the officials come to the door? Did he commit a crime in the government? But if he had committed a crime, how could these officials be so nice?

Village chief An, who was confused, took the initiative to lead these officials and find out what was going on.

"Excuse me, is this the home of the scholar, An Jingzhi? We are here to announce the good news!"

Uncle An in the crowd was stunned at this moment. He was looking at how so many people were walking towards his house. He was about to ask what was going on, but before he got close, he heard the powerful voice of the officer.

His nephew, An Jingzhi, passed the imperial examination and became a scholar?!

Grandpa An walked tremblingly to the officer and said, "My grandson is An Jingzhi. Officer, are you saying that he passed the imperial examination and became a scholar?!"

The officer told An Jingzhi's hometown again and asked the An family to confirm whether it was him. After the An family nodded.

The official was gentle and smiling. "Yes, if the information is correct, then our scholar is your grandson. He is the top candidate! We are here to report the good news."

The An family didn't understand what "Anshou" meant, so the official patiently explained it to them. Only then did they understand that Anshou meant the first place. Their Jingzhi not only passed the exam to become a scholar, but also ranked first!

The family burst into tears of joy and hurriedly called for the official, but he refused, saying they were in a hurry to tell others about the good news. Seeing that he wanted to leave, the An family didn't try to stop him. He glanced at them and didn't move. They didn't understand what he meant, and the two sides remained in a stalemate.

It was Village Chief An who took Grandpa An aside and talked for a while. Grandpa An then asked Grandma An to get two taels of silver and hand it to the officer. Only then did the officer leave with a smile.

If they hadn't sold the preserved eggs, they wouldn't have been able to come up with the two taels of silver.

The official had put in a lot of effort to get the job of announcing the good news to the first person, and he would have complained if his hard work had been in vain. Fortunately, there were some sensible people who hadn't expected this rural peasant family to be so generous, giving two taels of silver at once. He had thought that getting a few cents would be good enough.

The news that An Jingzhi passed the examination and became a scholar quickly spread to the surrounding villages.

After meeting at the county gate, An Jingzhi knew his results. He didn't rush home but went to the county to tell his teacher the good news. The teacher was overjoyed. First place! The student he taught actually got the first place!

His ranking on the Xiucai exam was only average, but the student he taught managed to get the top spot! This made him proud. Since An Jingzhi was able to get the top spot, it was only a matter of time before he could get the Juren exam. Who knows, maybe he could even get the Jinshi exam.

It was worth celebrating that He Changxing passed the imperial examination, but compared with An Jingzhi's results, it pales in comparison.

But compared to most people in the school, he is already very good.

Because no one in the school passed the scholar examination.

Sun Tingwen failed the exam. Although He Changxing was the last one to pass the exam, he still passed. Sun Tingwen was the best student in their group, so his chances of passing the exam were very high.

But he was unlucky. The examination room he was assigned to during the last exam was the one closest to the toilet. It was a torture to sit there, let alone concentrate on answering the questions.

His first two scores were average, but his last one landed him outside the top 50. When he looked at the list, he saw He Changxing in the crowd. Even someone like He Changxing had made it. But he wasn't convinced. He Changxing couldn't possibly be better than him. His first two scores had been higher than his. If he hadn't been so unlucky and been assigned to the toilet next to him, he would have definitely passed!

He was confident that he was better than He Changxing, but he was intimidated by An Jingzhi. He had never expected that the foolish farm boy they had teased would achieve such great results. He could sense that the gap between them would only widen from this moment on.

…

"Daya? Is this enough for you? No, no, it's too little. Wait for me to go next door and buy two more pounds of meat for you to take back to your parents' home."

When Daya heard that her younger brother had passed the imperial examination, she said goodbye to her family and prepared to return to her parents' home. First, she was stopped by Lin's father, who gave her a lot of gifts and asked her to take them back. She thought that Lin's mother would stop her, but she didn't expect that not only did she not stop her, she also added a lot more to the small box she was carrying with an eager and attentive look. Now she still felt it was not enough, so she took the silver and money in the box and prepared to go to the village butcher's house to buy two pounds of fat meat.

Daya knew the reason for their change of attitude. Since they wanted to take it, she would take it. It was because their Lin family benefited from the An family's influence!

Worried that Daya couldn't take all the things, Lin's mother asked Lin Dawu to accompany her. She also told her son not to give the things to Daya, but to carry them himself so as not to tire her out. Finally, she wanted them to bring their nephew as well. That was Lin Dasao's son, who was seven years old this year and was at the age where everyone disliked him.

As soon as Daya said this, she was interrupted by Lin's father before she could refuse.

"What nonsense are you talking about? Why are you taking him there? Daya, don't worry about your mother-in-law, go ahead. Say hello to my in-laws for me." What kind of joke is this old woman? When a daughter-in-law returns to her parents' home, what does it mean to bring her sister-in-law's son back? If you want to get close to her, that's not the way to do it, right? Otherwise, all the good work of giving gifts will be in vain.

Lin Dawu was a little nervous along the way, afraid of running into his brother-in-law. After arriving at the An family, he was relieved to find that An Jingzhi had not returned yet.

Although there is nothing much to say to my father-in-law, it is better than having a chill down my spine when stared at by my brother-in-law.

Daya handed the things she brought back to her mother one by one, and as she put them away, she sighed, "I've been married for so long, and I know everything about my mother-in-law. When have I ever seen her so generous? She must have seen Jingzhi's success and wanted to get some benefits from him in the future."

"Mom, you might not know this, but when I went back to my parents' home today, my mother-in-law actually wanted me to bring my eldest sister-in-law's son with me. Luckily, my father-in-law stopped her, otherwise I would have pushed her back."

Song rolled her eyes and said, "You got married too early. If I had known earlier, I should have looked for more families for you. You let the Lin family get a big advantage for no reason."

Ever since the official arrived at her home to announce the good news, the An family's doorstep has been nearly trampled by matchmakers. Da Ya was married, but there were two younger sisters. Even the youngest, San Ya, was favored by someone, the landlord's youngest son. However, in the end, Grandpa and Grandma An rejected their granddaughters because they were still young and wanted to stay for a few more years.