Chapter 114 The Provincial Examination (Two chapters combined)
The old lady made Wu Yang her servant all day long just to get her sweets. Wu Yang would say things like, "Miss Gu, I'm hungry, I want some candied fruit," or "Miss Gu, I'm thirsty, I want some super sweet mung bean soup."
When Wu Yang returned to the villa, he was utterly bewildered.
Prince An met him in the room: "How was it? Did you see the Empress Dowager?"
Wu Yang looked pale: "I did see him..."
But was that really the Empress Dowager?
Wu Yang recounted his miserable day to Prince An.
Prince An was shocked. He recalled that when he was in the village yesterday, he seemed to have heard the Empress Dowager say some strange things, but he was too excited and didn't take it to heart. Later, although he realized what was going on, he thought that the Empress Dowager was pretending to be crazy to lull the Gu family, who had imprisoned her, into a false sense of security.
“I don’t think so,” Wu Yang pondered. “When Miss Gu went to fetch water, only the Empress Dowager and I were left in the room. If the Empress Dowager was pretending to be crazy before, then when there was no one else around, she should have been honest with me.”
However, that didn't happen. The Empress Dowager was only focused on eating her fried eggs, and every time he tried to speak, she would raise her hand to interrupt him.
How come he never noticed before that the Empress Dowager was so greedy?
In Prince An's memory, Empress Dowager Zhuang was not the type to neglect important matters for a little food. However, it was true that she could not eat too many sweets. The imperial physician had advised her that since she was old, it was better for her to eat a light diet.
Prince An murmured, "How could this be? Has the Empress Dowager lost her memory? And has it caused such a drastic change in her personality?"
Or perhaps this is her true nature; she has been wearing a mask she can't take off for decades in the palace.
Wu Yang dared not speculate: "What does the Prince plan to do? Is he still going to take the Empress Dowager back to the capital?"
“I don’t know,” Prince An sighed.
An empress dowager who only knows how to eat and drink for free would not be a match for His Majesty, but he was really worried about leaving her here, under the nose of the Marquis of Ding'an.
Prince An pondered for a moment, then, as if struck by a thought, asked Wu Yang, "There are a few things I don't understand."
"What?" Wu Yang asked.
Prince An pushed open the window and looked at the courtyard filled with flowers and plants: "How did the Empress Dowager lose her memory? Is this related to the Marquis of Ding'an's residence?"
Wu Yang followed and asked, "Does the Prince mean that they deliberately made the Empress Dowager stupid?"
Prince An shot him a cold glare.
Wu Yang shrank back and lowered his head, saying, "Your subordinate misspoke."
How can you say the Empress Dowager is stupid? Although the couple is indeed a bit silly.
Prince An asked, "Have you ascertained Miss Gu's identity?"
Wu Yang said, "It's been investigated. She's the older of the twins. Back then, when the Lady Hou gave birth at the temple, her child was switched with a village woman's. Gu Jinyu should be from that village. However, because they've raised her for so many years and developed a bond, even after discovering the truth recently, they didn't send Gu Jinyu back. As for the real Miss Gu, it's said that she herself didn't want to return to the manor. Moreover, she's already married, and her husband is from out of town who ended up here."
Prince An asked, "From whom did you inquire?"
Wu Yang said, "I asked Lady Hou directly."
Yao didn't think it was a secret, and when Wu Yang asked her, she told him the truth.
Prince An pondered, "So, Miss Gu wasn't deliberately placed in the village by Marquis Gu?"
Wu Yang shook his head and said, "It shouldn't be. I suspect that the Empress Dowager was taken in by Miss Gu after she lost her memory. But... why did she become Miss Gu's husband's aunt?"
“Leprosy,” Prince An said, narrowing his eyes.
"What?" Wu Yang was taken aback.
Prince An raised his hand and stroked the potted begonia on the windowsill: "Didn't you just say that Miss Gu's husband is from out of town?"
Wu Yang was completely bewildered: "Yes, but what does this have to do with them taking in the Empress Dowager? Could it be that Miss Gu's husband is a relative of the Empress Dowager?"
That can't be right. The Empress Dowager is of such high status and wealth, how could she possibly be related to a poor boy from the countryside?
Prince An said thoughtfully, "If the Empress Dowager contracted leprosy and fainted at Miss Gu's doorstep, and Miss Gu touched her without knowing it, what would you do in her shoes?"
Wu Yang's eyes widened: "This is terrible! Leprosy is so contagious, even contact with it will get you sent to the leprosy ward! Could it be..."
