Chapter 331 – Spring Planting
Yu Xiaocao was currently thinking about what to do. This residence shouldn’t only be used for half a month to live in while her brother took his exams. In order to get the most value from the purchase, she needed to do something else with it. Originally, she was thinking of renting it out to students who were taking exams. However, even with that idea the residence would stay empty for more than ten months out of the year! That was such a waste of an investment!
She really wanted to go back to her roots and open a braised food store. However, right now was not the right season for this as it would be hard to have a food-related business take off, especially something that relied on meat. It was just the start of spring, meaning it was the usual time for people to catch piglets for people to raise. Thus, there was a half a year delay before those piglets would be ready for slaughter. As for chickens and ducks, she also needed to wait for half a year…forget it for now, there was no need to think so much now. Once she got home, the whole family could get together and decide what to do!
The day of the prefectural exam approached quickly. With the experience of one set of examinations under their belt, Little Shitou and Qian Wen were both a lot more calm and collected this time around. At five in the morning, the doors to the prefectural examination yard opened. Because the exams were only across the street from them, the two of them ate breakfast and left the house at five in the morning. After undergoing inspections by the guards, they were seated according to their exam results. Everyone was given a small booth in the prefectural examination courtyard. This was another measure to prevent people from cheating.
The prefectural exam consisted of vocabulary, essays, and essays discussing political affairs. It was split into writing from memory, poetry and prose, and current affairs. Writing from memory posed no difficulty at all for Little Shitou. Furthermore, prior to the prefectural exam, Headmaster Yuan had personally instructed him and gave him tutoring on poetry, pose, and current affairs. Therefore, the other two sections of the exam were also passable for him.
There were a total of fifty people who qualified for the prefectural exams and they were split into two ranks. The top ten were considered the A-rankers. When they were being seated, Little Shitou was at the tail-end of the A-rankers and was number nine. During the examinations, the prefectural magistrate and many of the examiners had all taken note of this exam candidate who was the youngest of the bunch. They made sure to remember his name. When they were discussing the exam results and grading, they discovered that this cute and handsome little examinee had unexpectedly very good results.
They went back to review the sign up materials and discovered that he had studied at Rongxuan Academy, so his results were not surprising at all. Rongxuan Academy had produced many geniuses. An eight year old who could pass the county level examinations was not off the mark. Even a ten year old top scorer in the imperial palace examinations could be produced from them.
When they were looking at the results, Yu Bo deliberately waited over there. His name was also on the list. However, compared to the A-rank that Little Shitou received, he was only a B-rank and was only within the top forty. Someone who had passed the prefectural exam was someone who was halfway towards passing the entry-level exams as a whole. After passing the third in the series, only then was a candidate considered to be someone who had passed the county-level exams.
Originally, Yu Bo was full of self-confidence. However, after he saw his little nephew’s results and compared it to his own, he had to admit that comparisons were the devil. He had been studying for over a decade yet he only scored at the back of the pack. His young nephew, on the other hand, had only studied for only two years yet he was able to score in the top ten!
