sjar Chapter 322 The examination hall leaks, and the brothers share the "dishwater".
Chapter 322 The examination hall leaks, and the brothers share the "dishwater".
After a proper meal and a shower, the group finally stretched out and had a good night's sleep.
The next morning, just as dawn was breaking, the group got up, ate some simple breakfast, and returned to their cramped, drafty rooms.
In the second round, the servants of the Jiang family who were doing cosplay, led by the old steward, distributed test papers to the group according to the rules.
Although the exam paper was provided by Jiang Xiaoqi, the other three never suspected that their cousin would know the questions in advance.
My own cousin, who achieved the highest honors in the imperial examinations, would never stoop to such self-deception.
These test questions must have been obtained by my cousin at great expense or even through favors, right? The three of them are really lucky to have benefited from my cousin's connections.
I have no way to repay you now, so I can only work harder. Only when we both pass the imperial examination in the future will we have the right to talk about the future.
The Jiang family now has eleven members who passed the provincial examinations, but only five who passed the imperial examinations. Of these five, three are only third-class Jinshi (successful candidates in the highest level of the imperial examinations).
Only two people, Jiang Changqing and Jiang Changshou, were Jinshi graduates from the second rank.
The three Jinshi (successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations) Dong Jin, Li Haisheng, and Xue Xu certainly cannot be attributed to the Jiang family. They were just sons-in-law of the Jiang family, not live-in sons-in-law!
Jiang Changqing holds the highest official position among the five Jinshi (successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations), and was the first member of the Jiang family to pass the Jinshi examination. He is currently a fourth-rank official, serving as a vice minister.
Jiang Changshou's rank was somewhat awkward. Although he held the title of a principal officer in the Ministry of Revenue, his rank was not as high as that of Huangfu Zhongwen, the principal officer in the Ministry of Works, who was a sixth-rank official.
Using the examination to become a probationary official as a stepping stone, Jiang Changshou is currently in the observation period at the Ministry of Revenue, which is also his internship period.
Even though the work he was doing had long exceeded the scope of an intern, the rules of the imperial court were the rules.
However, the three-year term will soon be up. When he is promoted to a higher rank in the Ministry of Revenue, Jiang Changshou will at least be a seventh-rank official.
Jiang Wenqing, a fellow Jinshi (successful candidate in the highest imperial examination), served as a county magistrate in Tongzhou. Two other members of the Jiang family, also fellow Jinshi, served as county magistrates in other places, but they were not as fortunate as Jiang Wenqing, as their jurisdictions were not close to the capital.
When the Jiang family was repairing their ancestral hall, none of them were able to return to Puyang; instead, they sent a younger member of the family.
Jiang Lin is the grandson of one of them, and also the most studious descendant of that branch.
Jiang Yan and Jiang Hao also have elders in their families who have achieved the rank of Juren (a degree in the imperial examination system), and they will also be taking the metropolitan examination next year.
In fact, apart from a few scholars who were too old or in poor health and had given up on taking the imperial examinations and were now devoted to teaching younger generations at the clan school, the rest of them still wanted to give it another shot.
Especially after Jiang Changshou, who was nearly sixty years old, passed the imperial examination with the rank of second-class Jinshi, the Jiang family members' desire for learning was rekindled.
This includes Jiang Changqing's two sons, whom people may not remember. They were the two cousins who came to Changshou Village to pick up Jiang Xiaoqi and send him to the clan school.
Many years have passed, and the two have taken the imperial examinations many times, but have never succeeded and have begun to decline.
Especially after learning that Jiang Wenqing, whom they had previously regarded as an incompetent and hopeless person, had actually passed the imperial examination and was now serving as a county magistrate, the two brothers drank countless jars of osmanthus wine.
After getting completely drunk, you still have to face reality once you sober up.
After much agonizing reflection, the two brothers asked their father to retrieve dozens of boxes of scientific examination guides and exam question banks from Jiang Xiaoqi's house, which had been reviewed by several people.
For the past two years, I've stayed indoors all the time, spending all my time doing practice problems.
At that time, Jiang Xiaoqi had not yet gone out to study. He had only packed more than a dozen boxes of examination materials and asked his grandfather to give them to the elders in the clan who were interested in participating in the imperial examination.
After all, none of them had passed the imperial examinations in their generation. The eleven people in the clan who had passed the imperial examinations were all their paternal uncles and cousins of the same generation as their grandfather and father.
These examination materials can be considered as his way of showing respect to the elders in the clan, as a junior member of the family.
Since we're going to roll them up, why don't the whole clan do it together? It's better for everyone to roll them up together than for one person to do it alone.
That's just how he is, Jiang Xiaoqi, he loves selfless dedication!
"Host, the statistics have been compiled. Apart from three elders of the clan who are too old to participate in next year's imperial examination, the other eight members of the clan plan to take the exam next spring."
They all said, "Whether it works out or not, this is the last time. We're all getting old and don't want to go through the hassle of going all the way to the capital."
"Eight people? Adding the three younger ones like Jiang Lin, that makes eleven."
"Yes, host, the prerequisite is that all three of them pass the provincial examination, then there will be eleven people in next year's metropolitan examination."
"Hmm, they're all brothers from the same clan with the same surname, so they can be considered related by blood, right?"
Jiang Xiaoqi finally asked the question that concerned her the most.
"Uh, yes, but some of them are distant relatives beyond the fifth degree of kinship, so..."
"Hmm~~~?" Jiang, the selfless and dedicated, drew out the last syllable, his tone carrying a hint of threat.
"Haha, even if they're beyond the fifth degree of kinship, they're still surnamed Jiang~ These people can all be bound to the affiliated scroll network system, all of them!"
"You're smart enough to know your place! You also know that the more affiliated systems we have, the more points we get, and the more points we have, the more points we can deposit into the points bank."
Correspondingly, the more points you accumulate, the more interest you generate, and the more commission you can earn!
Jiang Xiaoqi patiently guided him, and finally detected a trace of joy that was being tried so hard to hide in his brainwaves.
"Alright, laugh if you want to! Why hold it in? You might burn out the motherboard for no reason!"
"Hahaha, the host is truly amazing! Why didn't the system think of binding the entire Jiang clan to the auxiliary network system before?"
Jiang Xiaoqi thought to himself, he hadn't expected this last year either. He had wasted the points of several successful candidates in the imperial examinations. It was a real miscalculation!
But it doesn't matter, the scholar doesn't have many points, he can afford to lose them.
Moreover, he distributed the examination guide to every scholar in the family in advance, which greatly strengthened the foundation of the family members.
Jiang Xiaoqi was mentally calculating her future gains, and as she did so, she narrowed her eyes.
"Plop!" A drop of water fell onto the table.
"It's raining? It's raining at this hour! Where's the tarpaulin? Where did you put it?"
Ignoring her squealing cousin, Jiang Xiaoqi calmly covered the scroll with the oilcloth to prevent it from getting wet.
"Achoo! Achoo! Achoo!"
After the three mock exams ended, the four people left the exam room.
Jiang Hao sneezed several times as soon as he came out. Was it from the rain a couple of days ago, or did he catch a cold?
Li Shan brought over several bowls of "soup" of unknown color, saying that it was a nourishing soup specially prepared by his young master for his cousins.
Several people felt dizzy and lightheaded, but they didn't suspect anything and simply assumed it was a cold medicine.
He gulped it down in one go.
Ugh! That smells like dishwater! Is Mingfei playing a trick on them?!