323 A Poem Becomes Famous
Two days later.
Ping An and Huo Zhi entered the Imperial College.
In order to be with Ping An, Huo Zhi gave up the scholar class and insisted on entering the student class with Ping An. He also occupied one of Ping An's rooms, saying that it was too lonely to live alone in the Huo family mansion, so he also arranged a small courtyard for Ping An.
However, Ping'an had no plan to live in the Huo family. His own house was not small, and usually there were only a few people living there. Most people went to the farm, so it was very spacious.
Mingxuan, Changqing and Zhang Ce are all in the scholar area, while Wangqing is in the juren area.
The Imperial College was divided into four major areas: A, B, C and D. A was for Juren, B was for Xiucai, C was for Tongsheng and D was for those who were not even Tongsheng but were specially recruited as children of nobles or sons of wealthy businessmen. These people had to pay a lot of money every year.
It was not enough for the Imperial College to maintain its expenses solely through tuition fees.
The untold expenses such as the repair of the school buildings mainly depend on this.
Each area was a large area separated by courtyards and divided into many classes. The Imperial College enrolled more than 2,000 students, with about 500 to 600 students in each level and 12 classes.
These twelve classes are divided into three levels, Area C 101, 102... and so on.
However, the riding and archery area and the training area are shared, while the canteen is separate.
Ping An and Huo Zhi were assigned to the same class, Class 304, Area C, which is Class 12 of Area C. At the end of the year, there will be a final exam. The top three students in the class will unconditionally move to the next level in the next semester, and the last one will most likely be demoted to the next level.
The competitiveness is still very strong.
The lowest rank for a teacher in the Imperial College was a juren; there were no scholars.
On the first day of school, we were divided into classes and familiarized ourselves with the environment. Two people had a small lounge with a bed and a table, and every three lounges formed a small courtyard.
The Imperial College accommodates not only students from the capital, but also people who need accommodation.
Accommodation in such a small courtyard is not a problem at all.
Just like the courtyard that Ping'an and Huo Zhi were assigned, there were two of them in one room, and the remaining two rooms held four people, of which only two needed accommodation. By the afternoon, they were the only two people left in the courtyard.
Because they knew all this beforehand, Xiao Wu and Lin Feng brought quilts and other daily necessities with them. They still needed to rest for a while at noon, and on occasional days when it rained heavily, they might have to stay overnight.
But those days are rare, so I will definitely go back home as much as possible.
Ping An and Huo Zhi went to see the cafeteria, the archery field, and the training ground.
To his surprise, he actually saw Bai Jiaxuan.
Bai Jiaxuan stared at him closely: "Excuse me, are you Ping An? From Yong'an Prefecture?"
Ping An laughed: "Brother Bai, even though you have changed a lot now, I can still recognize you at a glance. How have you been these years?"
Bai Jiaxuan's eyes sparkled: "Are you really safe? Back then you were only seven or eight years old, a very small child, but now you are almost as tall as me."
"Brother Bai, you were only twelve years old at that time. You were four years older than me. I remember it very clearly. I was in Class 304, Area C."
"I know you. You missed the exam because you went to the North. Ping An, you are amazing. I am in Class 103, Area B. Where do you live? I will date you when I am free."
Ping An reported his residence and introduced Huo Zhi: "He is my friend and the future leader of Watson Hall. He also went to the battlefield, but in the southwest."
Bai Jiaxuan smiled and said, "I can tell from the first glance that you are a very capable person. My name is Bai Jiaxuan. I will make an appointment with you and Ping An later."
Out of the horseback archery range.
Ping An was still not satisfied: "Brother Huo, Brother Bai's father was the prefect of Yong'an for many years. I heard that he was transferred to the Ministry of Revenue last year. His grandfather was an old Hanlin. I wonder if he has retired now. He is a real scholarly family."
Huo Zhi nodded: "He looks good. One can tell whether a person has good character by looking at his eyes, but of course it's not absolute."
Ping An did not deny this, as he himself was very concerned about first impressions.
Ten days passed in a flash.
The Imperial College has one day off every ten days, and three consecutive days off at the end of the month, which is equivalent to five days off a month, which is more than other academies, and Ping An is very happy about it.
The master informed him yesterday that he would be resetting a broken bone for a young child at the end of the month. The master is very good at bone setting, and he hopes Ping An will come along.
