Meishan Su family, Su Yun is the most virtuous

Chapter 176 Happy housewarming!

Su Yun returned to the Su Mansion and told Su Zhe about this. Su Zhe had no opinion on this and said with a smile: "You are a scholar, and you still believe in this?"

Su Yun smiled bitterly and said, "After all, something like that happened. If I don't do some rituals, I'll always feel uneasy."

Su Zhe chuckled and shook his head, saying, "Did you do well in the exam?"

Su Yun nodded and said, "Not bad, I should be able to make the list, and the examiner this time is Huang Lu, so it shouldn't be a problem to make the list."

Su Che thought for a moment and said, "Huang Lu is from the same faction as Zihou, so I think it shouldn't be a big problem. As long as you pass the joint examination, you won't be rejected in the palace examination, and your status as a Jinshi will be secure."

Su Yun laughed. These days were like a dream. Not only had he written a book, but now he even had a chance to become a Jinshi.

When he was in Meishan, he never had such extravagant hopes.

Even when he was in Huangzhou, he was self-aware and felt that it would be difficult for him to pass the imperial examination.

But starting from Huangzhou, he followed Su Shi to copy the Book of Han, learned how to write official documents, and studied poetry. Later, in order to write the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, he studied the Records of the Three Kingdoms intensively. Gradually, he accumulated his knowledge of classical Chinese and his vocabulary.

In order to write the two books, Collected Commentaries on Mencius and Collected Commentaries on the Four Books, he read through all the original texts and various annotations of the Five Classics, Mencius, the Analects, etc. His accumulation of knowledge on the classics is also astonishing.

Most people who prepare for the imperial examination may read through the Five Classics at first, but once they decide on a classic, they will abandon the other five classics and concentrate on studying this classic.

There is no one like Su Yun who integrated the Five Classics and Mencius and the Analects into one book and explained them from different angles.

Other scholars don't have the time to do such things.

In this way, he gained more benefits than other scholars. His knowledge of the classics was much deeper than that of other candidates. His original weakness turned into his greatest strength.

As for policy theories, friends who have written books know that when you get used to writing books, your angle and depth of looking at problems will be more clever and profound than simply absorbing knowledge.

People who read books get to know the world constructed by others, while people who write books create a world. The difficulty and difference between the two are huge.

So, what Su Yun originally thought was very difficult was actually achieved easily after he did some things unknowingly?
It’s quite interesting to think about it.

Su Yun found it very interesting to think that in some time he would become a Jinshi of the Song Dynasty.

Seeing Su Yun smiling, Su Zhe thought that Su Yun was happy because he had a chance to pass the imperial examination, so he also smiled and said, "After you pass the imperial examination, it's time to get married to the girl from the Zhang family. After all, Zhang Ruo is older than you, so you can't put it off any longer. What do you think?"

Su Yun smiled and said, "It's all up to my uncle."

Su Che snorted and said, "How can I be your boss? Forget it, let me take care of this matter, and you can just focus on preparing for the palace examination.

Although he failed in the palace examination, his ranking in the imperial examination had a great impact on his official career. The top scholar had an advantage over the second and third place candidates, and the third place candidates had an advantage over the later rankings.

So, if you can, try to get a higher position.”

Su Yun followed suit and said with a smile, "Yes, I will listen to my uncle, but I plan to move to the new house in the next two days, so I will be busy these days."

Su Zhe thought for a moment and said, "You are going to move into the new house, do you have any plans to hold a housewarming party?"

Su Yun shook his head and said, "I haven't thought about this."

Su Zhe shook his head and said, "We have to do something. It's fine for other houses, but this house has had some bad things happen before, so we have to hold a lively housewarming party to cheer it up."

Su Yun nodded. That was the truth. Not to mention this era, even in later generations, when moving into a new house, one would have to invite relatives and friends to come together to celebrate. It was very particular. Even when renting a house, one would have to invite a bunch of friends to come over to warm up the house.

What's more, two such terrible murders had happened in this house. If it wasn't cleaned up, the people living here would feel a little uneasy.

Su Yun smiled and said, "Okay, let me think about it. Who can I invite? Well, my classmates from the Imperial College, Wen Huanghua and 20 to 30 others should be able to come.

Then invite my uncle's family and Uncle Zhang's family, set up a few tables outside, and let Ah Hui and Ah Hu eat outside. That's quite a lot of people."

Su Zhe smiled and said, "That's fine, but aren't you going to invite other people?"

Su Yun hummed and said, "Who else? I don't know many people in Bianjing. These are all the people I know."

Su Zhe smiled and said, "Is that really all?"

Su Yun thought about it and smiled bitterly: "It's not that I don't recognize them, but their status is too high, so I can't invite them."

Su Zhe shook his head and said, "It's their business whether they come or not, but if you don't invite them, then you are wrong.

For example, your teacher when you took the exam was Hu Zongyu, the prefect Hu. Last time you went to Chongwenyuan temporarily, it was an emergency, but this time you moved to a new house but did not invite him. If he knew about it, you might become enemies in the future.

There is also the official. The house was given to you by the official. When you hold a housewarming party, you have to send an invitation to the official. The official will definitely not come, but you have to thank him and inform him.

Oh, yes, in fact, there is also the examiner of this examination, Huang Lu, the Minister of State Huang. He will definitely not come if you invite him, but you have to show your attitude, right?"

