Chapter 2: The Cultivated Talent

  "This kind of thing can be seen on the streets every day, and everyone is used to it! Ah, it's really a sin!" Old Fu sighed softly, pointing to the signboard with black characters on a blue background that read "Fushou Building", saying: "This is a first-class smoke tea house, there are several other types, different levels use different signboards to attract customers, and each month they donate money to the imperial court, also have different business hours. However, this first-class smoke tea house donates the most, so it's open every day. Young master, this is not a good place, let's leave quickly!"

  Fu Bo knew that Tan Yanqin rarely had the opportunity to go out, so he didn't know about these things. He slightly mentioned it to prevent Tan Yanqin from entering the opium den if he were to come out himself. After finishing speaking, he pulled Tan Yanqin's sleeve and walked past the big smoker who was still shouting loudly on the ground, continuing to walk forward. No one would be happy to encounter such a thing, and although Tan Yanqin had seen drug addicts in the observation room of a detoxification center in his previous life, this was the first time he saw it on the street. At this time, Tan Yanqin noticed that there were many opium dens on both sides of the street, with many people entering and exiting. Although he knew that China's opium dens should be numerous, he did not expect that even in Hunan Province, which is located in the middle of China, the invasion of opium was still so severe. He thought it was only a serious phenomenon in coastal provinces.

  Encountering the opium devil made Tan Yan's enthusiasm for the tour drop to freezing point, he mechanically walked forward, thinking whether to take out the anti-addiction prescription in his hand to alleviate the harm of opium to Chinese people in this era.

  Although there is no modern purification equipment, fortunately, many of the detoxification formulas in his hands are traditional Chinese medicines. Using the existing equipment to skip the purification process and directly make them into medicinal preparations or pills shouldn't be too difficult... Tan Yanqun thought as he walked along the street.

  "Zu An! Tan Zu An!" Several younger students ran up from behind.

  Tan Yanqian saw them and immediately realized that the "Zu An" they had just called was his own name. "The names of this era are really confusing, why not just call me Tan Yanqian directly? Calling my courtesy name, I didn't react for a while!" Tan Yanqian complained in his heart, smiled and greeted: "Weitong brother, Jian brother, seeing you two so happy, I suppose you have passed the exam and become Xiucai?"

  These two young scholars still had an impression on Tan Yankai, who returned to his hometown of Chaling, Hunan last year due to his father Tan Zhonglin's official duties. Later, he settled down at Xishu Hall in Changsha. Tan Zhonglin was very strict with Tan Yankai, so Tan Yankai did not attend a private school. Instead, he followed Tan Zhonglin to various places and invited local scholars to teach him and his brothers. Usually, it was difficult for them to go out. However, Tan Zhonglin was not a pedantic person. He gave each child space to exercise according to their talents - helping Tan Zhonglin with official documents, learning from his staff how to handle government affairs. Tan Yankai performed far better than his brothers in this regard and was the most capable, earning Tan Zhonglin's praise. Wei Tong and Ji An were famous young masters of a prominent family in Changsha. The interaction between their families allowed them to meet several times, especially since they all took the imperial examination together with Tan Yankai this year, so they had more interactions. However, both of these individuals were two or three years older than Tan Yankai.

  That young man named Jian shook his head and said, "I'm not as great as you guys. Zuan and Weitong both passed the exam, and the list has already been posted at the Xicheng Academy. Especially Zuan, you're the youngest among all the successful candidates, everyone is calling you a child prodigy!"

  "A 15-year-old prodigy? Ha ha, Brother Ji An is joking, but this is just the first step on the examination hall, and it's just a beginner. The road ahead is still long!" Tan Yanqi said humbly with his hands clasped together. Studying had always been Feng Wenyu's strong suit, attached to Tan Yanqi's body. Thinking back to his past life, he was able to stand out among the high school students in Hunan Province and get admitted to Peking University Health Science Center, which was no easier than taking the imperial examination at that time. Unfortunately, the Four Books and Five Classics that Tan Yanqi is facing now are not mathematics, physics, or chemistry, and the difference between them is as vast as the Pacific Ocean!

  "It's best to pass the Xiucai exam as soon as possible, so that there will be more time to prepare for the Provincial and Imperial exams later. Otherwise, even if one passes at an old age, it would be meaningless!" Ji An was indeed a broad-minded person, although he didn't pass the exam, he didn't have much regret in his heart either.

  "Thousands of troops and horses crossing this single-log bridge, only then is it a case of 'one general's achievement, ten thousand skeletons dry!' In the whole country, tens of thousands of scholars, tens of thousands of xiucai, thousands of juren, hundreds of jinshi, alas! I dare not say that even getting three top honors is easy, but just safely becoming a jinshi and securing an official career is also as difficult as ascending to heaven!" Wei Tong said with a bitter tone.

  "How many people in the world can achieve great things are top scholars? Even Su Zhe of Suzhou and Chen Jichang of Guangxi, who both achieved the highest honors in the imperial examination, were just mediocre all their lives. I took the imperial exam just to get a title to fool my old man, but later on, if I can set up a factory and make some noise, won't that be wonderful?!" Ji An said with a smile.

