Top Scholar

Chapter 33 The way forward
The next day, Su Lu finally didn't have to get up so early.

But he still woke up precisely to the rooster's crow. Powerful inertia prevented Su Lu from immediately opening his eyes; instead, he silently reviewed his experiences since arriving here…

From initial confusion and feeling out of place, to later thriving and fully integrating into the times; from being determined to change his fate through studying, to giving it his all and making a 100-day sprint to finally achieve his goal... Day after day, scene after scene flashed before his eyes like a revolving lantern.

I am first and foremost fortunate, with the unparalleled support of my father and brothers. And I was also right; the experiences of the past hundred days have proven that my initial decision was correct—in this era, education is the right way to change my destiny!

Moreover, the results proved that my learning method had a disruptive effect. Coupled with the good brain inherited from my parents and the maturity of two lifetimes, this allowed me to complete in three months what others take six years to achieve.

Although I don't know what the outside world is like, at least in this county and three garrisons, I still have a certain advantage in competition with my peers.

This finally made his life goal of "passing the imperial examination and eating fine grains" a reality!

But you absolutely cannot let your guard down. Don't forget that you were the last one to get into the academy.

Everyone ahead of me is bright and has a solid foundation; I can't possibly surpass them by just memorizing. So I need my father and older brothers to give me pre-school tutoring and guide me on how to close the gap.

Given that even our father never attended Taiping Academy, our eldest brother, an outstanding recent graduate, is more authoritative on this matter.

However, his good luck seemed to have temporarily run out last night...

During breakfast, my eldest brother suddenly announced to the whole family: "The county exam will be in February next year, so I won't be spending the Spring Festival at home this year."

The elders seemed to know everything, eating and drinking as usual, without any fuss. Only Su Lu asked in surprise, "Then where will eldest brother spend the New Year?"

"Let's go to Luzhou!" the eldest brother announced proudly. "Every year before the county examination, our academy selects five outstanding graduates to attend lectures at the Wenzhan Hall of Heshan Academy for a month!"

"Wen Zhan Tang?" Su Lu mused with longing. Such a chuunibyou name, you could tell at a glance that it was a holy land for tutoring.

"That's right, Heshan Academy is the most famous academy in Sichuan, with a retired Hanlin scholar personally serving as its headmaster. The Wenzhan Hall is its dedicated place for providing pre-exam guidance to the most outstanding students. It's far superior to ordinary literary gatherings and lectures!"

"Amazing!" Su Tai clapped.

"Of course, if it were just for a mere county exam, there would be no need for such a grand fuss." Su Man added proudly, "Actually, I'm here for the prefectural exam in April!"

"What if you also pass the provincial examination?" Su Lu asked.

“In June or July, the Grandmasters will arrive, and then we can participate in the Academy Examination.” Su Man said with some anticipation, “If I pass the Academy Examination, I will become a formal student.”

"Moreover, this year is a year of great examinations. If I can pass the county-level examination in June or July, I can catch the grandmaster's examination in Chengdu in August. After passing, I can go straight to the provincial-level examination." He couldn't help but fantasize:
"Then comes the provincial examination in February of the following year, and the palace examination in March! So if someone is strong enough and lucky enough, it is possible to pass the imperial examination from a student to a scholar within a year!"

"..."

~~
But in fact, starting with the sentence "I'm doing this for the state exam in April!", the rest is all about Chun Ge'er's inner thoughts.

In Chun Ge'er's imagination, he was already dressed in red and colorful robes, paraded through the imperial street, received his official robes at the Confucian Temple, and even enjoyed the Qionglin Banquet.

Instant intracranial orgasm!

But none of these inner thoughts showed on his face. Chun Ge'er's expression remained as cold and aloof as the autumn moon over the mountains, as if nothing in the world could move him.

So when Su Lu asked him, "What if you also pass the prefectural exam?"

Chun Ge'er's real answer was: "The provincial examination is not so easy to pass. There are many tricks to it, and you wouldn't understand even if I told you."

