Chapter 44 I can get four A's in the exam

Yu Dan was always very open with He Zheng. If asked the same question by someone else, he would open up and reveal all his thoughts.

He calmly recounted a story: more than half a year ago, in the Zhu family mansion, he accidentally overheard the maids gossiping.

He Zheng still didn't understand after hearing the whole story. "Why do you care what they say? Zhu Yishan is already engaged, and his lover has become a celebrity in Pingkangfang. No matter what, he can't harm Ming Shu. What are you still worried about?"

Yu Dan looked up at the sky and smiled bitterly, saying, "Everyone in Chang'an dares to look down on my elder sister. Everyone thinks she is weak and easy to bully, simply because she has no one to rely on. I have no power or influence and cannot support the Yu family."

"I do enjoy reading law books, but I also know that only those who pass the imperial examinations have a chance of advancement. If I study law for my own enjoyment, the best I can do in the future is become a judicial officer, subject to various constraints, and judge one unjust case after another..."

At this point, he gave a self-deprecating laugh, "An official who can't even make decisions about his own cases, how can he possibly make decisions for his own family?"

He Zheng remained silent, then turned and relayed everything to Yu Mingshu verbatim. Seeing the other's furrowed brow, he instinctively thought, "Why can't it be him who's standing up for Mingshu?"

But he had a vague feeling that Yu Mingshu probably wouldn't like to hear such things.

Yu Mingshu said "thank you" and then went to have a heart-to-heart talk with Yu Dan.

Since learning his results, Yu Dan's life has become two extremes. One day he studies hard and memorizes the classics, and the next day he lies down and refuses to eat or drink. Xia Man noticed his abnormal state and tried to advise him several times, but he scolded and beat her away.

When Yu Mingshu came to find him, Xia Man was squatting at the door with a bitter face. Clearly, Yu Dan was in a dejected state today. The door was tightly closed, and the room was filled with smoke.

He dares to close the door while burning charcoal inside; this kid really isn't afraid of suffocating himself from the smoke!

Yu Mingshu kicked open the door, covered his mouth and nose with his sleeve, glanced at the window that was slightly open, and felt a little relieved.

"Sanlang, are you awake yet?"

The tall boy on the bed ignored her but pulled the blanket from his stomach down to below his nose.

"Get up and eat. I have something to ask you after you finish eating." Seeing that he was awake, Yu Mingshu kicked the leg that was hanging off the bed.

Yu Dan seemed not to hear.

Yu Mingshu approached his bedside and pulled back the covers. "Get up."

Yu Dan let out a frustrated growl, "I told you not to touch me, get out!"

Unable to bear it any longer, Yu Mingshu slapped him across the face.

"Are you awake? If not, try again."

Yu Dan was stunned by the beating.

At first, he only heard a thud, but gradually he felt a burning pain. Yu Dan was stunned for a moment. Seeing that she was about to roll up her sleeves and slap him again, he quickly sat up on the bed and raised his arms to block her hand.

"Sister! Let's talk this out! Don't hit me!"

"So you can talk properly now? I thought you were possessed." Yu Mingshu withdrew his right hand and sneered.

Fifteen minutes later, the siblings sat down at the round table in the front hall. Luo Yan reheated the leftover lunch and served it to Yu Dan.

Yu Dan was stared at by a pair of fierce eyes, the handprint on his face still glowing red, and he couldn't utter a single word about having no appetite or being unable to eat. After obediently having a proper lunch, the servants tactfully returned to their rooms, leaving only him and Yu Mingshu facing each other.

Actually, they didn't even make eye contact. He deliberately lowered his head to avoid his sister's scrutinizing gaze, his eyes tracing the wood grain on the table several times.

Yu Mingshu didn't beat around the bush and stared straight at him, asking, "I heard you refused to transfer to the Mingfa Department because of me?"

Yu Dan's eyes widened immediately. "He Zhengming clearly promised me he wouldn't tell anyone!"

"You study for me? I use you to study for me? I use you to become an official for me? I use you to make decisions for me?" Yu Mingshu asked a series of questions, his voice somewhat sharp.

"Yu Dan, who do you look down on?"

Yu Dan had never seen his elder sister so angry.

It is said that an elder sister is like a mother, and this is especially true in the Yu family. In his memory, his elder sister was always calm, gentle, and wise. Sometimes she would scold him like an elder would scold his children, but she never said anything unpleasant.

Faced with Yu Mingshu's anger, his eyes involuntarily reddened, and he felt somewhat aggrieved.

