MTL - I Was an Abbot in Ancient Times-Chapter 44
At this moment, in the tribute courtyard, they are all concentrating on writing. This is an exam that determines their fate in life. It all depends on this time whether they will rise to the top of the ranks and step into the official career, or return to their hometown in desperation to become rich and powerful.
Candidates who have reached this point do not want to go further.
The general examination is divided into three sessions, one session in three days. After the first session, the examinees all looked haggard and exhausted. Only a dozen or so candidates looked very different, refreshed and conspicuous, as if they were not in the same simple examination room as the others, but had retreated and studied for three days in a comfortable place.
These dozen or so candidates all came out of Qingquan Temple together, and they greeted each other, talking about sachets and so on.
The other examinees on the side were full of confusion. What kind of sachet came out of the examination room to discuss?
I'm afraid it wasn't some romantic and rich kids who passed the provincial examination by chance, and regarded the general examination as a joke, right? No wonder they look so relaxed.
Thinking of this, the other candidates shook their heads in disdain, and flicked their sleeves away from these unprogressive things, so as not to pollute themselves.
The dozen or so examinees who came out of Qingquan Temple would not be so stupid. They explained the magic of the sachet directly at the entrance of the examination room. They just asked each other in a very cryptic manner, "Is your sachet still fragrant?"
People who don't understand this will indeed feel that they are very nervous. As everyone knows, the sachet was a gift from the abbot before departure. It contained lotus seeds and dried lotus petals, and the words "must pass every exam" were embroidered on the outside. Some people even put a paper bag of incense ash from Qingquan Temple in it.
Students are allowed to carry sachets and medicine bags in the examination room. After inspection, they put them on the table and sniff them when they are tired, which has the effect of calming the mind.
This was discovered by a student when he was motion sick in a carriage on the way to the exam. He told all the candidates in the same company that everyone was both happy and worried. The happy thing was the magic of the sachet, and the worry was that the scent of the sachet would disappear before entering the examination room and would not work.
But they didn't rely on the sachet very much, and took the sachet to heart. Everyone is well prepared, and they are not very attached to the test results, as long as they are worthy of their hard work during this time.
The next two games went just as well.
There will be three exams on the ninth, 12th, and 15th day of the lunar month, for a total of nine days.
On the day when the list was released, the apricot blossoms by the lake were full of branches.
From the lakeside to the other side of the bridge, it is the place where the test list is posted. The test list is released every April 15th, when the apricot blossoms are in full bloom. It takes 20 days from the start of the test to the release of the results.
Xu Bowen walked past the branches of apricot blossoms. This is a ritual that candidates will go through every time they release their rankings. It means that if you are brushed on the shoulder by Empress Xinghua, you will have good luck, and ask for an auspicious saying.
Xu Bowen squeezed to the front with more than a dozen candidates from Qingquan Temple to find his own name, counting from the end to the beginning, the person who found him helped others find it, and finally found that everyone's name was on the list. Immediately cheered.
The candidates next to them saw that these dozen or so people were only in their twenties, and they all marveled at the fact that there are so many outstanding young students in this class.
Someone recognized them as the dozen or so candidates who were discussing sachets that day, and remembering that they were sure that they would not be able to make the list, suddenly felt a pain in the face.
"Great, we are all Gongsheng!"
"Bowen, you are in third place!"
A candidate shouted, and everyone came over to congratulate Xu Bowen. He has always been a leading figure in this batch of contemporaries, regardless of whether it is in academics or other aspects. He was the one who cooperated with Lin Zhao in front of Zhizhou last time. He is very resourceful at a young age, and he can already foresee the heights he can achieve in the official career in the future.
Everyone is proud to make friends with him, and such people are often very charismatic.
"I started from Qingquan Temple all the way here with everyone. I am really happy to join hands with you to embark on a new journey in the future. No matter where we are in the future, we must work together through thick and thin."
"certainly!"
"That's for sure!"
"..." Everyone agreed one after another, saying that they were going to a restaurant to have dinner and celebrate, and the hard work during this period was not in vain.
Not to mention how this group of candidates celebrated their successful passing of the general examination, and how they prepared for the imperial examination in a month and a half.
Let's go back to the starting point of this group of students, Qingquan Temple.
It is the time when peaches and plums are in full bloom in the world, and more and more pilgrims go to temples to ask for lottery when they go out for outings.
At the gate of the Jialan Hall, Buer found Buti, and asked angrily, "Buti, did you steal my roasted sweet potatoes again?"
The one who was caught was not tired and was full of dissatisfaction, "Brother Buer, don't blame me for the mistakes I made when I first came without verification. Didn't the abbot teach us not to be prejudiced when we look at people and things?" ?”
"I'm sorry," the honest Buer was ashamed when he heard the words, disappointed that his awareness was not deep enough, "Then who took the plate of roasted sweet potatoes I put on the table in the backyard?"
"Hmm...could it be Senior Brother Changmao?"
"He's been on watch at the clock tower all day today."
"Then... Could it be that you are not awake?"
"If you don't wake up, you are obsessed with the Buddhist scriptures, and even if you tell him not to be active in eating, how could he take my roasted sweet potatoes."
