Hu Shanwei treated the examination room as her own home and wrote furiously from early morning till dusk, in a state of near oblivion. She did not stop writing until the sound of a gong and the announcement of the end of the examination by the invigilator, who would collect the papers and cover the names, was made.
Until the time to hand in the paper, Hu Shanwei had not finished answering the questions and only finished half of one question.
The second to last question in the third test paper was about the twelfth chapter of "The Analects of Women", "Keeping Chastity".
"In ancient times, virtuous women were nine times virtuous and three times chaste. Their names are recorded in history and passed down to this day. When there is a woman at home, do not go out. When there is a guest at the door, do not make a sound. Do not talk privately, do not listen to obscene sounds... If one thing goes wrong, all things will fail. When a husband and wife are married, their loyalty is worth a thousand gold. If there is misfortune, they will fall in love first. Three years of mourning, keep your will and heart firm..."
Hu Shanwei could understand the rest of the content, but she was very confused by the sentence "If one fails in one line, all other lines will fail":
The Zuo Zhuan says, "It is the greatest virtue to know one's mistakes and correct them." Confucius said, "Only when one knows shame can one become courageous." There is also a folk saying that a prodigal who returns is worth more than gold. These are all ways of encouraging people to correct their mistakes.
Why is it that a man who can correct his mistakes is a good person and is "brave", while a woman who makes a mistake in one area will "fail in everything"
Hu Shanwei disagreed with this statement in The Analects of Women from the bottom of his heart, but when discussing this question, he absolutely could not write down his true feelings.
She experienced the tortuous life of her family falling into poverty, her mother's tragic death, her husband's death in battle, her father's alienation, her stepmother's cruelty, and secretly sending a letter to take the imperial examination. She knew that in order to face the reality, she must first learn to endure and compromise.
However, as I wrote what I meant to say, my handwriting gradually became difficult and my thoughts became less smooth. By the time I handed in the paper, I had only finished half of my discussion.
The little palace maid took away the test paper, and the invigilator covered the name of "Hu Shanwei" on the spot and waited for the examiners to mark the papers.
Hu Shanwei was feeling uneasy, but she comforted herself by thinking that although she had not finished writing, she had done well in these seventeen questions, especially the part about the Four Books and Five Classics. She had done her best in this exam, and even if she failed, she could only blame it on her lack of knowledge.
The female officials taking the exam lined up and walked out of the wet nurse's house. After a whole day of examinations, they were mentally and physically overwhelmed. Several of them accidentally dropped their examination bags and burst into tears as soon as they came out of the examination room.
There were also women with pale faces and poor performance who stood upright like zombies and left the examination room in a state of confusion.
There were also women who were confident that they were performing steadily and were determined to win, with relaxed expressions and eyes that almost overflowed with confidence.
Compared with the extreme joys and sorrows of these women, Hu Shanwei's tired expression was simply indistinguishable from the crowd and did not stand out.
Someone tapped her left shoulder gently.
Hu Shanwei turned around and thought she looked familiar. After thinking for a while, he realized that she was a candidate in the same examination room. She looked about seventeen or eighteen years old, with a petite figure, a round face and almond eyes. She was also the first person to raise her hand to say she wanted to go to the toilet.
The girl pointed at her hand holding Kaolan curiously, "Your hand...what's wrong?"
Hu Shanwei's hands were covered with chilblains, like strawberries. She was puzzled and said, "Oh, it's chilblains."
"So this is what the legendary frostbite looks like!" the girl exclaimed.
The girl was making a lot of noise, and the candidates around her couldn't help but look at Hu Shanwei's chilblained hands with a mixture of sympathy and contempt.
Hu Shanwei felt offended and did not stop, but walked to the front of the line carrying the test basket.
The girl ran after him and apologized, her accent showing: "I'm sorry, it's all my fault."
Hu Shanwei didn't understand, so the girl slapped her head and changed her words to Mandarin: "I'm sorry, I'm from Guangzhou, my name is Chen Ermei, it's warm over there all year round, and I've never seen frostbite. I didn't expect that a place like Nanjing, south of the Yangtze River, would be so cold that it would cause frostbite."
In fact, she was not like this before. She only got frostbite for the first time last winter. Hu Shanwei looked at her poor hands. This big test drained all her energy. She was tired and too lazy to explain. She nodded to show that she accepted the apology and turned to leave.
Chen Ermei was about to explain further, but her legs were too short and she failed to catch up with Hu Shanwei.
