The floating ticket, which is the admission ticket of this era, will describe the candidate's appearance to prevent things like taking the exam on behalf of others.
But the number of words is limited, and usually it just points out the most obvious characteristics of the candidate, just a few words.
Like now, when Shen Cui looked closely, she saw that Mu Erpang's ticket had the words 'short, white face, no beard and no mole' written on it.
Shen Cui couldn't help but think of the many jokes she had seen in modern times about how much men cared about their height. At that time, she was a single mother and had never come into contact with the opposite sex, so she thought it was an exaggeration.
I didn't expect that my son was only thirteen years old. I was really worried when I got home because others described him as "short".
Half a year ago, Mu Erpang held an umbrella for Chen Cui. Chen Cui suddenly realized that he was only a head shorter than her. To hold the umbrella for her, she only needed to raise her hand slightly instead of raising it above her head with great effort. In the past six months, he has grown a little taller, and the clear value in the system is 161cm.
Chen Cui had seen a statistic that said the average height of men in ancient times would not exceed 1.7 meters.
Mu Erpang is thirteen years old and still in his growth spurt. His height of 1.6 meters is not short for his age, but... Yongning County is located in the north, and the height advantage of northerners has already become apparent.
Chen Cui herself is 165cm tall according to the system, and it is rare to see men shorter than her here.
Chen Cui said, "I think so. Although the county exam is the first stage of the Tongsheng exam, there are people of all ages who sign up. People of your age are actually in the minority. Compared with the older ones, aren't you just a little shorter? Of course, you are definitely not short among your peers. But the registration clerk has to see so many people every day. It's impossible for him to carefully distinguish your age and compare you with them... And you have to believe in heredity. In layman's terms, like fathers, like sons. Whether it's the Shen family or the Mu family, the men are not short, and you won't be short in the future."
Mu Erpang doesn’t know much about genetics, but he knows his mother won’t fool him.
Then he thought about it and it was true. Take the five people who had guarantied each other today as an example. Apart from him, the youngest, Huang Junping, was also fifteen years old.
When I went to register, I also saw many scholars in their twenties and thirties, some with gray hair, still participating in this first children's examination.
At the age of thirteen, isn't he considered short among such a group of people?
After figuring it out, he smiled self-deprecatingly, "Well, I am indeed shorter than them, and the document was not written wrong. It's a good thing that it happened this year. If it happened two years ago, I'm afraid I would have been written as 'short and fat'."
After he finished speaking, he stopped hesitating, rolled up his sleeves, spread out the paper, and began to write poetry again - as Master Lao said, literary talent is only one aspect of poetry, the other aspect also requires true feelings. If the emotions are there, it can make up for the lack of literary talent.
Today I have some feelings about being short, so it is very suitable for writing poetry!
Chen Cui was really stunned when she saw his look. She had seen people lamenting the fading of beauties and the old age of heroes, but she had never seen anyone composing a poem lamenting his age.
But since he came to "feel" it, Shen Cui did not disturb him and quietly closed the door and went out.
After going out, he went to Mr. Shen and explained that it was a misunderstanding. Mu Erpang really didn't take Huang Junping's words to heart, so Mr. Shen felt relieved.
Chen Cui looked around the house but couldn't find Zheng. It was not until the evening that Zheng came back and explained that she had gone out to inquire about Huang Junping.
This time, because Huang Junping had said a few insults to Mu Erpang for no reason, Zheng found out the truth very carefully. She spent dozens of dollars to buy some snacks and fruits and treated Huang's old neighbors to a meal.
Those old neighbors knew that the grandson of the Shen family was going to be a guarantor of Huang Junping, so what they said at first were all about his character.
Now Zheng not only asked about this, but also found out other things, and found out that Huang Junping was a nephew of the same clan as Mr. Huang.
After studying under Mr. Huang for several years, he wanted to enter Qingzhu Academy. Others certainly could not be so fickle and easily change their teacher to someone else, but since he could not write two Huang characters in one stroke, Mr. Huang allowed it for the sake of their relationship.
He failed to get into Qingzhu for two consecutive years. Last year, Cuiwei became famous, so his family wanted him to enter Cuiwei. That's why Huang Junping could accurately say that Mu Erpang only started to learn when he was ten years old. He had inquired about it in advance!
At that time, many people wanted to enter Cuiwei, but Chen Cui rejected them all. Later, she even moved the academy away. Naturally, I can't be compared to the Huang family.
The old neighbors were not scholars and did not know the relationship between the Shen family and Cuiwei. Although Cuiwei had become famous in this small place, it was only limited to the circle of scholars and was not known to everyone. Zheng went there to get information, not to sell his own information to others, so naturally he would not talk about anything about his own academy.
This time, she was willing to spend a lot of money to give him a lot of gifts, so he was willing to recall everything and tell her about it.
"I guess this is the crux of the matter." Chen Cui couldn't help but sigh after hearing this. "This guy must have misunderstood. He thought that he started learning at the age of four or five, and studied for more than ten years, but couldn't get into Cuiwei. Erpang, who started learning at the age of ten, was able to have a famous teacher to teach him because he was the young master of the academy, and he took a 'seat' in Cuiwei. In fact, he thought the cause and effect relationship was reversed. I hired famous teachers for him, selected classmates, opened the academy, and later accepted several students for the purpose of training our Erpang. If there was no Erpang, there would be no Cuiwei."
But Mu Erpang didn't take this guy seriously at all. Huang Junping jumped around and sneered in indignation, which made him even more upset than a clerk of the same level who wrote the word "short".
So Shen Cui didn't mention this to Mu Erpang.
In the next few days, Mu Erpang was still working hard in the house. Under Zheng's instructions, the other members of the Shen family carefully slowed down their movements and continued to live their lives as usual.
