Before they entered again this time, Shen Cui prepared a new face towel for Mei Ruochu.
The price of this face towel in the system mall is 10 points more expensive than the ordinary one mentioned above, and it has a better anti-odor effect.
But on the other hand, the feeling of stuffiness will be more severe after wearing it.
When people use their brains, they actually need more oxygen. If breathing is not smooth at this time, it is very likely to cause brain deprivation of oxygen.
It was because of this 'side effect' that Chen Cui chose the first type when she bought luggage for them.
Although their second test seats were changed from the previous ones in order to prevent cheating, Chen Cui felt that since Law had used such a despicable and stupid trick, it was very likely that the same thing would happen again in the future.
Just let Mei Ruochu wear them all and let him choose which one to wear when the time comes.
This time they still didn't let Chen Cui send them off, but Chen Cui insisted on doing it - although they were young and strong, they had been in the examination room for so long and had only one sleep, so except for Mu Erpang and Wei Shu who had recovered, everyone else looked very tired.
Later, Chen Cui sent them outside the examination hall, only to find that at least half of the candidates in the provincial examination were already quite old, with beards, and quite a few even had white hair.
Comparing the two, there are actually not many young people.
Our students were all in their teens and twenties, and they were already so tired. These people were even more listless, with unsteady steps. Many of them were supported by their family members or servants.
Chen Cui sighed, watched the young men enter in batches, did not stay outside the examination room for long, and returned to Shusheng Lane.
After returning, Shen Cui immediately opened the system to check Mei Ruochu's attributes.
Although it was a second entry, just like the main and re-examination of the previous entrance examination, it was the same exam after all, so Mei Ruochu's luck value only dropped by 5 points symbolically.
When it came to the body search, he, with a luck value of 35, went through another round of body search that was so harsh that it would destroy the mentality of an ordinary person.
After nearly an hour of struggling, the sergeant finally let him put on his clothes.
However, Mei Ruochu really did not feel unhappy this time, because compared to staying in a place like the Stinky Cellar, being searched outside could be considered a pleasure.
Sure enough, when he entered the examination room, the examination seat had been adjusted compared to before, but it was just moved from one side of the toilet to the other, and the smell was a bit stronger than before.
Chen Cui saw on the screen that he put on the upgraded face mask as soon as he sat down, and she knew that the situation was similar to what she imagined.
Chen Cui really couldn't help. After all, she had already searched the system that night when they came back to sleep, and the mall didn't sell anything that could block people's sense of smell - this effect was really not a bonus effect, so the system was not prepared.
Later, Mu Erpang and the others took their seats one after another, and the pictures of several people were connected into a whole picture.
Because they had been so exhausted before, no one had recovered yet, so their movements were very uniform. After simply tidying up the room, they quickly put the wooden boards together and went to bed to rest.
After sleeping all night with legs bent and arms hugged, the provincial examination began the next day and the test papers were distributed.
This exam tests essays and policy papers.
There are three essay questions and two policy essay questions, a total of five questions.
It was much less than the first round in terms of the number of questions, and these two body types were not a shortcoming for the teenagers in the family, so Shen Cui felt relieved when she saw this.
But she didn't know that while the number of questions decreased, the difficulty also increased greatly. For example, the first question on the policy essay asked about taxation, and what it asked was the system of tax exemption for juren.
In this dynasty, if one passed the imperial examination, one could be exempted from the tax on 200 acres of land.
If a family of a juren is wealthy, they can rely on this system to purchase more land, and their wealth will naturally accumulate faster.
If the family is not well off, they can charge fees from others and have them register their land under their name.
Hence the old saying goes 'a poor scholar but a rich juren'. Just relying on this system, it would be hard for a juren not to get rich!
This system has been continued from previous dynasties to the present day and has remained unchanged for hundreds of years. There must be a reason for its existence.
First of all, it spurred scholars to make progress. Although juren could be candidates for official positions, if one came from an ordinary family with no interpersonal relationships or money to gain access, it was unclear when one would be able to become a candidate.
This system of exempting land tax was much more direct, and it was enough to turn a student from a poor family into a wealthy farmer in an instant.
Moreover, they all aim to become juren, and if they directly refute this system as being bad, they will be shooting themselves in the foot.
Even the examiners are the beneficiaries of this system. How can anything good happen if you devalue the system in front of them?
However, there was naturally a far-reaching purpose behind asking this question to the scholars taking the imperial examinations in the provincial examination.
If you only praise the good things, you will appear to have no opinion of your own and your eyes are only focused on the benefits that are about to be gained.
