Even though he was at the tail end, even though he was the last one, he was still a high-ranking juren, and his status was very different.
No matter whether the students in the inn were jealous, envious, or looked at Zhu Ping'an with tinted glasses, he won, and he won. The students came over in twos and threes to thank Zhu Ping'an, and Zhu Ping'an stood up and bowed in return.
Good news came in waves, whizzing past the door, leaving the students waiting in the inn looking forward to it.
However, everyone didn't have to wait long before two servants came into the inn again to report the good news.
"Good news on the provincial examination. Congratulations to Mr. Zhu Shiming of Suzhou Prefecture for passing the provincial examination and ranking 89th."
There was another student who passed the imperial examination in the inn. He had the same surname as Zhu Ping'an, but his ranking was much better than Zhu Ping'an's, 89th. Of course, he was much older than Zhu Ping'an, at least in his forties.
The wind direction in the inn changed completely. Except for the fat man, all the students who were originally around Zhu Ping'an rushed to Zhu Shiming, congratulating him and trying to make friends with him.
"Brother Zhu, this juren is not a matter of luck."
"That is, Sima Xiangru and Lin Xiangru are similar in name but not in reality."
Some of the students surrounding Zhu Shiming even went so far as to secretly belittle Zhu Ping'an in order to praise Zhu Shiming, implying that Zhu Ping'an's title was obtained through luck, while Zhu Shiming's title was the real deal.
"What the hell!" The fat man was dissatisfied, looking at the people surrounding Zhu Shiming with contempt in his small eyes.
"Why worry about it? Let's go and congratulate them together." Zhu Ping'an didn't care, and raised the corners of his lips slightly, as if smiling. He stood up and said to the fat man indifferently.
When Zhu Ping'an led the fat man to congratulate Zhu Shiming, he saw arrogance and a hint of disdain in Zhu Shiming's eyes. Although Zhu Shiming returned the gift very humbly, his eyes would not lie.
"What are you so proud of? You passed the imperial examination when you were already half buried in the ground. What is there to be proud of? You are not even worthy of carrying our shoes."
After returning to his seat, the fat man looked at the complacent Zhu Shiming and curled his lips.
Zhu Pingan looked at the complacent Zhu Shiming and raised his lips slightly. He shook his head slightly, and the capacity was limited to this.
It's just a provincial examination. The road to becoming an official is long and this is just the beginning.
"The results are out. The results are out."
Not long after, excited shouts were heard from outside the inn, and the students inside the inn began to hope again. The messengers might not deliver all the good news in time, so maybe my news would not arrive in time, so the students rushed out of the inn one after another.
"Let's go and take a look." The fat man was very interested and pulled Zhu Ping'an to the Jiangnan Imperial Examination Hall to see the results.
Zhu Ping'an didn't want to miss such a historic moment, so he followed the fat man all the way to Jiangnan Examination Hall.
The Jiangnan Imperial Examination Hall was packed with people. It was very lively with lights and decorations, and when Zhu Ping'an passed by, he saw the crowd under the list of winners screaming as if they were scalded by boiling water.
"Hurry, hurry, someone is looking for a son-in-law."
At this time, a mischievous shout cleared Zhu Ping'an's confusion. It turned out that someone was looking for a son-in-law. So, Zhu Ping'an found a stone and stood on it with great interest, looking down at the lively crowd.
In the crowd, a young man in student clothes was being pulled and tugged by seven or eight servants in uniform. On the other side, an elder in his fifties stroked his beard and watched the scene. Occasionally, he would say to the servants, "This is a good son-in-law. Please come to my house. I will reward you with ten taels of silver."
With the generous reward, the servants were like chickens with their blood pumped up, and quickly pulled the young student into the sedan chair.
An elder who was about fifty years old smiled and bowed to the crowd, and another servant scattered copper coins to the crowd as a token of auspiciousness. Then the elder went to the other side to teach his son, and was carried back home by the servants.
"See? The son-in-law who was caught is our Yingtian's Caoyang Cao Jieyuan. We are really envious of him. Do you know that the old man is our Yingtian Prefecture's fifth-rank Tongzhi Zhao Da, and I heard that he has three beautiful daughters. Tsk tsk tsk..."
"Today I passed the imperial examination, and tomorrow I will have my wedding night. I am so envious of you. I will study very hard when I return..."
"Oh, why not me waiting?"
