Chapter 426 Waiting for the announcement
"Brother, are you stupid? Why do you need to borrow money from me?"
When Old Man Gu arrived at the clan leader's house, he told the clan leader that Gu Ruinian would definitely pass the imperial examination this time, and then asked the clan leader to borrow money.
Five taels is not a small amount, and the clan leader felt a little pain in the neck, so he thought of a way for Grandpa Gu.
"Your eldest grandson and Ruinian are taking the exam together. The results will come out in a few days. Maybe both of them will pass. How can your eldest son not prepare some money for the wedding banquet? You don't need to pay for it at all."
Old Master Gu said, "You also know my eldest son's wife. Will she be willing to spend the rest of her life?"
The clan leader tapped his pipe and said slowly, "This is easy. We will open the ancestral hall on the day when the list is announced. We will welcome people to the ancestral hall to receive the list of scholars in front of our ancestors. When the time comes, in front of so many people, your eldest son and his wife will have no choice but to give money. Since Ruinian and Jingzhe received the list together, the money they gave will be a gift to both of them."
"Not only the wedding money, you can even save money on the wedding banquet. When the time comes, the banquet hosted by your eldest wife will also include Rui Nian's share. In everyone's eyes, your two grandsons are both scholars, so whoever hosts a banquet will host it for the two of them."
This method is good.
Old Man Gu laughed, and suddenly thought that if Gu Jingzhe didn’t pass the exam, all his efforts would be in vain.
The clan leader saw what Grandpa Gu meant and said, "Brother, don't worry. Your Jingzhe will definitely pass the imperial examination this time, otherwise why would Master Su come to your house so often? Don't worry."
The clan leader doesn't want Gu Jingzhe to become a scholar.
The reason why he said this was simply to give Mr. Gu some reassurance and to discourage him from asking him to borrow money.
Borrow money, borrow money. He has already lent five taels to Mr. Gu, and he doesn’t know when he can pay it back.
The clan leader's words made Old Man Gu laugh so hard that his teeth were showing.
Although he didn't like the eldest brother's family, Gu Jingzhe was his own grandson. He was naturally happy that Gu Jingzhe had a promising future and two talented people in the family.
As long as Jingzhe's performance is not worse than Ruinian's, he will look forward to Jingzhe.
Old Man Gu's smile hurt the clan leader. This distant cousin was so lucky that both of the scholars in the Gu family came from his family.
The clan leader felt quite unhappy. He hoped that the Gu family would produce a scholar so that he, as the clan leader, could show off his reputation. But he also didn't want all the scholars to come from Grandpa Gu's family, especially Gu Jingzhe. He hoped that he would fail the exam.
"Okay then, let's wait for the day when the results are announced."
Old Man Gu left the clan leader's house happily and deliberately took a detour through the fields.
At this time, there are people in every household weeding or watering the wheat fields.
When everyone saw Grandpa Gu, they greeted him one after another. The topics of their greetings always revolved around words of envy, jealousy and hatred about how promising his two grandsons were in school and how blessed Grandpa Gu was.
"Grandpa, when will the results be announced?"
"It's coming soon."
"You suddenly have two scholar grandsons. You should set up a few tables to entertain the villagers."
"that's for sure."
"I heard that Ruinian might be the first in the case this time."
"We can't say for sure. We'll know once the results are announced."
Mr. Gu responded to everyone cheerfully and walked towards home with his back straightened.
He couldn't wait for the day when the results would be announced. He would be so glorious then.
"grandfather."
Gu Jingzhe was watering the wheat fields with his hired workers. When they saw Old Man Gu coming, they walked out of the wheat field and walked to the ridge to greet him.
Mr. Gu frowned.
This grandson is already a boy, why is he still working in the fields like a village farmer? What nonsense!
Old Master Gu frowned and said, "Why are you working in the fields yourself? Isn't this insulting to a scholar?"
Gu Jingzhe did not argue with Old Man Gu, and said, "Grandpa, you don't know that our prefect Yao personally works in the fields. He said that scholars need to know about farm work if they want to take the imperial examinations or pursue a career in government."
Mr. Gu's expression softened.
"How did you do in the exam?" Grandpa Gu asked with concern.
Gu Jingzhe and Gu Ruinian came back from the provincial capital. Old Man Gu was naturally very concerned about Gu Jingzhe's exam results, but because his attention was drawn to Gu Ruinian, he neglected Gu Jingzhe.
Gu Jingzhe said: "I have finished writing. As for how I will do on the exam, it depends on the examiner."
This grandson is not as confident as Gu Ruinian.
Old Master Gu felt mixed emotions.
Old Master Gu didn't know whether to be happy or unhappy. He didn't want Gu Jingzhe to do better than Gu Ruinian in the exam, but that didn't mean he wanted Gu Jingzhe to fail.
"Oh, Jingzhe, tell me the truth, what happened to your brother Ruinian's face?"
Old Master Gu was originally going to ask Gu Jingzhe about what happened to Gu Ruinian in the capital city, so naturally he wanted to ask when he met him.
At that time, Gu Ruinian was beaten to death by the third son of the Xie family. He was carried to Gu Dashu's residence, and when he woke up, he slapped himself wildly in the face, crying and saying that he was young and frivolous and regretted doing the ridiculous thing of visiting the brothel, and begged Gu Jingzhe and Gu Dashu to hide the trouble he had caused in the capital city.
Gu Jingzhe told the truth to Tong Huaqiong, but he naturally would not tell the truth to the old house, otherwise the old house would blame him.
Gu Jingzhe heard Old Man Gu asking about Gu Ruinian and said, "On the day of the exam, the carriage went crazy and he was thrown out."
Just like what Gu Ruinian said.
Old Master Gu complained distressedly, "You and Dashu are the same. Why don't you let him ride in the same carriage with you? He is your cousin who broke your bones and connected your tendons. Even if you are dissatisfied with your second uncle, Rui Nian has not offended you. Shouldn't you take care of him in the capital? How can you let him ride in a carriage to take the exam by himself?"
Gu Jingzhe sneered in his heart.
Grandpa is really interesting. I’m afraid he would be so angry if he knew what his eldest grandson did in the capital.
In order to avoid wearing mourning clothes, Gu Jingzhe temporarily kept Gu Ruinian's matter a secret.
Gu Jingzhe angrily retorted: "Grandpa, you also know that Ruinian doesn't want to live with me. He is always afraid that I will steal the knowledge in his head. Who knew that Ma Cheng would go crazy? This is the only time in all these years."
Old Master Gu was unhappy and said, "Don't think so badly of Ruinian. He stayed at the hotel by himself because he didn't want to trouble you and Dashu. He was thrown out of the carriage this time. It must be that some young master knew that he had good grades and was afraid that he would win the first place in the case, so he took the opportunity to kill him."
Old Man Gu sneered. Fortunately, his family was blessed with good fortune. Not only did it not affect the exam, but he performed quite well.
Gu Jingzhe's mouth twitched, and he agreed, "Yes, yes, yes, I heard that Rui Nian did well in the exam this time, and he will definitely pass the exam."
Old Master Gu was satisfied. Gu Jingzhe said that Ruinian did well in the exam, and they must have checked it out privately.
Old Man Gu began to like Gu Jingzhe and told him, "Don't go anywhere these days. Just wait for the announcement of the results in the village. I have discussed with the clan leader that we will open the ancestral hall on the day of the announcement. After all, it is a great event for two scholars in the same family."
Gu Jingzhe thought to himself, Old Man Gu is so confident, as if it was a foregone conclusion that the Gu family would produce two scholars this time.