In the evening, the young men returned from the provincial school.

Around the Dragon Boat Festival, the weather has been getting hotter day by day.

They rarely walked now, but took carriages instead, but when they returned to the academy, they were still covered in sweat.

Fat people are especially afraid of heat. In previous years, Cui Fei would have stayed at home at this time.

Now he has lost weight from over 300 pounds to just over 200 pounds. He has changed from a fat man with limited mobility to a medium-sized fat man with broad shoulders and a thick waist. His situation has improved a lot.

After arriving at the academy, they went back to the room to wipe their faces and change clothes before gathering in the classroom.

The ice jar that Shen Cui bought from the system was placed in the classroom, and the temperature was several degrees lower than outside.

Only then did they calm down.

People have no appetite in hot weather, so the dinner time in the academy has been moved back a bit recently. Chen Cui took the fruits and snacks sent by Cui Wu Niang and gave them to everyone.

These dim sum are made by Cui’s own chef and are different from those sold outside.

In the past, when Cui Fei occasionally went home, he would bring some over, and everyone liked it very much.

When they had the meal today, everyone knew that someone from the Cui family had been there.

"I feel like I can't eat today. Thanks to A Fei, I can have a good snack." Wei Shu joked with Cui Fei while biting a date paste cake.

Normally, Cui Fei would have responded with a few words and made a fuss for a while, but this time, he just had red ears and ate snacks quietly.

After everyone finished eating, Mei Ruochu went to help Mu Erpang review the poems and essays, and the others began to do their homework. Cui Fei slowly moved to Shen Cui and asked softly, "Has my sister told the headmaster?"

He looked even more shy than a young lady getting into a bridal sedan, so Shen Cui immediately realized that he must be asking whether Cui Wu Niang had told her about his marriage proposal.

"She told me," she nodded and smiled, then looked at Cui Fei's hesitant expression and asked tentatively, "You don't want to?"

Cui Fei's chubby face flushed red. "I'm not young anymore. I've been a big worry to my grandfather and sister because of my health. Now, thanks to your care, I'm much better. Some people are willing to marry into our family, and I'm willing to accept. But... I'm a little worried. I'm still a little fatter than others, and I've wasted several years. It's hard for me to make any further progress in my career. I'm afraid that girls from good families will have to marry me because of their parents' orders and matchmakers' words."

Shen Cui's expression softened as she listened to his words.

She didn't expect that in this era, Cui Fei could still think so much from the woman's perspective. It was absolutely rare and precious.

"What is it like to see each other here?" Shen Cui asked.

After all, the wedding customs and traditions in every place are somewhat different nowadays. For example, in the countryside around Shuiyun Village, the people are very open-minded.

If two families are interested in a marriage, they will let the girl and the boy have more contact. With more interactions, the boy and the girl will naturally develop feelings for each other, and the marriage will be a natural outcome.

There are also free love relationships - the girls in the village still have to help with housework and they see each other everywhere. In this case, just report it directly to your family. After all, the financial conditions of most households in the village are similar, so if you let the adults come forward to discuss the matter, it will usually work out.

The Cui family is a wealthy family, and the family background of the person they are looking at must not be bad either, and they will definitely not be so simple and rough.

Cui Fei explained: "My cousins ​​of similar age are all married, and the process should be similar. First, we would invite a matchmaker to ask families with girls of the right age, and then pass on the news through the matchmaker. If there is someone willing, they will exchange basic information about both parties, such as their specific ages and likes and dislikes. The next step is for the two parties to meet. Generally, the man will visit the woman's home, and the woman will look at the man in person through the screen. If this step goes very smoothly, the two families will make an appointment to go to a certain place to burn incense or visit a garden, creating an opportunity for an 'accidental encounter' so that we can say a few words. Finally, there will be the three letters and six ceremonies..."

Hearing this, Chen Cui felt relieved. The parties getting married could still participate in this process, which was much better than those who could only see each other for the first time on the wedding day or those who got married blindly.

"Your sister just told me that she will make everything clear and won't fool the other party. And since you will have the opportunity to meet by chance later, you should observe the girl's attitude and see if she is forced by her family and is unwilling." At this point, Shen Cui paused again, "But there is one thing I think is not right. I heard what you said just now, why do you seem to be looking down on yourself?"

Cui Fei hummed in silence. He really felt that it was good enough for a girl with a similar family background to marry him, and he had no chance to choose her.

"It's good that you're thinking about not letting your partner down. But marriage is a lifelong event, and you can't let yourself down. There's a lot of time ahead, and both parties have to be satisfied for it to be a good marriage, right? I won't say more. After all, it's your family affair, and I can't interfere."

Cui Fei immediately shook his head. "No, I know you are doing this for my own good. What you said makes sense. I will remember your words well."

At this point, Cui Fei's face was covered with a layer of blush again, "Can you not tell everyone about this for the time being? Of course I don't want to hide it from everyone, but Hanshan is about to take an exam, and he can't be distracted by my affairs."

