Shen Mansion, Peony Pavilion.

In the evening, Shen Peiwen was busy sorting out the books and preparing to teach, and Shen Peiwei on the other side also held the books in her hands and asked, "Five or six-year-old children, they have been taught by their mothers and relatives, what should we teach?"

Shen Peiwen raised his head and said, "Skip the four books and teach the Five Classics."

"Which sutra should you recite?"

"The I Ching is profound, I'm afraid they won't understand it, and the book is not good, it is the emperor's ruling law, and it has nothing to do with girls."

"The three legends of the Spring and Autumn Period, which specifically talked about the alliance killing, have nothing to do with it."

"Naturally, it's a Book of Poetry." Shen Peiwen said with a smile, "But Zheng and Wei are not easy to talk about, so let's slowly explain patiently from the preface." In fact, the articles on the Book of Rites are the best, and the articles on the Qu Rites are especially suitable. ”

"It's up to my sister." Shen Peiwei also smiled, and suddenly asked: "I used to hear that the fifth brother's qualifications were not good, and he was the least successful among the brothers, but these days, I found that in comparison, I feel that his qualifications are actually natural, and his speech and opinions are all different, and he is not like he was taught by our family, and he is not vulgar." Eldest sister, you taught him by hand, what the hell is going on?"

Shen Peiwen stopped the movements in her hand, she really doubted that the recent Shen Kan was a little different from before, but she gave an explanation to the elder in her heart, and said slowly: "Actually, you misunderstood him, I remember when I was a child, I studied with my brothers, and my grandfather was strict, and ordered them to memorize forty or fifty pages every day, and they had to explain it." The eldest brother and the third brother are smart, and they only need to read it all over and over again, and they can almost memorize it, and the explanation is smooth. And the fourth brother can read it by eye, but he is still young and doesn't understand it, but the fifth brother is the youngest, and his temperament is the most quirky, I know that he can recite his own book three times, but he stumbled in the exam, and no one in the family probably knows that his qualifications may not be under the fourth brother except me. ”

"Why is that?" Shen Peiwei looked surprised.

"Ugh." Shen Peiwen sighed, "Naturally, because he is far away from his parents, the other brothers are all favored by their parents and sisters, but he is alone and not valued by his grandfather." ”

"No wonder, the fifth brother is so pitiful." Shen Peiwei sighed, and at the same time, the heart of the Holy Mother overflowed, full of pity for Shen Kan.

Shen Peiwen recalled: "Every time he memorized it, he would sit and listen to the other brothers read, and when others could memorize it, he would also memorize it, but he wouldn't say it, it looked wooden." Later, the brothers are familiar with the four books and five classics, and when they are ** years old, they can read and interpret the new books by themselves, and the private school at home is dispersed, and everyone is vying to take the children's exam, but he likes to follow the fourth uncle day and night outside, and I still don't understand why he wants to be like this, why not compete in front of the old man. ”

"This is the hermit of the ancients, I would rather have Quanlin for the rest of my life than set foot in the turbid officialdom." Shen Peiwei sighed, and glanced at Shen Kan in her heart.

It's not that Shen Peiwei speculated wildly, the gentry since the Song Dynasty were undoubtedly a very special class in ancient times. The gentry are generally divided into two classes: one is the young people, that is, the students and talents who have studied well, and they are the lower classes of the gentry.

The second is the gentry, some of the gentry, the jinshi, and those officials who have returned to their hometowns, etc., are the upper echelons of the gentry.

Most of the gentry began to study at the age of two or three, and after ten years of cold windows, they had to spend all their energy on the imperial examination in the first half of their lives, and when they had fame, Baguwen would be shelved.

In the Ming Dynasty, there were many people who were worried about the country and the people, and they worked hard for the country and the nation all their lives, and the people of the court were conscientious, but relatively speaking, there were more gentry who had no ambitions.

With fame, there are many people who don't want to be officials, stay in their hometown and be respected, don't pay money and food, most of them are full of food and have nothing to do all day long, and blindly deliberately seek a comfortable spring forest life, such as taking concubines, repairing gardens, or paying attention to the appetite of not getting tired of eating, or servants like clouds, and then summoning prostitutes to play in the mountains and rivers, raising small singers; The elegant ones are elegant, playing antiques, writing articles, engraving, liking games, group writing meetings, and studying the rhythm of music.

Of course, it cannot be denied that the life interests of these gentry deeply influenced the literature, painting, epigraphy, opera and other categories at that time, and left many classics that have been passed down to future generations.