Prince An gave a faint smile: "That's right. In order to avoid being sent to the leper colony, they had no choice but to take in the Empress Dowager and cure her. To avoid arousing suspicion, they lied and said that she was the great-aunt of Miss Gu's husband and had come to seek refuge with them."
Wu Yang suddenly realized: "That's right, Miss Gu's husband is from out of town, so her husband's great-aunt is naturally from out of town as well. No one would suspect them!"
Prince An fiddled with a beautifully blooming crabapple blossom in front of him: "I'm very curious, how did that Miss Gu cure the Empress Dowager's leprosy?"
Lord Gu said she was just a young apprentice doctor; it seems he doesn't understand his own daughter at all.
Wu Yang suddenly looked into Prince An's eyes: "Your Highness, if she can cure leprosy, wouldn't it be..."
Prince An raised a finger, stopping him from saying what he was about to say: "I don't trust her yet."
Wu Yang sighed with a complicated expression: "Yes. Then... what exactly does the Prince intend to do about the Empress Dowager?"
Prince An said thoughtfully, "The Empress Dowager has amnesia. Even if we go to her door to acknowledge her, she won't leave with me, and it might even expose her identity. This is not a wise move. Gather a few men and sneak the Empress Dowager out in the middle of the night!"
Wu Yang: "Stealing...stealing people?"
Something about this statement doesn't seem quite right.
Wu Yang acted swiftly, leading seven experts to Qingquan Village that very night to steal... uh, no, kidnap people.
When he arrived at Miss Gu's house, he discovered that two bodyguards were lurking nearby.
They must be secret guards from the Marquis of Ding'an's residence protecting the twins. Wu Yang thought it best to lure them away, otherwise it would be troublesome if they made a commotion and woke up the Empress Dowager.
However, secret guards are different from ordinary guards, and it is unlikely that they would leave their master's side at the same time. Just as Wu Yang was thinking about how to carry out the plan, two secret guards walked out of the house on their own and ran into the forest, and no one knew where they went.
Wu Yang: "..."
This works?
Never mind all that, time is precious, let's get started!
Wu Yang made an attack gesture, and seven men in black leaped into the air and flew into the backyard.
Wu Yang also intended to rush into the courtyard, but before he could even jump up, he heard a loud bang and a man in black was kicked out like a sandbag.
Wu Yang was a little confused.
Was the way you went in wrong?
Wu Yang leaped onto the top of the wall.
At that moment, a second man in black swept past him, tracing a graceful parabola in mid-air before crashing heavily onto the open ground outside the house.
Wu Yang was truly dumbfounded.
Didn't the guards leave? Are they back so soon?
He looked towards the backyard, but instead of any secret guards, he saw Miss Gu, the one who had slapped Gu Jinyu and Zhuang Caidie in succession!
That day he thought Miss Gu was going too far, bullying even a weak woman who couldn't even kill a chicken. But now it seems she was actually showing mercy!
Otherwise, with the force of her punch that sent a master flying, if she really went for the kill, wouldn't she have smashed Gu Jinyu and Zhuang Caidie's heads?
Although the people Wu Yang brought weren't top-tier experts, they were still far stronger than ordinary experts, yet they were all beaten so badly by Miss Gu that they were powerless to fight back.
Wu Yang wanted to cry.
He finally understood why the two guards from the Marquis of Ding'an's residence had suddenly rushed into the woods. They were worried that he wouldn't dare to rush in while he was there, thus spoiling the young lady's mood.
Wu Yang mentally assessed the situation and realized that he was probably no match for this Miss Gu.
"I'm sorry, Miss Gu."
Wu Yang took out a crossbow from behind his back, nocked a short arrow, aimed at Gu Jiao's shoulder, and pulled the trigger.
But just like that, the old lady's door suddenly opened, and she came out yawning: "What's all the noise about?"
Wu Yang was so startled that his hand trembled, and the arrow missed its mark!
It was pointing directly in the direction of the old lady, and Wu Yang's heart trembled violently!
The crossbow was several times faster than the arrow, and it was too late for him to grab his arrow back!
At the critical moment, Gu Jiao leaped up and landed in front of the old lady, pulling her aside. The arrow grazed the back of her hand and embedded itself in the wall behind them.
Gu Jiao's hand was scraped and bleeding.
With her other hand, she pulled out the arrow and threw it fiercely in the direction where Wu Yang was in the darkness!
The arrow was so fast that even a master like Wu Yang couldn't dodge it in time.
He groaned as an arrow struck his right shoulder and said to the man in black lying on the ground, "Retreat!"
After the group left, the village returned to peace.
