Chapter 129

Seeing this ranking, the most incredulous person naturally was Li Rufeng.

He pushed through the crowd and walked up, almost wanting to lay on the announcement board, repeatedly rubbing his eyes to make sure he wasn’t mistaken.

Indeed, the top scorer in the second class was Cui Fei. And the information provided by the procurer was correct.

He performed even better this time than in the past, ranking within the top twenty of the second class!

Someone couldn’t help but laugh and say, “Brother Li, it seems like you didn’t inquire about the news thoroughly in advance, did you?”

This person hit the nail on the head. Although the provincial examination wasn’t as rigorous as other imperial examinations, it was still an official examination organized by the court.

It was easier to inquire about one person’s name, but it wasn’t possible to see the entire list in advance.

Li Rufeng knew he was among the top twenty in the second class, so he thought he was a sure winner.

Today, he even specially prepared himself, expecting Cui Fei to publicly apologize to him.

“It’s impossible, absolutely impossible! How could you suddenly perform so well?!” Li Rufeng, feeling incompetent, rushed up to Cui Fei, “There must be a mistake in copying the rankings, or you cheated… Yes, you must have cheated, with the help of Mei Ruochu and the Wei brothers…”

Before he could finish speaking, the professor, with his hands behind his back, slowly approached, “What’s all this noise?”

The professor’s voice wasn’t loud, but after his inquiry, no one dared to speak.

Even Li Rufeng, who had just been rude, became much more respectful and reported, “Professor, Cui Fei’s past performance has always been… Now, he has achieved the top rank in the second class. The students were surprised, so the volume inadvertently increased.”

“Is that so?” The professor stroked his beard slowly, and said nonchalantly, “I’ve reviewed Cui Fei’s paper, and there are no issues.”

The papers from the examination venue were usually reviewed by the provincial governor and his colleagues from five hundred miles away.

Although the provincial examination was of a lower standard, the provincial governor wouldn’t review every paper.

The first review was done by the professors and instructors from the examination venue, who separated the passed and failed papers.

Those who failed wouldn’t catch the attention of the provincial governor, only those in the first and second class.

Li Rufeng’s words were tantamount to questioning the professors and instructors as well as the provincial governor.

So it wasn’t surprising that the professor’s expression remained unchanged, but there was a hint of indifference in his tone.

The professor glanced at the students present and noticed various reactions—some surprised, some vaguely dissatisfied. It wasn’t just Li Rufeng.

He continued, “Cui Fei, come forward. In the provincial examination, you wrote an essay titled ‘The Scholar’s First Tool is Knowledge,’ and you received a score for ‘literary’ content. Tell us about your thought process in answering.”

Cui Fei had always been very afraid of the teachers in the government school.

He knew he was often in the wrong, skipping classes frequently and barely passing exams.

He was just as scared of the teachers as the failing students were.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have wished he could disappear into the floor every time the teachers asked about his absences.

Even though he did well on this exam, he felt uneasy when the professor suddenly mentioned public questioning and answering.

When people are nervous and lack security, they instinctively look to familiar and trustworthy individuals.

At that moment, Cui Fei couldn’t help but glance at Mei Ruochu and Wei Shu Wei Xi.

Encouraged by their supportive gaze, Cui Fei took a deep breath and stepped forward.

“The phrase ‘Scholars must first possess character and knowledge before pursuing literary arts’ originates from the ‘Biographies’ section of the ‘Old Book of Tang’ Volume 140. The title conceals the latter part, while the question specifies the word ‘literary’, indicating the requirement to write a test poem with ‘literary charm’. We need to include all the key words from the question, both those given and those hidden, such as ‘scholar’, ‘first’, ‘character and knowledge’, ‘pursuing’, and ‘literary arts’. Without knowing the full phrase, it’s easy to miss…”

The professor nodded approvingly. “This question is indeed a bit tricky. After all, the ‘Old Book of Tang’ isn’t among the Confucian classics, so you may not have been familiar with it. That’s why it was included in the exam syllabus by the Ministry of Education. Despite that, many people stumbled on this question. Just on this one question, Cui Fei has surpassed the majority of you. Do any of you have objections?”

Everyone hurriedly shook their heads, especially Li Rufeng, whose face was flushed with embarrassment and pressed against his chest.

