Top Scholar

Chapter 251 Next Stop, the State Examination!

After the county examination, Qian Shanzhang and the other teachers led the students who failed back to Taiping Town, so they could try again the following year.

All the outstanding students stayed in the county, waiting for the official document from the Ministry of Rites to authorize them to take the state examination. Once they received the document, they set off directly for Luzhou to attend the Wenzhan Hall at Heshan Academy to prepare for the state examination in early April.

Since all his disciples had passed the county examination, Mr. Zhang was kept behind by Headmaster Qian and, as the leader of the academy, went to Luzhou to coordinate with Heshan Academy.

The Su family held a grand farewell banquet for the teachers and students. It was also a celebration of Su Youcai, Su Man, Su Lu, and Su Dan going to Luzhou to take the imperial examination.

The fact that the four great generals went to the prefectural examination together was an unprecedented grand occasion for the Su family!
Unfortunately, due to the tight schedule, they couldn't wait for the clansmen from Erlangtan to arrive and celebrate. Fortunately, there were more and more Su family members in the county town, so the scene was still very lively...

On February 14, the group finally received the documents and decided to set off the next day.

~~
On the morning of the fifteenth, my aunt and my sister-in-law got up before dawn to steam dry food and prepare breakfast for the people who were setting off.

Su Man also got up early and went to the kitchen to help his mother start the fire.

"Oh, go out, go out, don't choke on the smoke." But the aunt couldn't bear to see her son surrounded by smoke.

The aunt couldn't help but laugh and said, "It's not easy, Chun-ge'er has regained the treatment he used to have."

"There's nothing I can do, my mother is just that pragmatic," Su Man laughed. After failing the college entrance exam two years ago, his aunt started finding fault with him, complaining that he was useless at home and only caused trouble, and urging him to find a job as soon as possible.

"What's wrong? Your job is to study and take exams. Do you think I have to coax you if you fail?" Aunt snorted and said, "You better do well on the exam this time. If you fail again, I won't feed you when you come back."

"Sigh." Su Man sighed helplessly, "Let's talk about something else."

"When are you planning to get married?" Auntie had plenty to say. "You're already twenty! Other people's kids are already crawling all over the place."

"Forget it, let's not talk about this anymore..." Su Man fled in panic.

Seeing this, the younger sister-in-law said, "Sister-in-law, you're really something. Chun-ge'er just wanted to talk to you because he felt he was leaving. Couldn't you have said something he wanted to hear?"

"No," the eldest aunt snorted. "As long as he doesn't pass the imperial examination and become a scholar, as long as he doesn't get married, I won't give him a kind look!"

"Sister-in-law, aren't you asking for too much?" The aunt spoke up for her nephew again.

"It's not much, it's actually about one thing. Who told him to say he wouldn't get married if he didn't pass the imperial examination?" Auntie said.

"Oh..." The aunt understood; her husband's mother did everything to have a grandson.

However, his aunt was really good to Su Lu. She not only said nice things to him, but also cooked all the dishes he liked to eat, making Chun Ge'er not even know who his biological son was.

Su Lu finally understood: her aunt was purely driven by performance evaluation. She only liked those who did well in the family and disliked those who didn't…

Back then, I was the one my aunt disliked the most, but now I'm highly sought after. The reason is simple: I've performed well.

So if the eldest brother wants to turn his situation around, he has to meet his aunt's performance evaluation criteria—pass the imperial examination and get married.

After breakfast, the whole family went to the pier to see them off; even the elderly came.

The old man wore a six-in-one hat adorned with red coral beads, a round-necked robe with wide sleeves made of dark brown silk, and black satin cloud-patterned shoes. He leaned on a cane made of dragon-subduing wood, dressed like a typical landlord.

He addressed his children and grandchildren who were about to embark on their campaign, saying, "Do your best on the exam, don't embarrass yourselves! Don't slack off or act like idiots!"

"Yes, Father," Su Youcai replied hastily.

