Good luck with koi carp

Chapter 145
At this time, there is still a month before the start of the provincial examination, but many people from Fucheng have come to take the examination in advance.


It can be seen that there are more people dressed as students on the street, and most of them have scholar seals hanging on their waists, indicating their status as scholars.


Most of the students who came here in advance for reference were from other prefectures in the province. Due to the long distance, they were worried that they would miss the provincial examination if they started too late, so they set off early.


"The day has not yet come, the inns in this city are basically fully booked, and even the courtyards of many people have been rented. Before your father and I rushed to pick you up, someone came to inquire about our home. As soon as we entered the courtyard, we thought about whether we should rent it or not. This house should be left alone. Now that we have bought a new house, we don’t plan to live there anymore, so we might as well rent it out to those who come from out of town. Students who are rushing to take exams can earn some rent money and bring it back."


On the carriage, Mrs. Xu saw her daughter lift the curtain and look out, seeming to observe the changes in Fucheng during this period, so she told her casually, and also told her about the fact that the original one of their family had rented it out as soon as they entered the courtyard.


Chi Li nodded when she heard this. She didn't care much about how her mother would manage the family business. She just asked, "How long until we get home?"


The home here refers to the newly bought house by their family in Fucheng.


"Come on, walk through this street and turn two more turns and you'll be there." Knowing that her daughter was looking forward to what the newly bought house would look like, Ms. Xu coaxed with a smile in her eyes: "This new house is much nicer than the original one." It's quite spacious. Mom will set up the study room for you at the side of the main hall. You can study in it and you won't have to worry about being disturbed by the neighbors."


It was nice to enter the courtyard before, but it was too small, and it was right next to the neighbors. If there was any movement next door or on the street outside, I could always hear it inside, which would affect my children's study.


So when the family got rich, Mrs. Xu always thought of buying a larger and more secluded house in this city so that her daughter could study without being disturbed.


"Thank you, mother."


Before seeing Zhaizi, Chili had already thanked her mother with a sweet smile.


As Mrs. Xu said, they were almost at the new house, so the carriage didn't go very long. After only a few minutes, it slowly stopped, which also meant that they finally arrived at their destination.


Chi Li, who was young and in good health, easily jumped out of the carriage without any help or stepping on a small wooden stool. After landing, she turned around deftly and reached out to help her mother.


Chi Xiucai was in the carriage at the back.


Since Chili brought too much luggage when she came back, one carriage could not fit in it, so she had to temporarily hire two carriages at the dock to come back.


There is a post station next to Fucheng Pier, which provides carriage and horse rental services. If you only travel within Fucheng and the time does not exceed one day, hiring a carriage only costs 50 Wen. It cannot be said to be expensive, but it is not cheap either.


After the family got off the bus, the coachman helped unload the luggage. After the items were moved, he paid and then drove off in the carriage.


There were already servants in the house who heard the noise and came to open the door. When they saw that it was their master and his wife who came back with the young lady, they hurriedly ran out to say hello, and then actively moved the luggage into the house.


After a while, the people in the mansion seemed to have finally received the news, and then Chi Li saw more servants running out to greet them.


After handing the luggage to the servants for placement, Chili followed her parents and stepped into this new home for the first time, walking around and getting familiar with the environment.


Originally, she thought her parents had bought a bigger house, which meant changing from the small courtyard with one entrance to the courtyard with two entrances. Who knew her mother was so generous and bought a three-entry house in one go? courtyard.


Moreover, the location of this house is very good, just across the street from Gongyuan, and it is also located in the center of Fucheng.


As you can imagine, a house in this location is extremely expensive. Chi Li didn't know where her family could afford it with so much money.


Meeting her daughter's surprised gaze, Mrs. Xu first smiled slightly, and then explained to her: "I didn't mention it much about your maternal grandfather's family. In fact, our family has been much richer than before in the past two years. Thanks to that sugar shop you proposed."


