BH (QT) 132 – Rogue Scholar (8)

Chapter 132 – Rogue Scholar (8)

Wei Lingxiu couldn’t help but tell Yan Jing Ze about the benefits of studying for the academic exam.

As long as you become a xiucai, you can have some privileges, and you can also accept students to support your family. After being admitted to Juren, it is even more remarkable. Although there are more and more scholars in the southern region, if you go to a remote place to be a master bookkeeper or something, there is still no problem, you can also become a teacher.

If you can become a jinshi, it is definitely a step up to the sky.

Wei Lingxiu heard a lot of these before, but did not pay too much attention to it. After all, this road was really difficult to follow, but now it’s Yan Jing Ze’s turn, he feels that Yan Jing Ze must try it.

When Wei Lingxiu finished speaking, Yan Jing Ze looked at Wei Lingxiu: “What you said makes sense, so you must study hard.”

Wei Lingxiu: “???”

Yan Jing Ze said again: “I will watch you study. From now on, you can read the book carefully, and then we will find a teacher in a few days, so that you can take the test in the future!”

Wei Lingxiu was dumbfounded. He had gone to the tongsheng exam before but he couldn’t pass the test. Now Yan Jing Ze actually wants him to take the xiucai exam? But the most important thing is… “Brother Yan, the imperial examination requires both ability and political integrity, I can’t.”

“Why?” Yan Jing Ze asked.

“I was kicked out of the house.” Wei Lingxiu said.

He has become more and more sober in the past few days, and understands that his father really does not like him.

In fact, when a man is with another man, it is a shame to say that it is serious relationship, but if it is slightly hidden, it is easy to say that it is just a romantic affair.

But this matter was deliberately designed by his family, how could it be covered up for him?

“Then I can?” Yan Jing Ze asked rhetorically. Wei Lingxiu really didn’t do anything wrong, but he on the other hand had a lot of dark history.

“Why not?” Wei Lingxiu asked. He talked about the circumstances in which a person could not take the examination, such as being the son of an opera singer, he could not take the examination.

And this mainly depends on the father. For example, if someone’s mother worked as an opera singer, but his father was not, and he was never a lowly citizen, then there is no obstacle.

On the contrary, like Wei Lingxiu, if he is considered unfilial by his father, he basically has no chance with the imperial examination.

Yan Jing Ze only has the memory of the original owner. The original owner can only eat, drink, and have fun. He really doesn’t know this. Now that Wei Lingxiu has explained it, he knows the reason.

Then he thought about it carefully… he found that he was actually allowed to participate in the imperial examinations.

His family is a farming family. Although his father was a scoundrel, he mainly drank and gambled on his own without leaving a record.

As for the original owner…

The original owner has been fighting for many years, but the people he fought are indeed those who owed money to the casino. There is also the Li family behind the casino. Those people will not report to the officials, so the original owner has no record.

So, in terms of identity, he is a clean farmer.

Yan Jing Ze was speechless for a while.

Some regulations in this place really made him unable to understand.

“So, Brother Yan, you can try it.” Wei Lingxiu was full of confidence.

When he first came out of Wei’s house, he felt like the sky was falling.

But he had encountered so many things in the past two days that he didn’t have time to think much about it.

Yan Jing Ze looked at Wei Lingxiu, and seeing Wei Lingxiu’s eager gaze, he immediately said, “Lingxiu, do you know how much money it costs to study?”

Wei Lingxiu was taken aback.

Yan Jing Ze said: “We have no money now.”

So, it’s better to copy the book!

They bought a lot of paper and pen from the county seat, and Wei Lingxiu had the most basic four books and five classics.

Yan Jing Ze followed Wei Lingxiu to read the book once and watched Wei Lingxiu write the words that he didn’t know. After copying a few copies of the “Three Character Classic”, he began to copy other books.

Wei Lingxiu: “…” He has studied only a few books for ten years, but he didn’t memorize it because he didn’t care about it. Yan Jing Ze actually memorized it in a few days!

In this world, there is actually such a smart person!

