"Hmm... That's what my mother said too. She said that things are getting better at home this year, and she's hoping I can study more. But with my brain, if I were to study again, I'd rather my mother give birth to me all over again." They don't like studying like Lin Zhongyuan.

It's more interesting to work in the fields than to study!

These men were all about the same age as Lin Zhongyuan, young but quick-witted.

They huddled together and quickly came up with an idea.

“Since the problem lies with Lin Zhongyuan, let’s go find this kid and settle the score,” said one of the older men.

"This... won't work, will it? The Lin family seems different from other families. What if they have those little paper figures protecting them? I might not be able to beat them." Someone immediately said timidly.

Upon hearing this, the boys fell silent.

They had all seen Lin Wanyue cut out paper figures to protect the village. Those paper figures could even deal with bandits, so they certainly couldn't deal with the bandits, let alone the paper figures.

"Then, let's go talk to Zhongyuan... beg him not to take the exam, not to waste his family's money, and not to let us get beaten up." This idea is much more cowardly.

You know, everyone else was just fine, so why did he go and take the exam all by himself without saying a word?

The boys all thought it was a good idea and quickly nodded in agreement.

So they marched in a large group toward Lin Zhongyuan's study.

"What's up?" Lin Zhongyuan looked up from the pile of books, thinking they probably wanted him to go play, so he immediately declined, "If you want to play, go find Zihan and Ziqiu."

"Zhongyuan, I heard you're going to take the imperial examination to become a scholar?" someone asked hesitantly.

Lin Zhongyuan didn't understand what he meant, but he nodded nonetheless.