The next morning, Jiang Wenyuan was studying intently in his room. Suddenly, the innkeeper came personally to knock on his door, saying a distinguished guest had come to pay a visit.
Jiang Wenyuan wondered if it was an acquaintance from his hometown. He immediately tidied his clothes and opened the door, only to find the visitor was a tall and dignified stranger he did not recognize.
Jiang Wenyuan's eyes flashed as he guessed who it might be. He came forward and bowed in greeting. After exchanging pleasantries, he learned the visitor was actually the heir of Duke of Protector.
Jiang Wenyuan quickly invited him inside to sit down and had A Ping serve tea.
The Duke of Protector's family rose to prominence through military achievements. Yuan Yun, as the heir of Duke of Protector, held the rank of Huaihua general himself.
As a military man, Yuan Yun was straightforward. He got right to the point, "I won't hide it from you, Brother Jiang. The child you saved yesterday was my son. He slipped out through the dog hole in the back garden while the maids who were on duty dozed off. If not for your rescue, I'm afraid he would have gotten into big trouble yesterday."
"You overpraise me," Jiang Wenyuan smiled and said, "It's only natural for a child that age to be curious and mischievous. It's in their nature. I also have a little monkey back home about the same age. He follows his older brothers to catch fish in the river and birds on the mountain. He's always scampering about and has been punished by the family many times."
As fellow fathers, Yuan Yun's interest was piqued. "Hearing you say that, Brother Jiang, it seems you have quite a few children in your family?"
Jiang Wenyuan smiled. "Just one of my own, but I have a bunch of nephews. More than enough for a cuju team."
Yuan Yun was surprised, "Your family is really prosperous!"
Following this topic, the two chatted freely for the whole morning. Jiang Wenyuan felt Yuan Yun was generous and scholarly, without the arrogance typical of privileged young masters.
Yuan Yun thought Jiang Wenyuan was sincere and straightforward for a scholar, and held great respect for frontier soldiers.
After an earnest conversation, the two men from vastly different backgrounds unexpectedly hit it off, feeling a sense of regret for not having met sooner. It was quite remarkable.
After seeing Yuan Yun off, Jiang Wenyuan looked at the three large boxes left in the room with complicated feelings. He slowly opened them.
The first box was tightly packed with brocade. Although he didn't know much about fabrics, he could tell from the exquisite patterns and weaves that they were no ordinary goods.
The second box contained books, brushes and inkstones. Flipping through them, he found many rare editions. There was also a fine quality inkstone, a whole set of brushes, and two sticks of pine soot ink - all extremely valuable objects. Jiang Wenyuan had only heard of them before; this was the first time seeing such treasures, and he was truly shocked.
The last box contained the most practical items - gold and silver.
The top two layers were silver. There were five rows with ten ingots of ten liang each per row, 250 liang in total for one layer, so 500 liang for both layers.
The bottom layer was gold, also in ten liang ingots, with a total of 25 pieces.
Based on the exchange rate of one liang of gold to ten liang of silver, not counting the other items, just the gold and silver in this box was worth over 1,000 liang - a huge amount that made Jiang Wenyuan gasp. The Duke of Protector's mansion was indeed generous.
These valuables were too much to accept, but he absolutely could not return them.
After thinking it over, he took the thickest root from the ginseng his precious daughter had given him, and personally selected an exquisite brocade box to hold it in. He had A Ping deliver it to the Duke of Protector's mansion as a return gift.
Now let's talk about the mistress of the Duke of Protector's household, Qu. Upon hearing from a servant that someone named Jiang Wenyuan, a scholar, had sent a brocade box as a health tonic for the old madam, she immediately knew who it was - the benefactor who had saved her son.
Just yesterday, her husband had specially prepared generous gifts to thank him. When he returned, he had spoken admiringly of the man. One must know, in this whole court of civil and military officials, those who could gain her husband's approval could be counted on one hand.