Seeing no one questioning their rankings anymore, the professor didn’t linger and left soon after.

As soon as the professor left, someone spoke up, “Doesn’t this mean Li Rufeng [Brother Li] has lost today? Will he have to drop out of the Perfectural school?”

Another person chimed in, “After the annual exam comes the vacation. There are always personnel changes after the vacation. It’s quite convenient for Li Xiong to drop out!”

“I’ve long been fed up with Li Rufeng bullying Cui Fei. It’s really disappointing after studying the sages’ books for so long. It goes against the way of the saints!”

“He dares to challenge others even though he’s not as skilled. He deserves it!”

The sound of discussion and belittlement filled the air.

Li Rufeng’s face turned crimson, and he pushed through the crowd and fled as if escaping!

No one cared whether he left or not. After those remarks, people came up to congratulate Cui Fei, and he returned their greetings one by one.

After everyone dispersed, the smile on Cui Fei’s face faded, replaced by a pensive expression.

Wei Shu, straightforward as ever, asked what he was thinking. Wasn’t he happy to have defeated Li Rufeng?

Cui Fei said it wasn’t that. “I just feel somewhat regretful. When Li Rufeng led the bullying against me before, because they had numbers and Li’s family had some influence in the school, no one stood up for me. Now that I’ve outperformed him in the exam and Li Rufeng is facing the consequences of his promise to drop out, many people are willing to speak up for me. If this sense of justice had existed before… I probably wouldn’t have avoided coming to the school every day.”

Mei Ruochu reached out and placed his hand on his shoulder, giving it a gentle pat. “It’s easy to add flowers to brocade, but hard to send charcoal in snowy weather. This is the way of the world. We just need to learn from others and avoid becoming such people ourselves.”

Cui Fei nodded vigorously. Of course, he remembered those who had helped him when he was in need.

After checking the exam results and learning their rankings, the annual vacation at the Perfectural school officially began.

By the middle of the December, Cui Wuniang had finally finished her household affairs, as she had promised earlier, and came personally to Cuiwei to deliver New Year’s gifts.

Because Yao was in Cuiwei – although Yao usually didn’t pry into any news, she would deliberately avoid hearing about things when Shen Cui and the others discussed them.

However, as a handywoman here, nobody knew better than her what was lacking in Cuiwei.

The New Year’s gifts from the Cui family were very practical, not gold or silver, but food, drink, clothes, and daily necessities. They even brought a few tailors and embroiderers to measure and tailor clothes for everyone.

This was indeed a necessity. Wei Shu and Wei Xi certainly didn’t lack clothes to wear, but Shen Cui and Mei Ruochu didn’t have many, and Lao Buyu didn’t have many either.

Shen Cui and Mu Er Pang had already put on the clothes given by Zhou Shi before she left, and they hadn’t thought about getting new clothes for the New Year.

The adults were a bit better off, but the teenagers were all growing. Mei Ruochu, who was eighteen or nineteen years old, had grown taller in the past six months.

“I always felt that your clothes were a bit plain, not worthy of your good looks. This time, I brought our most skilled embroiderers to embroider a few orchids on your clothes. Since your academy is called ‘Cuiwei’ and I saw your name contains the character ‘cui’, let them embroider some orchids for you on your clothes. It will definitely complement you.”

Indeed, Shen Cui’s current clothes were the ones made by Zhou Shi before.

Zhou Shi had taught herself to make clothes, and although she did it very well, she couldn’t do delicate embroidery, which required a master to teach.

Shen Cui also didn’t have the idea that nowadays women around thirty years old thought they were old and didn’t need to dress up.

Shen Cui accepted Cui Wuniang’s kindness. “Thank you very much. As for returning the favor…”

Cui Wuniang hurriedly pressed down on the back of her hand and stopped her from continuing. “Being able to nurse Afu back to health and make him diligent and motivated is already the best ‘gift’ you’ve given to me and our Cui family! Besides, didn’t I just see the children writing Spring Festival couplets when I came in? They are all destined for great success. Just write a few pairs of couplets for me to keep as a memento. They will be worth a lot in the future!”

After the embroiderers finished measuring Shen Cui’s size and discussing the style and patterns of the clothes, they left the room, leaving only the two of them.

Shen Cui then asked, “Has Afu told you about what’s happening in the government school?”

