Chapter 21 The Fairy in the Painting, Half a Moon
The person kneeling on the ground kowtowing had a full head of gray hair, a face etched with deep wrinkles, and tattered clothes, which made anyone who saw him feel pity.
Shao Yanzhe was very familiar with this person; he was the old village head of Qingshan Village.
"Village head, why are you doing this?"
Shao Yanzhe looked helpless. He reached out to help the person up, but the village head avoided him.
He reached out to stop the village head from kowtowing any further: "Village head, I am a junior. Are you trying to force me to my death by kowtowing to a junior?"
The village head felt the strength supporting his arm and was unable to continue kowtowing.
He stood up and looked at Shao Yanzhe, but his eyes kept glancing at the young master next to him.
This young master is clearly not from an ordinary family. Judging from his naive appearance, he probably can't stand seeing an old man like him begging from others.
It seems that Shao Yanzhe wanted to befriend this young master. In order to leave a good impression on the young master, he would probably not hold Shao Ran's past actions against him for the sake of his reputation.
“Since the village head has a favor to ask, I will certainly help if it is within my power. Judging from what the village head said just now, what happened to Shao Ran?” Shao Yanzhe asked.
The village head had a distressed expression on his face, and his rough, calloused hands trembled as he grasped his hand.
He opened his mouth, and finally spoke as if he had made up his mind: "I already know about the bastard things Shaoran did. Fortunately, you are lucky and have survived. Otherwise, when this old man goes to the underworld after he passes away, I don't know how I will face your parents."
Shao Yanzhe shook his head slightly. He later learned from the teacher that Shao Ran's grades were not good, and if nothing unexpected happened, she would definitely be left in the illusion.
Shao Ran schemed against him to save his own life, which he understands and respects, but he will not forgive him for it.
As if he hadn't seen Shao Yanzhe shake his head, Li Zheng continued, holding his hand, "But you know, Aze, that Shao Ran isn't a bad person. He was just scared, which is why he did something so foolish. Nobody's perfect, so please forgive him!"
Furthermore, Shaoran and you are the only two promising people in the village, and Aze, your talent is even more outstanding, with unlimited potential. You'll definitely need help then. Shaoran grew up with you; with him by your side, your life will be easier, won't it?"
"Pfft!"
No sooner had the village head finished speaking than a burst of laughter erupted from the side.
This made Lao Li's expression turn somewhat unpleasant. He looked over and saw the young master covering his mouth, looking like he wanted to laugh but was forcibly suppressing it.
Shao Yanzhe glanced at Zhou Jiming and mentally gave him a thumbs up. Well done! If he weren't mindful that Zhou Jiming was an elder, he would have laughed too.
Zhou Jiming tried to hold back, but in the end he couldn't help himself.
"Hahahaha!"
After laughing for a while, he barely managed to suppress his laughter and bowed to the village head, apologizing, "Sorry, sorry, old man, what you just said was a bit too funny, I couldn't help it!"
The village head, his face dark, said, "I don't know what the old man said that was so funny, that it made this young master laugh like that!"
Zhou Jiming snapped open his folding fan and slowly fanned himself as he said, "Although I don't know what Shao Ran did to Shao Xiucai, I can tell it wasn't anything good. In that case, Shao Ran is clearly a bad person, good at stabbing people in the back. If he hasn't encountered anything that could harm him, he'll be fine, but once he does, he'll definitely push someone else in front of him to protect him."
Just now, the old man said that when Shao Xiucai becomes successful in the future, he would let Shao Ran stay by his side. What, is it not enough that Shao Ran harmed Shao Xiucai once, that he also wants to keep him by his side waiting for him to betray Shao Xiucai again?
This is the first time I've ever heard of such a thing; it's truly an eye-opener!
The village head, his finger trembling, pointed at Zhou Jiming, his face turning slightly dark: "You! How dare you talk such nonsense!"
Shao Yanzhe gave Zhou Jiming an approving look before reaching out to stop him, saying, "Village head, back then, Shao Ran framed me to save his own life, and I risked my life to escape, but that's not a reason for him to be forgiven."
Furthermore, since Shaoran was the one who made a mistake, why didn't he come forward to apologize in person? Instead, he sent the village head to me to seek forgiveness. Did he want me to forgive him because of the village head's position?
"Then I'm sorry, village head, I will not forgive Shaoran. From now on, I will pretend I don't have a cousin like him."
Seeing his resolute attitude, the village head knew that Shao Ran's actions had really hurt him, but he couldn't just stand by and watch Shao Ran be expelled from Wenyuan Academy.
He gritted his teeth and was about to kneel down in front of Shao Yanzhe.
The teacher, who had arrived unnoticed, reached out and stopped him. He glanced at Shao Yanzhe and said sternly, "Shao Yanzhe, what are you doing here instead of studying?"
Shao Yanzhe quickly bowed and greeted the teacher, saying, "Greetings, Master! I will go study now!"
After he finished speaking, he took Zhou Jiming and entered the academy.
But he didn't actually leave. Instead, he hid and saw the teacher and the village head talking. The village head looked dejected and left the academy.
