Chapter 16
Chapter 16
The March exam is finally over, and Ji Yuan is curious about how many points he got.
In addition, you have to go to the county town.
One reason was that he had been here for such a long time but had never been to the county town. The other reason was that the ink was gone and there was not much paper, so he had to buy some.
He had to go early and not let Master Zhao find out, otherwise he would definitely squeeze out his own expenses to give to him.
Mr. Zhao has a large family and two sick people, so making a living is not easy.
You can't always take advantage of this.
Just go when you say go.
Although everyone was worried about the results of the March exam, Ji Yuan had already followed Uncle An Wu to the county town.
Taking advantage of the fact that the private school is on holiday today, An Dahai helps him herd cattle, and Ji Yuan can also go out for a while.
Ji Yuan was also curious about what the county towns in this world were like.
He also wanted to know the outside world as soon as possible so that he could plan for the future.
I just don’t know if I can get into the county school.
Sitting on the ox cart, Uncle An Wu said, "You are young, so I won't take your money. Don't run around when we go to the county town. Let's go quickly and come back quickly."
Fortunately, their Anji Village was very close to the county town, and a round trip by ox cart only took a little over an hour.
Even if you walk, it will take no more than two hours.
It’s considered close nowadays.
Ji Yuan thanked him and sat on the back of the ox cart. He was small and did not weigh much.
This ox cart belongs to someone else in the village, and no money is charged for it because Ji Yuan is young.
In fact, apart from Aunt Ji's family in the village, the people of the entire Anji Village are quite simple and honest, and Ji Yuan has received a lot of care.
After getting in the car, Ji Yuan began to silently count the money he had.
By February, he had spent most of his money and had only sixty cents left. He didn't spend much money throughout March.
He sold some medicinal herbs and asked Aunt Ji for money to raise Xiao Huang.
After all the goings and goings, I actually saved up 150 coins.
This is also what he earned by working hard from dawn to dusk.
An Dahai sometimes said that he was really worried that Ji Yuan was not getting enough sleep.
He seems to be full of energy every day.
Ji Yuan just smiled. Now, looking at the small treasury he had saved, he was happier than anything else.
But when I counted the things I was about to buy, my good mood disappeared in an instant.
The most important items, paper and ink, cost one hundred wen each, and with the remaining fifty wen, after buying two of the cheapest pens, there would not be much left.
I don't plan to spend the remaining thirty era coins, I always have to keep some on hand.
Uncle An Wu put Ji Yuan in the bookstore and went to the place where farm tools were sold. It was Ji Yuan's first time in a bookstore and he was dazzled by what he saw.
This bookshop is quite large. It not only sells the four treasures of the study, but also popular vernacular novels, as well as "Provincial Examination Records" of last year's provincial examination, which collects the examination papers of the top 100 local examinees. It seems to be very popular.
"What are you doing here, kid?" The bookstore owner, who had a waist as thick as a bucket and didn't look like a scholar, said to Ji Yuan, "You look so ragged, are you asking for water?"
The waiter quickly poured a bowl of cold water and tried to send Ji Yuan away.
Ji Yuan looked at himself and found himself really shabby.
He has grown a lot taller in this month, and his clothes, which were already small to begin with, now look even smaller.
Alas, there's nothing we can do about it. It's his fault that he is poor.
Now that the weather is warmer, it doesn’t matter if the clothes are torn, as long as they can be worn.
Ji Yuan finished drinking the water and said, "Thank you, shopkeeper. I'd also like to buy fifty coins of rough-edged paper, half a pound of stinky ink, and two green bamboo pens."
The shopkeeper couldn't help but look at him twice when he saw that he was so young but spoke so well.
However, Ji Yuan only wanted the worst stationery, which matched his attire.
There was nothing else to do, so the shopkeeper said, "You kid, you have money but you don't buy clothes, but you buy pens and ink, is that worth it?"
“You may live in coarse silk and cloth, but you are full of elegance because you have learned a lot in your heart.” Seeing that the shopkeeper meant no harm and gave him more water to drink, Ji Yuan replied jokingly.
The two asked and answered each other, which made a student in his thirties who came to buy books next to him read for two more years. The student asked: "Su Shi's poems, the child's tone is quite big."
The shopkeeper said, "This is Master Huang from our county school, who specializes in Mingjing."
Ji Yuan bowed and said, "Greetings, Master Huang. I hope you won't be offended by my nonsense."
