Transmigrating to the Ming Dynasty’s Imperial Examination

Mother Zhang looked satisfied with Cui Xie holding some old calligraphy and paintings, and couldn't help sighing: "This kid is too sensible. This is where and where. This is what the old lady really wants to give you. Come and watch carefully. ."

She pulled out a piece of silver from the bottom of the clothing box, opened it and showed it to Cui Xie. It was all twenty-two ingots, two hundred taels in total. Then there is a red sandalwood inlaid with nails, which is held to the head of the bed like a baby, opened and pushed it to him. The inner cover of the makeup is inlaid with a polished copper mirror that is smooth as water. The small drawer below is filled with layers of hairpin ring jewellery, gold and jade jewels, and a layer of beautiful jewels hung under the candlelight.

On the bottom layer, there are only a few neatly folded mulberry papers.

She lifted her eyes and looked at Cui Xie, her muddy old eyes glowing brighter than jewelry: "These jewelry were your mother's dowry. When your father remarries, the old lady will receive it and keep it for you. Yes. You have carefully collected the following deeds. These two are the deeds of the real estate of this old house and the shop that your mother married at the time. There are also the deeds of Cui Yuan and his son underneath..."

Cui Xie's heart was beating, and he gently pulled out the deed paper, and opened it to look closely:

One is the deed of the yard. It says the length and width of the yard, the four to the north, south, east, and west, and the number of entrances in the yard. There are several rooms in the main room and the wing room. The other is a two-storey room on West Street. On the pavement facing the street, there is a small courtyard about the size of their house behind the pavement; the remaining two are the body deeds of Cui Yuan and his son, both with fingerprints and red seals.

Are these all his?

No more worrying about when this house will be taken away by Cui Langzhong and his wife, no more worrying about Cui Yuan and his son being forcibly separated because they are in the hands of others. This house has truly become a place where he can stay at ease?

He pinched the thin paper, his cheeks seemed to be covered with a layer of luster more attractive than jewelry, and smiled comfortably and joyfully.

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Mother Zhang stayed in Qian'an for two more days to help him with housework.

In the past two days they have been repairing tombs on the mountain. The county magistrate Qi has ordered people to re-paint the walls of his house, put new dust on the top of his head, and cover the walls with white mulberry paper. Only the columns under the corridor and the veranda in the courtyard It needs to be painted, and the blue bricks on the ground have to be paved again.

Mother Zhang dried his house in a brazier, and Cui Yuan and his son moved to the East Penthouse-the old neighbor Yu Carpenter across the street took the initiative to make furniture for his house, and Mother Zhang took the lead and bought them new beds. The room was relocated. He also moved his desk and the boxes of books to the West Penthouse, leaned against the wall and placed a large transparent bookcase like a Bogu shelf, and cleaned up a small and delicate study room.

She pointed out Cui Xie’s changes in the rooms in the house, and said, “Brother Xie, don’t think I have too much control. Our main house is the master’s room. How can you let the servants live? I know you’re afraid of falling down. The room is gloomy and moisture accumulates on their bodies, but living in the upper room makes their father and son feel uneasy."

Cui Xie also knew that the world was like this. He just nodded and said, "When I first moved in, the house was too old, so I could only live in a few places. We also slept separately outside."

Mother Zhang comfortedly said: "That's right, this is what everyone does." She also prepared chestnut flour cakes, lotus root flour cakes, sweet dumplings, and puff pastry mooncakes, and asked him to carry the gift box. Go to the county office to pay respect to the magistrate Xie Qi.

The county magistrate Qi didn't think it was a big deal to repair the house for him, and said with a smile: "You have a plaque with an imperial pen on the door. Isn't it disrespectful to the imperial book? The county keeps this award silver every year, how many years? If I don’t spend it, I can get you, I can use it."

It is now mid-August, and the county is also busy with official duties: Xia Shui has to be delivered to the warehouse immediately, horse grass has to be transported to the border, and craftsmen have to be sent to Beijing for duty...

The county magistrate Qi didn’t have time to leave him to talk more. He only taught a few words to make him read more. He decided to check the "Mr.Six Collected Works" he had when he had time, so he called the boy over and said: "Isn't someone sending a basket of starfruits the other day? Give Young Master Cui some to take away."

Carambola came into China in this era? Cui Xie was so surprised that he almost doubted whether he had crossed the changed historical line.

The book boy agreed, hurrying down, and came back with a small basket of fruit for him. The fruit basket was not filled with five-petaled starfruits in yellow and emerald, but a basket of fluffy monkey peaches.

...

Cui Xie looked at the kiwi fruit in silence. The book boy thought he was too greedy, so he took one out of the basket and stuffed it for him, and asked him to peel it quietly in his sleeve: "This is the wild carambola from Qinglong Mountain. It is sweet. No, you can’t buy such a sweet and soft one in Beijing. The carambola vines that the householders in those paper mills live cannot produce such good peaches.”

By the way, the sap of the monkey peach vine is one of the most important paper medicines when making rice paper. The local mulberry paper and ancient paper making all need paper medicine to prevent paper sticking, so the monkey peach is naturally grown.

However, the county magistrate didn't have to give him specially for the rich things. Cui Xie squeezed the soft monkey peach and said with emotion: "I am very grateful for my sire to take care of me so much."

