Du Heng stood at the entrance of the inn, looking at the ox cart going away, couldn't help but followed two steps up: "Xiaoman, take care of yourself at home!" "I know,
you can rest assured and just take the exam!"
Qin Xiaoman lay on the board On the top of the car, he waved vigorously to Du Heng, but after a while he was pulled back by Qin Xiong and sat down: "Du Heng, don't worry, so many days have passed before, are you afraid that you won't be able to pass these two days?" Du Heng heard the sound
slowly Slowly stopped, the couple from the county town came here together, and he was really worried that Qin Xiaoman was the only one returning home, so he went to the meat market and asked his second uncle to take over the work and send Xiaoman home.
In fact, Qin Xiong's words are correct, he didn't come here all by himself during those few years, not to mention that during these three days, of course he can take good care of himself.
It's just that they have lived together for a long time, and the two sides have never been separated. It is not so much that he is worried that Xiao Man will not be able to take care of himself without him, but that he is reluctant to bear Xiao Man.
Watching people go home alone with a big belly, eat and sleep alone and take care of the trivial things at home.
He kept a warm yellow oil lamp at night, and didn't know what he would do to pass the time when he was not at home, which made him feel very uncomfortable.
Standing on the market outside the inn for a long time, Du Heng returned to the room in a daze after seeing the bullock cart had disappeared at the intersection for a long time.
He wanted to cheer up and look through the poems again, but when he sat in front of the window and flipped through the book, he just flipped through the words. He only passed the words in his mind, but never in his heart.
Du Heng simply called a buddy to send some hot water for washing.
The inn is a local brand, and the conditions are good. It not only provides three meals, but also hot water. It is very cold in spring, and there is a stove in the room.
The bedding on the bed was also thick and fluffy. These were all seen when he first chose the room. Qin Xiaoman said that he should try his best to book a good room for him, so that he could devote himself to the exam.
The accommodation conditions are good, much better than at home, but the price is also worthy of the conditions.
It cost six hundred and sixty Wen in one night, which was like breaking my teeth.
Du Heng called for hot water to soak his feet early, and lay on the bed, but he didn't feel warm.
He turned on the light and closed his eyes, and pretended that there was a brother lying beside him who was dishonest in his sleep. When he fell asleep, he either put his feet on his lap or put his hands into his clothes.
Coaxing myself like this made me feel better, and I don't know when I fell asleep.
The next day was still slightly bright, so Du Heng got up early and ate breakfast. After solving all his personal problems, he packed his schoolbag and went to the examination room.
The first three county exams for children's exams were held in this county, and the previous two prefectural exams were to go to the state capital. Later, because the children's exams were held every year, the cost of running back and forth for the exams was too high, so it was simply changed to Take the exam in this county.
After the county test, go to the government test every two days.
The children's test is the lowest first-level test in the scientific test, and there are the most candidates, but almost all scholars will come to take the test.
And the age limit is wide, ranging from twelve-year-old boys to eighty-year-old men. For this reason, it is not uncommon for three generations of grandparents and grandchildren to take the children's exam together.
Those who took the exam for the first time, plus those who failed to pass the exam many times, it is hard not to have such a large number of people.
When Du Heng arrived at the examination room, there was already a long queue outside. It was quite lively for people of all ages, tall and short, but outside the examination room, everyone did not make any noise. They only talked briefly with familiar people in a low voice, and waited. After checking, enter the examination room.
He lined up patiently. The morning wind chilled people, and he shrunk his neck. Anyway, he is still a young man with good resistance. Those children and white-haired old men are a bit miserable. I am afraid that they will pass an exam. It can also catch a cold.
After waiting for about a quarter of an hour, Du Heng had to enter the examination room.
He originally thought that the examination room would be a numbered room next to each other, but there were too many children taking the exam, and there were not so many numbered rooms for use. To be able to enter the numbered room for the exam, at least one must be admitted to the hospital to be eligible.
As a result, many candidates took the exam together in a lobby room, one person at a table, seeing that it was much easier to cheat if they wanted to cheat than to be alone in the numbered room.
But if the examinee can think of this, the examiner will naturally think of it too.
