It’s May now, and the weather is getting hot. It’s time to settle down and study.

Through the original owner’s memory, Xu Huaiqian knew that during the imperial examination here was that the Tongsheng took the exam for Xiucai once a year, the Xiucai took the exam for Juren once every three years, also known as the autumn exam, and Juren took the exam for Jinshi in the second year after passing the Juren exam, also known as the spring exam. If you fail the spring exam, you have to wait for another three years before taking it again.

It was really not easy for the ancients to find a job in a state-owned enterprise. It took three years to get a regular position.

However, passing the exam for Xiucai and Juren is almost the same as having a regular position.

Xu Huaiqian calculated that the original owner passed the Tongsheng exam at the age of fourteen, and he is seventeen this year, which is exactly the year for the big exam. If he can pass the Xiucai exam in August this year, he can take the exam for Juren in three years. On the contrary, if he fails several times in a row, he may have to wait five or six years before taking the autumn exam.

 Calculating this way, he didn’t have much time left.

And he couldn’t go to the exam directly. He had to register before the exam. Registration required personal confession, mutual guarantee, and pledge, etc.

Personal confession was easy. It was just a guarantee of his age, name, native place, and the names and resumes of his father and grandfather for three generations, to ensure that he was not a slave, a merchant, a prostitute, or an actor.

But mutual guarantee and pledge were not easy to get. Mutual guarantee required five people who took the exam together to guarantee, to prevent proxy exams, helping exams, and cheating. Once it was discovered, all five people would be punished together. Pledge required a Xiucai in the government to recognize that their information was true before a guarantee could be issued.

Five people who took the exam together in a county could always find someone to guarantee each other, but it was not easy to find a Xiucai in the government.

 Only those who have participated in the Xiucai examination in a county and obtained excellent results in the examination can be called a Xiucai. Generally, there are only five to ten Xiucais in a county, and ten to twenty Tongshengs in a large county. It is good to have five or six Tongshengs in a small place like Mishan County.

He also had to send someone to inquire about the Tongshengs who were admitted as Xiucais in the annual examination last year.

This is the inconvenience of living in a village. If there is any disturbance outside, the village will not hear any news. Especially since there are not many Tongshengs in this village, it is even more difficult to get some news about Xiucais.

“If it doesn’t work, I’ll go find the teacher.” Xu Huaiqian flipped through the book and thought of the original owner’s previous Tongsheng examination, which was handled by the old Tongsheng Zhang Jiming in Taoli Village. He brought some gifts and asked him to help him think about the mutual agreement and pledge. It shouldn’t be too difficult.

After sorting out all these things in his mind, Xu Huaiqian immersed himself in the book.

 There were only three months left, so he had to read all these books thoroughly.

Xu Huaiqian studied hard at home, and left all the work in the incubator to Chen Xiaomei. There were more than 4,000 eggs in one room, and she was the one who flipped through them all.

There was no other way, because Xu Huaiqian boasted.

–He said that all the money left over from repairing the house should be exchanged for eggs.

Laying the foundation, buying mud, beams, roof, and building a kang only cost three taels of silver in total.

It was three taels of silver because it was difficult to find a master who could build a kang in the south. Chen Liejiu spent five hundred coins to find a master who could build a kang. He built a large kang with five stoves underneath, which was quite spacious.

The remaining two taels of silver, Chen Liejiu really followed Xu Huaiqian’s instructions and exchanged them all for eggs.

 With a kang, the heat preservation effect is much more reliable than using a quilt and a hot water bottle. At night, you only need to seal the stove and close the doors and windows, then you don’t have to worry about anything. It is much more convenient than getting up at night to check whether the hot water bottle and the cow stomach water bag in the quilt are cool.

With a kang, it is not perfect but at least it is not as easy to cool as before when you can carry it outside to bask in the sun.

Always pay attention to the temperature on the kang. It can’t be too high or too low. Turn it over once in the morning and evening. If it is too dry, sprinkle water on the wall to maintain the humidity in the house.

Anyway, it’s going to be a busy day.

Chen Xiaomei is also happy and sad. She is busy in the incubator every day, sweating profusely. Fortunately, Wang Wanwan helps her.

On this day, Xu Huaiqian, who feels that he has almost memorized the book, is sitting in the room reciting the book.

The imperial examination not only requires examinations on poems, classics, regulated verses, and policy essays, but also reciting the classics.

Xu Huaiqian has tried these days. Except for the test poems, he is not good at the others. He can barely read them. After all, he has completed nine years of compulsory education, done several three-year college entrance examination simulations and five-year college entrance examination simulations, attended four years of university, brushed the question bank for two years, and worked as a civil servant for five years.

He is not good at other things, but he is not bad at answering questions and having social experience.

It’s just this poem-

It’s okay to let him recite poems, but how can he write poems?

Duck, duck, duck.

Quack in groups.

Compete to go down to the green water.

Play with fish and shrimp with sharp mouths. 

It’s a crude and shoddy work, far inferior to other geese.

He should make up for his shortcomings with hard work, and try to do well in the following subjects than let him do poetry.

It’s not shameful to be partial to a certain subject.

While he was writing, Chen Xiaomei came in with a lit candle and eggs, and said excitedly: “Second brother, second brother, we can see chicks, see?”

Xu Huaiqian put down his pen and took the candle and eggs from her hand to look at them. Sure enough, the embryonic form of a chick had emerged from the egg, and there were tiny feet moving inside the egg, which looked very cute.

