Early the next morning, Xu Daosheng wrote two letters and asked the palace guards to deliver messages to two places in the city. An hour later, the messenger took two people to wait outside the palace, and asked the door to enter as soon as possible to report.

"Brother Fan, Brother Ou, you are here, and you will not be welcomed." After Xu Daosheng got the reward, he hurried out.

The three of them exchanged a few words outside the palace gate, and Xu Daosheng invited the two of them to enter the mansion with him and go to the small study where Wan Yankang was.

Wan Yankang stood at the door of the study, bowing slightly with a smile: "These are the two great talents that the teacher said!" ”

One of them hurriedly bowed in return: "Don't dare, don't dare." ”

The other person bowed slightly and replied: "I have won the prize." ”

It's just that when this person said "I have won awards", his tone was very indifferent, but it revealed a little bit of "I am a great talent".

After Yan Kang invited the two into the study first, sat down separately, and after Qiu Xiang and Dong Xue came in with tea and some snacks, Xu Daosheng began to introduce the two of them.

"His Royal Highness, this brother's name is Fan Junping, Brother Fan is outstanding in learning, and his demeanor is even more outstanding, and he is given a nickname, Xiao Zhoulang." The person Xu Daosheng introduced first was the one who replied "Won the prize", and sat on the left hand side of Wan Yankang.

Wan Yankang looked slightly, and saw that this person was wearing a white brocade robe, quite tall, with a handsome face, a long hair naturally hanging over his shoulders, and a feather fan in his hand swaying, but there was a bit of Zhou Lang's taste that was handsome in the south of the Yangtze River.

Wan Yankang stood up, arched his hand, and said with a smile: "It turned out to be Xiao Zhoulang, fortunately, fortunately." ”

Although Fan Junping was a little arrogant, he didn't dare to be too big in front of the prince of Zhao, so he quickly got up and saluted back: "Don't be like this, Fan's nickname is just a joke, it can't be taken seriously, it can't be taken seriously." ”

Wan Yankang nodded slightly, and while sitting down, he stretched out his hand to signal Fan Junping to take a seat.

Xu Daosheng then introduced the one on the right: "His Royal Highness, this brother's name is Ou Hua, Brother Ou and I are classmates, and his academic foundation is extremely solid. ”

Ou Hua hurriedly stood up and saluted Wan Yan Kang first: "Your Royal Highness, don't listen to Brother Xu's boasting, Ou is mediocre in learning, how can he catch up with Brother Xu." ”

Wan Yankang also stood up and arched his hand: "Mr. Ou, modesty is a virtue, and excessive modesty is pride." ”

Ouhua didn't understand this sentence for a while, stretched out his hand on his head and spared, only then did he understand, and then he said to Wan Yankang: "Don't dare, don't dare." ”

Wan Yankang saw that Ouhua was dressed plainly, and there were a few patches on his clothes, obviously from a mediocre family. He was of medium stature, with a square countenance, and a clear eye, and at a glance he knew that he was not a wicked man. It's just that the amount of hair on the head is too small, and I don't know if it's because I spare too much hair every day, so I cut it off.

After Yan Kang and Ouhua finished greeting, he sat back in his position and motioned for Ouhua to sit down as well.

After the four of them sat down, they drank tea for a while, ate a few snacks each, and after finishing Yan Kang, they began to compare their talents.

Over the past year or so, Wan Yankang has not only finished studying the Mongolian Books, but has also studied all four books. He had a wild imagination in his mind, and he asked wherever he wanted, and the angle of the question was quite tricky.

Fan Junping and Ou Hua were invited to the palace by Xu Daosheng, thinking that it was invited by King Zhao, but when they learned that this son who was only six or seven years old wanted to test himself, he didn't think so.

As a result, after Yan Kang's questions, the two became more and more surprised, and several questions needed to rack their brains to answer each other.

Ouhua was originally a simple person, and after being slightly surprised, it was just that.

Fan Junping was originally an arrogant person, and he didn't look much at His Royal Highness the prince in his heart, and after four or five questions, he was a little arrogant in his heart, and he had already been thrown out of the clouds.