It turned out that after Mrs. Xu listened to her daughter's suggestion to use the larger shop to start a candy business, she hardly put any effort into it, and the business in the shop was extremely prosperous. Too much.


As long as there is land to grow sugar cane to malt, the cost of sugar production is actually not high, but sugar is a luxury product, the price has always been considerable, and it is a must-have in the homes of many dignitaries. In addition, even if those ordinary people have happy events at home, I don’t buy candy on a daily basis, but I will buy it when needed. There are many people in Fucheng, so I don’t worry about the flow of customers.


Of course, there is also an invisible factor that may not be known to anyone, that is, the Feng Shui of the shop Chili chose for her family is very good at attracting wealth. This kind of thing that is invisible and intangible to others is hard to describe, but it happens to play a role in it. important role.


Therefore, just relying on this candy shop, the Chi family has made a lot of money, not to mention there is a food shop on the pier. Although they follow the path of small profits but quick turnover, the sales volume has increased. Slowly accumulated, the profits are also quite a lot.


With the money, Mrs. Xu used it to let Chi Xiucai purchase land, buy a house, etc., and gradually expanded the Chi family's family fortune.


Knowing that the most important thing for her daughter is to study for the scientific examination, Xu has no intention of letting her take over the family business for the time being, but there are some things that she should know and understand, so as not to have a black eye after taking over the family business in the future. I don’t understand anything and I was fooled.


Chili also understood her mother's good intentions, so she listened attentively throughout the whole process.


After they had basically visited their new home and the food was almost ready, the family moved to the dining room to eat. After eating, they took a shower and slept to eliminate the fatigue of the journey.


It was rare that Chili didn't study in her dreams tonight, but had a solid sleep. Who knew that she might have used her sleep time to study for a long time before, but she actually dreamed that she was studying even when she was sleeping normally, and had no idea when she got up? I feel rested and a bit mentally tired.


After rubbing his head to relieve the dizzy feeling, Chili got up to wash and dress.


She was going to go out today to visit Xue Zhangming with her father.


I heard from my father that Xue Shibo also intended to take part in the provincial examination. Now he is preparing for the examination at home. When Chili went there, he could also discuss each other's learning experiences with others.


This time when she came to Xue's house, Chi Li clearly felt the difference.


If the Xue family before was full of dilapidation, and the whole family seemed to be crumbling, then the Xue family now has a completely new look, and it seems to be full of vitality.


Of course, Xue Zhangming was admitted as a scholar, and the value of a scholar was quite high in this dynasty. Just by helping others to pay taxes on their fields, Xue Zhangming could slowly get his family out of their previous predicament and gradually become rich.


With money and life getting better, wouldn't this home be full of laughter and vitality?

No, the little boy from the Xue family who came to open the door this time had a chubby little face with a smile on his face. When he saw a guest coming, he was not as unfamiliar as before. He politely said hello to him and then turned around. He ran to inform his grandfather that there was a visitor at home.


"Brother Xue, how are you doing lately?"


As soon as Chi Xiucai saw Xue Zhangming, he greeted him with a big smile and started chatting with others.


Xue Zhangming nodded and said with a slight smile: "Very good, very good."


As he spoke, he turned his attention to Chi Li and chatted with her casually. As the two chatted, they inexplicably turned to discussing knowledge with each other, and they couldn't stop the discussion.


Helpless, Chi Xiucai, who originally wanted to bring his daughter as a guest for a while, ended up staying at Xue's house for lunch. If Chi Li hadn't made an appointment with Zhang Dabao in the afternoon, they might not have ended this impromptu meeting so early. Academic exchange.


After coming out of Xue's house, Chi Li didn't go home. Instead, she went directly to the teahouse where she and Zhang Dabao often went to wait for her at the agreed place. Chi Xiucai took the carriage back home after seeing his daughter off. .


