Fortunately, they soon saw that there was no full sign at the door of the next inn. Excited Lin Sanzhu and Zhou Xing immediately got off the carriage and walked quickly to the inn.
The innkeeper was used to seeing this kind of scene, so he was not surprised by the two people trotting over. He directly reported the remaining guest rooms and the daily rent.
In extraordinary times, housing prices are horribly expensive. A house that originally cost 150 renminbi now costs 180 renminbi. However, the price of ordinary guest rooms has not changed, it is still 120 cents per day. As for the lower room, it costs eighty cents. The lower room is the kind with a bunk bed.
Three meals a day are all included in the room price.
Zhou Xing did not hesitate and directly booked an upper room and two ordinary guest rooms with the shopkeeper.
Zhou Xing, the superior, plans to accommodate his son. As for the ordinary guest rooms, he will live in one room for himself, and the other room will be for the coachman and Shuyan to stay for one night. Tomorrow, he will let them go back to town first and wait for the next one. Half a month later, just come over and pick someone up.
Lin Sanzhu also wanted to book an upper room and an ordinary guest room, but was stopped by Lin Yuanqiu.
Lin Yuanqiu thought to himself that with the current time, they would have to stay in the county for at least more than a month. If they still wanted to wait until the results were released before going back, it would have to be two months later.
And the rent of three hundred cents a day is almost twenty taels of silver in two months.
Lin Yuanqiu immediately thought of the embroidery work done by his mother, his eldest uncle, his second aunt, and his eldest and second sisters-in-law. They had been busy for a month and only had six or seven taels of silver.
This is without deducting the cost of embroidery thread and cloth. Therefore, Lin Yuanqiu would not be embarrassed to stay in such an expensive guest room.
Although his family fully supports his career, he still needs to have a plan in mind. He is not a wealthy family. If he doesn’t have a plan for spending money, how can he be worthy of his hard-earned family? .
Lin Yuanqiu's consumption views in his previous life and this life are consistent, that is, he saves money where he needs it, and there is no ambiguity about where money should be spent.
Furthermore, the upper room only has one more service: you can use a bathtub to take a bath in the room. The other services are basically the same as ordinary rooms, so it is more cost-effective for him to stay in ordinary rooms.
To be honest, if he wasn't worried that his father wouldn't have a good rest if he lived with him, Lin Yuanqiu would definitely have only booked one room. It's not that he is stingy, it's actually that taking an exam requires a lot of money. If it weren't for the income from earning money at home, there would be no expenses for the exam.
Lin Yuanqiu said in her heart, no wonder some scholars give up after taking the exam. After all, people with little financial resources simply cannot afford such expenses.
Thinking of this, Lin Yuanqiu secretly made up his mind that he must work harder this autumn.
Seeing that Lin Yuanqiu had booked an ordinary guest room on the second floor, Zhou Zixu hurriedly told the shopkeeper that he also wanted an ordinary guest room, so he moved to the room next to Brother Lin, so that the two of them would be close to each other and it would be easier to review.
As for taking a bath, Zhou Zixu shook his head. He was not a girl's family, so what was he doing in the room taking a bath?
On a hot day, I might as well take my clothes and go to the bathhouse. It would be more refreshing to take a shower directly.
Zhou Xing had no objection to his son's change of guest room. And in his mind, he quickly remembered what his second uncle said to him, "Those who are close to vermillion are red and those who are close to ink are black."
Then I thought that since Xu'er met Yuanqiu, she first stopped being obsessed with playing with grasshoppers, and then started copying books to earn money. After arriving at Fu Xue, he devoted all his attention to studying.
Therefore, it is still important to have good role models around your children. Therefore, Yuan Qiu, as his uncle, would definitely feel relieved if he told Yu Rou.
After traveling so much today, we were definitely tired, so after dinner, everyone went back to their rooms to rest early.
