Chapter 30 - 26 Knock on the Door

Words : 1903 Updated : Sep 10th, 2025

Chapter 30 - 26 Knock on the Door"Why are you staring at me?" The girl, being a young maiden, blushed when she saw Xu Qing staring at her intently. "I am memorizing this essay in silence." Xu Qing blurted out a nonsense excuse. The girl suspiciously asked, "Really?" Xu Qing replied, "Would you like me to recite it for you?" "Good, let's test your memory then and see how much you can recall." Xu Qing smiled casually and then recited the essay before him without missing a single word. He had an inherently powerful Divine Soul and an exceptional memory, and just now, when he looked at the article, he had used the state of "Absolute Focus," making it easy for him to memorize on sight. The girl was stunned and turned toward Feng Xifeng, who was lying down sobering up, "Daddy, he's also got a photographic memory." A "ding" went off in Xu Qing's mind, "Also?" Feng Xifeng hurriedly flipped to the second essay, about a thousand characters long, and said, "Recite another one." Naturally, Xu Qing was not willing to show weakness. He was full of energy, and reading one essay didn't take long. Entering the "Absolute Focus" state to digest the essay, it wouldn't consume too much energy. He read it once and recited the second essay. Not only did he not miss a single word, but his intonation was also clear and fluent. The tedious eight-legged essay was read with an underlying elegance and charm. Feng Xifeng was shocked. This lad didn't just memorize the essay, but he also seemed to have some understanding of it. And he only read it once. If these weren't Feng Xifeng's private collection, one might suspect Xu Qing had studied them in advance. Feng Xifeng sighed toward the girl, "Qing'er, this boy's talent is higher than yours." The girl suggested, "Daddy, why not take him as your disciple?" Feng Xifeng glanced at Xu Qing and sighed slightly, "This year's provincial examination I must pass, and I have to attend the examination in the spring of next year. I'm afraid I won't have time to teach you anything." He looked at the girl again and said, "Anyway, your mastery of eight-legged essay writing is good enough to make it as a Scholar, you're capable of teaching him." Xu Qing thought to himself, "Mr. Feng, you haven't even become a Scholar, how can you act as if it's a sure thing." Feng Xifeng seemed to guess what Xu Qing was thinking and said, "The reason I didn't pass the provincial exam in previous years was because my essays had rather extreme viewpoints, and the examiners were all conservative and unwilling to pass my papers." Xu Qing asked, "So does Mr. Feng plan to change his writing style?" Feng Xifeng snorted, "You little rascal are quite cunning, no need to probe. This time the provincial exam's main examiner is from the Reform Faction, he will definitely pass my paper." Xu Qing thought, "It seems Mr. Feng has been in contact with Magistrate He and the new Academic Supervisor; otherwise, how would he know so much about court affairs?" The first priority of Reform is to consolidate power, and consolidating power certainly requires recruiting people. Provincial and imperial examinations are precisely the platforms for talent recruitment. Because fresh officials are easy to use and aren't afraid of making mistakes. Old bureaucrats are slippery and good at fighting for power internally, but not at getting things done. Moreover, behind every new Scholar and advanced Scholar, there often stand scholars, local gentry, wealthy merchants. To win them over is essentially to win over the power behind them. The girl laughed by the side, "Daddy, it's best that you don't teach. I actually hope you won't pass this time. In three years, he'll be taking the same provincial exam as you. Then we'll see whose name is higher up." Feng Xifeng's face twitched, and he continued to lie down and sleep. Yet, he was somewhat uneasy; if he were to mess up this provincial examination, wouldn't he have to compete in the same arena with Xu Qing next time? How embarrassing that would be. The girl, seeing Xu Qing's exceptional talent, couldn't help nurturing a feeling similar to a craftsman discovering raw jade eager to sculpt it. As she recited, she pointed out the difficulties and hints to Xu Qing, guiding him to solve them. The essay questions got harder toward the end. Xu Qing activated his "Absolute Focus" state; even with the girl's guidance, solving these problems exhausted a great deal of his energy. After studying roughly one-third, Xu Qing was already sweating all over, but the gains were significant and indescribable. He had previously needed two months to be able to write the essay for the county examination after targeted training. Now, he felt that, barring unusually tricky topics, he could write a decent eight-legged essay anytime, and if luck and his condition were good, it wouldn't be impossible to write a piece almost as good as the one he had on that day, when he ranked first. Surpassing that, however, would indeed be difficult. Because for that essay, he had copied some content from Wang Yangming's Imperial Examination essay. In the world of essays, there's much copying. It was mainly because that topic was