The daily life of a peasant girl taking the imperial examination

Looking at the pile of articles that Xie Yu had revised, Master Wang wrote a few targeted comments on them.

Finally, he picked up the dozen or so articles written by Zhuge Yunshu and carefully read through them.

"I heard from your senior brother that he has been in the library these past few days. Apart from Zhang Hao and Yi'er, you haven't asked him any questions even once?" Master Wang said expressionlessly.

"I have had a sudden realization these past few days, so I have lost track of time. Fortunately, through my efforts these past few days, I have found a way to write policy essays."

Then she turned to Xie Yu and said sincerely, "Senior Brother Xie is already busy enough answering questions for Senior Sister Yi and Senior Brother Zhang. As their junior sister, it's not appropriate for me to bother them further."

In truth, Zhuge Yunshu's deepest thought was that although Senior Brother Xie was very capable, he still couldn't compare to the renowned teachers within the system.

Moreover, there's a time allocation within the "Serving the Country and the People" system, so compared to the other option, she more readily gave up on Xie Shixiong's choice.

“Junior Sister Yun Shu is highly perceptive. Even without my guidance, her writing is still full of inspiration. Junior Brother Zhang and Junior Sister Wang are also exceptionally talented.”

"However, there are many students outside who are more intelligent and hardworking than you, so you must not let your guard down... and always stay true to yourselves."

Xie Yu never expected to encounter such gifted students in a backward town like Yunshui.

Zhuge Yunshu was undoubtedly the one who surprised him the most.

He was just strong when he was a child, and not very smart, so how come he has changed so much now?

But thinking about Xuan-ge and Ze-ge, who were on par with Yun-shu when they were young, he once thought that these two younger brothers might not be very bright. But since they left Yun-shui Town and returned, it was as if their brains had been enlightened. They started to study seriously, and the results were very gratifying.

Xie Yu guessed that some people might be late bloomers, just that they were a little slow to realize their potential.

“Your senior brother is right. There are always people better than you, and there’s always something beyond your understanding. We can’t become arrogant just because we’ve made a little progress. You have to know that there are many more talented students than you. So what you need to do right now is to humbly learn from them…”

After saying this, Master Wang turned to look at Zhuge Yunshu and said, "The article is well-reasoned and logically structured... well written."

Then he looked at Wang Yi and Zhang Hao and said, "You two are not bad either. In just two days, you have been able to write such articles, which is more than half of the scholars of the same level."

The two quickly stepped forward and bowed, saying, "Senior Brother Xie taught us so well."

"Alright, don't be modest, but Ayu really deserves a lot of credit."

After speaking, he continued to smile at his three disciples, "Today, based on your articles, I will focus on what aspects you still need to improve. After you go back, rewrite them according to my instructions. After that, compare the two drafts, and you will find the differences."

"Yes," the three said in unison.

In the past few days, Zhuge Yunshu has gained a lot under the guidance of renowned teachers within the "Serving the Country and the People" system.

The most obvious change is that you no longer feel lost when you get a question.

On the contrary, she was able to write a substantial article in one go, based on what she had learned.

What she needs to do now is practice more and accumulate more knowledge to make her articles appear more profound and layered.

Over the next period of time, Xie Yu also gave Zhuge Yunshu guidance several times. It has to be said that a prodigy is a prodigy. She finally understood why Senior Sister Yi and Senior Brother Zhang had made such great progress.

No wonder these two are constantly praising each other like devoted fans.

Zhuge Yunshu also learned how to judge the quality of an article and which people's articles have talent or inspiration from this.

In the words of my senior brother Xie, reading more good articles can improve one's literary cultivation and broaden one's horizons.

In the last five days, Master Wang and Xie Yu simply ignored them and had the three of them revise each other's articles, writing comments on them, good or bad.

In short, after two weeks of intensive training, Zhuge Yunshu, Wang Yi, and Zhang Hao have made visible progress in their policy essays.

However, because they studied so hard, the flesh on their faces visibly thinned out.

This was after Master Wang applied to the town school to allow them to eat large amounts of fish and meat for free on the second floor of Ya Shi Ju every day.

Zhuge Yunshu touched her pointed chin with regret; it had taken her so long to gain weight!

It was gone in just half a month; it was truly a fleeting moment.

Two days before the county-level inter-school competition, Master Wang asked several of his disciples to go to their homes and talk to their elders about the details.

Because Yunshui Town is far from Linxi County, they set off for the county school the day before each competition.

In other words, they would have to stay in the county town for two nights.

However, the county school was very generous, always arranging carriages for pick-up and drop-off, and even providing accommodations.

After bidding farewell to everyone, Zhuge Yunshu tidied up briefly and headed towards his own courtyard in town.

Before she even reached the entrance of the Thousand Miles Marriage Pavilion, she saw a long queue outside.

Zhuge Yunshu looked around curiously and found that the group was mostly composed of older female servants. Out of curiosity, she asked a girl of about fourteen years old who was at the very end of the line, "Miss, are you also here to find a husband?"

The girl quickly pulled up her veil, revealing that she was just an eight-year-old girl. She breathed a sigh of relief. "Don't talk nonsense. It wasn't me. I'm here to inquire for a good friend. I heard that this Thousand Miles Marriage Pavilion has a very good reputation and can find all kinds of ideal husbands."

Seeing her startled reaction, Zhuge Yunshu couldn't help but suspect that the so-called good sister she was talking about was actually herself.

"But it's getting late, why don't we come again tomorrow?" Zhuge Yunshu asked, glancing at the sky.

"No, the Thousand Miles Marriage Pavilion has a limited number of spots each month. It's already the end of the month. If we can't get a spot now, we'll have to wait until next month."

Zhuge Yunshu “…”

Are her parents using scarcity marketing tactics?

Seeing that the young lady looked very anxious, Zhuge Yunshu led her directly to the back door of the house.

This young lady was also very open about things, and she told her all her secrets along the way.

It turns out that her family had already registered her at the Thousand Miles Marriage Pavilion, but she was not satisfied with some of the conditions her parents had set. In her opinion, in addition to a good family background, a matching character and appearance were also very important.

She believed that marriage was a major event in a woman's life, and she should find someone she could truly love. She couldn't accept a husband who was of poor character or extremely ugly.

So she took the money she had saved since childhood, hoping to add the words "good character and matching appearance" to the conditions her parents had set.

To be honest, Zhuge Yunshu was quite shocked to hear this. You have to understand that in this era, marriages were basically arranged by parents, and for the children, meeting in private was just a formality.

This young lady is very opinionated and has very progressive views on choosing a partner. She knows what she wants and is willing to go all out for it.

Zhuge Yunshu greatly admired people with such independent personalities.

So she planned to take this young lady directly to her parents and ask them to help her find a suitable replacement.

Try your best to meet her requests, after all, life was relatively difficult for women in ancient times.

"This can be considered getting in through connections!" Zhuge Yunshu thought to himself with satisfaction.