"Oh—" Lin Wanyue held the wild fruit in both hands, took a bite, and then looked at the old woman with her big, round, dark eyes.

"I don't understand, I'm still just a baby." Lin Wanyue had to speak up to remind her.

Don't ask her about this!

Moreover, if the older brother can take more exams, he can also develop his character, and who knows, he might actually become the top scholar in the exam in the future.

"Oh!" The old woman continued washing the clothes in her hands, saying without a care, "Wanwan, don't blame me for being nosy, I'm just thinking about your family. Look at your older brother, he's still so young, he must be so scared to go to the exam alone."

Lin Wanyue fell silent.

But the chattering aunties surrounding her were quite talkative, and they mostly talked about the Lin family and Lin Zhongyuan.

Lin Wanyue felt a little dizzy listening to this, so she simply grabbed the fruit and ran home.

I won't listen, I won't listen, you're just spouting nonsense.

She could run away whenever she wanted, but Lin Weiming, who was chopping wood and working with everyone else, wasn't so lucky.

Therefore, men's thoughts are quite similar to women's.

If Lin Zhongyuan really passes the exam and becomes an official, then even if the villagers don't rise to prominence, at least they'll have met a powerful figure!

However, they also felt that Lin Zhongyuan was too young, and it was really too much of a humiliation to make him take the exam at such a young age.

"Weiming, you, as a father, don't you know how to cherish your child? Look how well-behaved your Zhongyuan is. Sending him to take exams at such a young age is just a waste of money."

“It’s a waste to waste this money. You might as well buy some meat to nourish the child. Look at your child, he’s not even as strong as my Tiger!” Wang Dazhu wiped his sweat and said to Lin Weiming.

Lin Weiming bent down to chop down a tree. Although he was doing the same thing, he didn't seem to mind.

"It's just participating in the children's examination, it's not that difficult. Let him try more, it'll be good for him to know the difficulty." Lin Weiming didn't seem to care.

But when other people in the village heard these words, they didn't think so.

What does it mean to say "just" a children's test?

That's a path to becoming a Xiucai (a scholar who passed the imperial examinations)!

Most of them don't even know how to read, so of course they wouldn't know how difficult the exam is.

But they knew very well that out of all the people in their village, there was only one scholar who had passed the imperial examinations, and he had to work as an accountant in the county town because he was so poor!

If passing the imperial examination to become a scholar was really that easy, would their village still be so poor?

They were so poor that they couldn't even afford to support a teacher at a village school.

The men in the village all thought Lin Weiming was bragging and exaggerating.

"Sigh!" When he got home and talked to his wife about it, his tone was tinged with envy: "It's just that Weiming has so many sons. If we had as many sons as his family! And they're so smart, I'm sure I could pass the imperial examination with ease."

How come such a studious child ended up in the Lin family!

And there's such a clever little girl.

Thinking of Lin Wanyue, they felt even more envious.

The little girls we picked up are all so smart and well-behaved, and they even know some magic.

But to be fair, if it were any of their families, they certainly wouldn't have taken a little girl home. So, aside from a little envy and jealousy, the villagers didn't have any other ill intentions.

"Don't say that! Think about their little girl, she's not your average little girl! They're protected by a deity, maybe she's even the God of Literature. If the Lin family's eldest son really passes the exam, it'll be a good thing for our village." The woman was thinking even more, already wondering if, if Lin Zhongyuan passed the imperial examination, they could put their family's land in Lin Zhongyuan's name and get tax exemption or something.

The Lin family's land, even when all is added together, doesn't amount to more than thirty mu. Rather than wasting this tax-free quota, they might as well save some money for themselves.

But the parents of Lin Zhongyuan's former classmates also felt envious and jealous.

They didn't have high hopes for their son; they just wanted him to know a few words so he wouldn't be completely illiterate.

But now, other children who studied at the same school are already preparing to take the imperial examinations to become scholars. Meanwhile, my own son is catching birds in trees and fish in water. Even if he is well-behaved, he only works in the fields.

No one's son is better.

As soon as the news spread that Lin Zhongyuan was going to take the imperial examination, the wailing and howling of his former classmates gradually rose and fell.

Fearing that her elder brother would be disturbed by the noise from the side, Lin Wanyue added two more pieces of calming incense to the incense he had lit.

"Did my sister prepare this for me? It smells so nice." Lin Zhongyuan picked up his sister and put her on his lap, unable to resist pinching Lin Wanyue's chubby little face.

In the six months since she came to the Lin family, Lin Wanyue has grown from a pitiful little girl into a strong, chubby little tyrant of Ning'an Village, leading all the village's children in play.

…

The classmates who had been beaten got together and, after thinking about it, realized that they hadn't been beaten by their parents for no reason.

It's all Lin Zhongyuan's fault for being too attention-seeking!

Everyone used to be just like that, not very good at studying, and their families didn't care much about them. So why is this kid suddenly going to take the imperial examination to become a scholar?

Although they were only going to take the imperial examination to become scholars, and were still far from passing it, the fact that they didn't even have the ability to take the exam made the gap between them even greater.

So the group huddled together and said, "If Lin Zhongyuan really gets into college, my dad will probably break my legs and make me go back to school."

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