Chapter 179 Mission 016

Now Xiao Ying really wanted to say to the chattering Wang Family Master: zz!

However, this was his father-in-law...

In order to divert the attention of Wang Family Master, Xiao Ying's eyes fell on Wang Yaozu, the only son of Wang Family Master who was with him: "Yaozu is now a teenager, how is his schooling? When do you plan to take the exam?"

This time it was Wang Family Master's turn to be embarrassed. Although he was thick-skinned, he was not completely self-aware. Although his son was named Yaozu, he was actually a piece of mud that could not be helped. Not to mention glorifying the ancestors, he would thank God and his ancestors for blessing this prodigal son to leave some family business to his grandchildren in the future. He was only a teenager, not much younger than Shao Qingyun, and he hadn't even memorized the Three Character Classic and Thousand Character Classic. How could he have any schooling situation? Xiao Ying's question really embarrassed him.

The head of the Wang family was very proud and said vaguely: "This kid doesn't have much talent for studying. I plan to let him do business like me in the future."

Almost everyone present knew what kind of character Wang Yaozu was, so they all laughed in their hearts when they heard what the head of the Wang family said.

Xiao Ying took the opportunity to get rid of the entanglement of the Wang family father and son. The head of the Wang family seemed to be afraid that he would be embarrassed if he asked about his son's study again, so he stopped catching up to build a relationship.

After the banquet, the rest of the people left, only the Wang family stayed. It was normal for the Wang family and the Shao family to stay, but Xiao Ying was not very willing to stay with the Wang family father and son. His father-in-law was too thick-skinned. It was probably because he was worried that he would hold a grudge against the original owner Shao Qingyun because he didn't treat him very well before. Now he is thinking of all kinds of ways to make up for it, which makes him very annoyed. Wang Yaozu, the brother-in-law, is also arrogant and naughty, and is almost hopeless.

But fortunately, although the father and son of the Wang family have many shortcomings, they also have advantages. Although the head of the Wang family is not very capable, he knows the importance of things and is relatively timid. When he becomes prosperous in the future, the head of the Wang family will not dare to abuse his power in his name. And Wang Yaozu also inherited his father's timidity. He was spoiled by his parents. In fact, when Xiao Yan didn't buy his account and was a little cold, he didn't dare to say anything.

It has to be said that it is a good thing to have such a useless Yue family. At least Xiao Yan doesn't have to worry about being dragged down when he works hard to be an official in the future.

So Xiao Yan's attitude towards the Wang family is still good, and he is smiling from beginning to end. He only met his mother-in-law and the sisters-in-law at parting. After all, there is a difference between men and women, so when he sent the Wang family away, he asked Wang Nianyun about the attitudes of the women in the Wang family. Although men are the masters of the family in this era, women are also a factor that cannot be ignored.

Wang Nianyun knew that she had to rely on her husband to have the glory she has today, so she did not hide anything Xiao Ying asked.

"My mother gave me some banknotes privately, saying that it was to make up for the dowry. My sisters also gave me a lot of gifts, all of which were very valuable..."

Xiao Ying listened silently and said thoughtfully: "You can keep the money your mother gave you, but if your married sisters give you more expensive gifts, you should immediately return a penny of equal value, and you can't just accept it casually."

Wang Nianyun asked in surprise: "What's wrong? Is there anything wrong with me accepting these gifts?"

Xiao Ying smiled and said: "It's nothing, just to prevent it. The gifts given by your married sisters are linked to their husband's family. If I become an official in the future, they want me to help their husband's family make a profit with these expensive gifts. Wouldn't it be difficult for me to refuse?" This is a serious statement, but it is not serious in fact. It is just to make Wang Nianyun realize the seriousness of the matter and prevent it from happening.

When Wang Nianyun heard this, she quickly assured him, "Don't worry, my husband. I will be careful to keep my distance in the future."

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The aftermath of the provincial examination has not yet ended, and many people still want to visit Xiao Ying, a popular candidate.

There are many people and many things that are difficult to refuse. In the end, Xiao Ying could only hide in the study room and not see anyone under the pretext of "preparing for the imperial examination", which made him feel much more peaceful.

Fortunately, Qingyang County is a small place, and Xiao Ying is not worried that his refusal will offend someone he can't afford to offend.

The imperial examination will be in March next year, and there is still a long time to prepare. Xiao Ying is thinking about how to become famous and how to become a disciple while studying.

When he went to the provincial examination in the prefecture before, he asked about the famous Confucian scholars of this dynasty, but he could only get in touch with too few, and many of the powerful people were not for him, a poor boy, to become a disciple. There were only a few great scholars who only considered the qualifications and personalities of their students, not their family backgrounds. After excluding those who were too old to accept students, Xiao Ying finally had two candidates.