"Yes, Grandpa," Su Man and the other two quickly replied.

"Go!" Su Dacheng waved his hand and shouted, "Go and pass the imperial examination to become a scholar, and change our family's fortunes!"

"Yes, sir!" the four replied in unison, then strode confidently aboard Erlang Winery's large ship.

The proprietress, Xiaotian, and Su Youma also came along, and the whole family was instantly reduced by half...

The old lady immediately felt a chill and sighed, "Sigh, when will we never be separated again?"

"You're so ignorant. The more successful your child is, the further away they'll go. What kind of future will you have if you stay by their side all the time?" The old man said, glancing at his eldest son. "I wasn't talking about you."

"Dad, I think I'm pretty successful." Committee Member Su was now extremely confident.

"Bullshit! Even your old man didn't catch up back then." The old man spat, watching the large ship gradually disappear into the distance, and said in a deep voice, "There's gold. If our family wants to prosper, we still have to rely on them."

“Of course,” the uncle nodded, “In the end, this world belongs to scholars…”

~~
The river wind howls, the large ship sails full, and it sails upstream.

The students of Sheng Shen Zhai crowded on the deck, gazing at the shimmering Yangtze River from the railing.

Many of my classmates were sailing on the Yangtze River for the first time, and they were all awestruck by the magnificent river.

"What a vast expanse of water!" Cheng Wanfan was one of them. Looking at the seemingly endless river, he couldn't help but exclaim, "The so-called ocean is nothing more than this!"

“When you get to Luzhou, don’t act like you’re ignorant,” Li Qiyu said seriously. “Especially people from our area, you’ll be laughed at.”

"What's wrong with the people from our area?" Cheng Wanfan said unhappily, "Can't people from the mountains express their feelings?"

“It has nothing to do with the people in the mountains,” Su said with a smile. “Our place was called Yelang Kingdom in ancient times.”

“That’s right, it’s the arrogant Yelang Kingdom.” Li Qiyu nodded and said, “You make a fuss over nothing, and people will say that you are worthy of being from the Yelang Kingdom.”

"Really?" Cheng Wanfan looked at Su Lu beside him, wanting an authoritative answer.

But then he was seen staring intently at a booklet with a pale pink cover. The booklet was exquisitely made, clearly the work of a woman.

"Oh?" Li Qiyu's eyes lit up immediately, and the crowd exchanged knowing glances before quietly gathering around him. "The poem 'Longing for My Lover's Return on the Fifteenth of February'... Longing for your return while the rapeseed flowers are in full bloom, and the peach blossom season is just beginning to subside, filling the pond with green!" Li Qiyu recited in a strange tone.

Although Su Lu's hand blocked his view, preventing him from seeing the entire poem, the meaning was already crystal clear.

"Oh my, February 15th is today! Which girl wrote this love letter to me?" Cheng Wanfan exclaimed in surprise.

"I didn't expect someone to write a love letter to the top scorer so soon!" Even the usually dignified Lin Zhihong chimed in, "Sigh, how come there's such a big gap between the first and second place?"

Su Lu hurriedly closed the book, tucking it tightly under his arm, and said, "Don't make wild guesses, she's not a girl from Hejiang!"

"That must be Luzhou?!" Ma Zhaizhang exclaimed loudly.

"She really is a girl." Even the usually taciturn Qiao Feng's eyes lit up.

They've all reached the age where they're attracted to young women, and they're all as excited as if they've taken drugs.

"Oh, what's wrong?" Su Lu was now thick-skinned, knowing that the more embarrassed he was, the more they would tease him. So he simply admitted frankly, "I'm quite a handsome man, so what if a couple of girls like me?"

"Tell me quickly, whose young lady is she?" the classmates urged anxiously.

“Huang Bingxian’s daughter, Huang E,” Su Lu said honestly.

"..." The bow of the boat fell silent for a moment, with only the seagulls making noise.

"Why are you all silent?" Su Lu asked.

