The lively New Year celebrations soon passed.
Although it was still early afternoon and not yet the hour of Shen, winter days grew dark especially early. Shops along the streets had already begun hanging red lanterns, and the cold wind was becoming increasingly biting.
“Second Brother, Third Brother, we’re not going back to the village tonight.”
Lu Yuan held onto the ox cart and turned toward the two brothers, who were rubbing their hands to keep warm.
“It’s not safe to drive this heavily loaded cart thirty li through the snow at night.”
As soon as Lin Erniu heard that, his face fell, looking extremely reluctant to spend the money.
“Brother-in-law, inns in the county town are expensive! Can’t we just find somewhere under someone’s roof and make do for one night? We could save the money and buy more eggs for Qingyue.”
“Second Brother, money is meant to be earned, not merely saved. Since we’ve finally come all the way to the county town, we should take the opportunity to get a feel for the place.”
Lu Yuan smiled and patted his brother-in-law on the shoulder.
“Besides, I’m going to take the imperial examination next year. I should familiarize myself with the county town beforehand.”
Lin Sanniu was only fifteen and full of energy.
The moment he heard they were staying in town, he became so excited that he practically bounced around beside the ox cart like a monkey.
“Great! Brother-in-law, let’s go look down that street! I heard there’s a monkey show over there!”
“You good-for-nothing brat, all you think about is playing!” Lin Erniu angrily tapped his younger brother on the back of the head. “We’ve got hundreds of pounds of sour wine on this cart. How are we supposed to squeeze through the crowd?”
“Hehe, I won’t squeeze in. I’ll just stand outside and take a look!”
Lin Sanniu dodged the blow with a grin, his eyes darting around like radar.
“Brother-in-law, look! That shop’s candied hawthorns are so big! And that one sells qiegao. It smells so good!”
Looking at his young brother-in-law acting like someone who had never seen the world, Lu Yuan couldn’t help laughing.
After all, he was still just a fifteen-year-old boy.
“When we make a lot of money, I’ll bring you to the county town and let you eat as much as you want.”
Lu Yuan made him a promise.
“Come on. Let’s find somewhere to fill our stomachs first.”
When mealtime arrived, tempting aromas drifted out from the restaurants and inns throughout the county town.
But Lin Erniu absolutely refused to eat a bowl of hot noodles that cost five wen. Instead, he insisted on driving the ox cart into a secluded alley sheltered from the wind.
“Brother-in-law, why waste money on that expensive stuff? We brought our own food.”
Lin Erniu carefully pulled a cloth bundle from inside his clothes and slowly unwrapped it layer by layer.
Inside were several coarse-grain steamed buns that his second sister-in-law, Li Shi, had made early that morning.
Because of the cold weather, the buns had already frozen as hard as stones.
Lin Sanniu went to the well at the entrance of the alley and brought back half a bucket of cold water.
The three brothers crouched beside the ox cart, chewing their hard, dry buns while drinking the freezing well water.
“Crack, crack.”
The buns were so hard that eating them was almost like chewing stones.
Yet Lin Erniu and Lin Sanniu ate with great relish, even using their fingers to pick up every crumb that fell onto the cloth and licking it clean.
Lu Yuan watched the scene and silently swallowed the dry, scratchy mouthful of bun.
Deep down, he secretly vowed that he would make sure his family could live a good life as soon as possible.
After they had eaten, Lu Yuan entrusted the ox cart to the workers at a nearby lodging house and paid two wen for them to keep an eye on it.
He then took the two brothers straight to the county town’s largest bookstore, Juya Bookshop, and afterward to the public notice board outside the county office.
Standing in front of the county government building and looking at the various notices posted on the brick wall, Lu Yuan’s memories of the Great Jing Dynasty gradually became clearer.
Although the original owner had been exceptionally intelligent, he had been forced to stop studying at the age of fifteen after his stepmother cut off his education.
For the past several years, he had worked like an ox during the day, dealing only with village affairs and household chores.
As a result, the original owner’s memories of the imperial court’s political situation and changes to the examination system were somewhat fragmented.
Fortunately, deep down, the original owner had been obsessed with learning.
Even when he was exhausted from working all day, he would lie in the woodshed at night and silently recite the ancient texts he had once studied.
That had been the only light he could hold onto.
