091, County Examination (3)
091, County Examination (3)
On this day, the people of Kyoto Prefecture were just like any other. They paid no attention to the small county examination. Even if one passed, they would only obtain the status of a "tongsheng," not even an official. In a place that had produced countless top-ranking scholars, second-ranking scholars, and third-ranking scholars, a mere "tongsheng" was nothing.
However, families whose children have entered the examination hall are more concerned about this exam.
That morning, while doing business, Lu Youtian and Liu Sanniang kept looking out into the street, their ears perked up, hoping to hear any news related to the county exam. Unfortunately, even after listening for a long time, they could only find that everyone around them was talking about other things, and few mentioned the exam.
After the New Year, their stall business not only did not get worse, but got better day by day.
The customer who was leaving after dinner stood up and said, "Boss, give me two jars of meat sauce to take away."
"Okay, here you go." Liu Sanniang brought two jars of meat sauce over to the guests and said with a smile, "The meat sauce is one hundred coins a jar, so two jars is two hundred coins. The four of you ate four bowls of rice, and that's forty coins over there, so the total is two hundred and forty coins, right?"
"That's right." The customer paid the money, took the jar and left.
"Goodbye, come again next time." Liu Sanniang put the copper coins given by the guest into the small bag on her waist, and watched the guest leave with a smile.
There have been a lot of caravans leaving the city lately, and some small caravans have ordered a lot of sausages and bacon from them, as well as meat sauces and butcher's takeaways, so they have a lot of orders every day. In addition, there are also many new and old customers who come to their stall to eat, so they also have to ensure that there is something to sell at the stall every day, and they prepare a lot of things every day.
Lu Youtian had a stall near the imperial city, and business was good. Besides selling braised pork rice, he also sold braised pork sesame cakes. He set up his stall early, and in the mornings, some officials going to court would ask their servants to buy braised pork sesame cakes to take away. Later in the evening, the attendants and servants who accompanied these officials on outings would come to his stall for dinner, or buy a couple of braised pork sesame cakes to eat on the way out.
He has been setting up his stall here for two months, and already has many repeat customers who come here regularly to eat and buy sesame cakes.
He had originally been thinking about setting up a stall outside the Fengtian government office today, but he was afraid that some of his old customers who often came to eat there would not be able to find him, so after thinking about it he decided not to move.
Fortunately, he didn't bring much today, and business here was good. He sold all the things before noon, packed up his stall and went back to his wife.
At this time, Zhao Lang was sitting on the second floor of the teahouse, drinking the tea in his hand calmly, looking at the street downstairs where cars and horses were coming and going, and he also saw Lu's father driving a donkey cart on the street.
When Qi Jun arrived, he saw Zhao Lang sitting alone in the teahouse drinking tea. He groaned and walked over, fanning himself. Seeing that Zhao Lang ignored him, he didn't care. He found a seat and sat down. He picked up the teapot and poured himself a cup of tea. He asked the young master, "You seem to be in a good mood today?"
Zhao Lang then turned around and looked at Qi Jun without saying anything.
The two of them just sat there watching the hustle and bustle of traffic and people passing by downstairs. No one mentioned anything about what was happening in Kyoto Prefecture, or outside of Kyoto Prefecture. It was like two old people with no desires or ambitions who had nothing to do and just found a place to sit down, drink tea and enjoy the scenery.
***
“Dongdongdong——”
At noon, the sound of drums was heard again in the examination room.
This time the drum sounded to remind the candidates that the morning exam was over, and then the soldiers came down to collect their answer sheets.
After Lu Mingfei handed in his paper, he stood up with his badge and went to queue for the restroom. He had been holding his pee since morning and if he continued to hold it in, he thought his bladder would explode!
Fortunately, the examination room rules here are not completely inhumane. There is time left for everyone to go to the toilet and eat at noon.
Everyone took turns going to the toilet and returning to their seats. If anyone needed something to eat, they would raise their hands and someone would give them water and steamed buns. Of course, the water and steamed buns were not free, but had to be purchased.
Lu Mingfei ordered one too, and was charged twenty coins for a bowl of water and a steamed bun. Twenty coins was enough to buy two large bowls of braised pork rice at their stall, but in this exam room, there was only a bowl of water and a cold steamed bun!
It’s such a rip-off!
He took a bite of the steamed bun angrily, and the cold and hard bun almost broke his teeth!
This steamed bun is as hard as a rock!
After noticing that the expressions of the people around him when they took their first bite of steamed bun were the same as his, Lu Mingfei suddenly felt a little relieved. It seemed that he was not the only one whose teeth were broken, so he felt relieved.
Although there were many people in the examination room, everyone was very well behaved. They stood up and sat down very quietly, and walked as quietly as possible, fearing that even the slightest noise would leave a bad impression on the examiner. So even though there were many people in the examination room, no one made any noise.
