In a blink of an eye, it’s already July.
This month is the time for ordinary people to commemorate their ancestors.
There is also a saying that it is time to bring the souls of ancestors back home for reunion, so it is not suitable to visit relatives and friends, let alone get married, during this month.
So Yingbao and A Niang stayed at home obediently for a whole month. Except for one time when they went to Lingshan Temple to burn incense with old lady Luo and others, they spent the rest of the time at home arranging the newly bought flower pots and potted plants.
Chunniang also helped her daughter plant a lot of flowers. Some of the seedlings were purchased from flower farmers, and some were grafted and transplanted by herself.
Yingbao also cultivated a number of mandarin orange and peach potted plants in the cave, some of which had flower buds on them. It is estimated that they will bear fruit soon.
That day, his younger brother Jiang Jie suddenly brought Li Xu back.
It turned out that Li Xu was also taking part in the imperial examination this year and had just arrived in the capital not long ago.
However, Wen Shu and Madam Wen did not come with him. They only asked two servants from their family to accompany Li Xu to the capital.
Chunniang quickly asked the maid to clean up a room for Li Xu to live in.
Li Xu was not polite either. He went out with Jiang Jie every day, and sometimes went to Mr. Wu to listen to his lectures.
Soon it was August, and Jiang Jie and Li Xu were going to take part in the imperial examination.
Yingbao prepared a test basket for each of them, as well as some pills and various foods.
Since it was autumn now, the nights were quite cold, so Yingbao prepared quilts and cloaks for the two of them, as well as a candle and a charcoal stove, two windproof oilcloths, a hammer, nails, and so on.
Thinking of his brother's predicament during the provincial examination, he prepared a urinal and a chamber pot with a lid for him.
If my brother has a stomachache and needs to go to the toilet, he can use the chamber pot and then take it out and throw it away. It is better than having the invigilator put a shit mark on the test paper.
The metropolitan examination was the same as the provincial examination, with three sessions, each lasting three days, with a day of rest in between, for a total of nine days.
During these nine days, the candidates huddled in a small cell and couldn't even sleep at night.
If it happens to be a windy or rainy day, the candidates may catch a cold and fall ill, or their test papers may get wet, and all their ten years of hard study will be wasted.
It was early in the morning and it was pitch black outside. Yingbao and her second cousin sent Jiang Jie and Li Xu to the outside of the Imperial Examination Hall. After watching them carry the heavy examination baskets into the gate of the Imperial Examination Hall, they drove the carriage back.
It was still dark at this moment, Jiang Quan went back to take a nap, while Ying Bao lay with A Niang and talked.
"Baoer, do you think Xiaojie will win?" Chunniang asked.
Yingbao: “Yes.” It doesn’t matter if he fails. He is still young and can take the exam again in three years.
Chunniang: "When Xiaojie passes the exam and becomes an official, I will ask Old Madam Wu to find a good marriage for you."
Yingbao was confused.
Chunniang sighed: "Bao'er, you can't delay it any longer. Look at other people, who all get engaged at the age of thirteen or fourteen and get married at fifteen or sixteen. When mother married your father, it was only... "
Yingbao turned her head: "But what?"
Chun Niang coughed lightly, "She is only in her teens."
Yingbao giggled: "I heard from Dad that you married him when you were nineteen."
"Nonsense! Mother was only eighteen at that time." Chun Niang said angrily, "Your father is just telling you nonsense!"
Yingbao laughed for a while, then said seriously, "Mom, I'm telling you the truth. When I turn 21, I will get married."
"What? Twenty-one?" Chun Niang pinched her daughter and said, "Will there be anyone of the same age waiting for you by then?"
The latest a man could get married was when he was 20 years old. Even if he did not get married, someone would have arranged an engagement for him and he would just be waiting for his new bride to grow up.
"Then I won't get married in the future." It didn't matter whether she got married or not, she just wanted to stay with her parents.
"No!" Chunniang thought for a while and said, "Why don't you get engaged first and wait... until you are twenty-one before getting married."
Yingbao was speechless.
A Niang is thinking too simply. No man would wait until that time.
Moreover, if I died at the age of twenty-one, wouldn’t it bring misery to my family
Chunniang was still talking to herself: "I think Wei Zhan is a good kid, and Wen Hengyin is not bad either. You are familiar with their mother, so the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law will get along well in the future."
