Chapter Twenty-Four: Tempering the Body (Three Watches)
Xue Zha and the proprietress walked together on the streets of Jian'an City, in front of them were the shadows of the two stretched by the sunset, on both sides were hurried pedestrians on horseback and chariots, looking at the shops on both sides of the street, Xue Zha found that some people looked at the proprietress with slightly strange eyes.
I can't tell the meaning of that look, it seems to be a joke and a sympathy, the male and female are not quite the same, Xue Zha thought: Could it be that the proprietress is a famous courtesan in this Jian'an City?
The proprietress introduced the customs of Jian'an City to Xue Zha all the way, and also stopped at the location of some bookstores and paper and pen shops with particularly large stores.
It's a pity that Xue Zha hasn't figured out the method of exerting the power of poetry yet, he only knows that writing poetry takes effort, his wrist is easy to sore, and even the whole person will lose his strength and fall into a coma, so he won't buy paper and pen for now......
After the proprietress understood part of Xue Zha's situation, she pointed to an intersection in front of her and said: "Son, after the intersection in front, we will go to the mansion, seeing that the sky is about to get dark, it is estimated that the officials there will not be able to do things well, or ......."
As she spoke, her eyes glanced at the roast duck shop next to her, and the meaning was clear: Why don't you bring them some gadgets.
Xue Zha understood, and casually handed the proprietress a piece of broken silver and said, "Trouble the proprietress for trouble." ”
The proprietress grinned and said "no trouble", and raised her feet and ran up the steps of the roast duck shop.
Xue Zha looked around, and on a platform, he saw a long-bearded half-immortal who measured words and fortunes, he thought it was interesting, ran over and squatted down and asked: "Uncle, uncle, do you want to give me a free hexagram to see if I have a rich life?"
Originally, this half-immortal was looking at the sky and was like a master, he slowly stroked his long beard under his chin, and when he heard the business coming to the door, he squinted and looked down at Xue Zha, and then pointed to a piece of paper next to him coldly and said, "Write a word......
Xue Zha was surprised: "How do you know that I can write?"
"I can't write, why are you here with me? Do you want to have fun? I really think my word and fortune counting is free......
The half-immortal blew his beard and stared, but Xue Zha opened his hands and squeezed his eyes with five fingers and said, "You guessed it, what a living immortal!"
He stretched out his thumb twice, and when he heard the proprietress not far away calling him, he dropped a silver ingot and said, "Master, wait for me, I'll come back to you after registering." ”
Xue Zha turned around and ran away, leaving the place in the messy half-fairy wind.
"Find happiness and pay back the money, then I'll wait for you to come!"
He picked up the silver ingots on the ground in front of him, looked at the remnant sun in the west expectantly, and did not rush to close the stall.
Over there, Xue Zhe came to the front of the mansion accompanied by the proprietress of the proprietress, only to see that the people here were crowded one by one, and the people in the round-necked white robes were holding the silver money in their hands and squeezing forward, their faces were covered with sweat, and some of the older or children who had not grown up were squeezed out in such a surging crowd.
When Xue Zha saw this, his mind moved, and he took the roast duck in the hands of the proprietress and squeezed it in his arms.
"Let's ...... Let's let the hot water be hot, be careful of the scalding!"
Everyone is in order to sign up for the children's exam, who will really believe his nonsense, he just rushed forward a few steps, ran in front of a few old grandfathers and children, and then squeezed forward, they are all strong young people, and they can't be deceived at all.
Xue Zha's eyebrows were raised, and he immediately said an idiom [Yang Tang Stop Boiling], and the next moment, a spoonful of water fell above the heads of everyone in front of him, and the water was poured hot on the heads of several literati.
"Grandma is a bear, there must be people from the rivers and lakes who have arrived, there must be some bastard who uses idioms, and when we are admitted to the Tongsheng Examination, we can also use poetry to mobilize the power of the law, and then kill him!"
"Those people in the rivers and lakes know that they bully and bully us literati who are not children, and if they really meet children and talents, even if they are old rivers and lakes, they have to withdraw for more than ten miles and dare not face them head-on!"
"Don't talk about that, find a way to squeeze in front of you and sign up quickly, and only when you are admitted to the children's school can you be literate and tempered!"
