Quick, female general, I traveled through time to save my father

Chapter 354: The Mother of the Bomen Raises Her Stepson 21

On the day of the provincial examination, when Zhou Mingyuan walked into the examination room with a smug look on his face, he saw Lu Mingchuan sitting peacefully in his seat, chatting and laughing with Shen Junyao. His face instantly turned pale.

What terrified him even more was that the invigilator was none other than Lin Mobai's protégé. Before the exam began, this protégé had stopped in front of Lu Mingchuan's examination room for a long time and even asked him a few kind questions.

What Sirong didn't expect was that Shen Junyao met the heroine on the day the results were announced.

It’s no longer like the plot in the previous life where I saved a kitten from the rain.

On the day when the results were announced, there was a huge crowd outside the Imperial Examination Hall and the noise was deafening.

There was no need for Shen Junyao to come in person. With his talent and knowledge, passing the imperial examination was expected, and the servants in the mansion would have brought back the good news as soon as possible.

But he still came, wearing a plain long gown, standing on the edge of the crowd, quietly looking at the densely packed names on the vermilion list.

The top scorer is Shen Junyao.

There was a burst of exclamations from all around, and someone shouted, "It's Master Shen from the Wuwei Earl's Mansion!"

He looked calm, nodded slightly, and turned to leave.

At this moment, he caught a glimpse of a thin figure squeezed in front of the list. The man was wearing a blue-gray cloth robe and had a simple hair tie. He was much thinner than an ordinary man. He was standing on tiptoe, trying to recognize the names on the list.

Shen Junyao took a quick glance and noticed the tiny ear hole on the man's earlobe.

It's a girl.

He felt nothing in his heart, and even felt that this girl's disguise was far inferior to that of his mother and Shen Tang. Just as he was about to make a detour, the crowd suddenly jostled, and the "young man" stumbled, almost bumping into him.

Shen Junyao dodged sideways and allowed the other party to stagger a few steps before standing firm.

"Please forgive me, sir..." The other party apologized in a low voice, his voice deliberately lowered, but still revealed a bit of tenderness.

He said "hmm" coldly, without even looking at her, and left.

"Master Shen!"

The other party suddenly called him.

Shen Junyao stopped and frowned slightly when he turned around: "Miss, is there something wrong?"

She seemed to have not expected him to expose her disguise so directly. She was stunned for a moment before she said, "How did you see that..."

"Ear piercing." He interrupted her, his tone calm and almost indifferent, "If it's nothing important, Shen will go first."

"Wait!" She took two quick steps. "My brother is taking the exam this year, but he's sick and can't go out, so I came to check the results on his behalf."

Shen Junyao's expression remained distant: "Oh!"

She pursed her lips and said, "I've heard that you are very talented and knowledgeable. My brother has always admired you. I wonder if you can..."

"Inconvenience." He interrupted again, without stopping, and walked past her without looking away.

With Sirong's guidance, Shen Junyao knew from a young age to keep a distance from girls.

Especially in a situation like today, you have to know that in their dynasty, people also chose sons-in-law based on popular trends.

However, for a family like Shen Junyao's, ordinary officials and families would not be so reckless, and the ones most affected by the case of capturing a son-in-law are usually children from poor families.

For example, Lu Mingchuan, Shen Junyao asked him to wait in the restaurant with Sirong.

What he was afraid of was that some young lady would take a fancy to him and Shen Junyao would not be able to protect him.

After passing the heroine, Shen Junyao went straight to a nearby restaurant.

In the private room on the second floor, Sirong and the others had been waiting for a long time.

Stepping into the private room on the second floor of the restaurant, Lu Mingchuan was sitting at the table. Although he tried his best to look calm, his fingertips were still trembling slightly.

"Congratulations, Brother Lu, for being ranked seventh in the second class!" Shen Junyao bowed with a sincere tone.

Lu Mingchuan took a deep breath, suppressed the heat surging in his chest, and said in a hoarse voice: "Thank you, Brother Shen."

After ten years of hard study, you will finally have a bright future.

"Good boy!" Shen Tang came over with a grin and punched Shen Junyao lightly on the shoulder. "You're pretending to be calm in front of us?"

Shen Junyao finally smiled, his face, which had been tense all day, finally relaxed. He was the youngest candidate in this year's exams, and usually he was afraid of being called frivolous. Today, when the results were announced, he was even more reserved.

"It's expected, why bother pretending?" He lifted his robe and sat down, his tone a little more relaxed.

Sirong held the pot and poured wine for him, her movements graceful and calm. She asked casually, "Just now downstairs, I seemed to see you talking to a 'young master'?"

"A woman disguised as a man." Shen Junyao drank the wine in his glass and said indifferently, "I checked the list for my brother and said a few nonsense words."

A hint of satisfaction flashed in Sirong's eyes, and she nodded slightly: "I see."

She didn't ask for details because Shen Junyao's attitude said it all. He had no interest in the woman and was too lazy to even take a second look.

In the private room of the teahouse opposite the restaurant, Zhou Mingyuan gripped the wine glass tightly, his knuckles turning white.

"Seventh in Class 2... Ha, Lu Mingchuan, what makes you think you can do that?"

He stared at the people chatting and laughing in the window opposite him, his eyes brimming with sinister intent. He was clearly from a family of scholars, and his uncle was the Prime Minister, yet he was outshined by Lu Mingchuan!

"Brother Zhou, why are you so angry?" The man in green beside him chuckled. "Lu Mingchuan is just a child from a poor family. Even if he were to become a Hanlin, without support, how far could he go?"

Hearing this, Zhou Mingyuan sneered: "That's true. There's still a long way to go. Let's see how far he can go."

However, their plans may be in vain.

The reason why Shen Junyao and Lu Mingchuan hit it off right away was that both of them had ambitions outside the capital.

On the day when the appointment document from the Hanlin Academy came down, Shen Junyao and Lu Mingchuan stood outside the palace gate and smiled at each other.

"It seems like you and I will eventually go our separate ways." Lu Mingchuan waved the transfer order with the imperial seal in his hand. "Qingxi County, Yunzhou, departing tomorrow."

Shen Junyao looked down at his rejected memorial and pulled a wry smile from the corner of his mouth: "His Majesty said that I am still young and need to gain two more years of experience in the Hanlin Academy."

But they all knew that the real reason was not that. How could the emperor allow the only son of the Wuwei Marquis to go to a small county on the border?

In the most secluded private room of Zuixianlou, Shen Tang opened the last jar of Lihuabai tea.

"You two are crazy!" Her eyes were red. "Others are scrambling to get into the Imperial Academy, but you're all rushing to get into the poor mountain valleys!"

Lu Mingchuan raised his head and drank the wine in his cup. "Although Beijing officials are noble, they are ultimately trapped in a cage of splendor. Qingxi County may be remote, but it can actually do something. Repair water conservancy projects, establish schools, redress unjust cases..."

The candlelight reflected in his clear eyes, like stars falling into them.

Shen Junyao suddenly put down his wine cup and said, "I'll go with you."

"Stop making trouble. There's a lot of things to do at home! Is it appropriate for you to push them all onto me and my mother?" Shen Tang rolled his eyes at him.

Shen Junyao was choked by Shen Tang's words, and his drunkenness immediately dissipated.

He looked down at the wine swaying in the glass, and after a moment of silence, he muttered, "...I was impulsive."

Shen Tang breathed a sigh of relief when he saw him calm down. He reached out and rubbed his head. "You little brat, you dare to quit after a few drinks? You really have the heart to leave all this family chores to me and mother?"