Wu Zheng has been in a good mood recently, first Sui Xing and his wife each rewarded a red envelope, and returned to the residence in the east wing to open it and take a look, Sui Xing gave a small piece of broken silver, which could weigh about eight or nine dollars. And in the red envelope of the young grandmother Luo Yiyi, there is a small silver ingot with one or two.

It's not that it's rare to have more than two taels of silver, Wu Zheng has been calculating, if he goes to the county exam, he buys test papers, and pen, ink, paper, and inkstone, so he will have to pay nearly two taels of silver. When he was worried that the more than 300 copper coins he had saved were not enough, he received these two red envelopes. Although it is not rich, Wu Zheng estimated that it should be enough to pick up the cheaper four treasures of the study.

Moreover, on the twenty-fourth day of the first lunar month, Duan's bookstore was opened, not to mention, and the student registration was also completed. Wu Zheng took it and took a look, and it was written:

Wu Zheng, a child born in Lizhuang Township, Tongluo County, is thirteen years old and ten months old, with a medium to thin build.

At first sight, Wu Zheng couldn't help but be overjoyed, and even changed his name. Hurriedly bowed to Shopkeeper Duan and thanked him.

"Thank you, Uncle Duan. ”

As he spoke, he took out the eight or nine pieces of broken silver that Sui Xing rewarded from his arms, and handed it to the smiling shopkeeper Duan.

"What are you doing here?!"

Shopkeeper Duan pushed back Wu Zheng's hand handing over the silver, and said one more sentence:

"I helped so much a year ago, but I said a word of thanks?"

Wu Zheng actually knew that it was impossible for Shopkeeper Duan to collect his own money, and he was afraid that the money was not enough, but he still had to pretend. Seeing this, he took it back and bowed to the end again.

"Little brother, the registration for the next scene will also be done for you. As for the four treasures of the study room used in the exam, I also have preparation, no need to buy again, if you don't dislike it, use the set I used before. ”

As soon as he heard this, Wu Zheng was really a little overwhelmed, and hurriedly handed over the broken silver in his hand again. He had inquired, and he always asked for about two taels of silver.

"Why are you still doing this, it's not refreshing at a young age. ”

Shopkeeper Duan deliberately lowered his face and said a word to Wu Zheng.

For a long time, Shopkeeper Duan was still used to calling Wu Zheng's little brother, and he never called Wu Zheng by his name.

Wu Zheng was no longer hypocritical, but asked:

"Uncle Duan, the name has been changed, right?"

"yes, but it didn't take much effort. It just so happened that your aunt's maiden nephew was called Wu Lizheng, but he just went to the middle word. ”

It didn't seem that there was a trace of worry on Wu Zheng's face that he would not pass the exam, and Shopkeeper Duan inevitably had doubts, so he asked tentatively:

"How sure are you?"

Of course, Wu Zheng understood what Shopkeeper Duan was asking, and immediately said with a smile:

"The top 10 may not be very sure. ”

Seeing the look of surprise in the eyes of the shopkeeper Duan, Wu Zheng then added:

"Of course, it's just not guaranteed. ”

Shopkeeper Duan looked at the young man in front of him and said such a big thing, just like taking the test show is a sure thing, but after reading the book in private for a few days, he dared to say that he was in the top ten in the county exam. I wanted to say a few words about Wu Zheng, but I was afraid of hitting his self-confidence, so even though he swallowed the words that came to his mouth, he encouraged instead:

"Take the test well, uncle is waiting to drink your Annunciation. ”

Wu Zheng then remembered that after the exam, there would be a record of good news, and hurriedly asked:

"You won't go to Lizhuang Township to report the good news, right?"

"Where do you want to go?"

"Why don't you go to Uncle Duan's place, I don't have any relatives anyway. ”

Shopkeeper Duan did not object, but nodded with a smile and said:

"Then you can write it on the test paper. ”

Wu Zheng also saw it on the pen paper he had read, and there was a column for candidates to fill in their home addresses at the head of the test papers.

In this way, in the next few days, Wu Zheng waited for Sui Xing to study in the county school every day as usual, and occasionally took time to secretly look at Sui Xing's homework that was reviewed by the gentleman in the county school. More often, he borrowed books from Duan's shopkeeper and hid in the east wing at night to study.

So much so that Cuiliu sometimes asked Wu Zheng secretly curiously:

"What do you do at night?"