“Brother, if you don’t want to tell us, fine, but why brag?” Cheng Wanfan said.

Others nodded in agreement.

"Don't believe me then." Su Lu rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"Brother, tell me quickly, who is it?" someone persisted.

"Huang E," Su Lu said irritably.

"Brother, that's no fun," Li Qiyu said. "You might as well talk about Chang'e."

"Get lost! You won't believe me even if I tell you!" Su Lu was so angry that his nose was crooked.

"Stop fooling around." At this moment, Mr. Zhang walked out of the cabin and said, "I have something to say to Hongzhi."

"Oh." The crowd scattered like birds and beasts, and in the end, no one believed Su Lu's words.

However, Su Lu understood them. It was like if someone in later generations told him that their partner was Dilraba, he wouldn't believe it.

But my partner really was Huang E. He shook his head helplessly and asked, "What is it, sir?"

"Well..." Mr. Zhang said somewhat embarrassedly, "I need your help with something."

"What are you saying, sir? Is there any trouble between us?" Su Lu said with a smile.

“Alright.” Mr. Zhang nodded and said directly, “Heshan Academy gave us a total of fifteen places for the Wenzhan Hall, which is quite a lot, but we have a bit too many people this time.”

“Indeed.” Su Lu nodded and said, “Our Self-Reflection Hall alone has fourteen members, plus two other halls, and then there are the senior students who have been studying for a year, making a total of thirty.”

“That’s right.” Mr. Zhang said with a troubled expression, “Who should I send and who shouldn’t? Before we parted, I asked Dean Qian, and he told me to contact you.”

She blushed as she spoke. "What kind of talk is that? What kind of teacher asks a student to do something like that?"

“You’ve come to the right person.” Su Lu laughed. “When we get to Luzhou, I’ll take you to visit Headmaster Zhou and ask him to give us some more spots. If he doesn’t agree, we’ll just stay here.”

"Is this appropriate?" Mr. Zhang, a refined gentleman, naturally couldn't stand such a shameless method.

“What’s inappropriate about it? Wenzhan Hall is huge! It’s just a matter of adding a few more chairs.” Su Lu laughed. “Besides, we don’t eat their food or stay at their place. It won’t add much burden to them.”

“I can refuse their food, but I still have to stay here.” Mr. Zhang said apologetically, “The headmaster’s funding for me is limited, and the reason is that I can stay at the ‘Waiting for the Moon’s Thatched Cottage’ at Heshan Academy for free.”

“It’s alright. Mr. You said… in other words, the county magistrate said that you can stay at the county government office when you go there.” Su Lu laughed, “The conditions are much better than that shabby place, Waiting for the Moon Cottage.”

"Really? I've never heard of that before!" Mr. Zhang said with delight.

Su Lu thought to himself, "Isn't that just to do me a favor?" He then smiled and said, "They probably thought they couldn't handle too many people going, so they told me secretly."

"I see." Mr. Zhang was never very good at these kinds of interpersonal relationships. Naturally, he believed whatever Su Lu said. He couldn't help but sigh, "I didn't expect that Hongzhi, you not only have connections in Hejiang, but you can also have a say in Luzhou."

"Sir, you are too kind. Apart from the academy and the government office, who knows me?" Su Lu said modestly.

"That would be best," Mr. Zhang said happily. "We scholars should keep our minds pure; knowing too many people is no good."

“Yes, that’s what the students think too,” Su Lu nodded.

"By the way..." Mr. Zhang paused, then couldn't help but ask in a low voice, "Who exactly is that girl?"

"Sir, I've said it several times already!" Su Lu said helplessly.

"You brat, you even keep it from your teacher." Mr. Zhang shook his head and went into the cabin.

Well, I don't believe it either...

P.S. Happy Mid-Autumn Festival everyone! May your families be reunited! Those who won prizes last month, hurry and join the group to claim yours! Also, please continue to vote with your monthly tickets!!

(End of this chapter)