The old lady saw the bloodstains on Gu Jiao's hand: "Jiaojiao, you're injured!"
Gu Jiao said nonchalantly, "It's nothing, just a scrape."
The old woman cursed, "Now that our family is doing well, we've attracted thieves!"
thief?
The thieves who came before weren't this skilled or equipped.
As Gu Jiao gazed at the boundless night, she felt that this group of people weren't after the money. They headed straight for the small east room, which was her aunt's room.
Wu Yang returned to the manor wounded, and before he could even heal himself, he went to the study to see Prince An.
Prince An looked at him with a puzzled expression: "What's going on?"
He knelt on one knee and said with shame, "I have failed in my duty and failed to bring the Empress Dowager back... and... and I almost injured her..."
He dared not conceal anything and reported the whole story to Prince An.
A hint of surprise flashed across Prince An's eyes: "I didn't expect that..."
Wu Yang wholeheartedly agreed: "Indeed, I never expected that Miss Gu, who grew up among commoners, would possess such skills!"
Prince An smiled slightly: "No, I never expected that she would risk her life to save an old lady who had nothing to do with her."
She was only trying to protect herself at the time, but now that the person has recovered, she could have sent him away, or at least not risked her life to save him.
According to Wu Yang, if she had dodged even a little, she would probably have been shot through the heart on the spot.
He really couldn't understand Miss Gu anymore.
He gazed at the bright moon in the sky and murmured, "Miss Gu, how much more do you know that I don't know about?"
Wu Yang volunteered, "Your Highness, I will come again tomorrow night..."
Prince An interrupted him calmly: "No need. Since she is so protective of the Empress Dowager, let the Empress Dowager stay by her side."
Wu Yang was shocked: "The Prince!"
Prince An looked into the distance: "Now is not the best time to bring the Empress Dowager back to the capital. I will go back and report to my grandfather, make all the necessary arrangements, and then bring her back safely. Miss Gu, we will meet again soon."
The following day, Prince An bid farewell to Marquis Gu and Madam Yao, saying, "The provincial examination is imminent, and I cannot stay here any longer. I must return to the capital as soon as possible. I am deeply grateful for the hospitality I have received from you, Marquis and Madam, these past few days."
He used the term "junior" for the first time ever, which startled Lord Gu so much that he was speechless!
Prince An's gentle gaze fell on Madam Yao's face: "Madam, your daughter is outstanding, surpassing countless others in the capital. If there is an opportunity, please bring your daughter to our residence to have a chat with Mengdie."
Yao bowed and expressed her gratitude.
Gu Jinyu, standing behind the two, couldn't help but blush.
Was the prince praising her?
Zhuang Mengdie also thought that her brother was praising Gu Jinyu. She pursed her lips. She already knew that there were no triplets at all. Gu Jinyu was a child who was switched at birth by the Gu family. That girl was the real heiress!
Neither of them is a good person, and she doesn't like either of them!
The brother and sister embarked on their journey back to Beijing.
Even after the carriage had traveled a long way, Gu Jinyu was still reeling from Prince An's praise.
No girl would dislike a prince as favored by heaven as Prince An, but the vast majority of them are just indulging in wishful thinking.
But what if... Prince An fell in love with one of the girls first?
As far as she knew, Prince An had not yet been engaged. Was his remark just now... hinting at something to his parents?
Gu Jinyu secretly glanced at Lord Gu and Madam Yao. The two of them remained calm, clearly not suspecting anything.
She couldn't help but feel a little anxious.
My father is completely clueless about this; you can't count on him. My mother only cares about her own daughter these days and doesn't care about her at all.
If... if Mother knew that Prince An was interested in the daughter of the Marquis's family, would she let Gu Jiao marry him?
In just a moment, Gu Jinyu had imagined a great deal.
She was in a state of turmoil. On the one hand, Prince An's praise had stirred up her unrealistic fantasies; on the other hand, she desperately wanted to return to the capital and seek advice from Consort Shu.
Gu Jiao received the farm tools from the blacksmith shop. There were quite a few of them; the shop assistant from Huichuntang went to fetch them.
As she was leaving, the old blacksmith called out to her, "Young man, what is your young lady's surname?"
The waiter said, "You mean Miss Gu? She's not my young lady."
The old blacksmith was taken aback: "Huh? Then she is..."
The shop assistant was unaware that Gu Jiao practiced medicine. He said, "She is a friend of our boss."
The old blacksmith asked, "Could you please tell me where she lives, young man? I'd like to go and thank her in person."
The shopkeeper said, "Miss Gu instructed that if it succeeds, the cost of farm tools will be waived for her."
