Besides, his heart suddenly sank, he was really afraid that something would happen suddenly, he had been worried about Zuo Ling for the past two days, his heart was beating and he was uncertain, if something went wrong again, it would really be on fire.

"It shouldn't be a trouble, I think the trainer seems to have something to discuss with you." Wen Bin smiled.

"Oh, why didn't the trainer send someone to me?"

"The trainer knows that you are indispensable to the pomegranate, so he may be embarrassed to look for you, so let me tell you when I see you." Wenbin is quite empathetic.

"Okay, I'm going to visit the trainer today." Besides, he still didn't feel very sure.

The two drank tea and began to talk about the township test again.

Wen Bin said that this time I don't know why, the question of the township exam has not come out yet, I don't know if the emperor's question came out when the great master set off from the capital.

Besides, I immediately thought of the emperor's serious illness, and the late appearance of the topic must be because of this.

The presiding examiner of the township examination is respectfully called the great master, and the provincial government's imperial history is generally called the grandmaster, of course, there are also those who call the imperial history of the great master, and this title is not fixed. But there is no doubt that the chief examiner who presides over the township examination must be the great grandmaster.

The topic of the township test is also issued by the emperor, sometimes it is the topic of the Ministry of Rites, there are multiple topics, and then the emperor chooses one of them as the topic of the township test, and the candidates will do the eight-strand essay according to this topic, that is, the proposition composition for the examination.

Sometimes, the emperor will come up with the topic himself, which is safer, so as not to leak the topic by the officials of the Ministry of Rites, and Emperor Jiajing generally comes up with the topic by himself, without pretending to others.

When the emperor wants to come up with a question, he will send everyone around him, and then open a book of "Analects" or "Mencius" and "The Mean", turn to which page casually, see a sentence, and write it on paper, this is the topic.

This kind of randomly selected topic is impossible to guess at all, even the eunuch who is most familiar with the emperor and knows his mind the most can't guess it. This also eliminates the possibility of the exam questions being guessed and bet on.

Besides, thinking of Emperor Jiajing's illness, a thought suddenly popped up: If the emperor wants to ask a question at this time, what will it be?

Of course, he knew the conventions of random selection, but Emperor Jiajing was not the kind of person who liked to act according to conventions, especially when he was seriously ill, he might gather his thoughts in the scientific examination questions.

He read a lot of Jiajing's codex yesterday, and he wanted to see his people by reading his books. Reading a person's manuscript makes it easier to imagine the person's human nature.

Although he still couldn't understand the language used by Emperor Jiajing, he could see Emperor Jiajing's mood from those handwritings, and even had a feeling that he could read Emperor Jiajing's mind and didn't need to use his language to identify it at all.

Thinking about it, a few words suddenly popped up in his mind: I have a life and a career.

This should be a portrayal of Emperor Jiajing's mood when he was seriously ill, Emperor Jiajing was an ambitious person, wanting to push the Ming Dynasty's Wenzhi to a new peak, although he was obsessed with immortality and couldn't extricate himself, but he also wanted to sit on the emperor's throne for a long time, so that the empire could live for a long time.

A few years ago, he once made a joke that he wanted to pass the throne to the crown prince first, he went to concentrate on cultivation, and then came back to be the emperor after the success of cultivation, but was stopped by the unity and unity of the ministers. This incident has also become a joke in the history books.

No matter how wise a person is, once he falls into the idea of immortality, he will become naïve and blind, and his intelligence is not even as good as that of an ordinary person, such as Qin Shi Huang, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, Gaozong, and even Xianzong and Xuanzong.

Will this be the topic of this township exam?

He shook his head, my life also has a life, it is from "Zhuangzi • Inner Chapter • Health Master", the complete sentence is: My life also has an end, and knowledge has no end, with a end to the end, and there is no end.

It means that knowledge is endless, but life is short, and it is foolish to chase infinite knowledge with a short life.

This kind of thinking is, of course, Zhuangzi's consistent free-spiritedness, which must not let anything trouble or torture him, and he must become the master of his own body and soul, breaking all the shackles of the world. Whether it is knowledge, wealth, or fame, gods and horses are all floating clouds.

However, what bothered Emperor Jiajing was not that he knew the end, but that the world was endless, and he wanted to stay in the world forever, stay on the throne forever, and strive to govern the country into a thousand-year-old empire, and at the same time always enjoy all the entertainment enjoyed on the throne.

"You're still practicing writing the questions the trainer gave you?" Besides, he asked.

"It's all written, it's easier, if not, even if you're here, I don't have the heart to talk to you." Wen Bin smiled.

"Then you might as well try to write another topic: I have a life and a career." Besides, he laughed.

"My life is also endless? From "Zhuangzi". Why practice writing this, it has nothing to do with the township test, right? Wen Bin was puzzled.

"Anyway, you should practice writing articles, and you don't care about writing more, maybe it will be an upset." Besides.

"Impossible, the title must come from the "Four Books", and it is impossible to come up with the title from the "Zhuangzi". Wen Bin shook his head repeatedly.

"If it really comes out, can you still refuse to answer the questionnaire because it is not from the "Four Books"?"

