An alpha's ancient life record

The sun is scorching hot in July, and the weather is getting hotter and hotter. The daytime in the capital is always bright, and the sun is pouring down on the head and covering the face, and the flowers are red and the willows are green.

The whole family has used ice cubes, but it is still so dry that people are upset. The old Liu is old and can't stand the ice. In the next few days, he will go to the Zhuangzi in the suburbs of Beijing to escape the summer heat.

At this moment, my son hasn't left yet, just waiting for Shen Qingshu, the township examination is also called Qiuwei, and the examination starts on the eighth day of August, and she is about to leave.

With the past two encounters, old Liu is not so worried about her going out to rush for the exam.

As usual, they prepared carriages, horses and luggage, but Uncle Liu, the housekeeper, was too old to travel around. This time, Uncle Liu's eldest son accompanied him.

"Grandmother, I'll go." After saying goodbye, Shen Qingshu walked to the carriage and couldn't help but look back. Lin Weizhi supported He's elbow, and there was a look of concern on his face that couldn't be hidden .

Her lips moved, and she wanted to say something more, but after thinking for a while, she didn't know what to say.

In the end, he just waved his hand and got into the carriage.

Lin Weizhi watched the carriage go away, feeling a little bit lost in her heart, why wouldn't she be reluctant to go there for two or three months?

They had only been married for two months, and their relationship had only made some progress in the past few days. It had been so long since they hadn't seen each other, and she was really afraid that Mu Mu would forget her completely when he came back from the exam.

But if Shen Qingshu really dared, she gritted her teeth lightly and smiled with her lips drawn.

The weather was too hot, they rested during the day and hurried on the road at night, wading through mountains and rivers all the way, and when they arrived at Chuzhou Mansion, Shen Qingshu was so tired that he was about to collapse.

As far as the distance of the country test, the speed and bumps of the ancient carriage, she didn't want to take the test again.

After resting for a few days, on the sixth day of the lunar new year, the examiners entered the house and held a horse-riding banquet under the curtain. Both the inner and outer curtain officials would go to the banquet. After the banquet, the supervisors would close the door, and the examiners who judged the papers would no longer communicate with the outside.

The chief examiner of the Chuzhou Mansion this time was indeed Zheng Dayin, a doctor in the household department. As soon as the news came out, Master Zheng's previous works were sold out immediately.

Shen Qingshu had finished reading his "Big Briefs" and knew that Mr. Zheng preferred safe and pragmatic articles and disliked radical viewpoints.

Her writing style is consistent, but she has to restrain some advanced ideas.

On the eighth day of the lunar new year, before dawn, there was already a long queue in front of the Gongyuan gate.The yamen servants held torches and stood on both sides of the line to maintain order. Although there were many people, no one dared to make a loud noise, and it was considered quiet.

At the level of Juren, they are already considered as alternate officials and have the qualifications to be officials, so the township examination is extremely strict.

Shen Qingshu dodged the inspection, with cold sweat dripping from his forehead, and the soldiers leading the way looked at her suspiciously.

Shen Qingshu was startled, pretended to be calm, wiped off his sweat, slapped the wind with his palm twice, and muttered softly, "It's too hot."

The soldier looked at her again, didn't say anything, and didn't know whether to believe it or not, he led her to the number room and left.

Shen Qingshu waited in fear for a long time, but he was relieved when he didn't see anyone coming to arrest her, and looked at the number room.

The references for the rural examination are basically adults, so the number of rooms is larger than that of the courtyard examination, but the size is limited. There are still two wooden boards, and there is a charcoal stove in the corner for the candidates to cook.

Her luck was better this time than last time, she was near the drinking water tank, away from the toilet, so she didn't have to worry about smelling anything.

Shen Qingshu cleaned the table, took out the pen, ink, paper and inkstone, arranged them according to her customary rules, then propped her head and closed her eyes to rest.

When the sky was brighter, after all the candidates entered the venue, the papers and draft papers were handed out.

There are three township examinations, each three days, the first one is mainly to test the scriptures and meanings, writing articles based on sentences extracted from the Four Books or Five Classics, a total of eight essays, and two poems and prose.

Shen Qingshu couldn't be bothered, she had to vomit writing articles in the past few years, and there were two questions that Mr. Zheng pressed some time ago, and she could use the articles she had written before.

She had taken the exam twice in August and gained some experience.After finishing the draft, I lit the candles and started to write.

The sun rose, and it was estimated that it would be about ten o'clock in the morning, so the stove was lit and cooking began.

