The Road to the Imperial Examination for Poor Children"

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Chapter 1 The persimmons are ripe
　　Hengxi Town, a small mountain village.
　　It's only October, but the wind blowing in front of us already has the flavor of winter, making us feel chilly.
　　In the past few days, groups of geese can be seen from time to time in the blue sky. Sometimes they are arranged in the shape of a "one", and sometimes they are arranged in a shape of a "human", which often attracts people to stop and watch.
　　Wild geese are the best able to sense changes in cold and warm weather, so they all fly south before the cold winter comes.
　　October is also the season when fruits are fragrant, especially persimmons. After mid-month, persimmons hang heavily on the branches, like little red lanterns. Almost every household in Xiaogaoshan Village has persimmon trees planted in front of and behind their houses. Whenever the persimmons mature, the villagers will arrange for the younger members of the family to guard them to prevent them from being eaten by birds.
　　Old man Lin has three sons and a lot of grandchildren, so it is natural that he has no worries about people doing this job.
　　However, guarding the persimmon tree from morning to night was too boring. For the sake of fairness, Old Man Lin specially divided the work among his family members.
　　Lin Yuanqiu also knew the reason. It turned out that the people here didn't know that after picking the hard persimmons, you can use methods to make them soft and sweet, so they always have to wait until the persimmons are red and soft before removing them. Pick it from the tree, otherwise no one in the town will want the fruit, which is hard, astringent and difficult to eat.
　　This practice makes birds come to eat the persimmons all the time. Mr. Lin's arrangement is that the children in several rooms of the house take turns driving away the birds to protect the persimmons and prevent them from being eaten by the birds.

　　This is an income of nearly one tael of silver. If we don't keep it properly, there will definitely be fewer meat dishes for the New Year.
　　If the persimmons are not guarded, the big chicken drumsticks on New Year's Eve will be gone. No matter how reluctant the children are, they can only hold the bamboo poles and stay in the backyard. In other words, they can only wait in the backyard after looking forward to the end of the year. You can only eat chicken legs on New Year's Eve. If you don't have any, you won't be sad.
　　Today it was the third room's turn to drive away birds. Lin Yuanqiu had no brother or younger brother, so after breakfast, he went to the backyard with a bench and a bamboo pole.
　　Also following him were Lin Yuanhuai from the first bedroom and Lin Yuanbai from the second bedroom. One was seven years old and the other was six years old.
　　Lin Yuanqiu is five years old this year and is the youngest among his cousins.
　　As soon as they arrived in the backyard, Lin Yuanhuai and Lin Yuanbai couldn't wait to raise their heads and look for the "fish that slipped through the net."
　　Farm children don't usually have many snacks to eat, and the persimmons on the trees have made them greedy for a long time.
　　It's just that the adults are counting on the money from selling persimmons to provide for household needs. How can they be willing to give more food to the children? And even if they are given, they can only be the kind whose skin has been pecked by birds. As for the good quality, These must be kept and sold for money.
　　Therefore, the children's idea of ​​having a good meal with open belly was basically wasted.
　　So every time when the adults went out to carry their burdens, the children would gather under their own persimmon tree, going back and forth several times to look for any ripe fruits that had been missed.
　　"Gouzi, Gouzi, look at whether that persimmon is red!"
　　Lin Yuanhuai pointed at a red persimmon on the tree and shouted excitedly.
　　Lin Yuanbai on the side heard this and ran over quickly. After seeing clearly that the fruit was really big and red, he immediately shouted happily to Lin Yuanqiu who was not far away: "Dog, hurry up, get the bamboo pole quickly." Come here, let's get it down and eat it!"
　　You're such a big dog!
　　Lin Yuanqiu glared at the two of them angrily.
　　It's not like I don't have a reputation, so it's really unpleasant to have to bark like a dog.
　　Seeing the little cousin rolling his eyes at them, he knew that he was angry about calling him by his nickname again.
　　But Lin Yuanbai and Lin Yuanhuai couldn't care so much at the moment. At this time, both of them were focused on the red persimmon above their heads.
　　No, Lin Yuanhuai picked up the pole and reached up the tree. Lin Yuanbai, who was following closely behind, quickly lifted up the hem of his clothes, ready to catch the persimmons that his cousin had knocked down at any time.
　　The thin bamboo pole was about two feet long. Lin Yuanhuai raised his hands and stood on tiptoes, so that he could reach the red persimmon.
　　The world is big and the food is the biggest.
　　Thinking of the sweet persimmons, Lin Yuanqiu felt that the matter of being called Gouzi could be put aside for the time being.
　　He looked at Lin Yuanbai's position and felt that it was unlikely that this guy would catch the persimmon later. He was about to step forward to help, but before he could get closer, he heard a "chirp" and a bright red persimmon appeared. It brushed past the branches and fell directly to the dirt.
　　Along with it, Lin Yuanbai let out a distressed "Oh!"
　　"Why didn't you catch it!" Lin Yuanhuai was so anxious that he dropped the bamboo pole and immediately ran towards Persimmon.
　　When I picked it up and looked at it, fortunately, there was only a crack and it was still edible.
　　So, they cut off the skin and meat into three portions, and the three cousins ​​quickly dried up all the persimmons.
　　The sweet persimmon is tender and smooth in the mouth, so delicious.
　　Lin Yuanqiu couldn't help but licked the corners of his mouth.
　　Alas, in ancient times, not only have people become smaller, but their mouths have also become greedy.