Old blacksmith: "But..."
No buts, the guy left with several cartloads of farm tools.
The old blacksmith stared at the departing carriage, unable to recover for a long time.
Gu Jiao didn't touch the open space halfway up the mountain for the time being. She hired nearby villagers to cultivate a large medicinal herb field on the mountain, and also dug a fishpond and a ditch to bring water into the fishpond from below the waterfall.
Gu Yan's bodyguards became the hard laborers of clearing the mountains, being sent to dig ditches and plant crops every day. After a month, the two of them, who had been fair-skinned, were tanned into veritable little charcoal briquette.
Autumn arrived in the blink of an eye.
This summer wasn't particularly hot; instead, the late summer heatwave made people sweat profusely.
Xiao Liulang and his party had been in the provincial capital for some time. Under the careful arrangements of the Lin family, they stayed in the most luxurious inn closest to the provincial examination hall.
Steward Zhou invited Xiao Liulang to his residence several times, but Xiao Liulang refused each time.
Lin Chengye had been tormented by Xiao Liulang for the past few months. He was a chubby boy when he went to Qingquan Town, but he had lost a lot of weight when he returned to the provincial capital.
Whenever Xiao Liulang explained a problem to him, he would feel enlightened. He couldn't understand why Xiao Liulang was so knowledgeable, even more so than all the tutors in the mansion combined.
However, when it came to Xiao Liulang giving him a test, he was completely stumped.
He was someone who had experienced the county, prefectural, and provincial examinations, so ordinary exam questions wouldn't stump him. But were the questions Xiao Liulang set? They were knives!
Even the Four Books and Five Classics have exam scopes; some chapters need to be memorized, while others do not.
Xiao Liulang didn't care about that; he would casually set out a set of exam questions, and more than half of them would be from passages outside the key texts.
Lin Chengye was at his wits' end, and Xiao Liulang had made him so thin from all the studying.
Lin Chengye complained to Feng Lin, who responded with an "oh" and said, "You misunderstood him. He didn't intentionally avoid testing on the important passages; he simply didn't know which passages were important."
They never highlighted anything; they just recited it from beginning to end! And they recited it word for word, backwards!
Despite the torment of carrying Xiao Liulang on his back, Lin Chengye did not choose to return to his residence after returning to the provincial capital. Instead, he stayed at an inn with Xiao Liulang and Feng Lin.
The provincial examination consisted of three sessions, each lasting three days.
The first exam is on the eighth day of the eighth lunar month, which is tomorrow. The inn is full of candidates for the provincial examination, and the atmosphere in the inn is tense.
The only one who remained calm was Xiao Liulang.
Feng Linyuan was also a little nervous, but he had too many things to do, so he didn't have time to be nervous.
"Little Lin, come and help!" Feng Lin called Lin Chengye to the inn's small kitchen.
The Lin family rented this small kitchen at a high price and even arranged a dedicated chef for it.
The provincial examination did not provide meals for the candidates, and the cooks intended to prepare food for them, but Feng Lin refused.
Before he left, Gu Jiao gave him a list containing some precautions and related recipes.
The recipes are categorized in great detail; Gu Jiao even considered the weather. If the weather is cool, she would use the first recipe; if the weather is hot, she would use the second recipe.
"Pancakes, dried meat, oranges, pickles..."
Feng Lin and Lin Chengye spent the whole afternoon tinkering in the kitchen and finally got everything ready. The dried meat was homemade, and its aroma was so enticing that it made all the examinees in the inn drool.
The pickled vegetables had been pickled for a few days and were now ready. Feng Lin packed them into three small jars.
The pancakes couldn't be kept for long; the cook made them before dawn, and Feng Lin instructed that they had to be completely dry, without any moisture.
Each provincial capital's provincial examination had two chief examiners, a chief examiner and a deputy examiner, both appointed by the imperial court.
They entered the examination hall with the local examiners on the sixth day of the month. First, they held a banquet to welcome the examiners into the inner hall, where the examiners sealed the curtains.
The inner curtain officials, also known as the examiners, stayed from the day they entered until the end of the provincial examination, and could only leave after they had finished grading all the candidates' papers.
The entire process could last up to half a month, during which time they were not allowed to have any contact with the outside world, and even the proctors behind the curtains were not allowed to communicate with each other.
On the eighth day of the lunar month, the candidates arrived at the examination hall early.
Although each session is said to last three days, the actual exam only takes place on the middle day. The first day is for checking entry, and the third day is for checking exit.
Early in the morning, a long queue formed outside the examination hall.