Listening to the envious, jealous and hateful voices around him, Zhu Ping'an knew that the man whose son-in-law was caught was Cao Yang, the top scorer in this list. Although Cao Yang looked young, he was at least twenty-three or twenty-four years old. At this age in ancient times, he should have been married. Catching a son-in-law, Catching a son-in-law, I wonder how Cao Jieyuan will respond.
In a private room on the upper floor of a restaurant not far from here, two examiners in casual clothes were drinking and looking out the window at the scene of the announcement of the results of the Jiangnan Imperial Examination.
"Haha, then Cao Yang must thank Brother Zhang very much." Chief Examiner Wang looked at the scene of catching a son-in-law under the list and couldn't help but smile mischievously at Chief Examiner Zhang.
Examiner Zhang shook his head, smiled bitterly, and was speechless.
"I picked up a top scorer for free." Chief Examiner Wang said meaningfully while stroking his beard.
"Brother Wang, please be careful with your words." Chief Examiner Zhang shook his head and smiled bitterly.
"There are only you and me here. Everyone else has gone to see the list, so there is no need to be careful with your words. If you ask me, Brother Zhang, your idea is very good, but your approach is biased. A person who should have been a top scorer was put at the bottom of the list by you..." Chief Examiner Wang looked at Chief Examiner Zhang and shook his head.
"If he can understand my painstaking efforts, he will be grateful to me in the future." Chief Examiner Zhang stroked his beard, with a calm face, "There are countless examples of Zhongyong being injured. I don't want such a young talent to become a negative example for future generations' education."
"Brother Zhang, how do you know that this young man is not a determined and hardworking person?" Chief Examiner Wang asked again.
"I had no choice but to do this. Young talents like these can be regarded as the pillars of the country, and I did this to be absolutely sure." Chief Examiner Zhang said calmly.
While the two examiners were chatting, more and more people came to look at the list in front of the Jiangnan Imperial Examination Hall. Zhu Ping'an and the fat man finally squeezed under the list.
The first place is Cao Yang, the second place is Xu Tianshou, the third place is Liu Rucheng, the fourth place is Yang Wendao, the fifth place is Jiang Yuyou, the sixth place is Li Yuze... ...
Zhu Ping'an looked up at the list. There were unfamiliar names at the front. It was not until the 20th place that he saw a familiar name, Wang Jin. Then he saw Liu Qian and Guo Ziyu at the 63rd and 79th places. After that, there were no more familiar names.
As for Feng Shanshui, Xia Luoming and the people who usually hang out with them, none of them were on the list. Either they were unable to take the exam, or they took the exam but failed.
"Mr. Zhou, it really is you."
Hearing a cheerful voice, Zhu Ping'an turned around and saw two familiar girls, one was a girl with a ponytail bun, and the other was a girl a few years older.
"Mr. Zhou, don't be sad. Even if you didn't pass the exam this time, you will definitely pass it next time." The girl with a horse-like bun blinked her big sympathetic eyes, pinched the corner of her clothes, and comforted him with sympathy.
The other girl looked similar.
"Mr. Zhou, hahaha..."
Upon hearing this, the fat man pointed at Zhu Ping'an and couldn't help laughing.
"Hey, do you have any sympathy? How can you make fun of Mr. Zhou like this? Don't you know how hard Mr. Zhou worked... So what if he failed the exam? Mr. Zhou will definitely be able to get into high school next time..." The girl with a bun pouted and was very dissatisfied with the fat man.
"Congratulations, Brother Zhu."
At this time, another voice was heard. Xia Luoming, Feng Shanshui and others followed Liu Qian and Guo Ziyu over. Xia Luoming congratulated Zhu Pingan with a complicated expression.
"You're lucky. Even though you're at the bottom of the list, you're still in the top, right? When you go back, you must burn more incense for your Zhu family's ancestors."
Guo Ziyu also congratulated Zhu Pingan, but his sarcastic voice and arrogant expression clearly showed his disdain.
"Zhu? Isn't Mr. Zhou's surname Zhou?" The girl with the falling horse bun was stunned.
The other older girl also looked at Zhu Ping'an with a gloomy expression, but when she saw Xia Luoming and others coming over, the older girl pulled the girl with the falling horse hairpin away in a hurry before she could ask Zhu Ping'an for confirmation. Just now, they could still look at the list when there were many people around, but now the people who came to Zhu Ping'an's side were either juren or xiucai, which was obviously not a place for the two brothel girls to stay. ()