Yan Junqi lit an oil lamp and memorized poems and books silently in the study. The village was quiet at night, the birds had all rested, and only the gurgling water by the stream and the occasional croaking of frogs were heard. The dim light of the oil lamp shines on the book, making it easier to concentrate than during the day.
Yan Junqi rubbed his forehead, suppressed his sleepiness, took a sip of strong tea, and continued to recite. Suddenly, there was a sound at the window. Yan Junqi was still looking for light and bumped into him. Unexpectedly, he looked up and was startled to see a silhouette.
The person outside the window knocked on his window again and called him in a low voice, "Jun Qi, open the window, it's me."
Lu Xu?
Yan Junqi opened the window and saw Lu Xu's smiling head. Lu Xu pushed fried snails to him through the window and asked Yan Junqi to open the door, but he ran away quickly.
Yan Junqi was stunned and went to open the door with a lamp. Lu Xu was already waiting outside his door.
"I think your place is the only one with a little light in the whole village. Can't you sleep?" Lu Xu lowered his voice and asked him energetically.
Yan Junqi: "..."
No, he was actually quite sleepy and wanted to sleep.
There was a visitor in the middle of the night. Although the time was not very suitable, the visitor was a visitor. He was so familiar and brought gifts. He couldn't turn the person away, so Yan Junqi let Lu Xu into the study.
Lu Xu tiptoed and walked in quietly. Yan Junqi also shrank unconsciously, inexplicably feeling guilty about being a thief in his own home.
Lu Xu saw the books on his table and asked, "Are you still reading so late at night?"
Yan Junqi nodded, with a hint of unnoticeable anguish in his voice, "The hospital exam is coming in the fall."
"oh……"
The imperial examination is a single-plank bridge.
Lu Xu had just suffered from the college entrance examination, and he felt very much the same way. He admired Yan Junqi, a top student who wanted to cross a single-plank bridge. After thinking about it, he couldn't express his admiration in words, so he had to encourage him with actions.
Lu Xu grabbed a handful of fried snails from Yan Junqi's hand and said, "Studying requires a balance between work and rest. Come on, eat some snails to replenish your brain, and rest for a while before continuing to memorize."
Yan Junqi's clean hands were dipped in a handful of sauce.
This time Lu Xu came prepared. He had just broken two bamboo branches outside to use as skewers.
Bamboo doesn't grow here, and the climate is not suitable. Only discerning families plant a few moso bamboo trees. There is a row of moso bamboo planted outside the wall of Yan Junqi's house. His father exchanged it with someone when he went to sell mats. He heard that scholars loved bamboo because it showed elegance and integrity, so he carried it back to his son.
After five or six years of growth, the lush green bamboos have grown into patches.
Yan Junqi followed Lu Xu's example and used a skewer to pick out the snail meat.
The two of them ate snails for a while. Lu Xu asked, "Is your shoulder broken?"
Yan Junqi nodded, "It's broken."
Lu Xu: "Hey, I guess so."
He shrugged his skinned right shoulder and showed it off to Yan Junqi, "I'm already skinned, and you must be skinned. Will you go to the market next time?"
Yan Junqi thought for a while and nodded.
Lu Xu: "Then I will go to my third uncle's house to borrow a cart for you next time."
Yan Junqi asked: "Aren't you going?"
Lu Xu makes quite a lot of money selling snails.
Lu Xu grinned, "I plan to go to the county to sell it, and I'll go there tomorrow."
Yan Junqi was stunned for a moment, with some admiration.
Lu Xuwu said to himself, "Sell it more expensively, make more money, and buy back the land my family sold as soon as possible." After saying this, he felt a little disappointed, "I don't know if it can be done."
The two new family pillars looked at each other and ate snails in silence.
The wick was almost exhausted and the lamp flickered. Lu Xu clapped his hands and pinched rushes from the basket by the window. The light in the study was uncertain. Yan Junqi suddenly said, "I don't want to study anymore."
