Yu Zizhen was in a very good mood at the moment, because not only was Wan Jingrong, the embarrassing guy who took the initiative to take all the responsibility, punished by his father after returning home, but even Lu Heng, who was protected by him, was also punished by Lu Tong after returning home.
Lu Tong punished Lu Heng not because he felt that Lu Heng should not target Yu Zizhen, but because he disliked Lu Heng's lack of carefulness and his methods were too clumsy, so that he was also embarrassed along with Lu Heng.
He is the head of the Lu family. If he loses face, the entire Lu family will lose face. It would be strange if Lu Tong was not angry.
However, when he punished Lu Heng, Lu Heng's mother Wang was full of complaints. She felt sorry for Lu Heng. When Lu Heng's father Lu Mian sneaked back from the yamen to have lunch, Wang immediately went to complain to him.
Lu Mian was the third of the Lu brothers, the younger brother of Lu Tong and Empress Dowager Lu. When he heard Wang complaining about Lu Tong, he changed his clothes while scolding her for not knowing the seriousness of the matter. "It's all your fault. You keep calling him 'hostage' and 'hostage'. You don't take the Prince of Zhenbei seriously at all, and you let that kid follow suit. If he really hurts the Prince of Zhenbei, you'd better take that evil boy back to your mother's house!"
Wang Shi was scolded by him and kept crying, "I, I never thought that the Prince of Zhenbei would actually dare to make a scene in the South Study."
Yu Zizhen, who was listening to the live broadcast of the baby voice system: Haha, who isn’t a naughty kid who dares to cry and make trouble!
In the end, the conversation between Lu Mian and Wang ended with Lu Mian going to have lunch with his concubine in an annoyed look, and Wang sweeping away the tea sets on the table while crying.
Yu Zizhen was satisfied after listening to a family ethics drama for free. She put away the fourteen indentures and turned her gaze to Jiang Yunshan who was trying to remain calm.
"Please sit down," Yu Zizhen said, trying his best to be pleasant. "Let's talk."
Seeing that she was smiling and seemed to be in a good mood, Jiang Yunshan couldn't help but feel a little relieved.
He thanked Yu Zizhen and sat down carefully, straightening his back.
Yu Zizhen asked him, "I see you're not from the capital. Why did you travel all the way to such a faraway place to sell yourself?"
Jiang Yunshan smiled bitterly, "My Lord, I can no longer survive in my hometown, so I made all sorts of plans and took my family to escape to Beijing."
From Jiang Yunshan's narration, Yu Zizhen gradually learned about Jiang Yunshan's difficult first half of his life.
Jiang Yunshan was from Shu. He was born into a small peasant family with some wealth. He was born smart and clever. He was always ahead of others in studying and absorbed knowledge at a speed far beyond that of his peers.
From the day he started school, he has always been the teachers' favorite student, no doubt about it.
However, such a young genius failed in the imperial examinations several times.
It was like this when taking the exam for the scholar, and it was like this again when taking the exam for the juren.
He was ridiculed by countless people for this, but he did not give up.
Time and again, he took the exam with unwavering determination, and as he expected, he failed again and again.
He was smart and confident. After many attempts, he finally found some clues by secretly checking the candidates on the list.
It turned out that he was not incapable of passing the exam, but his grades were simply changed by someone.
He passed the exam, but was then impersonated by a powerful official's son.
This happened seven times in total, four times when he was taking the examination for the scholar degree and three times when he was taking the examination for the juren degree.
He took the examinations for the tongsheng and xiucai at the age of fifteen, and tried for the juren for the third time at the age of twenty-five. During this period, he provided seven opportunities for the children of officials in his prefecture and county to pass the exam.
At that time, Jiang Yunshan was still a passionate young man. He planned to collect evidence and appeal to higher authorities to seek justice for himself and restore the integrity of the imperial examination system in Da Qi.
However, he was young, inexperienced, and careless in his actions. Secondly, he was the key surveillance target of those officials and their families who had benefited from it. His every move was watched by his classmates who would not arouse his suspicion. His grand plan was still in its infancy, and his bribed classmate had already revealed the fact that he had secretly collected evidence.
Those officials who benefited from it acted quickly, and Jiang Yunshan was almost burned to death in the school dormitory that night by a sudden fire.
Fortunately, he often helped his family with farm work and had great strength in his hands. At the critical moment, he managed to smash open the window that was sealed from the outside with two wooden bars, and escaped narrowly.
Since then, Jiang Yunshan began his thrilling life of frequently encountering various "accidents".
He knew that he was being deliberately targeted.
In order not to implicate his family, he began to pretend that he had suffered a brain injury and became a fool after surviving a near-death experience.
His parents spent all their wealth to treat his illness, and he himself suffered countless hardships by pretending to be crazy and stupid in order to deal with the various temptations from those officials.
After finally getting those people to let down their guard, he escaped with his family overnight.
Relying on the few private savings he had saved, his family successfully left the county.
But soon, the officials who realized they had been deceived sent people to chase after them.
In order to avoid pursuers, the family kept changing their clothes and even moved together with refugees for a period of time.
Long-term fear and displacement made his parents sick, and his ten-year-old sister was almost captured and cooked as food by the starving refugees.
After going through numerous hardships and finally arriving in the capital, Jiang Yunshan's parents became even sicker after they arrived. In addition, the little money Jiang Yunshan had hidden before had been spent by them. Jiang Yunshan had no choice but to sell himself without telling his family to raise money for his parents' treatment.
He was literate, could do accounting, and had learned from his father the skill of tending to flowers and trees. He was a very sought-after and relatively valuable servant in the slave market.
The brokers who were entrusted by him to find buyers for him would recommend him to any good client whenever they saw one. However, the fifty taels of silver he asked for made many customers who wanted to buy him choose to settle for second best.
After wasting two days like this, Jiang Yunshan's mouth was full of blisters from anxiety.
Fortunately, there is always a way out. The broker advised him to ask for less money, but he explained that he wanted so much money to treat his parents' illness. The conversation was overheard by Yu Sheng who happened to pass by.
Yu Sheng saw that he was tall and handsome with a refined temperament, and it was obvious that he was a scholar. When he heard that he was determined not to sell his younger brothers and sisters, he could not help but admire and pity him.
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