Do you know the long song of laughter?

Chapter 288 Know the white and keep the dark
Early that morning, as the government officials collected the answer sheets, it also heralded that the provincial examination was completely over.

Being locked down for eight days and nine nights is actually no better than going to jail.

Almost all the candidates were a little depressed.

Some of them looked happy and seemed very confident about this provincial examination.

There are also some people with ugly faces, needless to say, they did not do well in the exam.

Li An looked calm and was in good spirits.

During the rural examination period, apart from not being able to communicate with others and having poor accommodation and food conditions, there was nothing wrong with me.

However, he had not taken a shower or changed clothes for so long, and could only wipe his face with a wet handkerchief every day, which made him feel uncomfortable all over.

Following the flow of people out of the Gongyuan, Li An stood at the door and looked around.

Soon Li An saw his parents and Desheng waiting outside. To his surprise, Minglan was also there.

"Why are you asking this? I haven't noticed that A Niu has lost a lot of weight. Go home first, mother will do you a favor."

"Aniu!"

Li An didn't think much and walked over quickly.

Li Nan, Liu and Minglan were chatting. Xun Sheng went to see Li An walking over and hurriedly greeted him.

"How are you doing during this time?"

"oh oh."

Minglan quickly looked away from Li An, shook her head and said, "No, aunt, I came with my family to greet my brother. I have to go back first."

"How was your exam?" Li Nan asked.

"It won't be long before this moment, Aniu, what are you doing standing there in a daze?" Ms. Liu urged.

"It's... not bad. I'm just working as a female celebrity at home." Minglan whispered.

"No need, Auntie, you go back quickly, I can just go there by myself." Minglan shook her head.

Minglan did not refuse this time, blushed and said goodbye to Mr. Liu and the others, lowered her head and followed Li An.

Mrs. Liu glared at Li Nan, smiled at Minglan and said, "Minglan, you should also go along and have a taste of my craftsmanship."

"Ah."

After walking for a while, Li An took the initiative to speak.

"Yes, yes, I forgot about this. Your two brothers also took part in the provincial examination this time. You should go there quickly. A Niu, there are people everywhere here. Go and see Minglan off." Mrs. Liu said.

"Mom and dad! Sixth sister!"

"Madam, the young master is out!" Desheng was the first to see Li An and said in surprise.

Li An came to his senses and said to Minglan: "Let's go, I'll see you off."

Minglan's eyes met Li An's, her face flushed slightly, but she couldn't bear to look away, looking at Li An with joy and a bit of shyness.

Li An handed the things to Desheng, said hello to his parents, looked at Minglan, and met Minglan's gaze.

"If you don't like these, you don't have to do it." Li An said.

"Huh?" Minglan was stunned, wondering how Li An knew she didn't like female celebrities.

"I know you don't like this. If you don't like it, don't do it. I hope you can live a happier life."

Ang Lee has always missed Minglan's smile on the polo field. It was very bright and gave people a very comfortable feeling.

Ever since that time, although I could see Minglan's smile, I always felt that something was missing.

Minglan's heart trembled slightly, her eyes became hot, and she quickly lowered her head.

Growing up, only her mother and grandmother treated her sincerely.

For this reason, whatever her mother and grandmother asked her to learn, she would always learn it with all her heart.

Although Minglan didn't like female celebrities, she knew that her grandmother was doing it for her own good and she had been studying seriously.

This is the first time someone has seen that she doesn't like female celebrities.

"What's wrong?" Li An asked with concern when he saw something was wrong with Minglan.

"fine."

Minglan shook her head, raised her head and looked at Li An, smiled brightly, and said, "How does brother Ziqian know that I don't like this?"

Among the sisters in the Sheng family, she is the best at making female celebrities.

Among all her peers in Bianjing, only Yu Yanran is better than her in this aspect.

"I can feel that you have been suppressing yourself." Li An said.

The smile on Minglan's face became brighter and she said, "Brother Ziqian, I used to hate being a female celebrity. Although I still don't like it now, I don't hate it anymore."

After saying that, he lowered his head and quickened his pace a little.

Li An was stunned and didn't understand what Minglan meant.

Seeing Minglan's pace quicken, she quickly caught up with him without any time to think.

Sheng Changbai was in the examination room with a T-shape name, and Sheng Changfeng was in a T-shape exam room.

Li An and Minglan arrived outside the T-shaped examination room. The crowd had almost dispersed, and Sheng Changfeng also joined them. This time only Sanlan came to greet Sheng Changbai and the others.