Su Yun nodded repeatedly after listening to this. It's not that he didn't understand the ways of the world, but there was still a difference between this time and later times.

After all, in his eyes, his status was too different from the three people Su Che mentioned, and he had no qualifications at all to submit an invitation.

After all, among these three people, one is the prefect of Kaifeng Prefecture, one is the Minister of Rites, and one is the current emperor. Their status is higher than each other. Su Yun is not even a ninth-rank official and is a commoner. How can he be qualified to submit an invitation?
So he didn't think about it that way at all.

Su Che smiled and said, "You have to change your mindset. Although you are not an official yet, you are not a commoner. You have the book "Collected Commentaries on the Four Books" and you are a great scholar of classics. Even the government dare not ignore you.

If you go to other high-ranking officials in the court to ask for a meeting, no one will dare to turn you away.

This is the invitation that you send over. Maybe they won't come, but they will still have to reply to tell you why they are busy and can't come.

You have to bring a nice gift to complete the ceremony.”

Su Yun nodded and smiled, "I understand. But in this case, we have to wait until the list of the imperial examination is announced. Minister Huang is still in the Imperial Examination Hall."

Su Che nodded and smiled, "Then let's postpone it a little bit."

This matter was settled. There was still some time before the list was announced, and it would be March, when the apricot flowers bloomed, so this list was also called the Apricot List.

It is now mid-February, and there are still more than ten or twenty days left.

However, for Su Yun, if he wanted to invite so many guests, a lot of preparations would be required, and there was just enough time.

First of all, you have to prepare food. This kind of banquet has to be of higher quality. You have invited important people, so you can't just fool them. It's fine if they don't come, but if they really come, it will be embarrassing if the food is too bad.

However, when it comes to high-end ingredients, it is sometimes difficult to buy them on the spot, and it is difficult to get them a few days in advance, so half a month in advance is just right.

The next day, Su Yun brought Ah Hui, Ah Hu and about 20 other people to the house to open up the wasteland.

Although this house has been frequently repaired, it has not been occupied for two or three years, so it needs to be cleaned up.

After Su Yun and his men arrived, they first moved out all the furniture and disposed of it. Although these furniture were very high-end, after all, someone had died in the house, so they would rather not have them.

There is no need to throw away these furnitures. Just find someone to buy them in the second-hand market in Bian Jing. Ah Hu and his friends have acquaintances in this area, so they can just take them all away.

Then the house is dusted very carefully, making sure every corner is cleaned.

After Su Yun arranged these things, he took Ah Hui, Ah Hu and others to the furniture market and started buying furniture.

If there was enough time, I should have made all the furniture myself using good quality wood, but time is tight now so I just bought ready-made ones.

Fortunately, with the help of my bald uncle, we searched several home furnishing stores and finally managed to collect enough furniture for five rooms.

The furniture came in one after another, and Su Yun found the Yuxian official store. The so-called official store is a large-scale restaurant with a wine-making license. The Yuxian official store is not far from the house.

Su Yun couldn't host such a large banquet by himself, so it would be better to contract it to a restaurant and let them prepare it so that the requirements could be met.

After all, the chefs and dishes of the restaurant are the most professional. What's more, there are about 10 to 20 tables and a hundred chairs. It would be a waste to buy them all by yourself. It is much easier to leave it to the restaurant.

Su Yun paid a deposit of one thousand strings of cash to the restaurant, and then confirmed the number of tables and the menu with the owner.

After arranging these things, Su Yun began to write the invitations.

People like Ah Hui and Ah Hu are considered our own people, so there is no need to write about them.

Su Che's family were relatives, so naturally they didn't need to write a letter, but Zhang Dun's family had to be polite and wrote a letter.

There are also three other people, including Guan Jia, Hu Zongyu and Huang Lu, who all need to write invitations.

Although Wen Huanghua and others were classmates, their relationship was not close enough that they could come with just a word of invitation, so invitations had to be written one by one.

So the workload is not low.

After finishing writing, Su Yun went to the Su Mansion and the Zhang Mansion to ask Su Zhe and Zhang Dun, and showed them the list to see if there was anything missing.

Su Che added two people, one was Lu Tao, the doctor of the Ministry of Justice, and the other was Zhang Lei, the reviewer of the History Museum.

Lu Tao is a fellow Sichuanese, and they have always been good friends.

In the fourth year of Xining, before Su Shi took up the post of magistrate of Hangzhou, Zhang Lei came to Chenzhou to say goodbye to his brother.

Zhang Lei had the opportunity to meet Su Shi and was favored by him. From then on, he became a disciple of the Su brothers. With Dongpo's recommendation, he took the imperial examination in Suzhou.

Su Che probably wanted to introduce all his connections to Su Yun, but after thinking for a long time, he only added these two people.

Su Che sighed and said, "All my friends have been exiled to the prefectures and counties. I will introduce them to you when I have the chance."

Su Yun quickly comforted Su Zhe and said, "Uncle, don't worry, I will come back eventually."

Su Che shook his head and left.

Su Yun went to Zhang's house.

After Zhang Dun looked at Su Yun's list, he smiled and added some. Su Yun looked at it and was a little surprised: "Invite them?"

Zhang Dun looked at Su Yun and said with a smile, "Why, inappropriate?"

(End of this chapter)