The Daily Life of a Rich Peasant's Boy in the Imperial Examination

Widow Li looked at Sun Shan anxiously and replied in a low voice, "Sir, I am not tired at all."

Don't ask her why she answered that way, she doesn't know how to answer either.

Raising children is hard work, especially since I am a widow and have to support a scholar.

Even if you don’t experience the hardships yourself, you will still feel the pain just by seeing them.

Widow Li is not really old, but half of her hair is already white.

Seeing her reservedness, Sun Shan brought up some homely topics, then asked with a smile, "Madam, did you grow these vegetables and fruits yourself? They're so well-grown, so juicy and green."

Talking about these common topics, Widow Li relaxed a little.

He smiled slightly and said, "Sir, I still have two acres of land at home, and these are planted by my son."

Unexpectedly, it was Mr. Zhong who planted the crops. Sun Shan said admiringly, "Mr. Zhong's crops are good. He is a good farmer."

Then he continued, "Madam, to be honest, I also came from the village. I seem to be good at studying, but I am actually better at farming. When I was at home, I loved farming."

After hearing what Sun Shan said, Mr. Zhong and Widow Li suddenly felt a sense of closeness.

I heard that the county magistrate was also a rural child. I didn’t expect that the rumor turned out to be true.

There were also rumors that the county magistrate knew how to farm. Now that he admitted it himself, it seemed that he really knew how to farm.

Widow Li smiled and said, "I didn't expect adults to farm. Haha, my son can farm too. My hands are busy with embroidery, so I can't farm. I used to leave it to others, but later, my son Ren Yazi grew up and started farming on his own."

Sun Shan nodded repeatedly and said, "Studying is one thing, but we come from the countryside and we can't do without farming. Mr. Zhong has done a great job."

Scholar Zhong was surprised that Sun Shan didn't look down on the farmer, so he said quickly, "Your Excellency, you are too kind."

Sun Shan suggested, "Next year, the government office will have guano for sale. You should buy some and take it home. Whether you're plowing the fields or growing vegetables, if you apply fertilizer accordingly, you'll harvest more grain and your vegetables will grow better. I've used this guano myself and it's very useful."

Widow Li and Scholar Zhong never expected that Sun Shan would promote bird droppings to them.

Since Mr. Sun said so, they would be letting Mr. Sun down if they didn’t buy a few pounds to take back.

Widow Li promised repeatedly: "I will, and I will definitely come to buy bird droppings next year."

Sun Shan chatted with Widow Li for a while about daily life, and seeing that it was getting late, he sent her away.

After Gui Ge'er sent Widow Li and her son out, the fat candidate's family came to give gifts.

Sun Shan was stunned and asked, "Why did Fatty Dad give me a gift?"

It is natural for the Wang family to send it, and it is polite and proper for Widow Li to send it.

Why did Fatty's father send it to him? Sun Shan was completely confused.

Gui Ge'er replied, between understanding and not understanding: "Brother Shan, maybe Fatty's father thanks you for sending someone to safely escort Fatty to the examination room."

Fatty was a greedy eater, smacking his lips non-stop while eating. If Sun Dali hadn't been watching over him, he probably wouldn't have been able to get into the examination room.

Sun Shan disagreed and said, "Fatty hasn't come back yet, so how could his father know what he did? If you really want to be grateful, Fatty should come back too."

Gui Ge'er shook his head and said, "Brother Shan, maybe Fatty's father saw others sending gifts, so he followed suit. Otherwise, it wouldn't make sense."

This makes a lot of sense. Not only Fatty's father, but even Sun Shan would follow the crowd.

Since I have accepted gifts from the Wang family and the widow, it would seem unreasonable not to meet Fatty's father.

Sun Shan reluctantly invited Fatty's father in.

It turns out that Fatty's father is not fat at all, he is a thin man.

It seems that Fatty ate his father's share as well.

When Fatty's father came up to see Sun Shan, he said, "Sir, I came here to express my gratitude. Thanks to your escort, my son was able to arrive safely in Chenzhou Prefecture and pass the imperial examination. Thank you very much, sir."

Sun Shan didn't know whether what Fatty's father said was true or false, but he saw a pile of gifts, which were much richer than those given to Widow Li.

I couldn't help but feel satisfied and nodded secretly.

He said calmly, "You're welcome. This is what I should do. It's a small matter, insignificant, so there's no need to express gratitude. I'm their teacher, and I'm very pleased to see them achieve good results."

In order to show distance, Sun Shan called himself "this official", and in order to show intimacy, Sun Shan called himself "I".

These two names change with familiarity.

The first time I met Fatty, I had to be polite.

Although Fatty's father doesn't look like a businessman, he is actually a merchant, otherwise he wouldn't be able to raise Fatty so fat.

After Sun Shan said a few polite words, Fatty's father immediately climbed up the pole and started praising Sun Shan.

Sun Shan looked at Fatty's father with a smile. He had experienced this kind of flattery too many times and was immune to it.

Sun Shan would not get lost in the praise of his fat father.

After a brief chat, we sent the guest away.

In the next two days, newly-minted scholar fathers or grandfathers came to give gifts.

Fortunately, there were only 8 candidates who passed the exam this time. If there were more than ten or twenty, wouldn’t they have to meet with them every day?

He, Sun Shan, is very busy!

Gui Ge'er looked at the pile of gifts excitedly, touching them here and there and sorting them out.

He said happily: "Brother Shan, you sent me a lot of gifts, more and richer than the gifts I received during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Haha, Brother Shan, it seems that the candidate's family is really grateful to you."

Sun Shan was helpless. After accepting the gifts from the Wang family at the beginning, he had to keep accepting gifts from them.

Otherwise it will cause unnecessary misunderstandings. We can't accept candidate A but not candidate B. What will candidate C think?

He said helplessly: "Pick up the food and eat it, put the used ones aside, and wait for Uncle Dali to come to Chenzhou Prefecture next time, and then sell them."

Sun Shan made a lot of money back from the last resale. He would keep these gifts if he could, and wait for an opportunity to sell them to make more money.

Sun Dali said cheerfully, "That's fine, sir. Last time I sold inkstones, the shopkeeper told me to keep selling them to him if I had more. He also said our stuff was good and a good product."

Seeing so many gifts, Sun Dali immediately decided which merchant to trade with next time he went to Chenzhou Prefecture.

Haha, it will definitely sell for a lot of money.

The corner of Master Zhang's mouth twitched.

He looked at the pile of food in front of him and saw that his master had asked him to take it back and eat it slowly.

He looked at the pile of gifts he had picked up and was going to sell in Chenzhou Prefecture.

I feel like the world is changing too fast, and it's hard to adapt.

Mr. Zhang couldn't understand why the scholar wanted to give gifts to Sun Shan. Wasn't Sun Shan giving them gifts to express his congratulations?

Or is it because he has never worked for an official before and doesn't understand the rules of officialdom?

Master Zhang was puzzled and didn't know how to ask, so he just kept it in mind and tried hard to find the answer.

If Master Zhang asked Sun Shan.

Sun Shan didn't know why either.

Because when he was in high school, he didn't give any gifts to Lord Wei, but on the contrary Lord Wei gave him gifts to congratulate him.

Perhaps each county has its own customs. In Yuanlu County, it was popular for candidates to give gifts to the county magistrate after passing the exam.