........................
Xue Zha's figure was squeezing forward, and he suddenly had a realization: people on the Wenyu Continent study the imperial examination, not to be officials to make money, they are to quench their literary spirit.
Elder Wu's old face flashed in front of him, remembering his almost white hair, no need to ask, that old boy wanted to take the Tongsheng exam for the sake of "tempering his body".
"What's the use of quenching the body?"
Xue Zha touched his chin and pondered, but he hadn't read much of the books in this world, and he didn't know anything about "Wenqi Quenching", so he could only know after he was admitted to Tongsheng to accept "Wenqi Quenching".
He squeezed forward again, and soon it was his turn.
"Name, place of origin, age, ......"
There was an angry voice under the cloth shed, and a clerk with his head down and a pen ready to register sat behind the table under the shed, when his nose twitched twice and he raised his head, and his eyes lit up, and a shiny roast duck was dragged in a paper bag by a young man and brought to him.
"Thank you for your hard work, I'm not busy, you and a few of you will eat something first. ”
Xue Zha blinked at the harmless eyes of humans and animals and said, the clerk turned his head and glanced at a few colleagues, several people showed knowing smiles on their faces, and the clerk closest to Xue Zha caught the roast duck, and Nunu motioned Xue Zha to take a pen and write it himself.
Xue Zha nodded very casually and grabbed the pen and paper, he glanced at the contents of the rice paper stacked together next to him, learned the format above, and wrote down the various information of Xue Zha in this world.
After Xue Zha finished writing, he put down his pen and wiped the sweat on his forehead, and when he looked up, a group of officials with duck bones looked at him dumbfounded.
"Uh...... Do I have ink on my face?"
Xue Zha subconsciously touched his face, and at the same time he was vigilant in his heart.
A group of officials shook their heads neatly, and one of the older officials swallowed and asked, "Little brother, you write so many words in one breath, won't your wrists be sore?"
Xue Zha raised his right wrist, looked at it blankly, and then spread his hand and said, "It's okay...... Not many words. ”
He glanced at the rice paper in front of him, name, place of origin, age, resume, etc., adding up to about 100 words, and no one made trouble in the middle, he could write it with just one [waved]!
The old clerk wiped his mouth after eating the duck meat in his hand, he reached out and took the rice paper on which Xue Zhe's personal information was written, looked at it, and then handed Xue Zha a mahogany sign stamped with the official seal of the Fu Yin.
"Little brother, go to the Gongyuan in Dongcheng in three days, and don't bring anything with you except paper, pencil and ink. Well...... If you are afraid that you will not be able to hold on to hunger, you can bring some dry food and ginseng. ”
After he finished speaking, he patted Xue Zha on the shoulder and waved his hand, signaling that Xue Zha could leave.
Xue Zha wanted to take the opportunity to get close to this group of old fritters, but he was pulled by the clothes and thrown aside by a person behind him.
"It's not over, you still have it! Get out of the way, Lao Tzu wants to sign up!"
Xue Zha and the officials frowned slightly, everyone glanced at the literati who were going to sign up, and several officials raised their right wrists and gently rubbed them with their left hands, and no one stepped forward to register him for a long time.
Xue Zha saw that this thing was standing in place blankly, so he happily stepped forward and patted him on the shoulder and said, "Brother, do you know what [Mingluo Sun Mountain] is?"
Thundered...... Boom, thunder sounded in the ears of this literati, and a dark cloud visible to the naked eye appeared behind this person's head, and he was poisoned by Xue Zha.
This person was not angry because of the "poisoned milk", he turned his head and pointed at Xue Zhe in astonishment and asked: "You, you are a speaker, how can you be a speaker to be a child in the same class as us?"
His voice was very loud, and many people who signed up very close to the cloth shed heard it, and everyone turned their eyes to Xue Zha, seeing that his face was different, and knowing that what the person said was right, one by one the literati who felt that they were insulted raised their fists and shouted.
"Don't let the speaker take the test for children, don't let the speaker take the test for children, this is an insult to the saint of literature, this is a blasphemy against the sages!
The sound became louder and louder, and more and more people joined the shouting team, and for a while, the cloth shed where Xue Zha and the officials were standing had a tendency to be overturned by the sound.