If the county examination is a stepping stone, the prefectural examination is a watershed.
Completely separate students with good academic performance from those with poor academic performance.
Those who fail the county examination will most likely never pass the examination to become a student, let alone a scholar, and they don't need to continue studying.
After passing the provincial examination, there is hope of taking the examination for a scholar. Some people may not be able to pass the examination to become a student even after ten years of hard study, let alone a scholar.
However, not everyone understands this truth. Ping'er, who was placed with high hopes, felt an increasing burden on his young shoulders. During the three-day exam, he became less and less confident and more and more anxious the more he wrote. When the papers he was given could no longer be torn, he picked them up one by one, rewrote in the gaps, and finally copied them onto the answer sheet.
When Ping'er walked out of the examination room for the second time and faced the eagerly awaited Bai Wanyi, he paused and hid in the crowd, wanting to turn around and run back to the examination room, back to that square place where he couldn't even stretch his feet.
Bai Wanyi grabbed Ping'er and pulled him out of the crowd. "What was the question for this exam? From what perspective did you answer? How did you answer? Did you follow my instructions? I'm telling you, you can't answer in a stereotyped way. Your essay needs to be original, sharp, and have unique perspectives. It's best to use vernacular Chinese; that way the writing will have more power. Tell me, how did you write it?"
Ping'er looked at Bai Wanyi's red lips, opening and closing, the sound coming and going, and suddenly, it seemed that he could hear nothing. His small body swayed and he fainted.
Bai Wanyi was furious. He grabbed Ping'er's arm and shook it vigorously: "You actually pretended to be unconscious! Get up now!"
"Ping'er is in this state, and you still want to ask him about the exam. Are you still his mother?" Lu Yan pushed her away, picked up Ping'er and rushed to the nearest clinic.
Bai Wanyi chased after him: "Am I his biological mother? Don't you know? You watched him crawl out of my belly."
After all, she was still her own flesh and blood. When Bai Wanyi saw Ping'er's pale face, her heart softened for a moment. When the doctor said that she was fine and just overworked, she breathed a sigh of relief and asked again, "Doctor, when will he wake up?"
The doctor was near the examination room and was very familiar with the situation. He took out a silver needle and inserted it into Ping'er's acupuncture point: "Wait for me to give him the acupuncture, and he will wake up."
As the doctor spoke, he twisted the needle twice and Ping'er woke up slowly.
When Bai Wan saw the doctor's relaxed expression, she knew he was fine. She immediately pressed him, "Tell me, what was the exam question? How did you answer it?"
Ping'er wanted to faint again, but because of the stimulation of the silver needles, he couldn't faint even if he wanted to. He closed his eyes in despair, feeling that life was hopeless.
Lu Yan looked at Ping'er's tender face, which showed a despair that didn't belong to her age. He felt very distressed. He said to the servant beside him, "Send the lady back first."
Bai Wanyi didn't want to leave at all, but Lu Yan hit the nail on the head: "Don't you want to know the questions for this provincial exam? Ping'er can't answer you in her current situation. Why don't you ask someone else? Maybe you can find Ping'er's paper and find out how he answered it."
Lu Yan's eyes revealed a hint of tentativeness and a clear understanding of everything. He didn't want to say who this "someone else" was referring to, but Bai Wanyi must know.
Sure enough, even though Bai Wanyi was reluctant, seeing Ping'er's expression, he was afraid that he would not be able to ask anything, so he could only turn around and leave.
Ping'er heaved a sigh of relief when Bai Wanyi left. He grabbed Lu Yan's sleeve and begged, "Father, can you please not go home yet? I'm a little scared of Mother."
Lu Yan saw that his once chubby face had become significantly thinner after two exams, and his eyes were sunken, making him look particularly pitiful. He sighed and rubbed the top of his head: "Why don't I take you out to play?"
Ping'er nodded vigorously: "Let's go fly the kite?"
Spring is a good time to fly kites when flowers bloom.
You don’t have to look for a place to play specifically. There are people selling kites on the roadside. You can just find a wide grassland and fly a kite.
The spring breeze was blowing gently, and the kite flew up easily. Ping'er happily ran on the grass with the kite, feeling extremely happy.
"Look, there are so many kites!"
The girls' voices came from the side. Lu Yan turned his head to look and found that there was a house next to the other side of the open space. A group of girls in moon-white and green robes came out laughing and playing.
Qingjin is the most popular clothing among students nowadays. It is elegant and stylish. Not only do students like to wear it, but young people also like the style of Qingjin. However, such a group of people wearing Qingjin with the same color and pattern...
Lu Yan couldn't help but think of the rumors in the court, that the Crown Princess and the Sixth and Seventh Princesses had jointly opened a girls' school to teach girls to read. Could this be the girls' school they opened?
"Sister Sun, both of your brothers have passed the provincial examination and will become students of higher learning in the future." Miss Lu took the girl from the Sun family and congratulated her.
The little girl called Sister Sun was only about eleven or twelve years old. She was dressed simply but acted gracefully. Her cheeks flushed with excitement. "Yes, being admitted as a Tongsheng is a great honor for our Sun family. I imagine my grandfather would be kneeling in front of the ancestral tablet and crying bitterly."
The little girl who came out with them asked curiously about the situation of the Sun family.
Sister Sun also knew that she didn't have to know everything, so she just answered the questions that everyone knew. She didn't go into too much detail, nor did she feel humble or timid because of her humble background.
Lu Yan looked at them from afar, and inexplicably recalled the old man Sun he saw at the entrance of the examination hall that day. His own clothes were ragged, but his grandchildren were clean and tidy. This little girl surnamed Sun, could she be the one from the Sun family who was studying in the girls' school?
Looking at these young and lively girls, Lu Yan couldn't help but think of Qin Wan. What did she look like when she was thirteen or fourteen years old?
He was momentarily distracted, perhaps because his gaze was too intense. Several young ladies noticed and looked over. When Miss Lu realized it was Marquis Pingyang, she bowed from a distance, then gently pulled Sister Sun beside her and said, "Let's go in first."
The originally bustling entrance of the girls' school suddenly became quiet again because of Lu Yan's gaze.
Ping'er was flying a kite. When she noticed Lu Yan hadn't caught up with her, she trotted over and asked curiously, "Father, what are you looking at?"
Lu Yan touched Ping'er's head and said with melancholy: "Father, you missed out on a good woman. I never knew she was so outstanding, so outstanding that I can't even compare to her."
After a pause, he spoke with difficulty, "Ping'er, you must remember that sincerity is the most precious thing in this world. If you meet a woman who shares your feelings in the future, you must never let her down. Otherwise, your father's today will be your tomorrow."
Ping'er looked up at Lu Yan and nodded as if she understood.
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