Scholars who want to write well must practice their arm strength, and some people will write on the wall specially, but no matter how they practice, they can’t compare to Yan Jing Ze!

Yan Jing Ze can pick up a hundred kilograms of things with one hand and can even swing it a few times when he picks it up. The least of his problems is arm strength!

As for writing is rather boring… Think about the pension money they need and he can bear it.

Wei Lingxiu can only write up to about 3,000 characters a day, but Yan Jing Ze can write 20,000 to 30,000 characters a day.

When copying a new book for the first time, he still needs to read the book a few times, but after copying it again, he can write it directly, which is even more trouble-free.

So, in a few days’ time, Yan Jing Ze finished copying all the thick stack of paper he bought home last time.

He even took advantage of the time off from copying books to repair his house.

Weave the bamboo pieces together and add wooden strips and the like to repair the wall. A layer of mud is applied to the inside to prevent wind. As for the roof, spread the mat first and then cover with thatch, so there will be no rain leakage.

After finishing this work, Yan Jing Ze went to the village chief’s house to return the tools.

The village chief’s family was surprised to see him return his things… It is estimated that they previously thought he had borrowed without the intention of returning things.

When he got home, Yan Jing Ze took Wei Lingxiu and went to the county again to sell books.

When they went to the bookstore last time, Yan Jing Ze found that the people in the bookstore did not like himself very much, and did not want to go in this time: “Lingxiu, you go to the bookstore to sell books, I will go to buy some food.”

“Good.” Wei Lingxiu agreed.

Yan Jing Ze went to buy food and meat, and planned to buy a few chickens to raise.

Although Wei Lingxiu has been constantly talking about letting him take the imperial examinations these days, he still feels that it is too far away from him.

And… don’t look at him now that he can recite the Four Books and Five Classics, he doesn’t understand the meaning of those words at all!

What Yan Jing Ze thinks right now is to make more money and save more money for their old age.

Thinking that he can also make money, Yan Jing Ze spent money with confidence, and when he bought something, Wei Lingxiu has entered the bookstore.

As soon as he entered the bookstore, Wei Lingxiu’s heart “thumped”—his younger brother was also there.

Wei’s generation is of the Ling character. Wei Lingxiu’s two younger brothers are called Wei Lingyuan, fourteen this year, and Wei Lingqi, eleven this year.

Wei Lingqi was young and basically didn’t come out to socialize and was detained all day long to study. But Wei Lingyuan had already taken the tongsheng exam last year and would go out with classmates from time to time. Now it is not unusual to encounter him in a bookstore.

Wei Lingxiu has always been at odds with this younger brother.

His younger brother envied him for being free from restraint, but he envied that his younger brother was disciplined.

Fortunately, after he entered the bookstore, his brother turned a blind eye to him.

Wei Lingxiu breathed a sigh of relief and found the shopkeeper saying that he had copied some more books and asked the shopkeeper to help him look at them.

“How much did you copy? Show me,” said the shopkeeper.

Wei Lingxiu took out a large pile.

The shopkeeper: “…”

Book printing is very expensive and most scholars these days will copy books.

However, it is difficult for ordinary people to copy a character well. They have to spend more time on reading, so they generally do not rely on copying books to make money. Most of them, if they see a good book then they will make a copy of it, they will keep it to themselves or use it as a gift.

Of course, the bookstore will hire some old tongsheng who always fail to pass the xiucai examination, or even students who did not pass the tongsheng exam to help copy books. There are also people who make a living from this.

But those old tongsheng who copied books couldn’t copy as much as Wei Lingxiu!

More importantly, Wei Lingxiu’s handwriting is still very good.

The ” Three Character Classic” that Wei Lingxiu put on his place before was sold out quickly because of the good writing.

At this time, it is difficult for peasant children to study and find a good teacher, so they don’t know how to practice calligraphy. Although Wei Lingxiu’s calligraphy is not good, it actually exceeds that of many xiucai. Naturally, some people are willing to buy it and copy it.

It’s just that, it’s only been a few days and Wei Lingxiu has already written so much again?

He can’t be writing day and night, right?