"And Xiao Yao, your Granny Tang mentioned him last time, saying that Xiao Yao is already a lieutenant, and might be promoted again in the near future."
"If you don't like them, I will ask Mrs. Wu to help..."
Chunniang turned her head and found that her daughter was sleeping with her eyes closed and snoring softly.
"Silly girl." She pinched her daughter's nose and closed her eyes.
...
On the third day, Yingbao and her second cousin went to pick someone up.
At the gate of the Imperial Examination Hall, candidates came out one after another carrying their examination baskets.
Their clothes were all wrinkled and their hair was messy. They staggered out of the range of the barricades.
Some of them had pale faces and untidy beards, as if they were about to faint at any moment.
Their servants or family members rushed forward to support them and carried them onto donkey carts or ox carts.
Yingbao frowned and stood in front of the carriage looking towards the tribute hall.
More and more people came out, some were happy, some were sad.
Someone actually fainted and was carried out of the Examination Hall by the bailiffs.
After finally seeing her younger brother Jiang Jie, Yingbao waved to him.
Jiang Quan hurried forward, took Jiang Jie's exam basket and put it on the carriage.
Jiang Jie was in pretty good condition. He shyly asked his sister to leave and threw the chamber pot in the examination basket into the trash.
Soon Li Xu came out, and Jiang Quan ran over to help him carry the exam basket and helped him into the carriage.
When they returned home, Chunniang asked Mudan Xinghua to boil water for Jiang Jie and Li Xu to take a bath and change clothes.
The two of them even washed their hair with soapnut powder, changed into clean clothes, and sat down to eat.
Yingbao cooked chicken porridge for them and added Wudingzhi to it.
After dinner, the two of them hurried to bed, while Chunniang and Yingbao rearranged the things in their exam basket.
All the food that had been placed in the examination basket had been eaten up, and several pills were missing, which meant that they had been eaten by the two of them.
Yingbao put two more packets of snacks with Wudingzhi added into the basket and also replenished the medicine pills.
In the early morning of the next day, I sent them to the examination room again...
After the three exams, Jiang Jie and Li Xu both looked exhausted.
It’s no wonder. Not being able to get a good rest every night for several days in a row would be too much for even an iron man.
After resting at home for a day, Mr. Wu came.
He looked at the answers the two had copied back, stroked his beard and smiled, "Not bad, if nothing unexpected happens, you two will definitely make the list."
Upon hearing this, Jiang Jie and Li Xu breathed a sigh of relief and both bowed to Mr. Wu to express their gratitude.
The next step is to wait for the results to be announced.
Meanwhile, the Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching.
Yingbao prepared three gifts, one for Mr. Wu and Wu Daozi, and one for the Luo family.
Each gift included two baskets of fruits, two boxes of golden fungus, two boxes of snow fungus, and two jars of wine.
They then returned gifts, including moon cakes in exquisite wooden boxes, the most famous local four-color pastries, and some silk fabrics.
After the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Jiang family’s house was completely repaired and the furniture inside was made.
Only the pond has not recovered yet, and it will probably take another two or three months.
Yingbao placed many potted plants in the inner courtyard, including crabapples, hollyhocks, peonies, peach blossoms, plum blossoms, hibiscus, etc. Almost all of them are in bloom, and the whole place is full of colorful flowers.
Then she wrote invitations and asked the servants to deliver them to the Luo family, Mr. Wu and Wu Daozi, inviting them to visit her home the next day.
In order to prepare cakes and ingredients for the banquet, Yingbao took Xinghua to the market to buy them.
As the market was some distance from her home, she asked the driver to take them there.
The driver stopped the car in front of a pastry shop, and Yingbao and Xinghua got off.
"These pastries are so beautiful." Xinghua was stunned by the styles of pastries in the shop.
But what was even more shocking was their price: "Oh my god! A small package costs two kan!"
Yingbao ignored Xinghua's surprise and asked the store to pack six packets of dim sum.
Xinghua was carrying the snacks carefully, and just as she turned around, she bumped into someone and almost dropped the snacks on the ground.
"Oh my, what's wrong with you?" Xinghua screamed and quickly picked up the snack.
Yingbao looked up and saw several people standing at the door of the shop, two of whom were particularly eye-catching.
She recognized at a glance that the two women were Han Yueniang and her daughter Chen Tiantian.
And the person standing next to them was Xiao Chengjun.
It's really a narrow road for enemies to meet. Even in the capital, I can still meet a few unlucky people.