Idle courtiers

Chapter 72 Charade
Indeed, that house is not big and quite remote.It is located under a small hill in the west of the city.It is an ordinary courtyard with a vegetable field behind it, just like ordinary residents in the city.

Moreover, the house is also old. I estimated the value, and it was between 50 and 5 taels of silver.That is to say, what it looks like in modern society is [-] to [-] RMB. There is no way, the house in the Ming Dynasty was only at this price, and it has not yet reached the point where a house in later generations will empty the savings of several generations.In terms of prices, the Ming Empire was still very friendly to the people.

Zhou Nan was amused in his heart, and thought to himself: Lao Shui was able to do a good job with a favor at the beginning, but now it costs 50 taels, which is really ridiculous.

Yunniang stood in the vegetable garden, looked at Xiaolan with a hoe and weeded with a smile, and asked, "Sir, since you don't know about this, let's just return the house to others, and naturally we can't make things difficult for you."

Zhou Nan could see that she really liked this place, smiled, and said, "If you don't want to go back, just stay! The sailor has something to ask me, so it's okay to help him casually, it doesn't matter."

That's right, Sai Yuanwai is also a person with the ability to act and execute. He transferred the house to his own name without anyone noticing, and if he wanted to return it, he would not go back at all.

Yunniang followed him, so she should be given a home in the county.As for Lao Shui's nephew, since the tone has disappeared, and since the other party has shown sincerity, there is no need to completely freeze the relationship.

Yunniang was overjoyed: "Then I will start moving tomorrow, Mr. Xianggong, do you think this is good?"

"Okay, it's up to you." Zhou Nan nodded.

That night, Yunniang suffered from insomnia again.There is a problem with her, she can't keep things in her mind.Whenever something happened, even if it was a trip to my mother's house, I would think about it, and I was half tired from tossing about it.

Zhou Nan was also disturbed by her, so she couldn't help but said: "My lady, if you continue to bake sesame seed cakes on the bed like this, I'm going to sleep in the main room. Forget it, I'd better get up and read a few pages of books!"

He has a habit of getting up and reading as soon as he suffers from insomnia. He only needs to read a few pages, and the sleepiness will stop as promised.

As a man among the public, and he didn’t have to take the imperial examination, he naturally wouldn’t read the Four Books and Five Classics. Zhou Nan only read novels, so he lit the lamp and touched a copy of "Journey to the West" from under his pillow. When the ancestor wrote that chapter, his heart was shocked suddenly, and he couldn't help but said: "I know the topic of this year's county test, what a master Shi, you are playing charades with me!"

In the book "Journey to the West", the ancestor Bodhi preached and asked Monkey King what method to learn.After talking about a few things, the Monkey King just asked, "Is it possible to live forever?" Patriarch Bodhi replied, "No."

The monkey shook his head: "If you don't learn, you don't learn."

Several times, Bodhi's old team got annoyed, and jumped off the high platform with a "duh", holding a ruler in hand, and designated Wukong and said, "You hozen, you don't learn this way, you don't learn that way, what do you do?" He hit him three times, walked in with his hands behind his back, closed the middle door, and left the crowd.

Everyone in the class listened to the lecture was terrified, and they all complained to Wukong: "You are very shameless! The master taught you the Tao, why didn't you learn it, but talked back to the master! This has offended him, I don't know When will you come out!" At this time, they resented him very much, and also despised him.Wukong wasn't annoyed at all, he just smiled along his face.It turned out that the monkey king had already broken the mystery of the plate and was secretly in his heart.So don't compete with everyone, just be patient and speechless.If the patriarch beat him three times, teach him to be careful at the third watch; if he walks inside with his hands behind his back, and closes the middle door, teach him to advance through the back door, and teach him the way from the secret place.

At the middle of the night, Sun Wukong entered the patriarch's room from behind, and he really learned the 72 transformations and somersaulting clouds of Bodhi's ancestors.

Today in the back office of Shizhi County, it was mentioned that the third son of the Mei family, Meipu County, would be given the first name in the county test. To be on the safe side, Zhou Nan asked about the exam questions for this subject.Shi Jieren suddenly put on a straight face and reprimanded Zhou Nan, driving him out.

In retrospect, there is one detail worth pondering.At that time, Shi Zhixian patted a book on the table vigorously.

Zhou Nan may not have outstanding other abilities, but there are two natural endowments, one is a good memory, and the other is carefulness.Back then, relying on a passable memory, I was admitted to university without any effort.As for being careful, I was praised by my boss and colleagues when I joined the work later.

The book that Shi Zhixian slapped with his hands today is suddenly "The Doctrine of the Mean", and there is a two-finger-wide note in the book, on which the words "Zhizhizhishi" are written in small letters.

Could it be that the title of the present county examination is "The Reality of Wisdom", which comes from "The Doctrine of the Mean"?
It must be, haha, Shi Jieren missed questions for me in this way, it’s too cunning.Zhou Nan couldn't help but want to laugh, cheating in imperial examinations is a felony.Generally, if they are arrested, the examinee will be dismissed directly and will not be an official for life; the examiner will be dismissed from office.

This was still the Ming Dynasty that was more tolerant of literati and scholars.If it was changed to the later Qing Dynasty, it would directly send you a house raid and exterminate your family, killing a lot of people.

Of course, this refers to the township examination and the subsequent general examination, the boy's examination is not so strict.

However, if it gets out, it will be a scandal, which will greatly affect his official career.

The reason why the unspoken rules are unspoken rules lies in everyone's heart. Now you put the matter on the bright side and directly miss the questions for the relevant households. The food of the county magistrate in Shizhi County is too ugly.

