Chapter 1: The Dog's Blood Plot

  As soon as daylight broke, all sorts of peddling and shouting noises started up again.

  Song got out of bed with a happy expression, took out his self-made small toothbrush, stuffed a small handful of green salt into his mouth and brushed randomly.

  The older sister directly pushed open the door from outside.

  Song Ji's father was a commander of the former Zhou Dynasty, with many military achievements and rewards. However, the price he paid was that his body was wounded in many places, and he soon passed away. Not long after, Zhao Kuangyin wore the imperial robe, and although he treated Song Ji's mother and son well, he was somewhat neglectful of some of the meritorious generals of the former Zhou Dynasty.

  With his mother also passing away.

  The Song family had more children, before the birth of Song Jiu, there were two older brothers who died shortly after birth. There were also six sisters, three of whom died shortly after birth. Only the eldest sister, fifth sister and seventh sister survived, making Song Jiu the treasured only child of the Song family.

  It's considered good luck, Song Jiu's mother gave birth to nine children and raised four of them. In this era, it's not a sad fate.

  Song's father was opposed to his son becoming a soldier again before he died, and after his death, Song's mother even more did not want her son to become a military general again, so she put him in a private school to study, hoping that when he grew up, he could be an official through literature rather than seeking fame and fortune through martial arts and risking his life.

  After her mother's death, her elder sister took over her mother's work and supervised Song Jiu very strictly.

  Song Jiu was most afraid of this older sister.

  He hastily made a bow and said with a smile: "Nice to meet you, big sister."

  "The results were announced today, why didn't you go and take a look?"

  "Elder sister, those who are destined to win will win even if they don't see it, and those who aren't won't win even if they do see it." Song Jiu said, but in his heart he was thinking, even if I weren't impersonating Song Jiu, the real Song Jiu might not have won either.

  This Song Jiufei is not that Song Jiufei.

  He is from one thousand five hundred years later, a donkey friend, something happened on a rainy day when climbing Mount Tai, fell off the cliff, just in time for a lightning bolt to strike down and hit Song Jiu who was falling, then came to the Song Dynasty of Qiande.

  Why, after traversing over a thousand years of space-time, did the lightning that approached the speed of light create a magnetic field similar to a black hole in the air, forming a tunnel? His physical body was destroyed, but his soul remained. But why did he then appear at Mount Tai and end up in Kaifeng during the Song Dynasty? He couldn't understand it, all he knew was that he had traveled through time.

  That Song Jiukou didn't pass the imperial examination, drank too much wine, fell down, and then... got up by himself. Dare to say? After coming to the Song Dynasty for a year, he found that there were many problems in the Song Dynasty. The first was language, which was completely different from the languages of previous dynasties. It seemed like some southern dialects, but not quite. Fortunately, he traveled to many places and learned for several months before barely being able to speak the Song Dynasty language. Secondly, it was life. Although northerners still eat a lot of noodles now, the dehulling technology is not good enough, so it's inevitable that there will be a lot of bran in the flour. This isn't hard to eat, but what's harder to eat are millet and sorghum. In winter, there was no cotton, only quilts made of thick hemp and linen fabrics with some wood wool inside. Although the family had charcoal burning at home, it was still very cold.

  Big sister didn't know, continued to come over and supervise his studies, not excluding this Song Jiu either. In the Song Dynasty, what profession is best, being an official, being a civil servant. The further back, the more popular the civil servants were, when he was in college, Chinese department was still his elective course, having this foundation.

  He studied for another year, but by the end of it, his confidence had slowly disappeared. This year, he took part in the imperial examination again and was still at a loss when he arrived at the exam venue. The eight-legged essay in particular made him struggle to write even some simple ancient prose, let alone an eight-legged essay, which was required to be written in strict four-six-eight meter. He didn't know how to do it, so he simply wrote a piece of ancient prose with a careless attitude:

  The Qin dynasty destroyed the various feudal lords, unifying the country under one rule. However, in their hearts, they believed that the downfall of the Zhou dynasty was due to the strength of the feudal lords, and so they changed the system from enfeoffment to commanderies and counties. They thought that warfare would no longer be used, and the position of the Son of Heaven could be passed down through generations, but they did not know that the Han emperor would rise from a humble background and eventually destroy the Qin's ancestral temple.