"Is it wrong for me to want to stand on higher ground, to shoulder the responsibilities of the Yu family, and to protect my sister?"

"Why do you put me in the position of the weak, imagining that I would swallow my anger and be bullied, and need to wait for a man to stand up for me and defend me?"

Suddenly realizing that he was already slightly shorter than Yu Dan when he was sitting, Yu Mingshu stood up with the help of the table and looked down at him from above.

“Let me tell you, I have eyes and a brain. I won’t hand over my life and fortune to a man. And don’t write any tragic love stories for me. Your elder sister is not some saint who endures hardship and bears the burden of the family!”

Yu Dan stared blankly upwards, his eyes seemingly somewhat bewildered.

Yu Mingshu gradually calmed down and sat back down in his chair.

"The things I do and the path I choose have always followed my own heart. I want to take my destiny into my own hands, that's all. And please wake up and understand that a person lives for themselves."

Yu Dan's mind was in turmoil. He sat there blankly for a long time, trying to sort out his thoughts. "But isn't the point of taking the imperial examination to become an official?"

"Do you dare go to your father's grave and say those words again?"

Yu Dan swallowed hard, noticing his sister's gaze darken. Fearing another slap, he hurriedly explained, "That's not what I meant! I meant... some people seek high office and wealth through the imperial examinations, while others want to benefit the people. But the minor officials in Chang'an are like ants. In the eyes of the powerful, what difference is there between them and commoners? No matter what I seek, it will ultimately be difficult to achieve my goals."

"Who told you that you can't get promoted in the Mingfa exam? Take the current prime minister, Li Qinian, for example. He came from a farming family, studied hard for ten years to enter Chang'an, and at the age of twenty-six, he passed the Mingfa exam. He was demoted to Yunzhou because he refused to be courted by powerful families. He didn't return to Chang'an until he was forty-five. He entered the Zhongshu Sheng at fifty and succeeded Xie Cheng as prime minister at fifty-six. Isn't that an inspiring resume?"

"But he was nothing more than a puppet caught between the aristocratic families and the royal family..."

Yu Mingshu laughed, "You don't even respect the head of all officials. Do you think passing the imperial examination will make you successful? According to you, only the aristocratic families and the royal family can be considered human in the entire Great Liang. What's the point of studying if you're from a poor family? You'll just end up as someone else's puppet. You might as well not study anything, find a rope and hang yourself, and be reborn into a better family in your next life."

Yu Dan, with his neck stiff, wanted to refute her, but found that everything she said made sense.

The highest rank one can achieve in officialdom through the Jinshi examination is to become the head of all officials and serve as the prime minister of a dynasty. If the prime minister is also a spineless coward who tries to smooth things over, what is the point of him worrying about which examination to take?

"Furthermore, only twenty people are selected for the imperial examination each year, while there are tens of thousands of candidates. If you insist on competing with thousands of others for a single-plank bridge, you might not even make it by the time you reach the age of your uncle back home," Yu Mingshu analyzed rationally from a different perspective.

"On the contrary, the Ming Dynasty's legal examination admits a hundred people, but the number of candidates is much smaller than that of the imperial examination. If you abandon the darkness and embrace the light, you might be able to get a government job in a year or two."

After speaking, Yu Mingshu noticed that Yu Dan had fallen completely silent. She frowned and poked his arm. "Were you even listening to me?"

"I heard you." Yu Dan came to his senses, his reply muffled.

He had to admit that his sister's words made sense, and his mind was beginning to soften.

He had only one question: "Since my sister knew this path was difficult, why did she still insist on forging ahead?"

Why? Perhaps because she shared a single-plank bridge with hundreds of thousands of other people.

“I can get four A grades,” Yu Mingshu said.

"..." Yu Dan tried to imagine whether he could achieve the same results as his elder sister if he studied hard for nine years.

The answer is no, it's impossible, even if you kill him.

So, before the Lunar New Year holiday, under the guidance of Yu Mingshu and Yuan Yi, he drafted an application to transfer to the Mingfa Department.

The day the application was submitted was a sunny day. Yang Congen happened to be in Zhishan Hall. After listening to the three people explain their purpose, he only glanced at Yu Dan and then stamped the application.

"Fortunately, you've come to your senses today. If it had been another day..." Yang Congen sighed for a moment, but hesitated to say what would have happened if it had been another day.

It's considered extremely impolite to leave a conversation unfinished. Yu Dan, growing impatient, couldn't help but press, "How about another day?"

