Chapter 639: Imperial Examination Family-Raising System (48)

She sipped a bit of wine, tilted her head, and asked Song Yanqing, "How does my husband find this wine?"

Song Yanqing tasted it carefully: "Slightly astringent upon entry, with a mellow aftertaste; it is truly a fine vintage."

"Another cup?"

Xie Yang smiled and refilled his cup.

She also thought the wine was good, but unfortunately, she hadn't stocked much—only three cases totaling eighteen bottles; every bottle drunk was one less remaining!

She pondered that the latitude and longitude of Jingcheng seemed quite suitable for planting wine grapes; when she looked for a place to build a Farm later, why not pick one near a valley?

If she had enough Silver, she would buy the valley as well to plant wine grapes.

By then, she would brew some Spirit Spring wine; the taste would only be better than this imported variety!

Song Yanqing did not yet know that his wife was not only considering buying land in the Jingjiao to build a Farm after he passed the imperial examinations, or setting up a food truck to sell snacks made from their own farm's produce, but also wanted to buy a valley to plant grapes and brew fine wine, then sit back and enjoy a retirement life with fine wine in her glass.

He was still preparing for the upcoming Metropolitan Examination...

During this period of exam preparation, he almost never stepped out; even on New Year's Eve, with ten thousand homes lit up, the most he did was be pulled by Xie Yang into the Courtyard when the sun was out and there was no wind, to bask in the sun, drink tea, crack melon seeds, and chat about daily life, so as not to get stifled.

"Not stifled."

Every time Xie Yang said this, he would look at her red lips with a smile.

Indeed, he wasn't stifled; every few days, he would release his excess energy on her.

Xie Yang rolled her eyes at him; at this time last year, he was still as innocent and shy as a little white rabbit, but now he could discuss such topics proactively without changing his expression.

Once he passed the imperial examinations and entered the imperial court, she felt she could also write a Policy Essay on "Old Driver Training," heh.

Because they were in a strange land for New Year's Eve, it was naturally not as busy as being at home, but the necessary sense of ritual could not be lacking.

They cut window flowers, wrote spring couplets, pasted "Fu" characters, and hung two large red lanterns outside the main gate; on New Year's Eve, she also had Yang Mu set off two strings of hanging firecrackers so the surrounding neighbors would know that new masters had moved into this house.

However, the liveliest day in Jingcheng was not New Year's Eve, but the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.

By this day, the Provincial Graduates who had come to Jingcheng from all over to take the exams had basically arrived one after another, and the streets and alleys were packed with people.

Especially at the temples holding the prayer lantern festival; it was said that there was a sea of people that night, and someone was almost trampled to death. Even if they weren't trampled to death, they were still seriously injured.

"More than one or two were injured; I heard they were all Provincial Graduates who came to participate in the Spring Examination. The exam is in less than twenty days, yet this kind of thing happened..."

At noon, after Chun Niang finished her morning chores, she sat at the kitchen door with her sewing basket, basking in the sun while watching the soup pot on the stove, and told Xie Yang the news she had heard while out looking for fresh vegetables in the morning.

Xie Yang felt a lingering fear.

Originally, she had wanted to take Song Yanqing to see the lantern festival yesterday, but seeing so many people pouring toward the East and West Streets, she felt the experience wouldn't be very good, so she simply took a walk nearby and went home.

Who would have thought a stampede would occur?

It just goes to show that one must be extra cautious before the exam.

With twenty days left, she had better not drag him out for activities; he should just stay in the courtyard to admire the plum blossoms and watch the koi.

As for her, she began preparing cakes, pastries, and meat and egg side dishes for him to eat during the Metropolitan Examination.

For this, she directed Yang Mu to build a simple baking kiln next to the kitchen and baked several batches of cookies and peach blossom cakes.

The Steamer on the stove had basically not been idle for the next few days, steaming one basket after another of Victory Cake, Top Scholar Cake, and Top Scholar Rice.

In order to steam Victory Cake and Top Scholar Cake that wouldn't harden when cold, she tried several times, finally finding the best ratio of non-glutinous rice flour to glutinous rice flour, steaming a version that was soft, glutinous, and sweet when hot, and relatively fluffy when cold.