The book boy also sighed, "Isn't it? Adults don't have time to write articles these days. Fortunately, I am busy with taxation of grain in summer and autumn. Just pay the summer tax. At most, repairs in winter. Embankment and resettlement of refugees."

Speaking of this, his lively face also showed a look of sadness: "We adults are also unlucky, how come we have caught up with this unprecedented flood when we first took office, but the last term left in time."

During the term of office, there were major problems such as floods and famine. By the time of the assessment, 80% of them were inferior. There is absolutely no possibility of promotion. Transfer to the county... Qian'an is already the county, and then you can only be a job. The county is now.

Shu's childhood is about the same age as Choi Xie, at a lively and thoughtful age. I usually wait for a group of serious and prestigious masters, and dare not say much. When I meet Cui Xie's young, mild-tempered, and good-looking peers, I can't help but say a few more words and hide the usual heart. , Pour to him everything that has nowhere to say.

Cui Xie was also a little worried about the county magistrate Qi, but didn't know what he could do for him, so he lowered his eyes and listened silently. The book boy sent him directly outside the county office. Cui Xie took some snacks to him in the car and comforted him: "Flood is a natural disaster, and the court will not count the problem on the elder. I think it is now in Qian'an County. It’s just that the adults have managed well, and there is still more than a year to go before the assessment. There may not be a turnaround at that time."

The book boy sighed like an adult: "It's difficult. Our adults said that if we no longer become officials in the future, we will build a villager in the mountains of our hometown, write books and essays, and wander around the forest spring..."

Cui Xie smiled and said: "If Xianzun's articles are collected into a book, I will definitely buy a few and collect them. The "Qian'an Confucianism" is very well written. It is clear and righteous, has something to say, and the text is affectionate. Enough to move."

The book boy suddenly raised his spirits, holding the cake and said, "I will ask an adult to ask for some articles for you. We adults privately say that you are a child prodigy and value you very much, and I will definitely be happy to give it to you."

Cui Xie blushed as he listened to the word "child prodigy", and he gave a dry smile: "You go back for a snack, I'm going home."

There are still people in his family waiting.

When he got home, Mama Zhang brought a man in his fifties who was wearing a blue three-strand robe and kowtowed him. A young man in his twenties stood outside the door and saluted him through the door. . Cui Xie quickly helped him up and said to him—and to the person outside: “I’m young and can’t stand this kind of gift. Don’t do it in the future. I wonder if this uncle is?”

The old man stood with his hands down respectfully, revealing a bare forehead, and said calmly: "The young man is Ji Houye, the treasurer of Zhirong Study in the west of the city. I have seen the young master. The young man outside is the guy in the shop. All, Master, just tell him if he has something to do."

Mother Zhang said: "The shopkeeper is the shopkeeper of the shop your mother left for you. These days he wants to see you too, but unfortunately you are not at home and have not seen you. Now that you come back, I will ask him to come over and do it for you. A gift, give you the account."

Before yesterday, he was an abandoned son with no longs. Suddenly there was a house and shop, and a shopkeeper could make money for him. This change was really amazing. He didn't have any sense of reality for a while, and just yelled "Treasurer, buddy."

The shopkeeper Ji stared at his face, with the corners of his mouth curled slightly, and said with sorrow and joy: "In a blink of an eye, the young master is so big. When you were in front of Cui's grandma, I saw it when I went to pay the bills. You several times, and then you got older and never saw you again. Now this shop has finally been handed over to you, but the inventory has been destroyed because of the flooding. In the past two years, I have only paid for it. The old man is really shameless to see you you……"

Cui Xie took his trembling arm and comforted him: "Don't be sad, the shopkeeper. This is a natural and man-made calamity, and it's not within human reach. It's fine if the people in the store are fine."

The treasurer Ji sighed deeply: "Although people are fine, the old books and engravings were submerged by water, and there was not much money in the account. They only barely enough to buy some books for scientific research, but they were not sold. excellent."

In a small county like Qian'an, there are not many scholars, and no scholar can buy several sets of the Four Books and Five Classics and put them aside.

What really sells well are the collections of essays, acid essays, and storytelling books after the annual scientific examination. But the essays of the Spring and Autumn Tests have to be copied at Shuntian Mansion. The storybooks are outdated too quickly, and sometimes they are just published, readers Change to pursue others. Their bookstore is now out of money, and they dare not do this kind of big loss and profitable business, and they can only rely on selling some classics.

While talking, he held up the account book with both hands and handed it to Cui Xie.

The accounts are all newly made, and the old accounts were only roughly recorded in the accounts and the arrears. After the flood last year, they were not opened for more than half a year, and now they still owe the salaries of the shopkeeper and the guys. It's better to close such a shop, rent out the shop, and earn enough to pay the guy's salary in a year.

The shopkeeper Ji looked at the account book, his eyes flushed slightly, and said sadly: "At the beginning, my family escorted this shop to make the girl’s dowry more elegant and worthy of the Cui family’s uncle Xiucai. Later, although the girl was gone. , But the old man thought that the young master would read our books in the future, and he also collected a lot of books written by saints and scholars in the store. It is a pity that there is nothing left in this flood..."

He almost immediately knelt down and apologized, Cui Xie quickly stepped forward to support him, and comforted him in a gentle voice: "It doesn't matter, I am here. Those books can be bought again in the future. The floods have subsided, and we can always get past the better. of."