"Steward Yao, do you think the young master will come out early?" Wang Fulai stood at the gate of the Tribute Courtyard, stretching his neck to look inside, as if he could see the young master in the Tribute Courtyard through the officers and soldiers guarding the gate and the high wall.

Yao Shuqi shook his head and said very firmly: "No." ”

"Why?" Wang Fulai was finally willing to turn his neck and give Yao Shuqi a look.

Yao Shuqi smiled but did not say a word.

He is Du Jinning's housekeeper and the first confidant. Whatever intelligence Du Jinning needed, he was instructed to collect it. He naturally knew that the two examiners and the four same examiners belonged to different camps, and he also knew that although his young master had always said that the possibility of her winning Xie Yuan was very small, and he had no obsession with solving the yuan in the middle or not, according to his understanding of the young master, even if there was a slight chance to win the Xie Yuan, his young master would not let it go.

Submitting the paper in advance is equivalent to entering the examiner's eyes in advance. Although this test paper is not directly handed over to the examiner, it is collected by the test officer, and then copied by the transcription officer. But the first or first few to turn in the paper is always in the spotlight. As long as these test paper officers and sealing officers are people in several camps, it is possible to convey the information of the examiners who submitted the papers in advance to the chief examiner. If the examiner finds that there are no people among these people that he wants to support, he may exclude them from the list of Xie Yuan.

In fact, it is not a big deal to only exclude Xie Yuan from the list, after all, Xie Yuan is one, Du Jinning himself is not confident that the articles he wrote are better than everyone else, like the model of writing articles to the hearts of the examiners in the academy examination cannot be replicated, and there is only one in 10,000 chance if you want to get Xie Yuanzhen.

I'm afraid that these people will see that Du Jinning's article is too well written, and they are worried that if they take her in, it will affect their own people's superiors in the end, so they deliberately beat her down from the beginning and prevent her test papers from appearing in front of other markers, which is really bad. If you fall off the list, you have nowhere to avenge your grievances, so you can only pinch your nose and admit it, and come back in three years.

And it was different when the paper was handed in with the large army. At that time, there were many people, and there were dozens or hundreds of test papers handed in, and the closing officer and the sealing officer had no time to connect the person who submitted the paper with the content of the test paper and remember it, so that Du Jinning could fish in troubled waters. At that time, even if someone sees that this test paper is doing well, because they don't know whose it is, they don't dare to fall down at will, worried that it is the paper of the person they are optimistic about. In this way, no matter whether or not you can win the solution in the end, at least you can ensure that the township test can be passed smoothly.

However, there are twists and turns, and it is impossible for Yao Shuqi to talk to Wang Fu. First, the occasion is not right, and there can be many relatives or subordinates of the candidates standing nearby; Second, this kind of thing is not easy to talk about, Wang Fulai realized that it was his business, Yao Shuqi took it out and told him, that is, he had no mouth to cover.

"If the king is not secret, he will lose his minister, if he is not secret, he will lose his life, and if he is not secret, he will be harmed. It is a gentleman's prudence and not out. Yao Shuqi was also a scholar and knows this well. He wants to continue the promising profession of the Du family's housekeeper, keep his mouth shut, and know what he can say and what he can't say as the first priority.

Wang Fulai has been Du Jinning's coachman all these years, and he has also made progress, knowing that there are some things that he can't inquire about, seeing that Yao Shuqi didn't speak, he didn't ask, turned his head and stared at Gongyuan tightly, for fear of missing his young master.

The people standing not far from Yao Shuqi and Wang Fulai were also discussing: "This year is really strange. In previous years, no matter what, there were always candidates who put their first cards. This year, I didn't even see the first card at this hour, is this year's exam question particularly difficult? ”

"Quite possibly." The humane beside him pointed to the two people not far away, "See?" That was the descendant of Mr. Qi's family. Young Master Qi participated in the township examination this year, and he was the best student in Fucheng. Young Master Qi didn't come out in advance, which shows how difficult the exam questions are this year. ”

"The best student in Fucheng? Brother, you're too lonely, aren't you? The most outstanding student in Fucheng is no longer Qi Siyu, but Du Jinning of Nanlu Academy. Du Xianggong not only took the case in the last court test, but also became a small three yuan, and I heard that when Mr. Qi gave a lecture, he was a blockbuster, and he refuted Mr. Qi's doctrine. ”

That person obviously knew Du Jinning, and it was possible that he was the family of a student from Nanlu Academy, he pointed to Yao Shuqi and Wang Fulai and said, "See?" That is the descendant of Du Xianggong's family. They are still waiting, which shows how difficult this year's topic is. When he said this, he looked very proud.

This person's voice was a little loud, and although he lowered his voice, the housekeeper of the Qi Mansion and Qi Siyu's little servant Liuyun still heard these words.

Liuyun was so angry that he rolled up his sleeves and wanted to go to the man to theorize, but was stopped by Steward Qi: "Wait." ”

Liuyun turned his head and looked at Steward Qi dissatisfiedly: "Could it be that we can't let people criticize our old lady and young master like this?" That Du Jinning was so angry that the old lady vomited blood, and now he still wants to step on the top of our family, which is shameless. However, these people still shouted about this matter to everyone, maybe he was a member of the Du family to promote the reputation of his young master. ”

Steward Qi looked at him and hated that iron could not become steel: "Can you do things with your brain?" Originally, few people knew about this, but you went up to quarrel with him like this, and in less than a quarter of an hour, everyone at the gate of the Gongyuan knew about it.

Liuyun looked at the crowd of people sitting or standing here waiting at the gate of the Gongyuan, and silently closed his mouth.

In previous years, some candidates would be carried out of the Gongyuan because of illness, so even if they knew that the scientific examination would take three days, everyone in each family would stay at the gate of the Gongyuan for these three days, not daring to leave for a moment, lest their own candidates leave the examination room in advance for some reason, and no one would answer. Therefore, as long as the family can draw manpower, they will wait at the gate of the Gongyuan.

When the people see each other for a long time, these people are bored waiting here, if he quarrels with that person, he will be able to surround a large group of people after a while, and then everyone will know about Du Jinning and the Qi family.

"Are we just going to let these people say it?" Liuyun was unwilling to be authentic.

Steward Qi's eyes rolled: "I have a good idea." ”

Liuyun's eyes lit up: "What's the idea?" You say. ”

Steward Qi leaned into his ear and whispered a few words.

Liuyun was very happy when he heard this, and said excitedly: "Steward Qi, don't worry, I promise to make him famous all over the world." With that, he squeezed out the crowd, found the coachman waiting on the periphery, got into the car and returned to Qifu.

After a cup of tea, he came back again, and brought back four men with ordinary appearances and different dresses, some dressed like scholars, some honest middle-aged uncles, some clever little guys, and one old man in satin clothes.

The four of them got out of the car in the alley some distance from the Gongyuan, and when they walked to the gate of the Gongyuan, they quickly dispersed and went to chat with someone.