"Why?"
"I took the junior high school exam twice, and I just passed it last year. I don't know how many times I have to take the college exam. After passing the college exam, there are still autumn and spring exams..." Yan Junqi's eyes showed endless confusion. . When he was young, he only thought that he was smart and reading was interesting, so he should study and become an official to serve the country and his family. However, after studying for a long time, he realized that the sea of learning is endless and the road to scientific examination is long. How many people use the efforts of the whole family to spend their whole lives? Unable to pass the exam.
What's more, books are expensive and paper is expensive, and it's even more difficult to study in a farm family. His father has passed away and Wen Zhen is still young. From now on, the whole family will rely on his mother's embroidery to make money to support the family. He can't continue studying!
"I can weave banquets. Although my craftsmanship is not as good as my father's, I can get by if I weave slower. When I save some money and my family's life becomes easier, I can support Wenzhen in his studies."
Lu Xu didn't say a word. He thought it was okay not to like reading. He didn't like reading either, and he wasn't interested in studying. His family didn't expect him to study, but he didn't like reading because he couldn't learn. After a lot of hard work and a teacher who came to his home for one-on-one tutoring, he managed to squeeze into the middle.
But Yan Junqi is different.
With military conscription and corvee conscription in successive years, the common people are in panic and their lives are not safe. Who has the heart to study? There are less than five scholars in the six villages in Yinma Town, and the only one who has passed the Tongsheng Examination is Yan Junqi. Forget about the school, there is none! You have to go to the county for enlightenment. Yan Junqi didn't even have a teacher. He was completely self-taught. If he could pass the Tongsheng Examination, wasn't he a genius? !
And how old is Yan Junqi? He will be fifteen in a few months! The first time I took the exam, Tong Sheng was only twelve years old, and last year, he was only fourteen! At such a young age, he dared to carry his own baggage to take exams in the county and prefecture. He was quite nervous to participate in a competition outside the school in high school. Yan Junqi was much better than him no matter what.
He was still bitter about his failure to get into a second-level university. How sad was it that Yan Junqi had such a good talent and gave it up like this?
Lu Xu said: "I remember hearing your father say that you were only three years old when you were fleeing from famine. The scholars in the same car read poems and you could memorize them after reading them once. They only taught you once and you could write your name. They were very surprised. , repeatedly praised you as a genius, taught you to read Mongolian books on the road, and you learned to memorize them in half a month. They gave you two volumes of books before leaving, and you hugged them to your belly every day. Only then did your father decide that he must provide you with education. . Wen Zhen is also three years old. If you teach him to read poems, will he be able to memorize them after listening to them once?"
Yan Junqi remained silent.
"Alas." Lu Xu sighed, no way! Yan Junqi taught Wen Zhen and Lu Zhou how to recite poems, and both of them, Lu Zhou, could recite poems faster than Wen Zhen.
"Jun Qi, your father is gone, and so is my father. I know you are anxious, and so am I. Lu Zhou and the others are still young, and my stepmother has a soft personality and cries easily. Your family depends on you, and my family depends on you. Come on, what do you think I can do? If you hadn't given me some advice, I wouldn't have thought I could still sell snails."
"The two of us went to the market. Although I seemed quite confident, in fact I had no confidence. If I hadn't taken you with me, I would have just found a place to sit without shouting. I would sell to anyone who asked me. I wouldn't take the initiative to ask for it. The drugstore shopkeeper is selling snails and bargaining with the ladies. I don't like talking to strangers. But if I don't go, my snails won't be sold, and your table will have to be sold at a low price. How can that be done? I was the one who suggested going to the market. , I’m older than you, I can’t let you lose, so I can’t be afraid, I have to set an example for you.”
