Chapter 176 Mission 016

There is a very big banyan tree at the entrance of Shaojia Village. The trunk is so big that it takes several adult men to hug it. It has always been the favorite place for the elderly in the village to enjoy the cool and chat in summer.

There are some stone tables and stone benches under the tree, but in spring, the people in the village are very busy and no one will sit here to chat.

But on this day, the wind is fine and the sun is bright, but Xiao Ying and Jiang Li are sitting here playing chess.

The atmosphere between the two is very harmonious. Even if they are fighting hard on the chessboard, their expressions are calm.

Xiao Ying gently dropped a white piece and looked at Jiang Li who was thinking about the chess game opposite with a calm expression.

Recalling the days when Jiang Li was recuperating in Shao's house, Xiao Ying couldn't help but smile bitterly in his heart. It seems that he has cut off the fate of the male and female protagonists, at least temporarily.

This matter has to start from the day when Jiang Li and Su Ling met for the first time.

Xiao Ying originally thought that if the male and female protagonists met at about the same time, they would naturally have a good impression of each other and get together.

But he forgot one thing, that is, the world is now an ancient society with strict etiquette, and Jiang Li is a gentleman. He was saved by Xiao Ying and met a woman who was pregnant with the child of his savior. Even if he had some good feelings for her involuntarily, he would definitely take the initiative to extinguish them.

What's more, the two of them did not have that life-saving grace and many days of being alone together to catalyze the good feelings between them.

In order to dispel Jiang Li's concerns, Xiao Ying also deliberately revealed his current relationship with Su Ling in front of him, and hinted that "Su Ling will have nothing to do with him after the child is born, and you can pursue her if you want", but Jiang Li did not understand the meaning at all.

In the end, it was he who often went to chat with the male protagonist in order to match the male and female protagonists. The two unexpectedly got along well, and they could play music, chess, calligraphy and painting. Jiang Li was more familiar with him than the female protagonist.

Then Xiao Ying found that things had entered a vicious circle, because the more familiar Jiang Li was with him and the more he regarded him as a friend, the more he adhered to the gentleman's idea of ​​'a friend's wife should not be bullied' and never had any thoughts about Su Ling, and he kept a distance from Su Ling.

He had no intention of breaking up the male and female protagonists, but because of a momentary kindness, he wanted to save the daughter of the original owner Shao Qingyun and Su Ling, which led to a series of subsequent butterfly changes, breaking up the CP of the male and female protagonists.

Unfortunately, this time, it was such an easy CP to break up, but he couldn't conquer the female protagonist...

Xiao Ying's depression was not noticed by Jiang Li at all. He thought for a while and then dropped a black piece, looking up at Xiao Ying.

Xiao Ying put down another white chess piece without thinking. Jiang Li stared at the chessboard in uncertainty. After a while, he put the black chess piece in his hand back into the chess box with a wry smile: "I lost again... Sometimes I really doubt whether my chess skills are praised by others." Otherwise, why did he never win against this guy even once, even though his chess skills were praised as second only to the national master?

Xiao Ying picked up the white chess pieces one by one and put them into the chess box beside him, smiling faintly: "Among the four arts of music, chess, calligraphy and painting, I have studied chess the most deeply." This kind of Go, which requires thinking about several steps before taking one step, is the simplest for Xiao Ying, who has a very strong mental power.

Jiang Li looked at him speechlessly. Chess skills are not something that can be studied by research. Especially this guy's chess skills can completely crush him. That is almost only the top few national masters can do it. What makes him most helpless is that this guy is a few years younger than him, and there is no teacher with profound chess skills to teach him. It is really too discouraging...

＜＜＜＜＜＜＜＜＜＜＜＜＜＜＜＜

Jiang Li is currently the confidant of the Fourth Prince. Although his official position is not very high and there is no clear deadline for him to be sent out to do things this time, he will of course do things for the Fourth Prince as soon as possible. So he recuperated in the Shao family for a while. After making sure that he could withstand the intensity of long-term horse riding, Jiang Li said goodbye to Xiao Yan.

With both of them intending to get closer to each other, and with the bond of saving his life, Xiao Yan naturally has a good relationship with Jiang Li.

Xiao Ying sent Jiang Li to the dock in the county. After Jiang Li's persuasion, he did not continue to send him off. Instead, he stood at the dock and said to Jiang Li: "Brother Jiang, I wish you a safe journey north this time!"

Jiang Li got on the boat and stood at the bow and smiled at Xiao Ying: "Thank you for your good wishes! Brother Xiao, see you in Beijing!"

Xiao Ying also smiled and said: "See you in Beijing!"

Jiang Li is not a famous big shot now. At least no one in Shaojia Village, far away from Beijing, knows who the Ningyuan Marquis is. So he did not hide his name in the process of getting along with Xiao Ying, and used his real name. It was probably because Xiao Ying did not deliberately test his identity that he gained some of his trust.

After Xiao Ying sent Jiang Li on the boat, he stood there and watched the cargo ship sailing on the river gradually become smaller in his field of vision. The strong wind blew his robes and rustled. He still stood there and did not leave until the shadow of the cargo ship completely disappeared from his field of vision. He turned around and left the dock.

