The weather is indeed abnormal, at the beginning of November last year, it began to snowfall one after another, Xie Yan's orange trees froze to death tens of thousands, the old farmers in Shanyin said that they had not encountered such a big snow for decades, and after the New Year's Lantern Festival, the weather gradually became warmer, and at the end of the month, it was said that the sun was shining, walking in the sun, wearing only a jacket and feeling hot, it was simply summer after winter, and spring was gone - Zhang Yuan took Wuling to Shang's mansion, both of them had a slight sweat on their foreheads, and when they saw their brother-in-law Shang Zhoude, Zhang Yuan submitted Dong Qichang's letter, Shang Zhoude opened the letter and sneered: "Sure enough, there is a father and a son, this Dong Qichang is nominally apologizing, but it is as insincere as his son's apology, and what is his son's waist and hips are blue, and the doctor asks for medicine, is this an apology or a crime?" ”

Zhang Yuan said: "Second brother doesn't have to be angry, he will kill himself if he commits too much injustice, Dong Qichang will be retributed sooner or later if he protects his shortcomings like this." ”

Shang Zhoude threw the letter aside, asked about Zhang Yuanxian's exam preparation, and learned that Fang Cai had already registered, nodded and said: "With your craftsmanship, there is no problem for Tongsheng to try Lianjie." Asked, "Do you want to see Ran?" ”

Zhang Yuanxin said: "This still needs to be said. He smiled and said, "I hope that the second brother will be gracious." ”

Shang Zhoude said with a smile: "Go ahead, eat here at noon." ”

When Zhang Yuan saw Shang Qianran, Shang Xiangran was copying Song Huizong's "Lychee Picture", and when he saw the original "Lychee Picture", Zhang Yuan felt that the previous third brother Zhang Cao tore off Dong Qichang's painting was nothing.

No one reported it, Zhang Yuan broke in, Shang Ran was concentrating on painting, and didn't pay attention for a while, and when she saw someone approaching, she also ordered: "Take a hand towel." When painting, his fingers were accidentally stained with vermilion, and when he put down the brush and took the hand towel to wipe it, he found that it was Zhang Yuan who handed the hand towel.

Zhang Yuan gave a salute at this time, and Shang Tanran hurriedly returned the salute and asked shyly, "Why are you here?" ”

Zhang Yuan said that Dong Qichang sent a letter, and said that he had just gone to the school bureau to register, Shang Ran lowered his eyebrows and said, "Well, I wish you a smooth scientific examination." ”

Zhang Yuan looked at her shyness, and suddenly wanted to ask if he couldn't pass the Xiucai exam and was just a child of Dongzhang Hanmen, would Shang Tanran marry him?

Shang Ran raised his eyelashes, his eyes turned on Zhang Yuan's face, and he asked softly, "You, what do you want to say?" ”

Zhang Yuan smiled: "It's nothing, I forget everything when I see you." The heart said: "There is no point in asking those words, love and marriage are conditional, and it can only be promoted by a combination of various factors, you can't strip off those additional factors one by one, saying that I can't get into the show, I'm poor, I'm deaf and blind, and you still don't marry me, this is a meaningless stupid thing." ”

Shang Ran's pretty face was flushed, and he didn't dare to raise his eyes to look at Zhang Yuan, as if he was very uncomfortable.

Zhang Yuan said: "Then I'll go back." ”

"Ahh Shang Ran raised his head, both surprised and disappointed.

Zhang Yuan smiled: "I mean, I'll go back after eating here." ”

Shang Tanran's face turned red again, Bei Yan bit his red lips lightly, and glanced at Zhang Yuan with disgust, but the joy in his heart couldn't be hidden.

Seeing Shang Ran's delicate appearance, Zhang Yuan couldn't help but think of the beauty of the candles in the cave room one day, no way, he could actually be calmer, but his body was too young, and he was always eager to try - the two maids refused to leave, Zhang Yuan could only say: "I will learn to paint from you in the future." ”

Shang Ran responded: "Okay." ”

Zhang Yuan said: "You can read to me at night in the future." ”

Shang Ran's face did not recede, and he responded in a very soft voice: "Okay." ”

At this time, Xiao Jinghui came, and when he saw Zhang Yuan, Xiao Jinghui said "ha": "I don't know if Zhang Gongzi is here, whether it has been a long time, I haven't heard a lot of words." "It's a super light bulb.

Zhang Yuan asked her: "The weather is warm early, and the peach trees by the Dongda Pond are blooming, let's go and have a look?" ”

Zhang Yuan, Shang Tanran, and Shang Jinghui went out of the back garden and came to the Dongda Pond accompanied by several maidservants, and saw that the peach trees on the west bank were really bright and scorching, and the river was red.

Zhang Yuan asked when Jinglan and Jinghui sisters would go to the capital, and Shang Ran said: "It should be next month, wait for the eldest brother to send someone to pick it up." ”

Xiao Jinghui looked at her little aunt, then at Zhang Yuan, and said, "I suddenly don't want to go to the capital again." ”

Shang Ran stretched out a finger that was as white and tender as a green onion, brushed his niece's eyebrows and bangs, and asked, "Why, didn't you say that you really want to take a car or a boat to the capital?" ”

Xiao Jinghui said: "My sister and I went to the capital, wouldn't it be lonely to leave my aunt and Zhang Gongzi's brother here?" ”

Zhang Yuan and Shang Tanran glanced at each other, their eyes were smiling, and then both of them nodded solemnly and said, "Xiao Hui is right." ”

Unexpectedly, Xiao Jinghui's bright eyes blinked a few times, and said, "But I still have to go to the capital, far away from you, so that you will all miss me, right?" ”