Calculating the time, this batch of eggs has been incubated for more than half a month, and it is almost time for the chicks to peck at the shells.

 He returned the eggs to Chen Xiaomei: “Yes, you have taken good care of them during this period. They are about to hatch. Remember to add more water in the kang room, otherwise the humidity will not be enough. Then the eggshell will be too hard, and they can’t peck it out.”

“Mm.” Chen Xiaomei nodded vigorously. Since she saw the embryonic form of a chick in the egg, she now obeyed whatever Xu Huaiqian said.

Second brother is so amazing!

He can weave straw, bargain, make money, read, cook, and hatch chicks. She can’t count all the skills on one hand!

There is no one in the village who is more amazing than her second brother!

Chen Xiaomei has changed from not wanting Xu Huaiqian to be her second brother to being a loyal little fan of Xu Huaiqian.

In the kang room where the Xu family hatched chicks, the fire never stopped every day, and smoke came out of the chimney at any time of the day.

 Chen Liejiu was busy collecting debts outside every day, and there was no one to be seen. There was no one to chop wood at home. Wang Wanwan also collected firewood in the village several times, according to the winter price of ten cents a cart from the families in the village who were on good terms with her.

Even Chen Zhu, who had been cold to their family before, was favored by Wang Wanwan. She collected several carts of firewood from her family. The next day, she went to the county to pick up a pound of meat, which made the villagers envious.

“What do you think, if we had sold eggs to them earlier, would we have been able to eat meat?”

The village did not generate much income. Even if the chickens, ducks and geese at home laid eggs, they could not save up a few to sell in the city. People in the county did not buy eggs in small quantities. Only those who had given birth to children and could not buy eggs would buy as many as they could. This was all a matter of luck.

 Besides, the journey to the county was long, and they were not like Chen Liejiu, who could easily borrow a bullock cart. In bad seasons, they had to pay the gate fee to carry baskets and drive bullock carts into the county, so the villagers still liked to save a basket of eggs before going to the county to sell.

This was a way to make money without leaving the house, but they were pushed out like this, how regretful!

There was nothing they could do about it, because they would not accept it.

Even the person who was good friends with Wang Wanwan brought eggs to ask, but they shook their heads and said they would not accept it.

It was not that Wang Wanwan did not want to accept it, but Xu Huaiqian felt that he could not accept it. The villagers were like this, and when a hen laid eggs, they would bring them to their house to ask if they would accept them. If they accepted them, how could they incubate them on the kang?

Just remembering which family brought eggs that day would make people confused, so it would be better to wait until the eggs were shelled and then collect them all at once.

Yhe Chen family knew about this, but outsiders didn’t. They thought Xu Huaiqian would never collect eggs again.

Everyone hated Chen Guijia to death: “It’s all because of Chen Guijia’s big mouth. She keeps talking nonsense every day. She also said that Chen Liejiu beat his Sanzhu so hard that he couldn’t get out of bed. The next day I saw Zhuzi playing with Goudan in the village. If he was beaten hard, how could he still come out to play.”

“That’s right. She cried so miserably in the village that day, and shed two tears. Xiaomei and Xu Huaiqian came to my house to collect eggs, but I refused to give them. My chickens laid eight eggs that day!”

She sighed and said unwillingly: “In the future, I will never water for Chen Guijia’s family again. Our two fields are next to each other. Every time I go to the field to water, I always remember to help her family pour a bucket. I didn’t expect that she would treat everyone like this. She never tells the truth. Chen Liejiu has been a bully for a long time. Why didn’t he attack other people’s houses but hers? “

“That’s right. I heard that it was Sanzhu from his family who broke Xiaomei’s eggs. She slapped Xiaomei a few times, and Xu Huaiqian was so angry that he vomited blood. Chen Liejiu went to argue with her. He was standing outside the fence and didn’t even enter the yard. When did he beat her and Sanzhu? “

“Oh, Chen Guijia is such a person. She also said that Xiaomei couldn’t get married. I think Sanzhu from her family would have a hard time finding a husband…”

“He also said that Xu Huaiqian’s eggs couldn’t hatch. I think it will definitely work this time. Otherwise, he spent so much money. Wouldn’t he feel bad?”

The trend in the village changed from saying that Chen Liejiu was a bully to blaming Chen Guijia.

The Xu family felt uncomfortable after hearing this. Why was Chen Liejiu always able to reverse the situation like a cockroach that couldn’t be stepped on?

 It was the same last time when someone else came to collect debts, and it was the same this time when they beat up Chen Guijia.

Therefore, they hated Xu Huaiqian who helped Chen Liejiu to deal with their own family members.

Xu Huaiqian’s aunt, Ma Cuifen, came out and poured a basin of water: “If he can be hatched, my name, Ma Cuifen, will be written backwards!”

The villagers all sneered at her: “As long as it is hatched, you don’t have anything to do with it.”

Everyone in the village knew that her husband sold Xu Huaiqian. It was really sad to have such an uncle.

“Don’t have anything to do with it. It’s been almost 20 days and there is still no news. It’s a miracle if it can be hatched!”

Ma Cuifen didn’t believe that Xu Erlang, that sickly boy, had this ability. She said it with such confidence. As a result, the next day, someone in the village passed on the news: “It’s hatched! It’s hatched! A room full of chicks!”

But before the villagers could wake up from the shock of the hatched chicks, they were stunned by a bigger news.

Xu Huaiqian went to the academy to study!