Chapter 309: Jiang Mo Nian

"Could your father be the famous *Tanhua* Jiang Mo Nian?"

Jiang Zhan nodded, "Exactly."

Su Qingyao suddenly realized.

No wonder!

No wonder Jiang Zhan had such character and appearance at such a young age. As the saying goes, a tiger father has no dog sons. What kind of person was Jiang Mo Nian? How could his descendants be mediocre?

He had been wondering why that font looked familiar; so he had seen it before.

Speaking of which, it was more than ten years ago.

At that time, he was returning to the capital to report on his duties and passed by Zhuque Street, just in time to encounter the new top scholar riding a horse through the streets.

Of course, there were also the second and third place winners.

They were wearing bright red python robes, riding tall horses, wearing golden-flowered black gauze hats, and wearing spring breeze success flowers, surrounded by people, with flags and drums clearing the way.

On the wide long street, lanterns were hung everywhere, and it was surrounded by people watching the excitement, with cheers like thunder.

It could be said to be infinitely glorious.

Especially on the pavilions on both sides of the street, almost all were women—old, young, beautiful, ugly, shy, or bold—one by one ignoring the top scholar and the second place, only staring hard at the young and handsome *Tanhua*.

Handkerchiefs and flowers fell like rain from the sky, throwing themselves at him, just to get a glimpse of him.

But he just passed by with a smile, not giving a single look.

Who knows how many young girls' hearts he broke.

There was a restaurant that knew how to act; taking advantage of the celebration of the new store opening, they took the opportunity to ask Jiang Mo Nian for a piece of calligraphy.

The calligraphy was elegant and unique, winning rounds of applause.

Su Qingyao was attracted to it at the time.

He thought, if only his little sister Su Qing Ci hadn't gone missing, he would have used all his strength and tried every possible way to coax this talented and handsome *Tanhua* to be her husband.

Qing'er deserved the best man in the world!

Unfortunately, it was just a thought.

Qing'er had already been missing for several years at that time, with no news, not even knowing if she was dead or alive...

Later, he heard the *Tanhua*'s name from others.

Jiang Mo Nian.

And he heard that many powerful families in the capital wanted to win over Jiang Mo Nian, scrambling to recruit him as a son-in-law, and even the Emperor had ideas, testing Jiang Mo Nian's tone, intending to marry a princess to him.

That was imperial favor, something others couldn't get even if they begged.

But Jiang Mo Nian politely refused them all.

He said he already had a virtuous wife at home, and his children were already several years old, using only the phrase "a wife of humble beginnings should not be cast aside" to block all the prying eyes.

He originally thought Jiang Mo Nian would rise to the top from then on and become a capable official of a generation.

Who knew that heaven is jealous of talent? A few years later, news of Jiang Mo Nian's promotion did come, but so did the news of his death.

For this, Su Qingyao felt sorry for a long time.

He didn't expect to see Jiang Mo Nian's cub in the imperial examination hall.

Fate!

Su Qingyao withdrew his thoughts and turned the topic to the main point with a smile: "I see your arithmetic problems are done well. Was it taught by a teacher at the academy?"

Jiang Zhan hesitated for a moment, then shook his head, "No."

He had originally thought about attributing this credit to his teacher, but this matter couldn't stand scrutiny. There wasn't just him from Xiushan Academy taking the exam; there was Xiao Liangchen and two other classmates. If only he was the only one who did well in arithmetic, how should that be explained?

Could he say that others didn't study hard, so they didn't know how?

But if he told the truth, firstly, Su Qingyao might not believe it and might even suspect he was lying.

Secondly, he was afraid of bringing trouble to his sister-in-law.

His sister-in-law had never been to school, yet she could solve such difficult arithmetic problems. What would others think?

It was better not to bring fire upon himself.

Jiang Zhan's answer was within Su Qingyao's expectations. Although Xiushan Academy was somewhat famous, it was located in a remote small county, and he didn't think it could keep any powerful arithmetic masters.

"Then... it must have been taught by your father?" Jiang Mo Nian was a genius; it wouldn't be strange for him to know anything.

Jiang Zhan lowered his eyes.

Neither admitting nor denying.