"Of course not. Well, besides, it won't be ......" Wen Bin suddenly thought of a possibility: he leaked the question.

"Don't think about it, I just suddenly came up with such a topic in my head, and I thought it was funny, so I told you. The emperor's question hasn't come out yet, who can guess? Besides.

"Well, that's true. Okay, I'll try to write it. Wen Bin couldn't bear to refuse his kindness, so he agreed, but he didn't take it seriously in his heart.

"In addition, this I have a career in Taoist thought, although the emperor believes in Taoism, but the ministers who read the papers are all Confucians, you must not have the slightest Taoist flavor in this article, otherwise you will be dethroned." And that's what comes to mind.

"It's a bit difficult to use Confucian ideas to explain the Taoist classics, but it's interesting, so you might as well do it for fun." Wen Bin smiled, thinking that this was really a challenge.

"I'm just thinking about it, you just have to do it yourself, don't tell anyone, otherwise it will make people laugh." Besides.

"I'll tell people what to do, you can rest assured." Wen Bin smiled.

The three of them gossiped some more, and then took their leave, and then took a car to the yamen of the envoy.

It's not like the Suzhou prefect's yamen, people from inside and outside know him, so he had to write a handbook and let the porter hand it in, and then wait outside the door.

There were quite a few people waiting outside the door to be received, including officials, gentry, and even some ordinary citizens, and after listening to two sentences, they roughly understood that these ordinary citizens had come to complain.

Besides, I was surprised, the complaint should go to Ying Tianfu, why did you come here? According to the constitution of the officials in charge, they generally do not care about civil affairs.

After a while, a man ran over and shouted, "Who is the son?" ”

Moreover, he walked out in the envious eyes of everyone and responded: "It's down there." ”

"Your Excellency, please, Childe, please come with me." The tolerance hurriedly led the way inside.

"Who is this person, I just came to meet the adults, and we have been waiting for almost a day." A gentleman-like man dissatisfied.

"I guess it's also a Yanei, otherwise I wouldn't have this treatment." Another gentry guessed.

"You guys pull it, isn't this a talented man, he's a student of the practice." This person was immigrated to Nanjing from the Northeast at first sight, and he still had a strong local flavor.

"It's a protégé of Master Lian, no wonder."

"What, he's the one who is a great talent, the one from Suzhou?"

"What is Suzhou, people now live on the central island of Xuanwu Lake with the old master, and he is still the heir of the old master's mantle."

At this moment, the front of the yamen was lively, and these people were not in a hurry to be summoned by the adults, and they were talking about the situation. Besides, he has a great reputation, but there are really few people who have seen him in person.

Lian Daning was wearing a mending suit, waiting for him at the foot of the steps of the second hall, and said with a smile when he saw him: "What a rare guest." ”

Besides, he hurriedly bowed down and said, "The disciple has always been busy, and he neglected to ask the teacher for peace, and the teacher forgives the sins. ”

Lian Daning said with a smile: "I'm playing with you, you are still serious, I know that you have experienced so many things in the previous days, and the pomegranate will be like that after that, you will not be idle for a moment, and the old master will not be indispensable for your assistance." ”

Having said that, Lian Daning didn't mind at all in his heart, and the disciple he accepted at the same time, but this disciple is now almost Chen Musa's alone, and it is even more self-evident that he and Chen Musa are close and close. Thinking of this, he inevitably felt a little unbalanced in his heart.

But now he is also a person on Chen Musa's front, and if Chen Musa is powerful, he will also gain power, and vice versa, Xu Jie's place is not so important.

Lian Daning dragged him into a small room, and the servant withdrew after serving tea.

"Sit down and talk." Lian Daning pulled and sat down.

"The disciple just met Wenbin, and he said that the teacher was anxious to see me." Besides, he laughed.

"Well, that's the case, this time it was Master Chen Yixue, a waiter from the Ministry of Rites, who came to Nanjing to preside over the township test, do you know who he is?"

"I don't know."

"This person is one of the three heroes of Yuwangfu Chen Yiqin's brother, but also my teacher's friend, this time he came to Nanjing to preside over the township test, I heard that you did not participate, so disappointed, specially sent me a letter, want to see you, there is the idea of accepting you as a protégé, I don't know what you think?" Lian Daning Road.

The three heroes of Yuwangfu refer to Gao Gong, Zhang Juzheng and Chen Yiqin, and the same is true of the ranking between them. The teacher naturally refers to Xu Jie, who is not only Lian Daning's mentor, but also the first assistant, so he is called the teacher.

"Take me as a protégé?" Besides, I was confused by this unprovoked way of accepting apprentices.

"Oh, this kind of protégé is different from a teacher-student relationship like ours, that is, you recognize him as a teacher, and he recognizes you as a protégé." Lian Daning explained.

Besides, I understand, this is to recognize the eldest brother. You think I'm the big brother, and the big brother will cover you.

At that time, the atmosphere of officialdom was the same, and those who recognized their fathers were a little obscene, and only people like Liu Jin and Wei Zhongxian who did not learn and did not know how to do this. The general scholar disdained it, so he changed to the teacher's protégé. In the final analysis, it is just a gang and a gang, forming an underworld in officialdom.