so suitable for copying, he couldn't help himself in order to be cautious. He didn't know that his essay had nearly shattered County Magistrate Wu's Dao spirit. As for Yan Shan, his Dao spirit was already shattered. Otherwise, he wouldn't have come to seek Feng Xifeng's last-minute guidance for restoring some confidence in the Magistrate's examination. Searᴄh the Novёlƒire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. It turned out Yan Shan came first, but... Seeing Xu Qing's weary condition, the girl softly said, "Can you continue? If not, come back tomorrow?" Xu Qing really wanted to say, "I can still go on." His body was honest; as the words reached his lips, he said, "It's getting dark. Let's continue tomorrow." Feng Xifeng appeared beside Xu Qing, his eyes seemingly indicating as if to say, 'You know your limits, kid,' and then said, "Remember to bring some wine and meat with you tomorrow." Xu Qing bowed with his hands and said, "The young one will certainly not forget the teacher's gift for the teacher." The girl gave Xu Qing a blank look: "I am your teacher, remember to bring me a gift tomorrow." As she said this, she whispered: "Remember to bring some rouge and face powder, we're poor at home and all the money has been taken by dad to buy alcohol and meat." Feng Xifeng's face darkened, but he couldn't get angry because it was the truth. Then he glared at Xu Qing, "Get going, there's no meal for you here." So Xu Qing bowed to Feng Xifeng and the girl, ready to leave. The girl, however, giggled, "Let me walk you to the door." Feng Xifeng didn't say anything to that. It seemed he didn't really care about his daughter's reputation. Perhaps, his nature was to have a kind of impulsive disdain and trampling on traditional propriety. Anyway, Xu Qing felt that Feng Xifeng and his daughter had some kind of strange secret about them. He didn't ask. Who doesn't have secrets? He should be grateful that they were willing to teach him; it was better not to ask too much about other matters. However, when reaching the door, Xu Qing remembered something and couldn't help but to be nosy, otherwise he wouldn't be able to sleep, restless to strategize against others, "Miss Feng, why would Magistrate He and Mister Feng, who come from the same school, give shelter to Zhao Xiong?" The girl said, "My nickname is Qing'er, with a single character 'Awu' for my name. You can call me by my full name Awu, Miss Feng sounds so distant." Indeed, a woman's thought process is different, after all that, she hadn't addressed the main point Xu Qing wanted to know, and he didn't feel right to press her. Instead, it was Mr. Feng who urged, "Aren't you going to open the door for him and let him leave?" The girl said with a smile: "I got it." Then she whispered to Xu Qing: "Those two don't get along." Xu Qing: "..." Could this also be a trap? "But Uncle He and I have a good relationship; he's the one who chose my name," the girl said with playful smile, actually pushing Xu Qing out the door, and with a click, the door closed. "This girl actually has quite some strength," Xu Qing thought to himself in surprise, realizing that there was indeed complexity in the past of the father and daughter of the Feng family. Plus, he never saw the girl's mother from beginning to end. After he went out, he saw Yan Shan, and it turned out that Master Qian had already left. "Brother Xu, why have you only come out now?" Xu Qing seemed to hear something shatter in Yan Shan's tone and comforted him, "Mr. Feng refused to teach me." Yan Shan breathed a sigh of relief, "Mr. Feng is indeed moody." He couldn't help but ask again: "Brother Xu, what were you doing with Mr. Feng inside for so long?" Xu Qing laughed it off: "It's some personal affairs, not good to tell Brother Yan." Yan Shan couldn't keep questioning, so he invited Xu Qing to his home for a meal. Xu Qing politely declined. He had enemies in Qingshui County, and it wasn't wise to return too late, to avoid being attacked. He then bid farewell to Yan Shan and hurriedly returned to Li Mansion. Zhou Family had saved him some dinner, after which Xu Qing chatted with his uncle and aunt about the day's events, then went back to rest. Before going to sleep, Xu Qing silently recited what he had learned during the day. To learn and to frequently apply what you've learned – isn't that a joy? Unconsciously, Xu Qing drifted off to sleep. ... ... Thud, thud, thud! In the middle of the night, Xu Qing was awakened by a strange noise. It didn't sound like the night watchman's strike. It was like something knocking on the door. But when Xu Qing opened the window and looked out into the courtyard, it was dead silent. He went back to bed to continue sleeping, but soon he was startled awake again by the "thud, thud, thud" sound. Again, there was no sign of anything outside. "It's not possible that I'm having auditory hallucinations," Xu Qing thought, and simply stayed awake all night with his eyes propped open, but he did not hear the "thud, thud, thud" sound again. He suspected that the ominous entity rumored to be in the mansion had finally appeared. Where on earth could it be?

Chapter 30 - 26 Knock on the Door

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