Coming to the Academy Was the Right Choice
Xu Xue heard about these lessons, her eyes lit up, and her handwriting became more animated.
She had loved learning from her uncle since she was little. But her uncle was preparing for the imperial examinations, so she couldn't stay at his house often and didn't have the opportunity to learn. Now that she had the chance to learn from him, she was overjoyed.
Then Madam Cui went on to explain what needed to be prepared for studying these subjects.
"You can buy the Four Books and Five Classics, books on women's virtues, laws, and history outside the academy; the same goes for musical instruments; and the same applies to needlework supplies such as fabric and thread. As for brushes, paints, and paper for learning calligraphy and painting, everyone should prepare their own."
After finishing her errands, Madam Cui gestured to the servants to distribute the test papers. "Now, let's have a test."
"Huh?" everyone exclaimed in surprise, "What kind of test is it?"
"Silence!" Madam Cui, who always had a stern face, immediately quieted down the classroom when she put on a serious expression. She then continued, "The exam will test your understanding of the Four Books Four Books and Five Classics. The academy needs to ascertain your level of mastery of these Four Books and Five Classics in order to allocate the teachers' teaching hours accordingly. The teachers, in turn, should also be aware of your abilities."
Everyone groaned inwardly, but dared not utter a sound; they could only express their inner despair to their deskmates through their facial expressions.
Of course, some people were confident and showed signs of anticipation.
When Xu Xi was in Little Banyan Village, since there were no calligraphy practice books, she used the Four Books and Five Classics that Xu Yongzeng had copied himself as practice books. Worried that these contents would be tested in the Women's Academy exam, she memorized all these books in her spare time.
The top student's memory is truly remarkable. Although these books were obscure, they weren't very long, and despite using a lot of brainpower, she managed to memorize them. At that moment, she was incredibly grateful that she had done this part of her homework.
This exam at the Women's Academy was just a preliminary assessment, and the questions were mostly fill-in-the-blank questions based on memorization. Even the questions that included some explanations were based on well-known and simple sentences, so they weren't difficult. However, the number of questions was greater than in the entrance exam, and the scope of the questions was broader.
Xu Xi glanced through the questions and felt confident she could answer them all, so she began to write carefully, stroke by stroke. Thirty characters constituted one calligraphy piece, and if she finished this test paper diligently, she could earn several points for each piece. It was a win-win situation: she could practice her calligraphy while taking the exam, and her careful writing would also leave a good impression on the examiner. It was a triple win. With such a number of questions, an incense stick's time was more than enough; she had no problem writing carefully.
Xu Xi gave herself a thumbs up for her quick thinking.
Sure enough, after Xu Xi filled in a few blanks, the voice announcing the Wisdom Points rang out as scheduled. Having gotten used to this voice, Xu Xi was no longer disturbed by it and continued to do the questions without any mental distraction.
Halfway through the problem, Xu Xi finally looked up and glanced at the burning incense in front of her.
The advantage of sitting in the middle of the first row became apparent. If you were sitting in the last row, it would be virtually impossible to see where the burning incense stick was. Now the incense was not far from Xu Xi, and she could clearly see that the incense stick was now burning a little over halfway up.
She glanced down at the number of questions and felt that Youyu finish them at this pace, so she continued to focus on the exam.
After finishing all the questions, Xu Xi looked up at the incense and realized she still had some time. She checked the test paper again and found no mistakes or omissions. Only then did she have the leisure to ask the system, "How many points did I earn in total?"
The system's voice was more cheerful than ever before. "Host, coming to the academy was definitely the right choice. You just earned a total of thirty-two points. This is mainly because you didn't write some characters well; you only got two points for each character. Otherwise, you could have earned more."
You should know that even when Xu Xi had time to practice calligraphy, she never practiced continuously for an hour. Usually, after each piece of calligraphy, she would stop to look at it and think about which characters were written well and which were not; after practicing a few pieces, she would put down her pen, stretch her neck, go outside to look at the green plants and rest her eyes, which made the system extremely frustrated.
That's good now; someone will take care of her.
Xu Xi rolled her eyes inwardly. "Don't even think about such a good thing. When the teacher lectures, I listen from below, and I don't even have a chance to write a single character all day. It's the same even in calligraphy class, not to mention Go or musical instrument classes—you don't even need to pick up a brush there. It's impossible to use those to rack up calligraphy points. The only time you can rack up so many points in an hour is during the Four Books and Five Classics exams. And those exams are only held every six months, I guess."
The system almost burst into tears, but managed to hold it in and said calmly, "Oh, in that case, your background will probably only be revealed in a month." Hmph, it's not like it's in a hurry anyway.
Xu Xi raised an eyebrow. This guy has even learned to manipulate her now.
"It's alright, isn't the old lady investigating right now? Maybe she'll find out without me spending a single point."
The system choked again.
"Time's up. Everyone, stay seated and don't move. You can't continue writing." Madam Cui stood up after the incense had burned out, gestured behind her, and several maids began collecting the exam papers in rows.
After collecting the exam papers, Madam Cui nimbly led her maids away.
There is a 15-minute break in the middle.
As soon as Madam Cui left, the classroom erupted in chatter, with students lamenting their poor test scores and how they hadn't been able to answer certain questions. This familiar scene brought a smile to Xu Xi's face as she reminisced about her classmates from the modern era.
Seeing Xu Xue's worried expression, Xu Xi asked her, "Did you not do well on the exam?"
"Hmm." Xu Xue's worries weren't about that. She sighed and looked at Xu Xi, "I never imagined that studying here would be so expensive."
She counted on her fingers. "I need to buy a set of all kinds of books; I also need to buy special brushes for calligraphy and painting, and lots of paper and paints; I need to buy a musical instrument; and I also need to buy a lot of silk and thread for needlework." She sighed, "I wonder how much it will cost."
She knew that this Women's Academy was not something girls from families like her could afford to attend.
"So you need to hurry up and write your story, don't dawdle. No matter how well it turns out, just start writing it first," Xu Xi said.
She could tell that Xu Xue was having trouble with her writing and was starting to have second thoughts. Passion was one thing, and the imagination was wonderful, but when it came to actually putting pen to paper, it was like squeezing water out of a dried-up sponge—very difficult.
But who doesn't start writing like this? If you back down when faced with difficulties, you'll never write a good storybook. This applies not only to storybooks, but to everything else—everything is difficult at the beginning!
These expenses have now been paid, which has given Xu Xue a boost of confidence; pressure can be a motivator.