Half an hour later, the drum sounded again, and this time it meant that the exam would continue.
Before the drum sounded, each candidate returned to his or her seat and waited for the afternoon exam to begin.
This time, each of them received another test paper, and the signs held up by the soldiers wrote the questions they had to answer.
The afternoon exam question is to write a poem related to "Spring".
When he saw the requirements of the question, Lu Mingfei first picked up his pen and wrote his name and hometown on the test paper before entering a state of thinking.
He had read countless poems about spring, but he didn't want to plagiarize the masterpieces of his predecessors. He wanted to write his own poem. He didn't want it to be immortalized, but at least he wanted it to pass the examiner's test.
...Ah, got it!
When an inspiration flashed through his mind, Lu Mingfei seized it in time and wrote a poem on paper.
While others were still pondering, he had already written the poem on the draft paper.
However, no one around had gotten up at that time, so he did not rush to copy the poem onto the paper. Instead, he continued to ponder whether every word in the poem was used correctly and whether replacing another word would be more clever.
It wasn't until he heard someone standing up to hand in their papers that Lu Mingfei picked up his brush and carefully copied the revised poem onto the manuscript, word by word. When he finished writing the last word and saw the neatly copied handwriting, a small smile appeared in his heart.
He felt he had done well on this morning's exam, and the poem he wrote this afternoon should also be above the passing mark. If the questions on the next four days' exams remained of this difficulty, the remaining exams shouldn't be too difficult for him, and he should be able to pass this county exam.
When all the seats around him were empty, Lu Mingfei picked up the test paper and his exam basket and went to the chief examiner in front to hand in the test paper.
After handing in the paper, he followed the other candidates out and lined up at the door waiting to leave.
“Dongdongdong——”
The drums sounded again, and the exam for the day officially ended.
At this time, the candidates who were still in the venue either wrote a poem hastily and handed it in, or left their papers blank and had not finished writing.
But the soldiers who come down to collect the papers will take them away regardless of whether you have finished writing or not.
At this time, Lu Mingfei had already lined up with the candidates in front of him and came out.
When he came out of the examination room, he saw Ye Zhuoran, Zhang Lingxuan, and the senior brother waiting for him at the place they had agreed to meet that morning. He walked over to the three of them with a smile and asked them, "Why are you all out so early?"
"We just got out not long ago." Fu Boming said.
Seeing that there were only four of them here and Cai Renjun was nowhere to be seen, Lu Mingfei asked, "Has Mr. Cai not come out yet?"
"He left a long time ago." Ye Zhuoran curled his lips when talking about Cai Renjun. It was obvious that he also didn't like the classmate who was not on the same page with them.
However, Lu Mingfei felt that it was better for Cai Renjun to leave, so as to avoid the awkwardness of seeing each other. "Then let's go back too."
"Let's go, you two can go back together in our carriage." Their carriage was waiting nearby. Ye Zhuoran invited Lu Mingfei and their senior brother to go back together in his carriage.
As for Zhang Lingxuan, he didn't need anyone to invite him and got on the carriage of the Ye Mansion.
"I'll get off here, so I don't have to turn in."
When the carriage returned to the alley entrance, Lu Mingfei asked the driver to stop and was the first to get out. After getting out, he waved to his classmates who were still sitting in the carriage and said, "Then I'll go back first. After the exam is over, I'll invite you to my house."
"Okay, see you tomorrow." Ye Zhuoran waved to Lu Mingfei.
Everyone agreed on the time and place to meet tomorrow. Lu Mingfei watched the carriage leave before turning around and heading home.
"elder brother!"
"Dad, my brother is back!"
Before he could even walk back to the door of his house, he heard two familiar voices, and then two little guys pounced on him like two little cannonballs.
Lu Mingfei quickly raised the basket in his hand, fearing that the two boys would knock over his exam basket.
When Lu Youtian came out of the yard, he saw his two sons rushing towards the eldest son who had returned home, one after the other, and shouted from behind: "Hey, hey, don't you two rush over your eldest brother!"
As he spoke, Lu Youtian strode over, picked up the two boys, one in each hand, and took them away from the eldest son. He looked at the eldest son with a smile on his face and said to him, "You're back. Your mother made your favorite dishes. Come home for dinner."
"Okay." Lu Mingfei nodded with a smile and followed his father and two younger brothers back home.
During dinner that night, Lu Youtian and Liu Sanniang did not ask about their eldest son's exam. The couple just kept urging him to eat more.
After dinner, the couple did not let their eldest son help with any work, but urged him to wash up and go to bed.
Lu Mingfei had no choice but to wash up and then go back to the house to read. Even the children at home were coaxed away by his parents and did not disturb him from reading and resting. Author's words: Thank you Bole 9492239 (9492239) for your support, mua! To know more exciting content, please leave me a message on Liancheng Reading
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