Top Scholar Rice was a bit like a simple version of Eight-Treasure Rice; inside the inverted glutinous rice were soft red bean paste and date meat. However, the Top Scholar Rice Xie Yang steamed had more ingredients: red dates, lotus seeds, lily bulbs, Job's tears, longan, and walnuts, making a set of six for good luck.

After the cakes and rice were steamed and cooled, they were packed into food boxes for him to take to the Examination Hall; the pastries could be eaten directly, while the rice needed to be steamed hot.

But she had steamed far too much during the testing process, and they couldn't finish it all themselves, so she set up a stove and a Steamer at the door to sell them.

Victory Cake and Top Scholar Cake were six wen each, and Top Scholar Rice was twelve wen per portion.

Cakes and pastries with good meanings never lacked a market.

Especially since more than half of the students at the Imperial Academy were participating in this year's Spring Examination; hearing that the Victory Cake, Top Scholar Cake, and Top Scholar Rice made by the family of Provincial Graduate Song were much better than those sold on the street, they swarmed to the door to snap them up.

Leaving the snack stall at the door to Chun Niang, Xie Yang continued to bury herself in preparing food for Song Yanqing's examination.

She took the leftover sesame seeds, walnuts, and dried almonds from the New Year, roasted them, and ground them into powder; a splash of boiling water made a nutritious drink, and if there was no time to cook porridge in the morning, having it with cookies and peach blossom cakes made for a decent breakfast.

She also boiled a pot of fruit jam.

On the surface, she used Rosa Roxburghii, wild oranges, wild grapes, and sour dates bought and stored in the cellar before the New Year, but in fact, she added several items from her stockpile: strawberries, blueberries, loquats, and pears, which were not only plump and juicy but also grown in the previous plane using Spirit Spring Water.

She added rock sugar and Honey, boiling it until it was thick and dense, and the original shape of the fruit could no longer be seen.

She packed it into small jars; scooping a spoonful into warm water in the morning to drink was good for the stomach and throat, and could also boost immunity.

One pot of jam was divided into three jars: one for him to take to the Examination Hall to drink with water, one to keep at home, and one to store in the Aircraft Cargo Hold to prevent it from spoiling.

As for savory food, in addition to braised meat, dried Fish, Chinese sausage, and Preserved Duck that needed to be steamed, she also braised a beef shank.

It was good luck; two days ago, when Yang Mu was driving the carriage to a village outside the city to collect firewood and Charcoal, he encountered a plow ox that had died at a wealthy family's home, and after much persuasion, he bought a piece of leg meat with the shank. Xie Yang braised half of it with spices, and the sliced five-spice beef shank was wrapped in oil paper for him to take to the Examination Hall to supplement protein.

She also made some savory snacks—using the baking kiln to roast some Sichuan-style beef jerky and black pepper Pork jerky, stir-frying a jar of fragrant meat floss, and using the meat floss and jerky to bake some meat floss buns and meat jerky toast.

When everything was ready, the Metropolitan Examination arrived as scheduled!

On the afternoon of the eighth day of the second lunar month, Song Yanqing bathed and purified himself with water boiled with dried mugwort leaves, changed into a set of old cotton robes that were the most comfortable to wear, checked the items to be brought into the Examination Hall twice, and sat in the carriage the family had just bought.

To ensure the horse would pull well and not cause any trouble, Xie Yang personally fed it a few handfuls of black beans.

The weather these past two days was not good, with a light drizzle falling from time to time.

The entrance to the Examination Hall was a sea of people.

When the time came, the Provincial Graduates participating in the Spring Examination, each holding a Floating Ticket and carrying their luggage and Examination Basket, were escorted by book boys holding umbrellas to the gate for inspection before entering the Examination Hall one by one.

"Wow! A rainbow!"

At this moment, the heavens finally cleared!

The afterglow of the setting sun pierced through the dispersing clouds, spilling over the sky above the Examination Hall and refracting an extremely magnificent rainbow.

Xie Yang stopped to admire it for a few moments along with the families of other candidates, hearing several women nearby chatting enthusiastically and excitedly:

"Look! A rainbow is spanning across the sky above the Examination Hall!"

"An auspicious sign from heaven! An auspicious sign from heaven! It seems a Literary Star will emerge among this year's Provincial Graduates!"

"Is there such a saying?"

"There has always been such a saying!"

"Then who could it be?"

"It just depends on who takes first place! Since the Literary Star has descended to the world, it must surely be the Literary Star again!"

Xie Yang: "..."