  The Han dynasty learned from the Qin's isolation and established many princes and nobles as feudal lords, thinking that those with the same surname could inherit the throne without incident. However, the seven kingdoms harbored plots to usurp and assassinate each other.

  After Emperor Wu and Emperor Xuan of Han, they gradually reduced the power of the feudal lords and divided their influence, thinking that there would be no more problems. However, Wang Mang eventually overthrew the Han dynasty.

  Emperor Guangwu of Han learned from the lessons of Emperors Ai and Ping of Han, while Emperor Cao Pi of Wei learned from the downfall of Han, and Emperor Sima Yan of Jin learned from the downfall of Wei. Each of them prepared against the reasons for their own downfall, but ultimately, their downfalls came from outside what they had prepared for.

  Emperor Taizong of Tang heard about how Empress Wu Zetian killed her sons and grandsons, and sought to eliminate those who were suspicious or similar, but Empress Wu served by his side every day without being aware of it.

  The current emperor, seeing that the five dynasties' method of stationing troops is enough to control their rulers, has completely relinquished military power, making them weak and easy to control. He fears that he does not know that his descendants will eventually be trapped by enemy states. Seeing the chaos in Hunan, the ministers and people want to think that the emperor's life is changing for the better, but they are actually fighting for power and profit. He fears that he does not know that miscellaneous and trivial matters will follow one after another, and the country will be troubled by financial difficulties.

  These individuals all possess extraordinary intelligence and exceptional talent. As for the subtleties of order and chaos, survival and destruction, they have thoroughly considered and carefully prepared for them. Yet, despite their meticulous consideration of these matters, disaster arises from elsewhere, ultimately leading to downfall and destruction - why is this so?

  Humanity!

  The system is based on rules and regulations, without which there would be no square or circle. However, these rules are established by people and can also be abolished by them. The wise ruler has restored the country and created a prosperous era, wanting to govern the world with literature, but does he know where the ancient sages' writings were compiled? They were compiled during the Wei and Jin dynasties!

  The parallel prose is exhausted, the wind and moon are linked, the flowers and grasses are played with, the cleverness is extravagant and beautiful, the floating splendor is gathered together. The classics of the sages are cut up, the words of the sages are broken, the meaning of the sages is analyzed, the way of the sages is harmed. So that under heaven there will be no standard for the Book of History, the elegance of the Odes, the classic of the Spring and Autumn Annals.

  Your Majesty wishes to create eternal peace, establish institutions, and promote sacred laws. However, by making parallel prose the model for imperial examinations, officials and commoners do not know where the sacred laws are or how institutions can be established.

  From the perspective of ancient prose, it is a mediocre ancient prose that plagiarized some parts of "Deep Thought Theory", but differs from it in that one talks about the mysterious and ethereal Tao, while the other directly talks about human morality! Don't even think about establishing a system for eternal peace, when these useless parallel writings are taken as the standard for national articles and imperial examinations, what's the point of talking about systems and laws?!

  Regardless of right or wrong, the current main article style is parallel prose. Suddenly appearing in such an ancient plain prose style, and appearing in the imperial examination essay, it's like a metaphor - in later generations' Spring Festival Gala, a singer suddenly sang "Eighteen Touches" ...

  Definitely won't get it right!

  "You're getting lazier by the day!" His older sister tapped him on the head with her finger, then made Song Jiu a bowl of wonton noodles, which was considered high-end food during the Song Dynasty.

  He also said: "I have already asked Da Bo (the shopkeeper) to go and take a look at the list."

