Longevity from Liao Zhai

Chapter 196: Guess the Question
In Qianzhou City, talented people from all over the world gathered.

Chen Chao said that Fan Shiyi once commented on Zhou Ping and that he was not as good as Zhou Ping.

However, the scholars in various states and counties did not believe Chen Chao's words.

"In order to raise his own value and the value of a poor county, this person actually said that Fan Shiyi admitted that he was not as good as a small escort."

"That's right, that's right, he started talking nonsense even before he drank."

"Is such a person worthy of being with us, and worthy of coming to Zhaixing Tower? Get lost now."

"Yes, get out of here!"

The scholars in various states and counties wanted to drive Chen Chao and others out. They thought Chen Chao was lying.

"He's right. I did say I'm not as good as Zhou Ping."

This one sentence made all the scholars present stop in their tracks.

Fan Shiyi nodded slightly at Chen Chao.

Chen Chao felt a little embarrassed and said, "Master Fan!"

If he was in Qinghe County, Chen Chao would call Fan Shiyi "Brother Fan", but after leaving Qinghe County, Chen Chao realized how big the world was and that Fan Shiyi was not on the same level as himself, so his address became Master Fan.

"Brother Fan, this guy just said that you admit that you are not as good as Zhou Ping." The scholar from Kyoto said. He and Fan Shiyi were both from Kyoto, so they had met several times.

Fan Shiyi waved his paper fan gently and said, "That's right, Brother Zhou's "Spring River Moon Night" is better than all my poems."

Chen Chao breathed a sigh of relief.

The Kyoto scholar's expression changed slightly, and then he smiled and said, "Brother Fan, you are really too modest."

Fan Shiyi smiled lightly, put away his paper fan, and said as he walked away, "Everyone says that I, Fan Shiyi, am the most talented person in the world, but has anyone ever said that I am humble?"

"Hahaha, if you're not as good as others, then you're still someone else. Why are you afraid to admit it?"

"If Brother Zhou dares to claim to be second in poetry writing, I will naturally claim to be third."

Fan Shiyi strode towards the Zhaixing Tower. She was the protagonist of this Zhaixing Tower.

After Fan Shiyi left, the Qinghe County scholar next to Chen Chao said, "Look, we were right, weren't we? Master Fan has admitted that he is not as good as Zhou Ping from our county."

The scholars from other states or counties remained silent.

Spring River Moonlit Night is right there, and no one dares to say that they can write better than this poem. Moreover, Fan Shiyi has already admitted that he is not as good as the author of this poem.

The people who were sitting at the table before felt bored and left the table, leaving only three scholars from Qinghe County.

But soon, several scholars returned to their seats.

"My name is Meng Hetang, a fourth-rank Confucian scholar. Nice to meet you all." Meng Hetang sat at this table.

Chen Chao's eyelids twitched slightly, and he stood up hurriedly: "So this is Brother Meng Hetang from Meng Daru's family. I, Chen Chao, meet Brother Meng."

Meng Hetang seemed extremely excited: "You know me and have read my poems?"

In the poetry writing business, the winner takes all.

Fan Shiyi was named the number one Confucian scholar of the younger generation and the number one poet. There is no scholar in the world who has not read her poems.

Meng Hetang, who calls himself the second best Confucianist, is not very famous.

"Meng Daru once went to Qinghe County. He mentioned it by chance, saying that Brother Meng is very talented." Chen Chao said honestly.

Meng Hetang's face immediately lost its joy, and he said awkwardly, "So that's how it is."

Meng Hetang thought he was very famous, but he didn't expect that his fame didn't even spread beyond Qianzhou County.

Chen Chao seemed to understand Meng Hetang's thoughts and hurriedly explained: "Qinghe County is a small place, and we country bumpkins don't have much experience. There are usually no new or good books for sale. Don't blame me, Mr. Meng."

Meng Hetang waved his hand and said, "Tell me about Zhou Ping. Does he really have no teacher? Is he pretending to be a bodyguard and secretly learning to write poetry?"

Meng Hetang is very interested in the author of Spring River Moon Night.

In the past, Fan Shiyi was the number one among the younger generation of Confucianists, and Meng Hetang could even claim to be number two.

Now that Fan Shiyi claims to be second, then Meng Hetang has to claim to be third.

But in Confucianism, there are only ones who are number one or two, not number three or four.

There are too many people who claim to be the third best Confucianist.

There can only be one first and one second, but there are too many third and fourth!

Meng Hetang didn't want to be associated with these people. What level are they? How dare they be on the same level as me? !

Moreover, Meng Jiusheng's attitude towards Zhou Ping also made Meng Hetang feel angry and ashamed.

Chen Chao organized his words and was about to introduce Zhou Ping when he was interrupted by Meng Hetang: "I heard that this guy has a very unique taste. He likes widows? Especially those with children?"

Meng Jiusheng searched all the widows of the Meng family, whether they had married into the Zhou family or not.

At first, Meng Hetang didn't know what was going on. Because he was a posthumous child, his mother was also gone.

When Meng Hetang's mother came back, he found out that the ancestors actually wanted several widows of the Meng family to marry Zhou Ping.

"The ancestor actually did something so damaging to the family's reputation for the sake of Zhou Ping." Meng Hetang was heartbroken, and naturally he was extremely opposed to his mother finding a father for him.

To this day, Meng Hetang still remembers the slightly disappointed look on his mother's face.

Chen Chao hesitated for a moment and said, "That's what people say, but he's not married!"

Meng Hetang pondered for a moment, then nodded.

