novelraw Chapter 59: This Family Depends Entirely on Me
Chapter 59: This Family Depends Entirely on Me
To enter the county academy to study, you only needed to satisfy three conditions.
First, have household registration proof registered by the authorities.
Second, have a recommendation letter from the supervisor of your registered residence location.
Third, be able to afford tuition.
These conditions were indeed simple when stated, but for Li Qiuchen they were a huge difficulty.
He was an undocumented person.
Songlin Village wasn't even on the authorities' household registration books.
The recommendation letter was easier to discuss.
The local supervisor, for example here at Blue Stone Platform, you could find the town mayor, or Squire Zhao, or a respected local worthy. The main significance of this letter was to prove that you had pure and good character locally, hadn't done bad things, and your ancestors also had no problems.
Tuition seemed simple but was actually a hidden threshold.The county academy was divided into inner court and outer court. The outer court tuition was ten taels of silver per year.
It sounded a bit expensive. Ordinary families might not be able to produce it but conversely, if your family couldn't even produce ten taels of silver, there was no need to send your child to study. Better to work the fields and make an honest living.
There were also cheaper places. You didn't have to go to the county academy.
Even Lord Chang the Eighth had studied for a couple days when young. Later, discovering he wasn't cut out for it, he decisively dropped out.
The inner court tuition was ten times the outer court, one hundred taels of silver per year.
And this was only tuition, not including other expenses for studying in the inner court.
If you thought paying money would get you into the inner court, you were still naive.
Entering the inner court required examinations.
Every spring, the county academy held the children's examination, testing four basic subjects.
Not talk, learn, tease, and sing.
If you hadn't learned these four basic subjects clearly, even entering the inner court, you wouldn't understand the courses inside. Pure waste of life.
Li Qiuchen thought to himself he was finished. The thickest book he'd read from childhood to now was that "Legend of the Cangshan Swordsman" in their hands.
Pure wish-fulfillment fiction, read through the night.
Having him start learning those four basic subjects now, he'd need textbooks at least!
Blue Stone Platform sold everything. At the large market, you could even see local products from the south but there were no books.
Accurately speaking, no proper books. In the bookstore, besides children's primers, basically everything was along the lines of "Legend of the Cangshan Swordsman."
But not studying wouldn't work either because only the inner court would teach true cultivation methods.
Li Qiuchen felt very melancholy in his heart.
He had indeed figured out the route, but how to infiltrate?
Regarding the legal identity issue, he had already laid quite a bit of groundwork preparation in Blue Stone Platform.
People were forgetful and blind. Without conflicts of interest, who would care if the town had one more person or one less?
Money also wasn't a problem. Li Qiuchen didn't lack money, just temporarily hadn't found an appropriate opportunity to launder the wealth on his person.
Too little money was trouble, too much money was also trouble. This degree was hard to grasp.
Now the biggest problem was how to master those four basic subjects.
Wang Su and Du Qian clearly weren't the type for teaching and educating people. If they could figure out their current coursework in hand, that would be good enough but he could consider using their connections to go look around in the county seat, see if he could find opportunities for learning and improvement.
To borrow their power without arousing their suspicion... a poor boy suddenly saying he wanted to enter the county academy inner court and could produce astronomical tuition fees, who wouldn't find this suspicious?
Not stable.
Li Qiuchen thought about many things, but Wang Su and Du Qian didn't think so much.
"Give up!"
When he heard these words come from Wang Su's mouth, Li Qiuchen only felt the folds of his cerebral cortex all smoothing out.
I rehearse with you repeatedly every day. The lines have increased to fifteen sentences. You're telling me the project is going to fail?
"No matter how we change it, it just doesn't have that feeling."
Du Qian's face was full of worry, sighing, "Clearly we've experienced so many illusory realms before, but that kind of natural, logical feeling, how come we just can't design it?"
Nonsense. Watching movies every day and filming movies yourself, can they be the same?
Li Qiuchen also didn't understand what kind of "feeling" they were talking about but he absolutely couldn't let them give up so easily.
The veteran employee had already run off with his bucket. Now the investors also wanted to withdraw funding. So the entire project only has me as the workhorse left, is that it?
Promoted directly from frontline intern to project manager, is that it?
Wait...
Actually, that might not be impossible?
"You two gentlemen, I have a not-very-mature idea."
Li Qiuchen carefully considered his wording, working hard to console these two wastes, "Is there a possibility that... the illusory realm that newly enrolled students experience should be this difficulty level? You've experienced too many, so you can't feel that fresh excitement?"
The two exchanged glances, falling into thought, "Hiss... it's not impossible."
"Do you remember when we first enrolled, which illusory realm did we experience?"
"Peach Blossom Village?"
"No, Peach Blossom Village was much later. I remember the first one I drew was Yellow Immortal."
"Right, right, right, Yellow Immortal! I remember now."
Wang Su slapped his forehead, "Indeed, those earliest illusory realms, where did they have all those messy things that came later! I was overthinking. It's all Lord Luo's fault for being inhuman..."
"You still dare mention him? Ptui, ptui, ptui!"
"Ptui, ptui, ptui!"
"Lord Luo, auspicious exemption! Lord He, good person, peaceful life!"
"Lord Luo, auspicious exemption! Lord He, good person, peaceful life!"
Who knows what tragic memories the name Lord Luo stirred. The two instantly became jittery and uneasy.
Li Qiuchen didn't understand county academy slang and couldn't help asking, "Should we find a newly enrolled student to come try it?"
"I think that works."
"But what time is it now? This year's batch of new students has definitely already started the second round."
"How about... find someone from the outer court?"
Wang Su's eyes lit up, "Right, find someone from the outer court! For example, that whoever..."
"Works!"
The two instantly reached consensus and lifted their legs to walk out.
Li Qiuchen quickly reached out to stop them, "Don't rush to leave. First open the illusory realm operating permissions for me... I have a good idea. I want to make a minor adjustment to the plot."
The two were immersed in the happy atmosphere of finally finding a solution approach, completely not minding Li Qiuchen's scheming. Du Qian directly tossed his token to Li Qiuchen, "Just use mine. As long as you don't touch those underlying things, play around with everything else however you want."
I understand.
As long as the underlying code runs, even if there are bugs, don't touch it.
You could say there are still more good people in this world.
Wang Su and Du Qian had complete trust in Li Qiuchen, currently the project's only workhorse employee.
Of course, it was also possible they didn't care.
Something we honor students can't figure out, can you, a poor boy from the mountains, figure it out?
Li Qiuchen thought to himself, not necessarily.
To prevent the project from collapsing, the company from going bankrupt, and himself from being swept out the door, it was time to show some real skill.
You greenhouse flowers probably haven't seen real Medicine Master believers, have you?
Not only have I seen them, but I myself am one!
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