The Red Chamber begins with a bastard

Chapter 78

There will be a total of four or five exams in the county examination, which is decided by the chief examiner. If the chief examiner feels that four rounds can determine enough places, then four rounds will be enough. If after four rounds, the number of finalists still exceeds the number of people to be admitted, then another round of exams will be used to eliminate the excess people.

Today is the first session, and it is also the main session. The admission requirements will be relatively loose. As long as the essay is fluent, the writing is neat, and there are no fouls or taboos, you can generally pass.

The seat numbers in the examination room are arranged according to the thousand-character characters. Jia Huan got the "Hongzi No. [-] seat". This position is not bad. It is neither the periphery of the examination booth, nor too close to the inside.

Let’s talk about Jia Huan finding his own seat according to the seat number. As soon as he put down the test basket, a yin and yang voice came from behind and said: “Hey, isn’t this a prodigy from the Jia clan? Is the seat enough? Do you want the invigilator to raise the seat for you?”

Jia Huan took a look and found that it was Hou Renjie, the crazy student he met outside the county office that day. This guy was carrying a test basket and a number plate in his hand.

Jia Huan said indifferently: "It turns out that he is a talented man of Hou. It's absurdly praised. How dare I call myself a child prodigy."

Hou Renjie continued to speak in a strange manner: "He died at the age of eight, what is it if he is not a child prodigy? Your Excellency is being humble."

Jia Huan frowned, this kind of hedgehog-like madness was really annoying, so he didn't bother to bother him anymore, he packed it up by himself, took out the four treasures of the study from the test basket and laid them out one by one.

Seeing that Jia Huan ignored him, Hou Renjie felt bored, so he continued to look for his own number.

Just as Jia Huan packed up the number and was about to sit and wait for the paper to be issued, he suddenly heard a scream: "It's unreasonable, why am I so unlucky, it turned out to be a stinky number."

Jia Huan took a look and saw a person in the distance stomping his feet and beating his chest. It was Hou Renjie, so he couldn't help laughing.

It turned out that Hou Renjie had drawn a stinky number. The so-called stinky number was next door to the toilet. Because an exam takes a whole day, candidates will inevitably have to go to the toilet. Hey, candidates who sit near the toilet are lucky. The feeling can only be felt but cannot be expressed in words.

Although gloating is immoral, Jia Huan couldn't help giving Hou a thumbs up in his heart, enjoy it, buddy!

At this time, the instructor of the Confucianism Administration who was in charge of the examination began to hand out the test papers. There were several test papers, and there were also two blank draft papers. Both the test paper and the draft paper had to be written in block letters.
After Jia Huan got the test paper, he was not in a hurry to write, because the test would take a whole day, and there was enough time, so there was no need to be in a hurry.

After the test papers were distributed, the test signal sounded, and the examinees could start writing. Jia Huan first filled in the seat number on the test paper, and then wrote his name outside the seal line, because the county test in Dajin had to smear his name, and his name could not exceed the seal line.

After Jia Huan filled in his name and seat number, he calmly began to read the test paper. There were four questions in total, two essays in four scriptures, one poem in five characters and six rhymes, and then the "Sheng Yu Guang Xun" written in ink by the founding emperor of the Jin Dynasty.

The first four-book article is from "The Analects of Confucius": Three people must have my teacher.

The second four-book article comes from "Great Learning": A gentleman is virtuous and he kisses his relatives, and a villain enjoys himself and benefits himself.

Jia Huan pondered for nearly a few minutes, conceived a general idea in his mind, and then he took a pen to solve the problem with confidence, first wrote it on the draft paper, revised it several times, until he was satisfied, and then carefully transcribed it on the test paper.

During this period, inspectors patrolled back and forth to prevent candidates from cheating. Once cheating was confirmed, they would be banned immediately, and then there would be corresponding punishments.

Of course, the punishment of the county examination is not so perverted, at most it is a punishment, deprivation of examination qualifications, etc.

The exam time always passed very quickly, as if it was noon in the blink of an eye, Jia Huan finished transcribing the two four-book essays that he had written, checked that there were no problems, and then started to eat lunch.

Lunch was not provided in the examination room, so the examinees brought their own bento, and they had to eat a meal at the seat. Generally, they had a light diet, and if it was too greasy, they would easily have diarrhea. Therefore, Pinger prepared two boiled eggs for Jia Huan’s lunch, as well as some pastries and a pot of boiled water.

Let's say that Jia Huan was having his lunch, when suddenly he felt a blur in front of his eyes, and there was an extra person in front of the seat, which turned out to be the chief examiner, that is, Qi Dongyang, the magistrate of Wanping County.

Jia Huan was about to stand up and salute, but County Magistrate Qi waved his hand and said calmly, "Candidates should stay still and continue eating."

