A Records Of An Alpha’s Life In Ancient Times - Chapter 13

Even if she was acting, saying those words out loud was truly a little shameful. Shen Qingshu shuddered twice, goosebumps nearly rising all over her body.

This reason was also a little beyond Lin Weizhi’s expectations. She froze faintly for a moment, then looked at Shen Qingshu with perfect composure. “Young Master Shen, after telling so many lies, do you think I’ll still believe you?”

No way. Had this turned into the boy who cried wolf?

“I really didn’t lie to you this time. You have to understand, this sort of secret isn’t something I want other people to know.” Shen Qingshu guiltily thought that her situation should be more or less the same as being congenitally impotent.

Most people who were congenitally impotent were gloomy and self-abased. Shen Qingshu did not resemble that in the slightest, so Lin Weizhi did not believe her at all. But aloud, she said, “It doesn’t matter. I don’t care.”

“Do you not understand what congenital impotence means?” Shen Qingshu was shocked and hurriedly explained, “It means you won’t have children of your own in the future.”

“Childbirth is so dangerous. It just so happens that I don’t want to have children.” Lin Weizhi gave a charming smile and deliberately acted shy. “I’m still little myself!”

Shen Qingshu: “…”

Are you also a transmigrator?

How are you this capable?

“I’m really not joking with you,” Shen Qingshu emphasized helplessly.

“Is that so?” Lin Weizhi leaned her upper body slightly forward and moved a little closer to look at her face. “I already told you your acting isn’t good. When you said you were congenitally impotent, your face didn’t even turn red.”

“…” She wanted to blush too, but her body simply had no reaction.

There was no way around it. Shen Qingshu asked directly, “Why have you decided on me? I’m definitely going to break off the engagement. What exactly will it take for you to agree?”

“I’m not stopping you.” Lin Weizhi glanced at her strangely. “If you want to break off the engagement, just go directly to the Lin residence and do it.”

“My grandmother won’t agree.”

“My father won’t agree either.”

“You can persuade your father.”

“Then you can also persuade your grandmother.”

I can’t persuade my grandmother. The words reached Shen Qingshu’s lips, but she did not say them. She had already guessed what Miss Lin’s next sentence would be.

This Miss Lin was probably the reincarnation of a contrarian machine, determined to argue with her to the end.

Shen Qingshu viciously threatened Lin Weizhi, “You’re offending me like this now. Aren’t you really worried about what your days will be like after marrying over?”

Lin Weizhi returned the favor. “My father is currently a full fourth-rank official. If you dare treat me like that, aren’t you really worried about your future official career?”

Damn it. This era of competing fathers!

All right. She lost. She could not outfight this Miss Lin.

Since the conversation had already reached this point, Shen Qingshu slumped back against the chair, giving up like a broken jar smashed to pieces. “I’m doing this for your own good. Anyway, I’ve warned you again and again. If you regret it in the future, don’t blame me.”

Lin Weizhi raised a brow. “I won’t regret it.”

Shen Qingshu felt stifled and did not want to stay any longer. She stood up and shouted, “Bill!”

The waiter came in and bowed to Shen Qingshu with a smiling face. “That will be thirty-two wen, honored guest.”

But Shen Qingshu ignored him and only glared at Lin Weizhi. The two stared at each other, big eyes against small eyes, for a long while. The waiter was utterly confused and could only repeat himself.

Shen Qingshu lifted her chin and gestured toward Lin Weizhi to the waiter. “She’s paying.”

She was just that petty and vengeful.

The waiter was both surprised and disdainful, but he respectfully walked to Lin Weizhi’s side and professionally revealed no expression at all. Even so, Shen Qingshu still felt her face burn a little.

Without another word, Lin Weizhi took out her purse and paid. She smiled helplessly at Shen Qingshu. “Young Master Shen, why are you still acting?”

“Childish!”

“…” Shen Qingshu was so angry smoke was about to come out of her head.

To think she had actually been crushed by a little brat. She was extremely melancholy. After leaving the teahouse, she had no interest in continuing to stroll around, so the two went straight back. Neither spoke the entire way.

When the carriage arrived at the official residence, Shen Qingshu barely managed to say goodbye, then immediately left.

She truly should have been grateful that if she had been two steps slower, she would have run into Lin Weizhi’s full-blooded elder brother—Lin Xiuping.

Lin Xiuping returned on horseback and happened to see Lin Weizhi getting down from the carriage. Noticing the expression on his younger sister’s face, he casually asked with a smile, “Why are you so happy today? Where did you go to play?”

Was she happy? Lin Weizhi gathered back the smile she could not suppress and stepped forward to hold her brother’s arm, acting spoiled. “Brother, you haven’t come back for so long.”

He was nineteen this year and already a xiucai. Because Lord Lin had no time to teach him, he studied at the Suzhou prefectural school and worked extremely hard, only occasionally returning on days off.

“How has it been that long? I came back once just half a month ago.” Lin Xiuping smiled and rubbed her head, but he did not forget the topic just now. He turned and asked her maid, Sheng Han, “Where did Miss go today?”

Sheng Han secretly laughed. “Replying to Young Master, it was still the usual Fangcao Street area. Only today, she went together with the future son-in-law.”

“Future son-in-law?” Lin Xiuping frowned in confusion. “That boy from the Shen family? Why did he come to Suzhou?”

Lin Weizhi linked her arm through his and walked inside, explaining as they went, “I heard Father say he returned to his ancestral home to take the academy exam.”

“What is he like? It seems you have quite a good impression of him.” Lin Xiuping did not dig deeper and looked at Lin Weizhi fondly.

“How should I put it?” Lin Weizhi could not help laughing. “She’s a paper tiger putting on an impressive front. She bares her fangs and brandishes her claws, but she won’t actually hurt you. In any case, she’s rather interesting.”