Therefore, hearing that such a person had sent something to their home, Qu was quite curious. She quickly had the servant invite him in.
The maid presented the box. As soon as Qu lifted the lid and looked inside, she was shocked.
Inside the box lay a ginseng root as thick as a child's arm, with all its whiskers and tail intact. From what she could glimpse of its humanoid shape, it looked to be at least nine liang, and at least several hundred years old.
Qu came from an elite background and had seen countless treasures since childhood, but this was her first time seeing such ginseng.
Any ginseng over eight liang was an earthly treasure of heaven and nature, a rare encounter. She did not expect to see such a specimen today.
Qu calmed herself and closed the lid. She said to A Ping, "This item is too valuable for our household to accept. Your master already has our gratitude for what he did for our family. How could we accept something so precious?"
A Ping bowed and said, "My master said the same before sending me here. Thanks to the Young Master's generosity, he only provided a helping hand, and feels ashamed to receive such favors. As a commoner, he owns little of value, and only had this item to give in return. I beg your household to accept it, or my master's conscience will feel uneasy."
Qu looked at the box in her hand. This heaven-born treasure could save lives at a crucial time. Not just the Duke of Protector's mansion - even the imperial palace may not have one.
After careful thought, she decided to keep it, thinking she would take extra care of Jiang Wenyuan in the future.
After heavily rewarding A Ping, she had him escorted out.
Then she summoned the household doctor to appraise it. The doctor assessed it was at least five hundred years old. In terms of quality and medicinal value, it was a supreme ginseng, fitting to be called the King of Ginseng. Qu was overjoyed to hear this.
After returning from court in the afternoon, Qu told her husband about the five hundred year old King of Ginseng Jiang Wenyuan had gifted. Yuan Yun looked at the item and took the box to his father's study.
Duke of Protector Yuan Meng was also quite surprised. After thinking about it, he said, "Keep it. This man is wise, not greedy, and knows propriety. We should interact more with him in the future. Besides, his gift today implies something. In any case, our Duke of Protector's household has the ability to support someone we see as promising."
On the fifth day of the fourth month, the day the exam results were posted.
The square where the lists were posted was packed densely with crowds of people.
At dawn, with the sound of a gong, the lists were officially put up. The crowd became even more frenzied pushing forward to see.
Wedged among the throngs of people, A Ping started from the top name and quickly scanned down until he saw his master's - Rank 4, Jiang Wenyuan of Lingzhou Prefecture, Qingzhou County.
A Ping was instantly thrilled and shouted with a somewhat hoarse voice, "Ah - My master passed! He passed! Rank 4, Rank 4!" As soon as he finished speaking, countless envious gazes around him focused on him.
With this rank, he would at least make it into the second class in the palace exam. If he performed well, even the top three classes was possible.
At the same time, the crowds frequently erupted into cheers, presumably families of the scholars who made the lists.
There were also some men who wanted to seize a bride below the lists. As long as she was unmarried, they would carry her away, regardless of her willingness.
However, people's joy and sorrow were not connected.
Some also collapsed into uncontrollable sobs, "Why isn't my name on the list, why? I tried so hard. There must be a mistake, a mistake..."
"Waa - I studied for a full 22 years, took the exam four times, but still nothing, nothing..."
With over ten thousand exam takers each year, and only the top three hundred selected, it was just like a narrow bridge with thousands of horses. There were always fewer laughing and more crying. People would sympathize for a while, but that was it.
A Ping strenuously squeezed out of the crowd and ran back to the inn. He excitedly shoved open the door and shouted, "Master, you passed, you passed! Rank 4!"
Although Jiang Wenyuan was confident, hearing that he had made the lists brought immense joy.
"Let's go downstairs. The messenger should arrive soon!"
"Alright!"
"Did you prepare the money to tip him?"
"Prepared aplenty!"
Master and servant went downstairs. The great hall was already filled with scholars who had come down to await the news. Compared to the relaxed smiles on his face, many had rather tense expressions.