"There are rats in the house. ”

Although he knew that Wu Zheng was lying, Cuiliu was not a person who talked much, so he didn't get to the bottom of it.

By the eighth day of February, there are only ten days left, and it will be here in a blink of an eye.

Got up at dawn, served Sui Xing to freshen up and dress up, under Luo Yiyi's repeated instructions, Wu Zheng carried the items and food needed for Sui Xing's next exam, followed behind Wu Zheng, Luo Yiyi hugged her little daughter Meng'er, and sent the two out of the street at the mouth of the alley with Cuiliu.

In total, not a few steps away, the two came to the gate of the county school, and many children were already queuing up to enter. Wu Zheng kept carrying the four treasures of the study and the food box in his hand with Sui Xing, until Sui Xing entered the venue, then he turned around and hurriedly ran to Duan's bookstore, took all the necessary things, and ran back in a panic. Fortunately, because Sui Xing entered the market relatively early, Wu Zheng was not delayed.

The county exam has to be taken for three days in a row, so everyone carries a food box containing three days of food, but Wu Zheng wrapped some dry food with a blue cloth wrapper, which looked a little different, and was naturally interrogated by the official in charge of inspection at the entrance of the examination room for a while. Seeing that there was no entrainment and suspicion, Wu Zheng was issued a number plate.

When Wu Zheng found his own number plate according to the number plate in his hand, he accidentally found that he was only separated by a wall from Sui Xing.

Hurriedly walked into the number and sat on the stool in the number position, Wu Zheng raised his hand and stroked his chest. Fortunately, when he came over just now, Sui Xingzheng lowered his head to pack up the four treasures of the study, otherwise, as long as he raised his head slightly, he would inevitably find Wu Zheng.

For Wu Zheng, the three-day exam is almost as simple as summarizing and sorting out the county test papers written down in his mind and rewriting them according to the current topic. So on the third day, when the paper was not handed in, Wu Zheng finished answering early, just waiting for the invigilator to collect the paper.

When the time came, the invigilator had just taken away the papers, and Wu Zheng trotted out of the examination room with his waist bent and found that Cuiliu was already looking around in the distance. After going around in a big circle, I first went to the shopkeeper of Duan to put down my things, and then quietly came behind Cuiliu and said softly:

"Did you come a morning ago?"

Hearing this, Cuiliu turned her head to look at Wu Zheng and said angrily:

"Where have you been in the past two days, why haven't you seen your figure all the time? ”

Originally, he said that he was worried that Sui Xing in the examination room would have any accidents, so Wu Zheng had to stay outside the door from morning to night. It was only after night that he was allowed to go back to the courtyard to sleep. However, Wu Zheng didn't go back for two days in a row, not only Cuiliu was worried, but even Luo Yiyi was worried.

What's more, since the first day, Cuiliu has to come over to look for Wu Zheng once a day, but Wu Zheng has never been seen, so the master and servant guessed a lot of possibilities, basically thinking that Wu Zheng ran away secretly.

Now when she saw Wu Zheng at first glance, Cuiliu was inevitably surprised and happy, and there were already tears surging in her eyes.

"Where can I run?"

Although Wu Zheng had also thought of many excuses to explain why he hadn't returned to the small courtyard in the past three days, none of them felt reasonable, so after saying this, he didn't know how to go on.

"Then where have you been in the past three days, why don't you tell me a word, aren't you afraid that people will worry?"

The girl's voice that naturally flowed out made Wu Zheng suddenly feel a little overwhelmed.

Just when Wu Zheng felt that he had nothing to say, Sui Xing walked out of the examination room slowly with a food box. Cuiliu didn't bother to ask Wu Zheng again, and hurriedly followed behind Wu Zheng to meet him. Wu Zheng took the food box in Sui Xing's hand, Cuiliu took the four treasures of the study, and the master and two servants walked towards the small courtyard together.

As soon as I returned to the alley where the courtyard was located, I saw Luo Yiyi waiting there with her child in her arms.

first glanced at Wu Zheng in surprise, who had not shown up for three days, thinking that he had left. Immediately hurriedly took a few steps forward, Luo Yiyi, who had already seen the result from the expression on her husband's face, did not ask, but changed the dream in her arms to the crook of her left arm, stretched out her right hand to pull Sui Xing's arm, and silently walked into the small courtyard.