Chapter 79
This was not the first time Lu Shang left home, but it was the time when Jiang Wanning had the most company. From Grandma Lu to Jiang's father and mother, they all surrounded her from morning to night.
As the imperial examination approached, the nameless private school had just opened for the holiday less than a month after the New Year, and all the students, both boys and girls, were sent home to rest.
In previous years, there was no rule of giving holidays every time there was an exam. This year, it was all because Jiang Wanning was not feeling well, so she had to rush to go out. Especially since Lu Shang was not at home and her due date was getting closer, no one dared to ask her to go out alone, let alone to a crowded place like a private school, for fear that something unexpected would happen at the last minute.
According to Jiang Wanning's opinion, although she did not want to go to a private school, she was not required to study at the girls' school. If she just wanted to learn classics and arithmetic, she could ask Professor Xiang Min to teach her.
However, Jiang's father and mother both thought, "It's better to just stop teaching. It's not that Minmin's teaching is bad, but most private schools are attracted by your reputation. It was fine when you were there before, but now that you haven't been there for a long time, it's not a good idea to always ask someone to take your place."
"Besides, now that Minmin is gone, won't you worry anymore? It's better to rest for three to five months. Once the baby is born, your father and I won't say anything no matter how much you worry. After all, there are only a few months left, so it's better to just rest and take care of the baby."
This was the opinion of both my parents. Later, when Grandma Lu heard about this, she also joined in persuading Jiang Wanning to rest assured and take care of her pregnancy. Even when Qu Heng's wife came to visit the family later, she held the same opinion.
Xiao Yu said, "I've heard from my two daughters that Wan Ning has a very hard time in the private school. You're the only one who supports both the boys' and girls' studies. When the students in one school are resting, you still have to go to the other. Sometimes, when there are too many students asking for advice, you don't even have time to drink water."
"Don't disobey us. Pregnancy and childbirth are extremely harmful to your health, especially in the last month. You must be extremely careful. No matter how important the private school is, can it be more important than the child in your belly?"
Besides, they didn't mean to close the private school directly. It would only suspend classes for three to five months. It would not be impossible to reopen classes earlier when Lu Shang comes back.
Jiang Wanning was originally weak-willed, but after being persuaded from all sides, she finally agreed. With the private school suspended, it gave her the opportunity to rest and take care of her pregnancy.
With only the last month left, Jiang Wanning was worried about Lu Shang entering the examination room, answering questions, and finishing the exam, while the others were busy looking for a midwife, a doctor, supplements, new clothes, etc. In short, everyone had their own concerns.
On the third day of May, Jiang Wanning was walking in the yard accompanied by her mother Jiang and Grandma Lu, and she mentioned someone far away in the capital.
Mother Jiang calculated and said, "Lu Shang should have left the examination hall today. I wonder how long it will take for the results to be announced. He won't be able to leave in time for the baby's birth, but he can't even leave in time for the full moon, right?"
Jiang Wanning pondered for a moment. "There's still the regular exam this fall, and the results of the special exam shouldn't be delayed too long. I estimate they'll be announced this month. If things go well, the palace exam will be over by the end of the month. I just don't know if my husband can pass the provincial exam."
Grandma Lu said, "With you and your father-in-law teaching him, Shang'er will definitely be fine."
Jiang Wanning smiled and said, "That's great. I'll take advantage of your good wishes, Grandma."
By mid-May, the Lu family had hired three midwives and four highly skilled doctors, one of whom Qu Heng had invited from out of town. These people all lived in the Lu family's guest rooms, taking the baby's pulse every morning and evening, determined to nip any hidden dangers in the bud and strive for safety in the last half month.
Lu Shang, who was far away in the capital, also received the news that the results of the spring examination would be announced.
Just as Jiang Wanning speculated, the court was anxious to prepare for the regular examination in the autumn and planned to finish the palace examination before June. By around May 20th at the latest, all the marking work would be completed, and the results would be announced shortly thereafter.
Lu Shang thought he answered quite smoothly. As soon as the imperial examination was over, he contacted the logistics team leaders in the suburbs of Beijing, asked them about the situation in Beijing in the past two years, and began to think about expanding Lu's logistics business into the capital.
Unfortunately, he had been in Beijing for more than ten days without finding any business opportunities. One day, he went out with Zhan Shunan and came across a free letter writing stall at the city gate.
In this era, anything involving paper and ink has never been cheap. A letter stall like this is not affordable for poor families even in a small county town. I still remember that when they first moved to Tangzhen, it was precisely because their stall was of good quality and low price that they squeezed into the market in a short time.
So when Lu Shang heard that the letter-writing stall was free, he couldn't help but stop and take a few more glances. However, this glance didn't matter, as it made him discover something even more unexpected.
I saw a strong man sitting behind the letter stall. Neither his physique nor his appearance looked like a scholar.
"It's done, it's done, next one—" the man called out, and quickly changed a new piece of letter paper, and called the next person to come forward.
