Seeing that the old lady seemed to be both sad and happy, and listening to the old story being brought up again, Mother Li hurriedly comforted her, "In short, it is because of the old lady's protective heart and the master's kindness that we have achieved the best result now."
"Over the years, I have always treated Yingying as my granddaughter, and Concubine Yu has been very kind to Princess Yongping. Fortunately, Zhang Shou is now healthy and handsome, and his mother has fought hard to give birth to him. Alas, Concubine Yu feels guilty about leaving him in the countryside, and Jiu Niang had a big fight with Jing'er and me, thinking that he should be raised in the mansion. She was annoyed that my mother and I were ruthless, so she retreated to Zhaoming Temple to practice Buddhism, and even refused to see Yingying."
"The Emperor and Jing'er have thoroughly investigated the widow Zhang's husband's family and her ancestors, and have checked the midwife, Mrs. Wu, and the entire street. There was no other pregnant woman and child on that day, so it must be a scholar's wife. If it weren't for the chaos, she should have been able to live a stable life with her child and be content with her small fortune. Alas."
At this point, the Madam suddenly became angry: "So, let alone Zhang Shou's disciple who only ranked seventh in the prefectural exam, even if he ranked first, he deserves it! The great disciple of Master Ge can't even get first place in a small prefectural exam? Those corrupt scholars are now clamoring to close the border and not allow foreign scholars to enter. They think that those outside are all foreign barbarians. God knows what they are afraid of?"
"Perhaps they were afraid that Emperor Taizu, who sailed overseas after his abdication, did not die in the shipwreck, but instead gave birth to another clan overseas!"
This time, Mother Li was silent as a cicada and dared not speak again.
In the east wing, Zhang Shou listened to Qi Liang's roughly complete retelling of several articles, and then he paced back and forth in the room, stroking his chin thoughtfully. However, what surprised him most was the math problem asked by Wang Fuyin.
The depth of the well is unknown. If the rope is folded in three parts and then thrown into the well, there will be four feet of rope left outside the well. If the rope is folded in four parts and then thrown into the well, there will be only one foot of rope left outside the well. How deep is the well
It turns out that the rope length is used to measure the well depth!
This question is as difficult as ascending to heaven for scholars who only read books of sages, but it can be easily solved by people with a little bit of brains. It is even easier for modern people, who can write equations with one variable or two variables, and even draw pictures to solve them...
If Wang Fuyin suddenly took a different approach and added several math questions during the examination for minor officials, this could be considered a privilege of being the Fuyin of Shuntian Prefecture. However, was it appropriate to suddenly do something like this during the prefectural examination for the serious imperial examination
Did the prefect of Wang Prefecture have this intention, or was it someone else who added the question without permission? Was this the reason why Qi Liang ranked seventh in the prefectural examination
Thinking of this, Zhang Shou asked Deng Xiaodai again about the tax figures of previous years that he had come across after arriving at the household registration office of Shuntian Prefecture. After pondering for a long time, he looked at the uneasy Qi Liang and Deng Xiaodai, and suddenly raised his eyebrows and smiled.
"Xiao Qi, in all likelihood, rumors about the rankings of the prefectural examination will be a hot topic for a while. I will recite a few articles to you now, and you should pay attention to the notes. Xiao Dai, come here too, and I will draw a table for you to see the data you sorted out earlier."
As Zhang Shou began to dictate the article, he saw Qi Liang was stunned at first, and then hurriedly began to take notes. He went to the other side of the desk, took a piece of paper, and then took a copper paperweight lying horizontally and vertically on the side, and began to pick up the pen and dip it in ink to draw.