After Yan Kang asked ten questions, he wanted to continue to ask, but when he saw that both of them were sweating a little on their foreheads, he stopped the idea of continuing to ask, and said with a smile: "The two gentlemen, they are really talented!" ”

Fan Junping and Ou Hua got up at the same time and bowed to Wan Yankang: "Don't dare to be, don't dare to be, under His Royal Highness the Prince is a genius of the heavens." ”

After a Q&A just now, Wan Yankang is only the one who asks the question, but at the age of a child, he can ask "Spring and Autumn have clouds: it is the saint who is good for the sound and taste, and if it is good for sex, it is taken for it, and if it is harmful to sex, it is given up, and this is the way of all nature." So, how do you discern the stakes? This kind of question shows that his insight is extraordinary.

In the face of Yan Kang's difficult and even some out-of-the-box questions, Fan Junping and Ou Hua can also answer them, and they have different ideas, which shows that the two are not the kind of rotten Confucians who can only study to death, and they are really talented in their stomachs.

After the exam, the guests and hosts were happy, and a few people continued to drink tea and eat snacks, and began to chat.

During the chat, Wan Yankang quipped: "Mr. Fan, you are known as Xiao Zhoulang, does the lady in the family have a nickname, called Xiao Xiao Qiao?" ”

As soon as these words came out, Xu Daosheng and Ouhua both laughed, and Fan Junping showed a little embarrassment, and he couldn't speak.

Wan Yankang's mouth showed a wonderful smile: "Could it be that with a character like Mr. Fan, Mrs. is not a Hedong lion?" ”

Fan Junping was embarrassed, the feather fan in his hand stopped, and after a pause, he replied in a low voice: "His Royal Highness, Fan is virtuous and virtuous, but it's just ...... It's just that he was born in a family of merchants. ”

Wan Yankang saw that when Fan Junping talked about his wife's background, his expression and tone were a little unnatural, obviously a little inferior. He was about to ask, but suddenly realized that in this era, no matter how rich a businessman is, he is still at the bottom of his social status.

During the Shang Dynasty, there was a group of people who specialized in buying and selling. After the Zhou Dynasty destroyed the Shang Dynasty, the remnants of the Shang Dynasty were allowed to continue to do business, and they called them merchants, and kept close surveillance of the merchants. It can be seen that from the position of the group of businessmen, their status is inferior.

During the Shang Dynasty, the Qin State further cracked down on commerce in order to improve the status of agriculture. Later dynasties followed the policy of emphasizing agriculture over commerce, and divided the common people into four categories: "scholars, farmers, industrialists, and merchants". Scholars are "scholars", those who dream of being in politics, and they are the first; Merchants are merchants, from small street vendors, to inn pawnshop owners, to wealthy merchants.

In this era, even if a businessman is successful, his social status is extremely low. Those wealthy merchant families who claim to be rich and rival the country must rely on the powerful to gain a foothold, otherwise they will be in danger of destroying their families at any time.

Merchants are not allowed to be officials, merchants are not allowed to wear silk, and there are many restrictions on merchants, and merchants are not as good as farmers, not as good as craftsmen, and even worse than sons-in-law!

For scholars, no matter how poor their families are, they can still be proud in front of wealthy businessmen.

With Fan Junping's talent and appearance, it is unthinkable that he actually married the daughter of a businessman.

Wanyan Kang paused and raised his head slightly: "There must be a story in it, Mr. Fan is willing to tell it?" ”

Fan Junping hesitated for a moment, put down the feather fan in his hand, and began to tell the story of his husband and wife meeting and falling in love.

Fan Junping is a person from Hejian Province, although his family is not wealthy, he has 100 acres of fertile land, which is enough to cultivate and read heirlooms. Unfortunately, his father contracted a serious disease more than ten years ago, and in order to find a good doctor, his family's acres of land were almost sold out, but it was still useless.

In the end, Fan's father did not want to drag down his family and chose to commit suicide by hunger strike.

Fan Junping was only fifteen years old at the time, and he was a famous prodigy in the county, so he no longer had the money to study, so he had to take off his robe and go down to work in the fields.

Pity him as a Confucian student, he can't pick his shoulders and can't resist his back, and he can't stand it after a few days of hard work, but he has a serious illness.