After falling asleep that night, Chen Cui vaguely heard some rustling in the room. When she opened her eyes, she saw Zheng rummaging through boxes with a candlestick in her hand.
"What are you looking for so late at night?" she asked with sleepy eyes.
Zheng said it was nothing and added, "You go to sleep." Then his men kept working.
Chen Cui felt it was not appropriate to just lie there on the kang, so she put on her clothes and stood up to help.
She helped to search for a while, and Zheng took out a pair of old trousers from the box, with several patches on the crotch.
"This is……"
"This is a pair of cotton trousers I made for your second brother the year he came to the city. He was only twelve or thirteen at the time, and was not as lucky as your eldest brother - he followed a good master like the old man of the Chen family, and a master who liked to order his apprentices around. The master received a lot of filial piety from our family, but did not treat him as a human being. In the middle of winter, he was asked to pick and wash vegetables until midnight, and to go out of the city to pick vegetables before dawn in the morning, just to buy vegetables that were one penny cheaper per pound than in the vegetable market, so that he could get kickbacks from the boss... At that time, our family was not rich, and I I didn’t have money to buy him a big coat, so I only made him a pair of good cotton pants. Later, he grew taller and taller, so I renewed the cotton pants every year. When he was sixteen or seventeen, I couldn’t renew them anymore, so I put them away. I took out the cotton inside and used it a long time ago, but I kept the outer layer of cloth. I was going to use it as diapers for the children in the future. In the following years, our family’s financial situation became better and better, so the pants had some meaning, so I kept them… but they have been there for too long. I just remembered this before I went to bed.”
It was the middle of the night and Zheng didn't want to reminisce about the good old days. As she spoke, she took out another pair of cotton pants - they were the trousers that Mu Erpang had changed out of today, and Zheng rushed to help wash them.
Comparing the two pairs of trousers together, Zheng smiled and said, "Our Fatty is not short! He is even a little taller than his uncle when he was thirteen years old!"
It turned out that she had been busy all night just for this. Shen Cui felt helpless and amused.
…………
In early February, Mu Erpang was ousted.
Chen Cui had seen several students die before, so this time felt quite different.
Blood relationship is only one aspect. On the other hand, when other students entered Cuiwei, they all had considerable literary attainments, but they encountered some obstacles on the road to the imperial examination due to other issues.
Chen Cui gave them a hand and let them borrow some strength, so they could take off with the wind.
And Mu Erpang grew up little by little from scratch right under her nose, completely from nothing to something.
The system issued the task of participating in the county examination as usual, and it was completed by participating. However, it was also stated that the same shopping points would be given for the same task this time, and because it was Mu Erpang who took part, there would be additional physical rewards.
It can be seen that in the system, Mu Erpang's identity as the No. 1 training target is also very special.
Shen Cui was a little nervous, but in order not to affect the performance of the cub, she remained calm.
But it was not the same for the Shen family. The night before the county exam, Zheng spent half the night on the kang making pancakes, and Old Man Shen didn't sleep much either. The next morning, Shen Dachen went to work with a pair of panda eyes.
Chen Cui knew that the two elders were worried about her, and originally wanted them to go with her to the exam, but they were afraid that their nervousness would be transmitted to Mu Erpang, so they insisted on staying at home.
They didn't sleep all night, so Shen Cui asked them to rest at home.
When the mother and son arrived outside the examination room, many people had already arrived early, and looking around, it was a sea of black.
Candles were lit outside the examination room. With the help of the candlelight, Chen Cui and Mu Erpang found the two brothers Zhao Linsheng and He Qinghe Yan.
Not long after they stood at the back, Huang Junping and Zhang Zian were also brought in by their families.
When the yamen runners came over, the surroundings suddenly became quiet, and Shen Cui and other parents who were sending their children to take the exam had to step back.
He Qing and He Yan had already left the scene, but their faces were still solemn and they were holding each other's hands tightly.
Huang Junping and Zhang Zian were the ones who left last year. When their families were about to leave, both of them couldn't help but follow suit.
The adults from both families quickly stopped and talked for a while to reassure them.
Mu Erpang was the calmest among the group. Although he was also taking the exam for the first time, Chen Cui had taken him to the exam several times before, which allowed him to adapt to the atmosphere here in advance.
"I'm leaving now. Come on." After Chen Cui encouraged Mu Erpang, she was ready to leave.
Mu Erpang reached out and grabbed her, saying, "Mom, wait a minute."
Shen Cui paused and listened to his instructions: "Mom, remember to eat breakfast, and then go home and persuade grandma and grandpa to sleep for a while. When they wake up in the afternoon, I will be back."
This little housekeeper! Chen Cui felt soft-hearted. Seeing that other parents who had sent their children to take the exam had left, she responded and also left.
Not long after that, the singing of guarantees and acknowledgment of guarantees began outside the examination room.
Candidates who have pledged guaranty for each other stand together and will be subject to a body search after completing the formalities.
Originally, the five of them were standing randomly, but later, when Mu Erpang saw that He Qing, who was standing at the front, had trembling calves, he stood at the front and started the body search.
His calm reaction gave the others a reassurance. When they thought that he, the youngest one, could do this, they forced themselves to remain calm.
After being searched, you can enter.
Earlier, there was a mock exam in Mu Erpang Academy. Mei Ruochu helped with poetry and prose, and Wei Shu and Wei Xi also helped a lot - because they all took the county exam in the same place, and it was not long ago, so their memories were still very clear. The two brothers drew a picture of the exam room in their memory for him to see.
The tables and chairs in the examination room may have changed this year, but the overall layout is no different from that picture.
Mu Erpang quickly sat in his examination seat.
After a moment, all the candidates sat down quietly, the gong sounded, and the test papers were distributed.
The first round of the county examination is to test the scriptures.
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