After a few days of rest, Xiaoqiangzi also faced the martial arts examination. Although the whole family was quite confident, they were still a little worried because weapons are dangerous. In the end, the whole family simply went to the site.
As expected, Xiao Qiangzi is indeed a disciple trained by the puppet. Even though he is still young, he can already defeat those young men in their 30s.
At the age of 14, he won first place in the martial arts examination, which caused a sensation in the entire capital. Moreover, he was so young that as soon as he stepped off the stage, people came down to arrest him.
At first, Tang Baozhu and the others were quite startled. Their son hadn't done anything wrong, so why were they arresting people so suddenly?
They almost came to blows, since their own men were quite skilled. Fortunately, after the other party explained, it turned out that their master had taken a liking to Xiao Qiangzi and had come to the notice board to find a son-in-law.
Tang Baozhu originally thought that only the imperial examination had the saying of "catching a son-in-law after the results are announced," but she did not expect that even the military examination had the saying of "catching a son-in-law after the results are announced."
Although the other party was quite influential, Tang Baozhu still refused. After all, her son had never met the girl, and what if he didn't like her? She still hoped that her son would marry her because he liked her, rather than being casually matched up by the two families.
Knowing that it was the neighbor's daughter who had taken a liking to Xiao Qiangzi, Tang Baozhu felt it was an opportunity and that they should meet. So she made an appointment to have tea together in a couple of days so that they could meet, and if things went well, they could proceed with the next steps.
The other party might be a housekeeper who can't make the decision; they just said that if the host family has discussed it, they will send an invitation to the family and then come to visit.
After everyone returned home, Tang Baozhu looked at her son with amusement. Since he was her son, she was already used to seeing him, but now that she looked at him closely, she found that he was indeed quite handsome. Xiao Ping'an was the same; both of her sons were very handsome.
Surprisingly, even some young women like her. Thinking about how I feel so young, and suddenly I'm going to be a mother-in-law, I actually feel a little awkward.
When Xiao Ping'an's results came out, knowing the custom of currying favor after the results were announced, they didn't let him see the results; instead, they sent the servants to check them.
Everyone sat on the second floor, staring at the red list in the distance, filled with anticipation. They wondered how Xiao Ping'an's results were. After a while, they saw their servants running upstairs happily from outside.
"Master, Madam, Eldest Young Master, Second Young Master, Eldest Miss, Second Miss, congratulations to the master! Eldest Young Master came in first place."
"Little Ping An is really amazing, she's so capable."
Everyone in the family was overjoyed; they were practically jumping for joy. Li Jun immediately announced that each servant would receive an extra six months' worth of monthly allowance, a stark contrast to his usual taciturn demeanor, and he was incredibly happy.
Now that we know the results, we should prepare to go back. Since the crowds will definitely increase, we should head back first to avoid getting stuck outside.
Three days later is the time for the audience with the emperor, at which time the emperor will select the top two scholars (Zhuangyuan, Tanhua, and Bangyan).
Tang Baozhu glanced at her eldest son, always worried that he might miss out on the top scholar position because of his appearance. After all, the third-ranked scholar was usually chosen from among those with handsome faces and elegant bearing.
My son is really good-looking. I always feel like someone else will be the top scholar. Even if he ends up as the third-ranked scholar because of his looks, it doesn't seem so bad.
Three days later, Xiao Ping'an went to the imperial examination. After the top three candidates were selected, there would be a custom of parading him through the streets on horseback. The whole family wanted to see him parade through the streets on horseback, so they booked a restaurant near the street in advance so that they could see him more clearly. They really went to great lengths to do so.
During the annual imperial examinations, street-facing locations were highly sought after, and shop owners made a fortune, as street-facing locations were awarded to the highest bidder.
Tang Baozhu's family spent over 1,000 taels of silver to secure this position. If they weren't already wealthy, they really wouldn't have been willing to spend that much.
We ate a meal at the hotel for lunch, which cost more than 1,000 taels of silver. Since we only had one meal, everyone was so worried about Xiao Ping'an that they could hardly eat and didn't even know how the food tasted.
Around 2 PM, we heard the sound of drums coming from afar, followed by waves of shouts outside.
I quickly went to the window and saw a group of people walking from the palace gate in the distance. At the front were the officials, and behind them were three people sitting on horseback. I couldn't see them very clearly from a distance.
The only thing that was clear was that, apart from the three people sitting on horseback, the entire group was dressed in red, which was far too festive.
This was the first time Tang Baozhu had ever seen the women on both sides so excited. They were throwing handkerchiefs, purses, and other things at the three men, and even flowers.
This made her particularly curious. Although it was March, it wasn't very cold, but it wasn't hot either; it was still chilly. Where did they pick so many fresh flowers?
As the procession drew closer, they saw that the person sitting at the very front was not Xiao Ping'an. Xiao Ping'an was sitting in the middle. It seemed that their guess was correct; of the three, Xiao Ping'an was the most handsome.
She had the most flower handkerchiefs and purses on her body, and she kept dodging and weaving while sitting on the horse. The other two were similar.
Seeing their older brother approaching, Yao'er and Le'er shouted "Big Brother!" to the crowd below, waving their hands incessantly.
When Xiao Ping'an heard his two younger sisters' voices, he quickly looked up at the restaurant next door and saw his family waving to him from the second floor. He quickly reached out and waved back, a smile unconsciously appearing on his face.
The moment that smile appeared, the shouts from the side unconsciously grew louder, startling Xiao Ping'an so much that she quickly straightened her face and dared not smile anymore.
He had never seen anything like this before. The girls weren't shy at all, which he found incredibly unreserved and terrified him.
At this moment, Tang Baozhu heard the voices of the people next to her, "Quickly tell Father to send someone to the palace gate to catch the son-in-law. You all hurry up and tell Father so that someone else doesn't beat him to it. Tell him not to catch the wrong one, and to pick the best-looking one."
Li Jun and the others heard it too. At this point, no one wanted to watch the show anymore; everyone was worried about Xiao Ping'an's safety. They knew there were local customs, and if he was really caught, the marriage would have to be honored even if they didn't want to.
"Quickly send someone to guard Xiao Ping'an at the palace gate. Make sure she isn't captured by anyone else."
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