"Oh." Su Lu had almost been disciplined by Chun Ge'er, so he nodded and remained silent.

~~
After breakfast, the three brothers went downstairs together, walked through the long alleyways, and headed towards the wooden boardwalk on the riverbank.

Normally, whenever he went out with his eldest brother, Su Lu and his second brother would automatically become background figures. Today, he clearly felt that more people were greeting him...

“Hey, Qiu-ge’er, when are you free to come over and give your sixteenth brother some pointers?”

"Brother Qiu, why don't you take your nephew out for a couple of days during the New Year and teach him how to be more ambitious?"

"Qiu-ge'er, did you eat some kind of 'smart fruit'? Did you dig it up on Centipede Ridge?"

"..." Such questions came one after another, which annoyed Su Lu to no end, and he realized that it was better to just be a background character.

Su Man was delighted, finally someone was drawing the fire for him. His aloof attitude was largely forced upon him by his extended family.

So he encouraged Su Lu, saying, "You must not be complacent. After you get to the academy, you must strive to be even better and always be a star in the hearts of the neighbors."

"I'm still a guiding light, so I don't care what they think of me." Su Lu said with a wry smile, "This trip has scared me so much that I don't dare to go out again during the New Year."

"It's good that you're not coming out. School starts after the fifteenth. You need to study hard and not slack off for a single day. Don't forget your ranking." Su Man's words immediately sounded like those of a veteran homeroom teacher.

"Yes." Su Lu nodded and quickly asked, "But what should I learn? Should I learn how to write a thesis proposal from my father?"

“No way.” ’Old Su’ shook his head decisively. “It’s like writing. If the first stroke is crooked, it’s hard to fix it later.”

"Oh." Su Lu naturally understood; his elder brother was telling him not to learn composition from their father. Was their father's level really that low? "Don't misunderstand. Your second uncle has been immersed in this art for over twenty years; his writing skills are naturally incredibly profound," Su Man coughed lightly, explaining.
"However, the world is not the same as it was twenty years ago. The seven literary giants, including Li Mengyang and Xu Zhenqing, who now dominate the literary scene, are vigorously carrying out a retro movement, insisting that 'literature must be from the Qin and Han dynasties and poetry must be from the Tang dynasty.'"

Chun Ge sighed softly and continued, "The Seven Literary Masters and their supporters are in their prime. The grand masters of each province and the chief examiners of the autumn examinations are all among them. The impact on the writing of the eight-legged essay is unimaginable."

"I understand." Su Lu suddenly realized that the version had been updated, and his father was still in the previous generation.

"Is what they teach at the academy the latest?" he asked.

"You can rest assured about that. Taiping Academy is a branch of Heshan Academy," Su Man said with pride.

"Is Heshan Academy very powerful?" Su Tai asked in a low voice, which was also what Su Lu wanted to ask.

"You two don't even know about Heshan Academy? You're incredibly ignorant!" Chun-ge'er said incredulously to his two clueless younger brothers.
"Heshan Academy was founded by Wei Liaoweng, a great Neo-Confucian scholar of the Southern Song Dynasty. He built four Heshan Academies in his hometown of Pujiang, as well as in Jingzhou, Luzhou and Suzhou, where he served as an official."

After Su Man finished speaking, he asked in return, "The four academies are closely connected and share resources with each other. What do you think is there that they don't know?"

"Oh, oh." Su Lu nodded, admiringly saying, "Big brother, it's really amazing that you can go there for further studies."

“This isn’t really advanced study; it’s just some cramming before the exam,” Su Man shook her head, looking on with envy. “But starting with your class, if you can consistently rank at the top, you can actually go to Heshan Academy for advanced study in your third year.”

As he spoke, he looked at Su Lu with envy and said, "This was secured for you by the headmaster, so you must make the most of it."

"Yes." Su Lu nodded in agreement and then asked, "What about during the New Year period?"

