Chapter 413: Cousin’s Thoughts

"Continue to search!" Chen Ao gritted his teeth and his eyes fell on the beam: "Get a ladder."

In the end, on the beam of the house, the wine utensil was found by Chen Ao. Liu Huimin's face was ashes, as lifeless as a pool of mud, and her eyes were full of despair.

When Liu Huimin was sent to the government, he first stole the treasure and then killed people. These two charges were enough to get the punishment he deserved.

At this time, An Yan also came, and Chen Ao smiled and said, "Mr. An is not injured?" In fact, he had already expected this point. There were eight people present at that time. In addition to the weird man and Miss Di, An Yan was actually suspected. The reason why she entrusted Chen Ao to come out to find the treasure was that An Yan did not want to make the matter worse, and did not want another person to know about the treasure, and the other was to avoid suspicion.

Therefore, he deliberately pretended to be injured in hopes that Chen Ao would help this for his sake.

An Yan smiled and said a little embarrassedly: "Young Master Chen is here, but I have heard of Mr. Chen's name for a long time. Mr. Chen is really disappointed."

As for Zhao Ji, he admired Wang Xizhi's ink treasures and was fascinated by it.

After Chen Ao and others said goodbye, An Yan personally sent them out. It was getting late. Chen Ao said goodbye to Zhao Ji. Zhao Ji looked at Chen Ao deeply and said, "I will remember what happened today. You can do it well."

Chen Ao returned to the Imperial College and felt a little guilty about Zeng Panerai's death. He originally wanted to deliberately put the charge on Zeng Panerai first, so that the real murderer could relax his vigilance and wait for the real murderer to surface. But no matter what, he never expected that Liu Huimin would dare to kill someone. He sighed in his heart and his mood fell to the bottom.

The final test was finally released. Chen Ao went to read the list. The first place was Cheng Hui. After all, Cheng Hui had read books for a lifetime and had written classics for half a lifetime. His level was imagined. Chen Ao believed that his classics were not bad, but compared to Cheng Hui, he was afraid that he was a little bit worse. The second place was Chen Ao himself. This grade was a bit beyond his expectations. He had only been studying classics for a year and was very satisfied to reach this level.

The third place is Wu Bi. Wu Bi accompanied Chen Ao to watch the list. Seeing that he ranked third, he exclaimed immediately, surprised and happy.

As for the fourth, it is Xu Wei. In fact, Xu Wei's level should be above Wu's pen. This is a well-known thing. Many students couldn't help but feel sorry for Xu Wei. In fact, only Chen Ao knew that the reason why Xu Wei lost his head was all because of his own reasons. This person was too competitive. When he saw that he handed in advance, he was already in a mess. The article he wrote was naturally greatly reduced.

In fact, this final exam is just a situation. What we really need to look at is the imperial examination. The imperial examination is no longer a competition between two central universities. Those talents who have passed the state examination gathered in a large number of people, and none of them are fuel-efficient. To stand out from it, every step is very difficult.

The summer is hot, and the major inns are full. Every day, there are a large number of candidates carrying bags or with scholars entering the city. As the imperial examination period approaches, the literary style of Bianjing City is gradually becoming prosperous. In addition, the most prosperous are major temples, those who are asking for signs, those who are blessing God and Buddha, and there are endless viewing and entertainment.

For this reason, Suiyashanfang specially launched a candidate package. As long as you go to any tea shop in Suiyashanfang to drink tea, you can get points. When you spend a certain amount, you will be given a copy of the scriptures. In this era, especially for some candidates from other places, it is hard to come by. Therefore, for several days, three or four tea shops were full day and night, making a fortune.

In addition, Suiya Weekly and Poetry Book also took the opportunity to launch special pages of the autumn examination. For example, in Suiya Weekly, some articles of classics or some discussions are printed on some sub-pages. Although the discussions are not valued in the imperial examination, they are also essential. On some last pages, there are also some exam skills, such as what you can bring and what you can’t bring when entering the examination room, and various suggestions are put forward, such as drinking as little water during the exam to avoid internal rush, etc.

This information is extremely precious to those candidates who participated in the imperial examination for the first time; for a moment, the circulation of Suiya Weekly increased significantly, and it actually doubled.

When the imperial court issued an order to select the examiner, the weekly magazine immediately seized the opportunity and hurriedly launched the examiner's special edition to reveal the preferences of the examiner and the examiner who reviewed the papers. It is important to know that the imperial examination is not just a simple exam. Whether your article is done well is determined by the examiner, and the article has no criteria for judging the article. If you can know the examiner's preferences, you can often achieve twice the result with half the effort. This special edition is the most popular. It is sold out in one day and the circulation soars to 40,000 copies. Although the printing workshop continues to expand, it also needs to be finalized several days before it is printed day and night for several days before it can barely deal with it.