So we have to divide the discussion into two parts. First, we must affirm the founding emperor's contribution in continuing this law, which has benefited many students from poor families.
Then analyze the bad parts and the parts that need appropriate reform.
It’s no wonder that Mu Erpang is so fat. After all, he is the youngest and the least experienced among the group. This kind of questions, which require writing in connection with actual people's livelihood situations, are really difficult for him.
After thinking for a long time, Mu Erpang suddenly thought of something.
That was when he returned to his hometown to take the county examination. His elder brother had already won four first places in a row and became a famous Jieyuan.
At that time, her grandmother mentioned something to her mother, and he happened to overhear it.
At that time, Zheng was not talking about anything else, but asked Chen Cui, "I heard that a juren can be exempted from a lot of land taxes. Mu Yunchuan did not return to this village, but went directly to the capital. The land in the capital is very expensive, so he should not have bought any land under his name, right?"
Chen Cui said helplessly: "There is indeed such a system, but Mu Yunchuan himself did not purchase it. I guess he does not want to make a fortune from it. Why do you bring this up for no reason?"
Zheng said, "I would never have thought of it myself. Didn't someone tell me? The old woman from your eldest sister-in-law's family wanted to register the Chen family's land under her name, and promised to give her 30% of the tax. I thought about the 30% tax, if we do it ourselves, we will definitely earn more than this amount! We can at least buy ten acres of good land and register it under his name first. Even if he wants to buy his own land in the future and move ours out, he will earn several years of tax for free. During this period, he can rent the land to others to grow crops, and then sell it to others later, which is definitely not a small amount of money!"
Chen Cui remembered that in the original book, Zheng and her original body did just that, and it did displease Mu Yunchuan. A few years later, Zheng's health deteriorated.
Although the book does not explicitly state that the two things are related, Shen Cui insisted: "He doesn't want to get rich from this, but we have to go against him. Isn't this clearly opposing him?"
Zheng was about to say that it would be a shame not to take advantage of such a ready-made opportunity, so why bother with so much? If Mu Yunchuan is unhappy, then let him be unhappy. Does he dare to get angry with them as his elders?
Before she could open her mouth, Mu Erpang smiled and said, "Grandma, listen to me, please. According to what you just said, if the land is registered under the name of eldest brother, if he buys land by himself in the future, you will have to spend a lot of effort, changing the name and selling the land. How hard will that be?"
If Chen Cui said this, Zheng would definitely retort directly, saying, "Hasn't I worked hard for you over the years?"
But when Mu Erpang said this, Zheng was delighted and felt that he was very filial at such a young age.
Finally, Mu Erpang said, "So, don't worry about these things. I will work hard and pass the imperial examination. When you want the land, you can use all my share."
At that time, he had not passed the county examination yet. If others heard what he said, they would definitely think he was daydreaming. To take the imperial examination, it takes many places decades to produce only one or two people. But when he said it, it sounded as easy as eating and drinking water.
Of course, Zheng would not think that way. She thought that if Mu Yunchuan could pass the imperial examination, then her eldest grandson would surely be able to do so, so she said with a smile, "That would be great. Then grandma will be waiting for our second fat man to pay tribute to her!"
Thinking of this, Mu Erpang had an idea.
In his article, he wrote that the founding emperor followed this system, which must have been out of his love for scholars.
However, if this system is exploited by people with ulterior motives, it may cause disasters.
The people with ulterior motives here are definitely not talking about the Zheng family, but the Chen family, who are not even remotely related to his eldest brother, and actually want to make a profit through this system.
Seeing that his thoughts were flowing and he was writing non-stop, Shen Cui felt relieved.
For this second exam, Mei Ruochu, Chen Aoshuang, Mu Erpang, and Wei Xi were at about the same level. They all finished their papers on the morning of the last day and began the final review.
Mei Ruochu was still the first to hand in his paper. Mu Erpang and the other three were still patient and waited until the afternoon. By then, Zi Weishu and Cui Fei had also completed all the steps.
This time, Chen Cui did not let them go home by themselves. She prepared hot water and food at home early in the morning, asked Lao Buyu to watch the fire in the stove, and then went out and parked the carriage in front of the Gongyuan gate.
After Mei Ruochu came out, he asked the driver to send the person back first and then come back, and then he waited at the gate of the Imperial Examination Hall.
It was fortunate that she had made such preparations, because when they left the examination room again this time, everyone looked more tired than before.
Just like Wei Shu still had the strength to carry Wei Xi before, but now he couldn't even carry anyone, and he even walked much slower than usual.
Not to mention washing and resting, there is only one round left in the provincial examination.
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