217, Papermaking
217, Papermaking
"Everyone, please stand up." Zhang Xuezheng, the chief examiner of this provincial examination, who was walking in front, smiled when he saw so many students. He said, "I am very pleased to see so many knowledgeable young talents in Dayan."
"Who is Lu Jieyuan? Is he here?"
"I am Lu Mingfei, a student. Greetings to the Provincial Governor and all the gentlemen." Lu Mingfei originally did not want to step forward, but when he heard his name being called by the Provincial Governor, he could only stand up and salute the chief examiner and the examiners behind him.
"You are Lu Jieyuan?" Zhang Xuezheng was surprised to see that the top scorer of this year's provincial examination was so young. He saw that his colleagues around him were also very surprised.
None of them had expected that the student who could write such sophisticated and insightful articles was only a teenager of seventeen or eighteen years old.
"The young are truly formidable!"
"The young are to be feared, the young are to be feared."
The academician and the examiners who came with him were all surprised when they saw the top scorer.
Afterwards, the academician examined Lu Jieyuan's knowledge in front of everyone.
Facing the examiner's scrutiny and questions, Lu Mingfei answered them without hesitation. In front of so many people and the examiners, he couldn't hide his shortcomings, otherwise others would suspect that his origins as the top scorer were unclear.
When the people around saw this scene, they all knew that Lu Mingfei, who was able to win the first place in the provincial examination at such a young age, was not a person without knowledge and real ability.
Even those who had doubted Lu Mingfei's actual achievements and knowledge because of his young age, when they saw Lu Mingfei answering the questions raised by the academician in front of everyone and answering them very insightfully, all the doubts they had about Lu Mingfei disappeared.
Mr. Fu stood in the crowd and felt very proud when he saw that the students he taught were so capable.
Zhang Lingxuan and Fu Boming looked at their friend with a look of pride in their eyes.
"Okay, okay." Zhang Xuezheng looked at the student in front of him with full admiration and satisfaction in his eyes.
Even the other examiners looked at Lu Mingfei with satisfaction and appreciation in their eyes.
Facing everyone's gazes, Lu Mingfei appeared calm on the surface, but he was actually a little nervous inside.
After examining Lu Jieyuan's knowledge, Zhang Xuezheng randomly selected a few students to examine their knowledge. However, with Lu Jieyuan as a shining example, Zhang Xuezheng always felt that something was missing from the students he selected.
The other people present also made comparisons in their minds, and the way they looked at Lu Mingfei was somewhat different from the beginning.
However, there were looks of admiration for Lu Mingfei, as well as looks of vigilance towards Lu Mingfei.
After this year's provincial examination, the metropolitan examination will take place in February of next year. With Lu Mingfei's ranking, he will definitely be able to participate in next year's metropolitan examination. So, if Lu Mingfei is there, there will definitely be a place for him among the top few in the metropolitan examination. If someone takes up a spot, then they will have one less spot.
So Lu Mingfei is a strong rival to all of them!
Lu Mingfei couldn't help but feel the gazes falling on him. But what could he do? If he was truly capable, he could meet him in the exam room. If he could beat him, he would be willing to retreat to the back. However, if he couldn't pass the exam and was jealous of him, then he could only let his jealousy continue.
"Everyone, please take a seat." After Zhang Xuezheng examined the knowledge of several students, he led everyone to the table.
Lu Mingfei was the top scorer in this provincial examination, so naturally he sat next to the provincial education commissioner.
***
After the Lu Ming Banquet ended that day, Lu Mingfei returned home and took Zhang Qi and several younger brothers to study papermaking.
As for the invitations to banquets, he asked his mother to reject them all and told others that he had returned to the Imperial Academy to study.
The imperial examination was approaching, and no one could say anything to him if he went back to the Imperial College to study.
Unbeknownst to Lu Mingfei, because he had asked his family to help him decline many invitations, everyone knew he had returned to the Imperial College to study the day after the Luming Feast. Many people who had originally wanted to attend tea parties and poetry gatherings after the provincial examination gave up their plans to go out and have fun, and many scholars stayed at home to study.
However, he was busy making paper at home and didn't realize that he was invisibly rolling everyone up with him.
At this time, Lu Mingfei was busy making paper at home and had no time to pay attention to what was happening outside.
The water in the vat was already slurry. He used a gauze net to scoop out the paper from the water, turned around and placed the paper on the gauze upside down on the wooden board.
"Is that it?" Zhang Qi widened his eyes as he looked at the paper on the wooden board.
"Not yet, there's still one last step." Looking at the finished paper, a smile appeared on Lu Mingfei's face.
Glancing at Zhang Qi, Lu Mingfei grinned and said, "It still needs to be dried."