In her previous life, she could eat in the cafeteria all the time and had a housekeeping robot. In this life, she has a lot of food and clothing, but she really hasn't mastered the skill of cooking.The conditions of the rural test are also limited, that is, pour in water, rice, stewed beef, vegetable leaves, etc. and cook together.

After writing for a while, the stew was cooked and the aroma gradually wafted out. Shen Qingshu started to eat lunch. Even though she was not very hungry, she insisted on eating some. There was no way, it was too hot to eat at noon. up.

She came back after simply rinsing the tableware, copied the two scripture questions she had done in the morning onto the test paper, dried them and put them carefully in the test basket.

At this time, the sun was getting higher and higher, and the number room was airtight, stuffy and hot. Shen Qingshu was sweating continuously, and felt that it was difficult to even breathe.

She put away the paper and stopped writing, took out the folding fan and kept fanning the wind. The wind was also hot, but it was better than nothing.I also heard the man next door irritably flipping through the papers, and there was a muffled sound of "dong dong dong" from time to time. I don't know if he was hitting his head against the wall or the table.

And the man opposite, no, it should be Uncle Ren, Shen Qingshu saw that he had grown a beard, and he was probably in his forties.

The old man was wearing underpants, Shen Qingshu accidentally glanced at it, and immediately lowered his head, his eyes were really hot.

At this time, she misses the environment of the examination room of later generations very much. When it is hot, there is air conditioning and artificial rainfall. A session lasts up to three hours, and she can go home immediately after the exam.

She leaned on the table, resting her arm on the pillow, thinking about the answer to the question, and fell asleep in a daze. When she woke up, her back was soaked with sweat.

After simply wiping it with clean water, she began to shake the fan violently again to beat the manuscript. After the sun went down and the temperature dropped a little, she picked up the pen and finished it in one go, and completed two more questions.

For dinner, she just ate a la carte leaves and fruits. On the first day of the day, these were still fresh, so it was considered a "weight loss meal".

When it was time to go to bed, Shen Qingshu lit wormwood to smoke the mosquitoes. The space was narrow and the smell of the smoke was very choking.Just as she was about to fall asleep in a daze, she suddenly heard a loud snoring sound, driving her sleepiness away.

She sat up and listened carefully, and found out speechlessly that she was not alone, and she was up and down with the man next door, one after another, like a duet.

She had thought about this situation before and prepared earplugs. After all, most men snore, but she didn't expect these two to be so loud.

Even though she plugged in the earplugs and covered her ears, she still couldn't resist the magic sound piercing through her ears, which made her miss the bed at home and her wife's soft breathing.

Since she couldn't sleep, Shen Qingshu simply lit a candle and lit a lamp to fight at night. In the dim light at night, she didn't dare to answer the questions on the paper, so she just blocked her ears and slowly conceived on the draft paper.

Under the interference of 360-degree surround sound, the efficiency was terribly low. After she couldn't write a few words, a nameless anger rushed to her heart, which made her want to swear at others.

Getting angry, calming down, getting angry again, and calming down again, Shen Qingshu repeated this process until the dawn dawned, and the two brothers finally calmed down, feeling that they would become Buddhas immediately.

After queuing up so early yesterday and staying up almost all night, Shen Qingshu yawned, feeling his eyes were dry and his eyelids were fighting.But this is the coolest time of the day, if she falls asleep, the exam will probably be suspended.

She pulled herself together, completed a small part of what she wrote last night, revised it carefully, and copied it onto the paper.After the sun rose, when Gong came back from a trip, he almost fell asleep.

After waking up in the afternoon, Shen Qingshu's entire face was numb, and his stomach was growling with hunger. He managed to use up some food, and started to hurry up to do the questions again. She knew that the two brothers would not let go at night. her.

Day and night were reversed to do the questions, and on the third morning, Shen Qingshu hurried to finish the poems and prose questions. After checking the papers, she checked the name, place of origin and other information carefully. After confirming that they were correct, she went to sleep peacefully. Down.

After noon, a sergeant came to collect the papers. When Shen Qingshu arrived, she called her several times before she woke up. She took out the papers and saw the sergeant's contemptuous eyes. of candidates.

In fact, she was a little bit drummed in her heart. In this state, although she felt that she answered well, she really couldn't guarantee that she could fully play to her own level.

After handing in the test papers, candidates can leave the numbered room. Although they still cannot leave the examination room, at least they can move around in the more spacious alleyway.