Xiao Liulang and his two companions arrived at a moderate pace, ranking in the hundredth or so.
They weren't in a hurry, but Steward Zhou, who was standing to the side, was extremely anxious.
No one is allowed to queue for the provincial examination on behalf of others, otherwise the Lin family could have booked out the entire examination hall!
"Have you gotten the water?" Manager Zhou asked Lin Chengye.
Lin Chengye nodded: "Mm."
Manager Zhou then asked, "Did you bring all the food?"
Lin Chengye nodded again: "I brought it."
He can still say two words without stuttering.
Manager Zhou was still worried: "Then... are you dressed warmly enough? I'm afraid you'll catch a chill at night."
"It's hot," Lin Chengye said.
Manager Zhou sighed, "Alas, the weather this year is abnormal. It's not hot when it should be hot, and it's not cool when it should be cool. I heard that the crops in the countryside are not growing well."
Manager Zhou wanted to say something more, but Lin Chengye frowned and said, "Go away, you're annoying."
Manager Zhou: "..."
"oops!"
Manager Zhou had only taken a couple of steps when he was startled by Feng Lin and nearly stumbled and fell.
"What's wrong?" he asked, turning around.
Feng Lin said, "I forgot to give you this! Jiao Niang said that if it's hot, we should bring this into the exam room. It can refresh our minds and also repel mosquitoes and relieve itching."
It's three bottles of medicated oil.
Gu Jiao simply replaced the glass bottle with a jade bottle, added a stopper, and sealed the opening with wax.
"Can I bring this?" Manager Zhou asked. Besides water and food, nothing else could be brought to the provincial examination.
Feng Lin explained, "This can be used externally or internally. Jiao Niang said that if anyone asks, just drink it in front of them."
Xiao Liulang's gaze was somewhat subtle: "You two are quite familiar with each other now..."
Unaware of his companion's dangerous gaze, Feng Lin chuckled, "I was so naive before, I misunderstood Jiao Niang. She's actually a wonderful person! Liu Lang, really, to have a wife like that is a blessing a man has accumulated over several lifetimes! I want one too..."
Xiao Liulang's gaze was sharp as a knife, finally making it impossible for Feng Lin to ignore him.
Feng Lin shrugged and said, "Fine, I don't want to."
Xiao Liulang accepted the medicated oil.
Is it that strange thing from that box again?
He had seen this script before; most of the things that rolled out of the box that night had this script on them.
However, he didn't see those little green bottles that night.
So it wasn't his imagination; that little box could produce all sorts of strange things, and they were never the same.
Is it some kind of strange illusion or mechanism?
Since these bottles are medicine, could the ones we saw before also be medicine?
Is it a small first-aid kit?
Even the clever Xiao Liulang couldn't figure out Gu Jiao's little box for a moment. Soon, it was his turn, along with Feng Lin and Lin Chengye, to be searched by the guards.
To show that they had brought water, Feng Lin opened the bottle and drank a drop, almost drowning in the taste!
Wow, this is so invigorating!
After entering the examination room, the candidates were assigned to their respective examination booths, which some people also called number rooms.
The cell was simple, with only two wooden planks, one used as a table and the other as a chair, embedded in recesses on either side of the cell. At night, the candidates would put the two planks together to make a bed and make do for the night.
For the next three days, students taking the high school entrance exam are not allowed to leave their assigned cells; they must eat, drink, relieve themselves, and sleep entirely within those cells.
The first test consisted of memorization and poetry. In theory, it should have been one passage from the Analects, one from the Doctrine of the Mean, or one from the Great Learning, one from Mencius, plus a five-character, eight-line poem of one's own composition.
However, this year's provincial examination questions were unusually difficult, as they included an additional text—the Classic of Filial Piety.
Strictly speaking, the Classic of Filial Piety is not long, with less than two thousand characters, but the problem is... it's not on the exam!
If we don't test it, who will memorize it, right?
When Lin Chengye saw that he had to recite the Classic of Filial Piety from memory, his hair stood on end!
I wasn't scared, I was excited!
Because Xiao Liulang passed the test!
Xiao Liulang was a very strict teacher. He would retest Lin Chengye on any test questions that Lin Chengye couldn't answer, even a second, third, or even a fourth time, until Lin Chengye could answer them.
Lin Chengye not only lost weight, but also went bald at a young age, all because of Xiao Liulang's torment.
At this moment, however, Lin Chengye absolutely loved Xiao Liulang's torment!
Lin Chengye knew that there were definitely few people who could recite the Classic of Filial Piety, and he would be ahead of many candidates in just the first subject!
(End of this chapter)
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