Chapter 194

For Shen Cui, who was half illiterate, a sentence of seemingly random classical Chinese truly left her puzzled.

So she turned around and went to the classroom to start flipping through books.

Although she often appeared in the classroom, accompanying the students to study or attend classes, she knew her limited abilities and didn’t meddle in their studies.

Besides, she didn’t particularly enjoy these activities, so she rarely read the Four Books and Five Classics.

Today, she was actually reading seriously, which was unusual.

During the break in studying, Mu Er Pang was the first to come over and ask her, “Mom, what are you reading?”

Facing her own son, Shen Cui didn’t need to hide anything.

She sighed and said, “Your older brother said something to me before he left. It vaguely reminded me of something Master Confucius once said, but I can’t remember which book it’s from. I’ve been searching for it for half a day but haven’t found the source.”

Since Mu Er Pang had the time to come over, Shen Cui didn’t search on her own anymore.

She directly told him the sentence.

Sure enough, Mu Er Pang immediately understood and picked up the Analects. He quickly flipped to the passage and pointed it out to her.

The original passage from the Analects was: “Zigong asked: ‘Which is better, to be a teacher or to be in business?’

Confucius said: ‘A teacher makes mistakes, but a merchant’s mistakes are worse.’

Zigong asked again: ‘Then, is being a teacher better?’

Confucius said: ‘Making mistakes is still better than making worse mistakes.'”

Mu Er Pang smiled and said, “Although this sentence from my older brother seems cryptic, following the logic of examiners’ questions, the first sentence is just a lead-in. ‘Making mistakes is still better than making worse mistakes’ is what he really wanted to say.”

He paused for a moment and then asked tentatively, “Does Mom understand the meaning of ‘making mistakes is still better than making worse mistakes’?”

Shen Cui chuckled and gave him a sideways glance. “Am I that foolish? Don’t I understand such a straightforward idiom?”

Mu Er Pang smiled sheepishly and said, “Of course, Mom is naturally intelligent, and you’ve been the headmaster for so long. If Big Brother had directly said this idiom instead of speaking like an exam question, you wouldn’t have needed to ask me.”

Shen Cui also smiled. She was about to say, “Isn’t that the truth?”

But then her thoughts shifted, and she realized something was wrong.

Her smile faded, and Mu Er Pang stopped laughing too.

After thinking for a while, he tentatively asked, “So, my older brother didn’t actually intend to tell you this. He probably knew you wouldn’t be able to figure out the source of this sentence and would most likely ask me. So, was he actually talking to me?”

Shen Cui nodded with a complex expression, and Mu Er Pang continued, “But why didn’t Big Brother just tell me directly? Why go through such a big circle?”

Of course, it’s because he couldn’t tell you directly.

Shen Cui gave herself the answer in her mind.

“Could you repeat the half of the sentence that your Big Brother mentioned when he was guiding you with poetry and prose last time?”

Mu Er Pang had an extraordinary memory.

Although it had been two months since that incident, and at that time, he was more concerned about his older brother’s health, after a moment of thought, he recited word for word, “Diligence is a good thing, but in the realm of poetry and prose…”

Shen Cui added, “Excessive is just as bad as deficient.”

Now, it was a complete and coherent sentence.

Mu Er Pang suddenly realized, “Big Brother meant that, although I want to improve in poetry and prose, being overly diligent might be inappropriate?”

His current talent was incomparable to the past.

After pondering for a while, he suddenly realized, “Yes, poetry and prose emphasize talent and inspiration. I’ve polished every possible poetry topic repeatedly, following the methods taught by everyone, so that whenever I see a topic, I can immediately think of corresponding objects and allusions. But now, the unique spark I had during the county exam is gone, and I haven’t experienced it since.”

Listening to him, Shen Cui also summarized the issue.

Mu Yunchuan’s point was that Mu Er Pang had been too diligent, preparing excessively, and thus losing his personal touch in poetry and prose.

He had become like students in later generations who only knew how to write exam-oriented essays.

Now, he could only write exam-oriented poems, developing subconscious responses and following templates step by step.

It wasn’t that this approach was bad, as both Wei Shu and Wei Xi followed the same path.

As Mu Yunchuan mentioned last time, this kind of exam-oriented poetry could ensure he steadily ranked among the top few.

However, Mu Er Pang’s accumulation in this area was not as good as Wei Shu and Wei Xi’s.

Even if they all wrote exam-oriented poems, his might not necessarily surpass theirs, nor could these poems enhance the overall quality of his paper.

It was evident that he should temporarily stop and carefully consider which path was truly suitable for him.

Mei Ruochu, who had been listening beside them, appropriately spoke up, “The imperial examination has always emphasized classical learning over poetry and prose. Is Lord Mu’s point also suggesting that although poetry and prose are important, if focuses too much on them, neglecting other areas that the imperial examination values more, it would also be ‘excessive is just as bad as deficient’?”

He was of comparable overall talent to Mu Yunchuan, so the second layer of meaning he interpreted from Mu Yunchuan’s words was probably what Mu Yunchuan had intended.

Mu Er Pang nodded in realization once again!

Seeing that they had understood the meaning themselves, Shen Cui let Mu Er Pang continue to ponder at his desk without speaking further to him, allowing him to focus.