The familiar candidates sat together in twos and threes. Shen Qingshu didn't know anyone, so he walked around to stretch his legs.

She saw the candidates from the "smelly number" near the toilet coming over, all of them were pale, pale as gold paper, and they were floating when they walked, and they fell asleep against the wall when they came here.

Others consciously stayed away from them, because the "stinky number" has been there for a long time, and people are also smelly.

Seeing them, Shen Qingshu felt that he was lucky, it was just two brothers who were snoring like thunder.

"Brother Shen!"

Shen Qingshu was rubbing her sore shoulders when she suddenly heard a pleasantly surprised voice. She didn't realize it was calling herself, but when she raised her head, she saw the young man on the opposite side stepping up to her, cupping her hands with a smile on her face. , "Brother Shen, we actually met again, you and I are really destined."

This young man was only wearing a white undershirt, his hair was tied up, his complexion was fair, his face was a bit round, and when he smiled, the dimples on his cheeks were still deeply sunken, making him look very pleasing.

Hmm... looks familiar, who is this?

She didn't know many people in Chuzhou, Shen Qingshu thought for a while before saying uncertainly: "Brother Guan?"

Six years ago, she took part in the court examination in Chuzhou. At that time, Guan Yiming, the court chief who overwhelmed her, seemed to look like this.

Seeing that she couldn't remember herself clearly, Guan Yiming was not angry, and nodded with a smile: "Exactly, my name is Guan Yiming, Brother Shen. I haven't seen you for a few years, but I still look good."

During the few days of the exam, there was no one to communicate with, and Shen Qingshu also felt quite bored, and now he was very happy to meet someone he knew before to talk to.

She shook her sweaty and air-dried clothes, said with a wry smile, "I haven't showered for three days, how can I still have any style."

The two looked at each other and smiled tacitly, and the strangeness that hadn't been seen for several years dissipated a little.

Shen Qingshu walked to the wall, brushed the dust casually twice, sat down cross-legged, and apologized: "I didn't recognize you just now, I'm sorry, but we just met each other and haven't seen you for a few years. How do you recognize me?"

In the past few years, not to mention that she has changed a lot, she has grown a lot in stature, and her face has also grown a little.

Guan Yiming didn't care that his inner clothes were dirty, so he sat down next to her and said with a smile, "Haha, it's a coincidence, just as I was resting there, I saw a man in a green shirt walking around, I thought to myself The weather is so hot, everyone bares their breasts, and like me, it is enough to wear an inner coat, but there are still people wearing outer robes, so I took a few more glances. I never thought that the more I looked, the more familiar I was, it was you, Brother Shen. .”

As he spoke, he glanced over curiously, "Brother Shen, aren't you hot?"

Why is it not hot?Shen Qingshu was so hot, but would she dare to take off her clothes?Even with a white undershirt, it would be too see through after sweating. She learned the lesson from last time, and this time she only wore a light blue overshirt.

"This is just one layer for me, it's the same as the inner garment." She lifted up the hem of her robe to reveal her white trouser legs, slapped it a few times, and said nonsense, "Brother Guan, you don't know, we have to take nine days of exams. At that time, the inner clothes were soaked yellow with sweat, I looked disgusted, so I changed to a blue one, although it was still dirty, but I couldn’t tell, so I felt better.”

When she said this, she suddenly felt that it was quite reasonable. In the scorching summer, without taking a bath or changing clothes for nine days, it would kill my cleanliness and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Guan Yiming nodded in agreement, "So that's the case, Brother Shen, if you don't tell me, I don't think so, but if you say it..."

He pulled up his collar for a closer look, and clicked his tongue in disgust.

Shen Qingshu laughed dryly, and questioned: "By the way, why are you also taking part in the township examination this time?"

With Guan Yiming's knowledge, she thought he won the exam last time.

Guan Yiming was stunned for a moment, with a bitter expression on his face, "It's a long story, my mother passed away, and I kept my filial piety for three years."

"Sorry, I made a slip of the tongue." Unexpectedly, Shen Qingshu quickly apologized for poking someone's sore spot.

"It's okay, it's been several years, you don't know, Brother Shen," Guan Yiming forced a smile, and asked again: "Brother Shen, how about you?"

Shen Qingshu smiled embarrassingly: "Me? I am purely lacking in knowledge. Let's fight again this time."

Guan Yiming comforted: "With Brother Shen's knowledge, I will definitely win this time."

Shen Qingshu said: "I would like to borrow your good words."

