Mu Erpang had already written the article before the exam was half over.
Because he made sure not to be distracted by thinking about the title of the poem at the end while writing the article and his attention was highly focused, it only took him one hour from drafting to finalizing this article with a standard theme.
After checking the article from beginning to end, Mu Erpang guessed that Liu Xuezheng was good at poetry and prose. He had put so much thought into the questions about poetry and prose this time, so in his opinion, the article would account for no more than 30% to 40% of the score.
But no matter how much, this part fully demonstrates his true level.
The next step is to think about the title of the poem.
The title of the poem is divided into two sentences, which seem to be well-balanced, but Mu Erpang can be sure that these two sentences are definitely not from the same poem. Otherwise he would have no impression at all.
That's what was cut and put together. Mu Erpang has done a lot of these nonsensical poetry and prose questions recently. Once he has an idea, he can skillfully break down the sentences and think about them carefully.
The first is "No need to ask for passers-by", he thought of Weng Chengzan's "Two Poems of Inspiration in the Study", the original sentence is "No need to ask for passers-by's name, the sound of reading is my home."
There is another famous line in the same poem, which goes, 'There is no need to discuss whether people are rich or poor, the sound of reading is the best.'
This is a poem praising a family of scholars and saying that education is more important than wealth.
As for the last sentence, 'The poem is on the imperial screen', he couldn't remember the whole poem for a moment, and only remembered the original sentence - 'Who is like Mr. Yang from Jinhua, whose ten-couplet poem is on the imperial screen'.
There is an allusion in this sentence. Mr. Yang is also known as Yang Huizhi. It is said that he studied hard since he was young. He worshipped the famous Jiangnan poets Jiang Wei and Jiang Wenwei as his teachers. With his tireless efforts, he finally became as famous as these two people.
Emperor Taizong of Song admired Yang Huizhi's poems very much and specially selected ten couplets from them to be written on a folding screen, which became a famous story of the time.
It sounds like a simple thing, but thinking about the origins of these two sentences in so many poems and articles he had read made Mu Erpang sweat profusely, and half an hour had passed.
After figuring out the origins of the two lines, Mu Erpang still felt that the two lines were not closely related, but connecting the dots has always been a bit far-fetched. Nowadays, some writers even criticize this kind of topic for being irrelevant and forcibly creating difficulty.
Mu Erpang chose the theme of praising reading and praising scholarly families. In addition, he also added some missing elements from the title of the poem and mentioned Mr. Yang and others.
He himself was a person who had undergone a tremendous transformation after embarking on the path of studying, so it was natural for him to be able to write about such topics with ease.
He was always quick to form a poem but slow to revise it, so after writing it on the manuscript paper, he polished it over and over again, and it was already noon - there was still about half an hour left before the deadline of Youshi.
At this time, the person who handed in his paper first had not yet appeared in the examination room. It was obvious that everyone was finding the last question very difficult.
Before preparing for the final transcription, Mu Erpang recited the entire poem silently again.
"No need to ask for my surname when passing by, the sound of reading is my home... Who is like Yang Xueshi from Jinhua, whose ten-couplet poem is on the imperial screen?"
He always felt as if he had seen this kind of combination somewhere before, but it was not in a poem.
That’s right, I saw it, not just happened to read it together.
What has he been watching recently? In addition to the two poetry and prose collections given by Shen Cui that are hard to find on the market, there are also relevant materials about Liu Xuezheng.
Wei Shu and Cui Fei really put in a lot of effort. First, they collected all the poems and essays written by Liu Xuezheng, and later they even found out his hometown.
Liu Xuezheng came from a place called Pipagang Village. More than 70% of the villagers were originally named Xiao, and later people with the surname Liu moved in, making it a home where these two surnames lived together.
Cui Fei even used the Cui family's connections to find peddlers from the same hometown as Liu Xuezheng and asked them to write about things that were unique to their place. These things, which carry a sense of hometown, can easily become topics for poetry and are generally unknown to outsiders.
Unfortunately, the peddler said in embarrassment: "I have not read much since I was young. Although I have traveled far and wide to make a living, I only know a few numbers..."
Cui Fei naturally would not force him to write, so he let him dictate.
The peddler was still in a dilemma. "Our little village doesn't have any special products. It's just an ordinary village. It got its name because the terrain resembles a 'pipa'. There are some houses, alleys, small rivers and big trees in the village... If there is any difference, it's probably that our Xiao and Liu clan's ancestral halls are combined into one, and it's better built than in other villages."
But the benefits Cui Fei offered were so generous that you definitely wouldn't get any money just from these few words. The peddler was reluctant to give up this good thing, so he said that he was quite good at drawing and his memory was much better than that of ordinary people. He could draw everything he remembered in the small village.
Anyway, he thought that there were only a few things in that small village, and they were all here, so you can see whatever you want!
The peddler was illiterate and had been traveling all over the country for many years. He relied on his fairly decent painting skills to keep his family safe. His paintings were quite realistic, and he painted houses, rivers, alleys, and told him that the facades of ancestral halls were different from those in nearby ones - the interior of the ancestral hall certainly could not be painted for outsiders to see.
Seeing that he had tried his best, Cui Fei gave the promised money to the other party and took the paintings back to the academy.
Wait, ancestral hall? !
Mu Erpang closed his eyes and tried hard to recall. He remembered that in front of the combined ancestral hall of the Xiao and Liu families there were several vertical plaques similar to the ones in his own academy.