Anyway, the Zhang family will send someone to escort their daughter back later. In addition, her daughter is also accompanied by someone, so there is no need to worry too much about her safety.


Chi Li also calculated the time accurately.


Not long after she arrived at the teahouse, Zhang Dabao came over with two guards and two maids. The style of traveling was more eye-catching than Chi Li, so she saw her in the crowd at a glance and hurriedly raised her hand to signal her. Location.


Seeing Chi Li, Zhang Dabao immediately trotted over happily, threw himself into Chi Li's arms and hugged her tightly: "Li'er, Li'er, why are you back? We haven't seen each other for a long time, I miss you!" "


"I miss you too." Chi Li hugged Zhang Dabao back, and the two sisters kissed each other affectionately, then returned to their normal demeanor and sat down to enjoy the tea on the table together.


Chi Li knows Zhang Dabao's taste quite well, so the things she orders are more in line with their appetites. Zhang Dabao likes almost all of them anyway.


Zhang Dabao is also a thoughtful girl. Just from the tea on the table, it can be seen that Chi Li's friendship with her has not faded even after being separated for so long. He immediately felt comforted and then asked Chi Li curiously. How have you been spending these years studying abroad?


Chi Li originally wanted to pick some interesting things to talk about, but when she looked back, she found that her life in the past two years had been quite boring. She was either studying or studying every day. There was nothing to talk about, so she had to spend two A brief summary.


"You've had such a hard life, even I feel ashamed." Zhang Dabao couldn't help but sigh after hearing this.


"By the way, Li'er, look, what is this?"


As if he suddenly remembered something, Zhang Dabao held up a small seal on his waist and handed it to Chi Li as if offering a treasure.


How could Chi Li not recognize this thing? In fact, she had seen it since Zhang Dabao came in. Now that someone was showing off to her, she couldn't help but smile and congratulate, "Congratulations, Bao'er, for winning the scholarship."


It turned out that Zhang Dabao passed the examination as a scholar in the college examination held two months ago. Although she still ranked below the middle level, she passed the examination and her reputation as a scholar would not be weakened by half.


In order to hear Chi Li's congratulations in person, she had held back even though she had been exchanging letters with Chi Li. Now she was finally able to express it and celebrate her victory with her friends. It is a great joy to become a scholar.


As he spoke, Zhang Dabao shared a new joy with Chi Li shyly: "By the way, Li'er, there is another happy event. I'm engaged. Now my family has gone to the groom's house to find an appointment. About We will get married at the end of this year, so you must come then."


"Okay... why are you hired by your family?"


Chi Li didn't react at first. She only heard that Zhang Dabao was getting married and invited her to attend the wedding. She agreed immediately. After a while, she realized the loopholes in the other party's words and realized what was wrong. wrong.
Generally speaking, betrothals are from men to women. Why is it the other way around? Unless Zhang Dabao is recruiting a son-in-law, not marrying someone.


Sure enough, Zhang Dabao laughed innocently before telling Chi Li the truth.


It turns out that after she passed the exam to become a scholar, she felt that her promising daughter was more suitable to inherit the family business than her brothers who still accomplished nothing. Made a surprising move.


They created a female household for their legitimate daughter and made her the heir to the Zhang family!

Fortunately, after Her Majesty the Empress came to power, in addition to allowing women to take the imperial examination, she also gradually added some regulations that were beneficial to women. Among them were changes to the establishment of a female household. Originally, according to the law, it was not feasible to establish a female household unless it was an only daughter. Now, But it was changed to a situation where as long as both parents of a woman agree to hand over the family property to her for inheritance, they can report it to the government and establish a female household for their daughter so that she can inherit the family property and establish a strong family.


When a woman who has established a female household wants to get married, she still only recruits a son-in-law but does not marry anyone.


After all, the purpose of setting up a female household specifically for a daughter is to allow her to inherit the family business. If she is married off, who will inherit the family business?