In the next few days, Lin Yuanqiu and Zhou Zixu spent most of the time in their room studying for exams, except for going for a walk to the nearby river together in the early morning.
Lin Sanzhu and Zhou Xing, on the other hand, were busy preparing things to bring into the examination room.
The two went directly to the grocery store, which sold items needed for the provincial examination, such as fire sickles, rags, oil paper, umbrellas, bamboo tubes, mosquito repellent, and kerosene stoves, etc.
There is no food provided in the examination room. You have to provide three meals a day by yourself, as well as drinking water, so a kerosene stove is indispensable.
This time Lin Sanzhu still brought fried rice from home and a small bag of rabbit bacon.
This rabbit meat was made specially because Gouzi said it was delicious during the last exam, so my sister-in-law made it specially this time.
As for the rabbits used to make bacon, the family originally planned to catch them themselves, but Yuan Feng and the others went to the mountains for several days and didn't even see any rabbits.
Finally, I went to town and bought two from the Orion stall.
Although it was the first time for Zhou Xing to accompany his son to take the provincial examination, his second uncle at home told him one by one what he should prepare for when he went out. Therefore, it is reasonable to buy it now.
Although the weather is hot in August, it is still okay to store pastries and snacks for two or three days.
Zhou Xing and Lin Sanzhu planned to wait until the day before the exam started, and then go to the shop to buy some durable snacks for their two children to take with them.
This way you can take a snack with you and save some energy if you don't want to cook and eat it yourself.
…
On the first day of August, all the scholars went to the Yamen to go through the formalities for the provincial examination.
The purpose of this is not only to double-check the identity information of the candidates, but also to determine the official number of people who will take the provincial examination.
Although they had signed up before, there must have been people who gave up on taking the exam due to various changes during the journey. Naturally, it was necessary to count again.
Once the exact number of candidates has been counted, the Yamen can start arranging dormitories for the candidates.
Therefore, the examination cards issued on the fifth day of August not only contain the information corresponding to the floating tickets, but also the examination room number to which each candidate is assigned.
As for Lin Yuanqiu, after receiving his test card, he became uneasy immediately. Because the exam room he was assigned this time was No. 66, Xitian.
The halls in the Gongyuan are divided into east and west sides, with a long aisle in the middle, and the test rooms on both sides are arranged in the order of a thousand-character script. But you have to avoid the taboo words Tian, Xuan, Emperor, and Huang.
Lin Yuanqiu clearly remembered that the last time his exam number was Dong Han Zi Seventeen, and he was sitting in the middle of the Han Zi row at that time.
But this time it was Xitian No. 66.
According to the meaning of taking six or six exams on the east and west sides, his exam room is most likely the last room in the Tianzi row, which is close to the western end.
If I remember correctly, on the far west side, isn't it the hut where the candidates "changed their expressions" after hearing this?
So, in this provincial examination, was he assigned to a bad number?
Thinking of the disgusting smell, Lin Yuanqiu couldn't help but frown.
His luck can't be so bad.
But after Lin Yuanqiu thought about it carefully again, he found that his memory was correct. According to the layout of the dormitory in the Gongyuan, there was absolutely a 100% chance that "Xitian Zi No. 66" was a bad dormitory.
So, what should I do?
As far as Lin Yuanqiu knew, so far, there seemed to be almost no candidates who could get good results after being placed in bad numbers.
This is understandable, after all, it is difficult to multitask. When the taste is occupied by the powerful odor, other things like the brain will have no time to think about anything else.
As for the power of the stench, it can be seen from the last provincial examination that I participated in.
At that time, his examination room was so far away from the hut, and you could smell it. It's hard to imagine what it would be like if you were sitting right next to it.
Will I still be able to pass the exam by then?
That night, Lin Yuanqiu thought a lot.
I think of the time when I was five years old and clamored to go to ethnic studies, and the comments Mr. Wu Jing gave me, and the time when I and Zhou Zixu went to the teahouse to collect information regardless of rain or shine.