Cui Wuniang nodded. “I talked to him about it. Although I used to criticize him for not being ambitious and taught him some business principles like ‘making big profits from small investments’, hoping he could change a bit, I didn’t expect it would be useful in this situation. It’s also thanks to your students treating him so well and reviewing with him. And it’s especially thanks to you for not minding the trouble, personally cooking and helping him recover his health… Otherwise, I don’t know how things would have turned out.”

Cui Wuniang didn’t know that the cabbage and scrambled eggs from the system recipe increased short-term memory.

She thought it was some secret recipe for nourishment. In her understanding, Afu couldn’t have lost so much weight in such a short time without some sort of health regimen.

After burning the midnight oil to study twice over, his body had become even healthier.

Since Shen Cui wasn’t an outsider, Cui Wuniang told her about what had happened recently.

After the exam results were announced, Cui Fei went home and informed them about the situation.

Even though he won, Cui Wuniang couldn’t help but scold him. She felt that he didn’t need to make a bet with Li Rufeng.

As Mei Ruochu said, he could have reported Li Rufeng for insulting him first, which would have led to a punishment. Although the punishment might have been as minor as missing one exam, it wouldn’t have resulted in him dropping out of school.

However, Cui Fei argued, “Li Rufeng is the eldest son and grandson of the Li family. After this incident, he would lose face and wouldn’t be able to return to the Perfectural school. The Li family definitely won’t sit idly by. When they come to plead or compensate, it will be up to sister to decide.”

Only then did Cui Wuniang realize that Cui Fei’s struggle wasn’t just about his personal dignity against Li Rufeng, but also about the reputation of the Cui family!

In the early years, when Cui Wuniang was managing the household, rumors about the decline of the Cui family were spreading like wildfire, even affecting the family’s business at one point.

Cui Wuniang persevered through it, even selling off the dowry shop left to her by her mother to support other businesses in the family. It was a difficult time, and Cui Fei saw it all.

The rumors were like floating duckweed without roots, impossible to trace back. But later, a few shops were bought at low prices by the Li family, and even after Cui Wuniang managed to hold on and the Li family bought them back at high prices, they refused to sell them again, saying something like, “Since you, Lady Cui, aren’t getting married, leaving the dowry outside is the same.”

The Cui family realized that the Li family, with a long-standing grudge, had been instigating things behind the scenes.

Li Rufeng owed Cui Fei an apology, and the Li family owed the Cui family, and Cui Wuniang, an apology.

Because it involved the Cui family’s privacy, Cui Fei didn’t tell Shen Cui and Mei Ruochu the whole story at first, even though he hinted at it.

In the end, Cui Fei said, “If it’s only about my honor and disgrace, it’s not worth the risk. But when it’s about sister and our family, even with a fifty percent chance of success, I’m willing to fight for it because compared to those things, my face really isn’t that important.”

Shen Cui had already sensed that the pure-hearted Cui Fei’s acceptance of the bet was related to the feud between the Cui and Li families.

So when she heard about this, she wasn’t very surprised, but couldn’t help but sigh, “Afu is truly pure and filial.”

Cui Wuniang also said softly, with a gentle expression, “Indeed. After hearing him say that, I felt embarrassed to scold him again. Just as he predicted, the Li family didn’t want Li Rufeng to drop out of school no matter what. In the past few days, they’ve come to apologize and compensate several times. They even offered the shops that they had bought from me at a low price back to me…”

……

With the Perfectural school on vacation, Shen Cui wasn’t strict with the students anymore.

She allowed them to go home directly if they wanted to celebrate the New Year.

Wei Shu and Wei Xi hadn’t gone home for the New Year last year just to avoid missing their chances for the exams.

This year, they had to go back home.

Mei Ruochu hadn’t returned to Hongle since he started her studies outside, so it was time for him to personally pay his respects to the old headmaster in Hongle who treated her like his own child.

As the New Year approached, only Cui Fei and Mu Er Pang remained in the academy.

The Cui family was a large one, and there were many matters to attend to during the festival.

On the twenty-fifth day of the month of december, Cui Fei was summoned back home.

Even though the usually lively academy now seemed particularly deserted, Mu Er Pang dared not slack off because after the New Year, it would be time for him to take the county exam back in the county town.