Lu Xu stared at Yan Junqi seriously. He had never had such a heart-to-heart talk with anyone in his whole life, "Jun Qi, you can't be afraid. If you are afraid, what will your mother do? What will Wen Zhen do? Don't even think about being a banquet. , the money comes too slowly, you can’t farm, you don’t know how to do anything else, study hard, don’t waste it after studying for so many years, don’t set too far a goal, if you pass the examination to be a scholar, you will be exempted from corvee, and you will be exempted from land tax. Let’s How many acres of land can Daqixiu be exempted from?"
Yan Junqi: "The densely populated prefectures and counties in the south can be exempted from 50 acres. Our land in Jinyuan is vast and there are few people, so we can be exempted from 80 acres."
"Eighty acres!" Lu Xu's eyes widened. What a big piece of land! "Even if Wenzhen farms 20 acres, he can still rent 60 acres. These fields can continue to earn rent for you. Your family only eats so much food in a year. Isn't this more cost-effective than making a banquet?"
Lu Xu settled accounts with him.
Daqi has been at war for more than ten years, and the land tax has increased from one-tenth to three-twentieth, that is, from 10% to 15%. After deducting exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes, you still have to pay almost 5%. , after calculating the tax exemption, you can save 20% of the food, one-fifth! What a deal! Five acres of free land is equivalent to one acre of free land, and eighty acres of land is equivalent to 16 acres of free land. What kind of seats are there?
"With these fields, your family won't have to worry about food and drink. When the time comes, you can just study. If you can pass the examination, it will be better. If you don't pass, you won't have to worry about food and clothing. If you want to study, if you don't want to study, you can plant flowers and drink. Tea is just for fun!"
Yan Junqi was stunned for a moment after hearing this, as if the eighty acres of land were already within his grasp. This scholar has not yet appeared, how can he even think of how to use it?
"You don't have to worry about money now. I see that you still have a lot of mats that haven't been sold. I'll help you find a way to get the rest of the money. The solution will definitely be more difficult. I guarantee that before your mats are sold out, I will help you." Come up with another way." After thinking about the future, you have to keep your feet on the ground. After eating the snails, Lu Xu washed his hands and patted Yan Junqi on the shoulder, then walked home without disturbing him from studying.
Yan Junqi is his first friend besides his brothers and sisters, and he is also a top student.
There used to be many top students in his class, and his parents were willing to spend money to put him into a key class in a key school. However, the teachers and students in the class actually didn't like him and thought he was dragging down his grades and learning. Later, he studied hard and got into the middle of the pack, but they still looked down on him. They didn't play with him, and he didn't play with them either. He kept his pocket in his pocket and had a cold face every day, acting as his indifferent scumbag.
He knew that they nicknamed him behind his back, calling him a cold-hearted young master. If anyone dared to mention it in front of him, he would fight with them.
Anyway, those who are good at studying generally don't have any fighting skills, and they don't like to form gangs to beat him. If you call the parents, you can call the parents, and he is not afraid.
Yan Junqi is willing to have a heart-to-heart talk with him, that is, treat him as a friend. Although he is a scumbag, he has also learned that "you treat me as a countryman, and I will repay you as a countryman." To his friends, he is loyal!
Lu Xu went home satisfied, feeling that the night he stayed up was really worth it. He had an extra close friend and the burden of helping his friend find a way out. Life was heavy, but it seemed a little more real than yesterday.
He had to earn more money, and the worst he could do was hire Wen Zhen to catch snails for him, and he would pay Wen Zhen’s wages!
Lu Xu was soundly asleep here, while Yan Junqi turned on the oil lamp. Lu Xutian said freely, which made him feel more at ease.
Academy examination, scholar.
After passing the exam, their family would no longer have to worry about food and clothing, his mother would not have to embroider day and night, and Wen Zhen would not have to stare at other people's houses if she wanted to eat sweets and meat.
When there was no more noise, Yan's mother came out of the bedroom under the moonlight, stood in the yard and lay down by Yan Junqi's window to look. She saw Yan Junqi reciting the book seriously, with a calm and determined expression, and she smiled softly.
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