Chapter 138 Results

Chapter 138 Results

Yun Kang was about to say something but then thought better of it, retracted his words, and turned to head home.

"No point in saying more, tomorrow's exam will reveal the truth."

Li Jiaxin kicked the ground in frustration. Seeing a farmer approaching from the road, he dared not continue the argument and could only turn around to go home.

Yun Kang returned home to find his mother weaving baskets on the porch, while his father was inside the house marveling at something.

Hu Qiuyan smiled upon seeing her son return, "Brother Hua and Jiu Jiu both like these delicate little baskets. I’m making a few for you to take to Chun Sheng when you go play with him tonight."

Yun Kang nodded and looked towards the house, "Did Uncle send the ginseng?"

"Yes, he did. Wow, I’ve never seen such a large ginseng in my life—no, I’ve never seen any ginseng at all. If it weren’t for Brother Hua’s help, how could we handle such a big deal?"

Hu Qiuyan had a distant cousin who dug ginseng in the northern mountains. Last autumn, Qiu Huanian had asked her to inquire about sourcing some high-quality ginseng for emergencies.

But truly good ginseng is like life-saving medicine, highly sought after by the wealthy and not something easily obtained. Hu Qiuyan’s cousin had worked tirelessly and finally managed to gather two hundred-year-old wild ginseng roots this spring, totaling over eight taels in weight.

Hu Qiuyan passed on the news to Qiu Huanian, who immediately offered 220 taels of silver to buy both roots.

Two hundred taels were for the ginseng, and twenty taels were for Hu Qiuyan’s commission and hard work.

Hu Qiuyan tried to decline, but Qiu Huanian insisted she keep it.

Qiu Huanian had long noticed that, perhaps due to minor differences in human biology or mutations in the herbs, the efficacy of naturally grown precious herbs like ginseng in this world was several times higher than in the modern world, which was truly remarkable.

Without Hu Qiuyan, he wouldn’t have known where to source top-quality ginseng. Given the primitive medical conditions in ancient times, truly effective medicine was priceless. Qiu Huanian was not stingy and believed Hu Qiuyan deserved the money.

Baoshan carefully closed the box containing the ginseng, afraid that a shaky hand might damage it, losing a few qian of silver.

"This thing is too risky to keep here. Maybe we should deliver it to Brother Hua tonight. His house is protected by over a dozen soldiers, so there’s no fear of thieves."

Hu Qiuyan thought it made sense. Although the village of Du Jia had honest and straightforward villagers and good law and order, this was still 200 taels worth of ginseng. Who knows if word might leak out and attract trouble?

Hu Qiuyan finished weaving the basket in her hands, brushed off her hands, and stood up, heading to Qiu Huanian’s house with Yun Kang.

When they arrived, Qiu Huanian was taking out over thirty bolts of fabric he had brought from the capital, figuring out how to hand out the rewards the next day.

Various patterned brocades, glossy crimson gauze, and silky smooth fine silk were stacked up like a small hill, filling half of the large table and brightening the room.

These fabrics might be considered outdated and old in the most bustling markets of the capital, but in a small northeastern county like Zhang County, they were still the best of the best. The finest goods from all the fabric shops in the entire county combined couldn’t compare to them.

Hu Qiuyan couldn’t help but hold her breath, "Brother Hua, why are you taking out so much fabric?"

Qiu Huanian put down the fabric in his hand, "Isn’t there an exam at the clan school tomorrow? These are rewards for the top performers, think of them as prizes."

Hu Qiuyan’s voice wavered, "All of these?"

"Not all at once. The rest will be stored in the clan school’s warehouse and distributed in future exams to encourage the kids to study harder."

Hu Qiuyan’s heart raced. Wow, these fabrics must be worth over a hundred taels of silver, and Brother Hua was giving them all to the clan school as prizes.

The clan school’s building was already funded by Brother Hua, and the estate that supplied the school’s expenses was also bought by him. Brother Hua’s commitment to the clan school was unmatched!

Qiu Huanian noticed Hu Qiuyan’s astonishment and smiled, "Education is the foundation of all change. If we can nurture a few capable children, spending some money is nothing."

The Du Jia Village Clan School was his experimental educational project, characterized by co-education regardless of gender, and the curriculum was not limited to the Four Books and Five Classics and etiquette but encompassed a wide range of subjects for comprehensive development.

If given the opportunity, Qiu Huanian would like to share the teaching methods of the Du Village Clan School with a broader audience in the future.

Well, that’s still a long way off.