Ping An certainly knew about it, and he was good at setting bones, but he had never set the broken bones of a two or three-year-old child. Although it was not more difficult than for an adult, and breaking bones was even easier than for an adult, the child was white and chubby, so it was not easy to set the bones.
Last ten-day break, the master took him to remove moles from the son of a wealthy family. Mole removal actually means removing moles. The master and apprentice learned this skill based on the prescriptions in Master Hu's medical books and after doing it on their own people several times in the Medicine Valley.
Moles are part of the human body and are generally difficult to remove. You can't just cut off the skin, and some are also hidden under the skin.
In Master Hu’s prescription, the medicine is mixed into a paste. After cleansing the skin, the medicine is applied to the mole. The medicine will react with the mole to achieve the effect of removing the mole.
This prescription works quickly, but the person has to be present throughout the process. The amount of medicine depends on the size of the mole. Afterwards, the black mark will fade and become almost the same color as the skin. If the mole is small, there will be no mark, but if the mole is large, there will be a scar, and scar removal medicine will need to be used for a period of time.
The young man had two large moles on his face that seriously affected his appearance. The master took him to perform this minor operation on the young man. Both his parents and he himself were surprised and happy, and gave a full 100 taels of silver as a fee.
For all of Master Hu's prescriptions, the master insisted on giving him 40%, and he got 40 taels.
For every surgery that I took him to do, I insisted on giving him 40%.
This time when he was having the mole removed, he brought Leng Yue with him. I guess there will be more women who are interested in this area in the future.
Once one person learns it, he will be able to do it again by practicing it in the village.
On the day before the end of the month holiday, there was a poetry and painting talent competition in the Imperial College in the afternoon. One person from each class participated, and the teacher reported his name. In fact, he did not show any special talents in this area. It might be that he was the eldest son selected among short men, or he had won the first place in the county examination or the prefectural examination.
This is a national poetry competition held once a year. The host will improvise a topic, and each contestant will write a poem on the spot. The judges will then select the top three best ones.
Ping An didn't like this kind of thing that attracted him attention. When he heard that the prizes for the top three were very good, he kept silent.
The painting was done by another student. Actually, he was just average at Chinese painting, but no one could compare to him in sketching. He had studied it professionally and did very well.
It seemed that Da Zhou had not yet had a sketch. He had seen the portrait of the gangster posted at the city gate. It was hard to describe. It should not be easy to catch the gangster based on such a portrait, right?
The competition was held in the martial arts training ground. Everyone spread a towel and sat down, with the contestants sitting at the front.
Ping An has countless poems in his mind, and he doesn't intend to hide them today.
The first prize is one hundred taels of silver plus a set of fine writing brushes, ink, paper and inkstone. The set of writing brushes, ink, paper and inkstone alone is worth one hundred taels.
The second prize is eighty taels plus a set of slightly inferior writing brushes, ink, paper and inkstone.
And so on for the third place.
The bonus was straightforward, but he liked it.
The gentleman who set the questions wrote two titles on the large white paper hanging on the stage: Sunlight and Moonlight.
This means that the contestants write poems based on the color of the sun or the moon, with the number of verses varying from four, six, or eight.
Ping An soon came up with a poem in his mind. He wanted to borrow Li Bai's "Quiet Night Thoughts". This poem is known to all Chinese people and can resonate with people. The whole poem has only four sentences. It seems simple at first glance, but it makes people unable to stop reading.
Fifty or sixty contestants went up one by one, and it was Ping'an's turn half an hour later.
He went on stage, and without thinking much, he picked up a pen and wrote this poem "Quiet Night Thoughts" directly on the table. A quarter of an hour later, he left the stage.
This time is also normal. Those who go on stage later have basically thought it through backstage, and they just go on stage after writing everything.
Ping An did not change a single word in the poem. He would feel sorry for Li Shixian if he changed even one word. The result can be imagined. All ten judges became excited, while the people in the audience were unaware of the situation at first.
When a gentleman began to read "Quiet Night Poem" in a rhythmic tone, the audience was silent. Soon, someone even started to cry quietly.
Yes, the students of the Imperial College came from all over the Great Zhou, not just those in the capital. The Mid-Autumn Festival had only been a month, and this poem suddenly aroused the homesickness of these people, so much so that more and more people in the audience shed tears.
Ping An became famous for his poem.
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