Yang Congen said, "His Highness the Crown Prince's coming-of-age ceremony is approaching. Starting tomorrow, I will go to the Ministry of Rites to assist with the preparations for the ceremony and the Thousand Autumns Banquet. I will probably not be able to return to the academy until after the New Year."

That's it?

Yu Dan then asked, "It's been almost a month since the exam ended. If the student still hasn't submitted their application, when do you plan to expel me?"

Yang Congen didn't even raise his head. He did a rough calculation in his mind and said, "Spring of the twenty-seventh year of Fengle."

He Zheng laughed and tapped Yu Dan on the back with his elbow: "What did I tell you?"

Yu Dan still held a grudge against him for informing on her. He first bowed to Yang Congen to take his leave, then rolled his eyes at He Zheng and left in a huff.

…

The 25th day of the twelfth lunar month is the Crown Prince's birthday. Unlike the formal court banquets of previous years, this year the Crown Prince will be 20 years old. He will worship at the ancestral temple and undergo the coming-of-age ceremony to announce to the people that the Crown Prince of Liang has come of age and can shoulder the future of the country.

Yang Leyi watched in the mirror as the Crown Prince donned his ceremonial robes and jade belt. Then, surrounded by maids, she sat down beside him, where his long hair was tied up and styled into a neat square bun.

Liang Yuanjun kept his head still, but his hands were busy, shaking the tassel of the jade pendant to tease the ink stick. The black cat circled around his legs, occasionally jumping up and showing its claws, which made Yang Leyi tremble with fear.

"Your Highness, please be careful. This dress was made in the first half of the year and there is only one of its kind. If it is accidentally torn by the ink stick, none of us in this room will have a good time."

Liang Yuanjun sighed as she looked at the ink stick: "I also want to play with you, but the Crown Princess won't allow it. What should I do?"

Upon hearing this, several palace maids gasped, exchanged glances, and then looked excitedly at Yang Leyi. Some even nudged her with their arms.

Yang Leyi's breath hitched, her heart pounded, and a blush spread across her face. She tried to remain calm and said, "Your Highness is joking again."

A quarter of an hour later, the Crown Prince set off for Taiji Palace, with Yang Leyi, as the chief female official of the Eastern Palace, accompanying him, followed by dozens of palace maids and eunuchs carrying ceremonial regalia.

On the many steps, the emperor and empress sat side by side, with officials from the Ministry of Rites standing on both sides. Only Yang Congen was granted a seat by the emperor in front of all the officials.

"Time flies so fast. I vaguely remember the day the Empress gave birth..." Emperor Fengle sighed softly, his gaze gradually drifting into the distance.

The Empress glanced at him sideways, a smile playing on her lips. "At that time, His Majesty was leading his troops to retake Chang'an and had settled me in the Liangzhou Villa. The birth of the Crown Prince and the Princess was also the day His Majesty quelled the palace coup and entered the Taiji Palace."

The two looked at each other, neither of them mentioning the other matter.

Liangzhou was the place where the emperor rose to power. At that time, the struggle for the throne had reached a critical moment, and the empress's pregnancy was progressing too far to accompany the emperor into Chang'an. Emperor Fengle, who was still a prince at the time, had no choice but to settle her in Liangzhou and send two thousand elite troops to guard her villa.

On the very day Emperor Fengle captured the imperial city, hundreds of miles away, the empress also gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl. In an instant, the talk of auspicious omens from heaven overshadowed the voices criticizing the new emperor for usurping the throne.

Emperor Fengle was overjoyed and personally brought his wife and children back a month later. Nine months later, the new emperor's enthronement ceremony and the empress's investiture ceremony were held simultaneously. Emperor Fengle also announced in the main hall that the eldest prince, who was not yet one year old, was named the crown prince, and the princess was given the title of Qingluan.

In the spring of the third year of the Fengle era, the emperor made an eastern tour, while the empress remained in Chang'an. No one expected that the capital would be struck by an earthquake in the middle of the night.

When the imperial entourage returned to the capital, the Empress had already stabilized the court, settled the affected people, and dispatched officials to provide disaster relief to the remaining affected areas.

Everything was settled, except for Princess Qingluan, who fell into a deep sleep on the night of the earthquake and never woke up again.

Liang Yuanjun stepped over the many jade steps and came before the Emperor and Empress. She knelt down and bowed, bringing the two back to their senses.

"Your subject, having received the grace of Heaven and been nurtured by virtue, today performs this auspicious ceremony to express gratitude to Heaven and Earth for their blessings, to my parents for their profound kindness, to my teachers for their instruction, and to all the people for their offerings. From this day forward, I will follow the teachings of the sages, diligently cultivate the six virtues, and strive to do the three good deeds, so as to revitalize the great cause and bring peace to the nation."