Normally, they were as close as one family, and Cui Fei was the first one in the academy to get married. Now that he told them about this, although they would not make a fuss, they might at least think of giving him some advice or something.

Shen Cui naturally nodded in agreement, "After all, it's your own business. When you think the time is right, tell them yourself."

They talked for quite a while, and if they continued, others would be curious about what they were talking about, so Cui Fei immediately returned to his desk and started doing his homework.

Later it was time to go to bed and everyone went to wash up.

Because they all had to get up early to go to school, and Mu Erpang stayed in the academy, so he asked others to wash up first and he stayed in the classroom to study.

Only the mother and son were left in the room. Shen Cui sat down next to Mu Erpang and looked at his increasingly tough profile. She suddenly realized that it was a good thing that her fat son took the imperial examination, otherwise he would have been looking for a marriage partner at this age in the village.

At this age, when you are still ignorant about matters between men and women, it doesn’t seem very reliable to choose one person to be with you for the rest of your life.

Right now, as long as he wants to take the exam, he can wait until he passes it and completes the main task before thinking about other things.

I don't know what kind of girl will become my daughter-in-law. I think that by then I will have no less worries than Cui Wuniang does now.

…………

This year, the Qingzhou Prefecture's entrance examination was scheduled earlier, and was held in June.

The weather at this time was so hot that it made people feel dizzy and swollen. Not to mention the hot-blooded teenagers, even Chen Cui felt that she couldn't eat or sleep well recently, and she had no energy to do anything.

What is better than before is that both the main examination and the re-examination of the college examination are only held on one day. Otherwise, it would be hard not to get sick if you are stuck in there for four days in such weather like the provincial examination.

Chen Cui took out the red bracelet that she bought for Mu Erpang last year, which he was reluctant to wear, and put it on him. At least it would make him feel cooler and he wouldn't have to be bothered by mosquitoes.

It was before dawn again, and Mu Erpang, Ren Shun, Zhao Xiuwen and two other guarantor partners who had only met once met outside the examination room.

The candidates who made it to this round are at least experienced, so they are all relatively calm.

After entering the examination room and sitting down, the first thing Mu Erpang did was to look up to check if there were any holes in the roof - he still remembered that last year Mei Ruochu's test paper was almost ruined by rain.

Fortunately, such an accident had happened before, and the roof of the examination room had been repaired. In addition, Mu Erpang himself had good luck, so naturally he did not have to worry about this.

Not long after the candidates took their seats, salutes were heard outside and the examination room was closed. Liu Xuezheng, who was in his early forties, sat down in the hall and began to write the test questions.

After the test questions are written, the clerk will post them on a wooden board and walk around the examination room, asking the candidates to copy the questions on paper.

When the document was turned to him, Mu Erpang immediately held his breath and read the questions.

The title of the eight-part essay is "There are people with virtue."

When he saw the title, Mu Erpang had already thought of the source of this sentence.

This sentence comes from "The Book of Rites: The Great Learning". The whole sentence is "A gentleman should first be cautious in his virtue." "Where there is virtue there are people, where there are people there is land, where there is land there is wealth, where there is wealth there is use."

This means that a gentleman should first focus on virtue. Only when a gentleman has virtue can he gain the support of the people. Only with the support of the people can he have a country. Only with a country can he have wealth. With wealth, he can naturally put it to good use.

Although it is a bit confusing, the meaning is not difficult to understand. It means that virtue is the foundation and wealth comes last. You cannot put the cart before the horse.

It is not difficult to write an article with the theme that "virtue" is the most important and fundamental thing, and then link it to the life of the founding emperor of this dynasty, which he has memorized by heart, and sing praises of him.

He calmed down a little and continued to look at the title of the poem.

The title of the poem is 'No need for passers-by to ask, the poem is on the imperial screen'.

This is a poem title in which everyone knows every word, but when put together, it is still confusing!

Almost at the same time as he saw the topic of the poem clearly, Mu Erpang heard the other candidates in the seats next to him gasping.

This is one of the difficulties in the college entrance examination. Mu Erpang's habit has always been to check the papers before the exam, read them all once so that he has a clear idea of ​​what he is doing, and then answer the questions in one go. However, some candidates with weak psychological quality will not be like this. In the previous exams, they usually write according to the order of the test paper. Nowadays, the test papers are generally easy from easy to difficult. Under normal circumstances, they can write smoothly at the beginning and finish everything they can write. When they encounter difficult questions, they slow down and stop to think.

The two questions for the college examination were all given out at once, and the candidates were asked to copy them themselves. This is equivalent to forcing everyone to mark the papers in advance.

For people with poor mental quality, suddenly seeing a confusing poem topic will inevitably affect their performance on the previous question.

Mu Erpang closed his eyes, calmed himself down, and began to concentrate on answering the simpler eight-part essay question at the beginning, and temporarily stopped thinking about the poem question at the end that also stumped him.