The daily life of a peasant girl taking the imperial examination

......

Master Li's recent experience can be described as a bittersweet one, not for any other reason than that his youngest female disciple is particularly diligent.

This should have been a happy occasion; what master wouldn't want their promising disciple to work hard?

But, hey! He's finding it a bit too much.

At this moment, Zhuge Yunshu was sitting at her desk, waiting for the teacher to arrive. Her big, round eyes were fixed on the door, like a big wolfhound that hadn't eaten for days, her eyes full of longing and obsession for a bone.

"Host, the mission is to make you Master Li's beloved disciple, not to treat Master Li like a bone in the ground. Please put away your drooling, thieving eyes."

"System, what do you know, you AI? This is clearly my thirst for knowledge and my unwavering dedication to it, as well as my pure respect for Master Li," Zhuge Yunshu argued.

"Host, what normal person could stand your expression? If you don't believe me, ask your fellow human classmates," the system kindly advised.

After all, it genuinely wants its host to complete this task. Although it is an artificial intelligence, it can still perceive human emotions.

Unconvinced, Zhuge Yunshu asked Zhuge Yunxi beside her, "Cousin Yunxi, how do you feel about my recent performance?"

Looking at her cousin Yun Shu, whose face was full of anticipation as she awaited her answer, Zhuge Yunxi organized her thoughts: "You've been working very hard lately, which is great, but sometimes you're too eager to show off. Of course, that's not to say you're wrong, it's just..."

Before Zhuge Yunxi could finish speaking, Zhuge Yunqing immediately interrupted, "Cousin Yunxi, you're being too tactful. How could cousin Yunshu possibly understand?"

At this moment, the straightforward Zhuge Yunxing glanced at Zhuge Yunshu and said with dissatisfaction, "Cousin Yunshu, I'm not saying this as your cousin, but can you please stop flattering the teacher and showing such a fawning face? It's really frightening. Haven't you noticed that the teacher has been coming less often lately?"

Zhuge Yunxi: "......"

Zhuge Yunbo: "..."

Zhuge Yunqing: "...Yunxing is too direct."

Zhuge Yunshu: "..."

Is she really that bad? Could the fact that the teacher didn't come really be related to her?

"System, I didn't really scare the Master, did I? How could that be? I felt I was being quite sincere!" Zhuge Yunshu asked doubtfully.

"Host, you seem to have misunderstood sincerity. You should trust the eyes of the masses, recognize your own shortcomings in time, and especially avoid praising others if you don't know how. Sometimes it's best to remain silent."

The system thought for a moment and said, "Host, your current task is to study hard. Master Li values ​​learning the most. As long as your grades meet Master Li's requirements, are you afraid of not becoming his favorite disciple?"

Well, Zhuge Yunshu sighed helplessly. In her previous life, she had always been insincere with her colleagues, but she had never been one to get along with her elders.

Moreover, she wanted to become his beloved student, so she wanted to show off her abilities as much as possible.

At this moment, Master Li walked in from outside and immediately saw Zhuge Yunshu, who was looking dejected in the crowd. In the past, whenever he stepped across the threshold, her eyes would be fixed on him.

Why is he acting so strangely today? Could it be that I was hurt by his recent avoidance?

Thinking about it this way, Master Li felt somewhat guilty.

Master Li walked to the front of his disciples, coughed, and looked at the students below. "Today, I will be checking their memorization of the seasonal chapters in *Youxue Qionglin* and their understanding of the sentences."

Upon hearing Master Li's words, the disciples below wished they could bury their heads in their desks, fearing that they might be lucky enough to be chosen by the Master.

You should know that Master Li was notorious for hitting people's hands with a ruler. If someone recited something incorrectly or misunderstood the meaning of a sentence, their hand would be in trouble.

Even so, despite their injured hands, Master Li did not let them off the hook. After school, they were forced to copy his books 10 times as punishment.

They had been going through this for several days.

However, Zhuge Yunshu was different from them. When he heard the Master's words, he immediately became radiant and looked at Master Li expectantly, as if to say, "I can do it, hurry up and get up."

Master Li breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Zhuge Yunshu like this. Fortunately, he was still the same as before.

He first glanced at the other disciples, seeing that they were all shrugging their heads, looking at him with disappointment and frustration. But in the end, he sighed helplessly and asked Zhuge Yunshu to recite the text.

As soon as Master Li finished speaking, Zhuge Yunshu immediately stood up and fluently recited the seasonal chapter of "Youxue Qionglin" from beginning to end without any pauses or mispronunciations, clearly showing that he had done a lot of homework after school.

Zhuge Yunshu's performance instantly brightened Master Li's previously bad mood.

Master Li continued to ask questions about the meanings of some sentences taught in "Youxue Qionglin", and Zhuge Yunshu answered them flawlessly once again.

After a while, Master Li stroked his beard, looked at Zhuge Yunshu, and nodded with satisfaction. "Very good, sit down quickly!"

Afterwards, as usual, Master Li selected a few of her most mischievous and hardest-performing disciples to recite the texts, including her two cousins.

Unsurprisingly, both of their hands were bruised and red from the teacher's beating, and they were also punished with copying.

Seeing their miserable state, Zhuge Yunshu suddenly had a change of heart and decided to help them.

So I copied some of the better learning materials in the system and combined them with the existing environment, and gave them to my cousins ​​and senior classmates to do, so that they could benefit from the ancient version of the exam questions, just like me.

Zhuge Yunshu thought to himself secretly.

Just as Zhuge Yunshu's thoughts were racing, Master Li was also pondering something.

Soon, the town will hold a clan school literary gathering, which all the clan schools in the villages must attend, and each clan school teacher can bring three disciples.

It was called the "Clan School Literature Gathering" in a nice way, but it was actually a competition among the outstanding students from different clan schools in the town. It mainly assessed the students' reading progress and selected outstanding talents for the town's schools.

After the competition, the top three disciples were admitted to the town school ahead of time and given rewards. Their clan schools, teachers, and classmates also received rewards, sometimes in the form of money and sometimes in the form of books. Most importantly, the town school increased the admission of clan schools from two to five students per year.

This was a very important competition among clan schools.

Every year at the clan association literary gathering, the clan associations of each village put in their best efforts to squeeze into the top three, not only for the reputation, but also because the nominal rewards are the envy of many.

Don't spout nonsense like "scholars regard money as dirt." People who say such things are either corrupted by dirt or have brain damage.

Master Li was thinking that he wanted to give one of the spots to Zhuge Yunshu this time.

In his view, no one in the entire clan school had a higher aptitude for studying than Yun Shu.

If he works hard during this period, perhaps this child can break through his previous embarrassing grades.

He dared not even dream of being in the top three; he only hoped not to be at the bottom. After all, Zhuge Village Clan School was always at the bottom every year.

Other clan schools compete fiercely for the team leader and three disciple slots every year, holding various competitions a month in advance. However, the Zhuge Village clan school makes all sorts of excuses, basically saying, "Whoever wants to go can go; I'm not going to embarrass myself."

This year's lottery... well, it's all heartbreaking to talk about.