The township examination is so tossing, of course she also hopes to pass.

As the sun went down in the evening, Shen Qingshu took out the stove and continued to cook her mishmash.

The vegetable leaves were gone, and there were mushrooms, black fungus and tofu skin that could be boiled after soaking. She tore it up and cooked it in the porridge, stewing it with the stewed pork.

Guan Yiming squatted beside her, swallowing the smell of the porridge. He only brought dry food, chewing on the air-dried chicken and looking at the stove, almost staring at a hole.

With his appearance, Shen Qingshu didn't like eating alone, so he also filled a bowl for him, handed it over, and asked politely: "Do you want to eat some?"

Guan Yiming said "This is not good", but quickly took it in his hand, he couldn't wait to blow his breath, took a sip, swallowed it, and let out a long sigh of satisfaction, as if he was eating some delicacies from mountains and seas generally.

Shen Qingshu also tasted it herself, and found that her cooking skills are still the same, that is, it is not burnt, and it looks like it can barely fill her stomach after cooking.

She wondered, "Brother Guan, didn't you bring rice in?"

"I don't know how to cook." Guan Yiming said quickly, he sipped the porridge, and hardly had time to answer.

"It's not difficult. Your family will prepare it for you, just pour it all in and cook."

Guan Yiming shook his head and said: "No, I tried it before, but I can't tell the heat, it will either be raw or burnt, and sometimes it will catch fire and burn the rolls."

Shen Qingshu had nothing to say, she didn't know how to be so simple, she thought that her culinary skills could be called a kitchen killer, but she still underestimated other people.

Guan Yiming defended again: "Look, there are not many other people who know it."

Shen Qingshu looked around, and saw that only a small number of them were cooking, and most of them were squatting there, gnawing on dry food bitterly, and looking enviously at the candidates who were cooking.

It's really a true portrayal of "a gentleman stays away from the kitchen".

After dinner, Shen Qingshu poured clean water to brush her teeth. During the exam, someone would follow her when she took out the water. She didn't have the patience to wait for you to brush your teeth, and she didn't have any conditions at all in the number room. She just took a sip of water to rinse casually these days.

Guan Yiming went back to the number room, maybe he was a little embarrassed to eat her food, so he enthusiastically took ginseng wine and shared it with Shen Qingshu.

Shen Qingshu waved his hand and refused, "I don't drink alcohol, Brother Guan, you can use it yourself."

Guan Yiming was a little surprised, and explained: "This is ginseng wine, and it doesn't have much stamina."

"I don't like to drink ginseng wine either, it's still too spicy." Shen Qingshu shook his own wine gourd, "I don't drink much, so I only drink rice wine."

"Rice wine?" Guan Yiming almost laughed, "Brother Shen, you can't do this. How can you not drink alcohol when you are socializing in the officialdom?"

Shen Qingshu smiled, "Why not? Which exam will test our drinking capacity, and it is said that only a good drinking capacity can be an official."

"It's true that there is no test," Guan Yiming didn't know whether to laugh or cry, "but this is an official practice. For example, if you go to a banquet and the superior tells you to drink, do you want to drink?"

"Don't drink."

"If you don't drink, you may offend the Shangguan."

Shen Qingshu said: "If you don't drink, you will offend such a stingy Shangguan, whether I drink or not, I will offend him sooner or later. Besides, even if I offend, so what, can I be dismissed because of such a trivial matter? "

Guan Yiming was stunned by what she said, and after reacting for a while, he said: "But there is absolutely no need to offend people because of such trivial things."

Shen Qingshu took a sip of rice wine and said with a smile: "Then there's no need to wrong yourself because of such a trivial matter. Besides, how do you know it's a trivial matter? If you drink too much, you might die from alcohol poisoning."

Guan Yiming was taken aback, "Alcohol poisoning, is there such poison in the wine?"

"Well, how should I put it, maybe if you drink too much."

"Brother Shen, you're bluffing me." Guan Yiming was very suspicious, "Just to avoid drinking, you made such a big circle."

Shen Qing spread out his hands, "Believe it or not."

Anyway, she doesn't like to drink, and she can't taste its beauty, so she has already thought about it. In the future, she will be an official outside, and she will not have as many entertainments as a Beijing official. As a chief official, she is the biggest, and no one will force her not to drink. she.

"If you don't want to drink it, then I'll drink it myself." Guan Yiming lifted the lid of the jug, took a sniff, and drank a couple of sips happily, with an intoxicated expression, like a heavy smoker.

