At the long banquet outside, Xu Mo leaned on one hand and held his forehead.
"Not just us, no boy's butt can be looked at." Wen Zhiyun suddenly felt fifty boards would be less painful than this.
Fortunately, Jiang Sheng didn't ask further, just nodded blankly.
Xu Mo thought she understood, so he smiled with satisfaction.
Just then, Jiang Sheng sighed, "If I had known, I wouldn't have looked at second brother's butt. I saw it once when he was peeing behind the broken temple. It was so round."
Xu Mo's smile froze at the corners of his mouth.
At the same time, Zheng Ruqian, who was whipping his donkey and galloping wildly, sneezed.
"Old Zheng, are you okay?" Pang Dashan, also galloping wildly, yelled hoarsely.
Zheng Ruqian waved his hand while wrapping his clothes tighter.
He had to hurry to the prefecture city to reunite with his siblings, and also to see if there was anything valuable in the city that he could take back to the county seat to earn a profit.
Counting on his fingers.
He had collected vegetables in Xieyang County for three days, took four days to deliver them to Yunshui County, collected them for another three days, and returned to You Ran House to ask for time off from the boss. Then he rushed straight to the prefecture city.
With the five days of travel in between, it was already late March by the time he arrived.
Looking at the majestic city gates of Anshui Prefecture, even Pang Dashan couldn't help but be amazed.
But Zheng Ruqian's mind was solely focused on finding where his siblings were.
They had only said they would act separately at the beginning without saying where to meet up.
How careless!
Fortunately, while Zheng Ruqian was useless in most things, he was exceptionally skilled at talking. Everywhere he went, he gestured wildly asking, "Are there five children here, four boys with one girl, two of them taller, and the other three quite short?"
Asking all the way from the east to the west of the city, he finally got a lead at the door of a hostel.
"We do have guests like that here, but who are you?" The young waiter looked at him warily.
Zheng Ruqian grinned. "I'm their older brother."
The young waiter was skeptical. "Let me take you to them."
The two passed through the upper rooms, went by the lower rooms, and still didn't see anyone when they reached the end.
Zheng Ruqian was almost certain they had met a scam artist and reminded Pang Dashan to be ready to escape at any moment.
Eventually they arrived at the door of the wood shed, and he froze in shock.
In the bright sunshine, Xu Mo was lying on a crude chair, one hand propping up his body and the other holding a writing brush, moving swiftly like a snake or dragon.
Occasionally he would lift his head to glance at Jiang Sheng, who was holding up a book for him, and lightly cough twice.
Jiang Sheng would wake with a start from her daze and hurry to turn the page for her elder brother to see.
"Cough, cough." Xu Mo coughed twice more.
Jiang Sheng was confused and turned another page.
On the other side, Long Yuan who was exercising with Fang Heng couldn't help but remind her, "You turned two pages."
Like waking from a dream, Jiang Sheng hurriedly turned back three pages to finally get it right.
Xu Mo lowered his head to continue writing swiftly, sometimes even closing his eyes to write from memory, just to imprint all the knowledge in his mind.
His posture was so absurd, his butt still wrapped in bandages, yet his enthusiasm for studying was undiminished, even intense.
In the corner, Wen Zhiyun ceaselessly ground medicinal powders while continuously checking medical texts, seemingly looking for a better golden sore medicine.
Sunlight spilled on their heads, making the crude little courtyard radiate a golden glow.
This was the feeling Zheng Ruqian had been missing for over half a month. At first he had only felt empty and uncomfortable, but now he finally understood, this was the solid feeling of having family.
It was something no amount of money could buy.
Behind him, Pang Dashan suddenly sobbed softly, "Old Zheng, I miss my younger brothers."
Zheng Ruqian pressed his lips together.
At this time, the people in the yard were alerted by the voices and Jiang Sheng jumped up first. Seeing Zheng Ruqian, her eyes lit up, seeming to want to pounce on him, but then as if remembering something, she timidly stayed put.
This was not like the little sister's personality at all.
How could Zheng Ruqian know this was because as soon as Jiang Sheng saw him, she remembered that bare butt, and felt embarrassed.
"Little Jiang Sheng." Zheng Ruqian spread his arms. "Don't you miss me at all?"
Miss him? She had missed him to death!
In that moment, all thoughts of bare butts and gender propriety were tossed from her mind.
Jiang Sheng rushed into Zheng Ruqian's arms like an arrow loosed from a bow. She first wrapped her arms around his neck and leapt up, instantly clinging to his waist with her legs.
"Why did you only come now, second brother?" the little girl wailed.
Zheng Ruqian bared his teeth in a wide grin. "But I'm here now, right? Why are you all staying in the woodshed? Don't you have enough money?"
Speaking of money, Jiang Sheng immediately jumped down.
Only then did Zheng Ruqian free up his hands to take out the ten taels of silver he had newly earned from his arms, and place them in her hands.
Jiang Sheng was overjoyed, but still explained, "The rooms here are too expensive. This woodshed happened to be cheap so we just stayed here!"
Zheng Ruqian's expression froze.
The essence of saving money was simply because they didn't have enough.
It looked like he would have to work even harder.
"Big brother's butt," Zheng Ruqian's gaze fell on Xu Mo again. "Can you still take the prefectural exam in April?"
"Whether he can take it or not, he has to take it," Jiang Sheng said, tucking away the silver in her little purse.
She then explained what had happened in mid-March.
The difficulty of the Chief of Prefecture Case made all the siblings feel heavy-hearted, especially Xu Mo. Even with his butt rotten like that, he still persisted in studying and reading after being bandaged up.
But he really was too tired. Holding a book in one hand and writing with the other was too difficult. To make it easier for him, Jiang Sheng took the initiative to act as a book stand, providing page-turning services for her big brother.
That's how they had persevered until now.
The wounds on Xu Mo's butt had gradually scabbed over and the gauze no longer needed changing every day.
To be safe, Wen Zhiyun had thickly coated it with golden sore medicine before wrapping it with gauze several more layers, to prevent new cracks from appearing over the exam days.
Just like during the county exam, Jiang Sheng packed food, drink, and supplies for her big brother, along with brush, ink, paper and inkstone. Finally she tucked the soft butt cushion above the night pot.
The prefectural exam was different from the county one.
The county exam lasted five straight days, and they could return home each night.
But the prefectural exam required staying at the Imperial Examination Hall for three days straight, without sleep or rest, eating, drinking, and even relieving themselves all within.
However, the prefectural exam was also safer. Reportedly there were at least over a dozen patrolling clerks, so incidents like stolen exam papers were unlikely to occur again.
It was early April, and the prefectural exam was beginning.
Under the gaze of his younger siblings, Xu Mo limped into the Imperial Examination Hall carrying his little basket.