Hearing this, Jia Huan couldn't get what he wanted, and continued to eat his eggs unhurriedly, while Qi County Magistrate picked up the two articles that Jia Huan had finished to read, and then left without saying a word.

Jia Huan felt a little baffled, could it be that this guy thought he was young, so he came here to see if he was just pretending?
It really made Jia Huan guess, and it really meant something like this, because Jia Huan was only eight years old, the youngest among the final candidates, which inevitably attracted the attention of the chief examiner, Qi Dongyang, so he took a look at Jia Huan's test paper during the inspection tour, and found that the handwriting was good, and the essay was barely, but it's not bad for an eight-year-old boy to write like this, and the final test is not too bad.

……

In the Jia mansion, Mrs. Wang twirled a Buddhist bead, closed her eyes and muttered something, then suddenly opened her eyes and said, "Girl Feng, the county examination should begin."

Wang Xifeng didn't care about the house now, and she was busy every day, and Jiamu didn't dare to go there without asking her, so she could only wander around Madam Wang's side. Hearing this, she replied, "It should start."

"Do you think Brother Huan can pass the exam?" Mrs. Wang said calmly.

Wang Xifeng said with a little sarcasm: "I just opened the pen last month, and I haven't finished reading the Four Books and Five Classics. It's totally a rush to put it on the shelves. If you pass the exam, you will be a ghost. If Jia Dairu's old fool is either in a daze, he will use Jia Huan to make up the guarantee."

Now only the aunt and nephew are present, and the interests of the two are one, so Wang Xifeng doesn't have so many scruples when speaking.

Mrs. Wang breathed a sigh of relief when she heard the words. Naturally, she did not want Jia Huan to pass the county test. Originally, Jia Huan passed the county test before Baoyu, which made her feel very embarrassed.

Wang Xifeng obviously understood Mrs. Wang's thoughts, and said in a low voice: "Actually, it's very easy to make Huan Lao San fail the exam. Just find someone to say hello to the chief examiner. How dare you not give face to the little Qipin county magistrate?"

Mrs. Wang said lightly: "Let's talk about it!"

She intends to take a look first, if Jia Huan fails even the first round, naturally there is no need to waste energy and favors, and this is a dishonorable thing after all, it is better to not do it or not to do it, Wang Xifeng's usury thing is a lesson.

However, Wang Xifeng obviously didn't learn a lesson from the matter of loan sharks, and even felt that Mrs. Wang was too cautious and timid. If she were, she would have found someone to talk to the examiner. Huan Laosan wants to pass the exam, dreaming!

…………

Besides, Qian Huai, after sending Jia Huan to the examination room, he first found a small restaurant and ate a delicious breakfast, and then went to Fa Cai Gambling to make a fortune. He won a small amount of money a while ago, and he felt that he was a god of gamblers.

If you really complied with the sentence, it only takes three days to learn well and three days to learn badly!

Obviously, Qian Huai, the self-proclaimed "God of Gamblers", can't escape the spell of ten bets and nine losers, or in other words, winning money a while ago was just a way for the gambling house to put a long line to catch big fish. So in just one morning, Qian Huai lost all his money.

This was so miserable that he didn’t even have any money for lunch, so Qian Huai had the cheek to go to the ice cream shop to grab a meal. Tie Niu was a simple and honest person, and Qian Huai was Jia Huan’s attendant, so he let him have a meal, but when he turned around after the meal, he found that today’s turnover in the drawer of the counter was missing three hundred yuan.

Tie Hu couldn't help being furious: "That kid Qian Huai must have stolen it. I'll go find him, bastard, just eat and drink, but his hands and feet are still dirty. This time, I won't abolish him. I'll write my name upside down!"

Never believe in the moral character of a gambler, because a gambler who loses his eyes can do anything, and their moral bottom line is negative most of the time.

This is the case with Qian Huai. After eating at the ice cream shop, not only was he not grateful, but he also saw the money. He stole [-] Wen from the counter in the shop and planned to gamble in the gambling shop.

Qian Huai also had a guilty conscience, so he was in a hurry all the way, looking back from time to time, fearing that Brother Tieniu would find him and catch up, but when he was looking back, someone grabbed him by the collar, covered his mouth and dragged him into a dark alley.

Qian Huai was shocked and wanted to struggle, but was held tightly by the man and couldn't move. Only when he reached the depths of the dark alley did he feel his body loosen and he was thrown to the ground.

Qian Huai regained his composure, only to see several menacing men surrounding him in the darkness, one of them was playing with a gleaming dagger in his hand.

Qian Huai recognized that these were all thugs in the gambling house, and said in horror: "What are you guys doing, I don't owe you gambling money from the gambling house."

"Don't be nervous, just ask you a few questions, and I'll let you go when you're done." The man with the dagger in his hand laughed, showing two rows of sharp teeth.

(End of this chapter)