The shopkeeper of the bookstore couldn’t help saying: “Young Master Wei, don’t think I’m talking too much… that Yan Da is not good for you, you don’t have to dig your heart and lungs for him.”

Normal people who can write so much in just a few days are forced by others!

“He treats me very well,” Wei Lingxiu said.

The shopkeeper did not believe it, but took a closer look – Wei Lingxiu was clearly expelled from the Wei’s house, but his complexion was rosy, and it didn’t look like he was wronged.

Could it be that Yan Jing Ze didn’t force Wei Lingxiu?

But if so, where did these books come from?

People in their shop who were used to copying books would copy less demanding words, and they couldn’t copy as many as Wei Lingxiu in just a few days.

“Brother Wei, isn’t that your elder brother?” A voice suddenly came from the side.

Wei Lingxiu turned his head and saw someone talking to Wei Lingyuan.

Wei Lingyuan was full of disdain, “I don’t have such a self-degraded brother!”

Wei Lingxiu secretly clenched his fist.

Wei Lingyuan was young and vigorous, he raised his chin and turned to Wei Lingxiu: “Wei Lingxiu, father is going to open the ancestral hall to remove your name, you know that, right? Don’t use the Wei family’s name outside in the future.”

Wei Lingxiu saw the appearance of his family members that day and knew that they would not let him have a good life, but he really did not expect that his father would really want to open the ancestral hall to remove his name.

“No one cares about the Wei family’s name!” As soon as Yan Jing Ze came in and saw this scene, his anger came up and he wanted to go up and fight with someone.

But the memory of the original owner told him that he couldn’t afford to offend a person like Wei Lingyuan.

He was able to take Wei Lingxiu away from the Wei family, it was mainly because the Wei family itself wanted to drive Wei Lingxiu away, but Wei Lingyuan was different.

Yan Jing Ze suddenly remembered the experience of the original owner after Wei Lingxiu’s death.

After Wei Lingxiu was beaten to death by the original owner, the original owner would eat, drink, and have fun as usual, and the Wei family… Wei Lingyuan was admitted as a xiucai at a young age and it was a very impressive event.

And Wei Lingxiu’s father, that Master Wei, also made an official contribution and went to take up an appointment elsewhere.

Such a government official, the original owner would kneel and salute when he saw one!

The original owner, he didn’t know what happened later—probably because he had offended too many people, one day someone asked the original owner to drink, and the original owner came home from the county seat drunk, then someone came out from the roadside and killed the original owner.

The original owner deserved to die, so Yan Jing Ze didn’t bother to think about his affairs. But that Master Wei later became an official, this Wei Lingyuan, at a young age can become a Xiucai, and later may also become a government official!

In the future, does he still have to bring Wei Lingxiu and kowtow to these people?

This will not work!

Before, Yan Jing Ze felt that the imperial examination was too far away, but at this moment, he suddenly had the urge to take the imperial examination.

He also wants to surpass the level of Wei Lingxiu’s father!

In this way, he can make Wei Lingxiu’s father salute to him when he sees him!

Yan Jing Ze thought a lot in his heart, but Wei Lingyuan didn’t bother to pay attention to him at all, and turned around and left.

Seeing this, Yan Jing Ze suddenly looked at Wei Lingxiu: “Lingxiu, I’ve decided, I’m going to take the imperial examination!”

Wei Lingxiu’s eyes lit up.

The bookstore shopkeeper was dumbfounded. Did he hear it right, Yan Da, this guy is going to take the imperial examination? Is he stupid or crazy?

He probably can’t even write his own name!

<< ToC >>

***TN

Degree Types

1 Jinshi (“advanced scholar”), a graduate who passed the triennial court exam

2 Gongshi (“tribute scholar”), a recognized scholarly achiever who passed the triennial national exam

3 Juren (“recommended man”), a qualified graduate who passed the triennial provincial exam (Wei Lingxiu’s Dad)

4 Xiucai (“distinguished talent”), an entry-level licentiate who had passed the college exam

5 Tongsheng (“child student”), an entry-level examinee who had passed the county/prefecture exams (Wei Lingyuan)