When the embroidery shop sold its first embroidery screen, the days slipped into February, and it was time for the county examination.
Since the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, Wei Yan has returned to the academy. It was not until the day before the county examination that he returned home from the academy.
Shen Xiu had already prepared an examination basket for him. The examination basket contained not only the Four Treasures of the Study, but also some food to satisfy his hunger.
"I heard that before entering the palace, the government officials will break the food into pieces. Rather than letting them do it, I might as well do it myself." Shen Xiu said as he handed the examination basket to Wei Yan.
Shen Xiu heard these things from Cuini. Cuini's father-in-law was a yamen servant and he naturally knew the process of the county examination very well.
Shen Xiu helped deliver a message to the county magistrate's wife before. After Wen Min saw the person, Xu was very satisfied and kept the person.
Trini's father-in-law admired Shen Xiu's affection and knew that Shen Xiu's father-in-law was going to take the county examination, so he specially sent Trini here.
Trini told Shen Xiu a lot of things that needed attention, and finally asked her secretly if she wanted to give Wei Yan extra care.
This concern naturally refers to cheating in the examination room.
Shen Xiu simply refused. With Wei Yan's talents and knowledge, there would be no problem in passing the county examination, and there was no need to take these detours.
Trini looked like she was relieved. After all, if someone was found to have committed fraud, his father-in-law would also be implicated.
The reason why they said this was because they accepted Shen Xiu's love. If he were an ordinary person, Trini's father-in-law would not take this risk.
In fact, there are not a few people who want to pass the county examination by cheating every year.
Before Zuo County Magistrate, this kind of thing was very common in Huaian County. As long as you spent one hundred taels of silver, you could pass the county examination.
However, since Zuo County Magistrate took office, Zuo County Magistrate was particularly concerned about examination fraud because he pursued political achievements.
He knew that the county government officials were unreliable, so every time the county examination was held, he would place one or two cronies among the officials so that the officials would not dare to accept bribes easily.
After this rectification, the fraud in the county examination was greatly reduced. Magistrate Zuo was quite proud of this incident. Also, because it was related to his promotion next year, Magistrate Zuo was extremely concerned about this year's county examination.
On the first day of the county examination, when Wei Yan and Yuan Ziwen entered the venue with examination baskets, several government officials spent a stick of incense just checking their four treasures. The food prepared by Shen Xiu was already broken enough, but they still
Get a knife and chop the dry food into smaller pieces to make sure there are no slips of paper inside.
The admission process was so strict that Yuan Ziwen couldn't help but feel a little nervous when he looked at the rows of government officials standing there.
Wei Yan seemed to notice his nervousness and glanced at him encouragingly.
After Yuan Ziwen became less nervous, a complicated feeling emerged in his mind. He hoped that he could do better than Wei Yan in the exam, but he also had a strange premonition that he could never surpass Wei Yan.
County Magistrate Zuo had already called his name in front of him. Yuan Ziwen threw away these thoughts in his mind. When Magistrate Zuo called his name, he agreed and was led to his seat by the Yamen servants.
Wei Yan's position was not far from that of Yuan Ziwen, and Qu Huan was also behind them.
When the test papers were handed out, Wei Yan and Yuan Ziwen were busy writing in front of them, but Qu Huan was thinking about the orchid embroidered screen.
Since he started spreading the news in the county, the embroidery shop has indeed received many more customers.
Before the county examination, two orchid embroidery screens had been sold.
But this was far from what Qu Huan expected. If there were no embroidery shops imitating their orchid embroidered screens, the orchid embroidered screens would have sold better.
Although Shen Xiu thought of a way to attract customers by constantly updating the patterns of embroidery screens, those embroidery workshops would continue to follow suit.
Is there any way to prevent those embroidery shops from following suit?
Qu Huan has been thinking about this issue these days, even when he was taking the county examination.
Unfortunately, this problem cannot be solved overnight.
Until the first day of the exam, Qu Huan did not expect to solve the problem.
The county examination lasts for five days in total.
On the first day, Shen Xiu was still a little nervous.
The second and third days brought some expectations.
On the fourth and fifth days, Shen Xiu should do whatever he wanted to do. The only difference was that he got up early every day to make a bowl of chicken noodle soup for Wei Yan.
In order to seek good luck, Shen Xiu would make a bowl of chicken noodle soup every morning, with two poached eggs in the noodles.
Wei Yan didn't understand why he had to eat two eggs, so Shen Xiu explained randomly: "This is the meaning of being the leader of high school."
Wei Yan could barely eat two eggs.
But Shen Xiu also stewed a carp every night, taking the meaning of the carp jumping over the dragon's gate.
Wei Yan doesn't like to eat fish, especially spiny carp.
When Shen Xiu came over with the fish meat, Wei Yan wanted to shake his head, but looking at the expectant look in his eyes, Wei Yan could only bite the bullet and swallow the fish meat.
After taking the county examination for five days, Wei Yan ate chicken noodle soup and carp for five days.
When the last exam was over, Wei Yan couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
Yuan Ziwen felt that he did both well and poorly in the exam, so he wanted to compare their essays with Wei Yan. Qu Huan also happened to see Shen Xiu for something.
So after the three of them finished the exam, they came to the house.
Shen Xiu served them a pot of good tea and several plates of snacks.
While Qu Huan was eating snacks, Yuan Ziwen had already taken Wei Yan to write down the essays for the exam.
Shen Xiu listened to Yuan Ziwen's words worrying about gains and losses, and watched him and Wei Yan compare their respective articles. She thought about the high school entrance examination that year, when she and her classmates started to compare the answers as soon as the exam was over, guessing how many points they would get.
But back then, I didn’t care about my grades as much as Yuan Ziwen.
Qu Huan, however, didn't care about the results of the county examination. After finishing his snack, he clapped his hands and said to Shen Xiu, "Sister-in-law, I've thought of an idea in the past few days."
"What's the idea?" Shen Xiu asked. Qu Huan was discussing business matters with her at this time instead of discussing the results of the county examination with Wei Yan. It seemed that he really planned to abandon literature and go into business.
Qu Huan said: "The reason why those embroidery workshops can imitate our patterns is because our patterns are not too difficult, but if we can create a pattern that is very difficult, it will be difficult for other embroidery workshops to imitate it."
."
What Qu Huan said is also a train of thought.
Shen Xiu pondered: "But Hua Zuo is just a flower figure. I really don't have a clue to create a very difficult pattern."
Wait, Shen Xiu suddenly thought of a trick that was really difficult for others to imitate.
This pattern is none other than Western oil painting.
The orchid screen embroidered by Shen Xiu still uses traditional Chinese painting techniques, so the orchid pattern on it is easy to be imitated.
But it would be different if it were oil painting.
Oil painting is completely different from Chinese painting. If Shen Xiu had changed the pattern to Western oil painting, few people would be able to imitate it.
When she thought of this, she looked at Qu Huan and said, "I have already thought of a way. Just wait for me for two days, and I will show you the finished pattern in two days."