The journey of the only child of a peasant family to take the imperial examination

Master Luo was indeed old, but Young Master Luo had actually been mentally prepared for this day. Despite his grief, he still cheered himself up and held the funeral in a lively manner.

Mr. Luo was very pleased that Zhang Ping'an and Liu Shengyuan, two of his father's most proud students, had come back from the county town to pay their respects.

Mr. Luo's two real grandsons are now in the provincial capital and have not returned yet. Zhang Ping'an and others voluntarily stayed to help out, and the funeral was handled very decently.

At noon on the third day, Luo Dalang and Luo Erlang rushed back from the provincial capital with their families to help Master Luo take over the subsequent affairs. Zhang Pingan and the others felt relieved after seeing this. After saying goodbye to Master Luo, they prepared to return to the county town to continue their classes.

Zhang Laoer brought his son, Liu Shengyuan, Luo Fugui and Jinbao with him. After returning to the county town, he helped send the others to the academy and their homes one by one, and finally returned home.

After what happened with Mr. Luo, Zhang Laoer seemed to be quite sad. He barely ate a few bites of dinner and sighed, "It's better for the family to be together all the time. Otherwise, if something gets sick, there's no one around to care for you. Even if you're rich and powerful, there's no point in living like this."

Xu agreed deeply and nodded, saying, "Of course!"

Zhang Ping'an comforted him, "Dad, Mom, I'm your only son. You'll definitely be with me no matter what, so don't worry. The Master is too old, so this is considered a happy funeral. You're not old yet, so you'll have to take good care of yourselves. You might even have to follow me to the prefectural capital, or even the provincial capital!"

Mrs. Xu smiled and said, "Okay, listen to my son. I have to take care of myself. I will have to help you take care of your grandchildren in the future."

Zhang Laoer's depression dissipated a lot after hearing this. As people get older, they tend to think about death. Zhang Laoer has also thought about this problem. Fortunately, he still has his son by his side. No matter what, he will wait until his son starts a family. "Don't worry, Dad will take care of himself."

"If you ask me, Mom, you shouldn't be too stingy with the food. Only by eating well can you have a good body," Zhang Ping'an took the opportunity to persuade his mother.

Xu said with a smile, "You don't know how expensive firewood, rice, oil and salt are until you run a household. Okay, okay, I get it. I'll just put more oil in my cooking next time, okay?"

A dreamless night!

The next day, when he returned to the academy for class, Master Lin asked with concern, "Did your journey home go smoothly?"

"Thank you for your concern, Master. The journey back was smooth," Zhang Ping'an replied with a bow.

"That's good. You will take the college entrance examination in August. There are only more than two months left. You must not be distracted during this period," Master Lin reminded.

"The students understand."

"Well, I am quite confident in you. A successful candidate will be giving lectures at the county school in a few days. I plan to recommend you to go and have a listen. It may give you a lot of inspiration, which will be helpful for your exam. This opportunity is not easy to come by, so you must cherish it," Master Lin said slowly, stroking his beard.

Zhang Ping'an looked up in surprise, suppressed his inner excitement, and said as calmly as possible: "Student understands, I will definitely cherish this opportunity, teacher, you take the trouble."

"Originally, I was still hesitating whether to give this recommendation spot to you or Liu Shengyuan. Now that Liu Shengyuan has gone to the county school, this is the best of both worlds. It's God's will," Master Lin said with a smile, then picked up the teacup, stirred the tea leaves, and took two sips of tea.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Ping'an smiled and replied: "Teacher, you said before that Liu Shengyuan and I have good luck in the exam. Now it seems that we are indeed very lucky."

"Haha, okay, let's start the class. You must know that there is a path to the mountain of books through diligence," Master Lin said with a smile, and then began to teach.

The advantage of one-on-one instruction is that it allows for targeted instruction and saves time. As the saying goes, read a book a hundred times and its meaning becomes clearer. As Master Lin's explanations deepened, Zhang Pingan gained a new understanding each time he reread them.

A few days passed in a flash, and it was the day when the scholar from the county school came to give lectures. Master Lin had already told Zhang Ping'an in advance that he could go directly to the county school to listen in the morning, as the county school had a roster of students attending the class.

