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They put in a fair bit of elbow grease in tidying up the tombstone, ending up covered in dirt.

Knowing Xiao Liulang’s penchant for cleanliness, Gu Jiao suggested at the riverside, “You can wash your hands.”

“Hmm.” Xiao Liulang responded, limping on his crutches towards the river.

Gu Jiao watched him walk. To be honest, the surgery was successful, and he tried hard to rehabilitate, but he still hadn’t given up his crutches.

Is his rehabilitation too weak?

Gu Jiao touched her chin.

“Aren’t you going to wash?” Xiao Liulang turned to ask her.

Gu Jiao chuckled: “Wash! Let’s wash together!”

It’s just washing hands, why so enthusiastic? It’s not like they are bathing, right?

Xiao Liulang asked and then remembered that it was the river where she had fallen into. Probably she didn’t approach out of fear. He blamed himself for his tactlessness and planned to quickly wash and leave. But Gu Jiao had already squatted down next to him.

The river water was quite cold, but both of them, not being pampered young masters or delicate young ladies, endured and washed.

However, just as they were about to stand up, something fell from Gu Jiao’s arm into the river with a plop.

“My pouch!” Gu Jiao didn’t expect this turn of events. She tried to grab it, but it was too late. The pouch was full of small silver coins, which were heavy and sunk quickly.

Without a second thought, Gu Jiao jumped into the river.

Xiao Liulang turned pale!

Her jumping into the water was even more unexpected than the pouch falling in. Xiao Liulang didn’t have time to react, and she vanished from sight.

Xiao Liulang looked at the rippling surface of the lake, his toes twitching.

He would’ve been able to swim before, but now with his injured leg, he wasn’t confident he could save her.

Just as Xiao Liulang was in a fierce internal struggle, Gu Jiao emerged from the water clutching her pouch: “Got it, I got it.”

Xiao Liulang quickly pulled her onto the shore.

Gasping for breath, Gu Jiao sat on the grassy ground, water dripping from her.

Xiao Liulang frowned at the pouch she clutched in her hand: “It’s just a pouch. Is it even worth risking your life over a handful of silver coins?”

“It’s not about the silver.” Gu Jiao shook her head, opened the pouch, and dumped out everything inside. She didn’t glance at the silver coins but picked up a palm-sized package, wrapped in wax-sealed leather.

“Do you have a handkerchief?” she asked Xiao Liulang.

He took a clean handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to her.

He thought she was going to dry her face, but surprisingly, she used it meticulously to wipe the leather package.

When the package was dry, she carefully peeled off the wax layer, opened the leather wrapping, and revealed a document stamped with an official seal.

The document was dry and undamaged.

Gu Jiao breathed a sigh of relief.

This was the exam document for the county examination that the dean had given to Xiao Liulang, which Xiao Liulang didn’t want and threw into the pile of discard papers.

When Gu Jiao found the document while cleaning his room, she thought he had dropped it accidentally, so she carefully stored it away.

She handed him the document, “You should keep it, I am all wet and I don’t want to wet the document.”

Xiao Liulang: “You did this for this? But I…”

Won’t take the exam.

You can wash your hands by the river in such weather, but if you fall in, it’ll be tough to endure.

Gu Jiao was trembling from the chill wind. With her eyes wide open and glistening, she extended her small hand toward him continuously. Water droplets fell ‘pitter-patter’ from her sleeve, but they didn’t wet his papers at all.

The words circled in his mouth, but ultimately he did not say them, instead, he said: “Anyway, I won’t pass the exam, so why try so hard?”

Gu Jiao sternly replied: “How do you know you won’t pass the exam without trying? Even if you don’t pass this time, isn’t there next time? And if you don’t pass next time, isn’t there a time after that? You will pass someday!”

Xiao Liulang said, “If I keep failing and never amount to anything…”

“Who says failing the exam means you’ll amount to nothing? There are countless paths in life, studying is just the easiest route to take. If you don’t like it, you can do other things.” Thinking of something, Gu Jiao carefully looked at him, “You shouldn’t…dislike studying, right?”

Xiao Liulang looked at her eyes, full of hope like a little deer’s, as if by simply saying he didn’t like to study, she would be hurt.

Xiao Liulang sighed softly and accepted the papers.

“Are you a fool?”

His voice was very soft and low.

Gu Jiao tilted her head and looked at him: “Hmm? What did you say?”

“Nothing.” Xiao Liulang turned his back on her, unbuttoned his College Examination gown, turned around, bent down to drape it over her, “Go home.”

—

After falling into the water, Gu Jiao fell ill. By the day of Xiao Liulang’s provincial exams, she was still running a fever, but she still got up early and made breakfast for Xiao Liulang, as well as dry food for him to take to the Exam Site.

Provincial exams consist of five rounds. One round is taken every alternate day, each round lasts for a full day and all their needs are met within the Examination room.

The first round is the preliminary, which one must pass in order to qualify for the second round of retests. Those who pass all five rounds qualify to take part in next month’s District Examination.

After the District Examination, there is the College Examination. Those who pass the College Examination would become scholars of Zhan Country.

Of course, there are different levels among the scholars.

The top-ranking candidates are called State Sponsored Scholars, who receive provisions from the Official Government every month; the next are the Additional Scholars, who are not given provisions; and finally, the Attached Scholars.

Gu Dashun is a true State Sponsored Scholar, which has brought great pride to the Gu Family for a long time.

Gu Jiao felt that her own husband didn’t have to become a State Sponsored Scholar like Gu Dashun. Being an Attached Scholar is decent enough! She did not have high expectations. As long as he managed to pass the examination, that would be sufficient. Even if he did not, that was fine too. She could support him; he didn’t have to take the Imperial examination.

Gu Jiao sat in the ox cart, her little body trembling from the cold. As her nose ran, she said in a nasally voice: “Don’t be nervous. We are here just for fun; treat it as a formality. I checked it out, there are five rounds in total. It’s no matter if you don’t perform well in the first one, there are still four more. I will accompany you here every day… Achoo! Achoo! Achoo!”

Upon finishing her words, Gu Jiao sneezed three times consecutively, making her see stars.

Xiao Liulang looked deeply at her without saying a word.

The examiner distributed the papers to the candidates.

The reason he had found himself here was because someone had risked their life for those exam papers he had discarded.

But that didn’t mean he would take the exam seriously.

He planned to hand in a blank answer sheet.

“Achoo!” A sneeze from a student in the next Examination room echoed into Xiao Liulang’s ears.

The image of a certain someone sneezing while riding in the ox-cart surfaced in Xiao Liulang’s mind, her small face was flushed with high fever, her gaze was a bit blurred and scattered, her small body was swaying, but she insisted on not going back.

Thinking about how someone was waiting for him the entire day in the ox-cart with their frail and sickly body, Xiao Liulang irritably picked up his pen!

Xiao Liulang only took the first exam and then didn’t go again.

The news quickly reached Gu Dashun.

Generally, only taking one exam meant one of two things: First, the student performed exceptionally well, ranking first, and was directly selected for the District Examination or second, they performed too poorly to qualify for the following four retests.

The first situation was uncommon. After all, even if one performed exceptionally well in the first round, it didn’t guarantee them the lead in the following four rounds. Let alone Xiao Liulang who was one of the worst in Class Beta, even if he gave his best, it was impossible for him to secure the first position.