Du Heng remembered that he had participated in the children's test, as if the test papers were set according to the number of people.
That is to say, there are several sets of different test papers in one test, which are distributed intermittently. You who are sitting next to you don't know what his test questions are, so don't think about being able to glance at the left and right answer sheets with bright eyes.
He also felt that it was strictly humane, so he sat in his seat for a while, waiting for all the candidates to enter the arena, and someone who didn't know whether it was the examiner or some character sang the rules in front of the stage.
After reading the rules for half a quarter, the examination papers were handed out one after another.
Du Heng sat in the middle, and he glanced at the exam paper, and he immediately had the correct answer in his mind as soon as the exam question fell into his eyes.
This undoubtedly gave him a reassurance.
So he studied ink in a hurry and answered with pen and ink.
"Xiaoman, I heard that your Du Heng passed the exam. How did you do in the exam?"
Qin Xiaoman got up in the morning and was washing clothes in the yard splitting his legs. It was cold after taking off his clothes. He was rushing to wash when he looked up and saw a villager standing outside the stone wall.
"The exam just starts today, so who knows how well the exam is going, and he's just going to try it out to see how the questions come up for the exam. He didn't expect to pass the exam." Qin Xiaoman saw that he was a distant relative of the family, and his father
said The relative of the head is a goddaughter adopted by the grandfather when he was alive, so he has to be called aunt.
But in the past, when my grandfather was alive, I still kept in touch with each other. Later, when the family got married, and my grandfather passed away, the contact was much less.
In the past few years, I have not gone during the holidays, but after all, I am a villager, and I will still say hello when I meet them sometimes, which is considered a virtual relationship.
Qin Xiaoman heard that last year their family also had a bad autumn harvest, and they became close brothers and sisters with the Zhao family, and they were quite close.
"Oh~ Then he will come back in the afternoon after the exam?"
Qin Xiaoman thought he could come back: "The exam will take three days, and he will live in the county town, so he won't go back and forth." "
How about staying in a hotel?"
Qin Xiaoman responded.
"Yo, that will cost a lot of money."
Qin Xiaoman didn't answer. He missed Du Heng last night and fell asleep very late. He is not in good spirits today, and he is too lazy to talk to the villagers. What's the matter with me?"
The villagers said with a smile: "It's nothing, it's not because the villagers are busy with spring plowing, and I'm surprised to see that so much land in your house hasn't been moved. Mouth."
Qin Xiaoman raised his eyebrows slightly, their house is not on Xiangyang Avenue, there are not so many people who drop by, and he doesn't bother to talk to people if they don't tell them. "Your family ,
Du Heng, wants to study, and you have been holding your stomach for four or five months. Why do you have so much land at home?" "Why, do you want to
help my family farm?"
The son said: "It's a pity to see that your land is empty. If you can't grow so much, how about lending us two yuan to plant it? Your land was fertilized last year. If you don't plant crops this year, the grass will grow taller. If I plant it for you, I can take care of it so that no weeds grow."
Qin Xiaoman laughed, his calculations were really good, and he said directly:
"Since my aunt knows that my land has been fertilized last year, I should get it from Ge's family. Buy dry cakes and fertilizers, and I will lend you to plant them for nothing? Auntie wants to work as a farm laborer for our family to prepare food for me, or does auntie think that my man is not at home, and I can be bullied if I have a big belly, right?"
"Hey, why do you talk like that, brother? I just said that I wanted to help your family take care of the fields. It's too ugly for you to say that to your relatives!" "Gun, you recognized me on the first
day ? Isn't my speech always ugly?"
The woman left without cursing.
Qin Xiaoman spat, thankfully he had the nerve to tell him this.
Seeing that the spring planting is coming soon, their family did not go to the fields to take care of the fields. The people in the village saw that their family had a good harvest last year, so they came to make up their minds.
During the Chinese New Year, relatives who hadn't had much contact with each other also came to the house, and they asked what they planned to do with their land in the future.
It wasn't cheap for him to be abandoned before, and those relatives who wanted to take advantage of him scolded him outside for giving up their hopes.