Master Huang waved his hand. Seeing that he was dressed in rags and that the pens and ink he bought were of the worst quality, he said, "Although you speak in a loud voice, your words have good meaning. How can I blame you?"
"Are you preparing for the October exam?"
Ji Yuan nodded, and Master Huang smiled: "In that case, then study hard. Maybe we will have a chance to be teacher and student."
After Master Huang left, the shopkeeper whispered, "This teacher is a leader in the county school. He is preparing for the exam while teaching. He will go to the prefecture to take the provincial exam this year. He has been shopping recently and will return to the prefecture soon."
The county where Ji Yuan was located was Zhengrong County, which was under the jurisdiction of Jianmeng Prefecture.
To take the exam, you naturally have to go to the provincial capital.
In the examinations in August and September, if you pass, you will be promoted from a scholar to a juren, and if you fail, you will return.
It seems that even if Master Huang passed the exam, he would not have seen him when he went to the county school.
If you fail the exam, you can come back and continue teaching.
Master Huang said that maybe we would have the chance to be teacher and student again, which was really open-minded.
Ji Yuan began to have some favorable impressions on the county school, and naturally he hoped to come here to study.
Of course, the main point is that tuition is free, and perhaps food, accommodation and miscellaneous expenses are also included.
I don’t want to think about the latter, it’s already good enough to be exempted from tuition.
Ji Yuan did not walk far. He just wandered around the bookstore and flipped through other books in the store, just waiting for Uncle An Wu to come back.
Uncle An Wu was quick in his work and he returned to the village without wasting any time.
He had a fulfilling afternoon, but the results of the private school's March exam had already come out.
After the separation of preschool and primary school.
There were also a few children in the elementary school who were excited.
The top students are gone! They can finally get A-grades!
However, what everyone is more concerned about is the performance in primary school.
There were only five students in the primary school, and every exam affected the chances of getting a place at the county school.
The most stressful thing is to settle down.
The eldest and third branches of the An family are often compared with each other.
Now that we are in primary school, we have to compete even more.
So I started waiting for Master Zhao to produce results early.
Ji Yuan returned to Anji Village and just after hiding the things he bought in his kitchen, he went to find An Dahai.
Since An Dahai helps him herd cattle, he will definitely take over quickly.
Unexpectedly, after searching for a while, An Dahai was not outside. After asking, I found out that the eldest lady of the An family called him back and went to Master Zhao's house together.
Go to Master Zhao’s house?
What happened?
Ji Yuan walked over quickly. Master Zhao's private school was not far from his home, and they usually did not disturb each other, so few students took the initiative to go there.
Xiao Huang, who was being brought by An Dahai, saw Ji Yuan from afar and ran over happily.
Others also looked over.
The era is coming!
I only heard the third wife of the An family say: "He is an orphan who has only been studying for two months. How can he compare with my brother's writing?!"
"Master Zhao, don't be too partial!"
As soon as this was said, Madam An said, "What do you mean by being too partial? Just because your son didn't do well in the exam and didn't get first place, you're questioning others? And you even called my son over here. What kind of talk is that?"
From the looks of it, it must be something to do with grades.
Ji Yuan stepped forward quickly, saluted Master Zhao, whose face was ashen, and then asked in a low voice: "Da Hai, what's wrong?"
An Dahai was very worried, so he just explained the situation briefly.
At the end of March, the private school held examinations as usual, which was not a problem.
The problem lies in the test scores
In the February exam, Ji Yuan took first place, and An Dahai, who followed him, also took second place.
Pushing down An Xiaohe, who was originally ranked first.
Madam An Er didn't say anything on the surface, but secretly wrote a letter to her younger brother, a scholar studying in the provincial capital, asking him for help.
My younger brother, a scholar, sent me the collection of notes he had copied and some contemporary essays.
For these, Madam An Er gave a lot of money to her parents' home.
These things were naturally done behind the backs of the other members of the An family.
An Xiaohe was the only one who memorized the collected notes and current essays that were sent to him.
It is almost like using extracurricular materials secretly without telling others.
I thought that with the help of his younger brother, the scholar, my son An Xiaohe would definitely be able to take first place again this time.
So while working in the afternoon, Mrs. An asked her youngest daughter to go to Master Zhao to get her grades.
Master Zhao took some time to mark the papers this time. It was almost sunset when the little daughter got the final results and sent them back to the An family.
The results first reached Madam An Er, and then were seen by Madam An Da, who heard about the results and immediately came over to take a look.