This was the first time that Zhang Ping'an saw a real living Juren around him. People with the title of Juren have completely entered the class of scholars and have a very high status in the county.

There are only about 20 to 30 juren in a county. Excluding those who are too old and those who have developed in the prefectural and provincial capitals, the remaining ones who can stay in the county and teach in the county school are extremely rare. They are so precious!

Therefore, today's opportunity to audit the class was indeed hard-won, and the spot was very rare. When Zhang Ping'an entered, a teacher from the county school was checking the list with a roster. After finding Zhang Ping'an's name, he circled it and let him in.

After arriving in the classroom, Zhang Ping'an saw Liu Shengyuan was there too. After seeing Zhang Ping'an, Liu Shengyuan waved and motioned Zhang Ping'an to sit next to him.

After Zhang Pingan went over and sat down, Liu Shengyuan whispered, "Mr. Fan is here to give a lecture today. It's a rare opportunity. Almost everyone in our county school is here."

Zhang Pingan also whispered back, "Aren't there many people here who are just here for the honor? I guess you don't just want to listen to Mr. Fan's lecture today, this is also a rare opportunity to make friends with him."

Liu Shengyuan laughed grimly and said, "It's okay if you see through it but don't say it out loud!"

Zhang Pingan smiled and said nothing.

After a while, the entire classroom was full. After waiting for more than a quarter of an hour, Fan Ju finally arrived.

Zhang Ping'an had a good first impression of Mr. Fan. He looked like a scholar in the traditional sense, about forty years old, neither tall nor short, with a thin build, well-dressed, with a jade hairpin in his hair and a jade pendant on his belt. He exuded a noble air and spoke modestly. When he taught, he quoted from classics and explained things in a simple and easy-to-understand way. He was indeed well-read.

The morning session ends at noon, and students can go have lunch. The afternoon session starts at 3:00 p.m.

"How is it? Mr. Fan's lectures are pretty good, right?" Liu Shengyuan asked while eating.

Zhang Pingan nodded. "Well, it's really not bad. My trip today wasn't in vain. I originally thought he would be some pedantic gentleman."

Liu Shengyuan was at a loss whether to laugh or cry and said, "You don't think that the other party is as pot-bellied as our country landlord, do you?"

"That's not the case. In fact, I think appearance is not the most important thing. The most important thing is conversation and temperament," Zhang Pingan replied.

"It is said that this Mr. Fan also had a difficult life. He was also from a poor family with an ordinary background. He passed the exams step by step on his own, so he must be different from other candidates. By the way, do you know who his wife is?" Liu Shengyuan said.

"Who is it?" Zhang Pingan was also curious.

"She is the daughter of the Guo family from Fu County, Kaifeng," Liu Shengyuan replied.

"The Guo family in Fu County? I've never heard of them. They must be a famous and prestigious family!" Zhang Pingan thought about it carefully and realized that he really had no impression of them. He must have been too isolated from the news.

"Of course, the Guo family has produced six Jinshi scholars. The highest-ranking official now is the third-rank Dali Temple Minister. Don't you think it's amazing?" Liu Shengyuan was amazed as he spoke. Six Jinshi scholars from one family.

"That is indeed a famous and prestigious family. If they accumulate wealth for another two or three generations, and their descendants are also promising, they can be called a prominent family," Zhang Pingan also sighed, but these are still too far away from him now.

The lectures continued at 3 p.m., and Mr. Fan focused on his insights into law and mathematics. Unlike most scholars who looked down on these two subjects, Mr. Fan believed that these two subjects were very important and that scholars must be proficient in them if they wanted to be officials, which coincided with Zhang Ping'an's thoughts.

At that time, scholars were modest and reserved. Generally, no one would interrupt the teacher's lecture in such a class. Doing so would be considered very impolite. So even though Zhang Ping'an wanted to raise his hand to ask questions about mathematics, he held back, took notes, and planned to see if he could make friends again and discuss privately after class.

The class didn't end until the end of the afternoon. Everyone was fascinated by the lecture and the classroom was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.