Chapter 3

Not only that, Dongshanyang's claim to fame was his supervision of the construction of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty's Zhaoling Mausoleum. He gathered seven dragons at the tomb's front, nurtured three qilins underground, and embraced nine morning glories on the peak, forming an astonishing feng shui layout. As a result, despite being in a strategically contested area, the Tang Dynasty enjoyed ten consecutive years of favorable weather and a steadily rising national strength!

Of course, Dongshanyang's fame spread throughout the land!

Now, at the age of thirty-nine, Dongshanyang had become one of the nine ministers of the Tang Dynasty. However, his heart was not very broad, so it was not hard to imagine that the Confucianists would face severe suppression and great difficulty in promoting their teachings in the Tang Dynasty.

Therefore, when the example of Dongshanyang shocked the world, all the heads of the academies recognized an important fact from the negative examples of the Confucianists: even if they were nurturing someone who might be useless to them, they could be stifling a talent from other schools of thought!

Thus, the six words "Better to err on the side of caution" became the primary standard for selecting students in the academies.

Therefore, as long as the overall literacy rate remained low, the chances of a child being admitted to an academy were very high.

***

Seeing the fourth helper running out of breath and the envious looks from the people around him, Lin Fengjin, who was already confident, thought to himself, "What a joke, I was a double Ph.D. from MIT, so handling a primary school entrance exam is a piece of cake!"

On the day of the exam, he deliberately made several mistakes to avoid standing out by getting first place. However, seeing the envious looks from those around him, Lin Fengjin couldn't help but feel a bit elated.

He casually took the congratulatory notice from the fourth helper's hand and found it to be a very exquisite card. The background was a deep red, with patterns of leaping carp and qilins, adorned with water grass designs. In the center, it read:

"Congratulations to Mr. Lin Fengjin of the noble household, who has ranked 20th in the He Cang child examination, earning the title of Ya Yuan, and is listed in the imperial register."

"Ya Yuan" is usually a title for the second place, but on the card, it was a flattering term, similar to how many deputy directors and deputy mayors like to be called director or mayor. The phrase "listed in the imperial register" wished him continued success in the upcoming exams.

Seeing the congratulatory notice, Lin Fengjin was shocked. After a long while, he grabbed the fourth helper, looked around furtively, and whispered:

"Doesn't our He Cang County only select twenty child scholars each year?"

The fourth helper nodded, smiling broadly:

"Yes! Young Master, let's go back."

Lin Fengjin rolled his eyes, sighed deeply, and followed him back. How could such a coincidence happen? To be the 20th out of 20 selected? Clearly, his success had nothing to do with his talent but was due to the large sum of silver his adoptive father had secretly paid.

However, to digress, in the current context, cheating would likely only go as far as the child scholar examination. Beyond that, unless it involved close family members, no one would dare take the risk.

When he returned home, Zhao the Butcher had already been invited. He was slaughtering a fat pig with a sharp knife, and the famous He Cang theater troupe, Sai Fengxian, was setting up the stage. People gathered in the front courtyard, smoking tobacco, and eating roasted peanuts and sunflower seeds, littering the ground. The faces of the Lin family's servants were all beaming, and the noise was deafening, indicating that a three-day feast was inevitable.

A round-faced middle-aged man was surrounded by people, wearing a dark red silk robe with five bats embroidered on it. Despite the tailor's skill, it looked a bit ill-fitting on his overly plump body. However, he was smiling so broadly that his eyes were almost invisible. This was Lin Fengjin's adoptive father, Mr. Lin.

Lin Fengjin, an orphan in his previous life, had always yearned for family. When he inherited the memories of his new body, he remembered Mr. Lin's doting care, making it easy for him to call him father.

Seeing his father, Lin Fengjin sighed, parted the crowd, and pulled his father to a quiet corner, saying straightforwardly:

"Father, how much silver did you spend to get me this child scholar title?"

"Wha... what are you talking about!" Mr. Lin's voice was already trembling, but he still tried to deny it.

Lin Fengjin shrugged:

"I'll know everything once I check the accounts at the counter. What's the point of hiding it from me?"

It had been almost a year since he had come to this world. Lin Fengjin had already shown his skills by stabilizing the family's accounts and boosting the business with a few promotional tactics. Realizing he couldn't hide it, Mr. Lin held up two fingers.

"Two hundred taels?"

"A bit more..."

"Two thousand taels?"

"I initially quoted that, but the school official spat in my face..."

"Crazy! Two thousand taels for a child scholar? Should we sell our shop in Yicheng?"

Hearing this, Lin Fengjin was both shocked and angry.

"My son, you don't know how much humiliation we endure in social interactions...," Mr. Lin complained, but his small eyes kept glancing at Lin Fengjin's face.

He had always doted on his son, who was the only child in three generations. Even when Lin Fengjin was a troublemaker, Mr. Lin could only scold him, never hit him. After Lin Fengjin's transformation, he became a model son, and with a few clever suggestions, the family's business flourished. Mr. Lin lost all his authority as a father.

Faced with this, what could Lin Fengjin do but sigh and smile bitterly? At that moment, the steward came to ask for instructions, and Mr. Lin, relieved, cleared his throat and walked away. Just before the door, he remembered something and turned back:

"Oh, right, Uncle Wang just returned and said that everything on the list you made last month has been bought and placed in your study."

"Did they buy those things?" Lin Fengjin was delighted. Since taking the child scholar examination, he was confident he would pass and was now focused on choosing an academy.

In this ancient era, information was scarce, and there were no widespread advertisements for schools. Many child scholars and scholars chose academies based on proximity to save on travel expenses.

Lin Fengjin, however, did not approve of this blind approach. Having struggled in a terrifying "unemployment upon graduation, living off parents" world in his previous life, he knew how important choosing the right school was.

So, he had his helpers collect various writings, poems, and autobiographies from scholars of this era. From these scattered records, he could deduce the characteristics of the major academies.

"Hmm, this poem by Guo Da says that when he studied at the Wude Academy, his thoughts flowed like a spring, but when he became an official, they dried up. One person might exaggerate, but combined with other records, it seems the Wude Academy has unique strengths in feng shui."

After reaching this conclusion, Lin Fengjin picked up a brush and quickly drew an Excel table on the rice paper! This was a habit from his previous life, where he was obsessed with data analysis and had earned a double Ph.D. in data science and analytics from MIT.

Lin Fengjin firmly believed that data does not lie, and the insights behind the data are the most profound. So, he was now trying to quantify the characteristics of these renowned and mysterious academies.

After a few quick strokes, Lin Fengjin, holding the brush in his mouth and flipping through the books, praised:

"Hmm, the power of money is indeed everywhere; even the 'Gentry Register' can be bought."

The "Gentry Register" is essentially a list of officials and their resumes across the country.

This book is a must-have in any dynasty. Ambitious officials use it to find fellow townspeople to build their "cliques," while less fortunate officials use it to find potential patrons. Successful scholars use it to find officials who might appreciate their work, and unsuccessful scholars use it to find officials who have retired but might return to power.

"The 'Gentry Register' has been compiled. Currently, among the county magistrates and above (excluding clerks) in the five kingdoms, there are about 5,700 officials, and over 2,500 have received education from academies. Among them, 7% are from the Donglin Academy, and 5% are from the Wude Academy..."

As Lin Fengjin gradually refined the data and entered it, the table on the rice paper became more complete, and a series of information was clearly presented.