Going south, you will pass through the Xi'an Gate of the Imperial City. Outside the gate, there will be a huge crowd of family and friends waiting to pick up the examinees.
"Girl! Here!" The coachman who took her to the exam this morning waved a half-eaten crab shell yellow sesame cake in his hand and helped her squeeze out of the crowd. The coachman had been waiting for a long time and bought a sesame cake for dinner for fear of missing the chance to pick her up.
Hu Shanwei paid half a dollar for the fare in advance and agreed to pick him up after the exam.
By the time the two of them squeezed to the carriage, the salty and fragrant crab-shell-like crispy crust on the sesame cake had been eaten away by the crowd. The coachman finished it in a few bites and whipped the carriage to drive away.
At this time, the moon was dim and the stars were sparse in the sky. Outside Xihua Gate was Datong Street, a main road that ran through the north and south of Nanjing City. The road was straight, and although it was not completely dark yet, the shops along the street had already lit lanterns to attract customers.
The carriage was galloping, making the pens, inkstones and brushes in Kaolan tremble. Hu Shanwei was extremely tired, his eyes slightly closed, as if he was half asleep. But when they arrived at a certain place, his body suddenly tilted to the right, indicating that the carriage was climbing higher and should be passing a curved arch bridge.
Hu Shanwei's heart skipped a beat and he subconsciously opened the carriage window.
The carriage was passing Wenchang Bridge. After crossing the bridge, we arrived at the territory of Yinglingfang. There was a row of houses along the river below Wenchang Bridge, all of which were now lit up with lights. Among them was a house that Hu Shanwei was very familiar with.
That was her fiancé's home. After her fiancé died in the war, her only relative, her widowed mother, was so sad that she died within two months. That room had been empty for two years, so why was the light on now
"Stop the car." Hu Shanwei shouted.
Hu Shanwei got out of the car and ran all the way to his fiancé's house. Just as he was about to see what was going on, a young couple came out with a little boy.
The exterior of the house was freshly painted, and there was a wooden sign hanging at the door with the words "Li's House" written on it.
It turned out that the house had changed hands.
Things are different, people have changed, everything is over, tears flow before I can speak.
Tears rolled down my cheeks, fell into the dust, and disappeared immediately.
When Hu Shanwei returned to the carriage, his face was back to normal. "Let's go."
When I got home, it was just dinner time. The maid brought the food to the table. My father Hu Rong was not at home. My stepmother Chen said coldly, "You played outside all day today. You didn't copy any books or clean the floor. How dare you eat?"
Hu Shanwei went to the well in the yard to fetch a bucket of water, then carried the bucket and went to the second floor to hide it with great effort.
There were quite a few customers in the collection, most of them were poor students of the Imperial College, wearing the student's characteristic blue shirt. The rare handwritten books in the collection were very expensive, so they could not afford them and basically read them for nothing.
Hu Shanwei picked up the mop and washed the mop in the wooden bucket, saying, "It's closing time, everyone please go back."
Some guests reluctantly put down their books and went downstairs, but most people did not move and continued to read their books under the lamp.
These poor students are like spinning tops, they can't be taken away unless they are pulled away.
Hu Shanwei was used to this and she started to drive people away.
Hu Shanwei pushed the mop back and forth to mop the floor and chased people away, "Make way! Make way! Watch your feet! This guest, please move a little, and that guest, please raise your feet."
The guests were afraid that the dirty water from the mop would splash onto their clothes, so they all avoided it and left in large numbers.
There was only one customer who, no matter how Hu Shanwei attacked him with the mop, would either lift his left leg or his right foot, and was unwilling to put down the book in his hand.
Hu Shanwei has rich experience in dealing with shameless customers who come to watch for free. She changed her attack method from mopping the floor from front to back to mopping in circles, wielding the mop vigorously.
The guest couldn't jump and watch at the same time, that would be like a monkey show. He countered the trick by bringing a ladder, climbing up the ladder to the top of the bookshelf, away from the mop, and continued reading.
I have never seen such a shameless person!
Hu Shanwei was amazed and said, "The light here is not good, be careful not to hurt your eyes."
It means you should leave quickly.
The guest tested the thickness of the last few pages with his fingers and said, "There are only a dozen pages left to finish."
At this time, Hu Shanwei was tired and hungry, and the chilblains on the back of his hands were still burning and itchy. He couldn't help but get angry and wiped the bottom of the ladder with the mop. The floor had just been mopped and was slippery. The ladder was unstable and tilted to the left.
