Then there was a rustling sound. Lin Yuanqiu turned his head and saw Bingwei putting two bowls in through the wooden window. One bowl contained four fist-sized buns, while the other bowl contained half a bowl of gruel.
The steamed buns and porridge were both steaming, and they must have been freshly cooked.
Six or seven hours had passed since last night, and Lin Yuanqiu was already hungry.
Although there is water in the dormitory, it is only a small bucket. And with the next three days, it is basically impossible to wash up every day.
So Lin Yuanqiu only poured water to wash his hands and rinse his mouth, and then ate breakfast.
Like the previous attempts, Lin Yuanqiu still only ate half full this time. People are more alert when they are hungry, and their brains operate more efficiently. Therefore, after eating two steamed buns, Lin Yuanqiu stopped eating. have eaten.
After a while, the questions for the first session were handed out. Lin Yuanqiu counted seventeen pictures in total, which was quite a lot to answer.
With the sound of gongs and drums at every hour, the Jiayin Annual Examination officially begins.
…
Chapter 138 Examination (2)
There is a charcoal pot in the corner of the dormitory. It is made of pottery.
Before grinding the ink, Lin Yuanqiu added charcoal to it and lit it. There are two kilograms of charcoal prepared by the government for each candidate in the dormitory, and these expenses, like the meals during the examination, are paid to the Yamen when registering for the examination.
However, Lin Yuanqiu did not use the charcoal in the dormitory. Zhou Zixu and Chen Yutang had participated in the examination, so they naturally knew the condition of the charcoal provided by the Yamen. Not only was it smokey, it was not durable, and a large handful of charcoal could not be lit. After a while, the fire quickly went out.
So when Lin Yuanqiu was preparing the examination materials, he bought extra charcoal. What he bought is the best silver bone charcoal nowadays. This kind of charcoal is like white frost in color, smokeless, difficult to burn, and not easy to extinguish. One kilogram weighs six kilograms more than ordinary black charcoal. Once it is lit, it will not burn.
Add charcoal to the charcoal basin frequently. However, the price of silver bone charcoal is not cheap. Lin Yuanqiu bought a pound of it for twenty taels of silver.
It is said that good steel is used on the blade. At such a critical time, the money is still worth spending.
The first test is about classics and poems.
Lin Yuanqiu still maintained his usual method of answering questions. He allocated seventeen question papers, six on the first day, six on the second day, and the remaining five on the third day. With a plan this way, you don’t have to worry about being in a hurry and worrying about the future.
The weather is not bad today. The sun has already come out at this time. The small wooden window is open to the south. The sun is shining in right now, making the whole dormitory bright.
Sufficient light is naturally best for using the eyes, so Lin Yuanqiu didn't waste any time and began to examine the questions carefully.
I saw that the first title read, "If you see someone who is not upright, you will be disrespectful even if you are noble. If you see someone who is dirty, you will not be disrespectful even if you are respectful."
Lin Yuanqiu quickly remembered that this was a biographical chapter of Japanese people in "Historical Records". This means that when you see someone who is dishonest, you will not respect him even if he is a high-ranking person; when you see someone who has bad behavior, you will not be inferior to him no matter how high his status is.
Since last year, Qin Yu has taught many articles besides the Four Books to his two disciples. This biography of the Japanese has been mentioned before, so it is not difficult to clarify its meaning.
Lin Yuanqiu first wrote the meaning of the question on the draft paper, then added his own interpretation of the sentence, and quickly solved the first question.
After writing on the draft paper, Lin Yuanqiu read it carefully from beginning to end, and found that his explanation was quite satisfactory but also full of new ideas. This kind of answer was not overly provocative, nor was it bland. Just as the teacher said, it was just right. This is the most appropriate answer to the classic meaning.
After all, the meaning of the classics is different from the policies and articles that express one's own opinions. Its meaning has already been within a correct range. If it is too innovative and goes beyond this framework, it will feel like superfluous.
It was inevitable to cross the questions. After checking that they were correct, Lin Yuanqiu took the answer sheet and copied his own answers.
For lunch, each person gets two pancakes and a bowl of water.
In such weather, you can only eat it while it's hot to avoid hurting your stomach.
Therefore, when he saw Bingwei placing the bowl with pancakes on the window, Lin Yuanqiu carefully put the question papers and draft paper into the examination basket, then took the bowl into the dormitory and started eating lunch.
The pancakes are thin, about the size of a disk, and are slightly salty. After eating two hot pancakes, your whole body feels warm.