After marrying Du Heng, all the land in the family has been rearranged. Seeing that there are not enough people to cultivate the land this year, the hopes of these relatives have been rekindled.
He felt a little angry, helped his stomach to get up slowly, hung the clothes in the yard, and went back to the house to sleep a little sleepy.
The next day, Sun Dongmei came to see him, remembering that he was alone at home and was pregnant. It happened that he wanted to go out and pick some vegetables to eat, so the two of them went to the field together.
"Is Xiao Man okay? You have to take care of yourself when Du Heng isn't at home."
The two ran into Mrs. Zheng as soon as they arrived in the field.
"I'm fine. He's not at home, isn't my sister-in-law coming to see me?"
Mrs. Zheng smiled, seeing that there was no one around, she leaned forward: "I heard that your family is going to hire a farmer. It's true. "
What farm laborer?! Madam Zheng, please don't make fun of us. We, as ordinary people, know all the laws and regulations of the court."
Sun Dongmei rejected the words first. There is no child born scholar in the family, so who dares to recruit farm laborers? , that's a crime.
Qin Xiaoman also frowned: "Yeah, I never said that."
He mentioned it when he and Du Heng were discussing how to arrange the land at home, but at that time only the two of them were talking at home, and no outsiders knew about it, and he was also surprised that an outsider came to ask. It will be Du Heng who told others.
It's fine to talk about it at home, but it's not the same thing when others say it. Qin Xiaoman is worried, how can he not be afraid that it is a crime.
Mrs. Zheng and the Qin family were still relatively close, so she whispered: "I also heard folks talking in the field, saying that your field has not prepared seeds for this year, and the family does not have manpower to take care of the field. Farm laborer."
"Who said that! Isn't this intentional to harm people!"
"I don't know who said it first, but everyone just started talking about it, and I thought it was wrong. After all, Du Heng is still taking the exam. If you have a plan in your heart, you won't just throw out the words like this early. But everyone just listens to the excitement, who cares about this."
Qin Xiao was so angry that he didn't intend to harm their family.
There was talk everywhere that their family wanted to recruit farmers, and it was fine if they passed the exam, and no one had anything to say.
If he didn't pass the exam, when Lizheng and the inspectors heard some rumors, they would come to the house to investigate. Wouldn't it affect Du Heng's reputation? The most important thing for scholars is the word reputation!
He looked at the villagers who were plowing the ground in the distance, and yelled straight away: "Whoever talks nonsense, you better not let me know, you will be indispensable if you know!" The villagers stopped their work and glanced at Qin
Xiaoman. , no one said anything.
"You only chew when you have something to do, what's the matter, what's the matter with your family?"
Mrs. Zhao said angrily: "Some people are afraid that their buttocks are not hot in the exam room, but they are looking at how they will be after the exam. It's really interesting. Seeing this ,
Sun Dongmei quickly grabbed Qin Xiaoman's arm: "Don't be angry, it will be fine if you hurt your fetus, let's go home."
Qin Xiaoman gritted his teeth, thinking about the child in his stomach. Did not fight with that woman.
In the past two days, he was worried about Du Heng being in the examination room, and he was pissed off by the villagers' nonsense. He couldn't sleep well at night, and felt a little hurt in his fetus.
He didn't have much appetite to eat, and the morning sickness reaction was not too frequent. Du Heng also took care of his taste in many ways, and tried to make the food refreshing and delicious. He didn't feel that there was too much discomfort in being pregnant.
As for himself, smelling the food made him sick to his stomach, he couldn't help putting down his chopsticks in annoyance, covering his chest to suppress the feeling of wanting to vomit but not being able to.
Qin Xiong also thought that he had a child and was worried about being alone at home, so he would come to see him at night after returning from business in the county, and asked Sun Dongmei to come and accompany him from time to time.
Although there are always people at home, but his heart is empty chatter.
It was only now that he felt more and more that Du Heng's care for him had permeated into every detail of his life, and he couldn't do without him for every meal and drink.
He glanced at the cloudy sky outside, his head was a little drowsy, thinking that today is the second day of the exam, and Du Heng will be able to come home tomorrow, his heart seemed to be inspirited, thinking that he had to drive tomorrow Du Heng was picked up outside the examination room.
