Chapter 37: Don’t Want to Get Married

After Ergouzi finished his exam, he did not return to Shekou Mountain immediately. He temporarily stayed in a shabby inn in the county town.

After the exam is over, you have to wait for several days before the results are released and the successful candidates are announced.

Ergouzi took the opportunity to wander around the county town in the past few days, enjoying the bustling world of flowers and flowers in the county town.

He couldn't eat meat buns often in the past, but now he eats them every day, every meal, more than ten at each meal.

In addition, because of this exam, he still owed a debt of 200 taels of silver.

All the money he had saved before had been used to forge the sword, and now he didn't have much money in his pocket.

It happened that there were still some Dali Pills in the gourd. He poured them out in the inn and put them in a big bag, ready to sell them to Sima Yi.

Sima Yi helped a lot from beginning to end when applying for this exam. He should at least thank them.

The items he can take out as gifts now, in addition to Dali Pills, are several medicinal materials grown on the mountain.

I found a ginseng that was more than 20 years old from the gourd and prepared to give it to Sima Yi as a thank you gift.

But he took a look and found something was wrong.

The approximate year of ginseng can be seen from the reed heads.

But after his ginseng was stored in the gourd, the concentration of spiritual energy increased a lot, making it easy for others to see the problem and causing trouble.

After thinking for a while, he broke off the reed heads of the ginseng, which turned into residual ginseng, making it impossible to judge the year.

Then he wrapped it with a few dried lotus leaves and stuffed it into his arms. Then he carried the sack and walked out to Huichun Hall.

"Oh, I finally found you."

Er Gouzi was chewing the meat buns. When he walked into the drugstore, Sima Yi grabbed his sleeve.

"My uncle wants to see you!"

"Your uncle?"

Ergouzi was stunned. He didn't like the title uncle.

"It's the one with the beard you saw in the examination room that day." Sima Yi added.

"It's the county captain! Why is he looking for me?"

When Er Gouzi heard that he was a county captain, such a big official, he instinctively felt nervous.

"I owe the county government 200 taels of silver. I will pay it off today."

"Don't be nervous. My uncle is very kind. He just wants to talk to you, nothing else."

Seeing Er Gouzi's nervous look, Sima Yi smiled and comforted him.

"Okay, please count these Dali Pills first."

"Also, this ginseng is for you."

Er Gouzi threw the sack on the ground, took out the ginseng wrapped in lotus leaves from his arms and handed it to Sima Yi.

"Okay, thank you!"

Sima Yi took the ginseng and looked at it, and found that it was a residual ginseng. He didn't pay too much attention to it and put it in the medicine cabinet.

After counting the Dali Pills, the two settled a total of 368 taels of silver before going out together.

Sima Yi took Er Gouzi into the most luxurious restaurant in the county - Hongyan Tower.

The young man in green clothes at the door still bowed his head and had a bright smile on his face.

Last time Sima Yi could only dine on the third floor, but this time he led Er Gouzi straight to the fourth floor.

There are not many guest rooms on the fourth floor, but each one is large and more luxuriously decorated.

When Sima Yi and Er Gouzi walked into a guest room, they saw Sima Gang eating wine boredly. Dozens of delicacies from the mountains and seas were placed on the table, which looked very appetizing.

There are also two beautiful women waiting carefully beside him.

Er Gouzi had just eaten a dozen meat buns, and when he saw this table of delicious food, he felt hungry again.

"Uncle, Zhang Ergou has been brought."

Sima Yi stood at the door and saluted Sima Gang.

Ergouzi also saluted and glanced at the sumptuous food on the table inadvertently.

He glanced at the two beautiful women again and quickly lowered his head, his face turned red. He had never seen such a beautiful woman in his entire life.

The skin was tenderer and whiter than tofu. It was swaying and it felt like water could be squeezed out with just a gentle squeeze.

How do these women in the city grow?

I feel that all the good-looking women in the world have come to Hongyan Tower.

However, these women may be good-looking, but their skin is too tender to do the work of setting fires and chopping firewood, and their waists and legs are not thick enough to do farm work and give birth to children.

Ergouzi subconsciously compared these women with the second daughter of Huang Laocai's family.

"Um!"

"You all just exit."

Sima Gang grunted and waved his hand. Sima Yi and the two women agreed, bowed and left, closing the door behind them.

There were only two people left in the room. The county captain sat casually at the table, and Ergouzi stood respectfully three feet away.

"Your name is Zhang Ergou?"

Sima Gang had no intention of asking Er Gouzi to sit down, and continued to drink a glass of green wine by himself.

"Return to the county captain, the humble citizen Zhang Ergou."

