Joy of Life: The Mei Family's Son Grows Up

Chapter 16 Boy Test

Some people may wonder, with such a big business, isn’t there anyone who is jealous and eyeing it?

Of course, there are quite a few.

Although my father Mei Zhili is only a third-rank official, he is the prefect of Kyoto and is in charge of all matters related to the capital. This position should have been held by a member of the royal family, but when Emperor Qing first ascended the throne, he made a dictatorial decision and gave this position to Mei Zhili.

They didn't dare to attack Mei Zhili directly, but they kept sending messages to him, hoping to get a piece of the pie.

Mei Zhili is not a fool to have been sitting in the position of Kyoto prefect for so many years. He would do so if he could, and if he couldn't, he would hint that he is the prince's man and that this is the prince's property. He would also put out the supply list for the prince and empress, but of course there was no price. Those who wanted to take advantage of the situation would see that it is the prince's property and say nothing.

In fact, the Crown Prince and the Queen knew nothing about this. They paid the full amount when they received the goods, and some even paid more.

So the question is, is Mei Zhili the prince's man?

Strictly speaking, Mei Zhili is not the prince's man. Mei Zhili just abides by the rules of etiquette and respects the prince as the next emperor of Qing. He is not considered a member of the prince's faction, and does not participate in party struggles.

This can be seen when Guo Baokun sued Fan Xian for assault. Mei Zhili had no obvious preference between the son of the Minister of Rites, who was a disciple of the Crown Prince, and the illegitimate son of the Fan family who had just arrived in Beijing. Judging from the evidence, it was obvious that he was not familiar with the Guo family.

If the prince hadn't interfered, Fan Xian would have been acquitted long ago.

The reason why Mei Zhili helped the prince investigate Teng Zijing's whereabouts and sent people to capture him was that he felt that the matter did not involve party disputes, not to mention that Fan Xian, the illegitimate son of the Fan family, might be involved in deceiving the emperor. He thought that the problem was not big, so he took action.

Under normal circumstances, Mei Zhili's judgment was correct, but he did not expect that Emperor Qing would not allow Fan Xian to be convicted so hastily.

Just this one mistake caused him to lose the whole game and he ended up being killed by the Black Knights.

These are actually just Mei Cheng'an's guesses, but he feels that his guesses are in line with the facts.

But he didn't mind letting Mei Zhili secretly pull on the prince's skin. Those who were jealous of the Mei family's business could not ask the prince in front of him whether the Mei family canteen was his property.

So Mei Cheng'an quietly handed over the supply list of the Prince and the Queen. He believed that with Mei Zhili's political literacy, he should know how to use it.

And Mei Zhili did not disappoint him, and the father and son reached a tacit cooperation in silence.

For the prince, it would be a big taboo to want to directly conquer Mei Zhili. Fortunately, Mei Zhili showed him the respect he deserves as a prince, so the prince naturally would not look for trouble and covet Mei's business.

As for the queen, she simply loves to drink. You don't need to worry about why she loves to drink. For a queen who loves alcohol, how could she miss out on a cold wine with an excellent taste on the market? Needless to say, after tasting it, she found that it has a low alcohol content, good taste, and makes one drunk slowly. In the past, she had to control her drinking from time to time to avoid falling into a state of drunkenness and making mistakes. Relatively speaking, burping wine is much better. The key is that it feels good to drink.

As for the eldest princess, who controls the inner treasury, naturally looks down on the Mei family's wine and food business. The types and scale of the inner treasury are not something that the Mei family's canteen can match.

The second prince was even simpler. After all, he was doing private smuggling business with the eldest princess, so he had no shortage of money. Moreover, with the second prince's status and position, would he care about the private business of a minister? He couldn't afford to lose face.

Thanks to this, Mei's Canteen can safely develop and thrive in this strange balance.

The 65th year of the Qing Dynasty era also quietly arrived. This year, he was ten years old.

Mei Cheng'an has been a little troubled recently because teacher Su Lishisu suggested that he take the boy's exam.

This suggestion aroused strong approval from Mr. Mei and Mrs. Mei.

What is the boy test?
This brings us to the imperial examination system of the Qing Dynasty.

Simply put, the imperial examination of Qing Dynasty was divided into three steps: the boy's test, the state test, and the capital test.

The Tongzi test actually corresponds to the ancient Tongshi. After passing the test, you can obtain the qualification of a student (scholar) and can enter the prefecture, state, and county schools to study. In short, it is an entrance examination. If you pass the test, you are a scholar and can go to public schools. At the same time, you are also qualified to take the next level of examination, namely the state examination.

However, the difference between the Qingguo Tongzi Examination and the Tongshi is that it does not require three examinations, namely the county examination, the prefectural examination, and the academy examination, but is integrated into one examination. The examination process lasts for one day and is held once a year, usually in early February.

The corresponding state examination is actually the provincial examination, which is usually held in August of autumn every year (in ancient times, the lunar calendar was used, there was no solar calendar, please be aware of this). It is also called the Autumn Examination and is presided over by the governor of each state. The examination lasts for three days. If you pass the examination, you can obtain the status of Juren and be eligible to participate in the Beijing examination the following year. The state examination is held every three years.

As the name suggests, the Beijing Examination is held in Kyoto and hosted by the Ministry of Rites. Its corresponding type is the Joint Examination, which is also called the Spring Examination because it is held in spring. Candidates from all states and students of the Imperial Academy can take the examination. The examination lasts for three days and is held every three years. Three hundred people are admitted each time. Those who are admitted will be awarded the status of Jinshi and can be assigned as officials after being examined by the Ministry of Personnel.

