Chapter 58 Partiality
Niu Niu couldn't sleep at night, and Gu Mingda would stay with her even though he was very sleepy.
No matter how distressed Niu Niu was, Gu Mingda still insisted on carrying out the punishment.
This state of hunger and sleeplessness lasted for several days.
Niu Niu didn't have much change, but Gu Mingda lost a lot of weight and had dark circles under his eyes.
When eating breakfast that day, Niu Niu's head was nodding like a chicken pecking at rice, but she still forced herself to eat the food in front of her one bite after another.
"If you can't eat, don't eat." Zhang Yunniang said with concern.
Niuniu shook her head and said, "I think I can eat a lot again."
She ate a big bowl of rice and felt her stomach finally feel full.
Zhang Yunniang gently touched Niuniuniu's round belly and asked, "Niuniuniu, are you feeling uncomfortable anywhere? If you feel uncomfortable, you must tell me, don't force yourself."
Niuniu shook her head and said, "I don't feel uncomfortable at all, I just want to sleep."
"You just had a full meal, you need to wait a while before you can go to sleep." Gu Mingda reminded.
After Niu Niu yawned loudly, she stretched out her two little hands and rubbed her face vigorously, using this clumsy method to refresh herself.
"Gu Yan, Gu Zhao, take Niuniu to play in the yard for a while and then come back to sleep." Zhang Yunniang instructed her two sons.
After the three children were no longer in the room, Zhang Yunniang looked at her husband with concern and said, "You must have been very hungry these days. I'll make you a bowl of noodles later."
Gu Mingda was indeed very hungry, but no matter how uncomfortable he felt or how hungry he was, he did not secretly cook for himself. Instead, he managed to hold on until now on his own.
Now that Niuniu has recovered, he did not refuse the bowl of noodles. He just said, "I hope she can learn a lesson this time and stop thinking about sacrificing herself for others."
Zhang Yunniang said sourly: "If she didn't like you, she wouldn't have been thinking about you in her dreams and worrying about you not getting first place in the exam."
Gu Mingda liked to hear this kind of talk. His face was visibly happy. He said, "Whether I do well in the exam is my business. I don't need her to help me. But if you think about it carefully, raising a daughter is really different from raising a son. Those brats won't think so carefully. Gu Zhao has only known eating and playing with insects every day."
Zhang Yunniang was too lazy to expose his bias, and instead echoed, "Every time I see Gu Zhao getting into trouble, my anger keeps rising, and I don't know how much effort it takes to stop me from hitting him. But when Niuniu makes a mistake and looks at me pitifully, I can't bear to say anything."
When the couple talked about their daughter, it seemed like they could talk for three days and three nights at a stretch, and the story even gradually went in an outrageous direction.
"Her eyes are like yours, so watery. I have never seen eyes more beautiful than yours." Gu Mingda praised the two of them in one breath.
Zhang Yunniang nodded and said, "Her eyebrows are thick and curved, exactly like yours."
Gu Mingda added: "She is very good at studying and very diligent. She knows how to review without being reminded. If she were a boy, she would probably be able to learn after three years of teaching. By then, she would be the youngest scholar in this dynasty."
Zhang Yunniang completely forgot that Niuniu was an adopted child and had no blood relationship with them. She said, "This child has all the advantages of both of us."
The couple spent most of the morning praising their child. After lunch, Gu Mingda had a good sleep, vaguely making up for the sleep he had missed in recent days.
After he got up, he saw Zhang Yuniang sitting under the shade of a tree embroidering a handkerchief. He strode over and inserted a silver hairpin into her bun.
"Do you like it?" Gu Mingda asked softly.
Zhang Yunniang was stunned, she pulled out the hairpin and took a look. The silver hairpin was in the style of a red plum blossom announcing good news, and it looked very delicate.
She didn't ask about the price, but smiled and asked, "When did you buy it? I didn't see you go out."
Gu Mingda explained: "I bought it on the day after the exam, and I got the money back."
Meiluzhi is another name for pepper. Our dynasty is unable to produce pepper and has to rely on merchants from the Western Regions to import it. Its price was once comparable to gold. Although it is not so expensive now, it is still not cheap and is often out of stock.
