Yingbao, her father, her brother and others took a boat to the provincial capital. There were also several students who passed the county examination on the same boat.
They formed a joint guarantee with Jiang Jie, so naturally they had to go to the provincial capital together.
After sailing on the boat for a few days, we finally arrived at the city.
The last time Yingbao was in the capital, she asked Madam Wen to help her buy a yard with five houses, which were fully furnished with all kinds of furniture.
Now she lives in this house with a group of people.
Mrs. Wen was very happy to learn that Jiang Jie had ranked first in the county exam, but in order not to affect Jiang Jie's studies, she did not let her son and Wei Zhan come to disturb him.
After Yingbao arrived in the city, she went to the market to buy vegetables and meat, and then came back to give them to her father, who led a few people to cook.
There are quite a few people living in the house now, including four students who have been guarantored, two students on government stipends who have acted as guarantors for them, and five or six people who are accompanying them. Together with the four members of the family and Mr. Wu, there are more than twenty people in the house.
Fortunately, these people were very gentle and of good character. Even if they envied Jiang Jie for having Mr. Wu as his teacher, they would just quietly move a small stool and sit outside the window to learn from him, and had no intention of entering the house to disturb him.
Those who accompanied the students to take the exam dared not utter a word, for fear of disturbing their own family members who were trying to steal their knowledge.
April soon arrived, and everyone went to the government office to get their examination certificates, and then took the exam.
The scale of the provincial examination is much larger than that of the county examination, with nearly a thousand people taking the exam.
After Jiang Jie had gone through the county examination, he was no longer afraid.
Anyway, I have the pills given by my sister and the delicious Poria cocos cookies, so I can handle taking five exams, let alone three.
The provincial examination tested calligraphy, miscellaneous essays, and policy essays, with the main content being memorization, poetry, and practical political views.
During Jiang Jie's travels with his master, he had already formed his own opinions on current affairs and political affairs. He also read a lot of classic literature. With the Wu Ding Zhi given by his sister to wake up his mind, he was able to answer the essays with ease.
After the three exams, everyone had to wait in the city for the results to be announced.
The four candidates living in Yingbao's house did not rest either. They and the two students on government stipends still learned from Mr. Wu under his window every day.
Yuanbao was fortunate enough to be with his little cousin and study with him openly.
Ten days later, the results were announced, and Yuanbao and Yingbao ran to the entrance of the examination room to see the list.
There was a sound of gong, and the bailiff came out with the notice and posted it in the notice booth.
Many scholars and their families crowded over to watch.
"Got it! Xiaojie got third place!" Yuanbao shouted in surprise while pointing at the list.
Yingbao also saw it and was very happy.
If my younger brother can get this result in the provincial examination, he will most likely pass the academy examination. By then, I will be the sister of a scholar, hahahaha!
As soon as the list was released, the gatekeeper secretly gave the names and rankings of the successful students to the messengers waiting outside, asking them to take the list and report the good news. When the reward money was received, he would also give some of it to them.
There are also some rules for ranking. The higher the ranking, the more reward money the reporter may get.
After receiving a few long white slips, a pair of messengers rushed to the place written on the slips to report the good news.
Some places were far away, but they had to go to the top of the list. Not only did they have to go to the host family to announce the good news, but they also had to go to the families of their immediate relatives, such as their grandparents. After each trip, they could earn a few strings of coins or even dozens of strings of coins, which was enough to feed them for the whole year.
Here, Yingbao and Yuanbao ran back quickly to tell their family the good news.
But the messenger ran faster than them. He came to their door in the morning to report the good news, took the reward money and left quickly.
There is another ship at the dock about to leave for Qinchuan County, and they can't delay.
It was completely expected by Mr. Wu that his young apprentice would be among the top three in the exam.
"The next step is the college entrance examination, which is expected to be held in May. During this time, you should practice your poetry and songs well." The young apprentice suffered from his poor poetry and songs, so Mr. Wu decided to help him improve his poetry and songs.
Jiang Jie nodded, and obediently took the book to the yard to practice writing poetry.
There are more than twenty days left before the college entrance examination, which is more difficult than the provincial examination. He has to practice hard.
During this time, Yingbao went to the market in the city alone to buy many things, including food and vegetable seeds, and secretly put them into the cave. She also took out the fruits and vegetables in the cave and gave them to her father, asking him to share them with everyone.
Among the four students who were preparing for the imperial examinations and who were staying at home, one failed the provincial examination and returned home with his servant. Therefore, Jiang Jie had to find another person to come in as the guarantor of the five people.
Fortunately, the student on government stipend had connections and quickly found someone to fill the position.
The May entrance examination finally arrived.
The weather has been getting hotter these days and mosquitoes have appeared.
Yingbao prepared a mosquito repellent sachet for her brother, as well as a small mosquito net that could be opened with a stretch, a piece of oilcloth and a raincoat made of oilcloth.
At night, my brother only needs to nail four nails on the wall and tie the four corners of the mosquito net to the nails. Then he can sleep soundly and it will not affect his exam the next day.
But on the day of the exam, the sky suddenly became windy, and soon the sky was covered with dark clouds and heavy rain began to fall.
Fortunately, Jiang Jie saw that the situation was not right, so he rolled up the test paper and put it in an oil paper bucket, thus preventing it from getting wet.
Jiang Jie stood on a bench and nailed the oilcloth he brought to the door to block out the wind and rain.
But the rain was getting heavier and heavier, blowing into the call center from time to time. Even with the tarpaulin, it couldn't completely block it out.
Jiang Jie had no choice but to put on the raincoat his sister made of oilcloth and also put on a hat.
After more than an hour, the rain finally subsided.
Jiang Jie wiped the rain off the chopping board and then soaked it with cotton cloth to dry it.
But you still can't spread the paper, otherwise the words will become blurred and unreadable.
He was a little anxious.
If you continue like this, you won’t be able to finish the test.
After thinking for a while, Jiang Jie began to look through the exam basket.
Finally, I found a piece of dry oil paper.
This piece of oil paper is not big, but it can be placed on the board just right.
Jiang Jie was overjoyed and quickly took out the test paper and started answering the questions.
It was still raining outside, but the rain was not heavy.
After Jiang Jie finished answering a test paper, he let it dry, then carefully rolled it up and put it in an oil paper bucket...
Finally, it was time to collect the answer sheets. Jiang Jie placed all the answer sheets on the chopping board in front of him and watched the clerk collect them.
After I packed up my things and walked out, I saw many people looking dejected.
A rain soaked a lot of test papers. They finally dried the papers with great difficulty, but writing on such papers was too ugly.
So they have basically no hope of passing the college entrance examination this time.
Jiang Jie also had a piece of wet paper, but he used the small charcoal hand warmer his sister gave him to iron the paper flat and dry it, so that when he wrote on it it was just like new paper.
After the last exam, everyone waited for another twenty days until the results were finally announced.
This time, Jiang Sanlang went to see the list with his daughter and nephew Yuanbao.
When Jiang Sanlang saw that his son still ranked third, he was overjoyed. But he was afraid that he had made a mistake, so he asked his daughter, "Bao'er, help Dad, is that your brother's name?"