Chapter 527 A Dream of Youth 59
Xie Ning, hands on his hips, was rather speechless. "Brother, you're always at the bottom in riding and archery. Tell me, why can't you pass the exam...?"
Xie Qi was skilled at archery, missing the target six out of ten times!
"My eyesight is bad, that's why I can't hit the target!" Xie Qi stubbornly insisted, refusing to admit that he was the one who was incompetent.
"And Bao'er, you don't know, riding and archery is very difficult. Think about it, the bow is so heavy, and the horse is tall and fierce! If it were you, you would be scared to tears."
Xie Ning was not intimidated by Xie Qi. Although she could not shoot arrows, she was very good at riding. Even when she was riding a horse, she was very accurate with a gun. Although she could not hit the target every time, she could hit it seven or eight times out of ten.
"Just practice more and you'll get better."
Xie Ning asked Qingli to place the tray on the table. Inside were wontons and millet cakes, which were savory, golden in color, and very crispy. They even stretched when you took a bite.
The two read in the study for a while before returning to the master bedroom. They huddled in the outer room of the Chen family's east suite to keep warm during the winter. Although the charcoal fire was smokeless, it was warm and made them sleepy.
Xie Qi yawned, but still forced himself to stay awake, as did Xie Ning.
Mrs. Chen put down her needlework and said helplessly, "If you're sleepy, just go to sleep. You don't have to be so strict, especially Bao'er. You're still young and can't stay up all night."
"No!" Xie Qi rubbed his eyes to make his gaze more firm. "Shoudong is a prayer for our parents and elders to live to a ripe old age and be healthy."
Xie Ning nodded and pulled out a book to read under the dim light.
The yellowed pages of the book exude the fragrance of ink; plum branches drift through the wooden window and quietly bloom indoors; new snow weighs down the branches; on New Year's Eve, one listens to the spring rain by the window.
In early February, tender green grass sprouts break through the ground to greet the spring breeze, but the white snow, impatient for spring's arrival, transforms into flying blossoms that drift through the courtyard, creating a magnificent scene.
In the capital, some people smiled, while others shed tears in the wind and snow.
The imperial court issued an edict to abolish poetry and prose and the classics examination subjects, and decided to use the classics, essays, and policy questions to examine the Jinshi degree. Those who were well-informed had already studied the key points, but the students who came from all over the country only found out at that time. Those who were not good at the classics and policy questions were at a loss and did not know what the future held.
Xie Wangzhi didn't feel much about this. He was better at classical studies and policy essays, while his poetry and prose were only so-so. However, the exam content had changed so much this year that it was no longer possible to focus on the key points as in the past.
Unfolding a sheet of white paper, Xie Wangzhi circled and marked on the paper. Recently, border frictions have been serious. Although he did not know the reason, this political situation could not be ignored.
There are also uprisings in various places, but this is a sensitive topic and probably won't be selected as an exam question. Then there are the new laws. I heard not long ago that a group of officials who obstructed the implementation of the new laws were dealt with, which shows the attitude of the higher authorities.
Therefore, this should also be reflected in the test questions.
While Xie Wangzhi was busy preparing for the imperial examinations in the capital, the weaving workshop jointly run by the Chen and Huo families had been successfully established.
At first, they didn't recruit many female workers, only thirty-three. Xie Ning even went to see it. Chen Yunsheng not only brought back kapok seedlings, but also a cotton gin, saying it was used to remove cotton seeds.
They first used a bow, a wooden tool with a rope attached, to remove the dirt and knots by striking the bow with a piece of wood. Then they used a spinning rod and a spindle to spin the fibers into thread, and finally used a loom hanging between the trees to weave the thread into cloth.
The division of labor among the four basic processes of rolling, carding, spinning, and weaving is very clear.
Xie Ning also spotted a familiar face inside: Deng Da, who was thin and small with a sallow complexion—no, it should be called Deng Xiaoniangzi.
No one expected that Madam Yu, the mother of this young lady Deng, was actually a skilled cotton textile worker. Madam Chen knew how to spin thread and weave cloth, but she was unaware of the preceding processes.
The mother and her two daughters were not refugees who had come here to seek refuge due to the flood, but rather from the north.
It is said that Hebei and Shaanxi suffered severe disasters and could not survive, so they went south. They were displaced along the way and their families were separated. Yu only took her two daughters to Quanzhou, but there was no news of her husband and son.
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