Rise From the Humble

"Zhu Pingan, you can come in, but that dead fat pig is not allowed in."

Just when Zhu Pingan was looking at a certain fat man with a red nose with a painful look on his face, the door of the study room opened, and the sinister girl Li Shu poked her head out of the door, reluctantly pouted and shouted to Zhu Pingan He shouted, his face full of reluctance.

"If dad hadn't told you to keep the study for your use before he left, I wouldn't have let you in!" The sinister girl pouted and rolled her eyes at Zhu Pingan.

A certain fat man whose head was caught by the door heard this, and his wretched little eyes flicked back and forth between Zhu Pingan and the dark-faced girl with bright and inquiring eyes.

"Then you wait outside for me."

Originally, Zhu Ping'an didn't want to leave Fatty alone and go in alone, but seeing Fatty's behavior, he immediately left a word, patted his butt and left. Although the sinister girl has a stinky face, she is good-looking, which is much better than looking at the fat man's wretched face. What's more, she is here to return books and borrow them, so it's better to be practical.

Zhu Pingan went into the study to return the books, and quickly borrowed two more books. When he was about to leave, he was stopped by the sinister girl.

"Is something wrong?" Zhu Ping'an asked, looking at the sinister girl.

"Nonsense, why should I stop you when you have nothing to do!" The sinister girl looked contemptuous. "Next time you come to borrow a book, you must bring me a story of five thousand, no, at least six thousand words. If you want to copy it, the font must be neat. , just think of it as practicing calligraphy for you.”

After the sinister girl finished speaking, she looked at Zhu Pingan without blinking, waiting for Zhu Pingan's answer.

"Okay, I'll try my best." Zhu Pingan nodded.

"What does it mean to try your best? It means to be certain!" The dark-hearted girl was dissatisfied and showed her little fangs.

On the way back from Li's house to Zhu Ping'an's house, the fat man's fat face was full of gossip. He kept asking why the study was the place for your tryst, and what have you been doing in the study for so long...

"You were really born in the wrong era." Zhu Pingan glanced at the fat man with a face full of gossip and said lightly.

"Huh?" The fat man was puzzled.

"It can only be understood but cannot be expressed in words." Zhu Pingan shook his head, pretending to be mysterious.

"Oh, you are just changing the subject. You are in the study room..." The fat man started gossiping again.

The sound of frogs, birds, and the fat man's gossip echoed all the way...

In the evening, Li Zheng from Xiahe Village led two young people into the gate of Zhu Ping'an's house carrying rice, noodles, oil and meat.

"Li Zheng, what are you doing?" Zhu's father heard the sound and came out of the room. He was very surprised to see Li Zheng and the two young men carrying things.

"Brother Zhu, this is not what I want to do, it is the county's regular subsidy for your second child."

With a smile on his face, Li Zheng waved to the young man behind him to put things in the yard of Zhu Ping'an's house.

"There are so many things." Mother Chen came out of the room and looked at the rice, flour, oil, meat, etc. carried by the two young men. She couldn't help but click her tongue. There was a bag of rice, a jar of oil, a small bag of flour and so on. A big piece of meat is enough to last you a long time.

Zhu Ping'an, the fat man and his eldest brother Zhu Ping'an then walked out. After Li Zheng saw Zhu Ping'an, he smiled and held his hands in his hands to congratulate him, "I haven't congratulated Mr. Zhu yet. Your Majesty Long En has opened Enke with great force. Mr. Zhu can't Let’s try our skills.”

"Oh, I almost forgot, this was sent to the town from the county, and the town asked me to hand it over to Mr. Zhu as well." Li Zheng said, patted his head, and took out a cover sheet from his sleeve. The red paper with the seal was handed to Zhu Pingan.

"Thank you, Li Zheng." Zhu Pingan took the red paper and thanked him.

"Wherever, it's just a matter of chance." Li Zheng waved his hand, with a smile on his face.

Li Zheng was chatting in the Zhu family yard for a while and then left. Zhu Ping'an opened the red paper in his hand and found that it contained the specific news about Enke. In the front was a lot of Qilin La and other words of praise, followed by The specific time of Enke is the fourth day of November.