Afraid of accidentally dropping the question paper into the charcoal basin, Lin Yuanqiu did not place the charcoal basin at his feet, but moved it to a position behind him and in front. And it's not next to anything, so it's also the safest place in the entire dormitory.
There is no other way. Now I am locked in the examination room. If there is a fire accidentally, I am afraid there will be no chance to escape.
It was not that Lin Yuanqiu was trying to scare him. This kind of incident of candidates being burned to death in the dormitory had happened in the previous dynasty. Because the dormitories were adjacent to each other, more than twenty people were burned to death in one go.
It is precisely because of that incident that in the Gongyuan, there is a thousand-jin jar placed every ten rooms apart. A few days before the exam starts, the guards will fill the tank with water, so that if there is a fire, they can save it.
But they all say to take precautions before they happen, but Lin Yuanqiu said that instead of trying to make up for it afterwards, it would be better to prevent it from happening directly.
So you won’t go wrong by being careful.
One day is neither too short nor too long. After Lin Yuanqiu understood the meaning of "The minister is virtuous for the superior, and the people are for the inferior. When it is difficult, he should be cautious, but harmony is the only thing." in "Xian Youde". , it’s almost the end of the application period.
Seeing the two remaining poems and poems, Lin Yuanqiu was not worried. Writing poems and poems was his specialty. After dinner, he spent half an hour on his own and completed all six papers for today.
It is not easy to make meals for more than 5,000 people, so the way of eating is naturally as simple as possible.
Therefore, it is basically impossible to have food in the dormitory.
Dinner was the same as lunch, it also came with two pancakes, but the bowl of water was replaced by a bowl of rice porridge, and the rice grains in the porridge looked a bit soft and glutinous, so it must have been added with japonica rice.
Sure enough, when Lin Yuanqiu took a bite of the pancake and breathed a mouthful of porridge into his mouth, he suddenly felt soft, delicate and mellow.
After dinner, Lin Yuanqiu did not continue with the exam questions, but got up to eat in the dormitory. Take two steps to the left, three steps to the right, and at most one step back and forth. Although the space is small, Lin Yuanqiu feels that he is quite rhythmic.
By the time I finished writing the two poems, it was completely dark outside.
Lin Yuanqiu checked today's six test papers again to see if there were any omissions and whether there was anything missing in the name and place of birth. After finding that there were no problems, he carefully put them all into the test basket.
Although it was getting dark now, it was still early in the morning, so it would definitely be too early to go to bed. So Lin Yuanqiu took out another piece of draft paper, and he planned to take advantage of his free time to think about several other poems.
This will make it much easier when I write again tomorrow.
…
The breakfast on the second day was still steamed buns and gruel. Just like yesterday, Lin Yuanqiu only ate two of the four steamed buns.
He planned to put the remaining two in the charcoal pot to heat them up as a midnight snack just like last night.
After eating breakfast, Lin Yuanqiu didn't waste much time. After adding a few spoons of water to the inkstone, he took the ink stick and started to sharpen the ink.
Lin Yuanqiu's inkstone is a regular-shaped inkstone with a small inkstone pool. He can't write many words after just one grinding. He often has to grind the ink four or five times in a day. Logically speaking, such an unused inkstone should have been replaced long ago. It’s not like there is no inkstone at home.
But Lin Yuanqiu did not do this. Even if it took more time, he never thought of changing the inkstone. The reason is probably because his father bought him this inkstone.
Lin Yuanqiu clearly remembered that in order to buy this inkstone, his father went to the dock to carry sacks for several days.
…
The first three-day exam passed quickly. After everyone handed in their test papers at Youshi, the door lock of the dormitory was opened by the guards.
Everyone will leave the examination room early tomorrow morning, so now is everyone's free time.
Chapter 139 Examination (3)
Although they can move around freely, candidates are only allowed to walk in the aisle in front of their dormitories. Otherwise, if more than five thousand people were wandering around, the Gongyuan would be in chaos.
Lin Yuanqiu also left the dormitory. It was good to stay in there if he had something to do. Otherwise, he would be like a wooden person and he would not be able to stay. Besides, he had been in the dormitory for three days.
Perhaps it was because there were still two exams to be taken, and fearing that it would disturb their minds, everyone tacitly agreed not to mention the exam, and did not ask each other how they went or how they answered.
Furthermore, testing the meaning of the scriptures is not a test of the scriptures, and there are correct answers. The answers to classic questions are different for everyone, so even if you ask them, there is no standard answer.