Shi Jieren missed questions in such a clever way, it is really cunning, it can be seen that this person does not want to be so confused on the surface!Sure enough, people who can study and become officials these days are not stupid, Zhou Nan couldn't help sighing.

With the nod of the county honoree and the examination questions for this year's county examination, Mei Pu's top spot is considered stable, and Zhou Nan heaves a long sigh of relief.

That night, he had a dream.I dreamed that Mei Pu had a smooth journey in the boy's examination, and she was the first in the high school examination at the present Academy of Sciences, and successfully won the title of scholar.

The Mei family was overjoyed. Not only did they forgive their debt of 300 taels of silver, but they also betrothed Miss Mei Er to themselves as an equal wife.

After Chuichuida entered the bridal chamber, the picture changed again.But it turns out that the person being targeted has become Sister Su.

The fair and plump woman put her hands around her waist and said softly: "Daddy, my Daddy, I am looking forward to you. Father-in-law gave me to you, and from now on, you and I can finally live together forever. Daddy, my dear!" miss you."

"Ah!" Zhou Nan couldn't help moaning, and opened his eyes suddenly, only to find that the sky outside had already brightened.

Reminiscing about the beautiful scenery in the dream, and remembering the feeling of Sister Su, Zhou Nan suddenly had an indescribable feeling: I don't know how the woman is doing now, is she still being abused by her mother-in-law?
In fact, she is not a bad person, and she is also affectionate and righteous to herself.In order to protect myself, I took her back to Anton, which was equivalent to pushing her into the fire pit.

Is it too unreasonable for me to do this?
Zhou Nan suddenly felt a sense of guilt, and knew that she might not see her again in the future.

Today is the deadline for county test registration, and the application ends in the afternoon.The papers will be printed tomorrow, and candidates will be able to enter the examination room in another nine days.

On the last day, all those who should sign up have signed up, and I haven't seen many schoolchildren throughout the morning.

Zhou Nan remembered seeing the question from the county lord yesterday, so he took a copy of "The Doctrine of the Mean" from the shelf and read it word by word, trying to find the source of the test question.

Looking at it this way, I find it interesting.

In fact, as a liberal arts student at a prestigious university and a lover of Chinese studies and literature and history, classical Chinese is no problem for him.He can basically read this Confucian classic in short sentences, and he can also understand the meaning of it, but it is also somewhat interesting.

However, after reading the book all day, I didn't see the words "the reality of wisdom".

"Could it be that I was thinking wrong?" Zhou Nan was stunned: "Could I have misunderstood what Shi Jieren meant?"

He refused to give up, and read "The Doctrine of the Mean" again, but he still couldn't find it.

At the moment, I was a little confused, and I wanted to ask a scholar, but then I thought, how important this matter is, how can others know if the law is not passed on to others.

"It seems that we have to go to Mei's house to discuss with Mei Pu."

The grievances between me and the Mei family were put aside temporarily before the end of the boy's trial, but the hatred between the two parties could not be resolved. It was a bit embarrassing to visit this time. From the bottom of my heart, Zhou Nan was still unwilling.

After hesitating for a long time, Zhou Nan made up his mind and went straight to look for Meipu without going home after leaving the Yamen.

After waiting at the door of Mei's house for a while, Butler Jin came out and led him to the study.

Mei Kang and Mapu father and son are already waiting there.

Seeing him, Mei Pu's eyes turned red, and scolded: "You thief Xu, you insulted my Mei family too much, how dare you come to the door?"

Zhou Nan smiled: "Mr. Mei San, I am your private school teacher. I will come to your door to urge you to study and teach you knowledge after taking your family's Shuxiu. This is what Mr. Mei said in front of the people in the city. I Naturally, you can come and go when you want.”

"You!" Mei Pu was furious, and was about to hit Zhou Nan with her fist raised.

"Pu Er, stop!" Mei Kang stopped his son and looked at Zhou Nan coldly: "Master Zhou, as the saying goes, weasels come into the house for nothing. I'm afraid you didn't come here today to test my son's knowledge." Yes. Say, what's the matter, and leave quickly after you finish speaking, I don't have dinner prepared for you at home. "

"I'm sorry, I'm really sure about Zhou Nan's dinner at your Mei family today." Zhou Nan swayed Erlang's legs, and said with a smile, "Today I really came to teach the third son how to read."

"You!" Meipu was about to explode again.

Zhou Nan suddenly asked: "Mei Pu, what is Zhi Zhishi's last and next sentence?"

"What?" Mei Pu was stunned, after all he had studied for many years.When the ancients read books, the first thing they needed to do was to memorize the "Four Books" and "Five Classics" thoroughly.Because the questions in the imperial examination room are all taken from these nine books, if the questions come out, you don't even know the source, so why write stereotyped articles.

The words and sentences in the "Four Books" have been memorized repeatedly for many years. It can be said that they have been imprinted in his bones. "The reality of wisdom is to know that both of these are true."

Zhou Nan asked again: "From He Dian?"

Mei Pu was furious: "From "Mencius", the thief surnamed Zhou, are you here to bury the young master?"

This is common sense, and asking such questions is tantamount to teasing.

"Wait a minute." Zhou Nan waved his hand, and casually pulled out a copy of "Mencius" from the bookshelf, flipped through it for a long time, and finally found that sentence.

In connection with the context, the meaning of this sentence is: the essence of benevolence is to serve parents; the essence of righteousness is to obey the elder brother; the essence of wisdom is to understand the principles of these two aspects without departing from them.

It's about filial piety.

He couldn't help shaking his head in his heart: Shi Zhixian, you are so cunning, it turns out that this sentence comes from "Mencius" instead of "The Doctrine of the Mean".This year, the county tried out a tower-cutting question that is rare, and I am afraid that some people will have to hand in blank papers by then.

(End of this chapter)