Just after the Spring Festival, Shen Xi's good days have finally come to an end, and he has to devote himself to the intense preparation for the county exam to be held in February.

Although in terms of learning, Shen Xi asked himself that there would be no big problem in this county exam, but he was afraid of encountering any accidents.

is like Zhou Jin in "The History of Confucianism", who has good knowledge but has never been admitted to Xiucai in his life, but relies on the identity of a donated prisoner to be promoted first and then to be a jinshi.

The situation that "good examination papers are difficult to enter the eyes of the examiners" is a common situation in the imperial examination.

Therefore, Shen Xi's preparation for the exam this time should not only start from the knowledge itself, but also figure out the preferences of the examiner. Shen Xi has some understanding of Ye Mingsu in Ninghua Zhixian County, and knows that this person likes novelties, so he may be able to make a fuss about it.

On the third day of the Lunar New Year, Feng Huaqi's cram school officially opened, and Shen Xi, as one of the three students, was taught along with Mining and Xu Shan.

Because Shen Xi did not have much contact with trial poems, poems, fu, strategies, treatises, sexual theories, and oracles, he needed to be specially taught by Feng Yuqi, but judging from Shen Xi's learning progress, he did not lag behind in these aspects.

Feng Yanqi's requirement for the three students is to at least pass the first county exam.

The county examination is based on the chief examiner, that is, the local magistrate of the county, to determine whether there are four or five examinations, and each examination is basically based on four books and texts, mixed with five scriptures, strategies, and theories. In the Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty, the examination of students does not test poetry, but poetry will be mixed with examination in the county examination, including arithmetic, etc., which will be used as an assessment of students' comprehensive ability.

As long as you pass the first test of the county examination, you are eligible for the government examination. In the next few sessions, candidates who have passed the test can choose to take the test or not.

The government examination of that year will be held in April.

According to Feng Yanqi's meaning, if the three of them pass the county test, they can try this year's government test, but there are few opportunities to pass the government test, and Feng Yanqi does not have much hope for this.

As for the final level of the children's exam, Feng Yanqi didn't touch it at all.

It can be said that in the third-order examination of students. The county exam is the easiest and relatively simple, and the requirement for students is simply to make the essay unbiased and the sentences fluent. Proper quotations from the scriptures are sufficient.

Because the county examination is the first of the children's examination, the students who take the initial examination are easy to have stage fright, and the knowledge they originally have may not be able to play on the spot.

Feng Huaqi has made great achievements in education, and after teaching the three of them the basic knowledge and test-taking experience, he began to simulate the environment of the county examination field. A "mock test" was conducted on the three of them.

After several exams in a row, Feng Yanqi was very satisfied with the current level of the three of them. Especially Shen Xi, it seems that he was born to do eight-strand essays, breaking the topic accurately, outlining the lead, undertaking the topic clearly, satisfying, starting to speak, starting to compare, middle ratio, back ratio, bundle strands are flat and stable, plus the handwriting is clear and neat, which makes people impressed at a glance, unforgettable for a long time, and it is difficult to think of high scores.

Feng Huaqi began to teach trial poems.

The Ming Dynasty itself did not directly assess poetry. As a student's specialty test assessment, the test poem belongs to the "specialty plus points". The test post poem has five words and eight rhymes, and its assessment content mainly comes from historical allusions, requiring that the scriptures cited must have a source, and cannot be made up blindly.

This is not only an assessment of students' poetry, but also an examination of students' historical knowledge, if students can't, they can skip it, and the results of their own poems will not be recorded in the total score of the county examination.

Feng Huaqi is not very good at arithmetic and piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, and the only thing he can do is the trial poem. He had particularly high requirements for the three of them in the trial poems.

Mining and Xu Shan's trial poems, although they are still popular rhymes, read more like limericks, a little too vulgar. There is not much literary literacy. Shen Xi's poems are too "obscure", and Feng Huaqi's guidance to Shen Xi is very simple, that is, let Shen Xi try to make the poems plain and easy to understand, and not deliberately compose poems for the sake of composing poems.