“Is that so? Then I’ll have to meet him next time I get the chance.”

Unfortunately, Shen Qingshu had already decided to leave. The two of them were destined to miss meeting by the slimmest margin.

After Shen Qingshu returned to the inn, the more she thought about it, the more stifled she felt. What had she even come here for?

Clearly, she could get along pleasantly with everyone else, but whenever she met this Miss Lin, it was as if their eight characters were incompatible.

It was already July. Since staying here would not allow her to persuade Miss Lin, she might as well return to Chuzhou and focus on preparing for the academy exam.

The next day, Shen Qingshu went to Lord Lin’s residence to bid him farewell. She did not see Miss Lin again and directly set off back to Chuzhou.

When Lin Weizhi learned of it that evening, she felt very regretful. She had lost a source of amusement.

Although Shen Qingshu had been somewhat distracted this month, she had not fallen behind much in her studies. Lord Lin had not given her much guidance on her essays, but what little he did say gave her a refreshing sense of enlightenment.

The days of hard study passed quickly, and soon, it was the day of the academy exam.

The academy exam was the final hurdle to becoming a xiucai. It gathered tongsheng from across the entire province, both from previous years and the current year, and every aspect of the examination was stricter.

Not only were the searches extremely meticulous, but another stipend student had to be added as guarantor. Fortunately, Shen Qingshu had the power of money.

This time, after entering the examination site, she had to spend the night inside. She would only be released after the exam ended on the third day. This was convenient for Shen Qingshu, since she only needed to use her mental power to cover one search.

On the way to the examination cell, Shen Qingshu saw several large water vats filled with clear water, and her heart grew uneasy for a moment. In her previous life, she had heard that if a fire broke out in the examination site but the exam had not yet ended, then even if the candidates were burned alive inside, the gates of the examination site would not be opened.

She did not know whether the current dynasty was that perverse. She had forgotten to ask about it before. Surely she would not be that unlucky.

Even taking an exam required risking one’s life. Truly, the greater the risk, the greater the reward.

Once the exam paper was issued, she filled in the names of three generations of her ancestors as usual. Every time this happened, Shen Qingshu felt deeply emotional. The cost of crime for ancient people was truly high.

This was not even one person going to prison and the whole family suffering. If one broke the law, even descendants who had not yet been born would be implicated. But in ancient times, when the rate of solved cases was very low, there was no helping it.

Taking advantage of the cool morning, when her mind was clear and refreshed and her thoughts sharp, Shen Qingshu decided to write the essay first.

This exam topic was very simple. It was the first line of The Great Learning: “The Way of great learning lies in manifesting bright virtue, in loving the people, and in stopping at the utmost good.”

But precisely because it was simple, it was a topic everyone often wrote about. To write something fresh and stand out was a little difficult.

Shen Qingshu ground the ink while thinking carefully. Only after drafting it fully in her mind did she put brush to draft paper, writing it in one breath.

“The word ‘great’ is named according to the substance itself, and takes constancy and universality as its meaning…”

After finishing it, she carefully polished and refined it. She checked it repeatedly and confirmed there were no mistakes before copying it onto the exam paper.

The sun gradually rose, and Shen Qingshu hurried to work on the other questions.

It was the intense heat of August. By noon, the tiny, airless examination cell was like a steamer, and Shen Qingshu felt as if she were the suckling pig about to be steamed through.

She put down her brush and casually wiped her forehead with a cloth towel. She saw scattered wet spots appear on it. Before long, the whole cloth towel had become somewhat damp.

This time, the examination cells were arranged in two rows facing each other. Shen Qingshu could see the student sitting opposite her. That brother had long since been so hot that he had taken off his upper garment, exposing his chest and shoulders without the slightest care for losing scholarly dignity. Shen Qingshu was deeply envious.

She could not possibly take off her clothes. At most, she rolled up her sleeves and trouser legs. It was better than nothing.

This made Shen Qingshu very much miss the tank tops and shorts of later generations. Actually, the unlined shirt she wore was made of fine silk, light and breathable, but in this sort of environment, it still seemed far too burdensome.

The weather was truly too hot, and Shen Qingshu had no appetite either. She only drank some red date and goji berry tea, then lay over the desk for a midday nap.

In summer, food spoiled easily to begin with, and this time, she had to bring three days’ worth all at once. Shen Qingshu had no choice but to bring things that could last, like steamed buns, sausages, and air-dried duck, all of which were things she did not particularly like to eat.

Aside from that, she had also prepared a large gourd of black tea with goji berries. Steward Liu had originally prepared ginseng wine for her, but she truly had no fondness for alcohol, so she only brought a little rice wine with very low alcohol content.

She did not know what time it was when she woke from her nap. She felt that the temperature had risen even higher, and the air itself seemed to warp from the heat. Shen Qingshu had sweated all over, and her body felt sticky and even more uncomfortable.

She had been dreaming the whole time, and the dreams were bizarre and chaotic. One moment, she was going to receive her parents’ ashes, and everyone looked at her with sympathy. Another moment, she was studying in the schoolroom and being criticized by the teacher, her palm struck as punishment. Then, somehow, she suddenly fell off a cliff and was chased by a tiger, fleeing for her life over mountains and ridges.

It was utterly awful!

Shen Qingshu sat there blankly for a while. Only after the lights and shadows in her mind faded and she could no longer remember them clearly did she sluggishly pour out some clear water to wipe her face. Under that faint cool stimulation, she gradually woke up.

After staring into space for a little longer, she finally steadied herself and continued answering questions, though she inevitably still felt somewhat restless and irritable.

Even with mental power assisting her, she was already like this. Shen Qingshu could completely imagine just how difficult it must be for those candidates racking their brains in deep thought.