Emperor Fengle held the Empress's hand tightly, his gaze fixed on the Crown Prince's head, his eyes filled with an unprecedented complexity.

After a moment of silence, he signaled to the officials of the Ministry of Rites that the coming-of-age ceremony should begin.

…

According to the laws of the Great Liang Dynasty, the Crown Prince's birthday should be a day off, and New Year's Day should be a ten-day holiday. However, these two holidays are too close together. Since the end of December, the students of the academy have been distracted and unable to concentrate on their studies, thinking only about the holidays.

Fortunately, Daliang did not invent something called "time off in lieu of leave," otherwise the original eleven days of leave would have been pieced together with two or three ten-day breaks, and the actual vacation would have been reduced to only seven or eight days.

After finally getting through the 20th of the twelfth lunar month, the students were able to let loose and the teachers breathed a sigh of relief. The area outside the academy was so crowded with horse-drawn carriages that it was even more chaotic than the day of the exam last month.

During the Spring Festival, not only academies but also officials from various departments took a holiday. Due to inconvenient transportation, most officials had to stay in their place of office for the holiday. Therefore, Chang'an was not like a modern metropolis that becomes a ghost town during the Spring Festival; in fact, it was much more lively than on weekdays.

Yu Mingshu and Yu Dan went to buy some New Year's goods and returned. When they entered the house, they saw Zhang Shi sitting in the hall, talking to Wu Qiuniang.

"Hello, Madam Zhang."

After greeting the guests, Yu Mingshu took out a long strip of red paper from the basket on Yu Dan's back and handed it to Wu Qiuniang, "Mother, the red paper you asked for has been bought. When are you going to write the Spring Festival couplets?"

"Let's put it aside for now, no rush," Wu Qiuniang said with a smile. "Today, Zhang Niangzi and I discussed it, and since there are only a few of us in our two families, why don't we celebrate the New Year together? That way, the New Year's Eve dinner will be more lively."

Yu Mingshu was taken aback. Yuan Yi and Zhang Niangzi were not going back to the Zhang family for the New Year?

Seeing her confusion, Zhang smiled wryly and said, "I'm an unmarried old maid with a son of unknown parentage. Going back would inevitably attract gossip. It's better to stay at home."

Yu Mingshu smiled and said, "It would be best if Madam Zhang were willing to keep my mother company."

Wu Qiuniang suddenly remembered another neighbor and hesitated, saying, "I heard that Xie Sanlang has passed the provincial examination again and will definitely be going back to the Xie family for the New Year this year. That Su Niangzi is also a pitiful person, all alone in her empty courtyard..."

Yu Mingshu immediately understood her mother's meaning. Adding a pair of chopsticks to the New Year's Eve dinner was easy, but she was afraid that Zhang Shi still carried the arrogance of an aristocratic family and looked down on Su Xiaoniang's background.

"If Madam Zhang and Mr. Yuan don't mind, I'll ask Madam Su what she thinks and invite her to come and celebrate the New Year with us."

Zhang didn't think there was anything to mind. Both were orphans and widows, but at least Xie Sanlang had hope for the future, while Yuan Yi's life was already like this. What right did she have to look down on Su?

So on New Year's Eve, the Yu family home was bustling with activity from early morning.

The sound of chopping meat echoed loudly in the kitchen, and the sound of firecrackers outside the courtyard gate never stopped.

Firecrackers were still a rarity in Daliang. At least Yu Dan had never lit one since he was a child. So when he saw Yuan Yi bring over this rare item this morning, he jumped two feet high with excitement and almost bumped into Yuan Yi.

Yu Mingshu was a worldly person, and was only curious about how much Mr. Yuan had spent on this box of firecrackers, but he couldn't get an answer even after asking around all morning.

When Xie Huaijin returned from the Xie residence in the afternoon, he saw the streets filled with the smoke of gunpowder. If it weren't for the firecracker fragments scattered on the ground, he would have thought his house had caught fire.

Xie Huaijin excitedly pushed open the door, wanting to give his mother a surprise, but the house was cold and deserted, even the stove was cold.

Hearing the continuous laughter from the Yu family next door, he felt lost for a while, then suddenly realized something and hurriedly changed his route to go next door to look for the person.

The gate of the Yu family was wide open. Xie Huaijin entered and saw Yu Mingshu standing on a worn-out bamboo stool, preparing to paste couplets on the door.

"Be careful not to fall, let me do it!"