One was the Minister of Rites, Mr. Gu. Mr. Gu was not young anymore. He used to be a senior official who was highly valued by the emperor. Later, he realized that he was old and had no energy, so he asked to retire in the Ministry of Rites. He originally wanted a sinecure, but he was trusted and valued by the emperor. Although he went to the Ministry of Rites, he became a minister. Mr. Gu had only one student, who was also from a small family. Later, he married his daughter and is now a senior official of the third rank.

The other candidate was Shanhai Jushi, who had resigned and was at home. Shanhai Jushi's surname was Li. He was once the president of the Hanlin Academy. His rank was not high, only the fourth rank. According to the modern official rank, he was just the dean of the department. But Mr. Li was famous! Not only was he famous for his talent, but his character was also of high integrity, which had been praised by the emperor many times. He also published many books and was a very famous scholar in this dynasty.

And Mr. Li is also very good at dealing with people. He is talented and famous, but he doesn't stand in the way of others. As the president of the Hanlin Academy, he also made many friends. You should know that those who are in the top three after the palace examination and the Jinshi who pass the imperial examination will stay in the Hanlin Academy. Basically, all the high-ranking civil servants in the entire court come from the Hanlin Academy. You can imagine how many connections Mr. Li can make when he is in the Hanlin Academy.

Xiao Yan regards Lord Gu and Mr. Li as his apprenticeship targets because of their connections and political resources. The former is powerful and has a considerable family influence, and does not discriminate against children from small families; although the latter has no family influence, he has talent and connections, which also meets Xiao Yan's requirements.

The question now is how can he get in touch with these two people?

Lord Gu's ancestral home is also in Luoyang Prefecture. Perhaps he will have a chance to meet him when he returns to his hometown to worship his ancestors during the Spring Festival this year, but Xiao Yan is not sure that Lord Gu will return home this year. Mr. Li likes to travel around the mountains and rivers. He heard that Mr. Li seemed to be coming to Luoyang Mansion recently, but he didn't know whether the news was true or not.

After thinking about it, Xiao Ying finally sighed. It was really not easy for him to contact these big figures with his current identity. It seemed that extraordinary means had to be used in extraordinary times.

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Taking advantage of the fact that no one was around, Xiao Ying took out many top-grade spirit stones from his storage space and set up a spirit array in the study. This spirit array has no other function, but it can find a person's trace based on his blood, hair and other things.

And what Xiao Ying put into the spirit array was the blood of the male protagonist Jiang Li - a lot of it was saved when he rescued people.

It was indeed useful to have a good relationship with the male protagonist Jiang Li at that time. For example, now, Xiao Ying felt that it was difficult for him to approach those great scholars with his identity, but if the male protagonist Jiang Li introduced him, his chances of becoming a disciple of the great scholar would be much higher.

The formation was silent, but Xiao Ying's consciousness had already found Jiang Li's figure under the guidance of the formation.

When Xiao Ying's consciousness fell on Jiang Li, he was stunned. What does it mean to find something without any effort? He is like this now!

Originally, he wanted to find Jiang Li's trace and find a way to contact him, and then find a way to ask him to help him become a disciple of the great scholar. As a result, as soon as he found him, he found that Jiang Li was actually with one of his targets, Mr. Li!

Xiao Ying's consciousness has been attached to Jiang Li under the effect of the spirit formation. When the two meet, this wisp of consciousness will automatically dissipate. During this period, Jiang Li's every move and behavior cannot escape his detection.

So he easily found that Jiang Li actually took a boat to Qingyang County with Mr. Shanhai.

With doubts in his heart, Xiao Ying has been paying attention to Jiang Li's movements these days, and later he figured out the situation from the conversation between the two.

It turned out that Mr. Li was a bohemian, and had a good relationship with Jiang Li. Moreover, Mr. Li liked chess the most among all the four arts, but he was good at all of them, and his literary talent was outstanding, but he had no idea about chess, and was a bad chess player.

As a bad chess player, Mr. Li loved playing chess with others, but no one could stand his chess skills that made him regret every step. In the end, only Jiang Li was willing to play with him a few times, and the relationship between the two became almost a friendship regardless of age.

When Jiang Li said goodbye to Xiao Ying and returned to the capital, he met Mr. Li and played chess. While complaining about his chess skills, he talked about a young scholar who was a chess master in Qingyang County, and he was very impressed.

This aroused Mr. Li's curiosity. It happened that he was going to travel for a while, so he simply took Jiang Li, who had been given a holiday recently, to Qingyang County, Luoyang Prefecture, to see the young scholar who was a national master in chess skills.

Then, when Xiao Ying was investigating Jiang Li's whereabouts, she happened to find Mr. Li nearby, which was a pleasant surprise...