Lu Shang did not follow the team to join in the fun, but only watched from the side. He saw that the man did not write many words on the paper, but used some simple lines to outline some very rough little people. If the drawing was really not like the real thing, he would use words to explain it.
Zhan Shunan also saw the situation here and couldn't help but wonder, "Isn't this the same as the letter stall Madam had before? Are there people in Beijing who use drawings instead of words?"
This is also what Lu Shang doesn't understand.
He didn't think that he was the only one who could come up with the idea of drawing on the letter, but the stick figures drawn by the man were too strange. They were just the stick figures he had occasionally drawn when he helped out at the letter stall.
Later, because Jiang Wanning was too busy with business, she would use stick figures instead of characters. However, since there were more detailed paintings, the stick figures were not widely circulated.
It's no wonder he was surprised by all the coincidences.
Because of this unexpected incident, Lu Shang simply waited for a while, hoping that the people in front of the letter stall would mostly disperse so that he could go up and find out a little.
But he underestimated the appeal of the free letter stall to ordinary people. He and Zhan Shunan waited for half an hour, but the line in front of the stall was getting longer and longer.
It was also from the people later that they learned that the painter was not a full-time letter writer. He had a legitimate job and was not in the capital most of the time, but whenever he came back, he would come to the city gate to write letters for others.
I heard that the man went out to sea for business a few years ago and lost contact with his family. He didn't know how poor his family was. It was not until his mother sent him a letter after many twists and turns that he learned that his father was dying and his wife had worked hard to raise his son whom he had never met.
The man hurried back home and just caught up to see his father for the last time. Later, he learned from his mother that his family could not afford to hire someone to write a letter. If he had not met a kind person, he would not be able to contact him in a short time.
The man wanted to go in person to thank the kind-hearted person his mother mentioned, but he couldn't find him after searching for several days. What's more, the merchant caravan he was going out to sea was about to set sail, so he had no choice but to take his family back to the capital.
But the man was also a man who valued friendship and loyalty. He was grateful to the kind-hearted man from that year. In recent years, he had spent a long time in Beijing, so he followed his example and set up a letter-writing stall at the city gate. He did not charge a penny and only wrote to poor people.
The man had been doing business for many years and could read a few characters, but when he wrote letters to others he seldom wrote words. Instead he used line drawings instead. It was said that he imitated a kind-hearted person and wanted to pass on this characteristic.
After hearing this, Lu Shang felt inexplicably familiar, but no matter how hard he thought, he couldn't figure out where he had heard it.
In the end, he had to give up for the time being. Seeing a herbal tea shop not far away, he asked Zhan Shunan to wait there.
There were not many people entering and leaving the city gate at this time, and there were not many people in the herbal tea shop. The shop was run by two women, one older and the other still middle-aged.
The old woman was in charge of making tea in the back, while the middle-aged woman poured tea and water for the guests.
This herbal tea shop is mostly for the convenience of passers-by. It only costs two cents per person and you can drink as much as you want.
After the middle-aged woman brought teacups to Lu Shang and Zhan Shunan, she introduced: "Our shop also has homemade fruit wine. If you like, you may also order a pot."
"Also, the shop can buy peanuts, beef and other snacks for you, and we don't charge any errand fees."
Lu Shang thanked him and refused, "Just the herbal tea is fine, nothing else is needed."
"Okay, enjoy your meal, both of you." The woman didn't argue any further, bowed, and left their table.
Lu Shang came here just to wait for the man behind the letter stall to finish his work. He just heard that the man was doing maritime business, and he wanted to make friends with him even more.
It was already afternoon, and they would wait until dark. Lu Shang and Zhan Shunan had nothing else to do, so they could naturally wait patiently. While waiting, they talked about Lu's Logistics, which Zhan Shunan had heard about while delivering the goods.
"When I went to Lingnan, I heard that in recent years, more and more merchants have come from the Western Regions. Many jade and leather materials from the Western Regions are very popular. Some quick-witted people have already thought about buying from the Western Regions and have hired escort agencies to provide security and escort the goods back and forth."
"Boss, can we take a trip west with our logistics team? It doesn't matter if we can't find any merchants to cooperate with. We can just do the shopping ourselves and bring the goods back to sell."
Lu Shang didn't know much about the Western Regions, but he had come into contact with their spices and other things. Now, after hearing Zhan Shunan mention it, he couldn't help but consider its feasibility.
Just as the two were discussing, they saw someone else entering the store.
Lu Shang hadn't noticed the person until he called out in the hall, "Mother, wife, I'm back! Seventy or eighty people came to me to write letters today, and I've only written less than half of them all day. I have to come again tomorrow and try to write all the anxious letters before I go to sea at the end of the month..."
Lu Shang looked up and saw that it was the man who wrote letters for free at the city gate.
At this time, the two women from the herbal tea shop also walked out from the back. When Lu Shang saw the old woman at the back, the face deep in his memory suddenly became clear, and an idea flashed in his mind -
He remembered!
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