Fang Zi'an has always been a confident person, and the world in the past and the world in front of him have not changed this. But in the matter of the imperial examination, he did not dare to hold it up at all. Although he has always used the college entrance examination of later generations to compare the imperial examination, implying that he is a person who has gone through strong winds and waves, in fact, the cruelty of the imperial examination in this year is much greater than that of the college entrance examination in later generations. There isn't much of a comparison between the two.

The content of the imperial examination is very different, but only in terms of the number of places in the examination and the admission rate, the cruelty of the imperial examination can be seen. In the Great Song Dynasty, more than 100,000 scholars took the examination in each imperial examination, and only four or five thousand people were able to obtain the qualification for the examination, and only a few hundred lucky people were able to enter the Shike in the end. In terms of proportion, only one or two people out of a thousand people may be the ones who have the last laugh. The rest died halfway through the fierce imperial examinations.

Of course, the current entrance examination, which is commonly known as 'Qiuqiu', has a higher number of admission places and proportions. The overall ratio is also one out of dozens of people. Moreover, in order to ensure the difference in the degree of development and size of the local state capital, the imperial court humanized the distribution of places according to the development degree and population ratio of the Luzhou capital. This was done to reflect the fairness of the imperial examination. But even so, there are many monks and few porridges, and thousands of troops cross the single-plank bridge. There are only a few lucky ones who can make it.

Taking Lin'an Mansion as an example, because Lin'an Mansion is the capital of the Great Song Dynasty, it has a large population, so it has a lot of places to be admitted in the Autumn Festival. But this does not guarantee an increase in the acceptance rate, because the more affluent the place, the more popular the reading style prevails. The number of students studying is increasing, and the number of people taking the exam is correspondingly higher. Therefore, under the restriction of a certain number of admission places, the competition is surprisingly fierce. Based on the number of students from more than a dozen official and private academies in Lin'an Prefecture and the backlog of students in previous years, the number of reference students visiting the places under the jurisdiction of Anfu this year is 9,000, but the admission quota in Qiufu is only 600, so the difficulty can be imagined.

The time of the autumn festival in the Great Song Dynasty is basically fixed, if there are no special circumstances, the ninth day of the eighth month of autumn every year, the ninth day of the first month, the first day of the twelfth year, and the first fifteenth day of the first month. In total, they had to go through three days and three nights of rigorous exams. This year also starts from the ninth day of August, but in order to advocate strict economy, the imperial court changed the autumn to three consecutive examinations, that is, the ninth and tenth tenths of the first month. Doing so can compress the autumn season, which has dragged on to nine days, into three days. It saves a lot of manpower and material costs. But this undoubtedly puts more pressure on the test candidates. In the past, even if the test was failed, there was still a two-day adjustment period in between. But in this way, it will test the psychological quality of the reference students even more.

With the arrival of the autumn exam, Fang Zi'an also began to actively prepare the items needed for the autumn exam. Chunni and Zhang Ruomei were also very nervous, on the sixth day of the first month of August, Chunni deliberately took a day to come to Fang's small courtyard to wash the bedding for Fangzi, arrange and change clothes, and prepare the dry food and snacks to bring in. The two of them also seemed to understand the importance of this matter to Fang Zi'an, and they also worked together to prepare together. At the end of the day, everything is properly prepared.

On the morning of the seventh day of August, Fang Zi'an rushed to the school administration yamen of Lin'an Mansion to report, apply for license plates, check reference qualifications and other matters. In addition, you have to participate in one after another reference and publicity meetings, listen to the test process and rules, precautions, etc. For those old fritters who are not good at mathematics, these things are naturally very familiar, but for Fang Zi'an and them who are just starting to ascend to the autumn season, these early preaching is still very necessary.

Fang Zi'an had been staying up in the crowded Xuezheng Yamen until the afternoon, and after the waves of students left, he finally got the reference plate. That number plate is equivalent to the admission ticket for reference. On one side of the number plate is the number of the number room, and on the other side is the details of the reference's life, place of origin, appearance, age, and other information. It can even be detailed to whether the face is white or black, whether there are black moles and birthmarks, the shape and thickness of the beard, and so on. This is obviously a means of preventing cheating for guards and invigilators to identify candidates at the time of entry, in case someone takes the test on their behalf.

After getting the license plate, Fang Zi'an hurried back to Sanyuanfang, and when he arrived on a street not far in front of Xuezheng Yamen, suddenly a carriage rushed from behind, if it weren't for Fang Zi'an's agility, he almost hit him.

The car stopped against Fang Zi'an's body. Fang Zi'an frowned and shouted at the coachman: "Hey, how did you catch the car?" What should I do if I hit someone? ”

The driver on the wheel took off his straw hat and smiled weirdly at Fang Zi'an. Fang Zi'an was stunned, and immediately recognized who it was.

"Miss Ling'er! Why are you here? Such a coincidence. Fang Zi said.

"It's not a coincidence, I've been waiting for you for a long time. Look at you crawling around the crowd like a gray mouse. Ling'er smiled, her mouth was still unforgiving, and she compared Fang Zi'an to a gray mouse.