Zhang Yunniang was shocked and asked, "How did you get it? Didn't they say that it would take at least half a month to get the goods?"
Gu Mingda explained: "It's a coincidence. I just asked casually that day, but I didn't expect that someone would order the goods but regret it, so the shopkeeper sold it to me."
Some time ago, Zhang Yuniang went out almost every day, occasionally going to the herbal medicine store, occasionally going to the grocery store, like an ant moving house, and finally she had gathered most of the ingredients needed for the braised food recipe.
Now that we have the pepper, we have all the ingredients.
"I haven't even started my business yet, but I've already spent a lot of money on these things. I don't know if I can make the money back." Zhang Yunniang said worriedly.
Gu Mingda comforted him, "There are always gains and losses in doing business. If you lose this time, you can make it back next time."
He took out six red strings and handed them to his wife, saying, "I went shopping that day but didn't buy anything suitable for the two little boys. But the little bun on Niuniu's head would be very suitable if it was tied with red strings. Find a reason to tie it up for her later."
These things should have been given to his wife and daughter after the exam, but he was angry with Niuniu at the time and refused to eat or sleep, so it was not convenient to take them out, so it was delayed until now.
Zhang Yunniang was speechless when she looked at the red ropes. Who would buy six red ropes at a time? She was afraid that her daughter would not have a replacement. He was the one who took the initiative to be fair to his children before, and now he is the one who is secretly biased.
But Zhang Yunniang didn't say anything. After putting away the six red ropes, she started thinking of reasons to coax Niu Niu.
At this time, in the closed examination hall, a group of people were busy marking the second test papers.
A clerk was walking hurriedly in the aisle, carrying a pile of test papers.
When I turned the corner, I wasn't paying attention and bumped into another person who was walking in a hurry.
With the impact, the test papers in his arms fell to the ground, and one of them was even broken so that the entire sheet of paper was spread out on the ground.
The person who was hit was under pressure, and his right foot was about to step on the spread out test paper, but his left leg suddenly twitched without any warning, and the whole person fell to one side uncontrollably, and his legs bent, and he knelt heavily on the spread out test paper.
"Are you okay? Where did you fall?" The clerk was very anxious after bumping into someone and hurriedly helped the other person up.
The man grimaced in pain at the pain in his knee. He stood there for a long time but couldn't recover. He lifted up his clothes to take a look and saw that his knee was already bruised.
"Wait here for a moment. I will deliver the test paper to Lord Chen, and then I will send you back to rest." The clerk said apologetically.
They were all colleagues, so the other party didn't make a fuss and waved his hand to signal him to take care of himself first.
The clerk picked up the test papers on the ground one by one, and his eyes fell on the open test paper where his colleague had knelt earlier.
"This calligraphy is so beautiful." He couldn't help but sigh.
The colleague was a little proud when he heard this, and hurried over, nodded, and said: "It is indeed very neat, I almost stepped on it, if I really stepped on it, I think Lord Chen would be unhappy."
Lord Chen is the chief examiner of this college entrance examination. He has always been very clean. Even if he knew that the paper was stepped on by them, he would probably feel unlucky. It would be difficult for this candidate to get a good score.
The clerk casually placed the test paper on top.
By the time the test paper was delivered to Mr. Chen's desk, he had just finished grading the other test papers on hand.
He casually picked up the top test paper from the pile, and after just one glance, he was stunned. Then he read it carefully, clapped his hands and praised, "Beautiful!"
The results of the second round of the academy examination determined who would become a scholar. It was more strict than the first round, and the previous single-person review was changed to a joint review by seven people.
Everyone was exhausted from editing the article, but when they heard this, they immediately put down their work and came over together: "What do you mean by beautiful? Is the article especially well written?"
Mr. Chen shook his head and said, "The handwriting is good, with a strong sense of calligraphy. The article is also good, with excellent arguments and a smooth flow!"
One of the examiners suddenly said, "I know this name. The first place winner of the first exam is Gu Mingda!"
Second update
(End of this chapter)
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