novelden Chapter 962 The First Round of the Imperial Examination
Chapter 962 The First Round of the Imperial Examination
After eating his fill, he followed Zhang Ping'an, occasionally turning back to look at the gate of the Imperial Examination Hall. However, due to the surging crowd, the torches at the gate could only illuminate a small area in front of the gate, and it was difficult to see beyond that.
Zhang Ping'an didn't stop them. He waited for a while, then asked, "Did they go in?"
After eating, she tried her best to open her eyes wide, and finally saw Xiaoyuer and Pengpeng. She couldn't help but exclaim excitedly, "I see them! I see them! It's their turn to line up!"
After waiting a while longer and finishing his meal, he finally felt relieved, wiped his forehead, and exhaled. "Now I'm going in."
Zhang Ping'an was finally relieved. "Let's go. Just come pick them up on time in three days. There are some roads they have to walk on their own. I hope they do well on their exams this time."
His words contained many expectations.
Having eaten his fill, he didn't point out that Zhang Ping'an had been lying earlier. After finding the carriage, he drove back to his residence.
When they arrived home, it was barely dawn. Zhang Lao Er and Xu Shi were still waiting in the main room with a hand warmer.
Seeing Zhang Ping'an return, they quickly went up to ask what had happened.
"It's nothing. We can pick them up in three days. They'll eat their fill and we'll watch them enter the examination hall with our own eyes," Zhang Ping'an replied.
The elderly couple felt relieved after hearing this.
Seeing that their eyes were dark and they looked tired, Zhang Ping'an quickly urged them to go back to sleep before going to court.
Along the way, the colleagues he met with good relationships mostly talked about Xiaoyuer's success in the imperial examination. They couldn't help but feel envious of Zhang Ping'an for raising such an outstanding son.
"If Heming performs well this time, your Zhang family will have two Jinshi (successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations), and both of them will be Jinshi before they even reach the age of twenty. It will be quite a story when word gets out!"
"Not at all!" Zhang Ping'an smiled politely.
He never took such flattery seriously.
Although she appeared calm on the surface, she was actually somewhat worried inside.
Three days passed in the blink of an eye. Zhang Ping'an's colleagues in the Privy Council noticed that he was absent-minded in the morning and teased him about whether he was worried about his son's examination. Zhang Ping'an then stopped hiding it, took half a day off in advance, and returned to his residence. He planned to personally pick up his son and nephew later, as a kind of encouragement, just like how Zhang Lao Er waited for him back then.
Unexpectedly, Zhang Lao Er and Xu Shi seemed even more anxious than he was. Not long after lunch, they urged Zhang Ping An to go out, fearing that Xiao Yu'er would be disappointed if he didn't see his family when he came out of the examination hall.
Zhang Ping'an looked at the high-hanging sun with a wry smile, but didn't argue. He got into the carriage and went out, thinking he was just going to the entrance of the examination hall to relax.
Even after eating, he was clearly excited, "I wonder how the young master did on the exam!"
Realizing his words were inappropriate, he changed his tune: "Young Master is renowned for his talent and has a profound understanding of the world; he'll definitely be fine!"
Zhang Ping'an smiled and said, "Alright, don't say these things in front of me, and don't let the young master hear them, lest he become arrogant. But based on my observations of him, he should be able to make the list without any problems, it's just a matter of ranking!"
"Sir, you have a worthy successor," he said with a smile, clearly in a good mood after finishing his meal.
He also had his own ulterior motives. He had sent his sons to private schools for many years, spending a lot of money, but they hadn't learned anything and always came in last place in the teacher's tests.
As time went on, he gave up on the idea of them passing the imperial examinations and bringing glory to the family. Seeing that the Zhang family was doing better and better and that Xiaoyuer was also becoming successful, he thought it would be better to arrange for them to follow Xiaoyuer around as soon as possible, so that they could become familiar with him and find jobs in the future. It was better than continuing to waste time in the school.
Of course, another reason for choosing this time was that he knew that if Xiaoyuer passed the imperial examination, the Zhang family would definitely send people to follow Xiaoyuer, and at that time, his sons would have to take a back seat.
Just as he finished eating and was pondering how to start the conversation, they arrived at the examination hall. In the crowd, he saw Li's father and Wen's father. The two were standing close together but didn't say much, also waiting for the examination hall to open.
One can see the sense of superiority and condescending class in Wen's father's eyes, clearly indicating that he doesn't think much of Li's father deep down.
"They've arrived quite early too," she remarked, glancing in the direction of the two men after finishing her meal.
Zhang Ping'an followed the gaze and saw it too.
"Should I go say hello?" Chi Bao asked.
Zhang Ping'an thought for a moment and shook his head, "Forget it, Wen Xiange's father is too obsequious. If he knew we were here, he would definitely try to curry favor with us. There's no need to deal with him."
"Okay," he nodded, having finished eating.
After the carriage stopped in an inconspicuous spot to the side, Zhang Ping'an closed his eyes to rest and unknowingly fell asleep.
In his dream, he saw the jujube tree at the entrance of his village when he was a child. In his memory, the jujubes on that tree never turned red before they were knocked down and eaten.
There was also the time when he took Jinbao around to pick herbs and wild fruits to eat, and was the leader of the children. Those were truly carefree times, and it could be said to be the most relaxed time of his life.
From the village to the county seat, then to the prefectural city, the provincial capital, and finally the capital, step by step, we have come this far.
What will his son be like in the future? He'll at least be better than him, right?
At the end of his dream, he saw a group of babies surrounding him, calling him grandpa and asking him for money to buy candy. This startled him awake, and his heart pounded in his chest.
Just then, the bell rang at the examination hall. After finishing his meal, he jumped off the carriage and said, "Master, I'll go with the servants to guard the entrance of the examination hall and wait for the young master and his cousin to come out."