Just thinking about it, remembering it, he tossed and turned at night and couldn't sleep. The tiger sleeping outside had sharp ears, and seemed to have heard the sound of him turning over in the back room, barking outside, and ran to the door of the back room. Pick the door.
"It's okay, I'm going to bed now."
He said to the door, the pup has been with him since he was a little old, and he can understand the tone of his master after raising him for a few months, and it seems that his tone is stable. I didn't continue calling.
Qin Xiaoman was in a daze, and didn't know when he really fell asleep. He only felt that his body was sinking after he fell asleep, and he seemed to hear someone calling him softly in the unreality.
"Xiao Man, Xiao Man?"
"Um..."
When Du Heng heard the sleepy and unclear voice, he bent down and touched his brother's face and forehead, then probed his neck, and heaved a sigh of relief.
The voice seemed very real, Qin Xiaoman pursed his lower lip, thinking how could he say such unpleasant words in his dream, he narrowed his heavy eyes slightly, and looked at the person in front of him as if very clearly.
Qin Xiaoman called out tentatively: "Sister-in-law?"
"Yeah." Seeing that the man woke up, Du Heng leaned over and gently hugged him up, and stuffed the pillow he usually slept on into Qin Xiaoman's back: " I haven't woken up after sleeping for so long, you scared me to death."
Qin Xiaoman was still a little confused, although he was exhausted, he still stretched out his hand and rubbed his eyes.
Zhao Ling woke up, and saw that the person who was half bent over making his bed was really Du Heng, and he opened his eyes wide: "Why are you back!" "
I rushed back after the exam."
" What time is it, the exams are over?!"
Du Heng sat down by the bed, stroked Xiaoman's hair that was already sleeping on his cheeks: "It's afternoon, I'm afraid it's almost time." "Why did
I sleep for so long? "Qin Xiaoman folded his eyebrows, he felt that his face and neck were a little wet: "I also said that I would get up earlier today to pick you up." Du Heng let out a foul breath: "I
still miss picking me up, you don't know you don't know You have a fever, come back and see that your face is red, and your hands are hot when you touch it."
He hurriedly fetched water to cool him down, but fortunately, his body temperature dropped after a short while.
"No wonder the body is so heavy."
Qin Xiaoman saw Du Heng who hadn't seen him for a few days, and wondered if he was sick or weak or something, his nose felt a little sore.
He moved his body, threw away the pillow and leaned on Du Heng's body. Wrapped in the familiar smell, he felt as if something had landed in his heart.
Du Heng held his brother's shoulders, he had only been away for a few days, how could he not feel distressed when he came back and saw people like this.
"Sister-in-law came to see you first, knowing that you were sick because of running back and forth, and I felt sorry for not taking good care of you."
Du Heng bumped into Sun Dongmei when he came back earlier, and told him the previous discussion in the village. angry with these people.
But three people become tigers, and there is no way to arrest and beat them up.
He knew the most beneficial way to shut up the people who were really messing up the water behind his back, so he forbeared and didn't go to anyone to argue.
"My sister-in-law has been taking care of me these days, and she comes here from time to time, and she is often talked about by my second aunt."
Qin Xiaoman rubbed the back of his head against Du Heng's chest: "I'm sick because I miss you so much."
Isn't Du Heng like that? , He hugged Qin Xiaoman for a while before saying: "There is porridge in the pot, I'll get a bowl here, you haven't eaten for two meals." Qin Xiaoman nodded, not to mention that he was afraid of starving, he really did
. Some hungry.
Du Heng cooks sweet potato porridge, pure white rice porridge is unavoidably bland, and he wants to make some lean meat porridge, but Xiao Man has just recovered from his fever, so he may not be able to eat greasy and meaty things.
The sweet potato porridge tastes soft and glutinous, and it's a little sweet, so it's time to eat it.
Xiao Man lived up to expectations and ate three bowls.
When he was full, he gained strength, and when Du Heng came home, Qin Xiaoman immediately returned to the water like a fish left on the beach by the water, able to run and jump again.
