"Master, can you tell who the top scholar is?"

The old Taoist priest stroked his beard mysteriously: "Heavenly secrets cannot be revealed."

Mr. Chen guessed that it must be his son, Shu'er, since Shu'er was the smartest in the family.

The ancestral graves of the Shen family are truly blessed; a literary star has descended upon their home.

From then on, Shen Yushu became the darling of the entire Shen family.

No, you could say that the news spread throughout the village, and he became the darling of the entire Shangqing Village.

Because of this incident, the village head also left behind an old scholar who had fled famine, and raised funds to establish a village school.

The children in Shangqing Village were required to pay 500 coins a year for tuition, but Shen Yushu did not charge them a penny. It was only after he transferred to the academy in town that he started paying tuition.

That year, Shen Yushu was only ten years old.

Over the years, Shangqing Village has taken special care of the Shen family, and some have even tried to curry favor with them, all hoping that the village would produce a top scholar, which would be a great honor.

Shen Yushu lived up to expectations and finally passed the preliminary examination for the imperial examination at the age of twenty.

However, he failed the provincial examination that year.

Now that he's 23, some people in the village have begun to doubt his claim that he could become the top scholar in the imperial examination.

But most people still have high hopes for Shen Yushu. They believe he will definitely pass the provincial examination this year, and then he will become a scholar, someone that ordinary people like them cannot afford to offend.

Shen Yushu considered himself a top scholar since childhood, believing that no one in the Shen family could be the top scholar except for him.

Whenever someone bullies him, all he has to do is say, "When I become the top scholar in the imperial examination..." and those who bully him will immediately become obsequious and fawn over him.

This also fostered his proud and arrogant personality.

It can be said that Shen Yushu was given high hopes by the entire Shen family from a young age.

Shen Yushu's words reassured Chen, making her feel that her hard times were almost over.

Shen Cheng, just you wait. Once my Shu'er becomes the top scholar in the imperial examination, we'll settle all our scores.

I'm sure my son will pass the imperial examination this autumn.