At this time, Shen Peiwen said leisurely: "I know that he is working very hard behind his back. With the fourth uncle outside, I got hundreds of ancient fu and Shi Fu, and I saw three more every night, and I read thousands of poems from all dynasties from the Wei and Jin dynasties to the next, and I was proficient in the son, and the poems and songs were also good. I probably guessed his thoughts, but he didn't want to go to Beijing to take the exam, because he had always resented the fourth uncle and four aunts in his heart and didn't want to meet his parents. ”

"It's childish." Shen Peiwei was angry and pitiful, "Suzhou is far away from the capital, and the fourth uncle is a Beijing official, unless his grandfather and grandmother have a good job, how can he easily return to his hometown?"

"Who says it's not, I persuaded him countless times when he was a child, but he has such a strong temper." Shen Peiwen smiled bitterly, "Later, when he got older, I was addicted to poetry again in those years, and I gradually didn't bother to persuade him, and it was all my bad to talk about it." ”

Shen Peiwei sighed: "It's a pity that he is not ordinary."

At the same time, 'Vulgar' was reading books related to feng shui in the house, but he didn't expect that Shen Kan's childhood helped him not to be suspected by his family.

In fact, when he was a child, Shen Kan's excellent qualifications, how could the Shen family not look at it?

As the so-called master leads the door to practice in the individual, no matter how good the qualifications are, if the kung fu is not used in the imperial examination or literature, it is useless for the Shen family, and the elders can only play the role of supervision, and it is the individual who does not work hard, so Shen Kan went astray after the age of ten, and the family gave up on him.

Of course, there are also reasons why Shen Kan does not show himself, after all, being smart when he was a child does not mean that he is smart when he grows up. I want to be amazing when I was young, but there are too many people who are mediocre when I grow up.

"Old Five."

"Ahh

Shen Kan looked up suddenly, and saw Shen Shi walking in with a black face, sitting on the chair opposite, and said, "It's over, the east window incident happened."

"Who's telling the truth?" Shen Kan realized that something was wrong, and hurriedly explained: "It's no wonder to me, your matter was known to outsiders, and somehow it reached Yuqin's ears, Yuqin asked me, but I didn't expect that the wall had ears."

"Alright, I don't blame you." Shen Shi glanced at him, picked up the teapot, poured himself a cup, drank it dry, threw down the cup and stood up, "I didn't know that I could hide this matter." Go, follow me to my wife, and if it is not appropriate, you will remember to say good things for me and ask for mercy. ”

"Okay." Shen Kan quickly stood up.

Along the way, he didn't ask who said it, it was nothing more than the eldest sister and the fourth aunt.

In fact, he underestimated Shen Shi, and the reason why he dared to call him over that day was that he didn't plan to hide it for a long time.

Shen Shi, as the eldest grandson of the long house, has been smart since he was a child, and has won the favor of his grandfather, grandmother and parents, and has high hopes for the whole family.

How could he not know the dangers of secretly taking concubines? But he still chose to go his own way.

Anyway, sooner or later, he will be exposed, he just wants to use the mouths of Shen Kan and others to let his mother have a psychological preparation in advance, since the wood is already in the boat, it is nothing more than being scolded, and then the mother can not help her son? Just admit your mistake and it's over.

Tonight, the eldest lady Zhou sent someone to ask him to go back, and he wanted to take the opportunity to tell the story of Jinfeng once and for all.

Where did Shen Kan think that Shen Shi would have such a temperament? If you know that this grandson of the Shen family has the temper of the rich second generation throughout the ages, there is no need to take such painstaking measures.

When the two came to the door of the main house, Shen Shi was weak in the end, and first stretched out his head to look into the house.

It happened that Zhou was reclining on the soft couch in the room, holding a book and looking at it to relieve boredom, and at a glance he saw his son under the lantern outside, and shouted: "What are you doing sneakily?" Get me in. ”

"Didn't you come here to greet your mother, I'm afraid that you will fall asleep, so I don't dare to come in directly." Shen Shi subconsciously shrunk his neck.

Zhou sneered: "I'm so angry with you that I'm going to die, can I still sleep?"

"Look at what you said, how dare your son be angry with you?" Shen Shi turned around and glanced at Shen Kan, and then walked in with a smile.

"Don't you dare to be angry with me?" Zhou sneered, "Let me ask you, where did you send a sum of money and dare to ask your mother-in-law outside without permission?" Young Master Shen, you just come back, just set up your own door outside, I will not have you as a son. ”

"How can there be such a thing, mother, whose rumors did your old man hear?" Shen Shi said with a smile.

Shen Kan outside saw Zhou lifting the golden gourd in the big porcelain basin, seeing that the posture was going to be real, and he was hesitating whether to rush in now, but who knew that the golden gourd was just raised in the air.

"Brute, if you dare to speak again, see if I don't smash your dog's head!"