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Chapter 105
Before the academic exam, Wei Xi’s physique improved, and Mei Ruochu also wore the new clothes she had made.
They could only bring some dry food besides clothing.
Dry food was usually things like fried rice or fried flour, as buns and pancakes needed to be broken and kneaded into crumbs for inspection, so bringing them was not practical.
Shen Cui still insisted on helping them prepare the dry food as before—although the system also sold it, the appearance was very ordinary.
Although it didn’t have any additional benefits, it tasted better and could make them feel more comfortable.
In addition, it was now early summer, and not only was the weather hot, but mosquitoes and other insects also began to be rampant.
At home, the Wei family’s servants would burn mugwort and hang mosquito nets, which was fine, but it was hard to say in the examination room.
When they took the prefectural exam before, Wei Xi was assigned a seat close to the well, and he was bitten badly by mosquitoes.
Shen Cui bought them each a mosquito repellent bracelet in the system. They looked like ordinary red strings, but they were high-tech products.
The system said one bracelet could last a whole summer, and it only cost 10 shopping points, which was considered cost-effective.
Lastly, there was the issue of heat. Shen Cui picked a small item in the system, which was a safe buckle style. The material was like jade but not jade, presenting a milky white color, but not as warm as white jade, looking more ordinary.
The system said it was a kind of stone on their planet that could lower the temperature.
It also cost 10 shopping points each, and the effect was quite ordinary. After wearing it, it could lower the temperature around the person by one or two degrees, which was better than nothing.
Shen Cui bought one for each of them, and it happened to be strung on the red string, making the handsome and fresh-looking young men even more charming with a touch of red on their wrists.
As for Mu Er Pang, Shen Cui couldn’t bear to leave him out, so she also got him one. However, he was reluctant to wear it and said he would wait until next year before wearing it. Shen Cui put it away in the system’s warehouse for him.
On the day of the exam, except for Zhou Shi, Shen Cui went to send off Mu Er Pang and Lao Buyu together.
Because the exam venue was very close, they didn’t need to use the carriage. They got up before dawn, had a hearty breakfast, quickly packed up, and set off.
The process of the exam was not unfamiliar to the students who had already taken the county exam and the prefectural exam.
The most different thing was probably that the head of the academy personally called the roll outside the examination room.
The head of the academy usually came from the Hanlin Academy, and his noble demeanor was quite different from other officials.
When the students looked at him, they felt more admiration and yearning than fear.
Shen Cui and the others watched as the three young men went to queue up for the roll call.
Of course, there was also a body search afterward. Wei Xi and Wei Shu didn’t have any accidents, but Mei Ruochu was lucky enough to have his luck value halved directly, leaving only 40 points.
When he took off his clothes during the search, he immediately caught the attention of the soldiers—on such a hot day, everyone else was wearing as little as possible, but he was wearing layers upon layers, almost wrapping himself up like a zongzi.
So several soldiers took him to the side and searched him rigorously several times, but they couldn’t find any intention to cheat or carry cheat sheets.
They specially came out and reported to the head of the academy.
For others, the pressure before the exam was already great enough, and after such an ordeal, their mentality might have collapsed directly.
But Mei Ruochu had a strong heart and remained calm.
The head of the academy didn’t say anything, just asked about Mei Ruochu’s reaction after the repeated searches.
When he heard that Mei Ruochu didn’t look suspicious, he smiled and said, “It’s normal for talented people to have some quirks. Since there’s no problem after the check, let him go.”
After the head of the academy spoke, Mei Ruochu put on his checked clothes again, and his luck value rose back up. The soldiers then let go of him.
After the roll call and body search were over, the candidates entered the examination room one by one, and the gates were sealed with cannons outside the examination room.
Shen Cui also opened the light curtain and watched their cartoon avatars. Seeing them safely reach their seats without any surprises, she didn’t call Mu Er Pang and Lao Buyu to go home but sat in a nearby shady place and found a tea stall to sit at.