The halls in the tribute courtyard were arranged according to the thousand-character script. Lin Yuanqiu and his group's row was marked with the word "leap". There were more than fifty rooms in total. At this moment, everyone was standing in the aisle, looking at the number of people.
Since they don't want to talk about test questions, the only person they can talk about is themselves. The candidates introduced themselves to each other, including their last names, where they were from, and their ages.
It can be said that they are "destined to be of the same age". If they are lucky enough to go further this time, they will be "of the same age" in the officialdom in the future.
When I think about it this way, it naturally becomes more cordial.
A few chatted with each other so well that they even left each other's home addresses with pens to facilitate future correspondence. If there was no paper, they would lift up the hem of their clothes so that the other party could write directly on their clothes.
Lin Yuanqiu learned from the introduction that the candidate in the dormitory to his left was from Qufu, Shandong Province. He was already 30 years old. According to his own words, this year was his fifth time to take the examination.
When he said this, Lin Yuanqiu could clearly hear the melancholy in the other person's words. Also, the exam is taken once every three years, and five times is fifteen years. From a green young man who was not even qualified to the exam to the age of thirty, the sadness in his heart is naturally not something that ordinary people can understand.
What Lin Yuanqiu thought of was the other person's decades of hard study, regardless of severe cold or scorching heat. It was very tiring to think about it.
Lin Yuanqiu tried to bring it in, but then felt that he might not be able to persist like this.
When he heard this person say that he was still planning to take the exam if he failed this time, all that was left in Lin Yuanqiu's heart was admiration.
…
In the middle of the night, it started to rain lightly outside the dormitory.
Now is the time when the winter wheat begins to turn green. It is raining now, which is very suitable for the food in the fields. Don’t they all say, “When there is rain, crops will be good, spring and spring are a treasure”, so for farmers, this is the joy of expecting a good harvest.
However, for the candidates taking the examination, rainy days are not so beautiful. There are still two exams left for the general examination. If you accidentally get caught in the rain and get cold during the period, then this general examination will basically be ruined.
Thinking like this, the candidates who were not sleepy at first were even more unable to sleep now. They all stood up and looked out of the wooden window, hoping that the rain would stop as soon as possible, otherwise they would have to leave the examination room in the rain later.
Lin Yuanqiu had also gotten up, but instead of going to the small window, he lit a candle and carefully checked the dormitory to see if there was any leakage.
Fortunately, I could only hear the "tacking" sound on the tiles, and no rainwater was seen falling. I guess the court had people repair the dormitory before the trial started.
Even so, Lin Yuanqiu prepared a piece of oilcloth in the examination basket after leaving Gongyuan, just in case.
In the early morning, the rain finally stopped.
Everyone who had been up all night breathed a sigh of relief. It stopped raining. Then when they left the Gongyuan later, they didn't have to worry about being drowned.
Lin Sanzhu and Zhou Xing had been waiting outside the door for a long time. They came over as soon as the curfew was lifted.
Seeing his son coming out of the dragon gate, Lin Sanzhu put the umbrella under his arm and walked forward quickly. After taking the test basket from his son, Lin Sanzhu took out the oil paper bag covering his chest and said, "Here, this These are meat buns that dad bought for you, they are still hot, please hurry up and eat them while they are hot!"
Then Lin Sanzhu thought of something again and hurriedly said, "Dad has asked Sister Zhang to buy fish. Let's make braised fish for lunch."
Seeing this, Zhou Xing on the side quickly took out an oil paper bag from his lapel and handed it to Zhou Zixu.
Originally, when Zhou Xing came out, he never thought about buying meat buns for his son. Didn't he see his in-laws buying them? Then he remembered that the child had stayed in the dormitory for one night and must be hungry, so he was busy. Followed and bought.
Zhou Xing had to admit that he was not as careful as his in-laws when it came to taking care of his children.
So after hearing Lin Sanzhu say that he would make braised fish for lunch, Zhou Xing immediately decided to let his son have lunch at Lin's house before going back.
There is no reason why Lin Sanzhu shouldn't do it. After all, this is his son-in-law, and it's too late for him, the father-in-law, to like him.
Besides, if he is good to his son-in-law now, he will definitely be good to Chunyan in the future. By the way, as parents, don't they always worry about their children when they come and go?
…
After arriving home, Ping An quickly brought hot water for bathing. He came to the new house half a month ago.
Ping An is now fourteen years old, and Lin Yuanqiu's purpose in asking him to come here is to arrange for him to be an errand boy in the new house if possible.