There was no so-called palace examination in Qing Kingdom, and Emperor Qing did not have the time for it, so naturally there was no such thing as top three or top three. All Jinshi were treated equally, with no particular ranking order.

The test that Su Lishi wanted Mei Cheng'an to take was the Boy's Test (equivalent to the current elementary school entrance exam to junior high school). The content of the test was also interesting, with a total of three subjects: poetry, arithmetic, and a hundred questions on classics and history (the test was actually about memorization, which was similar to filling in the blanks, and there was no reading comprehension).

It is neither beyond the syllabus nor too simple, and it can be said to be very suitable as an entry-level exam. This is the interesting thing about the Qing Kingdom Boy's Exam. The country was founded on military power, and literature is not popular, so there is no need to be artificial, and only simplicity and practicality are required.

The highlights are the Autumn Examination and the Spring Examination.

If it was so simple, what was Mei Cheng'an worried about? He wasn't worried about the classics and arithmetic, but he was worried about whether he should copy poems. First of all, the poems he memorized were definitely not comparable to Fan Xian's. As long as he had read them, they were engraved in his mind. He was different. He didn't have such a golden finger. He had already forgotten most of them. For some of them, he even needed others to start before he could trigger his body's memory and recite the rest of the poem.

Poems and essays are generally assigned a topic, and the writer is asked to write a poem or essay on a certain topic.

Most people would choose to write poetry because it is simple and requires few words. Of course, if you are confident that you have good writing skills, you can directly write an essay, no one will stop you.

This is getting off topic. What Mei Chengan fears most is that this topic will trigger his physical memory and make him recall the poems he has memorized.

At that time, you said you could copy it, and you could handle the exam, but what about the famous scene of Fan Xian reciting a poem while drunk? What if he didn't know that he had "written" the poem? Even if he knew, what if he forgot it when he was drunk and not sober? After all, the poems that Mei Cheng'an could remember were actually mostly the same as Fan Xian's, because these poems were too famous.

Zhuang Mohan passed that hurdle, but fell into his hands?
At that time, Fan Xian was a famous poet, and he had written this poem seven or eight years ago, so who was the one who copied whom? He didn't want to be put in the spotlight and be scrutinized by everyone. He was shy and wanted to save face.

In order to avoid this kind of trouble for myself and to avoid causing trouble for my idol Fan Xian, if I come across a similar poem, I will just give up. It would be best if I can remember to write an unpopular poem. If I can't remember, I can only use the magic modification method.

He felt that he had no problem writing a poem by piecing it together. It was just rhyming, wasn't it? Who wasn't a rapper?

Having made up his mind, Mei Cheng'an relaxed.

In Qing Kingdom, or in other words, in this world, there are no Four Books and Five Classics, only Six Classics.

There are still three days before the exam, so he needs to read more classics, history, and literature.

In fact, after coming to this world, he didn't know whether it was because of the good effect of his new brain or due to his frequent meditation, but his memory had indeed improved significantly compared to his previous life. He couldn't remember everything he saw, but he could still remember it deeply in a short period of time after reading it several times.

This is also the reason why he dared to take part in the boy's test.

Three days passed in a flash. Early in the morning, after breakfast, the whole family sent him to Mingshan Academy to take the exam (Mingshan Academy was one of the three major examination venues for this boy's exam). Even though he repeatedly refused and said that he had no problem going alone, he was still ignored.

The students of Mingshan Academy have three days off. The examination room has been set up and the examiners are also staff members of the Ministry of Rites.

His student record is in this academy, and only with a student record is he eligible to take the boy's exam, and the admission ticket is a slip with the seal of the dean, allowing him to take the exam.

This is what Mei Zhili has been busy with for the past three days.

When they arrived at the gate of Mingshan College, Mei Cheng'an got off the carriage and Qingniao handed him a small bookcase. The bookcase was divided into two layers. The upper layer contained examination supplies, namely pens, ink, inkstone and paperweight, and the lower layer contained lunch food.

Mei Zhili and Mrs. Mei also got off the carriage at this time, and the little one was also carried down.

Come forward.

"This is your first time taking an exam. When you get to the examination room, you must remain calm and not be careless." Mei Zhili reminded.

Mei Chengan didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Wasn't this just a transition from primary school to junior high school? Why did he make it sound like a real thing? Was it really that serious?
"I remember Dad."

"Well, let's go."

"Mother, the child is gone."

"An'er, remember to eat at a certain time. Don't go hungry."

"I know, mother!"

"I wish you a triumphant return, brother. I will welcome you back later!"

Mei Chengan smiled and touched her head.

"gone."

Under the watchful eyes of his family, Mei Cheng'an carried his box and walked step by step towards the gate of the academy. There were several tables set up at the gate and staff from the Ministry of Rites were sitting behind them. This was the first hurdle, to verify the admission ticket.

All candidates were divided into four teams and lined up for identity verification.

Mei Cheng'an randomly chose a team and kept looking at the candidates around him while queuing. What surprised him was that he thought he should be the oldest student taking the exam. After all, it was just an entry-level exam, but the actual situation was just the opposite. Most of the candidates were around thirteen, fourteen or five years old.

He was actually the youngest in the group, and this discovery left Mei Chengan a little confused.

(End of this chapter)