Chapter 1774

Su Xuewen thought to himself that he wasn't that stupid; how could he possibly be deceived by a woman of the red-light district?

His uncle really took him for a fool.

Chen Guanlou couldn't care less what he was thinking; he followed his gaze, and whenever Su Xuewen's eyes lingered on someone for a few seconds, he would point that person out.

After a night of eating, drinking, and playing, he kept three of them at the end and stuffed them all into Su Xuewen's room.

His nephew was losing his virginity for the first time, and it was a one-on-three—truly a good uncle. He wasn't even worried about his nephew's kidney health.

Chen Guanlou's thinking was that a young man had a strong body and high vitality; never mind one-on-three, he could handle one-on-four. He believed in his nephew's ability.

Moreover, those three women were all very sensible people who understood the principle of knowing when to stop.

As long as they served Su Xuewen well, Company Commander Chen would surely reward them with a large sum of silver. Therefore, the three of them pulled out all the stops, achieving a level of extremely high quality while keeping the quantity precisely controlled.

Sure enough, when they got up the next morning, Su Xuewen was glowing, clearly looking like someone who had tasted the fruit and found it satisfying.

For several days in a row, Chen Guanlou took Su Xuewen to linger among the flowers, changing brothels, changing girls, and even spending a large sum of money to charter a pleasure boat to see different beauties and experience different women.

The consequence was that he was completely disillusioned! Plus, he looked slightly kidney-deficient!

Fortunately, his eldest sister, Chen Xiaolan, didn't see him like this, otherwise both uncle and nephew would have been beaten!

"After several days of living it up, how does it feel?"

It was time to talk about serious business.

Chen Guanlou thought that after resolving his eldest nephew's affairs, he still had to go to Daxiang Temple to meet that Monk Liaowu. Jingnan appearing at his eldest sister's house—his intuition told him there must be something fishy.

The fishiness came from Daxiang Temple!

For now, of course, his nephew was the most important.

Su Xuewen sat inside the pleasure boat, looking at the peerless, beautiful singing and dancing girls, and his heart felt only one word: "Tired!"

"Tired already?" Chen Guanlou said with a half-smile.

Su Xuewen felt a bit embarrassed. However, in front of his own uncle, there was no need to hide it. "With two to three women every night, I feel I must be overindulging; I might need to eat some tonics."

"Don't worry, after tonight, you will return to your past life. If you want to come out and live it up again in the future, you'll have to go by my schedule."

Su Xuewen hurriedly said, "Thank you, Uncle, for thinking of me."

"If a woman tells you now about a sick mother, a gambling father..."

"I won't believe a single word; it's all a script to get money!" Su Xuewen reacted quickly; he was truly a good learner.

Chen Guanlou stared at him for a while and waved his hand; the singing and dancing girls seemed to receive an order and retreated one after another.

Su Xuewen instantly felt the atmosphere become a bit serious.

He subconsciously sat up straight, feeling uneasy inside. "Does Uncle have something to instruct me?"

"Your mother is very worried about your studies. Today I want to ask you, what are your plans for the future? Will you continue to study for the imperial examinations, or come out and find a job?"

Su Xuewen frowned tightly and pondered for a moment. "To tell you the truth, Uncle, I don't know myself."

"Do you have confidence in the imperial examinations? Your mother says your scholarship is already up to par, but your luck in exams is bad. Do you agree?"

Su Xuewen sighed. "To be honest, in terms of scholarship, I can only be considered average at the academy."

His self-awareness was still quite clear.

Chen Guanlou nodded secretly and said solemnly:

"Based on the number of students from your academy who pass the child scholar and scholar exams each session, you shouldn't be able to pass."

He directly drew a conclusion. "I calculated it for you: the number of people from your academy who pass the child scholar and scholar exams only accounts for about seven percent of the same class. And your ranking is roughly between thirty and forty percent. Calculate the gap yourself!

You must be clear that there is a quota limit for each session of child scholars and scholars admitted. Although the quota for each county is not fixed, it's roughly the same. How many quotas each academy has, although never discussed on the table, everyone knows in their hearts. Every time your academy has students who pass the scholar exam, you should be grateful that your headmaster has great face."

"With your scholarship, unless you are the headmaster's own son and the headmaster personally tutors you to the top ten percent, and then you rely on the headmaster's face, you will have a chance to obtain the scholar title."

Su Xuewen felt a bit embarrassed and awkward.

However, in front of his own uncle, he adapted well.

Adjusting his emotions slightly, he asked, "Does Uncle mean I should give up studying and come out to find a job?"

"You probably have no hope, but you can pin your hopes on your son and your grandson. Each generation is stronger than the last!" Chen Guanlou didn't want to be too cruel, so he spoke more subtly, hoping to comfort the other party.

Su Xuewen didn't feel comforted, nor could it be called sad or upset.

He sighed; it was just a bit of a pity.

Having studied for so many years and not even being able to pass the child scholar exam, he felt a bit unwilling.

"In Uncle's judgment, can I pass the child scholar exam?"

He still wanted to struggle a bit more.

Chen Guanlou shook his head and told him bluntly, "You can't pass! The county exam admits fifty people; you have taken the exam several times, with your highest ranking being twentieth and your lowest forty-third. To pass the child scholar exam, your county exam ranking needs to be at least in the top fifteen, preferably the top ten, to have a better chance.

You might say that some people with lower rankings than you were able to pass the child scholar exam. You forgot about exam luck. Some people don't show it on weekdays, but their exam luck is just good. Once they take an exam, it's as if they have divine help. The larger the scale and the higher the level of the exam, the better they perform. In contrast, you seem to have never had very good exam luck."

Su Xuewen felt completely numb.

That's right, his exam luck couldn't be called cursed, just ordinary, with occasional mistakes. The kind of extraordinary performance in exams had never happened to him.

As for divine help, he hadn't experienced it since he started studying.

When it comes down to it, the Su family doesn't have the genes for studying.

He was able to study until now entirely because his uncle supported him with silver, supported him with imperial examination materials, supported him with various famous textbooks, and supported him with various rare books, allowing him to fight on the path of the imperial examinations without distraction like his classmates.

Unfortunately, his aptitude was limited. Even with excellent study resources, alas, alas...

He wiped his face. "I have failed my uncle."

Chen Guanlou glared. "Nonsense! You don't owe anyone, nor do you owe yourself. You studied hard by the window and put in the effort. Although the result isn't ideal, it's acceptable. When I sent you to study, I never expected you to follow the imperial examination path. Later, seeing you study hard and seemingly having a little talent, I had more expectations for you. Now that the dust has settled, it can be considered an account for your past efforts."

Su Xuewen gave a hum and nodded heavily.

"But I don't know what to do."

Not studying brought new worries.

"Do you want to go to the yamen to serve as a minor official?"

"Can I do it? I'm not even a child scholar; would the yamen want me?"

Chen Guanlou, upon hearing this, looked very disdainful.

Silly nephew!

"Do you lack a clear understanding of the resources you possess? With me here, and the Hou Fu here, although your surname isn't Chen, let me tell you this: you can pick any yamen in the capital. A mere minor official, not a proper official—I still have that much face."