Chen Cui and Mu Erpang went to see the list together without saying a word.
Previously, Mu Erpang passed the county exam and ranked first, but Lao Buyu, the teacher, did not follow him, so this was the first time he saw Mu Erpang's name appear at the top of the list.
When Shen Cui, Mr. Shen, and Zheng looked at the list for the first time, the two elders were so excited that they could not control themselves and rested for a while before they calmed down. Shen Cui, who was usually calm, had red eyes and was in a state of emotional ups and downs.
So today, Chen Cui quickly winked at Mu Erpang and asked him to hold on a little. After all, it doesn't matter if ordinary people like them lose their composure for a while, and they always want to save face in front of others.
Mu Erpang immediately understood and reached out his hand, but Lao Buyu looked at him and said calmly, "It's just the first place in the prefectural examination. Why are you so excited?"
He wore a turban on his head and dressed like a scholar. His calm demeanor and words were seen and heard by others. Someone immediately came up to him and asked respectfully, "Sir, are you the first place winner of this provincial examination? No wonder you have such a dignified demeanor!"
Lao Buyu put his hands behind his back and said slowly: "I am not a student, you are mistaken."
The other party made a mistake and looked a little embarrassed, "But I just heard..."
Lao Buyu then leisurely pointed at Mu Erpang who was standing beside him and said, "This is the first place in the provincial examination."
The other party was surprised that the first place in this provincial examination was so young, and then he heard Lao Buyu add calmly: "I am just his teacher."
As soon as these words were spoken, the other party immediately shifted his gaze to Lao Buyu. Comparing the two, Mu Erpang was just a teenager, while Lao Buyu looked like a hermit. He said more respectfully, "Sir, you are truly a true man who never reveals his true colors. You can actually teach such a young champion..."
The man had a naturally loud voice, and when the other people who were looking at the list heard what he said, they all came over, first greeting him and complimenting him, and then asking about his teaching experience.
Chen Cui and Mu Erpang looked at each other amusedly, and seeing that Lao Buyu did not show any impatience, they continued to look at the rankings.
Of the other two people who had sponsored each other, Ren Shun ranked sixth, while Zhao Xiuwen, who also performed well in the county exam and ranked fifth, only ranked 25th, ranking in the middle and back of the entire list, which was definitely a poor performance.
As they expected, He Qing and Zhang Zian were not on the list.
After all, they were acquaintances. After Mu Erpang looked through the list once, he started again from the top, wondering what if he had missed something?
It was also a coincidence that Mu Erpang met a familiar face, the young man who sat next to him in the examination room during the provincial examination.
Mu Erpang nodded slightly to him, but the other party still did not respond.
At this time, Ren Shun and Zhao Xiuwen also came to see the list. Seeing this scene, they pulled Mu Erpang aside. Ren Shun said, "The one just now was our county's top candidate, Shen Aoshuang. As his name suggests, he is a bit arrogant. Now you have defeated him again, and he got second place. So... But don't talk about you. Even those of us who took the county exam together would not say hello to him when we see him every day. Don't bother with him."
As they were talking, Shen Aoshuang, who had just finished reading the results, walked past them leisurely, truly treating them like air.
The three of them looked at each other, feeling helpless and amused.
But it was just a minor incident, and the three of them didn't talk about it anymore.
Although all three of them were on the list, it was difficult to determine the extent to which they should congratulate each other because Zhao Xiuwen performed poorly.
Zhao Xiuwen and He Qing were both from farming families and had similar personalities. Seeing that they were hesitant to speak, Zhao Xiuwen guessed that they felt sorry for him, so he took the initiative to say, "I just did poorly on the last question."
This is actually quite easy to understand, because the Zhao family is a farming and reading family, and their family financial situation can only be considered good among farmers. Compared with those who are truly wealthy, they still have a gap in resources. In order to answer that question well and comprehensively, the amount of reading required is really huge.