Apart from these, Lin Yuanqiu thought of many things in his previous life, and one of them was still fresh in his memory.
It was not long after he opened the advertising company. Because he could not find workers for a while, he climbed onto a concrete pillar more than 20 meters high and installed the billboards himself.
It was also August, the sun was very strong, and the concrete poles were hot to the touch. It was so hot and uncomfortable at that time that Lin Yuanqiu wanted to go home and stop working.
But considering that the delay in the construction period will not allow the wages to be paid, it is basically impossible to take orders in the future. In this case, the company will definitely not be able to continue operating.
In the end, Lin Yuanqiu almost gritted his teeth and finished the work.
After that time, the company had a steady stream of advertising orders, and from then on, the benefits became better and better day by day.
Therefore, sometimes persistence is really important, because success is most likely only one step away from you.
After understanding this, Lin Yuanqiu stopped worrying about whether the number was bad or not. Besides, it's useless to worry about it. Anyway, when the soldiers come, they will cover up the water and the earth, and just head on.
In order not to worry his father, Lin Yuanqiu told no one about the bad number.
Originally, he wanted to ask the shopkeeper to borrow a needle and thread so that he could sew some masks using undergarments.
But when I thought about it later, I wondered what a thin layer of cloth could do to block it. Don't let me cover myself up in the hot weather if I didn't stop the smell.
So forget it.
…
After breakfast, Zhou Zixu came to Lin Yuanqiu's room holding a book.
But at this time, he didn't seem to be focusing on reading. As soon as Lin Yuanqiu put down the pen in his hand, he heard the other party ask,
"Brother Lin, do you think we can pass this provincial examination?"
The closer the exam came, the more nervous Zhou Zixu became.
Especially when I was just having breakfast, I heard the next table talk about the fact that this year's provincial examination had more people than before. This made him, who was already unsure, even more worried.
The provincial examination is only taken once every three years, and everyone who takes part hopes to pass it in one go.
The same goes for Zhou Zixu, although he is not very old now, but three years after another, no one wants to let the years go by like this.
Seeing Zhou Zixu's face full of sadness, Lin Yuanqiu knew that it was due to anxiety before the exam.
If possible, Lin Yuanqiu would also like to say loudly that he is also very anxious, and he is really afraid of what to do if he has a bad number.
But Lin Yuanqiu knew that he couldn't do this.
What's more, sometimes encouraging others is equivalent to cheering yourself up, so Lin Yuanqiu smiled and said:
"I think so. Have you noticed that recently our policies and articles have been able to cite scriptures very well, and our understanding of the meaning of the scriptures has also been greatly improved compared to before. I think as long as the two of us can Do every question carefully and be careful not to make any mistakes, and the possibility of winning is still very high.”
After hearing this, Zhou Zixu's eyes seemed to light up, and then he nodded repeatedly, feeling that this was really the case.
Just like when I was making people's livelihood policies yesterday, I quickly thought of the four points of putting the people first, advocating frugality and restraining luxury, being cautious about punishment and underestimating taxes, and governing the country with justice. Aren't these arguments I sorted out from the Tao Te Ching? .
So, just like Brother Lin said, don’t think too much about anything else, just take the exam with your heart.
…
The ninth day of August is the day for the provincial examination.
All candidates must start entering the venue at Hai hour the day before.
Chapter 96 Autumn
The hotel lobby was brightly lit, and many candidates were already waiting to go out.
The curfew in the city runs from a quarter of the day to the end of the Chou hour.
Due to the provincial examination, tonight's curfew has no restrictions on candidates and test takers, but there are also time regulations.
For example, at this time, everyone had to wait until a quarter of the hour before going out. When they arrived at the gate of Gongyuan, the people taking the exam had to leave, and they had to return to their residences immediately and were not allowed to wander on the street.
As for why he agreed to let the test taker accompany him, it was naturally because he wanted to help carry things.
