The daily life of a peasant girl taking the imperial examination

Who knows the effort he put in to consistently rank first on the Yunmu Town school list?

Just like his name, "Wenxing," according to his father, Qian Baiwan, it was because his grandfather, Qian Dayou, was ridiculed as a "money-grubbing businessman" outside. After returning home, he vowed to make sure that a scholar would emerge from the family.

The grandfather looked at his father, who was beyond saving, and finally turned his attention to his unborn grandson. He then named him "Wenxing," meaning that the star of literature had descended to earth and come to the Qian family.

Qian Wenxing felt ashamed of his name, "Wenquxing" (literary star), whenever his grades slipped even slightly. He felt that not only his father and grandfather, but even he himself, were letting him down.

Damn, the pressure is immense!

Meanwhile, Zhuge Yunshu, Wang Yi, and Zhang Hao were also under immense pressure.

They and Master Wang were invited to the center of the martial arts stage under the watchful eyes of the crowd. Master Wang sat down, while they, as his disciples, could only stand behind him.

On either side of the martial arts platform stood the teachers of Yunmu Town School and Yuntu Town School, each with three disciples standing behind them.

Zhuge Yunshu guessed that the disciples who could stand here were probably the best in their respective towns and schools, just like Qian Wenxing and Qin Shuangyu, who had participated in the county school joint competition with her, who also came down from the stage to stand behind their teacher.

On her way here, she was looking forward to this academic exchange.

Would it be like in those old TV dramas, amidst verdant hills and clear waters, where the town's top teacher, along with his prized students, sits around a winding stream, placing specially made wine cups in the water and letting them drift slowly downstream. Whoever the cup stops in front of must stand up and be questioned by the others; if they cannot answer, they are punished. And so it goes, in a continuous cycle, as everyone eats and drinks until they are completely satisfied.

Green hills and clear waters, literary figures and poets, winding streams and floating wine cups—in short, it's the kind of high-class gathering of literati that makes people yearn for it.

Therefore, the more wonderful the imagination, the greater the gap between reality and reality.

Zhuge Yunshu stood on the hard fighting platform and looked down at all the dark heads.

But what can be done? Academic exchanges must continue.

The first step in the exchange was for each master to show off his disciples in various ways.

For example, one of the teachers at Yunmu Town School said: "...I only took this disciple of mine at the beginning of the year. Although he is intelligent, he is extremely playful. He has barely finished reading the Doctrine of the Mean. I am very worried about him."

Zhuge Yunshu: "..."

Look at Versailles, he finished reading the Doctrine of the Mean from the Four Books in less than a year. Who wouldn't give him a thumbs up?

The town schoolmaster of Yuntu Town continued, "You're just being hypocritical! My disciple is a blockhead; he can't digest what he learns during the day and has to study late into the night. That's why he finally finished reading the Analects after working day and night."

Despite his sighs and groans, he was actually grinning from ear to ear.

"Your disciple is diligent and hardworking, and his character is rare among scholars... My disciple can't compare. Your disciples are still young, while mine is already fourteen and only finished reading the Four Books yesterday..."

"Oh, and my child is even worse. Although he has a good memory and has read the Five Classics, he's too restless and has only skimmed through them. He hasn't fully grasped much of the content and needs to work on it more..."

"..."

Zhuge Yunshu listened to these teachers' unconventional boasting and couldn't help but twitch her lips. She glanced at the other disciples on the martial arts stage and saw embarrassment in their eyes.

At this moment, Wang Yi pushed Zhang Hao aside, moved to her side, and whispered in her ear, "Don't listen to what these teachers say. It's all a mix of truth and falsehood. Their real purpose in saying this is to make us underestimate our enemy. We must not let our guard down."

Zhuge Yunshu nodded. If she couldn't even see this, then she had wasted more than twenty years of her previous life.

These teachers openly boasted about their outstanding disciples, but in reality, they were trying to find out the reading progress of students in other towns.

After all, they will have to compete for the three special spots at the county school later.

For this reason, they will not reveal the true level of their disciples.

Zhuge Yunshu watched as the teachers of the other two schools discussed the matter enthusiastically, while his own teacher sat there detached.

As expected, some scholars will soon be restless.

"Brother Wang, how far have your three disciples gotten in their studies?" the teacher in front of Qin Shuangyu asked with a smile.

He felt that this Brother Wang from Yunshui Town School was very strange. He never took the initiative to talk to them. Although they had only met a few times, his intuition told him that this person was not simple.

As soon as the teacher finished speaking, everyone else immediately perked up their ears.

Master Wang looked at him with a half-smile: "I have only recently come into contact with the Five Classics."

No problem, he only recently started learning it, he wouldn't lie.

Upon hearing this, the other teachers and their disciples in the town immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

According to their linguistic art, they leave room for interpretation in their speech. Since they said they "only just came into contact with" it, they probably only read the Book of Changes at most.

At this moment, Qin Shuangyu looked at Zhuge Yunshu with a complicated expression.

She didn't believe the words of the town school teacher of Yunshui Town. You see, during the county school's joint study session, she competed with Zhuge Yunshu in a poetry relay. This man never hesitated when responding to poems, and there were some that she had never heard of before.

Upon returning, she wrote down the poems she had never heard before and went to the library to look them up one by one. She found that many of them were from the Five Classics, and some were even long lyrical poems like "Li Sao".

There were some things she couldn't find no matter what she did, so she asked the Master, who also shook his head and said he had never seen them.

Qin Shuangyu thought that this eight-year-old student from Yunshui Town School was probably her biggest competitor for a special spot in the county school.

What she didn't know was that Zhuge Yunshu had never even considered those three spots.

In the time it takes for half an incense stick to burn, the students from each town had gathered most of the information they wanted to know.

The headmaster of Yuntu Town School said, "It's so boring for us old folks to chat. Why don't we see what these young disciples want to learn?"

After saying that, he glanced at Master Wang and said, "Brother Wang, would you mind if your precious disciple helped us old folks' foolish students clear up some of their doubts?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhuge Yunshu saw the disciples behind the teachers and those closest to the martial arts stage quickly pull out a small booklet from their pockets.

With her decimal-counting eyesight of 2.0, the paper was covered with questions, densely packed together.

Zhuge Yunshu, Wang Yi, and Zhang Hao exchanged a knowing glance, each seeing the fighting spirit in the other's eyes.

There was nothing they could do; since these people wanted to see them make a fool of themselves, they couldn't just sit idly by.

“Yes,” said Master Wang.

He felt these old folks were very hypocritical; they were only here for that reason, and they were just spouting nonsense.

His disciples' time is extremely precious!