Because the college entrance examination was different from the prefectural examination, it was divided into two parts: the main examination and the reexamination.
The first day was the main exam, testing the candidates on their eight-legged essays and test-piece poems.
After the candidates were in place, the head of the academy would personally write the exam questions in the hall.
After writing, the questions were written in large characters on a two-foot-tall and one-foot-wide paper, which was then pasted on a wooden board.
Then, a scribe would hold up the board and walk around the exam room for the candidates to see.
Once the candidates saw the questions, they would copy them down and immediately start writing their essays and poems.
The papers had to be handed in before (3 p.m.). After handing in their papers, the head of the academy would join forces with other heads of academies or senior scholars from schools five hundred miles away to grade the papers.
The first round would eliminate half of the candidates. After the first round, the remaining half would participate in the second round.
So Wei Xi and the others didn’t have to stay overnight; they could come out in the afternoon of the same day. It was just a matter of half a day’s work.
Most of the parents who came to send their children off didn’t leave either; they were all waiting nearby.
Shen Cui wasn’t anxious about the movements of the young men, but the incident today gave her a wake-up call—Mei Ruochu’s luck value started dropping after he entered the exam room during the prefectural exam. It dropped before his body search during the college entrance examination.
Although it was only a moment’s difference, it was very important.
In the next provincial examination, he would lose 50 points of luck. If Shen Cui hadn’t raised her embroidery skill to level 3 by then and increased his base luck value of 80 points, Mei Ruochu’s clothes would have left him with only 30 points left.
Even 40 points of luck made the soldiers search him like a thief and even alarmed the head of the academy.
If he had only 30 points left, he might suffer another misfortune… he might be driven out before entering the exam room, just like before.
But fortunately, there was a three-year gap, and the embroidery skill was raised to level 3, requiring 1,000 stitches. She only needed 900 more stitches in these three years. As long as she didn’t slack off in these three years, whether it was upgrading her embroidery skill, saving up shopping points to buy him an expensive item that could continue to increase his luck value, or dealing with it in some other way.
Before 3 pm, the Longmen Gate opened, and the candidates successively came out from inside.
Despite only relying on half a day, the college entrance examination questions were more difficult and it was in the midst of the scorching summer.
Many people came out with pale faces and unsteady steps.
The parents waiting outside eagerly greeted them.
Shen Cui and the others walked over from the tea stall, but they didn’t rush forward. They just found a conspicuous place to stand in the outer circle.
Soon, Wei Xi, Wei Xiu, and Mei Ruochu came out one after another. Both their facial expressions and their mood values were very good, indicating that they had performed very well.
After meeting up, they left the examination room and stood in a shady place to talk.
According to Cui Wei’s rules, they wouldn’t discuss the answers before the exam was over, so they didn’t mention how the exam went.
They just talked about their post-exam feelings, all saying that they felt they did okay. Then they talked about some trivial things.
“Did the scribe who held up the wooden board stumble today? I seemed to hear a noise.”
Wei Xi said, “Yes, it seems he stumbled quite hard. I heard it too from the other end. I just don’t know where he stumbled.”
Mei Ruochu touched his nose and said, “He stumbled in front of me, indeed… it looked a bit ugly, so he got up and left…”
When this was said, Wei Xi and Wei Xiu’s expressions changed. “Then did you see the exam questions…”
“I saw them clearly.” Mei Ruochu reassured them, “My eyesight is good, and I can see clearly even the characters that flash by!”.
There’s a missing part between this chapter and the next. It’s as follows (MTL):
He had a lot of minor incidents today, but fortunately nothing serious happened, so everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
When they came out, Shen Cui and the others had already had a simple lunch at the tea stall. Shen Cui asked them if they wanted to eat something before going back.
