Traveling through time and space to become a child, supporting the family by catching fish and shrim

After Chen Lang wrote this birthday poem, the county magistrate, the chief clerk and the two scholars lost interest in the poetry meeting.

Because it is impossible for anyone to write better than Chen Lang.

After the county magistrate finished encouraging Chen Lang, these heavyweights left one after another.

After Chen Lang obtained the qualification to take the exam he wanted, he did not linger any longer and left to find his wife and daughter.

As soon as he left the house, Ning Wenxu hurried over and said, "Brother Chen, please stay."

Chen Lang said, "Brother Ning, I saw you just now, but I didn't have the chance to say hello. Don't blame me."

Ning Wenxu smiled bitterly and said, "Brother Chen is truly a master who doesn't show off his abilities."

"Your two poems are so well written that I am ashamed to be inferior to them."

"Originally, Ning had hoped to come to Nanhe County to take the exam, but now it seems that's impossible."

Chen Lang whispered, "Brother Ning, to be honest with you, I don't have any big ambitions, and I certainly don't want to serve as an official in the court."

"I took the exam just to get the title of scholar and be exempted from corvée labor."

Ning Wenxu was shocked: "Brother Chen has such great literary talent, yet he only wants to take the exam to become a scholar?"

Chen Lang smiled and said, "Everyone has their own aspirations."

“What I prefer is making money.”

"So Brother Ning, you don't have to regard me as a stumbling block. I won't stand in your way."

Ning Wenxu hurriedly explained: "Brother Chen misunderstood, I didn't mean that, I just..."

Chen Lang waved his hand and said, "Brother Ning, there's no need to explain. It's enough for us to understand."

"I still have to go look for my wife and daughter, so I'll take my leave now."

After saying this, he bowed and said goodbye.

Ning Wenxu looked at Chen Lang's back and fell into deep thought.

Ning Qi walked over and muttered softly, "Brother, why do I feel that this person is so hypocritical?"

"How many scholars in the world are like him, content with passing the imperial examination?"

"He must have said this on purpose to paralyze you and make you give up on transferring to Nanhe County. This way, there will be one less competitor."

Ning Wenxu sighed and said, "Qiqi, don't think of me as such a bad person."

"In my opinion, a person with great literary talent may be a little arrogant at best, but he will never be hypocritical."

"And if he really has real talent, he won't be afraid of competing with me, he might even look forward to competing with me."

"When he said that, he probably really just wanted to pass the exam to become a scholar."

Ning Qi pouted and said, "Only if you, brother, believe it. I don't believe it anyway."

Ning Wenxu said, "It doesn't matter whether you believe it or not. Now that he's in Nanhe County, I don't even know if the county magistrate is willing to offend the county magistrate of Jing'an County for me."

"Let's go to the inn and rest first. We will visit the county magistrate's residence early tomorrow morning."

On the other side, Chen Lang was also asking Xu Fei about the relevant information about Sheng Chuliang.

Xu Fei didn't know much about Sheng Chuliang. He only knew that he had offended a senior official in the court and his career had been unsuccessful. He returned to Nanhe County more than ten years ago and has not been involved in official affairs since then. He even rarely got involved in cultural circles, like a hermit living in seclusion in a bustling city.

"If Mr. Pi had been your recommender, your chances of passing would have been much greater. This is because Mr. Pi is extremely concerned about his reputation, but Sheng Chuliang is truly not interested in these things. He doesn't care whether you pass or not."

"So don't expect to get any help from Sheng Chuliang. You have to walk the rest of the way on your own."

Chen Lang thought for a moment and said, "Brother Xu, do you have any way to get me a set of last year's test papers?"

Xu Fei scratched his head and said, "This isn't easy to do. I can only try my best."

At this moment, a man dressed as a servant walked up to the two of them, bowed to Chen Lang, and said, "Chen Lang, Chen Tongsheng?"

Chen Lang nodded: "It's me, what's the matter?"

"I am a servant of the Sheng Mansion. My master asked you to go to the mansion tomorrow morning to tell him something." said the servant.

Chen Lang hurriedly said, "I will definitely visit you on time."

After the servant left, Xu Fei was puzzled. "That's not right. Why would Sheng Chuliang invite you to his house? Apart from the county magistrate, the chief clerk, and the county magistrate, not even Mr. Pi can enter his mansion."

Chen Lang smiled and could understand Xu Fei's confusion.

The character of Sheng Chuliang that Xu Fei had constructed in his mind collapsed because of a word from the servant.

It's not that he doesn't care about anything. Instead, he took the initiative to invite Chen Lang to visit him.

This means that Sheng Chuliang is likely to give Chen Lang some guidance at the family dinner to help him do better in the exam.

Chen Lang didn't expect Sheng Chuliang to give him much help, as long as he could get him the "real questions" from previous years.

To put it bluntly, the imperial examinations in ancient times were also based on doing piles of questions.

The tactic of solving a large number of questions is a truth of universal level.

In addition, he also has the help of big guys from another time and space. As long as he can deal with the questions in the front that rely on memorization, it is really not difficult to pass the scholar exam.

"Brother Xu, it's almost time. I have to go back after I find Xiuzhi." Chen Lang said, "Thank you for writing a few poems for me today, although I didn't use them."

Xu Fei said angrily: "What are you doing? You are humiliating me."

"Brother Chen, you said you have such great talent, why do you have to think about taking the exam at this time? If you had taken the exam a few years ago, you might have passed it."

Chen Lang smiled calmly and said, "I was ignorant in the first few years. Besides, as I said, I really don't want to do this."

“I’m going to have a good time.”

"If it weren't for avoiding corvée labor, I wouldn't bother taking the exam."

"Besides, given the current situation in the court, I won't work for that old witch after taking the exam.

"Let's go find someone."

The two soon found Li Xiuzhi and her daughter at a roadside stall selling wontons.

When Guoguo saw Chen Lang, she didn't even have time to swallow the wonton in her mouth and started to moan.

Li Xiuzhi turned around and saw Chen Lang, and said calmly: "Erlang, is it over?"

Xu Fei rushed to say, "Sister-in-law, Brother Chen stole the show today."

"One poem, the best in the entire place! It put those students from the county school to shame. The county magistrate, the chief clerk, and the two scholars who had passed the imperial examinations were all full of praise for Brother Chen's poem."

After hearing this, Li Xiuzhi didn't show much excitement. She wiped the soup from the corner of Guoguo's mouth and said, "So, you are qualified to take the exam?"

Xu Fei said, "Of course, I will recommend Brother Chen to you."

"That's good." Li Xiuzhi said in a low voice.

Chen Lang noticed that Li Xiuzhi was in a low mood, and for a moment he couldn't guess why.

Probably because he was embarrassed to talk about it in front of Xu Fei, Chen Lang suppressed his doubts and changed the subject.

After Guoguo finished eating the wontons, the family said goodbye to Xu Fei and went to the place where the ox cart was parked. After paying ten cents for "parking fee", they took back their ox cart and left the city to go home.