The daily life of a peasant girl taking the imperial examination

Watching Wang Hao tease Junior Sister Yun Shu, Wang Yi glared at him with dissatisfaction. "The first row is the best seat, that's true, but because of that, the person sitting in that seat must take on the corresponding responsibility and bring glory to the class and the town's school."

"That means we have to go to the county school every month to participate in the town-wide joint competition."

Seeing that Wang Shimei was about to continue, Zhang Hao quickly interrupted her: "What do you mean by bringing glory to the class or the town's school? It's just humiliating yourself. That's the whole town! The town's school doesn't send the top ten students on the list, but instead sends us, who just enrolled. Isn't that like throwing an egg against a rock?"

"What's more, our class has just been promoted to the second class of the Little Heaven Class. Apart from the three of us, the other fellow students were all snatched away from other towns by the town's school master. In other words, the second class of the Little Heaven Class is a genius class to outsiders, but in reality it is just an introductory class that has not studied the Four Books."

“No, we haven’t finished learning the primers yet. We just received four books today,” a male disciple who looked about ten years old said.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't precise enough in my speech." Then, he introduced himself to the class: "My name is Zhang Hao, and this is Lu Jin'an, the bookworm in our dorm."

Zhuge Yunshu: "..."

How could her senior brother be so unreliable? He was talking perfectly fine, why did he suddenly start introducing himself?

"Senior Brother Zhang, continue," Zhuge Yunshu reminded him.

"Oh, okay! Speaking of this inter-town competition, other towns send their top three schools to participate, but we... we get crushed by other towns every year."

"Tell me, isn't this bullying?"

Zhuge Yunshu: "..."

She was puzzled as to why the town association had such a rule. Did they think that the students in Class 1 of Xiaotian were all geniuses, which gave them such a misconception?

Zhuge Yunshu looked at Wang Yi, "Senior Sister Yi, do you know the reason?"

She always felt that Senior Sister Yi knew more than they did.

“This isn’t the fault of Yunshui Town School; it’s the other town schools that violated the rules. The county school clearly stipulates that only newly enrolled students should participate in the competition, but the other town schools, for the sake of honor and rewards, ended up doing it this way,” Wang Yi explained.

Actually, there's one more thing I haven't mentioned: his fourth uncle thought this kind of blow was even better, as it could hone the psychological resilience of Xiaotian's Class 2 disciples.

"How will the competition be conducted?" Zhuge Yunshu asked, puzzled.

Are they really expected to take a bus to the county themselves?

“At the end of each month, during the monthly exams, the county association sends someone to pick us up.”

Hearing this result, Zhuge Yunshu was extremely satisfied, after all, he got a free carriage ride.

"Is there any reward?"

This is the issue she cares about most.

“Yes, if you win the top three in the county school inter-school competition for a year in a row, you will be admitted to the county school in advance,” Wang Yi replied.

"That's all?" Zhuge Yunshu asked, his face full of questions.

"???" Wang Yi was also full of questions. What did her junior sister mean?

Zhuge Yunshu: "..."

What about the agreed upon tacit understanding?

"Is there any monetary reward?" Zhuge Yunshu decided it was better to be direct.

The senior brothers and sisters looked surprised. Is it okay to talk about money at this sacred moment?

Besides, a place in the county school is something that no amount of money can buy.

"Host, are you obsessed with money?" the system complained.

"What's wrong? Qianqian is so cute, everyone likes her," Zhuge Yunshu said.

“Look at your classmates, they don’t like it,” the system retorted.

"That's because they've grown up surrounded by money and are just tired of it."

"Besides, why would I be obsessed with money? It's all for future missions. You don't support me, fine, but you even mock me." Zhuge Yunshu stood on the mission's high ground and accused the system.

system:"……"

Can't it just shut up? The host is no longer the naive and innocent host she used to be.

“There should be, but in previous years everyone was concerned about the county school admission situation, so we didn’t know much about this aspect,” Wang Yi broke the silence.

It's good that it exists. Given the county school's generosity, it probably won't be any worse than the town school.

"Such a good opportunity, are you sure you don't want to try for these three positions?" Zhuge Yunshu asked, quite puzzled.

Whether or not we can retain our top three positions, it's still an opportunity. There's no penalty for losing, but judging from everyone's expressions, why are they so resistant?

The senior students present waved their hands repeatedly, saying, "No, we won't go and embarrass ourselves."

"Yes, we know our limitations; we don't have that capability."

"Junior sister, you should do it. You're younger, so you're probably more mentally prepared."

"..."

Zhuge Yunshu: "..."

She was just going through the motions, but look how scared they were!

Seeing Yun Shu's relaxed expression, Wang Yi couldn't bear it and decided to explain the situation to her.

"Here's the thing, after each joint competition, the participants' papers will be posted in all the town schools in Linxi County. That means every scholar in the county will know you exist. If you get a good ranking, that's fine, but what if you come in last place?"

"After the competition, we have to discuss the competition process in front of all the teachers and students in the town. This is a psychological torment for those students who did poorly."

Zhang Hao quickly added, "And there's something even worse. They get invited by other schools in other towns to share their failures with their students and tell them what they need to pay attention to. It's just too embarrassing."

“Our senior classmates in the town suffered a lot because of this, and eventually dropped out of school.”

Zhuge Yunshu: "..."

This is outrageous! No wonder they're all unwilling to compete for those three spots.

Speaking of this position, Zhuge Yunshu also complained that such a rule setting was too childish.

"Can't we refuse the invitation?" Zhuge Yunshu asked, unwilling to give up.

Wang Yi looked at her and shook her head.

“The county school stipulates that invited students must agree, supposedly to allow them to learn from their failures and temper their character in this way,” Zhang Hao added.

Shouldn't inviting the top three students be more motivating for students to study?

"How many people from the bottom usually get invited?" Zhuge Yunshu asked curiously.

“The bottom five,” Wang Yi replied.

"Is it a team competition?" Zhuge Yunshu continued to ask.

"Yes."

"Is the evaluation conducted monthly or after a year?"

"A year later."

Okay, Zhuge Yunshu roughly understands the situation. This fictional ancient world, although relatively enlightened, still has a large number of talented scholars.

Those in power will stop at nothing to cultivate and discover talent!

In short, this social competition was a complete rip-off.

Zhuge Yunshu looked at Senior Sister Yi. She must have thought it through carefully before letting the two of them sit in the front row!

"There's one last seat left. Who wants to sit here?"

As soon as Zhuge Yunshu finished speaking, the other senior brothers who hadn't sat down yet quickly found empty seats and took them.

Because of the speed, Zhang Hao was left standing alone by the desk, stunned.

"Congratulations, Senior Brother Zhang, the last spot belongs to you! Everyone, let's give him a round of applause!" Zhuge Yunshu joked.

As the saying goes, karma is a wheel, and no one escapes its judgment. With the help of his fellow disciples, Senior Brother Zhang sat down in the first row, looking completely bewildered.