He recovered his strength, and tried to persuade him, "Brother Chen, the provincial examination is too tough, you won't be able to survive without some ginseng wine."

Shen Qingshu smiled slightly, set up the cleaned pot again, took out a paper bag, poured all the contents in, and added water to stew.

Guan Yiming and Dingqing saw that there were ginseng slices, wolfberry, red dates, and longan.

Shen Qingshu took out the air-dried chicken, tore a few pieces of chicken and added it in, making a pot of simple ginseng soup.

"..."

Okay, those who know how to cook have many tricks, Guan Yiming has nothing to say.

Not long after drinking the ginseng soup, the soldiers came to drive them back to the number room, Shen Qingshu was very reluctant, she would rather sleep in the corner than go back and listen to the two brothers "singing".

There was no paper for her to do tonight, so she folded her clothes and lay on the bed, trying to sleep for a while before the snoring started.

Suddenly hearing the sound of pattering rain, Shen Qingshu was startled, quickly turned over and sat up, and then he was relieved when he remembered that his paper had been handed in.

The construction quality of Dayan Dynasty's tribute courtyard was not bad, maybe Shen Qingshu was lucky, in short, her room did not leak.It's just that after it rains heavily, it is inevitable that raindrops will drift in obliquely.

Shen Qing huddled in the side of the number room, and put on another robe that she had brought just in case.

After the rain, the temperature dropped, and the snoring next door was mostly covered by the rain. Shen Qingshu managed to sleep soundly.

On the fourth day, when the test papers were handed out, the rain was still falling intermittently. Shen Qingshu was afraid of getting the test paper wet, so he could only hold the umbrella with his left hand to shield it from the outside, and answer the questions with his right hand.

After a day of rain, the temperature was a little low at night, but it was very hot in the past few days, and most candidates did not bring thick spare clothes.The young candidates could still bear it, but the older ones were a little bit cold. Shen Qingshu heard the uncle opposite her coughing frequently.

Although his snoring annoyed Shen Qingshu very much, she didn't want him to interrupt the exam because of his illness. The township exam is held every three years, how many three years are there in life?

Alas, I just hope that the rain can stop soon, and the hot weather can survive.

The next morning, the rain finally stopped and the sky cleared.

But the uncle opposite was coughing even more heart-piercingly. Shen Qingshu reckoned that he had contracted a cold, and if he was not treated, it might develop into pneumonia if it dragged on.

She was a little anxious, but she was also an examinee, so there was nothing she could do. Fortunately, the sergeant also noticed this.After some communication, the uncle voluntarily gave up the exam and was carried out by the sergeant.

Shen Qingshu felt that this rule was also very strange. There are doctors on standby in the tribute courtyard, but they can treat you only after you fail the exam.And after deciding not to take the exam, you can't go back to the Gongyuan to be taken care of by your family. You have to go out with other people after the exam.

Can't you go to the exam after seeing the doctor?Or if you don't take the exam, let people go home directly. It's been so long since the papers have been handed out, how can you still leak the exam questions?

Feudal society is inhumane.

But I have to say that after the uncle carried it away, she only played a duet when she slept at night, and its power was greatly reduced.

The second exam was all policy questions, which was Shen Qingshu's favorite, half of them were historical theories, which were about what happened in history, and the other half were about the policies of the dynasty.

Policy theory requires something to be said, as long as the answer is to the point, it doesn't hurt if the language loses its rhetoric.

There is a question in it, "Use your skills without the intention of applying for business, use the facts of applying for business and hide its name theory."

The way of change, Shen Qingshu hesitated a few times, but he still didn't write too radically, it can only be regarded as quite satisfactory.

After handing in the test papers, Shen Qingshu let out a long breath. The third round was her best law and calculation. At this point in the exam, there should be no major mistakes.

On the eighth day, the weather became hot again, and Shen Qingshu could guess what kind of stench he had on his body without smelling it, it must be rotten.

The food she brought in is almost finished. Under the high temperature, many foods can't be boiled for so long, and they will go bad if they don't eat them. Only the rice is still good, but after drinking the porridge for so many days, she is really a little Tired of drinking.

After being locked up for so many days, she has to use mental strength every time she goes to the toilet. Her mind is empty, and she doesn't have a good rest at night. She is in a trance.Fortunately, these math problems are too simple, and she doesn't need to think too much.

Everyone was in the same environment, and it wasn't difficult for her alone. Several times, Shen Qingshu saw soldiers passing by her carrying people.