There were crowds of people in front of the list, and since the three of them had met, they wanted to have a detailed exchange. Mu Erpang went back to report to Shen Cui that he was going to the party, and found that there was another layer of people surrounding Lao Buyu.
Chen Cui told Mu Erpang to go by himself and just return home before lunch. She stood by and waited for a long time before Lao Buyu realized that he had been chatting with someone for too long.
"You should know how difficult it is to train a scholar. These are just the tip of the iceberg. The road ahead is long and arduous."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
Lao Buyu took the opportunity to push through the crowd, called Chen Cui, and left the announcement place together.
After walking for about half a minute, Chen Cui was about to speak but stopped. Lao Buyu coughed and said, "I know you think I will be emotional. I did talk too much just now, but we are all family members of this year's candidates. If Hanshan did not do well in the exam, and I met the top candidate, I would also think of asking for advice. As the saying goes, 'giving happiness to others is giving happiness to oneself'. I will give them some advice, and how much they can listen to depends on their own luck."
Chen Cui nodded in agreement. Ever since Wei Shu left Qingzhu, she had clearly realized that Lao Buyu had a true heart for teaching and educating people. At present, the academy has no plans to accept more students, and it is completely in line with Lao Buyu's style to give other people's parents some advice and points out some things to pay attention to.
However, there were some things that had to be said right now, so Shen Cui said helplessly: "I'm not questioning the Master's meaning, it's just that... this road doesn't seem to lead back to the academy."
Lao Buyu could no longer maintain his calm and composed expression. He turned his head and looked around, and found that he had gone in the completely wrong direction!
"Don't tell Hanshan!" Lao Bu threatened Chen Cui in a stern tone.
Shen Cui suppressed her laughter, nodded and agreed: "I will definitely not tell him."
In terms of maintaining Mr. Lao Buyu's image, Shen Cui has made great efforts over the years. For example, when he almost ran away overnight, Shen Cui never told the children about it, so of course Lao Buyu believed her.
Besides, it was just breakfast time, there were not many pedestrians on the street, and Mu Erpang was not around, so Lao Buyu simply stopped pretending. He grinned and laughed heartily several times, and walked in a very lively manner, as if he could jump up at any time.
It was no wonder that he was so happy. After all, other students in the academy were not educated under his guidance, but Mu Erpang was taught by him, and he went from only reading 300,000 characters to learning the present little by little! How could he not be proud and happy? !
"Er Pang has gone to a party with his classmates and won't be back until lunch. Why don't you buy some wine so that the teacher can have a drink?" Chen Cui suggested as they happened to pass by the tavern.
Lao Buyu was naturally tempted by the aroma of wine, but he still shook his head firmly and said, "I said before that I would give up drinking. I am indeed happy today, but it is not easy to break the vow. And I have other ways to celebrate!"
After saying that, Lao Buyu walked towards the academy with even more brisk steps. He was tall and had long legs. At first, Chen Cui tried hard to jog behind him, but finally gave up because she knew the way to the academy!
Later, the two of them returned to the academy. Before Shen Cui could even get comfortable on the stool, Lao Buyu came over and handed her an envelope, asking Shen Cui to send it to someone - Shen Cui had written to her parents' home every month since she came to the provincial capital, and the Shen family must be very concerned about the results of the provincial examination this time, so she was indeed planning to write a letter and send it to someone.
"But the caravans I know run between Yongning County and Qingzhou Prefecture. If they send it to other places..."
She didn't finish the second half of the sentence because she could see clearly that on the envelope it was written "To Ling Qingming, Qingzhu Academy, Yongning County".
So this is Lao Buyu's way of 'celebration'? !
When taking the envelope, Shen Cui had a complicated expression - this was not a letter at all, it was so heavy and thick, like a brick!
Fortunately, the caravans delivering letters now charge according to the place, unlike the express delivery by weight in later generations!
…………
Before lunch, Mu Erpang came back from outside, and he seemed to be worried about something.
