The daily life of a peasant girl taking the imperial examination

Wang Yi, looking utterly dejected, returned to the small courtyard dormitory with Zhuge Yunshu.

The more she thought about it, the more suspicious she became. How could she have believed Yun Shu's nonsense?

Martial arts skills aside, that was a last resort to ensure my longevity, but driving...

Wang Yi took a deep breath, slowly exhaled, and tried to calm herself down.

Looking next door, I saw Yun Shu, the junior sister, humming a song while packing her luggage. With her short legs and arms, I couldn't help but chuckle.

Forget it, why bother arguing with a child?

"Senior Sister Yi, I was wrong. How about next time, whatever you choose for elective courses, I'll choose too?" Zhuge Yunshu looked around and realized that since she entered the room, or rather, since she left the elective hall, they hadn't paid any attention to her. She also felt that she might have gone too far this time.

"This isn't entirely your fault. We were also fooled because we lacked self-control." Wang Yi looked at her junior sister Yun Shu apologizing, and her initial anger completely vanished.

"But I still don't understand why you chose to drive a chariot instead of riding and shooting?" Wang Yi asked, puzzled.

The reason given—that it was to escape—is rather far-fetched. If it were truly about escaping, riding a horse would be much faster than driving a carriage.

She and Zhang Hao, that brainless idiot, how come they didn't think of this back then?

"Senior Sister Yi, have you ever learned to ride a horse?" Zhuge Yunshu asked.

"No."

"That's settled then. Riding a horse is much more difficult than driving a carriage, so we should start with the easy parts and move on to the difficult ones. Of course, we'll definitely need to learn how to ride a horse."

"Another point is that although driving a carriage is not as fast as riding a horse, its advantage is that it has a carriage that shelters you from the wind and rain. If it is night or rainy, you can go inside the carriage," Zhuge Yunshu explained.

"Isn't there a driver?"

Zhuge Yunshu: "..."

Senior Sister Yi really hit the nail on the head!

"Can that be the same? In any life-or-death situation, can you guarantee that the coachman will not abandon you, his master? Of course, there have always been many loyal servants throughout history, but we still need to be on the safe side. It's better to be safe than sorry."

"In this era, women already have a relatively difficult life, not to mention that we have to compete with men for a limited number of imperial examination slots. So we need to learn more survival skills, such as riding and archery, medicine, etc. These will be arranged later."

"Also, Senior Sister Yi, don't you think driving is incredibly cool? Just imagine that scene: a gust of wind blows, your hair flies by, you sit in that car, your eyes are resolute, your hands are clenched—how spirited that is..."

Following the image described by her junior sister Yun Shu, Wang Yi imagined a strong wind blowing, covering her face with hair and mud.

She shivered instantly; what an humiliating scene this was.

Her future reputation is in jeopardy!

However, it must be admitted that what Junior Sister Yun Shu said earlier made a lot of sense.

Learn it! It's just about mastering the art, right? It doesn't sound that difficult.

Zhuge Yunshu was thinking that driving should take less time, but martial arts would definitely take longer. In a year, he probably wouldn't learn any real skills and would only be able to build a solid foundation.

Therefore, if you want to learn better in the future, you can only improve your martial arts level and take more elective courses for a few more years.

Neither Zhuge Yunshu nor Wang Yi slept well that night.

Besides the discomfort of suddenly being in a different environment, there were also those damn mosquitoes.

This is so unbearable! How could they forget to bring mosquito repellent?

So at the hour of Mao (5 to 7 a.m.), when it was just getting light, they got out of bed.

The two took the wooden basin to the washroom to wash up.

There is no shortage of hardworking people in any era. They feel that they have already gotten up early enough, but there are always people who get up even earlier than them.

A line had already formed in the water room. Some of the female students in line were reading books, while others had closed their books and were reciting them silently. In any case, they were all studying diligently.

Zhuge Yunshu and Wang Yi looked at each other, and there was a strange feeling that a mediocre student had entered the circle of academic elites.

However, what the two were unaware of was that their senior sisters were also secretly observing them, especially Zhuge Yunshu.

Among a group of fifteen or sixteen-year-old girls, an eight-year-old girl suddenly stands out.

Although Wang Yi is only twelve years old, she is tall, so the difference is not very obvious.

"You must be Zhuge Yunshu and Wang Yi, who just enrolled yesterday!"

Hearing the sound, the two quickly turned around and saw a pretty woman smiling at them.

One shouldn't hit a smiling face, so the two quickly bowed and said, "Greetings, Senior Sister, it is we."

"Hello, junior sisters, my name is Su Chun, you can call me Senior Sister Su."

"Judging from your dark circles, you two clearly didn't get enough rest yesterday. After school today, come to Room 1 in Zhongtian. I have a lot of mosquito-repellent plants there. Take some and use them; I'm worried I won't be able to use them all," Su Chun said kindly.

Zhuge Yunshu and Wang Yi exchanged a glance, both thinking to themselves: This is truly a beautiful and kind-hearted senior sister!

"Then we won't stand on ceremony, thank you, Senior Sister Su." Zhuge Yunshu was just wondering where to buy mosquito repellent plants, and unexpectedly, someone provided a helpful suggestion.

However, discontent soon arose from the crowd.

"Oh! Junior Sister Su is winning people over again."

"There are so many mosquito-repellent plants, why don't we get to use them?"

"Is he trying to curry favor with his two junior sisters because they're talented?"

"Look at her grades. She's been stuck in the lower class for two years before she was promoted to the middle class."

"It's because they think the two freshmen are naive and easy to fool."

"..."

Zhuge Yunshu and Wang Yi heard many senior sisters in the crowd arguing with Senior Sister Su and saying such unpleasant things, so they wanted to go forward and argue with them.

Then she was pulled back by Senior Sister Su, who said, "That's just how they are, they're straightforward, but they're not bad at heart."

After speaking, she looked dejected, tears welling up in her eyes but not falling. Her pitiful appearance was incredibly heartbreaking.

Zhuge Yunshu: "..."

This...this...looks just like the legendary pure lotus flower!

It's a positive term; it evokes a protective instinct in people.

"Look at her, we didn't bully her, she's acting all pitiful, who is she trying to fool?"

"Isn't this her usual trick? Otherwise, how could Senior Brother Zhang and Senior Brother Wang be so infatuated with her?"

"What's so special about that? Didn't you see she deliberately threw herself into Senior Brother Ruan's arms?"

"..."

Zhuge Yunshu and Wang Yi were quite embarrassed. They hadn't expected to hear such shocking gossip on their very first day of school, with the person involved right behind them.

Zhuge Yunshu had already started to imagine that this was a love triangle: she loved him, but he loved her, yet she always had someone else in her heart. She didn't know how many love triangles it was.

And Senior Sister Su is the female protagonist of an ancient version of a Mary Sue campus novel.

Seeing that her eyes were red and she dared not argue, Zhuge Yunshu quickly gave up her washroom spot.