butcher's little man

Enke was opened in April, and Li Yiran and his party had already arrived in the capital a few days ago.

One of them had already passed the exam several times, so he was familiar with the capital, and just after entering the city gate, he took them to a remote inn.

"Although it's a bit far from the examination room, it's cheaper here. We have to stay in the capital for a while, so it's better to be a little frugal." The Juren explained.

Everyone nodded in agreement, if you can save, you can save, and the inns near the examination room must have been taken up by other candidates, so why not just spend a few days reading books in this quiet place.

A group of eight of them occupied the backyard, each with a room, because after all, they were here for the exam, and if they interfered with each other due to their different habits, it would be a big deal.

After Li Yiran sorted out his salutes, he went out after talking to them.With a letter of introduction in his arms, he came to the yamen of the household department.In fact, the reason for the imperial examination was originally a matter of the Ministry of Officials, but it also involved the silver taels needed to change the qualifications of the imperial examination, so it was naturally handled by the Ministry of Households.

In front of the yamen, Li Yiran first found the yamen servants at the door, and after giving them some benefits, he was led inside by a person.

Perhaps this procedure has gone through countless times, and the officials who handled it are extremely familiar. After reading the big seal on Li Yiran's introduction letter, he put the paper away and opened a new note.

But he didn't hand it to Li Yiran in a hurry, but pressed the paper under his hands, and then tapped his fingers on the table rhythmically, but looked away.

The yamen servant who brought him here quietly slapped him with his hand when he saw this.Li Yiran understood, and took out five taels of silver from his pocket and handed it over.

The man gave him a sideways look, as if he was dissatisfied with Li Yiran for keeping him waiting for so long.He took the silver, pushed the note forward, and snorted, beckoning him to take it away.

Li Yiran didn't change his face. When he was doing business with that adult, he was also underestimated by others.

After taking the note, Li Yiran quickly glanced at it, and found that there were only four big words "this is true" written on it. Could it be possible to take the exam with this piece of paper?

Li Yiran wanted to ask the man, but saw the yamen servant gestured to him, motioning him to follow him out.

Li Yiran followed behind him in bewilderment, not knowing what his intention was.

"Mister, please don't ask, this explanation also requires money!" Seeing that Li Yiran's eyes were clear and upright, and the most important thing was that he looked like his distant cousin, the yamen servant was full of enthusiasm for him. I like it, so I gave him a few pointers, lest he waste money.

"This little brother, can you explain something to me?" Li Yiran cupped his hands at him, as if he was listening attentively.

The yamen servant was a little surprised. Most of these literati are self-proclaimed and disdain to communicate with them, but this man's attitude is very sincere.The yamen servants had a better impression of him.

"You don't know, but any candidates like you who come to change the qualifications of the imperial examination have to go to three places." It is the third ring that walks around, and the God of Wealth is also empty-handed.

"Oh? Which three places are they?"

"The first one is the place we went to just now. It is called the number room. You have to match the name there before you can go to the stall room to fill in some of your own things. The stall room is the second one. Open from the stall room After the note, you have to go to the Knife and Pen Room. They will give you the qualification for the imperial examination according to your note, but this is to be taken to the Minister of the Ministry of Households to stamp the big seal. This step depends on whether the money you give is enough. too much."

"..." Li Yiran felt that he still underestimated the ability of these people to collect money.

"If you give enough money, they will write it to you directly with a big seal. If you give less or don't give it, they will make you wait for a long, long time, and it may be delayed until the day before the exam. manage."

"Thank you, Big Brother Yamen, for pointing out the maze, I am very grateful!" Li Yiran saluted him, and he will always remember those who can show him kindness.

"Hey, you don't have to thank me, I just look at your face haha. By the way, my surname is Luo, and my name is Rhodes."

"Brother Luo, the younger brother's surname is Li, and his first name is the same."

"Brother Li," Rhodes cupped his hands at him, and then said to him, "Come with me, there are more things to do, so we have to get them done sooner."

Li Yiran nodded and followed him into the stall.Sure enough, after he handed over the note, the man told him directly that if he wanted to file here, he would pay all the fees, including the finishing fee, filing fee and so on.

Looking at the two fingers he stretched out, Li Yiran was silent.Then he took out 20 taels of silver from his pocket and handed it to the man.

After the man took the money, he took out a stack of blank paper from the cabinet behind him, said something to write, and then bowed his head and ignored him.

Rhodes quietly told him at the back that the paper had to be filled with name, place of origin, who was in the family, what was the job, who was the first teacher, what college did he go to, what did he do, who did he work for, and what he knew. what errands.

Rao Li Yiran has a good memory, but he almost didn't remember it.He looked at the officials over there, and then secretly sighed in his heart. Fortunately, he met a nobleman when he went out, otherwise, he might have spent more than half of his time on this trip today.

After Li Yiran thought for a while, he buried his head in writing. He specially practiced the handwriting for the imperial examination, so the words he wrote were very beautiful, and they were neatly arranged on the paper. Even if the person wanted to be picky, he couldn't find one The reason, if I knew it earlier, if I found a mistake and needed to change the paper, I would get one tael of silver for one sheet.

By the time I got the slip from the stall, more than half an hour had passed.

Li Yiran followed Rhodes to the last knife and pen room. While handing over the note, he also handed over 50 taels of silver.This is what he asked in advance.

The man weighed the money first, then smiled with satisfaction, took out a piece of paper with the official seal from the cabinet behind him, and wrote him a letter of recommendation for imperial examination qualifications.

