After saving the Empress, I became the top scholar in the imperial examination.

The lamps at the four corners of the flower hall hissed and burned, illuminating the hall with a dim, yellowish light.

Master Ning raised an eyebrow, looking at his wife who seemed hesitant to speak, his tone somewhat puzzled:

"What's wrong?"

Zhu Cuiwei placed the "A Brief History of the Later Zhao Dynasty" in her hand on the square table and moved her lips slightly.

"Hmm...the imperial examination..."

Her voice was both hesitant and clear:

"The results will be announced tomorrow."

Ning Nan was taken aback: "So fast?"

He thought it would take at least another three or four days.

Zhu Cuiwei hummed in agreement and said:

"The results will be posted at dusk tomorrow. Hmm... Today, around late afternoon, the Imperial Examination Hall posted a notice saying that the rankings for the metropolitan examination have all been decided and will be announced tomorrow. The news has already spread throughout the city."

"Hoo..." Ning Nan took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, his previously relaxed expression suddenly tightening.

If one passes the provincial examination, one becomes a tribute student.

After passing the palace examination, one becomes a proper Jinshi (successful candidate in the highest imperial examination)!

...It's time to spend some time properly reviewing policy essays.

Zhu Cuiwei looked at her husband with her bright eyes, noticing the flickering emotions on his face—one moment nervous, the next excited—and bit her cheek, saying:

"You... um... you just said you had a surprise for me tomorrow? Is this it?"

"what?"

Master Ning looked up in confusion. He didn't even know that the list of successful candidates would be posted at the Imperial Examination Hall tomorrow, let alone whether he had passed or not. How could he consider this a surprise?

He shook his head and said:

"No, no... um... a surprise! You'll find out tomorrow."

His mouth was dry with nervousness, so he calmed himself down, smiled at his wife, stopped worrying about the results of the imperial examination, and took a sip of hot, weak tea.

Zhu Cuiwei remained calm and hummed in agreement, though a hint of anticipation lingered in her heart.

Her birthday is on the third day of the first lunar month, which is just around the corner.

I wonder if the young doctor was planning to celebrate her birthday.

Seeing that the young doctor didn't speak, she stopped asking and simply lowered her eyes, giving a soft "hmm."

……

……

The weather in the twelfth lunar month is cold and steep.

The days are short and the nights are long.

It was already past dawn, but it was still pitch black outside.

The two, already awake, huddled under the covers, staring at each other for a moment before tacitly closing their eyes and snuggling closer to each other on the pillows. They were both too sleepy to get up in the winter.

However, this habit of staying in bed didn't last long.

After struggling for a while, the woman suddenly took a breath and perked up.

A gentle breeze drifted into the bed... The woman lifted the covers and got out of bed.

The cool breeze stopped abruptly.

The woman quickly pulled the blanket down again, rubbed her eyes, yawned, and said, "You can sleep a little longer."

Master Ning rubbed his face, smiled, and sat up. He thought it best to get up rather than let his hardworking wife feel resentful and cause him trouble over trivial matters.

Hearing the commotion, Chunyu Qiumu quickly came in from the outer room to help the couple get dressed.

The winter wind stung my face.

They got up early, but the servants in the mansion got up even earlier.

As soon as he stepped out dressed, he was greeted by a series of greetings: "Master" and "Madam".

After washing up.

I ate some pastries made by the cook and filled my stomach.

As dawn broke, Master Ning, carrying a stack of books and some papers, set off in a carriage.

The carriage swayed and rocked.

Qian Sijin and his dozen or so men followed on horseback.

The crisp sound of horses' hooves broke through the frost on the ground, echoing along Datong Street.

Ning Nan ignored it all. His body swayed with the carriage, but he was still able to calmly read the book "An Examination of Policy Essays in the Early Years of the Tianqi Reign" in his hands.

By the time they had turned about halfway through the book, the sky was already bright with light.

Uncle Ping's shout of "Lulu!" came over, and the horses slowly came to a stop. Qian Sijin and the others also reined in their horses.

As I stood up and lifted the curtain, a wave of heat hit me... We'd arrived at the steaming glass workshop...

……

……

The north wind blows, and withered leaves fill the sky.

The servants went back and forth, carrying charcoal to the stove outside the wooden house, adding charcoal and shoveling ash.

Jiang Sixue's dozen or so fellow disciples swaggered around the wooden houses, carrying paper and pens, shouting and yelling:

"Number 13 hasn't grown yet."

"Even number 21 hasn't grown yet."

"Who knows if it will even grow back?"

"The top scholar blew a really big conch shell!"

……

The researchers' muttered complaints... Old Master Ning pretended not to hear them and started humming a little tune to himself.

"Squeak~"

Pushing open the wooden door... the temperature inside was so high that the door was almost burning hot to the touch.

As I stepped into the glass workshop with my left foot, a bead of sweat instantly appeared on my forehead.

He opened the door and greeted Old Zheng, who had a bald head, familiarly. Old Zheng smiled and said, "Greetings, Scholar Zheng!"

Dr. Jiang, who was standing nearby, was also clearly sleep-deprived. When he saw him arrive, he stood up from a square table and let out a long sigh.

Doctor Jiang looked at him, but her eyes were vacant, and she was muttering something to herself, perhaps trying to cheer herself up.

The furnace was burning brightly inside.

She took off her moonlit robe and the inner jacket, leaving her in only a single garment.

Doctor Jiang handed him a sturdy black robe, which he leisurely put on.

He turned to Old Zheng and said, "Has the cooling process been completed?"

"Sir, the annealing is complete!" Old Zheng used tongs to take several hollow glass spheres out of the annealing furnace.

Some are the size of chicken eggs, and some are the size of quail eggs.

The ones the size of eggs were made first. Later, after I became more skilled, I used thinner hollow iron pipes to make hollow glass spheres the size of quail eggs.

Old Zheng then took out several suitable hollow glass tubes, with extremely thin openings, each about a foot long.

Ning Nan hummed in agreement, put on gauze gloves, and picked up the sphere and glass tube to examine them.

The annealing furnace was quite hot, and the heat was transmitted through the gloves, making my fingertips feel a little hot.

He glanced at it, tapped it with his finger, and nodded in satisfaction after finding that the hardness was quite good.

It's just a pity... Although he wanted to make a completely transparent glass tube, his chemical knowledge was too superficial and the mineral contained too many impurities, so he couldn't make it in a short time.

The glass tubes currently being produced still retain some of the reddish-green hues of glass, but the colors are extremely pale, making them actually look better than ordinary glass.

Place a small iron pot on a stove, and fill the pot with embers.

Then place the opened sphere into the ashes, fixing it so that the opening faces upwards.

Old Zheng took a breath, took the glass tube with both hands, aligned the opening of the glass tube with the opening of the sphere, then exchanged a glance with Jieyuan Gong, and both of them nodded solemnly.

Ning Nan made full preparations, his eyes sharpened, and he grabbed the wooden handle of a red-hot iron rod inside the furnace with both hands.

Then he swallowed hard and gently heated the iron rod against the opening of the sphere.

"Hiss hiss hiss~" The sphere immediately softened after it opened.

At the same time, Lao Zheng held up the glass tube and heated it on the iron rod.

"Hiss hiss hiss~" The opening of the glass tube immediately softened.

Once the two openings of the sphere and the glass tube were joined together... Old Zheng's hand remained completely still from then on.

The softened glass gradually melted together... Ning Nan's forehead was sweating, and so was his heart... He carefully used the red-hot iron rod to soften the joint between the sphere and the glass tube little by little, ensuring that the two could be perfectly fused together...