After being bored in the examination room for a whole day, the three teenagers had no appetite. Furthermore, the fried rice they brought in in the morning was indeed very delicious, so they ate it all and did not eat outside. They hurried back to take a shower and change clothes.
As the group reached the gate of the courtyard, they saw the servants bringing out the broker that Shen Cui had contacted a few days ago.
There was no news from the broker in the past five days, and Shen Cui thought that her requirements were too strict and the broker could not find a suitable one. She planned to relax some conditions or change brokers to ask after the college entrance examination was over.
Seeing him coming now means that things are looking promising.
”Madam, you came back at the right time. I thought I had made a wasted trip.” The broker came forward politely and said, “In five days, I have found three houses that meet your requirements for you.”
It was still early before dark, so Shen Cui said she would follow the agent to look at houses, and asked the others to take a rest.
But Mu Erpang did not let her go alone, saying, “I have been idle all day and I am not tired. I will accompany my mother to see it.”
He wanted to follow, so Wei Shu and the others simply said that they hadn’t gone back to change clothes yet, so they could just make one more trip and come back to clean up later.
They would be living in the academy for a long time in the future, so their opinions were of course very important, so Shen Cui agreed.
The Wei family’s coachman harnessed the carriage, and the broker sat on the shaft to lead the way for them.
The first house we went to was not far from Wenchang Street, but it was very small. Not only was it smaller than the courtyard rented by Wei Shu, it was also much smaller than the old house in Shuiyun Village.
There is no problem with accommodation, but the main room is too small to accommodate a few desks, so it cannot be used as a classroom.
The butcher took them to the second house, which was farther away. The second house was big enough, but it was not quiet at all – it was not very busy, but there was a butcher’s family next door.
Shen Cui was not ashamed of the other person’s identity, but the smell of blood was too strong. Moreover, she thought that the butcher would go out to set up the stall during the day and would definitely be at home to prepare the ingredients at night.
After asking around, the neighbors also said that they could often hear the sound of chopping meat at night.
That won’t work.
So there was only one family left, and after the carriage had been on the road for about half an hour, the broker arrived.
After getting off the carriage, Shen Cui looked at the busy streets nearby and subconsciously felt something was wrong – the first two houses were similar to the slums in the central area of later generations, and the prosperity of this street was no less than that of Wenchang Street. There was a high probability that there would be no slums near such a good place.
Fortunately, many people came. Although Shen Cui had some doubts, she was not afraid that the broker would do anything wrong, so she just followed him.
After getting off the carriage at the street corner, the broker wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, “The lady just saw it, it’s very lively. If you rent a house nearby, it will be very convenient for you to eat and drink when you come back.”
As he spoke, the broker led them into the alley.
The alley is straight and spacious, and can accommodate five or six adults walking side by side. With such an alley as a dividing line, the noise outside is immediately reduced.
After walking for about another quarter of an hour, the broker said they had arrived.
Shen Cui stood at the door dumbfounded. It was not that the place the broker found for her was too shabby or too small, but… it was too good!
Just looking at the door lintel, it is much larger than the small courtyard that Wei Shu rented.
The broker took out the key and opened the door, inviting Shen Cui and the others to go in and take a look first before talking. Not far from the door was a screen wall, and around the screen wall were two spacious back rooms, and then through the hanging flower gate and the winding corridor… after a round trip, it turned out to be a courtyard with three entrances.
A courtyard like this, located in such a location, has enough space so there is no need to worry about being affected by the noise made by neighbors.
Shen Cui smiled helplessly and said, “Don’t make fun of me. How can a house like this only cost five taels a month?”
The agent said it was not five taels. “The annual rent here is fifty taels, which means less than five taels a month. Of course, I won’t hide it from you. You can see this house. It’s big and in a good location. Why is it so cheap? There’s a story behind it.”
There are disconnects between the current chapter & the next. Was there some part of the chapter untranslated? I’ve seen it in some of the earlier ones too.
Thanks for the translation!