Chapter 0002Temporary Residence

However, Yu Qing didn't think Ashheng could agree to postpone.

He had seen Ajizhang's stick education to his son. He had forced his son to aspire to an official career since he was a child, hoping that his son could return to the court to turn things around, complete his unfinished aspirations, and pray for the people of the world.

To put it bluntly, when he was in charge of the Ministry of Yu, he saw with his own eyes what it meant to waste people and money. He did not want the emperor to waste energy on the illusion of immortality. He hoped that the emperor could concentrate on government affairs and pity the poor people of Jin State who were miserable.

Ajiezhang suffered a bad end because of this decline, but he still let his son continue even though he knew he couldn't do anything. Yu Qing couldn't understand this, but he knew that Ashiheng's ambition had taken shape, and what he had to do was a rough thing. Will change easily.

Ashheng just said calmly, with little reaction on the surface, and asked: "There are three applicants in this county, are the other two postponed?"

He is the only one in this county who has passed the provincial examination this year. The other two are the ones who went to Beijing to take the examination and failed in the previous examination. They are not willing to give up and take the examination again and again.

Mr. Pu seemed to understand what he meant, and immediately tried to persuade him: "Master, there is no comparison. In order to avoid panic, the government deliberately blocked the news, and the other two people did not know about it. Besides, how can they control the safety of the master? Than?"

"You misunderstood me." Ashheng turned around and walked away, looking thoughtful. He walked up a slope and looked at the mountain scenery with his hands behind his hands. "My father was dismissed from Beijing and encountered a group of mysterious killers on the way. My mother, My brother, sister, and a group of servants and followers were all killed. Fortunately, my father tried his best to block the knife for me, so I saved my life. Mr. Pu, who is the killer?"

Speaking of this, hatred flashed across Mr. Pu's face, "Nine times out of ten, he has something to do with that foolish king!"

Ashheng's eyes were deep, "Of course it has something to do with the emperor, but it wasn't the emperor who did it. The emperor has already taken action. Since he has already shouldered the notoriety, there is no need to be sneaky anymore. Judging from the time of leaving Beijing and the location of the attack, the killers have The servants and followers are chasing after him, obviously trying to cover up the interception, so it is not a personal vendetta, the mastermind behind the scenes should be someone in the court."

Both Yu Qing and Mr. Pu were thoughtful, and the latter murmured: "Who could it be?"

"I also want to know who it is. I was only four years old at the time, and I was ignorant. Some of the information came from my father's dictation later. My knowledge is limited. I don't even know who my father had contacts or grievances with back then, and I have no idea. Determine who is behind the scenes." Ashheng turned around, and the conversation returned to before, "Mr. Pu, in each session, do more candidates take the exam, or are there more delays due to accidents?"

Mr. Pu hesitated and said: "Of course you have to take the exam. For most people, it is not easy to study hard in a cold window. As long as you pass the exam, even if you know that you will be sad in the exam, as long as you have the conditions, you can't help but think about it. They run to try their luck. As long as they are on the list of candidates, there are very few people who don't refer to it. Is the young master just caring about face?"

"Tsk!" Yu Qing on the side suddenly sneered, and said with a strange tone: "I made it clear, it's too conspicuous!"

Ashheng gave him a wink, obviously blaming him for talking too much.

Yu Qing received it, snorted softly, curled up his lips and shut up. Ashheng then explained: "Mr. Pu, there are tens of thousands of people who go to Beijing to take the exam every time. No one will take all the candidates' exams." I have to read all the names, not to mention that fifteen years have passed since the interception.

Among all the candidates, no one would notice the name "Ashiheng". Even if my father's name was put on it, it would not attract anyone's attention.

If my name appears on the sparse list of people who took the wrong exam, it will be easily seen and attract the attention of interested people. Then my situation will probably be more dangerous than encountering a monster. No one knows what the situation behind the scenes is now, so there is no harm in preparing for the worst. "

Hearing this, Mr. Pu finally understood and smiled bitterly, "Your reason makes me speechless. It's just that I still don't understand. Why do you insist on taking the exam with your real name when you know it will bring danger?"

Ashheng avoided answering and said with a smile: "Don't worry, the Sinan Mansion also wants to save face. If a group of monsters are allowed to disturb the imperial court's important matter of recruiting talents, where will the prestige of the Sinan Mansion be? You won't be able to show off your face. This matter will not last long, at least for Sinan. The government will definitely intervene in the escort of candidates, and everything will be fine."

Knowing that the matter was irreversible and what he said seemed to make sense, Mr. Pu finally sighed melancholy, "Young Master is a man of his own opinion. He was afraid that he would not listen to advice and that he would not be able to stop him, so I even brought the carriage." Looking back, Look at the carriage.

After that, Ashheng and Yu Qing naturally got on the carriage and understood the purpose of the carriage, which was to pick up people.

Afraid that Ashheng's appearance as a scholar taking the exam would be too obvious and that he would be targeted by monsters, the carriage was covered with curtains.

Mr. Pu lowered the brim of his hat, waved his whip and drove the carriage onto the official road, heading towards the county seat.

In the swaying carriage, Yu Qing leaned close to Ashheng's ear and asked, "Who is this person?"

Ashheng was silent for a while, but finally told him, "The person in charge of the ceremonial room of the county government."

The head of the ceremonial room? Yu Qing thought about it for a moment and immediately became happy. He knew that even the county official in charge of scientific examinations was this person. He really doubted whether Ashheng had cheated when he passed the county examination before.