"Who is that?" Not tired but also at a loss.
Just as he was talking, he saw an old beggar with disheveled hair and wrapped in rags sauntering out of the backyard barefoot, and hiccupped while clutching his distended stomach.
Buer Buti looked at each other, it was him!
This old beggar came to the temple half a month ago. After begging for a few corn cakes on the first day, he found the unrepaired area at the back of the temple. I lived directly in the temple.
Nowadays, papyrus paper processing is in full swing in the surrounding area. He has hands and feet and can find a workshop that includes food and lodging to work, but this old beggar is lazy by nature, unwilling to be restrained, and unwilling to work.
Every day he sleeps in the back until the sun rises, and then wanders to the kitchen in the backyard to search for food. It is very likely that he took away the best roasted sweet potato and hid it. Seeing how satisfied he is now!
"How can you steal other people's roasted sweet potatoes!" Bulei dragged Buer and ran over to question him.
The old beggar blinked his eyes under his dusty and greasy mess of hair, he looked at the two little carrot heads in front of him, and grinned viciously at the corner of his mouth.
"I swallowed it all in my stomach!" After finishing speaking, he laughed loudly, patted his stomach proudly, and cast a provocative look at Buerbulei, meaning what can you do with me?
Buer is not tired and short of breath, I really can't do anything to him.
Bu Er snorted at him with a disgusted face, and Bu Tier said that he would tell the abbot.
Lin Zhaozheng and Changmei study the shower system.
The problem of bathing in the temple has always been a headache for Lin Zhao. When the twenty or so children came, he thought about improving it, hoping to restore the boiler room and hot shower room of the 1980s.
Speaking of which, the bathhouse in their temple is really small, only about the size of a small room of seven or eight square meters. It didn't feel like there were few people before, but now that there are more people, you have to think about the expansion. There is also boiling hot water. It is not enough for so many people to light two large iron pots at the same time. It is said that the ancients did not like to take a bath because of inconvenient conditions, and they were prone to catch a cold and get sick. Taking a bath every ten days and a half a month is considered diligent. Lin Zhao couldn't bear it, and the people in the temple would wash it once every ten days and half a month.
Most of the firewood that is burned now is picked up from the dense forest of Lingwu Mountain. Most of the people here get firewood from the forest or from cutting or picking up dead wood. Before winter comes, they will store enough firewood for the winter.
Lin Zhao also specially vacated a room to store the split firewood. The firewood of the same size was stacked neatly and piled up to the height of the ceiling.
The climate here is quite suitable, and the winter is not so cold that a fire pit is needed. Only some people will put a brazier in the house for the convenience of heating hot water. Rich people burn coal, while poor families burn charcoal bamboo charcoal or just throw it away. firewood burning.
There is also a bathhouse here. Students who stay in the temple will meet every ten days and a half months to go to the bathhouse in the county town. Those who like to be clean will stagger the days and let the fire boil the water, and use the bathtub in the squatting room to wash.
Not having a perfect shower system is somewhat inconvenient. Having experienced the modern and convenient life in which hot water flows from the top of the head at the touch of a button, Lin Zhao especially wishes to have a shower that automatically produces hot water
Now the bathhouse has been expanded and the boiler room has been built, but how to deliver hot water has always been an insurmountable problem.
In ancient Greece, there was already a sewage treatment system, and there was also the earliest prototype of the shower system. The ancient Greeks used the aqueduct made of circular pipes to transport a large amount of water, and used water pressure to introduce the water into the public shower room.
The drainage problem has been solved by using a floor drain to drain the sewage from the pipes to a stone puddle outside.
Now the problem that bothers him and Changmei is the water tank and the faucet valve. He hopes that hot water can be delivered directly to the shower without manual labor, and the water flow can be controlled by the bather himself.
It’s not like a certain TV series clip, when you take a shower, there’s someone sitting behind you and pouring water for you across the wall, and every time you need hot water, you have to shout “Master, hot water!”
That scene was too embarrassing. He didn't want to waste manpower on this kind of thing.
Regarding water delivery, the first thing that came to Lin Zhao’s mind was an ancient toy that appeared in a black-and-white documentary. It was a combination of a half-arm-long bamboo tube and a bamboo plug with a handle.
There will be a hole at the bottom of the bamboo tube. Put the bamboo tube into the water, hold the bamboo plug and pull it, the water will flow into the bamboo tube through the hole at the bottom due to the gas being pumped out, and then press the bamboo plug back, and the water will flow from the bottom of the bamboo tube. Spray out of the hole.
It is the earliest simple version of the water gun.
In modern times, some remote villages also use pesticide sprayers with similar principles.
Lin Zhao pondered the problem of the shower system. During brainstorming, he considered whether this principle could be applied, but found that when he needed to take a shower, someone sat behind the wall and turned it off manually.
He remembered that he searched for relevant information in order to write a thesis in modern times. It is recorded that the faucet first appeared in the 16th century and was cast from bronze. This shows that these devices could be made in ancient times when productivity was backward.
There are some high-ranking officials and dignitaries who have a lot of money and time. In order to pursue the comfort of life, there are many people who build magnificent shower rooms.
Then I will definitely be able to find a suitable method, but it will take some time.
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