Therefore, even though the treaty of not marrying a son-in-law is not a hard and fast rule, and it doesn't matter if you don't want to abide by it, the people still abide by it as a rule.


Therefore, Zhang Dabao's marriage was to recruit a son-in-law from within, rather than marrying from outside.


No wonder she is so happy. From now on, she will be in charge of the family, and she will not be so constrained when she gets married. She can still study and take exams if she wants to, and no one will care if she wants to do other things as long as she is not a prodigal. She, so her future days are going to be happy.


While Chi Li was happy for Zhang Dabao, she also thought of her own situation.


The family's plan to set up a female household registration for Chili seemed to have been put on hold, but in fact, after Chili passed the scholar exam, she found out that her parents had already set up a new household registration for her, so she actually also set up a female household registration, but she didn't tell anyone. Just publicity.


Originally, there was nothing to publicize about this kind of thing. Regardless of whether a female household was established or not, everything in the Chi family belonged to Chi Li as a matter of course, and nothing would change.


Spending time with friends is always fun.


When it got dark, Chi Li was escorted back home by the Zhang family's carriage. From then on, she never stepped out of the house again and stayed at home to study and prepare for the exam.


Knowing that she had to take exams nervously, Zhang Dabao and others consciously did not disturb her, and the family members became a little cautious when serving Chi Li. Even though Chi Li reminded her several times that she did not have to do so, they still could not stop her parents from going their own way.


Perhaps he felt that the Provincial Examination was much more important than all the previous examinations for Xiucai. As a father, he did not want to miss such an important occasion, so this time Chi Xiucai had made all arrangements early and planned to accompany his daughter throughout the examination. .


There are other scholars in the private school at home, so there is no need to worry about delaying the students' studies, so Chi Xiucai's time arrangement is much freer. It is just that the scholar has to spend more time teaching more students.


Chi Xiucai planned to give his daughter a big red seal when she returns home from the exam to reward him for his hard work.


After more than a month of intensive preparations, the majority of college students finally ushered in the provincial examination.


It was still dark before dawn, and a large number of people waiting for the entrance exam had already gathered outside the gate of Gongyuan.


Fortunately, Chili's family occupies a favorable terrain, so that even if she leaves home a little later than ordinary people, she can still be ranked in a position before the exam.


She carried a test basket and followed a line of women. Next to her were the earnest words of her parents, telling her not to be nervous and take the test well. If it doesn't work, we should come back next time.


Hearing the latter sentence, a female student in front of Chili couldn't help but give her a speechless look. Who was here to take the exam and didn't come here just to win the exam? How could there be any talk of coming back next time?

Chi Li ignored her and didn't know her, so there was no need to cause more conflicts.


She had been obediently listening to her parents' instructions, nodding in response from time to time. There was no moment of impatience during the whole process, but as time went by, the person in front of her became a little annoyed, but also vaguely envious.


The number of female students who can take the provincial examination is still very rare, but those who can stand here are the best who have defeated countless competitors, and they also have the full support of their families.


So this also caused that in the queue today, not only were the male students followed by family members who were concerned about their exams, but the female students were not inferior to those there. Some people even had their whole families, men, women, old and young, to take the exams. Zhen Zhan really shocked others.


In comparison, the female student who was alone in front of Chili seemed a little lonely and pitiful.


But again, he didn't know the person, so Chili didn't pay much attention to the person, only glanced at him briefly.


"The time is up, candidates are entering!"


It was estimated that he had been queuing for more than an hour. Just when Chili's legs were aching from standing and she wanted to move her feet to change her stance, the loud voice announcing that admission could begin finally came, and then the crowd became commotion. After a while, it immediately became quiet again, and they lined up in an orderly manner.


The entrance inspection for the Provincial Examination is a bit stricter than that for the Scholar Examination. At this time, whether you have to take off your clothes or have your hair pulled, you have to be checked over and over again, and you can only be released after confirmation.