Li Yiran could not help but smile wryly in his heart with that flimsy letter of recommendation in his arms. This piece of paper alone cost seven to eighty taels of silver. Before he set foot in the examination room, he had only a little over 80 taels of silver left on him.I don't know how much it will cost in the future!I don't know if his decision is right or wrong...

Li Wenxuan and the others didn't know what Li Yiran was struggling with, and they were also struggling now.The reason lies in the pigs in their family.

Li Wenxuan is a novice. Although Father Li knows how to take care of these pigs, he also forgot that the pigs raised at home are different from animals outside. If they want to grow meat, they must first be castrated.Unless you are a pig that is going to be bred.

Li Wenxuan bought more than 20 piglets, of which there were only three sows, and all the others were males.It is impossible to keep so many for breeding!

They didn't know it at first, but it happened that one day an old man from their village visited his house and saw that the pigs raised in the back mountain were not castrated, so he told them.

Father and son, you look at me and I look at you, no one can do this, they can only kill pigs, they can't castrate pigs.

Luckily there are people who specialize in this kind of work, and they are called piggies.

Li Wenxuan wandered around the county for several days before finally waiting for a piggy.Anyone who does this has a set of tools.After they came to the door, the host had to take care of them for a meal, and then count the money according to the number of pigs.

Jizhulang came to the back mountain of Li's house and frowned a little when he saw their little pig.It's almost two months old, why hasn't it been born yet?

Li Wenxuan rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. It was his first time doing this, so how could he know this?Although he sells pork, he only cares about killing, not raising!

Although the pig was a bit big, the professional piggist quickly knocked down the pig, and with a sharp knife down, he heard a roar.Before he took out his other tools, Li Wenxuan already felt a dull pain three inches below his navel. He talked to Father Li and walked back.

Tian Xiaoman and Li Amu were preparing vegetables to greet the invited craftsman.After it rained two days ago, Li Amu and Tian Xiaoman got a lot of mushrooms and tender bracken in the back.Just fried them today for a treat.

It only took one morning for the piglet to slaughter all the piglets, leaving only one young boar for the Li family to reproduce.

After drinking and eating, the piggie left with his reward.Tian Xiaoman proposed at this time that he wanted to go and see those little pigs.

Li Wenxuan readily agreed, and brought Tian Xiaoman to the back mountain.After these piglets were castrated, they have been languid, with more than half of their food left, and they are lying on the ground in a mess.

"What's wrong with these pigs? Are they sick?"

Li Wenxuan twitched the corners of his mouth, and softly explained in Tian Xiaoman's ear.

After Tian Xiaoman listened, he looked at those little pigs sympathetically.Unexpectedly, besides eunuchs, there are also eunuch pigs!

Give these poor little pigs some better cooked pig food today.Tian Xiaoman thought so.

……

This afternoon, Tian Xiaoman stayed at home, and it was rare for Brother Le not to visit Liu Xilin to play.He sat on a small bench, propped up his small face and looked at the front sadly.

Tian Xiaoman thought it was very fun, how could such a young child have troubles? "Brother Le, what's wrong with you?"

"What..." Le Ge'er pursed his mouth, looking as if he was about to cry, and looked at Tian Xiaoman with big eyes aggrieved.

"What's the matter?" Tian Xiaoman lowered his voice and asked again.

"Brother Lin won't play with me anymore..."

"Why?" Tian Xiaoman thinks it shouldn't be, that kid Liu Xilin treats Brother Le very well.

"Because, because of me... woo wa... I lost Brother Lin's little slingshot... woo wa" Brother Le was out of breath crying, his whole face was flushed red, and the tears were big Roll off his face.

Yesterday when he was playing with Brother Lin and a few friends, they said they were going to hunt birds. Seeing that the small slingshot Liu Xilin was holding was very imposing, he wanted to play too.

In fact, Liu Xilin was not willing to part with it, because he hewed out this small slingshot slowly out of wood, and he hadn't played with it yet.But since Brother Le spoke up, Liu Xilin, who considered himself a good brother, still pretended to be generous and gave it to him.

Brother Le was so happy to get the slingshot, he held it tightly in his hand all afternoon, and no one could take it.They hunted for a long time without catching any birds, so they said they went to the small water puddle to catch fish.

The children have been playing wildly there for a long time.When it was time to go home, Liu Xilin embarrassedly asked Le Geer to return the slingshot, but Le Geer searched all the bags on his body but couldn't find it.

Looking at Liu Xilin's unsmiling face, he felt a little scared, and then ran away in a panic.Because of this incident this morning, he didn't dare to play with Liu Xilin.

Tian Xiaoman pieced together the whole thing in Brother Le's intermittent explanation, which made him a little dumbfounded.It turned out that Brother Le didn't dare to go out because of a guilty conscience.

Brother Le blinked his teary eyes and looked at Momo, who was holding back his laughter. Feeling so pitiful, he burst into tears again.

Tian Xiaoman immediately stopped laughing, and then comforted, "Don't worry, Brother Lin won't blame you, you were careless."

"Brother Lin doesn't play with me anymore!" He didn't see Brother Lin today... Brother Le selectively forgot that he didn't dare to go out and hid at home.

"Do you want Brother Lin to play with you?"

"miss you!"

"Then when uncle comes back, you can ask him to make you a small slingshot, and you can return it to Brother Lin, and Brother Lin will play with you, okay?"

Brother Le thought for a while, and felt that this method was feasible, and then he laughed...

In the end, Tian Xiaoman's method was not used, because Liu Xilin came to find Le Geer soon after, and asked Le Geer why he didn't go out today?Then the two kids happily ran out to play.

Tian Xiaoman was very helpless, he didn't understand a child's thinking at all.How will the one born in the future get along with him!