At the same time, she couldn’t help but sigh to the system in her mind, “This law, even forcing his own son to become a man of riddle! It’s fortunate that my relationship with Mu Yunchuan has been decent lately. Otherwise, like before, I would have thought he was just targeting me with his words, instead of realizing that he actually wanted to convey a message to Mu Er Pang through me… Being a son of the plane, a single hint from him unraveled the ‘clouds’ for Mu Er Pang. It’s no wonder the law prohibits him from giving direct guidance. If he gives a couple more hints, Mu Er Pang might even become a top scholar and stood toe to toe with him. “

Without any fuss, the young men of Cuiwei Academy completed their final round of studying.

In February, the imperial examination was approaching.

The process of the imperial examination was generally similar to the township examination but on a larger scale.

This exam had one chief examiner, three assistant examiners, and eighteen concurrent examiners. Not only was the number of people several times larger, but even the concurrent examiners were all knowledgeable officials from the Hanlin Academy.

The exam was held in the Gongyuan and divided into three sessions, one on the 9th of February, another on the 12th, and the last on the 15th. They followed the pattern of entering one day and leaving the next.

During the exam, candidates could go home and rest for two nights, but for the remaining nine days and seven nights, they had to stay in the examination hall.

The Gongyuan only provided clean water and bedding.

Candidates had to bring everything else themselves, subject to strict inspections before entering.

The challenge this year wasn’t the lingering summer heat from the previous year’s township examination but the lingering chill of early spring.

Of course, compared to the freezing cold of midwinter, the weather was considerably warmer now.

But the hardship lay in the fact that candidates couldn’t even wear a padded jacket, let alone a coat. They had to dress lightly from head to toe.

It was easy to imagine how much they would suffer from the cold once night fell.

Shen Cui didn’t take packing their bags lightly.

After the township examination, she put the five-figure shopping points reward she received to good use.

She had prepared pens, ink, paper, inkstones, candles, and other necessities long ago. Next were the measures for keeping warm.

Nowadays, many candidates would bring strong liquor to warm themselves up.

It was said that some people became more agile in thought after drinking alcohol, and the poems and essays they wrote on the spot far surpassed their usual standards, making them the top scorers. It became a legendary story of the generation.

Of course, more often than not, candidates would simply fall into a deep sleep in the examination hall after drinking too much, or even go into a drunken rage, leading to their removal from the examination hall by soldiers.

None of Cuiwei Academy’s students were drinkers, and Shen Cui didn’t dare to take chances in this regard.

So, she bought each of them a thermos.

They looked ordinary but had a large capacity and excellent heat preservation. The soup inside would stay warm for three days.

At least this way, they could have something warm to eat for the first three days.

As for other food, they would still have fried rice, fried noodles, diced steamed bread, diced sausage, and dehydrated vegetables.

Then there was the hand stove.

The batch Cui Wuniang had given them was still holding up well, but it was a product of the times, influenced by current technology.

At best, the hand stove could only maintain warmth for half a day to a day, and the young men had to change the charcoal themselves in between.

This step wasn’t exactly dangerous, but if one wasn’t careful, sparks could easily fall on the scrolls.

So, she bought a new hand warmer from the system’s store. It looked similar to the hand stove but actually used electric heating.

The system supported charging, once charged it lasted for three days, and she could also stuff some ashes inside to disguise it.

Finally, she bought each person a pair of socks. They looked thin, but they were far more effective at keeping warm than what was available nowadays.

With their hands and feet warm, and able to eat something warm, they wouldn’t feel too uncomfortable.

In addition, there were miscellaneous items like Wei Xi’s medicinal patches, Wei Shu’s calming incense, Mei Ruochu’s lucky charm clothing and towels, Shen Aoshuang’s refreshing medicine, and so on, all of which she had to pack up for them.

On the seventh day of the second month, the government posted a notice, dividing more than five thousand examinees into several groups for entry.

Needless to say, on Cuiwei’s side, Mei Ruochu was again in the earliest group.

He was assigned to the eighth day’s hour of the ox, which meant he had to wait outside the examination hall from 1 a.m. to 3 a.m.

For others, their exam times were relatively normal, at least they could get a good night’s sleep before entering.

They still didn’t let Shen Cui send them off batch by batch, so she simply stayed awake, watching the fire in the kitchen, making sure that whenever they got up, they could immediately have hot water and something warm to eat.

On the day before this major exam, even Mei Ruochu couldn’t sleep much. He started feeling sleepy around the end of the hour of the pig, closed his eyes for a while, and got up at the hour of the rat.

Shen Cui checked his belongings again, and finally saw him off from the academy.

The night wind was cold, Mei Ruochu wrapped himself in three layers of thin clothes, telling Shen Cui not to accompany him.

Seeing a hint of worry in her eyes, he turned back to reassure her, “You don’t need to worry, Headmaster, The cold weather is actually a good thing for me. No one will think it’s strange that I’m wearing extra clothes. And as for the examination hall… at worst, it’s just another nine days of enduring the smell. In this early spring weather, even if it’s facing the latrine, it’s much better than the provincial exam last time.”

Last year’s provincial exam was as hot as summer, with the smell of the latrine almost unbearable due to the heat.

Compared to that, enduring the smell in the cold weather wasn’t so difficult.

Shen Cui waved at him, urging him to focus on the exam.

At such times, there was no need to distract himself by talking and calming her down.

Mei Ruochu soon made his way towards the examination hall.

Since it was the day for the examinees to enter, there were soldiers patrolling the streets, so there was no need to worry about his safety.

What Shen Cui worried about was naturally not knowing what tricks the authorities would use against him again.