  "Thank you, sister."

  Pulling the wonton, the old man in the big sister's shop ran back and said: "Big wife, that one, that one is not cooked yet."

  "What's good," said the elder sister, plopping herself down with a fart.

  It's not just about the future of the ninth brother, but also a marriage. At the age of 16, Song Jiuxian saw a young girl from a Liu family merchant on the road and fell in love at first sight. He didn't know what evil he had committed, but he was determined to marry the little girl. The Liu family did not agree. Song Jiuxian then studied hard and passed the imperial examination the following year, becoming a scholar-official. As a scholar-official, he was considered half a noble. Song Jiuxian's elder sister went to propose again, and this time the other party agreed, saying that their young daughter was still young, only 14 years old. They were also reluctant to let her get married immediately, so they told Song Jiuxian to continue studying hard, and if he passed the imperial examination as a jinshi, they would marry their daughter to him.

  Song Jiu has been studying and taking exams all along, as the imperial examination is held every year. He didn't pass last year or the year before, and he got drunk and fell, injuring himself all over, until his neighbors found him, carried him home, and he couldn't speak for several months.

  This year again did not succeed, Liu family's little daughter is seventeen years old this year, can Liu family still wait?

  Song Jiu continued drinking his wonton soup, what business did this fake Song Jiu have with the young mistress of the Liu family!

  Seeing Big Sister's worried face, Song Ji put down the wonton bowl and said: "Big Sister, I've thought it through. If not this year, we can try again next year."

  "Next year..."

  "Sister, think about it, several hundred people took the imperial examination, but only eight were admitted, how difficult is that!"

  It's a misconception. In the Song Dynasty, the scale of imperial examinations became larger and larger, often recruiting hundreds of people, which was held every three or four years. There were tens of millions of readers nationwide, with hundreds of thousands to millions coming to take the provincial exams, and those who passed were not as good as now.

  But fooling Big Sister is enough.

  Big sister thought about it too, first worrying about the Liu family, second worrying about her brother. Seeing that he's in a good state of mind and not like last year when he was drowning his sorrows with drink, her complexion slightly improved.

  Just as she was about to bid farewell, an old man in a brown robe walked in, saw the empty house and shook his head before speaking: "Who is the young master of the Song family?"

  "Ah, I am."

  "I am the steward of the Liu family. My master has instructed me to inform you that he has agreed to marry off the young mistress to the Zhu family, so your family should not send anyone over to disturb us again."

  "What a dog-blooded plot!" Song Jiu said dazedly.

  It can't be considered a regrettable marriage, as the two families hadn't even finalized the engagement, it was just something someone said casually and the Song family took it seriously. However, if Song Jiu really passes the imperial examination and becomes a scholar-official, with Zhao Kuangyin's emphasis on civil governance, gradually giving more power to civil officials, he might be able to marry Liu's daughter after all.

  "What nonsense... how can you go back on your word?" Big sister said, the first part was a question to Song Jiu, and the second part was directed at Liu's family manager.

  "Regret it if you must, big sister, don't worry, there's beauty everywhere under heaven."

  The old man sneered: "There are many fragrant grasses within the horizon, but they are not as compatible as dog tail grass."

  Song Jiuyue was speechless, and if I had to say it, big brother, you're too awesome.

  PS: As for the Song Dynasty Mandarin, it can only be found in some Minnan and Hakka dialects north of Wuling, and even in Japanese and Korean languages. Although they are not similar, the difference with Putonghua is like heaven and earth. If there is no time buffer, it is absolutely impossible to understand or speak, so I won't explain this point further.

  That xianxia book won't be updated, nor will it be put on the shelves. When I'm free, I'll go update two chapters. If there are fellow daoists who came from that book, all I can say is sorry. No choice, 200,000 words, over 2,000 collections, wanting to cry but having no tears, couldn't hold on anymore. For the sake of living, had to return to being a historical piece.