Misty Rain of the Old Times

Chapter 119 Three Colleges
In front of Gao's house, there were sounds of laughter, noise, congratulations, and good news coming in one after another.

The copper coins were scattered in baskets, making a jingling sound and a noisy sound, and everyone enjoyed it together.

Neighbors, neighbors, be open-hearted, may the lady live a long and blessed life, and may the young master prosper and grow in wealth and power year by year.

Amidst the laughter and the crowd, Chen Xuan, who was humble but not obscure, shared every blessing...

The bustle in front of the Gao family's gate continued until the afternoon. As soon as the main gate was opened, the smile on Mrs. Gao's face never stopped. No matter who came to congratulate her, she would give some silver money in return.

She really likes to hear people's blessings, no matter if they are neighbors, beggars, peddlers, or even occasional wanderers, as long as they send a simple kind word, she will love to hear it.

It's not that she enjoys people's flattery, but because this is the honor earned by her son. As a mother, what could be happier than this? She can never get enough of hearing it.

Happy times always pass quickly, and people will eventually go their separate ways. They just come to take advantage of the Gao family's glory and ask for some wedding money, and they will have to return to their original lives afterwards.

The crowd dispersed, but the Gao family's joy did not stop. Everyone gave gifts and had extra meals, and the celebration was even more joyful than the ancestor worship festival at the end of the year.

That’s not all. In the evening, Mrs. Gao waved her sleeves and made a decision. From the next day on, a buffet would be set up in front of the Gao family’s door. No matter who said a nice word, they could eat and drink as much as they wanted. This would last for three days!

It is a great joy that her son has passed the imperial examination. Even if it is just the most basic level of a student, Mrs. Gao would like the whole world to know about it. It is not something she can't afford to show off.

The chef from Deweilou Xiaozuige was invited, and truckloads of food and drinks were brought in. If they were not enough, they would go to other towns and counties to buy them.

Money can’t buy happiness, money is not a problem.

Wow, Chen Xuan finally saw what arrogance meant. It was a three-day buffet, with people coming and going and eating to their heart's content. The money was spent like water, and the chef had to stir the wok all the time, and his hands were probably broken after that. Of course, the reward must have been extremely generous.

This is probably what a wealthy family is like. Chen Xuan had never seen it before, and he had never experienced such level of luxury in his previous life.

They spend money like water just to make themselves happy.

However, you need to have a certain amount of money to do this. If you try to show off your wealth, you will only bring disaster upon yourself.

The Gao family had a packed house during the three-day banquet. Although ninety-nine percent of them came to eat and drink for free, and some came more than once, it was really lively. At first, Chen Xuan thought it was novel and went to take a look, but later it became boring.

No matter how lively it is, it will eventually return to calm.

Afterwards, Chen Xuan heard from the Gao family that Gao Jingming had passed the imperial examination and had spent at least 20,000 taels of silver on rewards and banquets!

It may not seem like much, after all, the buffet outside the door naturally cannot be as sumptuous as a few taels of silver per table, but it is still amazing when you calculate it.

According to the calculation of the waiter who had a good income here, the three taels of silver a month that the Gao family spent in those few days was equivalent to what an ordinary person would earn in ten thousand years. What a horrible expense!

However, this seems to be just a drizzle for the Gao family!

At present, Chen Xuan has not learned much about the Gao family's income industries, but he vaguely knows that the famous Yangshan Jade, that is, the jade mine in Yang County, seems to have a share of the Gao family. In addition, there are also textile industries, medicinal materials business, book publishing and so on. Anyway, Chen Xuan is not clear about it for the time being.

In short, one thing is certain, that is, people will naturally earn back the money they spend.

As long as you don’t spend money recklessly, you can never spend it all.

I guess only Butler He knows what specific industries the Gao family has. Even Mrs. Gao may not understand what Butler He knows.

If everything goes according to plan, when Gao Jingming takes over the family business in the future, if Chen Xuan is mediocre, that is, lacking in literary and military skills, and unable to give Gao Jingming advice and help him solve his problems, it is likely that he will smoothly take over the position of housekeeper He in the future.

As for the housekeeper, he is in charge of the whole family and takes charge of all matters, big and small. Although he is still a servant of the Gao family, when he is away from the main members of the Gao family, except for a few people outside, who has to respectfully call him "Master"?

Anyway, Chen Xuan knew that Butler He was known as Mr. He Erye in public. He was the second child in the family and seemed to have an older sister. In short, Butler He would be given some face by both the black and white circles. As long as they were not from the top martial arts sects, he would be a guest of honor whenever he went there. Even if he went to the county or county government office, he would always be treated with courtesy.

Although Butler He is usually very friendly in the Gao family, he is like a background board in front of Mrs. Gao Jingming. Ordinary people can't imagine how powerful he is outside.

Honestly, where can you find a job like this?

Chen Xuan sometimes thought that it was really good and he felt really happy, but in the end he still yearned for "freedom" and was conflicted. He never thought that he would have such a "trouble" one day.

Honestly, Chen Xuan felt that under such circumstances, it didn't matter if he didn't have "freedom". As long as he continued to follow the routine, the Gao family could give him too much.

Well, he is such a tacky person. Who can stand this? He can't stand it anyway...

After the results were announced, some were happy while others were sad. Among the former "Five Tigers of Yang County", Gao Jingming was not the only one to stand out. Zhou Lin and Tian Xueyu were also on the list, but ranked after the top ten.