He also realized that this was obviously not the person arranged by Ash Heng, but the former Yubu doctor who had paved the way for his son in advance.

Yu Qing secretly wondered what arrangements the former Yubu doctor had secretly made in order to send his son into an official career.

With the carriage, we arrived at the county seat in less than half an afternoon.

The carriage did not go to the lively center of the city, but turned to a remote area and stopped at the door of an inconspicuous small house. No one seemed to live in the nearby houses, and the surrounding area was a bit deserted.

The two passengers got off the carriage and quickly entered the yard without lingering outside.

The place to stay was prepared in advance by Pu Dianli, just for Ashheng's safety, and to avoid letting people know that Ashheng was coming, for fear of accidents.

Pu Dianli couldn't stay here forever. He just happened to be organizing the candidates to go to Beijing. This was a major event at the moment. He was originally in charge of this in the county. Going to pick up Ashheng was enough to squeeze out time. After explaining, he left.

There is a place to stay, and the daily necessities are complete in the house. The food and drink officials will arrange for unsuspecting people to deliver them to the door. Ashheng does not need to show up, and Yu Qing can show up to receive them.

Half the afternoon passed casually.

After dinner, night falls.

After bathing, Ashheng was clean and refreshed. He sat quietly alone on the steps at the entrance of the main hall, silently looking up at the stars.

While I was thinking about various things, I suddenly smelled a very faint fragrance, if it was there or not, it was almost inaudible. I didn't know what the fragrance was.

Ashi Heng looked around and saw that there was fire and some movement coming from the kitchen. He didn't need to think too much to guess what Yu Qing was doing.

Then he got up and walked away. As soon as he entered the kitchen, he immediately saw Yu Qing lighting a fire in front of the stove. There was a gurgling sound in the pot. He didn't know what was cooking. He asked out of curiosity, "What are you doing?"

Yu Qing said perfunctorily: "Get some food."

casual? Ashheng didn't believe it. He had just had dinner and there must be something wrong with the pot. He went directly to the pot and took off the lid.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Yu Qing stood up in front of the stove and shouted, but didn't stop.

The lid of the pot had been removed, the mist was rising, and Ashheng could smell the source of the aroma. Strangely, the aroma was not strong, it was still a subtle, restrained aroma. Blow away the mist and take a closer look at the contents in the pot. They look like rice grains, half larger than normal rice grains, slightly crystal clear, with lingering purple light in the middle of the grains. They are very flexible rice grains.

Yu Qing came over and snatched the pot lid, bang, put it back, "Don't get in the way, go back and read your book."

Ash Heng showed a rare sense of surprise, "Could this be the so-called 'spiritual rice', something that only costs ten taels of silver to buy one tael?"

Yu Qing crossed his arms and said, "Yes, is it an eye-opener?"

After receiving the confirmation, Ashheng reached out and opened the lid of the pot again, and took a closer look, really looking like he wanted to broaden his horizons.

He had lived in seclusion in a mountain village before and had not seen much. He had only heard people talk about this thing and seen pictures in books. This was the first time he had seen the real thing.

It is said that this rice originally grew in the Cave Heaven Blessed Land of the Xianjia. Later, someone mistakenly entered the Xianjia legacy, collected the seeds and brought them out. After repeated attempts, they were planted.

The effect of eating this rice is truly extraordinary. A single bite of this rice is enough for an ordinary person to make a full meal. If you eat a full meal of spiritual rice, your body will not feel any discomfort even if you don't eat it for a month.

For ordinary people, this thing is just a food to satisfy hunger, but for martial arts practitioners, they can fully feel and utilize its effectiveness, because it contains a large amount of spiritual energy that can be directly taken into the body, which can get twice the result with half the effort. .

However, the food is really expensive and ordinary people cannot afford it. Even many practitioners cannot afford it if they want to have a full meal.

It is said that things were more expensive when they were first grown. Later, more and more people grew them, and it became a large-scale business. Once the quantities were measured, the prices came down.

This spiritual object cannot be grown by just anyone. It needs to collect the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to plant it. Due to the demand, a profession, spiritual planter, was naturally derived.

After putting the lid on the pot, Ash Heng clicked his tongue and said, "You can cook and eat this thing casually. How dare you call yourself poor?"

Yu Qing pointed at the lid of the pot, blew his beard and glared: "It's only three or two meters, which is not enough for a full meal. It was left behind by my master after he passed away. I have never been willing to eat it. I brought it with me just in case. , this is not what you told the pianist that people from the Sinan Mansion might step in to escort me. If someone discovers my identity through a search or something, it's really hard to explain my identity. I've cooked it now to avoid any complications."

When he saw it, there really wasn't much spiritual rice. Ash Heng smiled and said nothing more. He turned around and left, but he dropped one sentence, "I haven't tasted the spiritual rice yet. When it's cooked, I'll shout." Say it to me."

Yu Qing waved his sleeves to see the guests off, as if he was too lazy to pay attention to you, and sat back in front of the stove to continue filling in wood and lighting the fire.

Just when the sound of boiling in the pot gradually disappeared, and the three ounces of rice were almost cooked, Yu Qing, who was sitting in front of the stove in boredom, leaning against the wall behind him with his head in his arms, suddenly squinted his eyes as if being pricked by needles, and stared at the stove. The water vapor rising from the platform.