The teacher watched the village head leave, then turned around and saw Shao Yanzhe peeking in from inside the academy. A look of helplessness flashed in his eyes.
When Shao Yanzhe met the Master's gaze, he couldn't help but smile awkwardly.
The teacher walked up to him and said, "Yanze, although you have now passed the county-level examination, you should know that this is only the first step on the road to the imperial examination. If you want to go far on this road, you must always be cautious and self-reflective."
"It's nothing to be proud of just being the top scholar in the imperial examination. Think about how vast the Great Yong Dynasty is. Our Jiangzhou Province alone has seven prefectures and three directly governed states. In each provincial examination, there are ten top scholars. The provincial examination is held twice every three years. In the Great Yong Dynasty, there are almost two hundred top scholars each year. You are just one of those two hundred."
Shao Yanzhe knew that his teacher was doing this for his own good, so he solemnly cupped his hands in a salute and said, "Yes, teacher, I will remember this!"
The slight sense of pride that had risen in his heart was completely shattered by these words.
"Go ahead, you'll be on your way with Mingyuan and the others in a few days. The provincial examination isn't far off, and with your current writing skills, you should be able to pass with flying colors."
Also, your poetry writing skills need improvement.
And you must also memorize the laws of the Dayong Dynasty.”
The master went on and on, reciting all the precautions, before finally leaving with his hands behind his back, leaving Shao Yanzhe standing there, his face blank with a hint of shock.
"Brother Shao, what's wrong?" Zhou Jiming asked in confusion.
Shao Yanzhe stiffly turned to look at him, and asked uncertainly, "When is the provincial examination?"
Zhou Jiming replied, "In August of this year, about half a month from now!"
Shao Yanzhe tried to argue: "But, didn't we just finish the academy exam?"
Zhou Jiming nodded and explained, "Yes, but this year happens to be the year of the provincial examination. Brother Shao is lucky; he can participate in the provincial examination this year and take first place!"
Shao Yanzhe gave a forced smile: "Thank you for your high expectations, Brother Zhou. In that case, if Brother Zhou has no other urgent matters, I must go back to my studies now, and I will not keep you any longer!"
Zhou Jiming wasn't angry about being driven away. He had only come here to get to know Shao Yanzhe first, and there would be plenty of time to get to know each other later.
He cupped his hands in a respectful gesture towards Shao Yanzhe: "Alright, then I won't bother you any longer, Brother Shao. I'll take my leave now. Farewell!"
After seeing Zhou Jiming off, Shao Yanzhe hurried back to the dormitory.
When Yun Weiyue saw him rushing back, she asked in confusion, "What happened? Why are you in such a hurry?"
Shao Yanzhe sat down at his desk, took out the Dayong Law, walked to the scroll and said, "I just realized that the provincial examination is in half a month!"
“Not bad.” Yun Weiyue nodded.
Shao Yanzhe said somewhat embarrassedly, "The teacher said my writing skills are alright, but my poetry and the laws of the Dayong Dynasty are not so good. Is Miss Suqing here?"
Yun Weiyue glanced at him and immediately understood what he meant: "I'll call her out."
Soon, Yun Suqing appeared. She looked at Shao Yanzhe with a puzzled look in her eyes and asked, "What do you want with me?"
Shao Yanzhe smiled somewhat embarrassedly: "I would like to borrow Miss Su Qing's illusion for a moment."
Yun Suqing looked him up and down in surprise, as if she were looking at a madman. She remembered that last time she had made him stay in the illusion for quite a while in order to tutor his articles. When he came out, he looked so impatient that he wished he would never see the illusion again.
Why are you now proactively suggesting entering the illusionary realm?
"good."
She didn't investigate further; all she had to do was throw the person in, it wouldn't take much trouble.
Shao Yanzhe re-entered the illusion and arrived in the familiar illusion. He couldn't help but show a complicated expression. He never thought that he would be able to enter it again.
While lamenting the impermanence of life, he quickly opened the Dayong Law to read it.
Because the original owner of this body would occasionally look at the Dayong Law, he had memorized about 70-80% of its contents. Now he only needed to start from the beginning, review what he had memorized, and memorize what he hadn't.
He was already very good at reading. In this illusion, he felt neither hunger nor fatigue. He was like a wound-up machine, burying himself in his studies.
Finally, seven days later in real time, he completely mastered the Dayong Law and became proficient in using it to adjudicate cases.
As for writing poetry, Shao Yanzhe had a bit of a headache. Although he could write poems that looked decent, as a modern person, writing poetry was not his forte. Compared with those scholars who were good at writing poetry, his poems looked contrived and lacked inspiration, which was something he couldn't help.
He was helpless about this.
Seeing that time was running out, he emerged from the illusion.
"You're out." Yun Suqing glanced at him and continued with her work.
“Yes, it’s about time, and the plan can begin.” Shao Yanzhe put the book in his hand on the desk and said calmly.
Yun Suqing paused, a glint of light flashing in her eyes. She smiled and said, "Alright, the Mid-Autumn Festival is just around the corner. It's time to send Shen Moyuan and his family off for a reunion."
Apart from Shen Moyuan, all the other members of the Shen family had already passed away.
Shao Yanzhe smiled after hearing this.
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