The tutoring lasted until the sixteenth day of the first month, and Shen Xi thought that he could breathe a sigh of relief, but in fact, there were more things waiting for him.

To prepare for the exam. Shen Xi wanted to rush back to Ninghua County in advance at the end of the first month, and Hui Niang contacted the Chamber of Commerce to find Shen Xi as a guarantor.

After arriving at Ninghua, Shen Xi did not have a professor, and everything had to be self-taught. Therefore, before the end of the first month, Hui Niang specially entrusted Feng Huaqi to conduct pre-exam counseling for Shen Xi alone, and even when Shen Xi came home from school, Feng Huaqi would teach Shen Xi alone for another hour, and even stayed up late in the middle of the night to endorse.

Shen Xi's psychology has long passed the student period, and after studying in the past few years, he is used to perfunctory, and he has never worked so hard in his studies.

Finally staying up to the end of the month, Shen Xi is about to leave for Ninghua to prepare for the exam.

……

……

Zhou is six months pregnant, and it is not very convenient to move, with her current situation, it is best to have her husband by her side, but she is worried that no one will take care of Shen Xi after he arrives in Ninghua, so she can only endure the pain of loneliness and loneliness, and let her husband accompany Shen Xi back to Ninghua to participate in the county examination.

Before parting, the Zhou family prepared a lot of things for Shen Xi, a lot of big burdens and small burdens.

Earlier, the family received a letter from Ninghua, saying that Shen Mingwen's eldest son and the eldest son of the Shen family, Shen Yongzhuo, would also participate in this county exam.

As the grandson of the head of the Shen family, Shen Yongzhuo is eighteen years old this year, and the family has been preparing for Shen Yongzhuo's marriage in the first two years, and there is a big family surnamed Lu in Ninghua County, who intends to marry his daughter to Shen Yongzhuo, who is polite and talented.

But there is a requirement from the Lu family, even if Shen Yongzhuo can't be a young talent, he must at least pass the county test.

Shen Yongzhuo and Shen Xi's classmate Xu Shan's situation is somewhat similar, they both have to prepare for marriage after this county test, but Xu Shan himself is the young owner of the coffin shop, and his family is well-off, even if he fails in the county test, people can marry a wife and enter the door. And if Shen Yongzhuo can't pass the county test this time, the marriage prepared for him by the family will be tantamount to a soup, and he will never have the opportunity to marry Miss Lu again.

There are a total of four scholars in the Shen family, and Shen Mingwen is still entangled with the Li family about whether the second brother was murdered by him, and now he is locked in a room adjacent to the firewood house in the backyard by the Li family to study, the door is locked from the outside, and he can only stare at the window in a daze every day. As for Liulang Shen Yuan, although he is also quick-witted, he is not yet eleven years old, and now that he has not finished studying the "Four Books", Su Yunzhong does not plan for Shen Yuan to participate in the imperial examination.

On the twenty-eighth day of the first lunar month, it was the last day before Shen Xi's departure, and Zhou specially took a day off with Shen Xi to let him have a good rest.

In fact, this is mainly due to Hui Niang's special invitation, because there are some places in the silver ticket printing technology that she has not fully mastered. During the period when Shen Xi left Tingzhou Mansion, the issuance of silver tickets could not be stopped, and she needed to ask Shen Xi about what she didn't understand.

In addition, Hui Niang also had business matters to discuss with Shen Xi.

Shen Xi has been getting up early and studying late this month. I didn't even have any leisure time, and I lost a lot of weight.

Discussing business matters with Hui Niang, Shen Xi looked a little listless. Although he is a ten-year-old with a small body, his mental age has long passed the age of standing, and he is not yet fully adapted to this kind of busy study life every day. Originally, he didn't have to be so tired, after all, knowledge was ready-made, and he didn't need to instill anything into it, but the expectations of the two families and Mr. Feng Yanqi were too great for him, so he couldn't have a moment of slackness.

