Zhao Hao couldn't help but feel a little moved. He divided the duck leg into two halves, tasted it, said it was too salty, and forced half of it on Zhao Shouzheng.

Zhao Shouzheng touched Zhao Hao's head with satisfaction and stopped refusing.

The two of them enjoyed the meal head to head, and Zhao Shouzheng couldn't help but utter a few sour words like 'The spring chill has forced us to close the doors, the fragrance of the golden duck is fading but the fire is still warm'.

Zhao Hao thought it was quite appropriate, so he finished the half duck leg in his hand in a few bites, sucking the bone until it was white and without a trace of meat residue. Then he threw it to the ground with a feeling of unsatisfied feeling and lay back in bed comfortably.

"How did grandpa offend Gao Gong?" He couldn't figure it out.

Zhao Shouzheng also ate the duck leg cleanly, then picked up the bones that Zhao Hao threw away, carefully wrapped them in oil paper, and stuffed them into his boots, preparing to take them out and throw them away tomorrow.

While destroying the evidence, he answered casually, "Before that day, I hadn't heard anything about it. When I asked your uncle the day before yesterday, he said that both sides were very secretive about the matter. He only told me that Gao Gong had said, 'There is Gao but no Zhao, there is Zhao but no Gao.' When I asked him again, your uncle just said something like, 'The world is cruel, people are evil, rain sends flowers to fall at dusk', which made me confused."

"Shall I ask grandpa tomorrow?" Zhao Hao rested his head on his arms. This was a serious matter and he had to get to the bottom of it.

"Your uncle repeatedly told me not to ask your grandfather. He said that this was a wound that the old man could not open, and he would be furious if it was touched." Zhao Shouzheng sighed and said, "It's useless to say all this now. As the saying goes, 'bad times bring bad luck'. Now that Gao Gong is in power, our Zhao family will not be able to recover in a short time."

He wanted to say, "There's no chance of recovery," but he changed his words because he didn't want to make his son too desperate.

"Oh, okay..." Zhao Hao nodded resignedly, thinking that it seemed like the old man's situation could not be reversed.

.

Next door, my uncle and his son also didn't sleep well.

Zhao Shouye suddenly sniffed and reached out to poke Zhao Xian beside him.

"Son, what do you smell?"

Zhao Xian also sniffed it hard and nodded, "Salty and fragrant..."

As he spoke, his expression suddenly changed and he said, "Dad, you didn't wash your feet again?

"Get out!" Zhao Shouye kicked Zhao Xian off the bed, but after saying that he couldn't help but lift up his feet and smell them.

"Ugh..." Zhao Shouye couldn't help but dry heave.

.

The room of Zhao Hao and his son.

The two were silent for a long time. Just when Zhao Shouzheng thought his son had finally fallen asleep, he suddenly heard his son ask:

"Qingliu is very poor, right?"

"Uh..." Zhao Shouzheng was stunned for a while before he suddenly realized, "Oh, you mean my future father-in-law?"

"Yeah." Zhao Hao responded.

"Others are poor, but he is not. The Nanjing Imperial College's chief academic officer is a lucrative position! Every year, there are hundreds of people who want to donate money to the college. And those old students who have been waiting for the imperial examination for more than ten years have to beg him to give them a good comment. Do you think he can't make money?"

When this was mentioned, Zhao Shouzheng did not sleep anymore. He sat up cross-legged, and said with great joy, "And if Old Taishan takes one more step, he will be promoted to the Minister of Rites, which means he has one foot in the cabinet! As the saying goes, 'If you lean on the green mountains, you will have firewood to burn'. Maybe our Zhao family will be able to make a comeback as well."

After he finished speaking, he came back to his senses, looked at his son strangely and asked, "Why are you asking this?"

"Didn't the old man ask us to give an answer?" Zhao Hao replied softly, "To leave or to stay."

"What do you think? I don't care anyway. If you want to stay, we stay. If you want to leave, we leave." Zhao Shouzheng gave the decision-making power to his son in a free and easy, or irresponsible manner.

"Okay..." Zhao Hao nodded with a wry smile. He didn't know whether it was a blessing or a misfortune to have such a father.

In fact, according to his idea, he would stay in Nanjing like his uncle's family and not go back to his hometown in Xiuning. But after spending these days together, he felt that he and his uncle were not on the same page and had to live separately to live in peace. That's why he seriously considered his father's previous proposal to have two wives.