If it weren't for Yang Huijin, the daughter of a wealthy family in the township, who sent medicine and rice many times, I am afraid that Fan Junping would not be able to survive this hurdle.

After the crisis, Fan Junping and the daughter of the Yang family made a vow that they would not marry her.

The Yang family sells rice as a business, and its status among merchants is quite high, if the Fan family is not down, the two families can be regarded as a door-to-door match, and the Yang family will be proud of it. However, as soon as Fan's father left, the Yang family thought that Fan Junping's family was poor, and they didn't want to marry their daughter to suffer, but instead found a matchmaker to go around.

The daughter of the Yang family has a strong temperament, and openly declares that Fan Junping will not marry, if the family allows her to others, she will cut her hair and go to the nun, for which she has already thought of the legal name, and she has no regrets.

Yang's father couldn't force his daughter to marry someone else for a while, so he had to trap his daughter at home and try to persuade him slowly. He also did not allow Fan Junping to enter the house, thinking that he would stop this person's thoughts.

Two years later, Fan Junping took the first place in the Zhongxiang exam, and came to the door of the Yang Mansion in red and asked to marry the daughter of the Yang family.

At this time, where would Father Yang stop again, and immediately gladly responded.

On the contrary, after Fan Junping's classmates heard about this, they rushed to Fan's house one after another, and persuaded him not to marry the daughter of a businessman, so as not to ruin his future.

Fan Junping had a stubborn temperament and vowed not to marry Yang Hui, and in the end, the two achieved good deeds, and this matter was widely discussed in Hejian Mansion.

But as Fan Junping said, after marrying the daughter of the Yang family, he was going to continue to participate in the examination, but he was forcibly deprived of the examination qualification by the examiner of Hejian Mansion on the grounds that he was the son-in-law of a businessman!

The Yang family did everything they could in Hejian Mansion, but it still didn't help. For this reason, Yang Huijin even took the initiative to divorce from Fan Junping.

Hearing this, Wan Yankang asked thoughtfully: "Mr. Fan, since your lady has a heart of separation, why don't you take advantage of the situation?" ”

Fan Junping stood up suddenly: "If it weren't for my lady, I, Fan Junping, would already be a pile of dry bones." His Royal Highness, Fan was a little unwell, so he said goodbye first! He moved from Hejian Mansion to Zhongdu because he wanted to get acquainted with powerful people in Beijing, and take advantage of the opportunity to participate in scientific expeditions and continue his career. But for Fan Junping, having a wife in the family is better than any future status.

Wan Yankang saw that Fan Junping was angry, but laughed loudly, and clapped his hands again and again: "Mr. Fan is really a person who values love and righteousness, if you abandon your wife for the sake of seeking office, you will never be able to enter the gate of my palace again!" ”

Fan Junping came to his senses, and it turned out that His Royal Highness the Prince of the World was testing him with words. He looked at Xu Daosheng's smiling appearance, and Ou Hua who was sitting still on the side, and didn't realize that his face was red: "Fan's qi cultivation kung fu is too bad, which makes the prince laugh." ”

Wan Yankang waved his hand: "Only a great hero can be his true colors, he is a real celebrity and a gentleman, Mr. Fan has a good temperament, I like it very much, what is the joke." ”

After asking about Fan Junping's background, Wan Yankang talked with Ouhua again.

Ouhua is a person from Zhongdu, and his talent is among his peers, and he is also outstanding. There is only one point, in addition to dancing and making ink, he likes to tinker with some mechanical equipment, which is a bit of a disciple of the Mo family. Therefore, after the middle lift, it was difficult for him to make progress in the scientific examination.

Xu Daosheng interjected: "With the talent of Brother Ou, if you can abandon the words of the Mo family, even if you don't win the top prize, you will definitely enter the top list." ”

Ouhua smiled slightly: "With Brother Xu's talent, if you divorce your wife and remarry, you will definitely be able to win the champion!" ”

After Yan Kang heard it, these words were very informative, and he couldn't help but look at Xu Daosheng, wanting to hear Xu Daosheng tell a story.

Xu Daosheng's eyes widened: "It's not too early, we should go to the base." ”

Wan Yankang laughed: "Yes, too, please go with the two gentlemen!" ”