"Brother, you are so awesome!" But even so, it was enough to make Zhang Qi surprised that their eldest brother had such ability.
But since their eldest brother could even get first place in the provincial examination, it was no wonder that he could make paper. At this moment, Zhang Qi was full of admiration for their eldest brother.
***
After school was over in the afternoon, Lu Mingrui, Lu Mingcong and Zhang Xiaobao returned to the courtyard. When they saw the dried paper, the three boys screamed with joy.
"Brother, you are so awesome!" Lu Mingrui threw himself into his brother's arms.
"Brother, is this the paper we made?" In Lu Mingcong's eyes, they participated in the papermaking process, so this paper was made by them together.
Only Zhang Xiaobao touched the white paper, his eyes and heart full of surprise.
"Yes, we made the paper." Lu Mingfei nodded and shared the credit with his younger brothers and Zhang Qi who had been helping with the work from beginning to end.
Of course, there is also the old father who retrieved these materials and occasionally came to help.
However, his father has been out of town these days and has not returned yet. I don’t know whether he will come back this afternoon.
Seeing his younger brothers coming back, they collected the dried paper and prepared to take it to the store to show his mother.
When the brothers arrived at the braised food shop, they found that their father had already returned.
But when they entered the backyard, they saw his father pulling up his trouser legs. It seemed that his knee was injured. Lu Mingfei's brows immediately furrowed. He strode over and saw his father hurriedly lowering his trouser legs to cover the wound. "Dad, how did you get hurt?"
"No, no, I just fell accidentally, it's nothing serious." Lu Youtian didn't dare let the children see his injuries.
Lu Mingrui bent down to lift up his father's trouser legs and said, "Take a look."
"Don't move." Lu Youtian grabbed his youngest son's hand to prevent him from touching his trouser legs.
Lu Mingfei stared at his father with suspicion, "Do you have any other injuries? Do you want to go to the clinic to see a doctor?"
"It's okay, it's okay. I just bumped my knee. There's nothing else wrong. Don't worry. Dad is not a three-year-old child. How could he not know how to deal with his own injuries?" Lu Youtian also comforted the children.
Liu Sanniang stood aside and didn't say anything.
Lu Mingfei glanced at his father and mother, and without asking about his father's injuries, he took out the paper they had made today from his bag and showed it to his father and mother, "This is the paper we made ourselves."
"Good, that's great!" Lu Youtian touched the white paper and said to Zhang Qi, "Go to the pancake shop and see if your Uncle Lu is there. Ask him to come over here. And by the way, ask your Aunt Xu to come over for dinner."
"Okay, I'll go right away." Hearing this, Zhang Qi turned around and went out to the pancake shop to look for someone.
However, Lu Qingfeng was not at the pancake shop at that time, so Zhang Qi went to the hot pot restaurant to look for him.
When Zhang Qi followed Lu Qingfeng and Xu Yueniang back to the braised food shop, it was time for dinner.
After everyone had dinner together, Lu Mingfei took out the paper and showed it to his adoptive father and mother.
Lu Qingfeng hadn't expected his adopted son and the other children to actually create some paper. "This paper looks just as good as the high-quality paper sold in bookstores."
"Well, this paper is a little whiter. I tried it, and it absorbs water well," Lu Mingfei said. He often went to bookstores to buy paper, so he knew what kind of paper they had.
He hadn't thought about making his own paper before because he knew that making paper would affect the interests of some people.
In the past, he was just a young student, and those powerful families could easily control him like squeezing an ant. But now it was different. He was a successful candidate in the imperial examination. If anyone wanted to touch him and his family, they would have to think carefully about whether they could do it without letting anyone know.
In short, he is no longer afraid of others and can bite off a piece of meat from the hands of those families who monopolize the papermaking industry.
Letting his younger brothers go play somewhere else, Lu Mingfei, his father and his adoptive father closed the door in the main hall and talked about opening a new paper mill and pen mill.
After finishing the business, he still couldn't forget the injury on his father's knee and asked how his father got injured.
Seeing that he couldn't hide it anymore, Lu Youtian had no choice but to tell his eldest son: "On my way back to the city today, a group of refugees stopped me and I accidentally bumped into him during the shoving."
"You should bring a few more people with you when you go in and out in the future and be more careful." Lu Qingfeng said to Lu Youtian.
"Okay, I got it." Lu Youtian glanced at his eldest son, knowing that he was worried about him, and promised him that he would bring more people with him when traveling in the future.
But this time, his father was stopped on the road, which also told Lu Mingfei a bad signal, that is, the refugees outside the city were so hungry that they were robbing people on the road, which made him feel a bad premonition.
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