"It seems that this rumor is true. Since he is so outstanding, he must have a sweetheart."

"If the person he likes is a normal person, he would have married her long ago."

"She is still unmarried, so I guess her taste must be unique. This must be true." Meng Hetang's hostility towards Zhou Ping deepened a little.

You said that you are a young man, if you like an unmarried girl, it's fine. After all, the Meng family is rich and powerful, and there are many girls of the right age.

But why do you like a widow? And a widow with children?

It’s not that Meng Hetang doesn’t want to have a father. He is open-minded and hopes that his mother will have a home, but he doesn’t want a person of the same age to be his father.

At this time, there were already three people sitting in the Zhaixing Tower.

The person among them was the governor of Zhao County.

The one on the left is Fan Shiyi, and the one on the right is Meng Jiusheng.

The Governor of Zhao County should sit in the middle. Fan Shiyi is a Confucian of the fourth rank, the number one Confucian of the younger generation, and the child of the number one Confucian of the time. She is qualified to sit in the Zhaixing Tower.

Then there is Meng Jiusheng, who is the dean of Qianzhou Academy and a third-rank Confucian scholar. He has lived for over a hundred years, so he is also qualified to sit in the Zhaixing Tower.

In addition to those three people, there are three guards.

At this moment, the sound of a bell quieted the noisy Zhaixing Tower.

"The examinees have entered the venue."

A scholar said.

In the examination hall not far from the Zhaixing Tower, students lined up in a long queue to take their seats.

The seats in the examination hall were small single rooms to prevent the students from whispering to each other.

In the Zhaixing Tower, thousands of tables were already filled with people, and yamen runners were constantly moving new tables in.

There was an unconcealed smile in the eyes of Zhao Jun: "There are so many people coming today."

Meng Jiusheng also said: "There are only about 4,000 scholars in Qianzhou City. Judging from the people who came today, there are at least tens of thousands. There are really quite a few scholars from other counties."

"Tens of thousands of scholars." Mayor Zhao said with a proud smile.

The governor of Zhao County was not afraid of these scholars eating and drinking at his expense. At his level, all he wanted was face.

County Magistrate Zhao said, "I'm afraid many of these people are here for Nephew Fan."

Fan Shiyi gently waved her paper fan and said nothing more. She glanced at the nearly ten thousand scholars downstairs and sighed slightly. If Zhou Ping was here, he would also be qualified to sit here.

At this time, the dishes at the banquet had already been served.

About an hour later, the bell rang again.

This bell represents the official start of the exam.

At this moment, a scroll suddenly flew over from the horizon and landed in front of Meng Jiusheng.

There was a phantom next to the scroll, and it was Fan Zhongfu.

Meng Jiusheng took the scroll and bowed respectfully to the shadow.

At this time, in all the nine states of Daqian, the shadow of Fan Zhongfu delivered the scroll to the hands of the presidents of the academies in each state and county.

"Sir Zhao, let's start." Meng Jiusheng said to County Magistrate Zhao.

County Magistrate Zhao carefully took out the official seal, then made a hand gesture, and the city sealing formation was instantly activated.

At the same time, all the county towns in Jiuzhou County started to seal off the city.

The city sealing formation was activated to prevent anyone from causing trouble during the exam and affecting the exam of Wei.

After the city sealing formation was activated, Meng Jiusheng slowly took out the scroll, then opened it and threw it into the air.

The scroll slowly opened in the air, and not only the students in the Examination Hall could see it, but also the tens of thousands of scholars in the Zhaixing Tower.

There are two questions on the scroll.

Question 1: Why do you read? Write a poem.

Question 2: What is Confucianism? Write an essay.

When Chen Chao saw the question, he was surprised. The two companions beside him also looked at each other and could see the happiness in each other's eyes.

There were more than a dozen scholars from Qinghe County this time. Three of them were teachers who led the team, and the remaining dozen were students.

When these dozen people left Qinghe County, they went to look for Zhou Ping.

Although Zhou Ping had no official title and was only a student, the scholars in Qinghe County all regarded him as their teacher and regarded him as the spiritual symbol of Qinghe County.

At that time, Chen Chao's cousin asked a question, which was why we should study?
At first Zhou Ping didn’t know how to answer this question because he hadn’t been well-educated.

However, Zhou Ping was able to see the memories of his past lives through the memory recall technique. He learned 300 Tang poems, as well as some other poems that he had read in novels or seen by chance.

Zhou Ping gave several people the answer to the poet's question "Why do you read?"

When Chen Chao saw this poem, he immediately had an epiphany, and he was promoted from the eighth rank to the seventh rank. Several other scholars were also deeply shocked, and their rank increased from being at the lowest level to being at the highest level.

Along the way, Chen Chao used this as a topic and asked the scholars who were about to take the exam to write some similar poems in imitation of Zhou Ping's poems.

Although the poems written by the scholars in Qinghe County are not even one hundredth as good as those written by Zhou Ping, it is equivalent to Chen Chao getting the topic right!
"Thanks to Brother Chen, we are going to return with a full load this time."

"Yes, yes, most of them can become scholars!"

Two other scholars from Qinghe County said.

Chen Chao shook his head and smiled, "The one we should thank the most for this is Zhou Ping. If it weren't for his example, even if they got the topic right, their writing wouldn't be that good!"

"Yes, we should thank Zhou Ping!" the two scholars from Qinghe County exclaimed.

Meng Hetang asked curiously: "Why should we thank Zhou Ping?"

(End of this chapter)