Thus, his academic foundation remained intact. What he lacked was an awareness of the changing trends in the imperial examinations.
After observing the notices and discreetly gathering information from scholars at the bookstore, Lu Yuan quickly pieced together the current situation.
The Great Jing Dynasty was not in an optimistic position.
The current emperor favored civil officials over military officers, and the scholar-official faction held enormous power and prestige.
However, the border regions were frequently harassed by foreign tribes, and the military situation remained tense.
In order to raise funds for the military, the imperial court maintained strict control over salt, iron, and other important commodities.
This also explained why Old Iron had been so cautious about making the distillation equipment.
As for the magistrate of Yuan County, his surname was Wu.
He came from a respectable scholarly background and had passed the metropolitan examination as a second-class presented scholar.
He was considered relatively upright and did not have the habit of exploiting the local people.
However, he cared deeply about his reputation and was extremely fond of refined culture. He particularly enjoyed associating with talented scholars who could compose impressive poetry.
Lu Yuan secretly thought,
It seems that when I deal with him in the future, I’ll have to appeal to his interests.
Next came the matter Lu Yuan cared about most—the imperial examination.
In the Great Jing Dynasty, one could not simply study at home and expect to pass.
To become a xiucai, one first had to pass three examinations: the county examination, the prefectural examination, and the academy examination.
Together, these were known as the examination for tongsheng.
“Greetings, Brother.”
Inside Juya Bookshop, Lu Yuan approached a scholar dressed in silk.
“May I ask when next year’s county examination will be held? And where does one register?”
Seeing that Lu Yuan carried himself with an extraordinary bearing, the scholar was quite polite.
“The county examination is scheduled for the ninth day of the second month. Registration must be completed at the county government’s Ritual Office before the end of the first month.”
“Furthermore, registration requires the five-person mutual guarantee. Most importantly, you must have a local linsheng scholar provide the guarantee.”
The scholar added,
“The linsheng must place his private seal on your registration documents. Only then will the county government allow you to enter the examination hall.”
Lu Yuan nodded.
Sure enough, this linbao guarantee was the first major obstacle standing between him and the imperial examination.
He also learned that there were two excellent academies in the county town, but their tuition was extremely expensive—at least twenty taels of silver a year.
There was also a private school in Yuanhe Town that was cheaper, but supposedly the old xiucai who taught there was extremely conservative and might not be capable of teaching students how to produce outstanding essays.
Looks like I’ll have to study on my own at home for now. I’ll worry about attending an academy after I make some money.
After gathering the information, Lu Yuan wandered around the bookstore.
Books in ancient times were outrageously expensive. Even an ordinary copy of the Spring and Autumn Annals cost half a tael of silver.
With his finances already tight, Lu Yuan spent only a few dozen wen on the cheapest collection of past county examination essay-writing techniques.
By dusk, the three of them found a rundown inn in a poor alley in the southern part of the county town, one that mainly served laborers and porters.
They rented a lower-class room with a large communal bed.
It cost only five wen for the night.
By nighttime, the watchman’s wooden clappers had already sounded three times.
Lin Erniu and Lin Sanniu, exhausted after a full day, were sprawled across the hard communal bed, snoring like thunder.
Lu Yuan, however, had no intention of sleeping.
Wrapped in his worn scholar’s robe, he sat by the window and read the collection of examination essays he had just purchased, using the faint glow of the lantern outside.
But the more he read, the more tightly his brows furrowed.
“This Great Jing style of eight-legged essays…”
Lu Yuan closed the book and rubbed his aching forehead, a grave expression appearing in his eyes.
“It’s actually even more rigid and obscure than the eight-legged essays of the Ming and Qing periods!”
The entire thing was filled with complicated formalities and empty conventions, with almost no practical policy discussion.
For Lu Yuan, whose mind had been shaped by modern, open-ended thinking, it was practically torture.
It seemed that merely relying on the rigid formulas memorized by the original owner would definitely not be enough to pass the county examination.
“I need to use something more powerful…”
Looking at the deep darkness outside the window, Lu Yuan fell into thought.
“If I can write an extraordinary essay with lofty ideals and a completely fresh perspective, I should be able to make that magistrate, who loves refined literary pursuits, take notice of me.”
“But I still need to carefully judge how far I can go without crossing the line…”