The peddler was illiterate, but he had seen the ancestral hall since he was a child, and he remembered the couplets on the vertical plaque clearly, so he "painted" several of those words on it.
Of course, he relied on the drawing method of memory, so the characters were crooked and just barely recognizable. But it is precisely these few lines in the title of the poem!
It turns out that this is where the title of the poem comes from!
The poem should not only encourage scholars to study hard and praise scholarly families, but also praise the Pipagang Village!
Fortunately, it was still early, so he could make some deletions and fine-tuning to the poem. Following the rules of prosody, Mu Erpang replaced the object used to express emotions in the poem with a pipa, referring to Liu Xuezheng's hometown.
As long as Liu Xuezheng, the person who set the question, sees it, he will understand the meaning.
When he was copying the paper for the last time, Mu Erpang, who was tired and hot, thought to himself that Liu Xuezheng's question was too convoluted. In fact, he only needs to ask a simple question about hometown, and he is sure that when the candidates miss and praise their hometowns, they will also praise his hometown as well! There's no need to be so 'subtle'!
After copying the final draft, there was only a quarter of an hour left before the end of the college entrance examination.
It was another time of overusing the brain, but fortunately the exam was short, so Mu Erpang only felt tired but not any other discomfort. He waited patiently for the exam to be over and for the clerks and soldiers to come and collect the papers.
This time, no candidate submitted their papers early, so all the candidates left their examination seats at about the same time and walked towards the dragon gate.
At this time, they had all handed in their papers, and the soldiers did not lead them out one by one.
Before leaving the dragon gate, Mu Erpang met Ren Shun and Zhao Xiuwen.
The three of them had been guarantors of each other for two games, so when they met they naturally greeted each other and chatted for a few minutes.
The three of them all looked unhappy today, and after greeting each other, no one spoke.
When we got outside, the candidates and their parents gathered together. Many anxious parents came up to ask, "How did the exam go?"
“Is the question difficult?”
"Didn't you say that there were only two questions in the exam? Why didn't anyone hand in their papers early today?"
Various concerned inquiries were heard. Some candidates who were not mentally strong were caught by their families and asked a lot of questions. They said directly: "Don't ask! The poem topic is too difficult. I couldn't calm down to write the article because I was thinking about the poem topic. I can't enter the re-examination this time. I'll come back in two years!"
At the back, Mu Erpang finally squeezed out of the crowd and found Chen Cui waiting on the side.
Shen Cui had already understood the situation through the light screen, and after hearing someone shouting, she wiped his sweat with a handkerchief and said softly, "It's okay. This question is difficult for you and others."
Mu Erpang nodded tiredly. It was just a coincidence that while they were talking, a conversation came from the side. It was also a parent asking the examinee: "They all say it's difficult. Do you think it's difficult?"
The candidate said calmly, "It's OK, just a pick-up."
His reaction was in stark contrast to the other candidates who were complaining, and he immediately attracted many accusatory and resentful looks.
The candidate remained calm and composed, ignoring everyone else.
Mu Erpang was also looking at him, not because he was resentful, but because he recognized that person was Chen Aoshuang.
Just like before, Shen Aoshuang also ignored Mu Erpang, whom he had met several times, and did not even glance at him.
Apart from anything else, this competitor has a really good psychological quality, Mu Erpang sighed sincerely in his heart.
After picking up the person, Shen Cui took him back to the academy in a carriage.
In the academy, A Yao had already boiled hot water and poured it into the bathtub. It's hot now, so there's no need to worry about the water getting cold.
Mu Erpang first changed out of his sweaty scholar's robe, took a hot bath, then changed into casual clothes and went back to the room to sleep for a while.
They slept until the evening, when Wei Shu and the others came back from the school. Guessing that Mu Erpang must be resting at this time, the teenagers went back to the house quietly to change clothes like thieves.
But Mu Erpang was not particularly tired and was about to wake up by now. He got up when he heard the rustling noise.
When they all came out of the house and sat down in the classroom, Chen Cui had already prepared delicious watermelons for them.
There were no outsiders present, and since there were only two questions in total, there was no need to write them down specifically, so Mu Erpang just ate watermelon while explaining today's test questions to everyone.
"Wow," Lao Buyu said with a heartfelt sigh while spitting out watermelon seeds, "I also felt that Xiao Xi's questions were a bit mean before. After all, the technique of cutting and connecting is generally used in eight-part essays, and poetry questions are very rare. I didn't expect him to actually guess it right. Oh, if our Xiao Xi becomes an examiner after high school, the students below will suffer!"
Wei Xi also laughed, "That's great, I will incorporate our academy's motto into the questions in the future. If anyone doesn't know the reason and doesn't praise our academy, I will directly demote him."
This was of course a joke. Not only him, but Liu Xuezheng would not really reject the candidates who did not think of the source of the poem title. All he could say was that if he had thought of it, mentioning it in the poem would definitely add a lot of impression points.
As they were talking, Wei Shu and Cui Fei also dug out the painting drawn by the peddler in front.
Not to mention, Mu Erpang’s memory was exactly correct—there were indeed two vertical plaques on both sides of the ancestral hall!
After all, the vertical plaque was painted by a peddler, so the words are crooked and have more or fewer strokes, but it is indeed recognizable as the title of the poem!
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Note: Some of the relevant information about Pipagang Village is true and is only quoted.
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