The manipulator behind the various new sales strategies of Sui Yashanfang is naturally Shen Ao. Shen Ao did not forget the principle of making money while studying. For him, being an official is his biggest goal now, but if a person wants to be truly independent in personality and not be constrained by others in the process of becoming an official, he must be independent in economic terms.

Shen Ao's principle of being a human being is to gain his own interests without hurting others. If he was taught to be an official and he would not be able to do anything, but he was not a person who did not know how to adapt. For example, the last time he blackmailed the Liao envoy, he was blackmailed by the Liao people and had no burden. However, although he had his own principles, he would never learn from Tang Yan. Therefore, the business of Suiyashanfang was very important to him.

Nowadays, the business of Suiyashanfang has been expanding repeatedly. There are as many as five stores in a single branch, covering the prosperous neighbors in Bianjing City. In addition, there are two powerful tools for making money, poetry books and weekly magazines. The profit of a month has exceeded 3,000 guan. Shen Ao was determined to take this opportunity to extend the influence of poetry books and weekly magazines beyond Bianjing. This time, a large number of candidates entered Bianjing is an opportunity. After all, these scholars are the main consumers of poetry books and weekly magazines in the future.

Therefore, what we do now is to make a big fuss in poetry books and weekly magazines, so that candidates from other places can rely on them. In fact, once people develop habits, it will be difficult to change. For example, some people are used to drinking tea in the early morning, while some people like to go for a run in the early morning, while Shen Ao's idea is to let candidates from other places develop a habit in Bianjing. When they get up early in the morning, they first check out the latest issue of weekly magazines or poetry collections.

After such hype, Shen Ao earned a lot. While he was happy, he asked someone to inquire about Zeng Paner’s address and asked someone to send a thousand guan to him.

Summer goes and autumn comes, the rustling autumn wind blows, and the fallen leaves on the streets are full of leaves, which makes it a unique flavor. The imperial examination is getting closer and closer, and Shen Ao no longer reads books. In his opinion, it is useless to cram the Buddha temporarily, and knowledge depends on daily accumulation. Therefore, during the rest of the day, he went back to Zhou Mansion, and his wife called him first. Today, there was only the wife in the Buddhist temple. Shen Ao accompanied her to talk to her.

The lady suddenly said, "Does there be an affair between you and Ruoer?"

This sentence scared Chen Ao. He hesitated for a moment and said, "Why did your aunt say this?"

The lady sighed: "Since you got married, she has been restless all these days, often sitting in a daze, and has lost a lot of weight. I also came from my daughter's house. How could I not know what she was thinking? I just don't know what you were thinking?"

Speaking of this, if Chen Ao said flickeringly, he would be a little ungrateful. After thinking about it, he said seriously and sincerely: "I actually like my cousin."

The lady looked at Chen Ao deeply and said, "This really makes me embarrassed. In fact, I don't value it when I am a good family. I regard you as a relative, so I like you very much. If you are really good to Ruoer, I have nothing to say, but the Zhou family is a big family after all, and you have made three marriages in a row..."

Chen Ao pursed his lips and said, "I understand." He didn't know whether to fight for it or retreat for a moment, but he always felt that he shouldn't make his aunt embarrassed, but now he is not embarrassed. He is afraid that it will be more than the aunt in the future. He said to himself in his heart: "Chen Ao, if you are a man, just say everything in your heart. You can deceive others and yourself, but can you deceive yourself for a lifetime?"

He gritted his teeth and said, "Auntie, I would like to marry Ruoer as my wife, and ask my aunt to fulfill her."

The lady didn't expect Chen Ao to be so straightforward. She was stunned for a moment and murmured: "I betrothed to Ruoer... This... I still have to think about it, and discuss it with your uncle... This..." Although she had been mentally prepared, she was still confused after hearing Chen Ao's words.

At this moment, Zhou Heng came in wearing an imperial guard clothes and a Fan Yang hat. Obviously, what he said just now happened to be heard by Master Zhou. Master Zhou was also confused for a moment. He took off his Fan Yang hat and glanced at Chen Ao: "My cousin wants to be my brother-in-law? This..." He sat cross-legged on the cushion. He has become much darker in the past few days and has become a little thinner, but his spirit is much better than before. A small buckle of short beards were born under his jaw, which has added a bit of maturity, and said: "Cousin, do you really like your sister?"

In fact, it is common for cousins ​​to get married in this era. Family members do not have one. After all, Chen Ao's ability has proved his power and has gained recognition from the Zhou family. The biggest key is that Shen Ao made three marriages in a row. If Zhou Ruo married Chen Ao, wouldn't he have to be a concubine? Even if the Ming matchmaker married him and said that he was a fair wife, it was difficult for people to accept so many wives. In ancient times, it was popular with the wives and concubine system, rather than polygamy. Taking concubines was the most common thing for men, but they were all wives, but it was difficult for people to identify with them, especially for a wealthy family like the Zhou family.

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Chapter completed!