The guest fell backwards, and Hu Shanwei, who was holding the mop, had no time to react. She watched the guest's buttocks fall on the mop head. She quickly let go and dodged. The guest fell on the dirty and damp mop, and a large area of her blue shirt was stained.
Fortunately, the guest held the book against his chest and it was not damaged.
Hu Shanwei took the book from the customer and said, "We are closed. Please go back."
The guest didn't cry out in pain, but just groaned when he landed, then held his waist and slowly stood up, "I only have a dozen pages left to finish, please be accommodating, young lady."
"Then come back tomorrow." Hu Shanwei said.
"Merchants only care about profit, huh." The customer walked away angrily.
Hu Shanwei saw a guest leading out an old horse from the Tibetan temple. He mounted the horse easily by stepping on the stirrups without using the mounting stone at the door. However, the moment the guest's buttocks landed on the saddle, he bounced up as if struck by lightning, and then turned over and dismounted, leading the horse away.
It seems that he was injured by the mop just now.
Hu Shanwei closed the window and put the book back to its original place, only to find that it was a military book, "Questions and Answers between Li Weigong", which was a question and answer between Emperor Taizong of Tang Li Shimin and General Li Jing.
Why would a student of the Imperial College read a military book? He must have been just passing the time when he had nothing else to do.
Hu Shanwei felt even more contempt for this free-lance guest. He blew out the lantern and went downstairs carrying a bucket of dirty water.
She went to the yard to pour out the dirty water, wash her hands and eat, but found that Chen was not waiting for her. She had finished eating and went back to lie down.
Hu Shanwei looked at the table full of cold leftovers. She was obviously starving, but she immediately lost her appetite.
The little maid was a little flustered, "Miss, I'll heat it up for you."
"No, I'll go out to eat." Hu Shanwei went out. She still had the silver money her father gave her today, and there was still three taels of silver left.
Hu Shanwei went to a noodle shop and ordered a bowl of vegetarian noodles, a plate of salted duck, a steamed sea bass, puffer fish sashimi, a basket of crab roe buns, Longjing shrimps, and a snack of butter-fried snails.
After silently calculating the price, Shanwei ordered another pot of Huadiao tea, spending exactly three taels of silver.
Today is her birthday. She always celebrated it like this in the past. The whole family would go out to a restaurant for a good meal, feast on the food, and finally have a bowl of longevity noodles together. I guess her father has forgotten about it this year.
While eating longevity noodles, Hu Shanwei made a wish in his heart: to pass the exam and enter the palace as a female official.
As she was thinking, the chilblains on her hands began to itch again, as if countless small animals inside her hands were rebelling, trying to scratch her skin and flesh and crawl out. Sometimes the itch would wake her up in the middle of the night.
Hu Shanwei put down his chopsticks and took out the frostbite cream to apply on his hands.
"Is it you?" Someone came over to chat with her and saw her hand being treated with medicine. "Your hand - your stepmother is so mean. When I was reading at your house, I often saw her bullying you. You were bullied by her like this? Why didn't you resist?"
This person was the last customer who watched for free. As his butt was injured, he was holding a bowl of noodles and eating while standing. He didn't dare to sit down. He happened to be in a high position and saw Hu Shanwei.
Hu Shanwei said coldly: "It's none of your business." It seems that this person is a habitual offender of reading books for free in bookstores.
The man was met with a rebuff, so he put the bowl of noodles in his hand down on the table and said sarcastically, "Even if you showed half the power you showed when you chased away the customers at closing time, she wouldn't dare to abuse you like this."
Hu Shanwei ignored him. The plaster took effect and the back of her hand felt cool. She picked up the chopsticks and continued to eat noodles with her head down.
The man had no choice but to take the bowl and leave, saying, "I feel sorry for your misfortune and angry for your lack of resistance when I meet someone like you. I don't even bother to care about you."
Hu Shanwei looked up at the man's back. The lower half of his blue shirt was covered in dirty water from the mop, and he looked in a miserable state. He thought, "Who wants you to take care of me? Just take care of yourself."
After finishing his birthday noodles, Hu Shanwei called the waiter to settle the bill and gave him three taels of silver. However, the waiter said, "The student who was eating noodles standing up has already paid."
You can pay three taels of silver for a stranger’s meal, but you are so shameless as to read books for free in a bookstore
This person is not poor, he is just stupid. Hu Shanwei wondered how such a person could enter the Imperial College