This appearance fell into Su Qingyao's eyes, and he thought he had touched on Jiang Zhan's sad past, which was why Jiang Zhan was so dejected, so he hurriedly stopped, "Alright, I have already read all your test papers. Go back and wait for the good news."

Jiang Zhan bowed and retreated.

When he turned and walked to the door of the main hall, he looked back at the Grade A, *Chou* number cell.

Just in time, his gaze met Duan Xiu's in mid-air.

Duan Xiu's face was a bit foul, and his eyes were filled with thick confusion, shock, anxiety, and disbelief.

Jiang Zhan curled his lips imperceptibly and walked away with big strides.

Duan Xiu stiffly withdrew his gaze, the pen in his hand feeling as if it weighed a thousand pounds, and he couldn't write anymore.

How could this be?

Why did Jiang Zhan hand in the paper early, and so early?

Could it be that those arithmetic problems... he could do them all?

No, impossible!

I don't believe it!!

But Jiang Zhan was clearly not a reckless person; he wouldn't hand in the paper early before finishing and joke with his future.

The only possibility was that Jiang Zhan really finished them all...

Thinking of this, Duan Xiu couldn't help but feel restless.

The more anxious he was, the less he could calculate, and the less he could calculate, the more anxious he was. Even cold sweat broke out on his forehead, almost dripping onto the test paper.

He simply put down his pen and rang the bell, intending to eat and calm down.

The bailiff walked over immediately to ask, "Handing in the paper?"

"..." Duan Xiu's fair face twisted, and he squeezed a voice through his teeth, "No, buying food!"

After saying this, he fished a piece of silver from his bosom and threw it to the bailiff.

The bailiff put away the silver and looked at Duan Xiu with a strange look, "Wait, it will come soon."

While walking, he muttered to himself.

That Young Master Jiang was the first place in the first round, so he was the first to hand in the paper.

He thought this Young Master Duan would be the second to hand in the paper; after all, he was the second place in the first round, wasn't he?

Who knew he was actually going to eat.

*Tsk*, sure enough, there is still a gap between second place and first place...

After about a quarter of an hour, Duan Xiu's food finally arrived.

After eating, the chaotic thoughts in his mind finally gradually subsided, and he was just about to start answering the questions seriously again.

But at this moment, he heard the harsh sound of a bell ringing again at the very edge of this row.

On the invigilator's platform, Gongsun Ang was whispering to Su Qingyao.

"Master, your vision is long-term. That young man Jiang Zhan has a future; his official career will definitely not be bad. Offending the Duan family for his sake may not necessarily be a bad thing."

Su Qingyao chuckled, "Don't make me sound so great. I did this mainly for myself."

After a pause, he said again, "But I do quite like that kid. It's a pity I don't have a daughter; otherwise, I would recruit him into the family before he gains momentum, and he might become a help."

Gongsun Ang reminded him with a smile.

"Master, have you forgotten? As it looks now, Jiang Zhan's prefectural top scholar position is a sure thing. By then, you will be his teacher, having the grace of discovering him. As long as you take care of him more later and keep in touch, that relationship won't be much worse than father-in-law and son-in-law."

This made sense.

Su Qingyao suddenly thought of something, "Right, I remember Jiang Zhan is the younger brother-in-law of the Du clan, and the Du clan is Jiang Li's wife. That means Jiang Li is also Jiang Mo Nian's son?"

"That should be correct."

Gongsun Ang sighed, "The *Tanhua* Jiang really knew how to give birth. Two children, one literary and one martial, both are talents. I think the *Tanhua* Jiang's spirit in heaven will also feel deeply comforted."

Su Qingyao nodded in agreement and thought for a while, asking, "The secret letter requesting merit for Jiang Li should have reached the top, right?"

"It should have arrived long ago; maybe the reply will come down in a few days."

"By then, Master, you will not only have the grace of discovering Jiang Zhan, but also the grace of promoting Jiang Li. In the future, the relationship between the two families will be hard to separate even if you want to."

Su Qingyao was stunned for a moment, then patted his belly and laughed.

"If it can't be separated, then let it be. That's also quite good."

Just as the two were talking enthusiastically, the bailiff presented another test paper, "My Lord, someone is handing in their paper!" ===== CHAPTER 310 =====