Li An sent Minglan to say hello to Sheng Changbai and the others, and then went back to meet his parents.

He met his parents, got on the carriage, and headed home.

……

"Aniu, I asked Haitang to prepare hot water for you when we went out. You should wash up quickly. I'll make you something to eat."

When they got home and got off the car, Mrs. Liu urged with a look of disgust.

Li An hasn't showered or changed clothes in nearly ten days, so you can imagine the smell on his body.

When I came out of the examination room, I was blown away a lot, and because it was so empty outside, I basically couldn't smell anything.

When we got on the carriage, it felt a bit smoky.

Li An himself was so disgusted that he didn't bother to say anything and hurriedly went back to the yard to take a shower.

I changed the water three times and rubbed off a layer of skin. I put on clean clothes and brushed my teeth again until my gums bled.

After doing it, I finally felt a lot more comfortable.

When he came to the main hall, Mrs. Liu had already prepared the food.

It was morning. Liu and Li Nan were not hungry, so they sat and watched Li An eat.

This time, Mrs. Liu looked at Li An who was devouring his food and finally said nothing about eating or sleeping.

"Eat slowly, don't choke. Come and have a bowl of soup. I made this chicken soup before dawn." Mrs. Liu served Li An a bowl of soup and placed it in front of him.

Li An drank half of the bowl, exhaled, and said with a smile, "My mother's cooking is still delicious."

"It's delicious, so don't worry, no one will compete with you." Ms. Liu said.

"Ah."

Li An ate some and was no longer so anxious. He ate slowly and chatted with his parents.

"Your father and I have been asking around in the past few days and asked several reputable pawn shops. This house can be pawned for 20,000 taels, but the pawn period is only three months. At the end of the day, you need to get 24,000 taels. Go and redeem it, otherwise it will belong to the pawnshop." Mrs. Liu said.

"Well, it's okay, let's do it like this." Li An nodded.

Paying back 20% more in three months was considered very conscientious in ancient times.

Of course, this is a living situation.

If you go to borrow money, you will be out and back again.

It cost 24,000 taels to buy the house. However, over the past few years, the house has also increased a lot.

Now it's no problem to sell it for 26,700.

For a pawn shop, you can make a profit no matter what.

"You have a good meal and have a good rest. We will go there tomorrow with the house deed and buy the house as soon as possible. Your father and I went there two days ago, and someone was looking at the house again. If someone buys it, it will be in trouble." Liu Shi said.

"Don't worry, Mom, no one else can come up with more than 70,000 yuan in cash so quickly." Li An said with a smile.

Li Nan opened his mouth, intending to ask Li An how he did in the exam, but finally held back.

Seeing the way his father was hesitant to speak, Li An also guessed a bit.

But he actually doesn’t have much confidence himself.

He is relatively confident in everything else, except for strategy.

Policy essays are like essays in later generations. If they are well written, if you meet someone you like and are impressed, you may give them full marks. Otherwise, it is basically difficult to get full marks.

There is a big difference between policy papers and essays. Even if you can't impress the reviewers in essays, you can still get high marks as long as you write well.

However, no matter how well your essay is written, if it does not meet the examiner's wishes, you are still very likely to fail.

As the saying goes, the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment, and Ang Lee did not dare to give them hope.

After eating, Li An went back to his room to rest at Mrs. Liu's urging.

……

The next day, after a day of rest, Li An felt refreshed and went to see Liu Xuewen.

Liu Xuewen did not ask Li An how he did in the exam, but just asked him to write the policy essay silently.

After reading it, he was silent for a long time and said: "There is a saying in "Laozi": Know what is white and guard what is black, this is the way of the world. Do you know what it means?"

"Teacher, students know. But students think this approach is a little too negative." Li An said.

"If you say so, then in The Analects of Confucius, if you don't act in your position and don't seek political advice, that's also negative?"

Liu Xuewen shook his head and said: "Don't look at things so one-sidedly. If you want to seek political power, you must be in the position. Although I am not familiar with military affairs, after reading your article, I thought it was well written.

I can probably guess what you are thinking. Many of the princes in the court may know something about military affairs. But now you are taking the provincial examination, not the competency examination. do you understand? "

Li An was startled, but he quickly figured out what Liu Xuewen meant, and said, "Student understands."

Liu Xuewen nodded and said: "You are still young. Even if you fail this time, you will still have opportunities in the future. Don't be impatient. Do you understand?"

(End of this chapter)