"Du Heng, are you back? How did you
do in the exam this time?" "Did you pass the exam?"
"I heard that there are quite a few people who took the exam this year, and only the first ones will be hired."
Du Heng was at home these two days, and the villagers When they saw it, they all asked about the exam results, but they seemed more anxious than the deity and Qin Xiaoman.
"I don't know, and I'll only find out when the results come out, and there are still two games to come."
Du Heng pushed it back as he said, and he was really annoyed by being asked, and these days when he was illiterate, he even talked about the scientific examination.
He was going to the county seat to prepare for the government examination the next day, so he simply packed Qin Xiaoman and sent him to the county seat.
It's not that there is no room for two people to stay in the inn, but it saves the hatchback.
"I really can't leave for a moment, how can I take the exam sincerely like this?"
Qin Xiong heard that the two people in the government examination would go to the county town, and seeing Man Geer who had been sitting on the bullock cart for a long time for fear of being thrown off, he couldn't bear it. Stop swearing a few words.
"We've been married for so long, and it's like a newlywed."
Although he was cursing, he still went to the left and right to check whether the house was locked and locked: "I'll come back at night to feed your dogs." "
Thank you two Uncle."
"Come on, let's go, the entrance exam will be good later."
Seeing the couple driving away, Qin Xiong shook his head.
The first two exams were fast. One was that the candidates were familiar with the exam room, and the other was that there was one less exam than before.
It's just that Du Heng found that when he went to the examination room again, there seemed to be fewer candidates than before. During the inspection and waiting, he heard others say that he had typhoid fever, and some of them didn't come. It's not coming.
Du Heng's eyebrows twitched slightly. Although this exam can be taken without money, it is only once in a row. Even if there are some sessions that have not been taken, it is good to try all the exam questions.
After one exam, Du Heng thought that Qin Xiaoman would be there when he returned to the inn today, and that his condition today was better than the previous three rounds.
"The government test is much more difficult than the previous county test. I'm afraid I'm going to fall on the government test again this time." "There's
another test tomorrow, and the finale is probably more difficult than today's."
"It doesn't matter ." , Forget it, we have to come next year.”
Du Heng packed up his pen and ink, and his brows lightly raised when he heard the same exam said so.
He suddenly came out of the examination room, and just as he was about to go back, he heard a shout of joy: "Master!"
Du Heng saw someone standing near the corner, he walked forward, grabbed Qin Xiaoman's two hands, and said sternly : "Why did you come out? Didn't you say that you can wait for me at the inn?"
"I'm fine at the inn after I wake up. I just walked over slowly and waited for you."
Du Heng rubbed Qin Xiaoman's hair: "Okay Let's go back to the inn for dinner."
"How is today's exam, is it difficult?"
Du Heng took Qin Xiaoman's hand and said, "It's okay, the government exam is more difficult than the previous college exam."
"Brother Man, Du Heng?"
The two of them were talking, when they ran into Qin Zhiyan who had just come out of the county government office. .
"Uncle Tang."
"This is the first exam in the government, right?"
Du Heng responded, "I just passed the exam."
Qin Zhiyan nodded: "How about it, can you still write?"
"The first three exams All of them are poems and prose, testing the knowledge reserve, and starting to test policy theory today, it is more difficult than simply answering poems and prose." "
Yes, try it with peace of mind, don't be too nervous."
Du Heng responded.
"Tang uncle, go get busy with something important. I'm going back with Du Heng."
Qin Xiaoman didn't say that the two of them are currently staying in a hotel. When Qin Zhiyan finds out, he will definitely blame him for not staying at their house. So much trouble will happen. Come.
"Okay, take it easy, both of you."
"Got it."
Qin Zhiyan was about to go back to the carriage when he suddenly thought that it took only a few days for the first three games, so he could go and show Du Heng the results.
Pulling back the body that was going to get into the carriage, he wanted to ask Du Heng if he wanted to know the results of the first three rounds, but he changed his mind, if he didn't pass it, he might affect the last exam, so he didn't say anything.
Soon after passing the last government examination, Du Heng and Qin Xiaoman packed up and went back to the village.
The results are not announced until five days later, and it is time to wait for the results.