Seeing him come down, a scholar he was acquainted with waved him over, "Brother Shuyi, over here! You sure keep your cool coming down just now. We've been waiting here since early morning."
Jiang Wenyuan clasped his hands in greeting, "Brother Wenchang!"
The two sat and chatted while awaiting the messenger.
Soon, the street became noisy. It was groups of messengers, who had brought gongs and were going door to door to announce the good news.
They typically started from the bottom of the lists and ended with the top name.
The people in the hall watched team after team of festively dressed announcers in red and green entering the inns, and the sounds of celebratory firecrackers bursting filled the air, sending up billows of smoke. Everyone was eager and envious.
Seemingly sensing the impatience of the people in this inn, a team of happy announcers headed straight for it.
Stepping through the front door, they immediately began singing: "Congratulations to Li Wanchang, son of the eminent Li family of Jing County, Lingzhou Prefecture, for placing 74th in the Imperial Examinations as a tribute student." They sang it twice in succession.
When Li Wanchang first heard his own name, he was so overjoyed he almost fainted.
Although he didn't think he did very well on the exams this time, he still harbored some hope. Now that he really heard his own name, he was truly overwhelmed with happiness.
"Congratulations to Brother Wanchang on passing the exams with honors!" Jiang Wenyuan immediately stood up to offer congratulations.
After ten years of arduous study for the civil service exams, it was no easy feat. As a fellow examination candidate, Jiang Wenyuan deeply understood his feelings.
"Congratulations, congratulations!" The whole inn suddenly rang out with voices of celebration.
"Our shared congratulations!" Li Wanchang stammered his thanks as he told the errand boy to give the announcers a tip, too elated to know what to do with his hands and feet.
After the announcers left, the innkeeper immediately had the waiter take out the firecrackers they had prepared ahead of time and set them off with a bang.
With each gong of the copper bell and bang of the firecrackers, the names were announced in order of increasing rank. There were only a few left.
Just as the innkeeper thought this would be the only laureate to come from his inn, another team of announcers entered the front door: "Congratulations to Jiang Wenyuan, son of the eminent Jiang family of Qingzhou County, Lingzhou Prefecture, for placing 4th in the Imperial Examinations as a tribute student!
Congratulations to Jiang Wenyuan, son of the eminent Jiang family of Qingzhou County, Lingzhou Prefecture, for placing 4th in the Imperial Examinations as a tribute student!"
"Wow, 4th place. How impressive!"
"Congratulations, Brother Wenyuan. We are now proper colleagues!"
"Our shared congratulations!"
The room was filled with sounds of celebration and joy. Jiang Wenyuan had A Ping reward the announcers with a full five taels of silver. This called for generosity.
The announcers secretly weighed the heft in their hands, pleasantly surprised. They wouldn't have guessed this plainly dressed gentleman laureate, staying in such an average inn, actually had such considerable family resources.
The innkeeper again had people set off firecrackers, and announced that from this day forth, the two gentlemen's food and lodging at the inn would be completely free of charge.
Of course the innkeeper would not run his business at a loss. Having laureates stay at his inn greatly benefitted its reputation, and a good reputation naturally meant a constant stream of customers and prosperity.
The Duke of Protector's Mansion, which had been keeping an eye on Jiang Wenyuan, also sent people to deliver congratulatory gifts at the first opportunity.
In the three days before the palace examination, they even specially sent someone to explain in detail the etiquette and protocols he needed to pay attention to during the palace exam. Jiang Wenyuan was extremely grateful.
He wouldn't have imagined the child he happened to save that day would actually bring him such great blessing. A Ping said he was a good person who received good fortune.
It could be said that reaching the laureate level, as long as there were no accidents in the subsequent palace exam, becoming an official scholar was guaranteed.
The palace examination was on the fifteenth day of the fourth lunar month. The emperor personally oversaw the exam.
