Chapter 337: Chapter 333: The Mansion Examination – 1

Yingbao, together with her father, younger brother and a few others from the village, set off for the Prefecture City on a boat, joined by several other scholars who had passed the county exam.

As Jiang Jie was also traveling to the Prefecture City, they decided to form a group.

After several days of travel on the boat, they finally arrived at the Prefecture City.

Last time when Yingbao was in Prefecture City, she had asked Mrs. Wen to help her buy a house with five rooms, which were fully furnished.

Now she was residing in this house with her group.

Mrs. Wen was delighted when she heard Jiang Jie had achieved first place in the county exam, but to prevent distractions to his studies, she refrained from letting her son and Wei Zhan visit.

Upon arriving at Prefecture City, Yingbao personally went to the market to shop for groceries and handed them to her father to cook meals.

Now there were quite a lot of people living in their house – four scholars, two individuals who were supporting the scholars financially, five or six followers, their family of four, and old Mr. Wu, a total of more than twenty people.

Luckily, they were all well-behaved and of good characters; even though they admired that Xiaojie had Mr. Wu as a tutor, they simply sat quietly outside the window to learn, without disturbing the more formal instructions within the house.

The people who brought the scholars for the exam were also quite respectful, staying silent, afraid that their voices might distract their own family from learning.

Soon it was April, and everyone registered for the exam at the Prefectural Government Office, preparing to take their examinations.

The scale of the prefecture examination was much larger than the county exam, with nearly a thousand candidates participating.

Having experienced the county exam, Jiang Jie was now fearless.

After all, he had the supplement pills given by his sister, and the tasty bread crumbs, and he was sure he could endure through even five rounds, let alone just three rounds of exams.

The prefecture exam tested on scriptures, miscellaneous writing, and policy argument, focusing on recitation, prose, and policy practice.

During Jiang Jie’s travels with his master, he had formed his own opinions on current affairs and government policies, and had read many classic documents. And with the help from the empowering supplement provided by his sister, he answered the questions effortlessly.

After the three rounds of examination, everyone waited in Prefecture City for publication of the results.

The four candidates residing in Yingbao’s house continued their studies with the two financial supporters under Mr. Wu’s window.

Yuanbao was fortunate enough to sit next to his cousin, openly studying with him.

Ten days later, the results were published. Yingbao and Yuanbao went to the examination field to check the results.

A gong was sounded, and a government official carried the examination results out, posting it in the pavilion.

Many scholars and their family members flocked around to see the results.

“We made it! Xiaojie is third!” Yuanbao pointed to the list, exclaiming in surprise and joy.

Yingbao saw it too and was overjoyed,

She thought, if Xiaojie could do this well in the prefecture exam, it’s almost certain he would pass the college exam. By then, she would be the sister of a scholar! Hahaha!

The courier who brought out the list of successful candidates had already secretly passed the names and ranks to the newspapermen waiting outside. They would take the news and go to deliver the good news, expecting a good sum of reward, from which they would also share a bit with their informers.

The rank also mattered, here. The higher the rank, the more the gift money the newspapermen could expect.

After getting a few long strips of paper with information, several newspapermen hurried to the places recorded on the strips to deliver the good news.

Even if some places were far away, but the rank was high, they had to go. They not only went to the house of the candidate but also to the houses of his immediate relatives. Such as grandparents or grandparents, they could earn several coins from each household – enough for them to live comfortably for a year.

Meanwhile, Yingbao and Yuanbao were rushing back home to share the good news with everyone.

But the newspapermen had arrived faster than them. They had already been to Yingbao’s place, given the good news, accepted the reward, and then swiftly left.

There was a boat at the dock that was about to leave for Qinchuan County, they could not afford to delay.

Mr. Wu had expected his student to make it among the top three.

“Next is the college exam, presumably in May. During this time, you should review your poetry well.” His weakness is his poetry, so Mr. Wu decided to make him work hard on his poetry.

Jiang Jie nodded, took his books obediently, and went out to the courtyard to practice writing poetry.

There were only about twenty days left for the college exam, which was even tougher than the prefecture exam. He had to make the most of his time to practice.

Yingbao took advantage of this time to go to the market in the Prefecture City alone and buy a lot of things, including grain and vegetable seeds. She stealthily moved them into the cave dwelling and took out the fruits and vegetables from there, giving them to her father to distribute among everyone.

Of the four scholars staying at Yingbao’s home for their studies, one had failed the prefecture exam, and he packed up his stuff to return home with his personal attendant. So, they needed to find one more person to replace him in the study group led by Jiang Jie.

Fortunately, the two financial supporters had connections and were able to quickly find someone to fill the position.

Finally, it was time for the college exam in May.

The weather had become warmer over the past few days, and mosquitoes had started to appear.

Yingbao prepared a mosquito repellent sachet for her brother, along with a small mosquito net that opened instantly, a piece of oilcloth, and an oilcloth raincoat.

In the evening, he would just need to hammer four nails into the wall, tie the corners of the small mosquito net to the nails, and he could sleep soundly, without it affecting his exam the next day.

But on the day of the exam, a strong wind suddenly started blowing, quickly followed by a downpour.

Fortunately, Jiang Jie noticed the change in weather in time, and rolled up his examination paper, putting it inside an oil-papered bucket to prevent it from getting wet.

Jiang Jie then stood on a stool and nailed the oilcloth he brought over the door to block the wind and rain.

But the rain kept pouring, being blown inside their room intermittently. Even with the oilcloth, it was impossible to entirely block the rain.

Jiang Jie had no choice but to put on the raincoat his sister had made from oilcloth, putting on a hat as well.

More than an hour later, the rain finally began to lessen.

Jiang Jie wiped off the rainwater from his writing desk and used a piece of cotton cloth to dry it.

But this was not sufficient; he still could not lay any paper on it as the ink would blur and the writing would be unreadable.

He was starting to panic a little.

If it didn’t stop raining soon, he would not be able to finish his paper.

After giving it some thought, Jiang Jie started to check the contents of the examination basket.

In the end, he found a dry sheet of oil paper.

Although small in size, it fit perfectly on the writing desk.

Jiang Jie was delighted and immediately began to answer the questions on his examination paper.

It was still raining outside, but it was a lighter rain now.

Jiang Jie finished one examination paper, then carefully rolled it up and put it in the oil-papered bucket after it had dried…

When it was finally time to submit the papers, Jiang Jie placed all his answer sheets on the front of his desk and watched as the assistant carried them away.

Packing his belongings and on his way out, he saw many people looking dismayed.

The rain had dampened a lot of their papers. Even though they managed to dry them, writing on such paper made their handwriting look terrible.

Because of this, they felt hopeless about the college exams.

Jiang Jie also had a sheet of paper that got wet, but he used the small charcoal hand stove his sister gave him to dry and straighten out the paper. Writing on it felt like writing on a fresh sheet of paper.

At last, the final exam was over. Everyone waited for another twenty days, until eventually, they published the results.

This time, Jiang’s father went with his daughter and nephew Yuanbao to check the results.

Seeing his son comfortably maintaining the third position on the list, Jiang was overjoyed. To make sure, he asked his daughter, “Baobao, help your father see, is that your brother’s name?”