…… On the eighth day of February, Shanyin County tried to open the exam, Zhang Yuanmao got up at the beginning of the day, bathed and changed clothes, a refreshing body to go to the exam, Wuling carried a long-eared bamboo basket to follow, the long-eared bamboo basket has a pen, ink, paper, inkstone, a porcelain bottle of water and a few pieces of crispy honey cake, the county test only one day, make two articles of eight shares, after the entrance of the Mao, the door of the examination shed is closed and is not allowed to enter and exit, until the end of the afternoon will open the door once to let the Confucian children who have finished the examination appear, this is called putting the first card, and then to close the door, put two cards in the twilight, when it is dark, it is necessary to forcibly collect the roll and drive people out, Therefore, even if Zhang Yuan finished the two articles and eight shares early, he would not be able to come out until the end of the day, and he must bring some food to satisfy his hunger - he would go out at dawn, and first go to the West Zhang Zhuangyuandi, and call the eldest brother Zhang Dai, Zhang Dai is his Bao, and he must also be present, Zhang Dai yawned and said: "Jiezi, you owe me a guarantee money." ”

Of course, a certain amount of money and goods must be charged, generally two to three dollars of silver, and there are dozens of students in a county, and the Confucian children who participate in the county examination are sometimes as many as thousands, so often a student has to guarantee dozens or hundreds of Confucian children, which is a large amount of income, although it is only once in three years, but it is enough to nourish it, of course, you must send some silver to the school department, otherwise you will be demoted to the fourth class next year - Zhang Dai is of course impatient to earn the money of the Bao, he only guaranteed Zhang Yuan.

Zhang Yuan smiled: "Then the eldest brother said that the younger brother should pay you this insurance money?" ”

Zhang Dai said: "Take the test well, the year after tomorrow, our brothers will go to Hangzhou to participate in the township test, and you invite me to drink flower wine." ”

Zhang Yuan said "uh", this eldest brother is a veteran of Fengyue Field, "Tao'an Dream Memories" recorded a lot of stories about lingering in Qinglou, Wang Yuesheng, Gu Mei, Dong Bai, Li Shiniang, Yang Neng, these Qin Huai celebrities are very friendly with the eldest brother, and the beauty is very good-Zhang Yuan nodded and said: "Okay, that's it." ”

Zhang Dai laughed and said, "The Shang girl is going to scold me." ”

The two brothers talked and laughed to the examination shed outside the dragon gate behind the school department, Shanyin is a rich county in the south of the Yangtze River, specially built an examination shed, and some poor small counties are generally arranged in the county hall or school office when the county examination, Shanyin County has too many candidates, the county hall can not sit down at all, as early as the twelfth year of Jiajing, there is a large examination shed that can accommodate 2,000 people to take the examination at the same time behind the school palace - the gate of the examination shed is called Longmen, there is an eight-foot high platform outside the dragon gate, Shanyin County Ling Hou Zhihan sits on the platform, the officials under the stage are separated, and the 30 students in the county are basically all together, Each of them is followed by dozens of Confucian children, Xu officials hold the roster, a group of Confucian children under the name of a child, so that the name of the name will not be messy, call the name of a Confucian child, by the student to recognize, recognize each other correctly, should say: "Someone is safe." "This qualification is confirmed, and then go to the Xu official to get the exam papers, and then go to the search office to listen to the search, the county test is not so strict, but also to undress and inspect, take off shoes and socks, and only wear a pair of shorts, it is really insulting, but there is no way, if you don't search like this, it will become a habit of cheating-Zhang Yuan looked at the black pressure of two or three thousand candidates, some of their beards and hair have turned white, some are still young children with changed teeth, some are holding candles in their hands, some are carrying lanterns, these are all rushed in the dark, laughing and crying, I couldn't help but sigh secretly: "How many people have been attracted to this imperial examination road to spend their lives on this." At this time, I didn't have time to sigh more, thinking that it would not take an hour or two for so many people to search one by one, when would they be able to enter the market!

Hou Zhihan sat on the high platform, looked east and west, and saw Zhang Dai and Zhang Yuan's brothers, so he whispered a few words to the clerk in the door room next to him, and the scribe looked in the direction of Zhang Yuan, and quickly got off the stage and walked over and said with a smile: "Two Zhang Gongzi, the county specially arranged for Zhang Gongzi to enter first." ”

Zhang Yuan was overjoyed, so he and his eldest brother Zhang Dai followed the scribe to the front of the dragon gate, took the roll call to inspect the insurance, received the examination papers, and took the long-eared examination basket from Wuling to the search office, and the six officials who were responsible for the search were Liu Biqiang and other six officials, all of whom knew Zhang Yuan, Liu Biqiang smiled and said: "Zhang Gongzi's talent and learning, do you still need to be entrained, go in, go in." ”

A few Confucian children who were undressing next to him turned their heads and glared at Zhang Yuan when they heard this, sometimes it is not so easy to enjoy privileges, and someone supervises them-Zhang Yuan smiled: "Everyone take it off, I will take it off too." "I untied my clothes and jumped a few times.

All the officials laughed and said, "Hurry up and go in and grab a good seat." ”

Zhang Yuan looked at the exam paper that said "Ertang East Bingchen Seat", this has a seat number, can you still grab a seat?

Liu Biqiang said: "It's not so strict, as long as you are on the hall number, sit in the seat casually, just find the seat that is bright and not windy." ”

Zhang Yuan tied up his robe, walked into the field with the examination basket, first found the second examination shed, and then found the east number, only to see the rows of long tables in the number room, so he found a seat that was not easy to be disturbed and sat down, first unfolded the examination paper to see, there were more than ten pages of rolling paper, fourteen lines per page, eighteen characters per line, and the horizontal and vertical grids were drawn with red lines, but I didn't see where the exam questions were.

(To be continued)