“Continue memorizing and practicing calligraphy.” The eldest brother said in a deep voice, “The Seven Heroes reject prose from the Tang and Song dynasties, but not simply the ‘pile of rhetoric’ in parallel prose, nor the ‘reason over style’ in Song dynasty Neo-Confucian prose.”

"What kind of writing style do they prefer?" Su Lu asked.

"They admire the 'method yet no fixed form' of Qin and Han dynasty writings... It has inherent rules, yet it is not bound by fixed formats." The older brother explained to him, "That's why I had you continue memorizing the Four Books, because that's the style they pursued. If you have extra time and energy, you can read some of the books by Mozi and Han Feizi, but I doubt you'll be able to find them."

"Yes." Su Lu nodded. Books were extremely scarce in Erlangtan.

“But I do,” Su Man said, panting heavily.

"Big brother..." Su Lu was helpless. Would speaking human language lead to a prison sentence?

“The academy has a rich collection of books that students can borrow. I used my spare time to copy some by hand. I’ll bring them to you when I get back. You can take a look at them for now,” Su Man said.

"Alright, thank you, brother..." Su Lu immediately beamed. Sigh, forget about speaking like a human being, just do the job properly.

~~
As they were talking, the three brothers arrived at the riverbank dock.

They came to pick up my aunt.

When Su Lu heard at breakfast that his aunt was coming back for the New Year, he was taken aback. He remembered that his uncle had gotten married on the 20th of the 11th lunar month and left for the county town on the 22nd. Today was only the 17th of the 12th lunar month, less than a month ago. Why was his aunt making such a fuss?
However, it's not his place to meddle in his elders' affairs, which just means his peaceful days are over again...

After waiting for a while, a 'crooked boat' finally came slowly upstream. There was a boatman at the bow and a boatman at the stern, rowing together to steer the boat toward the pier.

This is still the same boat from Cheng's Distillery. It returns to Erlangtan once a month, and my uncle takes this boat to bring my aunt back for the New Year.

Although my uncle is now the Cheng family's son-in-law, and they can't kick him out, the relationship between the two families hasn't improved, and they're unlikely to treat him kindly. However, my uncle's greatest virtue is his shamelessness, so he doesn't care.

As for the eldest aunt, she was incredibly insensitive; she was the only one who could annoy others, and no one else could annoy her... So the uncle and aunt returned by boat without any qualms.

"Chun-ge'er, Chun-ge'er!" As soon as she saw her son, the eldest aunt had no eyes for anyone else and stood at the bow of the boat waving vigorously.

There were still many men from the Cheng family waiting at the dock to receive the ship and unload the cargo. Upon hearing the noise, they all turned their heads and covered their mouths to chuckle.

Su Lu was so embarrassed she wanted to disappear into the ground. Su Man, however, showed no embarrassment whatsoever, calmly waving back at her mother.

Once the crooked boat was moored and brought ashore, and the planks were lowered, my uncle and aunt came down carrying large and small bags.

"Auntie, Uncle," Su Lu and his brother greeted them as they took the luggage.

The younger uncle reached into his sleeve, pulled out a thick red envelope, and handed it to the boatman, saying, "I'll have to trouble you again tomorrow, brother."

After loading, this crooked boat will return to the county town tomorrow to deliver its last shipment before the Lunar New Year. It won't be back until next spring...

"No problem, no problem." The boatman's expression softened slightly because of the red envelope.

When he finally had some free time after finishing his work, he opened the red envelope and saw a stack of banknotes inside. He couldn't help but curse, "You stingy gigolo! What kind of bastard gives people banknotes?!"

The Ming Dynasty's paper money had been continuously depreciating for a century since the end of the Hongwu reign. Currently, its face value is roughly equivalent to one copper coin. Therefore, this stack of money, while seemingly substantial, is only worth about ten or eight copper coins—more than the cost of a single person's boat fare!

"Damn it, if he weren't the owner's son-in-law, I'd definitely give him a bowl of wontons!" the boatman spat angrily. He'd spent half his life on boats and seen all sorts of people, but he'd rarely encountered such a shameless, stingy fellow…

(End of this chapter)