Qiu Huanian looked at Yun Kang standing next to Hu Qiuyan. Yun Kang was a few months older than Chun Sheng and was already nine years old. Reading helps people understand the world better, and Yun Kang had clearly matured a lot since Qiu Huanian last saw him.

"Yun Kang, do your best on tomorrow’s exam and win some cloth for your mother to make new clothes."

Yun Kang nodded seriously, "I will work hard."

Hu Qiuyan was beaming with joy, "As a mother, I’m looking forward to the cloth my son wins."

Hu Qiuyan’s family was doing pretty well, and they could afford to buy good fabric for clothes, but for work convenience and to save up for Yun Kang’s future imperial exams, she rarely spent much on clothes.

For Hu Qiuyan, a few feet of good fabric was nice, but if the fabric was earned by her son through an exam, it would mean the world to her.

She could wear it every day and brag about how her son earned it!

After some thought, Qiu Huanian decided to set the most expensive red gauze as the reward for the top student in each exam. The winner would receive one and a half zhang, enough to make a set of clothes.

Other students would receive varying lengths of brocade and silk, which could be used to make hats, vests, and other small items, or accumulated to one and a half zhang to make clothes.

Hu Qiuyan remarked, "With these rewards displayed, families who were hesitant to send their kids to school might change their minds."

Now, nearly all the boys of the right age in the village were attending the clan school, and initially, there were fewer girls and boys, but over time, more girls and boys started attending.

Qiu Huanian was thrilled with this change.

The next morning, Qiu Huanian and Du Yunse got up, put on their formal clothes, and headed to the clan school to oversee the exam.

The largest classroom in the clan school was set up, with thirty-some desks neatly arranged. The students taking the exam sat in order of entry, laid out their writing supplies, and placed other items on the shelves in the corner.

Qiu Huanian walked in and nodded approvingly at the well-organized exam room.

The oldest kid in the exam room was eleven or twelve, and the youngest was five or six. The age gap led to differences in learning ability. Even though most students started learning at the same time, there was still a big difference in their current abilities.

To be fair, Qiu Huanian and Du Yunse made two different sets of tests, one for those under eight and another for those over eight.

Liao Cang, who was familiar with the students, distributed the papers by age. Some children calmly began to answer, some scratched their heads not knowing what to write, and some seemed not to like the questions on the paper.

Qiu Huanian took in their varied expressions but said nothing for the time being.

An hour and a half later, the exam officially ended. A small exam at the clan school did not require anonymity. Liao Cang collected the papers and went with Du Yunse and Qiu Huanian to the adjacent classroom to grade them, while the children could go home to rest and return in the afternoon for the "award ceremony."

Originally, Liao Cang wanted to continue classes after the exam, but Qiu Huanian stopped him.

Qiu Huanian remembered that when he was in elementary school, he liked exams the most. He would spend ninety minutes in the morning and afternoon to finish one subject, and the rest of the day could be spent resting and playing.

These ancient elementary school students worked quite hard, resting only once every ten days, so he decided to give them an exam holiday.

There were more than thirty papers in total, with four questions each. It seemed quick, but it took more than an hour for Qiu Huanian and the other two to review all the papers.

The four questions on the paper belonged to four different subjects.

One was from the Four Books and Five Classics, one was arithmetic, one was drawing, and one was agricultural knowledge.

The types of questions for the younger and older age groups were the same, but the difficulty was different.

For example, the math question for the younger age group only tested the four operations, while the older age group was tested on equations.

Each question was worth twenty-five points, adding up to a total of one hundred points. This scoring method was a bit unconventional but easy to grasp, and Liao Cang understood it right away.

The three of them graded each question on every paper, and finally, they took the median score for each question, adding them up to determine the final score.

As expected, Yun Kang took first place in the older age group, while Youge, just five years old, surprisingly took first place in the younger age group.

Although the questions for the younger age group were very simple, and all the candidates had only begun their education last year, it was still impressive for Youge to answer every question correctly and take first place.

Apart from the two first-place winners, the student who made the strongest impression on Qiu Huanian was a twelve-year-old named Yun Xiang.

Yun Xiang's family had previously lived in another town and only returned to the village after hearing about the establishment of the clan school. He had never studied before and was average in both the Four Books and Five Classics and arithmetic, but he was exceptionally talented in drawing.

While other students could only sketch basic shapes, Yun Xiang had a natural knack for representing spatial awareness on paper. Give him a pen and paper, and after a short stroll, he could manually create a pseudo-3D map.

"Urge Yun Xiang to study diligently, learn more characters, and improve his arithmetic. His talent might prove to be very useful in the future."

Together with his spatial awareness, sense of direction, and innate drawing talent, Yun Xiang was practically destined to create nautical charts.

