Chapter 930 Mutual Questioning
Manbao thought about it and accepted his apology, but he didn't want to treat him to drinks or anything like that.
She found a shady spot under the wall of the Imperial College and stood there to avoid the sun.
Some of the students who were watching felt that it was boring and said goodbye to Feng Zongping and others. In the end, only three people were left.
The three of them also hid under the wall. Manbao tilted his head back and stared at them, "Why don't you leave?"
Feng Zongping smiled and said, "We have nothing else to do, so we'll just wait with you. By the way, you don't look very old, so your junior brother must be even younger. Is he fourteen?"
Feng Zongping looked at Manbao with suspicion. She looked only about twelve or thirteen years old. Wouldn't her junior brother be even younger?
Manbao knew the rules of the Sixth Academy, which only accepted students aged fourteen to twenty-one, but "they came to study at the emperor's order."
In other words, it’s gone.
Feng Zongping was surprised. "Your accent doesn't sound like our Chang'an. Where are you from?"
Manbao looked at him without saying anything.
Feng Zongping smiled and said, "How about this? I'll ask you a question, and you can ask me a question. You can't lie, and you can't say you don't know. If you really don't know, we'll ask the next question until you can answer it. How about that?"
Manbao thought this was a good idea and nodded.
Yun Xinxuan and Yi Ziyang standing by looked helpless.
"Where is the young lady from?"
"I'm from Jiannan Dao."
Feng Zongping: ...This answer is quite broad, but he also figured it out. Although she spoke Mandarin, she was obviously from Shu.
"May I have your name?"
Man Bao said, "Now it's my turn to ask, among all the Confucian classics, which one does your chief priest admire the most?"
Feng Zongping: "Of course it's The Analects."
Manbao said, "My last name is Zhou Man. Which book does your chief priest like to quote the meaning of Mo Yi the most?"
Feng Zongping thought for a moment and looked at Yun Xinxuan.
Yun Xinxuan smiled and said, "The Great Learning, I guess. I also often smoke The Analects."
Feng Zongping quickly asked, "What's your junior brother's name?"
Manbao: "Bai Cheng."
Feng Zongping was waiting, and when he saw that she was silent, he asked, "What about the other one?"
"Are you going to ask two questions at once?"
Feng Zongping tried his luck and said aggrievedly, "No, ask me first."
"Among the students you know who applied for this recruitment, how many do you think can be admitted to the Imperial College if they take the exam normally?"
Feng Zongping looked at her for a while and said, "Two."
"Including the junior fellow who is slightly stronger than me?" Man Bao said, "Answer my question first."
Feng Zongping was silent for a moment before replying, "Including, what's your junior brother's father's name, and what official position did he hold?"
Manbao made a "two" gesture, indicating that these were two questions.
Feng Zongping nodded and said, "I know. You can ask another question later."
Manbao smiled and said, "My junior brother's father is Bai Li, and he has never held an official position."
Feng Zongping blinked, then realized what was happening. He pointed at Manbao and said, "You're so cunning! Don't your two junior brothers have the same father?"
Manbao smiled at him and asked, "Is this a question?"
"No!" Feng Zongping said quickly, "Forget it, ask me."
"What kind of questions do the professors like to ask when they test you on poetry and prose in the summer?"
Feng Zongping looked at Yi Ziyang, who thought for a moment and said, "Lotus, and bamboo and the like. Sometimes they point to a corner of the garden and ask us to compose a poem. That's a lot."
Manbao wrote down everything. Seeing Feng Zongping wanted to ask more questions, she stopped him and said, "Okay, I have no more questions."
Feng Zongping couldn't hold it in any longer and said, "I only have one last question. You can ask me another one."
Manbao thought about it and nodded, "Okay, go ahead and ask."
"Who is your husband?"
"Zhuang Xun, courtesy name Xunmei," Manbao asked with a grin, "Are you the son of the Minister of Justice?"
Yun Xinxuan and Yi Ziyang also looked at her in surprise.
Feng Zongping asked, "How do you know?"
Manbao didn't need to wait for his answer. She smiled and said, "I have a friend who looks exactly like you. His father used to work in the Ministry of Justice. When you asked me that question just now, I was thinking, could your father also be in the Ministry of Justice? But then I thought, even if your father isn't from the Ministry of Justice, it's possible that your grandfather was. What a coincidence, your last name is Feng."
Feng Zongping glared at Yun Xinxuan. It was Yun Xinxuan who had called him by his name. He asked, "Who is your friend?"
"You're just like him, always having lots of questions. But unlike him, he never asks me these questions directly." Manbao saw Bai Dalang coming out with a basket of books, so she waved to them and said, "I'm going home now. See you later."
Bai Dalang came over with a red face. Seeing Feng Zongping and others wearing the Confucian robes of the Imperial College, he bowed and saluted, then got on the carriage with Manbao and left.
"Brother Bai, why is your face so red?"
Bai Dalang said, "It's sun-dried."
"Did you buy the test paper?"
Bai Dalang nodded, took out two booklets from the book basket and said, "It's all here."
Manbao flipped through it and said in surprise, "It's quite complete. Are you sure it's real?"
"No one in the Imperial College will forge information, don't worry."
Manbao: "How much is one copy?"
"This volume mainly contains calligraphy and commentaries, worth five taels of silver. This volume contains essays and poems, worth ten taels of silver."
Manbao opened his mouth wide, and it took him a while to find his voice. "Brother Bai, this is hand-copied. It only contains questions from the mid-year and end-of-year exams within the past three years. Why is it so expensive?"
Bai Dalang nodded.
"I haven't even asked about the exam yet."
"I have all the exam questions from previous years. I used my connections to buy them when I came to Beijing to take the exam. It cost me twenty taels of silver. They have all the questions from the past ten years."
Manbao sighed, "Doing the test papers is really profitable."
Bai Dalang also thought, "But this scroll is not easy to buy. The scrolls of the Imperial College are rarely circulated outside the school. At most, some large bookstores have a few copies, but they are only sold secretly to the children of wealthy people. Ordinary people can't even ask about it, let alone buy it."
The reason why Bai Dalang was able to buy it was because Mr. Zhuang took him to see Mr. Lan. Mr. Lan gave him a letter. After he arrived in the capital, he found a school official to act as a go-between and was able to buy it.
Although there were no repeated questions in this year's exam, by looking at the exam questions from previous years, he could roughly know the scope of the questions set by the doctoral students, which book was more involved and which book was less involved.
You will be more confident when taking the exam.
Manbao put the book away and said to Bai Dalang, "Brother Bai, go back and ask Shanbao and Bai Er for the money. My five taels of silver are in there, too."
She originally thought that five taels of silver plus the silver given by Bai Shan would be enough, but who knew that the test paper would be so expensive.
Manbao looked at the papers in his hand, rolled his eyes, and asked, "Brother Bai, if I ask my nephews to copy the papers and sell them, will they be sold?"
The next update will be around 8pm
(End of this chapter)
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