Since I made up my mind to stay, I have become Zhuo Ran's scholar, and I am indispensable to help him do some work of grinding paper, making tea and cleaning up. And he didn't do anything else every day except reading, eating, and sleeping.

"You're not bored!" I asked him.

"No!" Here is his answer.

"Do you want to go outside?" I say.

"Not necessarily."

"Oh!" I was a little disappointed.

"Are you bored, go wherever you want." Zhuo Ran said.

"Forget it, if your mother sees me going out, she will definitely have to talk about me again."

"I've wronged you. Don't worry, if you meet someone you like in the future, I won't force you to keep you. ”

"The person you want...... Forget it, I don't think I have this day. I said.

"Is it because of me? Otherwise, you can go now. Zhuo Ran said.

"No need, you better study hard."

Day after day, the time soon came to the ninth day of the eighth month, which was the township examination held every three years in the Ming Dynasty, and candidates from all over the country gathered in the tribute academy in their own county.

The exam stipulated that I would enter the exam one day earlier, and I prepared dry food and water with Xu Shi for Zhuo Ran to bring. Then he waited at home for him to come back after the exam......

When Zhuo Ran came back, it was already the third day, and it could be seen that everyone had lost a lot of weight. As soon as Xu saw Zhuo Ran enter the house, he brought the meal that had already been heated to him to eat. And I got a big bucket of hot water for him to bathe after the meal.

It is estimated that Zhuo Ran may have finished washing, so I came to the door of the room, raised my hand and knocked on the door and shouted softly: "Zhuo Ran, have you washed it?"

There was no sound coming from the door, could it be that he had washed up and slept? When I opened the door, it turned out that he was asleep in the bathtub. It seems that I have been tired for the past two days, but I can't sleep in the bathtub, and if I accidentally slip down, I can't ......

I shook my head and walked over and patted the edge of the barrel, and I woke up.

"To sleep, dry the bed and go to sleep." I say.

"Hmm!" Zhuo Ran seemed to forget that he was still in the bathtub, and stood up from the water with a "bang". In an instant, the body of a drenched, naked mature male was revealed before my eyes.

"You rascal!" I yelled and turned to leave. Although I lived in the open 21st century in my previous life, I didn't open up to this point, and it was inevitable to be frightened. These two are stunned.

"Right...... I'm sorry......" Zhuoran apologized from the room behind him.

The township test was divided into three sessions, and the other two sessions were held on the 12th and 15th respectively.

August 15 is the Mid-Autumn Festival, but Zhuo Ran is in the examination room. In the morning, Xu moved out of the stone mill, the two of them grinded some flour, in the afternoon, Xu pounded some fillings and prepared, kneaded the dough, and we started making moon cakes with the mold of moon cakes.

In other words, I, a person who doesn't like to fix these mundane things, have made a rare cake for a few months today.

After the mooncakes were steamed, in the evening, Xu moved the table to the door, packed the mooncakes with plates, burned incense and prayed.

"Please ask the moon god to bless my son Zhuoran, all the way to high school, and bless our Zhuo family with full descendants!"

There are so many mortals, and the gods can't take care of them! I thought to myself.

After the sacrifice of the moon, when everything was cleaned up, I sat alone outside the door. The moon in the sky is round and big, which is very suitable for this reunion day. But what about me, how can it be considered a reunion? Who can be considered my friend without relatives......

I couldn't sleep all night, and in the early morning of the second day, Zhuo Ran returned from the examination room.

"Son, how did you do in the test?" Xu asked as he laid out the food.

"It's fine!" Zhuo Ran sat down at the table, this was the first thing he said when he came back, and it was obviously much better than the tiredness after returning from the first game.

"What is okay, we must be on the list, otherwise we have been busy all these years." Xu took a piece of meat and put it in his son's bowl and said.

"Mother's lesson!" Zhuo Ran replied respectfully.

Isn't that a bit of a strong man's difficulty? After the exams are all over, "you must be on the list".

"In fact, it doesn't matter whether you do well in the exam or not, the important thing is that you participate, go and work hard, no matter what the result is, you will not have regrets in the future." I say.

The Xu family was a little unhappy, and said in a stiff tone: "It doesn't matter, whether our Zhuo family can honor our ancestors depends on this."

I still wanted to say something, but at this time Zhuo Ran had already said: "Mother is right, I hope I can win this time."

I sighed secretly, the burden on this ancient scholar is not ordinarily heavy! I hope he has a good result, and I should get out as soon as possible.

"You're afraid of your mother?"

After the meal, after Xu cleaned up the table and walked away, I asked Zhuo Ran.

Zhuo Ran replied: "Mencius has a cloud of 'if you don't obey your relatives, you can't be a son'." ”

I pouted: "Then do you want to please your parents against your will, whether it's right or wrong?" ”

"Mother, she's right, she worked hard to pull me up, but I can't give her a good life, and I still worry about her everywhere." Zhuo Ran said.

"Okay, I can't talk about you, I'm just watching your mother put pressure on you and be upset for you. If you're happy, it's fine. "I said, what are you doing with a scholar so much?

The day of the list is on the third day after the exam, because it is in the golden autumn and August, when the osmanthus flowers are fragrant, so it is also called "laurel list".

I, Zhuo Ran and Xu were in mixed moods and headed towards the location of the list in Hangzhou. Along the way, the fragrance of osmanthus flowers was fragrant, but it could not dilute the hearts of the candidates and their families in the city, and among the people passing by, there was no one who did not have a serious expression.

Xu Shi and Zhuo Ran also had serious faces, which made me full of nervousness.

After following them a few streets and alleys, we finally arrived at the already crowded list. There were a lot of onlookers, and it was noisy.

"It's off the list again, alas~"

A young man who looked like a scholar sighed and lowered his head and walked past us, and Xu Shi watched him walk away with a nervous expression.

"Brother Wang Wen, congratulations!" Not far away, a scholar hugged his fist to another scholar and congratulated him.

"Rejoice, rejoice." The scholar named Wang Wen smiled all over his face, clenched his fists and returned the salute.

Xu Shi couldn't hold back a little, and said, "Let's go in and have a look!" He began to squeeze into the crowd.

"Mother, be careful!"

Zhuo Ran hurriedly squeezed to the front to open the way, for fear that his mother would be injured. I followed. There were too many people, and after squeezing for most of the day, we finally managed to squeeze to the front.

I looked up at the list, looking for Zhuo Ran's name, and suddenly heard Xu Shi next to me shouting excitedly: "Won, Ran'er, you are still the first place." Great, that's great! Son, let's hurry home and incense your father, and tell your father that if you are hit, your father will be happy in the sky. ”

I went to see Xu's family, her tears flowed out, and then I looked at Zhuo Ran, and I didn't see any excitement, but seemed to have more sorrow.