Taking the test basket handed back by the examiner, Chi Li was not surprised to find that the things inside had been turned over in a mess, and almost nothing could be seen.


In fact, the provincial examination is the same as the previous examinations. The examination room will basically provide all the candidates' examination and daily needs. Even if they do not bring their own things, it will not affect the examination.


But the provincial examination is still a little different.


It has three exams, each lasting three days.


Furthermore, entry must be one day in advance and exit must be delayed one day after the exam. In other words, candidates actually have to stay in the small dormitory for five days and four nights for each exam, which is quite tiring.


So if you are not well prepared, many people may not make it through.


Chi Li's test basket contained medicine specially prepared for her by her parents, including ginseng tablets, small pills for emergency treatment of gastrointestinal discomfort, and some small ointments to prevent mosquito bites, etc.


Although the autumn exam is not as cold as spring, there are many mosquitoes.


Especially in the south, there are so many mosquitoes, rats, and ants that you can’t get rid of them no matter how you drive them away, and being bitten often is very annoying.


Chili doesn't attract mosquitoes very much, but that doesn't mean she won't be bitten by mosquitoes at all, so she still has to bring enough equipment to avoid affecting her exams.


There was only admission today, no exam, so after Chili entered the dormitory she was assigned, she lay there motionless and closed her eyes to rest.


Someone will clean these dormitories before the exam, so they are very clean, and you don't need to bother cleaning them yourself. However, if the people behind you stay in them for a long time, you still have to pay attention to personal hygiene.


Fortunately, Chili is still lucky this time.


Not only was she not assigned to a bad number, she was also assigned to the newly renovated examination shed in the Gongyuan. The environment here was much better than the old one, and it even looked a little bigger than the old examination shed.


Not many people can be assigned to the new examination booth, because it is only partially completed, there are fewer places, and there are fewer people, so it looks cleaner.


Food is still provided inside Gongyuan, but the price is still very good, so some students who don't want to be taken advantage of will bring their own dry food to survive the exams.


Chili also brought food, but it was only enough for a day or two.


There was no way, even though autumn had already entered, it was still hot today, and the food was going bad quickly. If she really had to bring enough food for several days at once, she would probably have to start eating the food before the third day.


It's a small thing to have a bad stomach, but it's a big thing to delay the exam.


So she would rather spend more money to buy the food provided in Gongyuan. Even if it is not delicious, at least it is hot and freshly cooked, so it will not break her stomach.


After entering, you wait for one day, and the exam begins early the next morning.


The examiner handed out the paper. Chi Li, who got the paper, briefly scanned the question types and amounts, and then waited for the examiner to announce the start of the exam.


After the exam officially started, Chi Li immediately started working on the questions. She had just finished reviewing the first question, and now she could start drafting it on the scratch paper.


In the first round of the provincial examination, you need to test three questions on four books, four questions on classics and meanings, and you have to compose a poem. The number of questions is very large, so you need to hurry up to finish it.


Chili's speed in answering the questions was neither too fast nor too slow, and remained at a stable state. She was like this throughout the exam. Let's not talk about her performance, but at least she was satisfied with the answer she finally wrote.


After finishing the last poem, it also represents the end of the first provincial examination.


Chili packed up her things and waited in line to go out. Her face was not as painful as others, and she seemed to be indifferent to the indescribable smell that surrounded her. In fact, she had quietly closed her sense of smell to avoid being harmed by the poisonous gas.


Chi Li must have never thought that the first time she used her spiritual power in this world was to do such a thing, but she really couldn't bear it, not only the smell of others, but also her own.


Also, if anyone is locked in a small room for five days without taking a shower and eating, drinking, and urinating inside, the smell will not be that good.


Chi Li saw with her own eyes that some people persisted until they came out after the exam and were fainted on the spot. It was also terrifying. She didn't know how those people who were assigned to the bad numbers lived. I hope they are safe.

(End of this chapter)