Chapter 226: The Road to High Office 26

Chapter 226: The Road to High Office 26

According to Big Brother's wishes, there will probably be a grand banquet held in Shang Jing, followed by a smaller banquet back here to invite friends and family to witness the occasion.

It's not that Xu Zeli looks down on these poor relatives and doesn't invite them to his wedding in Shang Jing.

It's just that Qingshui Town is too far from Shang Jing, with a journey of over a month. Whether it's asking relatives and friends to go to Shang Jing or having the new husband travel from Shang Jing to Qingshui Town for the wedding, it would be too costly in terms of manpower and resources.

It's more convenient for everyone to have a grand banquet in Shang Jing and a smaller one in Qingshui Town.

Xu Zeping understood his parents' predicament, and under the cover of night, he quickly rode his horse towards West Lin Street.

There was a rapid knocking at the door.

"Who is it?"

Xia Tian was startled by the urgent knocking and felt a surge of panic. At this hour, who could be knocking? Gripping a wooden club, he summoned the courage to ask, accompanied by Winter.

"It's me."

Recognizing the familiar voice, Xia Tian relaxed. "Young Master Ping, is everything okay?"

"I need to speak with your young master."

..

Xu Zeping had just retrieved a thousand-tael banknote from Cheng Ge Er and rushed back.

Xu Zeli's marriage was complicated by the spring examinations—the imperial examinations held in spring. If Xu Zeli didn't pass the spring examinations, the Su family would likely not consider this marriage. So, for the reputation of the Su family's young master, they couldn't make a big fuss about it.

Therefore, this trip to Shang Jing didn't include Xu Zeping and Cheng Ge Er. Only Xu Zerou and her two children accompanied Xu Songshan and his wife.

Xu Songshan and his wife used the pretext of having a bad dream, dreaming that Xu Zeli was sick, as a reason to go to Shang Jing.

Ancient people were superstitious and believed that dreams could foretell the future.

So, when they said they were going to visit their son in Shang Jing, no one suspected otherwise.

Xu Zerou had an even better excuse—the young master missed his father. Since her parents were going to Shang Jing and she was worried, she decided to go with them.

Once Xu Zeli's wedding was settled and everything was finalized, there wouldn't be much to say, except perhaps that Xu Songshan and his wife weren't very considerate for keeping things so secretive.

Xu Zeping regretted not being able to attend his elder brother's wedding banquet. As he saw Xu Songshan and his wife off, he handed a tightly sealed brocade box to Xu Songshan. "Father, this is a small token of my heart, please open it in front of my brother when you arrive in the capital."

Xu Songshan didn't think much of the small palm-sized box, estimating it contained at most two hundred taels of silver.

When the second son got married, the youngest had also given two hundred taels. So he nodded. "I will pass on your token of heart to your brother."

Traditionally, older siblings give gifts to younger ones for their weddings, but the Xu siblings were close, so they didn't worry about these formalities.

Cheng Ge Er handed a prepared bundle to Xu Linshi. "Aunt, this is a small token of my appreciation."

The spring examinations were scheduled for the 18th, 21st, and 24th of February. With only a few days left before the 17th of the first lunar month, time was running out.

Without much ado, Xu Songshan and the others bid farewell and asked Jixiang to set off on horseback.

This time, they would follow a merchant convoy north after reaching Heluo County, and if there were no unexpected events, they would arrive in Shang Jing on February 21st.

After the spring examinations, it would take about half a month for the results to be posted.

Once the results were out, the palace examinations—the final round of the imperial examinations—would likely be held in early April.

The imperial examination is presided over by His Majesty, and it lasts only one day, with results announced the next day and the list posted on the third day.

The results of the imperial examination may be ranked based on the spring examinations, or His Majesty might appoint the top scholar according to his mood... But Xu Zeping knew that there was an eighty percent chance that His Majesty would refer to the spring examinations.

Since the founding of the Great Jing Dynasty, most of the top scholars have come from the first rank of the spring examinations, though not necessarily the first place in the first rank... It could also be the second or third place.

Xu Zeping remembered his elder brother saying that during Emperor WenJing's reign, he would sometimes rank the first rank of the imperial examination based on appearance.

In one session of the imperial examination, a candidate who was clearly the best in literary talent was unfortunately the most handsome among the first rank, so Emperor WenJing appointed him as the third-place laureate.

Instead, he appointed the one with average looks but third-best literary talent as the top scholar.

These two individuals were none other than the two grand secretaries who are now openly and secretly at odds with each other: the former being Jiang Yuan, and the latter being Qiao Donghai.

So they say, enemies never meet without a fight.

Their animosity began right from the imperial examination.

Xu Songshan had been adamant about what Xu Zeping said, until they arrived in Shang Jing and Xu Zeli opened the brocade box, revealing a stack of hundred-dollar silver notes...

Xu Songshan and his wife, along with Xu Zeli, looked at each other in surprise—

Xu Songshan and his wife: Where did the youngest get so much money?

Xu Zeli: Did the youngest go back to lending money again?

Picking up the stack of silver notes from the ground and counting them, they found exactly one thousand taels.

Xu Songlin and his wife had sent them a thousand taels plus a set of gold head ornaments, and with the silver they already had, they had two thousand taels in total, which was enough to prepare a decent dowry.