Ergouzi raised his hands and answered respectfully.

Facing an official as high as the county captain, he did not dare to make any mistakes.

"Well, your cultivation is pretty good, but you just can't practice it properly. It's just a mess."

Sima Gang recalled the swordsmanship displayed by Er Gouzi.

You might say he knows martial arts, but his swordsmanship is unsightly, almost like playing monkey, he is a complete layman.

They are all fancy moves and have no meaning in battle. Jumping so high and holding a dozen sword flowers, what is the use in battle?

You have to say that he doesn't know martial arts. He can jump higher than anyone else, can reach farther than anyone else, and is stronger than an ox. He has overturned all the stone slabs in the martial arts arena.

He swung his sword and knocked the examiner away with one strike.

For people like Er Gouzi, whether they know martial arts or not, they are speechless.

More importantly, he used the Qi-Watching Technique to see that this person, at such a young age, actually has the third level of Qi training.

Among the Sima family's peers, no one can match him.

"I wonder who your master is?"

"Sorry, my master has instructed that his name cannot be revealed to the public. Please forgive me, Lord County Lieutenant!"

Er Gouzi is an honest child. Since his master has instructed that his identity cannot be revealed to others, he naturally cannot say it, even if he is beaten to death.

"Since it is inconvenient to disclose, this official will not pursue it today. However, privately teaching immortal methods is a serious crime."

Er Gouzi's heart sank. It is true that dealing with these officials is not a good thing.

If there is a slight mistake, they will catch the handle and then punish him with a serious crime.

He still doesn't understand in his heart. The master teaches the skills, one is willing to fight and the other is willing to be beaten, and he has not done anything that harms the world. How can it be against the king's law?

"With your talent, if you can practice diligently, you may be able to make further progress in the future, and you may even pass the exam for martial arts."

Er Gouzi was delighted when he heard this. It seemed that the county lieutenant did not intend to pursue the crime of privately teaching martial arts today.

Moreover, the county lieutenant praised him for the opportunity to make further progress in the future, implying that he should have passed the exam for martial arts this time.

As for further progress, as long as he passed the exam for a juren, he would no longer have to pay taxes, and he would be on the same level as the county magistrate. Who wouldn't want it?

"I can recommend you to enter Zhengwu Hall as a teacher, and you can continue to study at the same time. What do you think?"

"Zhengwu Hall?"

Er Gouzi certainly knew this place. His cousin Zhang Youliang studied martial arts here, and the annual tuition was quite expensive.

More importantly, just like applying for an exam, if no one recommends you, you can't get in even if you pay money.

"Of course I am willing to, thank you, county lieutenant!"

This opportunity is rare, Er Gouzi hurriedly thanked him.

The master has left and will not be back in a short time, and he needs someone to guide him.

"Okay, you can go back now!"

Sima Gang waved his hand, indicating that Er Gouzi could leave.

Er Gouzi glanced at the table of delicious food casually, then bowed and left.

Walking out of Hongyan Tower, he was in a good mood. Although the county lieutenant did not invite him to dinner, at least Wu Xiucai had a place to stay.

He could be exempted from taxes on 100 acres of land and no longer have to perform corvée.

In the future, he could speak straight in front of those county officials and would not be manipulated by them at will.

And he also got the opportunity to study in Zhengwu Hall.

Then he went to the county government again and paid back the 200 taels of silver fine he owed during the exam.

It was a bit painful to lose 200 taels of silver for an exam. It could buy a lot of pigs.

Another day passed, and Sima Yi found Er Gouzi on the street in a hurry.

"Do you still have the ginseng you gave me yesterday? I can buy it at a high price."

"No, I got that one by chance."

Er Gouzi shook his head. He can make money by selling Dali Pills now, and he is not in a hurry to sell ginseng.

The oldest ginseng on Shekou Mountain is only more than 20 years old.

These medicinal herbs are more valuable as they age, and he plans to cultivate them for a longer time before digging them out and selling them.

Sima Yi was a little disappointed when he heard that there was no more, but then he asked:

"Brother Zhang, are you married?"

"No, I'm single, why are you asking this?"

Er Gouzi was a little confused, why did he suddenly ask this?

"It's like this, I have a cousin who is about the same age as you, so I wanted to match you two up."

"Oh..."

Er Gouzi responded and looked at Sima Yi carefully to see if he was a woman dressed as a man.

Because he remembered a play he had heard a long time ago, where a woman dressed as a man to get acquainted with the protagonist, and then used the excuse to marry her sister to the protagonist.

But when Er Gouzi saw Sima Yi's Adam's apple, he was still a little disappointed.

"I'm still young and don't want to get married."