Ranking in the March exam.
Just like February!
The first is the era!
The second one is still An Dahai!
"Okay! My ocean is second again, and your river is third."
"Come to think of it, there are only five people in the Confucian Classics class, and your Xiaohe is both the third from the top and the third from the bottom."
After Madam An Da finished speaking, Madam An Er became furious.
This is definitely not fair!
Her brother is a scholar!
How could there be any mistakes in the annotated collection of contemporary essays given by the scholar?
How could I be worse than others?!
Naturally, the quarrel was directed to Master Zhao, and what Ji Yuan heard was that they were arguing about the test scores.
When Ji Yuan heard the word "Shiwen", he took a while to react.
Only later did I realize that the current affairs essays they were talking about were probably the high-scoring essays sold on the market.
Wait, didn't An Xiaohe copy the high-scoring essay onto the test paper? !
This, this definitely won’t work.
Things are even more outrageous than Ji Yuan imagined.
While Madam An Er was still chattering away, Master Zhao had already taken out the test papers of the three people.
The test paper is divided into two parts: dictation and questions on the meaning of the Four Books.
Let’s not talk about the latter, most people present couldn’t understand it.
But silent stickers are real, and it is clear who is right and who is wrong.
Fifty silent notes.
An Dahai got thirty-five questions correct, and made some corrections on the rest, leaving many missing.
Ji Yuan got forty-seven questions right, and even for the three that he got wrong, he didn't make many corrections. He should have known where he was lacking and it was easy for him to find and fill in the gaps.
An Xiaohe, who always had the best grades, only got thirteen out of fifty questions right!
You should know that dictation is writing from memory, which is the basic skill for all test-taking.
In the past, An Xiaohe had always been the best at memorizing.
There are so many omissions this time?!
A lot of the content is not even filled in.
Madam An Er couldn't believe it. She looked at An Xiaohe sharply, wanting to ask him if he was being lazy.
Just as Master Zhao was about to explain, a violent cough was heard in the room.
It was like the Master's old mother was asking the reason.
Master Zhao hurried into the house, and the remaining group of people outside looked at each other in confusion.
Madam An Er looked at An Xiaohe's most basic memorization and cursed in a low voice: "Whatever you cook every day, An Dahai can recite it, but you can't?"
An Xiaohe wanted to explain, but he had to lower his head.
"Third Lady, we will start studying the Four Books and Five Classics in late February. The Four Books are difficult to memorize, and we only have one month."
"If I memorize other books this month, I'm afraid I won't have time to memorize the Four Books."
Ji Yuan couldn't help but say: "The Four Books are the foundation of the imperial examination. We should not put the cart before the horse."
The situation now is.
In order to help An Xiaohe get first place, Mrs. An Er directly tried to force the issue.
This means that students do not have to memorize the text itself, but instead are asked to memorize the reading comprehension written by others.
This won't work.
Even if I memorize it, I don’t know what the original text is.
What's the point?
There is only so much time, and memorizing the Four Books is already very difficult.
In addition to the contemporary literature that was completely incomprehensible, Ji Yuan was a little impressed by An Xiaohe. How did he memorize it? How was it different from memorizing a heavenly book?
An Dahai said subconsciously: "Yes, Master Zhao attaches great importance to our basics. Ji Yuan also said that Master Zhao must have done more research on memorizing articles. If you can't even memorize the article itself, it is impossible to understand its meaning, and it is impossible to have your own opinion based on the meaning of the article."
Master Zhao heard what the two said and nodded secretly.
Madam An Er over there was already feeling extremely ashamed.
She was indeed eager for quick success and wanted An Xiaohe to take first place.
I didn't expect it to turn out like this.
But, but are her brother's articles really not as good as Ji Yuan's?
Master Zhao took out the second half of the test paper.
The meaning of the Four Books.
Master Zhao took out Ji Yuan's three articles and sighed softly, "Let's not talk about Ji Yuan's articles for now."
“The views in it are far beyond mine.”
Ji Yuan, who was comforting Xiao Huang, looked up.
he?
Far beyond Master Zhao?
You’re dreaming!
"No matter how many blows you make, you will still be strong. No matter which direction the wind blows."
“A line of genius.”
"To start with this is already far beyond what I have done."
Ji Yuan was shocked.
No matter how many times you are beaten, you will still be strong, no matter which direction the wind blows.
I'm sorry, Mr. Banqiao!
I've become a plagiarist!
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