After hearing that the imperial court planned to expand maritime trade, Qiu Huanian had been on the lookout for talents with such abilities.

Opening up maritime trade to foreign merchants also meant that our own people needed to venture out.

The overseas world was brimming with countless treasures—gold, silver, spices, minerals, new crops, advanced technologies... Only by taking the initiative and actively participating could we ensure steady profits in the wave of global development!

Liao Cang didn't quite grasp why Qiu Huanian valued Yun Xiang's abilities so much, but he wasn't a rigid scholar solely focused on imperial examination essays. After all, he himself was deeply interested in business studies.

"Township Lord, rest assured. Yun Xiang is a promising student—hardworking and honest. His shortcomings will be addressed in time."

After all the scores were tallied, Liao Cang fetched a large sheet of red paper and carefully wrote down the children's names and scores.

Ninety percent of the children passed the exam, with twenty percent scoring above eighty. For a clan school that had only been operating for half a year, with most students just starting their education, such results were a testament to Liao Cang's dedication as the head teacher.

"The clan school will hold a major exam every three months from now on, with the same question-setting and scoring methods as this time. Sixty points will be the passing mark, and eighty points will be considered excellent."

"If the number of passing students exceeds half, for every additional tenth of the total number, a reward of one tael of silver will be given; conversely, if the number of passing students is less than half, for every missing tenth, one tael of silver will be deducted from the monthly salary."

"Additionally, for every student who achieves excellence, a reward of two qian of silver will be given, with no upper limit."

After Qiu Huanian explained the performance calculation method, Liao Cang immediately pulled out a small abacus from his sleeve and quickly calculated how much silver he could earn this time.

"Four taels... seven times two qian... a total of five taels and four qian of silver!"

When he announced this figure, Liao Cang's eyes sparkled with excitement. This was almost equivalent to two months of his salary.

Performance-based rewards were truly enticing!

Of course, Liao Cang also remembered that if the students' performance dropped below a certain level, he would be penalized.

To prevent his precious salary from being deducted, Liao Cang began to carefully study the names of the underperforming students on the red list. He would make sure to keep a close eye on them before the next exam to avoid losing money!

After memorizing the names of the students who were barely passing, Liao Cang breathed a sigh of relief. "Luckily, with some effort, they should all be able to improve, except for this Li Jiaxin..."

"Li Jiaxin?"

"He recently came to the clan school from Zhang County. He had some prior knowledge, and in terms of the most basic Four Books and Five Classics, he was one of the top students in the clan school."

Qiu Huanian found Li Jiaxin's name on the red list. He had scored just over fifty points, failing to pass.

Upon pulling out his exam paper, it was clear that while he had carefully answered the questions on the classics, the rest of his answers were a mess. His drawing was particularly poor—he had simply drawn a circle, showing not only a lack of skill but also a poor attitude.

When Qiu Huanian reviewed the exam paper question by question, he initially thought the circle was an answer from a young child who had just started learning and didn’t understand the question, so he didn’t pay much attention to it and gave a five-point goodwill score before moving on.

Now, after reviewing the entire paper from start to finish, compared to the elaborate and detailed answers for the classical and historical questions at the beginning, the drawing question was extremely sloppy.

Aside from the drawing, the other two questions on arithmetic and agriculture were also rambling nonsense, each answered in just a few sentences.

Qiu Huanian massaged his forehead, “What does Li Jiaxin look like?”

Li Jiaxin had only been here for a little over ten days, but Liao Cang had already memorized his appearance, “He’s about the same height as Yun Kang, with a thin face and a black mole near the corner of his mouth. He was sitting under the second window during the exam this morning.”

Qiu Huanian recalled and realized this student was the one who had expressed dissatisfaction with the questions during the exam.

Liao Cang voiced his opinion, “Township Lord, although the sages said education should be inclusive, Li Jiaxin genuinely doesn’t want to learn many of the things taught in the family school.”

If he doesn’t want to learn, why did he come to the family school? Naturally, it was because he was drawn by the great reputation of Du Yunse, the Number One Scholar.

Qiu Huanian let out a dry chuckle, his eyes devoid of amusement.

Du Yunse took half a step forward and rested a hand on Qiu Huanian’s shoulder, silently offering his support.

Qiu Huanian flung the exam paper onto the desk and clapped his hands.

“With great fame comes all sorts of people. This exam was quite timely, allowing everyone to understand the principles and goals of the Du Family Village Family School.”

“Those who can understand and accept them may stay and continue their studies. Those who cannot should leave sooner rather than later, so as not to hinder their road to prosperity.”