There was no other way. He stood at the dock for such a long time not for the sake of getting some fresh air or pretending to be cool, but just to express his sincere friendship to the male protagonist Jiang Li. Who told the ancients to like to do this kind of behavior of seeing someone off for thousands of miles and watching them leave to express their reluctance to part?

After seeing off the male protagonist, the female protagonist has temporarily settled down. After all, her belly is already quite heavy and she can't stand the tossing and turning. Xiao Yan can also calmly set off to the capital city to participate in the provincial examination in half a month.

The original owner, Shao Qingyun, took three provincial examinations before he was admitted as a civil servant. The provincial examination was held once every three years. It took almost ten years to pass the provincial examination three times before he was admitted to the civil service examination. This shows how difficult it is for ordinary people to advance through the imperial examination. Shao Qingyun is lucky. There are more candidates who have failed to pass the exam until they are gray-haired. He won the exam before he was 30 years old, and he can be said to be young and promising.

However, Xiao Yu was not willing to waste so many years on this part of the examination. He had made full preparations and planned to sing all the way to the palace examination.

Xiao Yu himself is confident. He is confident that his knowledge will be able to cope with the scientific examination. What he is mainly concerned about is the issue of apprenticeship after he succeeds in the examination. Having a good teacher will mean that he will have ready-made network resources to support him when he enters the officialdom in the future, and he will be able to shorten his task time.

He planned to wait until he went to Fucheng to collect information about the great scholars in this dynasty before making a decision about becoming a disciple.

＜＜＜＜＜＜＜＜＜＜

Xiao Yu was about to go to Fucheng, thousands of miles away, to take the exam. Both Shao's father and Shao's mother were extremely nervous. Shao's mother was busy with his luggage every day when she was free, for fear that she would mistreat her son due to her negligence, while Shao's father was extremely nervous. I plan to go to Fucheng with my son to take the exam.

Shaojia Village is under the jurisdiction of Qingyang County, Qingluo City. This time Xiao Yu is going to Qingluo City’s Fucheng to take the provincial examination. In order to arrive early, he and Shao’s father chose to take a boat and take the waterway. There are two talented students from Qingyang County.

Xiao Yu has seen these two scholars in the memory of the original owner Shao Qingyun. The Confucian scholar whose surname is Zhang is Zhang, who is nearly forty years old. He is the scholar teacher of the private school where Shao Qingyun attended when he was a child. The other is a younger scholar in his twenties. The scholar's surname was Jiang, and he and Shao Qingyun were barely classmates, just acquaintances.

Xiao Yu met Zhang Xiucai and Jiang Xiucai on the boat and greeted them with a gentle expression and a very friendly attitude.

On the surface, his attitude towards the two of them is similar, but in fact, Xiao Yu is closer to Zhang Xiucai in private. In ancient times, the teacher-student relationship was a very strong relationship. Although Zhang Xiucai was only the original owner's private school teacher, he was not a master and apprentice. relationship, but compared to Jiang Xiucai, Xiao Yu should be closer and more respectful to Zhang Xiucai.

Jiang Xiucai's family was very well off, and he had a little book boy by his side. He was somewhat indifferent to Zhang Xiucai, and seemed rather arrogant. Even when facing Xiao Yu, a scholar who was many years younger than him, his attitude was not warm and friendly, it could only be described as indifferent.

Xiao Yu could tell at a glance that this kind of kid from a rich family was spoiled by his family. He would look ahead to others because of his talent. If he could correct his attitude and hit a wall in the future, he would still be able to achieve something. If he couldn't, he would probably be in trouble for the rest of his life. The fate of being unappreciated. If Jiang Xiucai is just a pure scholar, his arrogant character may be appreciated by some people who like this kind of thing. If he wants to be an official, there will definitely be no chance.

Although he had made a conclusion in his mind about this somewhat arrogant Jiang Xiucai, Xiao Yu didn't show it at all on his face, looking like a humble and polite scholar.

The waterway distance from Qingyang County to Luoyang City is not very far, so the cargo ship Xiao Yu and others took only a few days to reach the dock in Fucheng.

Shao's father and Xiao Yu got off the boat together. He said to Zhang Xiucai and Jiang Xiucai: "Do you have a place to stay in Fucheng?"

Jiang Xiucai said: "My family has a villa in Fucheng, and I will live there."

Zhang Xiucai smiled: "I plan to find an inn somewhere close to the test center."

Father Shao's eyes lit up after hearing Zhang Xiucai's words: "That's what I planned too. Why don't we rent a small courtyard together? It's quiet and convenient, and no one will disturb you to prepare for the exam."

The cost in the prefectural city is much higher than that in the county. For his son's provincial examination, Shao's father planned to spend a lot of money to create a quiet and good environment for his son to read, so as to avoid the noisy environment before the examination affecting his son's review. But the Shao family's situation was really difficult, and they could save as much money as they could, so they came up with a way to share the house with other scholars who were rushing to take exams.