Xu Zeli listened to the calculations of Xu Songshan and his wife, feeling a mix of amusement and frustration. "Father, Mother, you... blame me for not explaining clearly to you."

In his previous life, Xu Zeli was indeed a proud scholar who wouldn't bow for five pecks of rice in the early days. When he married Yuheng, it was with the help of the dowry that his parents had scraped together.

But after ten years of navigating the ups and downs of officialdom and witnessing countless transactions of power and money, how could he not understand the importance of money?

Otherwise, he wouldn't have encouraged Xu Songshan to set up the embroidery shop. However, his purpose in doing so was to make life easier for the family and to relieve some pressure from his parents.

As for whether the embroidery shop would be passed down to him in the future, he didn't really care. He had his own channels to earn money.

"What do you mean?" Xu Songshan's mind momentarily froze. He hesitated.

"What I mean is that this courtyard we are living in now, I bought it myself." Xu Zeli said gently. "Father, Mother, I have already prepared the dowry. I invited you here because I genuinely want your help in organizing the wedding. And what I wrote in my letter was true. I sincerely want you to live with me in Shang Jing.

Though I can't afford a large estate yet, I'll work hard to get there."

In his previous life, after marrying Yuheng, they lived in the three-courtyard house that came with her dowry.

This time, he chose to buy a house himself because he truly wanted to bring his parents to Shang Jing.

Right now, I could afford a two-courtyard house, but given my current position, I didn't want to be too high-profile. This house cost me nearly 20,000 taels of silver, even though it's not particularly close to the city center.

If it were a two-courtyard house, it would cost at least 50,000 taels of silver...

But in a few years, when I have real power in my official position, these things will be easier to handle.

Xu Songshan and his wife stared in disbelief. "Where did you get all this money? You didn't do anything illegal, did you?"

Xu Zeli said somewhat uneasily, "Father, do you remember how Uncle once said that my calligraphy and paintings were very good?"

"So you sold your own paintings and calligraphy?"

Xu Zeping's goal was to enter the Hanlin Academy and become an official. Officials of the Hanlin Academy were known to be highly esteemed; how could he possibly engage in such commercial activities?

Not only would the Sage disapprove, but his future colleagues would also mock him for competing with commoners for profit.

"Not exactly." Xu Zeli stammered, "I organized a few painting and calligraphy competitions, using the works as bets. Those who lost had to leave their works behind... and then I resold them."

Many of those he defeated were renowned masters of painting and calligraphy, and their works were naturally quite valuable.

Xu Zeli hadn't calculated carefully, but altogether, it amounted to two or three hundred thousand taels of silver.

While his youngest brother was still playing childish games, his eldest brother had already amassed a considerable fortune.

Xu Songshan and his wife weren't very knowledgeable, but they were relieved to know their son hadn't committed any crimes.

They put away the silver notes sponsored by Xu Zeping and the thousand taels of silver contributed by Xu Songlin's family, saying, "Since you have your own ideas, we, as your parents, can't really control you. However, these thousand taels of silver are from us, considered an advance on your inheritance."

Xu Zeli wanted to laugh. Whoever heard of giving an inheritance in advance?

He couldn't refuse his parents, so he accepted the thousand taels of silver. As for the rest, he would find a way to return it to them in the future.

In mid-March, joyous news came from Shang Jing. In the spring examinations of the 18th year of Sheng'an, Heluo County had three successful candidates, two of whom were from Qingshui Town.

One of them achieved third place in the first class, and the other ranked thirtieth in the second class. These two were none other than Xu Zeli and Ding Yiqiang!

Among all the imperial examinations, the spring list was the most unique.

There were no officials beating drums and gongs to announce success, and the reason was that half a month after the spring list, the Golden List would be released. As long as those on the spring list didn't make any major mistakes, they would definitely be on the Golden List. The only difference was their ranking.

To conserve resources, the official announcements were delayed until the Golden List was released, when officials would then make a unified announcement.

Even without official announcements, people would still inquire.

When the news of Xu Zeli achieving third place in the first class spread from Heluo County to Qingshui Town, Xu Zeping didn’t dare to leave his home. The entrance of Xu Mansion was bustling daily.

Being on the spring list meant that an official career was guaranteed.

Xu Zeping could only stay home every day, studying diligently and refusing all invitations to socialize, using the excuse that his parents were not home and he couldn't make decisions.

This joy also brought prosperity to the Xu Family's tea house, embroidery workshop, and Cheng Ge Er's cloth shop. Though they couldn’t enter Xu Mansion, people still flocked to the Xu Family’s businesses to share in the good fortune.

In the Great Jing Dynasty, there were specific regulations regarding door plaques: if a contemporary family member became an official, it could be called a "mansion"; if a scholar above the rank of xiucai had been produced within three generations, it could be called a "residence"; commoners could only be called a "family."

Ordinary merchants could only be called "a family"; once they became official merchants, they could be called "a residence"; and once they became imperial merchants, they could be called "a mansion."

The Xu Family's plaque had previously been named after their eldest uncle, bearing the title 'Residence.'

The reason it hadn't been changed to a "mansion" was that Xu Songshan's father had passed away. Although the Xu Family hadn't formally divided the family assets, they had been recorded and notarized.

After Xu Tangshi passed away, the family formally divided the assets, and since Xu Zeli had passed the xiucai examination, they retained the qualification to keep the "residence."