The fourth day of November?

At first glance, Zhu Ping'an was a little confused when he saw this time, because the number four has always been an unlucky number in our country and is very taboo among the people, let alone the court. However, after thinking about Emperor Jiajing's character, Zhu Pingan was relieved.

Emperor Jiajing was fond of refining elixirs and cultivating immortals. He also liked to ask gods and immortals about good and bad luck. The method was also very special. He wrote the questions on paper and sealed them. An eunuch gave them to Taoist priests, who burned them to the immortals. Then he Two branches were set up on the sand table, and two eunuchs pressed the branches with their fingers. When the gods appeared, the two eunuchs closed their eyes and pressed the branches on the sand table to scribble on the sand table. Then Emperor Jiajing studied the gods based on the "Book of Heaven" displayed on the sand table. the will of.

Maybe, this is how the fourth day of November came about.

When the fat man saw the time, he felt like his butt was on fire and screamed, "Why is it this year? I thought it would be early next year. Then I have to go back to prepare for the scientific examination?"

The scientific examination mentioned by the fat man refers to the examination held by the Ti Xue officer to select students and supervisors to participate in the provincial examination in the year of the competition, well, that is, the year before the provincial examination. It is usually held after the annual examination and then by the Ti Xue officer. The academic officer presides over the scientific examination, but Zhu Ping'an and the others are special, they are students this year, so they only need to participate in the scientific examination. The scientific examination grades are divided into six grades. Generally speaking, the third grade is more likely to be awarded to academic officials. There are very few or even none below the third grade. Only those who get first or second place in the scientific examination can take the provincial examination.

The reason why Fatty is so nervous is because there are quotas for first and second class students in the scientific examination. Each county and prefecture has a fixed quota. If I remember correctly, it will not be until about five or six years later that the quota will be proportionally limited based on the quota of provincial examinations in previous years.

There are about 2,300 people in the entire Southern Zhili Province, and they are allocated to each county. There are only about ten people in each county, not too many. There are at least hundreds of talents in each county, but only about ten can take the provincial examination.

Even the qualifying test for the provincial examination is difficult, isn't it? But according to the usual practice, it is safe to pass the scientific examination and participate in the provincial examination.

Therefore, Zhu Pingan is not very worried about this.

Soon, the nurse who sent Fatty to Xiahe Village the day before yesterday also arrived with a horse-drawn carriage. He had received news from Fatty's family in Fengyang Prefecture overnight, telling Fatty to go home quickly to prepare for the scientific examination.

Fatty reluctantly left the Zhu family...

"Godmother, that pickled cucumber..." I have to say that the way the fat man reluctantly parted was also very special.

"My godmother, I'll give you a whole jar." Mother Chen took a freshly marinated jar from the yard and put it on the fat man's carriage. She also really liked this chubby godmother who had lived in Zhu's house for a few days. son.

"That's so embarrassing..." The fat man said this, and his hands were not slow. In three strokes, he pulled the jar of pickled cucumbers that his mother Chen put on the carriage into the carriage.

"What's wrong? I can marinate it again in a few days." Mother Chen waved her hand nonchalantly.

"Godmother, those dried mushrooms..." The fat man pointed to the dried mushrooms in the yard and reluctantly parted with them. The chicken soup made by my godmother with mushrooms last night was so delicious.

"My godmother, I'll put it on for you..." Mother Chen was very generous.

"Godmother, then..." The fat man collected the mushrooms and reluctantly got up...

"It's over or not, at least leave some for me!" Zhu Ping'an stepped forward and pushed the reluctant fat man into the carriage.

Zhu Pingan's actions made Mrs. Chen laugh and scold him. She picked up a lot of Fatty's favorite foods from home and stuffed them into Fatty's carriage, making Fatty wink at Zhu Pingan happily.

"You are childish. Don't waste time eating and sleeping. Read more books. It will save you the shame of the provincial science and technology examination."

Zhu Ping'an complained disdainfully about the fat man's childish behavior.

"Fat Master will be embarrassed? Just wait and see him with admiration." The fat man raised his fat face and roared away in the carriage.