“…… Xiaolang, don't blame us elders for being harsh on you, we really have expectations for you, whether it is farming or business, we are all people at the bottom of society. If you don't study hard, you won't be able to excel in the future. ”

Hui Niang saw Shen Xi's hard work, and took advantage of the fact that she had finished discussing the matter of the Chamber of Commerce with Shen Xi and explained to Shen Xi.

Shen Xi smiled reluctantly: "Auntie, I can understand all this, it's just a bitter cry, and I have a sense of proportion." ”

"I know that you stinky boy is a big ghost, and you know how to hurt people, and when you leave tomorrow, you won't see you for more than a month. My aunt was in a panic. Xiaolang, you have good painting skills, just draw a portrait of yourself and send it to your aunt, so that your aunt will think about you when she misses you. Take it out and take a look. ”

Hui Niang looked at Shen Xi with expectant eyes, which made Shen Xi suddenly feel an invisible pressure.

Could it be that Hui Niang really has a crush on me? No, no, she just treats me as a little nephew, or as a future son-in-law......

Shen Xi thought wildly, and seemed to be distracted.

"What's the matter, Xiaolang. Do you feel embarrassed? Hui Niang looked at Shen Xi in surprise.

"No, it's just ...... I don't have a reference, how can I draw it? ”

Shen Xi didn't want to keep the appearance of his childhood, because at this time, he was just a little kid, and he couldn't be called handsome. What he wants Hui Niang to remember is his handsome and chic appearance when he grows up, not this baby face.

Hui Niang smiled: "Isn't there a bronze mirror over there?" It doesn't matter if you don't draw well, as long as it's you, it has your general appearance...... My aunt feels a little old, and I'm afraid that my memory is not good, and I won't remember what you look like over time. ”

"Auntie, are you very old?"

Shen Xi was a little speechless. Although the age of the woman is a secret, Shen Xi has already inquired, Hui Niang is only twenty-four or five years old now, which is the age of her prime, even if she often walks around, her skin and appearance are well maintained. It's just that perhaps because of the lack of men's moisture, she rarely sees a smile on her face, and she doesn't have the seductive charm unique to mature women.

Hui Niang smiled, didn't speak again, moved the bronze mirror to Shen Xi, let Shen Xi sit on the chair, and drew his appearance in front of the bronze mirror.

Shen Xi looked at the face in the mirror, and only hated that the years passed too slowly.

"Auntie, it's not enough to just have a brush, I want to paint, I need to use charcoal, I have to go back and get it." Shen Xi had an idea.

"Then you go and come back quickly."

Hui Niang didn't doubt him and sent Shen Xi out.

After Shen Xi went back, he didn't take the pen and go back immediately, but painted on the spot.

He did draw his own appearance without having to look in the mirror, because it was clearly imprinted in his mind...... That was his appearance in his previous life, a young boy, dressed in ancient costumes, holding a folding fan in his hand, standing in a green shirt, and being handsome and extraordinary.

Shen Xi drew very quickly, and after finishing it, he didn't have too much retouching, and immediately took the painting to show Hui Niang.

Hui Niang took the painting drawn by Shen Xi and smiled dumbly: "Xiaolang, are you painting yourself?" ”

"yes."

Shen Xi smiled, "Don't you think that the painting of me is very similar to me now?" When I grow up, I should look like this...... Auntie, you should remember the portrait of me when I was most handsome, not the current me. ”

Hui Niang smiled bitterly, but still put the painting away carefully, and scolded in a coquettish voice: "Stinky boy." ”

That soft call, with a coquettish feeling that was both angry and ashamed, made Shen Xi's bones almost crispy when he heard it.

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PS: The seventh update! This is an additional update for a monthly pass of 600 votes or more!

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