Rotten wood cannot be carved, and summer insects cannot talk about ice.
The talented students from miles around felt superior to Zhu Ping'an. They were all full of confidence, as if they would definitely win the top three prizes this year. They smiled confidently, waved their sleeves, and set off for the county town.
Along the way, he traveled around the mountains and rivers, reciting poems and composing lyrics, as if he would tear his balls if he walked faster. It was completely a snail's pace. No wonder they say that a scholar's rebellion will not succeed in ten years.
Zhu Ping'an followed these people and felt annoyed, so he recited the Four Books silently in his mind, trying to decipher the contents so as not to waste time like these students.
Eight-part essays are not easy. After studying for several years in the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Ping'an felt that they were much more difficult than modern college entrance examination essays and civil servant essays. Although the eight-part essay topics are limited to the four books of "The Great Learning", "The Doctrine of the Mean", "The Analects of Confucius" and "Mencius", these four books have hundreds of thousands of words, and the examiners can pick sentences from them as the topics for the exams at will. The scope of coverage is wide and the difficulty is also high. The topic can be a sentence, or even a word, or a paragraph or a chapter, or a combination of half a sentence here and half a sentence there, which can all be used as topics, so it is very difficult and it is not easy to solve the topic. Eight-part essays are not only difficult to solve, but also more difficult to write. It has strict format requirements, and you cannot "offend the superiors" or "offend the subordinates" when writing, such as this sentence in the Analects of Confucius: The wise are not confused, the benevolent are not worried, and the brave are not afraid. If the eight-part essay topic is "The benevolent are not worried", when you think about solving the topic, you cannot think of "The wise are not confused", thinking of it is offending the superiors; similarly, when you think about solving the topic, you cannot think of "The brave are not afraid", thinking of it is offending the subordinates.
Zhu Ping'an was thinking about how to solve the problem as he walked. His already honest appearance made him look even more foolish now.
Occasionally, some students who were traveling around looked back at Zhu Ping'an, and when they saw him, they called him a fellow traveler, and laughter could be heard from time to time.
"Zhi'er, the journey ahead is long, and you are young and weak, so please give your valuables to your uncle. I will take them to the county town with you and then return them to you. You can feel more relaxed now." Uncle Zhu Shouren quietly came to Zhu Ping'an and spoke in a righteous manner. He stretched out his hand to take the small bag Zhu Ping'an was carrying, acting like an elder.
Zhu Ping'an was interrupted by his uncle Zhu Shouren's words. Seeing that his uncle was about to untie his small bag, he could not help but slightly sidestep and looked at his uncle Zhu Shouren, smiling silly and saying loudly:
"Filial piety comes first among all virtues. My uncle is my elder, and we should not impose on others what we do not want others to do to us. How dare I burden my uncle if we are safe?"
Zhu Ping'an's words attracted the attention of the people in front of him, and they all turned their heads to look over. Uncle Zhu Shouren was rejected by Zhu Ping'an, and at this time he was also a famous scholar, with an elegant smile on his face, like a generous elder, "It's okay, since you want to exercise, then let's do it. If you are tired, just tell me, I will share the baggage with you."
"Brother Zhu, you are truly a kind and benevolent elder."
"Brother Zhu, your love for your child is truly a role model for me."
More than a dozen students praised Uncle Zhu Shouren for his kindness, and Uncle was modest and said he was not worthy of the praise, saying things like "an old cow licking its calf" and "it's human nature".
So, my uncle and more than ten students went traveling around the mountains and rivers, reciting poems and writing lyrics, full of literary spirit.
Zhu Pingan looked at his uncle calmly from behind, with a smile on his face. If you really want to help me carry the things, why don't you take the heavy backpack? A small bag weighs less than two pounds in total. Why are you sharing the burden? Do you want to take my travel money for yourself without anyone noticing? Before the trip, my father had given my uncle five taels of silver for the sake of my grandfather's face and the risk of angering Chen. He didn't even mention paying it back, but my uncle was still not satisfied.
The group walked for two or three hours and had only covered seven or eight miles when someone suggested finding a place to shelter from the wind, eat something and rest before continuing.
So, the group found an abandoned mountain temple, walked in, spread out hay or blankets, and some wealthy students asked their servants to place the meat and wine they brought on the ground, and invited everyone to drink, compose poetry and have fun together.
Of course, Zhu Ping'an, who came to take the boy's test to make up the numbers, was ignored. Even the uncle who was "deeply fond of his son" had no intention of "loving his son" at this moment. These people sat in a circle and no one came to greet Zhu Ping'an, nor did they leave a place for him. Zhu Ping'an was treated the same as those people's book boys, and was kept in the corner.
Zhu Ping'an didn't care at all. He walked to the corner of the temple, spread some hay, sat down, took out the egg and flour pancake that his mother Chen had specially baked before leaving from the bag that accompanied him, picked up a piece of tender cucumber that his mother Chen had learned to pickle like her grandmother, and began to eat with relish while drinking the water from the bamboo tube at his waist.
The melon crisps are fragrant and taste great.
At this moment, suddenly outside the mountain temple, a weak and pitiful voice of a young girl calling for help came:
"Help, help..."
The girl's voice was soft but pitiful, pitiful but frightened, frightened but trembling, trembling but helpless, helplessness mixed with a bit of crying... ...the crying touched your heart, and anyone who heard this helpless voice would feel a sense of justice burst out from his chest.
What's more, along with the weak, pitiful and helpless cry for help of this girl came a beautiful girl with disheveled clothes, innocent eyes red from crying, a weak appearance, prone to bullying, and a pitiful temperament.
The helpless girl who was crying and shouting for help accidentally saw the students resting in the mountain temple while stumbling. A glimmer of sad hope emerged on her pitiful and delicate face, and she stumbled and trotted towards the mountain temple.
This helpless voice, this pitiful girl
As a result, more than a dozen students, filled with sympathy and a strong sense of justice, shouted out the famous line that has been sung for thousands of years:
"How dare this thug snatch my daughter in broad daylight?"
Zhu Ping'an, who was sitting in the corner eating a pancake and pickled cucumber, almost spit out the pancake in his mouth when he heard this, and quickly drank a sip of water to calm his nerves.
Zhu Ping'an just glanced at the girl outside the door who was calling for help, and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly, but he didn't move at all, and continued to eat his omelet, chew his cucumber, and drink his water.
More than a dozen students with overflowing compassion and sense of justice shouted out the famous saying, and then came out one after another and began their heroic journey to save the beauty.
The helpless girl with disheveled clothes had a look of gratitude in her eyes. She stumbled to the back of a dozen students, trembling and helplessly grabbing the corner of a student's clothes from behind, shivering.
Chasing after the girl were five thugs with greasy hair and shifty eyes, who were obviously not good people at first glance.
"Hand over that girl, or don't blame us brothers for being rude."
Five thugs stopped not far away, seeming to be afraid of the crowd, but deliberately acting arrogant, trying to scare everyone away.
Hearing the words of these hooligans, the girl hiding behind a certain student trembled even more, with a tremor in her voice:
"My benefactors, be careful, I am afraid..."