It was normal for them to be on the list. Firstly, they had good family backgrounds and abundant educational resources. Secondly, they were studying at Yushan School, where the teaching quality was unquestionable. The imperial examination in Huiyang County was simply bullying.

During the days when the Gao family held a buffet, Zhou Lin and others also came to congratulate them. They were once five good buddies. Although Luo Taiyun and Deng Lingfeng failed the exam, it did not affect their long-term friendship. Now that they are older, they have more sense and do not bring up topics that will affect their mood when they get together.

Since Zhou Lin and Tian Xueyu were on the list, their family naturally had to hold a banquet to celebrate, but it was not as grand as the Gao family.

Only Luo Taiyun and Deng Lingfeng felt melancholy. They had to go to three different places to offer their congratulations, but they still couldn't collect the money. Who was it that made them so incompetent?

A few days later, probably after all the successful candidates had celebrated happily, the county arranged a thank-you banquet for the teachers and invited all the successful candidates to attend.

To put it bluntly, the so-called teacher appreciation banquet is a circle structure. Those on the list are all from the same year. This relationship alone is actually a kind of personal connection, and if you manage it well in the future, you will get many benefits.

As a county official, those who made the list during his term of office were considered his disciples. This was also a kind of nepotism. He would not mind taking care of his disciples in any matter that was not too troublesome, and he would naturally be able to repay his disciples when they became successful in the future.

This is how circles and classes are formed, and fame is just a stepping stone. Without this identity, you are not even qualified to enter the circle.

Of course, Gao Jingming is a different story. He was born into a good family and has been rooted in the upper-class circle of power since birth. He can't reach the top for the time being. Those aristocratic families don't even want to play with him. They have their own circle.

Chen Xuan naturally attended the teacher appreciation banquet, but he was almost just a background figure throughout the whole process.

It wasn't that his ten-year-old status as a student wasn't dazzling enough, nor was it that people excluded him, but that his identity was quite embarrassing. Although he was on the list in the same year, as a servant of the Gao family, there was an invisible barrier between them.

Chen Xuan didn't care anyway. He had been Gao Jingming's follower for so many years and had long been used to it. No matter what happened, it wouldn't affect his comfortable life.

After the thank-you banquet, Gao Jingming naturally would not forget his mentor. Mrs. Gao, as a woman, usually did not show up in public, but she still made an exception and personally brought Gao Jingming and valuable gifts to visit to express her gratitude.

After three rounds of praise for his teacher's cultivation, Mr. Yushan was naturally extremely pleased that his disciple had lived up to his expectations.

This visit was not only to express gratitude for Mr. Yushan's cultivation, but also related to Gao Jingming's future. Being a Tongsheng was just the beginning of the imperial examination. There were also Xiucai, Juren and Jinshi, and the difficulty was increasing each time.

Subsequent learning is naturally not suitable to continue at the elementary education stage of Yushan School.

With Mr. Yushan as his master, Gao Jingming doesn't need to go out to study anymore. He can just learn from his master.

But after some discussion, Mrs. Gao and Mr. Yushan reached an agreement to let Gao Jingming go to a better institution. It was not that Mr. Yushan was not qualified to teach, but that learning requires an atmosphere. Moreover, although Mr. Yushan was a great talent, he did not consider himself a jack of all trades and was still inferior to others in some aspects. Gao Jingming needed to learn from others to address his shortcomings.

As for where to go, he has not decided yet. Let's wait and see next year. In the coming year, Mr. Yushan will try his best to teach Gao Jingming everything he has learned, including martial arts and knowledge.

Martial arts are easy to learn, but knowledge cannot be taught easily. One year seems a bit short, but you must understand that all knowledge is in the books. Mr. Yushan only needs to guide you on which books to read. If you don’t understand something, you can ask him in letters. When you come back before the imperial examination in the future, he will personally guide you for a period of time.

The key is which university Gao Jingming will go to for further studies. In fact, there are only two or three options.

Jingguo has three major colleges, namely Mingtang College, Liuyu College, and Renfeng College. These three colleges have continuously cultivated countless talents for the entire Jingguo over the years.

Almost all students who studied in those three academies had achieved academic success, and there were many scholars and juren who pursued further studies there.

If nothing unexpected happens, Gao Jingming will go to one of these three colleges next.

The three major colleges have different focuses. Mingtang College is pragmatic and tends to be more powerful and wealthy, Liuyu College focuses on government administration, and Renfeng College tends to be more military-oriented.

For a family like the Gao family, Gao Jingming will naturally arrange for them to go to one of the three best colleges in Jingguo. There is no rush to decide where to go, and they have a year to consider it.

This time when they visited Mr. Yushan, Chen Xuan and the others did not leave, but stayed here to learn the rest of the things from him. Mrs. Gao returned alone.

It was also during this visit that Chen Xuan learned that in this year's imperial examination for children, the candidates who took the exam at Yushan Academy were distributed across various counties, and as many as thirty people made the list. It should be noted that the total number of candidates who took the exam at Yushan Academy was only about one or two hundred, including not only their class and the advanced training class, but also some people who left the school to study at home. This pass rate was truly astonishing. It was conceivable that there would be even more children sent to Yushan Academy in the future.

Time flies, and another year has passed. Chen Xuan is eleven years old.

Over the past year, Mr. Yushan has taught everything he can. Next, Chen Xuan and the others will also move to a new environment and start a new life...

(End of this chapter)