"Whether you leave or stay, you have to think about the rules well. It will be difficult to turn things around if you mess up the rules." Zhao Hao said, and he sat up and looked at Zhao Shouzheng steadily.

"Well, that makes sense!" Zhao Shouzheng's eyes were red with satisfaction, and he patted his son's shoulder and said, "No wonder the ancient sage said 'Strong grass is known only by strong winds'. If nothing had happened to me, I wouldn't have known that my son has grown up." As he said this, he wiped his eyes with his sleeve and asked Zhao Hao:

"Tell me, what is the charter?"

"This year is the year for the provincial examination, right?" After thinking about it over the past few days, Zhao Hao has already made up his mind.

"Yes, this year is the year of the big examination, and there will be the autumn examination." Zhao Shouzheng nodded.

"Father is a student of the Imperial College in Nanjing, right?" Zhao Hao asked again.

"Yeah, what do you mean?" Zhao Shouzheng understood a little.

"Why don't we stay and try our luck." Zhao Hao said it lightly but his tone was firm.

Everyone knows the story of Fan Jin passing the imperial examination. As long as one can pass the imperial examination, the fate of the individual and the family will be changed drastically and reversed in one fell swoop!

If Zhao Shouzheng also passed the imperial examination and became a juren, wouldn't he be able to enjoy wealth and honor again?

But Zhao Shouzheng laughed bitterly and said quietly: "Ah, son, I'm not bragging, I am very confident that I will fail the exam."

After a pause, he said with a dull look, "Since the 31st year of Jiajing, my father has failed the imperial examination five times... I think we should find another way out."

Zhao Hao insisted, "Everything changes. Maybe I'll win this time."

He had made up his mind to persuade Zhao Shouzheng to take part in the provincial examination no matter what.

Who knew that before he could waste his words, Zhao Shouzheng nodded and agreed immediately, saying, "Oh...Okay."

"Ah, is that what happened?" Zhao Hao was stunned and once again felt the frustration of hitting nothing.

"My son is ten times smarter than me. He is sensible now. As long as he studies hard, it will be easy for him to go to school." Zhao Shouzheng said with a serious face: "The saints said, 'Teach by words and deeds'. How can I not be a role model for you?"

"Uh, I... I'm afraid it really doesn't work..." Zhao Hao waved his hands repeatedly.

"Humble! You are so modest at such a young age. You will surely become a general or a prime minister in the future..." Zhao Shouzheng became more and more boastful.

"Cough, cough, cough..." Zhao Hao's face turned red and he coughed continuously because of the praise.

Zhao Shouzheng hurriedly patted him on the back. "It seems that the duck legs are really salty."

Zhao Hao didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

He is actually a family man who knows his own business. Needless to say, for a modern person with no foundation, isn't it just a dream to take the imperial examination?

The original owner, little Zhao Hao, was even more ignorant. Although Zhao Liben said that he could not read a few characters, it was a bit exaggerated. But seven or eight years after he started learning, he could not even memorize the Analects. How could he pass the imperial examination?

Do I really have to study hard for twenty years?

Oh my god... I'm here to enjoy myself, okay?

As the saying goes, it is better to let Zhao Shouzheng take the test.

Moreover, Zhao Hao has a secret weapon in his hand - the research subject of his graduation thesis in his previous life is the Jinshi of the Wuchen year of the Longqing reign!

Because this was the most glorious subject in the more than 200-year history of the imperial examinations of the Ming Dynasty—it produced seven university scholars, 18 ministers, and 52 people who became third-rank officials. This was an unprecedented and unparalleled event not only in the Ming Dynasty, but also in the entire history of the imperial examinations.

It took him more than a year to write that paper, and he researched tens of millions of words of information alone. He still remembers the exam questions for that year's Yingtian Prefecture examination.

This is his greatest reliance that enables him to remain calm and maintain confidence after coming here!

It's a pity that little Zhao Hao himself is uneducated and not even a student yet, so he has no chance of taking part in this year's provincial examination.

He had no idea what the next exam would be...

This is a real once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. For the sake of their livelihoods for the rest of their lives, they must help Zhao Shouzheng pass this exam!

ps. Here is the second update, please vote and comment! .