Without being asked, he said it himself at the dinner table.
It turned out that when he, Ren Shun and Zhao Xiuwen met in front of the list, they only had a brief discussion on the last question. Later, when they had breakfast outside, they discussed the topic in more detail.
Zhao Xiuwen was not wrong. He indeed lost only in the amount of reading and did not finish the last question. In the first two exams, there was no obvious difference in the levels of the three of them.
Ren Shun had a rich collection of books at home, and his answer to the last question was almost the same as what Mu Erpang wrote. However, for the first question about law, he only memorized the laws of his own dynasty and did not compare them with those of the previous dynasty. He did not know that this law was newly revised by the founding emperor, and he missed out on answering this part.
Although the rankings of the three were separated, especially Zhao Xiuwen, whose ranking gap with them was particularly large, if we really only talked about the things in the Four Books and Five Classics, the gap between the three was not that big.
After a pleasant exchange, Ren Shun asked Mu Erpang a question, and it was this question that made him feel like he had something on his mind.
Ren Shun didn't ask anything else, just asked him whether he would take the college entrance examination this year?
The academy examination is held twice every three years, and these three years are calculated based on the three-year term of the academician.
That is, every three years, when the academician is replaced at the end of the year, an annual examination is organized first, and then in the following year, the first year in office, the academy examination is held. There is a gap of one year in between, and another academy examination is held in the year of the replacement.
To put it simply, the college entrance examination that Mu Yunchuan took three years ago was the first one held after the previous provincial education commissioner took office, and the one that Wei Shu, Wei Xi, and Mei Ruochu took was the last one.
Before last year's annual examination, the new education commissioner had already taken office, so the college examination will still be held this year.
Mu Erpang had never really thought about this question before. After all, he always felt that he was the last one to start learning and had the shortest learning time among all his classmates in the academy. When he was preparing to leave last year, he was still a little unsure and not sure whether he was overestimating his abilities. He even asked Chen Cui for advice. It was also with the encouragement and support of his mother that he dared to try it this year.
Unexpectedly, I passed both exams so smoothly.
So it was only at this moment, after Ren Shun asked him about it, that Mu Erpang began to think about this issue.
Before Mu Erpang could answer, Ren Shun said, "I have never heard of anyone who ranked first in the county examination and the prefectural examination and did not take the exam again. My question is indeed a bit redundant. I think what our brother Mu should worry about is whether he can maintain the first place in the college examination!"
Those words invisibly put a lot of pressure on Mu Erpang.
Because he still felt that he had only studied for three years and was not the smartest in the academy. He got the first place in the county examination because of a flash of inspiration, and the first place in the prefectural examination because the academy happened to have books on related subjects. Lao Buyu also mentioned the Six Classics in a few words. His memory had inexplicably improved a lot recently, and he tried very hard to recall it. He almost fell ill, which made everyone worried.
After all, Mu Erpang still felt that luck played a role in both times, and he felt a little unsure.
Especially since the college examination required testing poetry, which was his least forte, and because there were only two parts, the testing poetry accounted for a very large proportion. It could be said that if one did not write poetry well, it would be impossible to make the list, let alone get the first place.
Lao Buyu encouraged him, "In the past few years, I have taught you basically everything I can teach you. Most of the things I am not good at teaching you or cannot teach you. If you pass the college entrance examination, you can enter the provincial academy, and like Ashu and the others, you will receive guidance from the provincial academy professors and instructors, and you will get better and better in the future. If you fail the exam... then what's there to be afraid of? After all, our academy is still here, and I am still here, so we can continue to teach and learn together!"
Mu Erpang nodded and looked at Chen Cui, who then said, "I don't have such lofty ambitions to train you to be a person who can win several prizes in a row. If you want to take the exam, just try. As the master said, it's a good thing if you pass, but it doesn't matter if you fail. As the master said, just keep trying!"
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