"Father, Mother, why are you here so early?" Ye Ming quickly stepped forward to help Sun Shi.
He felt a warm glow in his heart.
Ye Erniu punched him on the shoulder, "Afraid of being too late, your mother tossed and turned all night and couldn't sleep. When she finally fell asleep, she dreamed that the God of Literature had coincidentally landed in our house."
Ye Ming smiled and said, "Father, please don't make fun of your son. I am far inferior to Wenquxing (the God of Literature)."
Madam Sun turned around and glared at Ye Erniu, "I told you not to say it! What if it doesn't come true? Honestly! If I lose my imperial title, how will you compensate me!"
Ye Erniu looked aggrieved and asked Ye Panjiu in a low voice, "Little sister, how do you think it will be possible to get through tomorrow?"
As the father, his heart was pounding with anxiety.
Ye Panjiu was both amused and exasperated. "You'll know once you take the exam. I said I wouldn't do well, but the head of the academy said there wouldn't be any problem."
She didn't even dare to think about it. If Ming'er didn't pass the county exam, would Headmaster Bai tell her not to mention he was his master when she left home...?
After all, considering that Su Yan was the top scholar in both civil and military examinations, and Duan Jingcheng was the third-ranked scholar, Ye Ming failed at the very first step, the county examination…
The difference may not be too big...
The whole family encouraged Ye Ming one by one, and finally squeezed into two carriages to head towards the examination hall.
The provincial and metropolitan examinations were held in the examination hall, where the conditions were more stringent, while the county examinations were actually less demanding.
The acceptance ratio is approximately 10:1, meaning one out of ten applicants will be accepted.
The proportion of educated people is relatively high in Qingshui County.
The county examination consists of five sessions, one session per day.
It was still early before the exam was scheduled to begin at Chen Shi (7-9 AM), but some yamen runners were already at the gate approving the candidates' entry.
As dawn broke, Ye Ming alighted from the carriage and hurried to the back of the line.
The Ye family members also gathered around him.
Ye Panjiu gave her hand warmer to Ye Ming so that his hands wouldn't get cold.
Ye Ming tried to refuse, but couldn't, so he had no choice but to take it and return it to his aunt once he went inside.
Most of the people in the group were accompanied by their families, but Ye Ming had the most family members.
The line moved slowly, and no one talked much. It took a full 45 minutes before they finally reached the entrance of the examination hall.
The yamen runners were very polite, but who knew which of these scholars would become high-ranking officials in the future? Offending them would surely lead to dire consequences.
"Take off your outer clothes and check inside."
Ye Ming obediently did as he was told; his undergarments were snow-white, all made of silk by Madam Sun.
When many scholars were inspected, they took off their outer garments and found that their inner garments were full of patches, making them blush with shame.
After the inspection, the constable waved his hand and said, "Go in."
Ye Ming quickly waved to the Ye family members, and his figure disappeared through the door.
Sun stared blankly, her heart pounding with anxiety.
Old Man Ye and Old Woman Ye also looked very serious and nervous.
Ye Panjiu pulled the Ye family members along, saying, "It's alright, it's so cold, let's go. We'll come back to pick you up this afternoon."
The Ye family members, who were busy with chores all day, were unwilling to squeeze into the carriage anymore and all got off and walked.
It was a rare sight for the whole family to parade through the streets after a month apart.
Ye Daniu turned around and wanted to ride his horse back to the horse farm, but Ye Cuihua grabbed him and wouldn't let him go.
"Brother, are you still worried about the people you've hired at the horse farm?" Ye Panjiu asked doubtfully.
Logically speaking, this should have freed up a lot of my brother's time, right?
You can't always hire unreliable people.
For some reason, Ye Daniu felt immense pressure. "No, I hired three people, all from our village. They're hardworking and even compete with me to do the work."
Ye Panjiu was relieved, realizing that these were the horses her elder brother had been thinking about from his horse farm. She wondered how far her brother would go in raising horses in the future.
"It's rare for the whole family to be together today, so let's take a rest first," she said with a smile.
Ye Daniu quickly nodded, "Little sister is right."
Grandma Ye glanced at him, pointed, and said, "I smell the fragrance of that bamboo basket. Eldest son, go buy some to try."
Ye Daniu agreed and walked away quickly.
"Well done!"
"good!"
"That feels so good!"
The group arrived at the entrance of the county government office, where a large crowd had completely surrounded the entrance, shouting incessantly.
Ye Erniu loved to join in the fun, so he jumped and squeezed his way through the crowd until he finally got a glimpse inside.
He also shouted, "Ungrateful bastard! Serves you right!"
After shouting, he squeezed out again.
Grandma Ye, with a small fried dough stick in her mouth, pulled him over with one hand and asked, "What's the situation inside?"
Ye Erniu waved to everyone, "Come on, let's go see! It's Du Pengzhi inside! He's being beaten with a cane!"
Ye Panjiu raised an eyebrow and took the lead in walking forward.
Seeing Du Pengzhi, that scumbag, is an eyesore, but seeing him get beaten is a different story.
If the original owner of this body had a spirit, seeing this scene would offer some comfort.
Besides the individual's own reasons, the partner who tries to control the other person through love is even worse.
Especially someone like Du Pengzhi, who completely deceived the original owner, making her unable to live without him, only to force her to commit suicide with a divorce letter.
Fortunately, Du Pengzhi disliked the original owner of the body, so he consummated the marriage with her on their wedding night, and spent the rest of his time going out to have fun.
Otherwise, who knows what disease the original owner might have contracted.
Upon seeing this, the Ye family members all quickly followed. Each of them had been ordered around by the Du family to do this or that, and they harbored resentment and anger towards him.
Sun, in particular, harbored deep resentment towards the Du family because of Ming'er's decision to drop out of school.
"Bang! Bang!"
The sound of the paddle hitting Du Pengzhi's back was loud and painful to hear.
Chu Guan didn't specifically ask the yamen runners to beat him severely. Looking at Du Pengzhi's small frame, he didn't want to lose his life in Qingshui County.
Du Pengzhi was in so much pain that his vision blurred, but he still saw Ye Panjiu standing in front of the crowd.
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