There was only half a month left before the provincial examination.
Xiao Mo and Bai Ruxue stood at the village entrance, each of them carrying a small bundle.
Facing them stood the village chief's whole family.
"Village Chief, are you really not going to give it a try this time?" Xiao Mo asked the village chief.
The village chief was a xiucai as well, so naturally he too could sit the provincial examination.
"Forget it, forget it." The village chief shook his head. "I'm already fifty. I won't go through all that fuss. Even if I took the exam, I'd only be wasting the travel money. Better to buy Wang Ying a few pretty dresses. You study hard, Xiao Mo—we'll be waiting for your good news."
"It's no disaster if you don't pass. Look at your village chief here—decades of exams and he never passed once. As long as you're willing to try, you can keep trying later. And if it truly doesn't work out, open a private school like him and you'll manage to scrape by."
Aunt Chen said this to Xiao Mo.
Aunt Chen might have been nothing but a woman, but she knew that some people took the exams until they died and never once became a juren.
Her own husband, for instance.
"I know, Aunt Chen. I'll just do my best." Xiao Mo nodded with a smile.
"Good that you know it. And don't go threatening to hang yourself if you do badly—you still owe my family a great deal of dry rations."
Aunt Chen shot Xiao Mo a look, then pulled Bai Ruxue aside, seemed to give her some instructions, and handed her a veil.
Half a stick of incense later, Xiao Mo cupped his hands in farewell and climbed into the carriage.
Bai Ruxue drove the carriage, carrying Xiao Mo toward the prefectural city.
"Did Aunt Chen say anything to you?" Xiao Mo asked, sitting beside her.
"Aunt Chen said I'm too good-looking, and there are plenty of rich idlers in the county city, so I might stir up no end of trouble. She told me to be careful, and once I'm in the city I must keep the veil on and never leave your side." Bai Ruxue reported it honestly.
"Mm." Xiao Mo nodded.
Aunt Chen's reasoning really did make sense.
With only a xiucai's standing to his name, he truly wasn't yet in any position to protect her.
Still, if trouble did come, Bai Ruxue ought to come out of it fine.
Perhaps Bai Ruxue herself didn't even know it, but she was already a cultivator of the Dragon Gate realm.
One more step, and she would form her golden core.
Her cultivation talent was as outrageous as Jiang Qingyi's.
So any ordinary rich idler would be lucky not to be swallowed whole by her.
It was only...
Xiao Mo glanced at the woman's profile.
Qingyi was decisive and ruthless; she would never let herself be wronged.
But this one, being a demon, was far too kindhearted.
That was a good thing, and also a bad thing.
Six days later, Xiao Mo and Bai Ruxue entered the prefectural city of Jiangnan.
"Candied hawthorn! Candied hawthorn... two coppers a stick..."
"Right this way, sir, come in."
"Will you be stopping for a meal or taking a room, sir?"
"Young master, it's been so long since you came by—this girl has missed you to death."
The moment they entered the city, the cries of peddlers and tradesmen of every kind rose and fell on all sides, and pedestrians flowed to and fro along both sides of the street.
There were scholars in blue gowns.
There were young masters of wealthy houses.
There was a young wife leading a little girl by the hand.
Gazing at everything in the prefectural city, Bai Ruxue's eyes suddenly lit up.
Bai Ruxue had come down from the mountain; the busiest place she had ever been was Stone Bridge Village at its foot. She had never even entered Qingshan City, much less a prefectural city.
After leaving the carriage in storage, Xiao Mo found an inn for the two of them.
Inns set a special rate for xiucai sitting the provincial examination, and it wasn't very expensive.
Once their luggage was set down, Xiao Mo took Bai Ruxue out along the streets of the prefectural city to see the prosperity of the human race.
Bai Ruxue looked this way and that.
Everything in the city was wonderfully new to the girl.
"Xiao Mo, I want candied hawthorn!" Bai Ruxue's small white hand seized his wrist and shook it.
Xiao Mo handed over two coppers and bought a stick; Bai Ruxue lifted her veil a little and took a bite.
The first sweetness on her little tongue made her eyes light up.
But one bite down, the sourness of the hawthorn made her eyes screw shut.
The old man selling the candied hawthorn froze as well.
He had never seen such a beautiful woman.
Bai Ruxue ate her hawthorn as she walked, and every so often held the stick up in front of Xiao Mo: "You eat some too, Xiao Mo."
Xiao Mo shook his head, indicating that he didn't care for candied hawthorn.
Bai Ruxue didn't understand. The candied hawthorn was obviously delicious.
"Buns for sale! Buns for sale!"
From one side of the street came the cry of a bun shop.
Xiao Mo's steps came to a halt; he looked toward the bun shop.
"Xiao Mo, do you want buns? Then I'll go buy you some," Bai Ruxue said.
"No." Xiao Mo shook his head. "I just thought of someone."
"Someone?" Bai Ruxue asked curiously.
"It's nothing." Xiao Mo shook his head with a smile and walked on.
Bai Ruxue didn't give it another thought.
Passing Yunyan Pavilion, Bai Ruxue watched the scantily clad women dragging men through the doors, clinging to them as though they wished they could press their whole bodies against them.
Bai Ruxue asked curiously, "Xiao Mo, what place is that? Why do those women wear so little, and pull men inside with them?"
Xiao Mo glanced over and explained, "That's a brothel."
"What's a brothel?"
"A brothel is... a place for the business between men and women."
"The business between men and women? What business is that? You're a man and I'm a woman—so can we do it too?"
"Xiao Mo, tell me, tell me..."
"Little girls shouldn't ask so many questions." Xiao Mo rapped her lightly on the head.
Bai Ruxue rubbed her head, stuck out her lower lip, and muttered, "I'm a grown young lady!"
But she wasn't annoyed either. She walked on and took Xiao Mo's wrist. "Xiao Mo."
"What is it?"
"In the future, when it comes to this man-and-woman business, you come find me, all right~"
Xiao Mo's brow twitched. He didn't know what to say.
For the next few days, Xiao Mo stayed in the inn room studying.
The streets were lively enough, but without Xiao Mo's company, Bai Ruxue found no pleasure in them.
Soon enough, the provincial examination began.
Xiao Mo had to go to the Examination Hall.
"The provincial examination of Qi takes three days in all. During those three days, Miss Bai must remember not to wander about—understood?"
Before setting out, Xiao Mo instructed Bai Ruxue.
"Don't worry, I'll be very obedient. Xiao Mo, you study hard and do well~ And it's fine if you don't do well. Aunt Chen says only the Star of Literature can pass the juren exam, and you're not the Star of Literature."
"Well, thank you very much." Xiao Mo knocked her on the head. "Off I go."
Xiao Mo turned and went into the Examination Hall.
Before entering, he had to be searched; the petty clerk groped and groped at him hard.
Xiao Mo decided the man was either scrupulously devoted to his duty, or else he was from Sichuan.
"What's this?" The clerk's eyes fixed on the snake scale at Xiao Mo's chest.
"A protective charm."
Xiao Mo turned his head and looked at the girl outside the Examination Hall who had been gazing his way the whole time.
"My wife gave it to me."