Fang Zi'an rolled his eyes and said, "What can I do?" So many people. What are you waiting for me to do? ”

Ling'er shook her head and said, "Get in the car, my Qin girl is invited." ”

Fang Zi'an said: "What's the matter? Is there something wrong with Miss Qin? If nothing happens, I'll have to rush home to get my bags ready and ready. Tomorrow afternoon, we will start entering. ”

Ling'er frowned and said impatiently: "Miss Qin called you, how do I know if there is something wrong?" Won't you ask him yourself? I've been waiting for you all morning, and you won't refuse to come with me. Then I'm going to use it. ”

Fang Zi'an was helpless, he didn't want to fight with Ling'er on the street, this girl was not very reasonable, so it was better not to mess with her. Besides, Qin Xiqing invited herself, maybe there was something.

Thinking of this, Fang Zi'an waved his hand and said, "That's it, I'll go." With that, he pulled the car door open and jumped into the car. Na Ling'er smiled, put on a straw hat to cover her pretty face, and suddenly raised her whip, and the carriage sped away on the street.

Not long after, Fang Zi'an was already in the back garden of Qing Garden in the brilliant autumn sun, and Qin Xiqing had been waiting in the fine house where she lived for a long time.

"Qin everyone, Fang Zi'an is polite. I haven't seen you for many days, how are you doing with everyone Qin? Fang Zi'an smiled and bowed.

When Fang Zi'an entered the house, Qin Xiqing was standing in front of the window and feeding the birds in the bamboo cage in front of the window with a bamboo stick. Hearing Fang Zi'an's voice, his hands trembled, and he quickly turned around.

After not seeing her for many days, Qin Xiqing seems to have lost a lot, but she looks more and more slender and graceful. She is wearing a goose yellow skirt today, with a cyan openwork shawl on her shoulders, and the whole person looks more and more elegant as a fairy, really as beautiful as a goddess in the sky. Fang Zi was relieved to admire, this woman was not only beautiful, but more importantly, she knew how to dress up and match her own outfits, and her makeup was by no means like some women who were eager to paint their entire face with thick fat powder. She only wore a long skirt and swept her eyebrows, but she completely highlighted her advantages. Even Fang Zi'an had to admire in his heart: such a superb woman is really rare in the world.

Qin Xiqing saw that Fang Zi'an's eyes were a little dull, and an imperceptible smile flashed in his eyes. Although Fang Zi'an's performance in front of her was generally restrained and calm, she was until, even Fang Zi'an, she was tempted by her beauty. It's just that he's not as obvious as the other men.

"Fang Gongzi is polite. Does Fang Gongzi still know that you and I haven't seen each other for many days? Does Fang Gongzi know how many days you haven't been here from Xiqing? Qin Xiqing said in a manly voice after saluting.

Fang Zi'an rolled his eyes and said in his heart: How do I know how many days, do I have nothing to count the days to play?

"I'm really sorry, I've been busy preparing for the exam recently, and I agreed last time that for safety reasons, I should try to have as little contact as possible, so as not to cause trouble. So ......"

"Okay, okay, Xiqing knows this, and Xiqing doesn't mean to blame. But even if we can't see each other more, it won't be as long as a month and a day, and Fang Gongzi won't even give a letter. Qin Xiqing said softly.

Fang Zi'an was a little dumbfounded, a month and a day? The last time we met was to send my wife back to Jiangyin and returned, and I and Zhang Ruomei came to Qingyuan to meet with the king of Pu'an County as agreed, counting the days, it seems that it is really about a month. Qin Xiqing remembers it clearly.

"Miss Qin called me today, is there something wrong? Can I sit down and talk and ask for a glass of water? For most of the day, I was so tired that I didn't even drink saliva. Fang Zi'an didn't want to dwell on how many days he hadn't seen Qin Xiqing, so he changed the topic and said with a smile.

Qin Xiqing glared at Fang Zi'an, stretched out his slender hand and patted his palms, and the next moment the stairs made a sound of footsteps, the footsteps outside were mixed, the sound of dishes colliding sounded, and a fragrance also came to his nose.

"Knowing that Gongzi has not finished dripping water since the morning, and he hasn't eaten a mouthful of food, Xiqing has already ordered someone to prepare a banquet, please take a seat." After Qin Xiqing finished speaking, she lifted the bead curtain and walked outside. Fang Zi'an followed to the outside room in surprise, but saw that a table was already full of exquisite dishes with color and fragrance, and a jar of good wine had also been opened, wafting out bursts of rich wine aroma.

"This is ......" Fang Zi'an was even more confused, not knowing what was going on.

"Childe, please sit down, the slave family will sing music for you." Qin Xiqing said.

"Oh, that's unacceptable, don't dare." Fang Zi'an was startled and waved his hand again and again.

"I said let, then let's make, son, please take a seat." Qin Xiqing said in a deep voice.

Fang Zi'an didn't know what Qin Xiqing was going to do, but he felt that Qin Xiqing was a little strange today. But she is preparing a banquet and singing for herself, which is really kind and courteous. Although he felt strange, he thought that Qin Xiqing would not be unfavorable to him, so he nodded and smiled: "Since Miss Qin is kind, Zi'an is also embarrassed." It is better to be respectful than to obey fate. ”

With that, he strode over to the table, lifted the wine jar and poured himself a large glass of wine. But when he saw that the wine was yellow, orange and orange, clear and translucent, like amber, and had a fragrant aroma, he knew that it was an excellent wine. When I took a sip of the bowl, I felt a clear aroma go straight into my mouthpiece, and I couldn't help but praise: "Good wine." What kind of wine is this? ”