  "Brother Jia'an is quite open-minded, but unfortunately, I'm the younger brother. My father's requirements are strict, and I'm afraid being a xiucai is absolutely not enough to get by!" Tan Yanqian said with a bitter smile.

  The two nodded in agreement, although they didn't have much contact with Tan Yanqian, but they had heard about the strict family education of the Tan family. Compared to Tan Zhonglin's strict requirements for his son, they seemed to be in heaven. Not to mention other things, just Tan Yanqian's good handwriting was enough to make them feel ashamed. This was all based on the foundation laid by imitating hundreds of famous calligraphers. Let alone writing an article every three days, a poem every five days, and so many pages of large characters and small characters. It was not exaggerated that he could pass the imperial examination at the age of 15, after all, the foundation was there!

  Tan Yanqian met two people halfway and knew that he had obtained the title of Xiucai, so he didn't have the heart to look at the list again. On the one hand, he was not interested in the imperial examination, and since he already knew the result, there was no need to run another trip; on the other hand, seeing the opium ghost's toxic symptoms made him feel extremely uncomfortable, as if his heart had been pricked by a needle.

  After bidding farewell to Ji An and Wei Tong, he returned to his residence, Xishu Hall, with Fu Bo. The nine large characters of "Fu" in Xishu Hall were now dazzling to his eyes. With an unpleasant mood, he shook his head and walked towards his study. According to the plan made earlier, regardless of whether he passed this exam or not, he would hurry to Fuzhou to see Tan Zhonglin as soon as possible after knowing the result. After all, he still had a nominal title of "staff member", which was also a way for Tan Zhonglin to tie him up and prevent him from causing trouble for the family outside.

  Tan Zhonglin's educational approach was not unfamiliar to Tan Yanqian, and he understood it very well. After all, in this era, the precursors of revolution had already begun to emerge, especially when entering the 20th century. The first decade saw a surge in revolutionary uprisings, but none were successful until the 1911 Xinhai Revolution finally achieved victory, ushering in a new era. Although it is unknown what Sun Yat-sen and other revolutionary figures of this era are doing now, if Tan Yanqian had decided to look for them, it would have been easy. However, Tan Yanqian had no interest in Sun Yat-sen's great revolutionary cause. Those who knew some history understood that Sun Yat-sen would have to continue struggling for twenty years to achieve initial results, but whether these results were good or bad was impossible to evaluate. Moreover, becoming a colleague of Sun Yat-sen meant putting one's head on the line, and Tan Yanqian was even more reluctant to take on such a highly dangerous job.

  In the study, Tan Yanqin first unfolded a letter to his brother Tan Zhonglin in Fuzhou, informing him of his success in becoming a Xiucai and briefly reporting on his recent studies. He also included two poems and his plan for returning home. Feng Wenyu was extremely grateful that he had inherited all of Tan Yanqin's knowledge and skills, otherwise he would not have known how to deal with the poetry and calligraphy. However, possessing Tan Yanqin's body also brought unexpected benefits - his sleep time could be compressed to a very short period without affecting his rest, and he vaguely felt that his memory had become extremely powerful. In his previous life, Feng Wenyu's memory was already good, but now he could easily recite from cover to cover any book he picked up, which was an unexpected discovery for him and absolutely great news.

  Tan Yanxin had no friends in Changsha, after all, he only returned to his hometown for the first time last year. He grew up by his father's side since childhood, and the living environment changed frequently with his father's appointment. So even if he passed the Xiucai exam at the age of 15, there was nothing worth celebrating, and the food in the Xishu Hall only improved slightly for a few days.

  The letter to Tan Zhonglin has been sent, but Tan Yanqian is not in a hurry to go to Fuzhou. After all, it's just a new prison cell. According to Tan Yanqian's memory, his life was no different from being in jail except for helping his father with government affairs. What's most important is that Tan Yanqian needs time to read books - the Four Books and Five Classics and other required readings for the imperial examination that he had studied before. Although he had a solid foundation in these subjects before Feng Wengu attached himself to him, after experiencing the benefits of being able to memorize them at a glance, he needed to have more accurate memories of this knowledge so as to conserve energy for Tan Zhonglin's exams later on.

  In just two or three days, Tan Yanjin carefully browsed and memorized all the books in the study. When he felt a bit more confident, he brought two or three servants from his household to rush to Fuzhou. Due to the long distance, Fu Bo's age was not suitable for traveling, so he chose a few younger and stronger servants to carry gifts and hurry to Fuzhou.

  Tan Yanxin followed his father Tan Zhonglin's promotion and traveled to various places since childhood. Although Feng Wenyu inherited everything from Tan Yanxin, it was the first time he had taken such a long journey by horseback, boat, and carriage, starting from Changsha and crossing Jiangxi and Fujian provinces for a whole month before arriving in Fuzhou. In this era, pollution was not as severe as in later generations, with beautiful mountains and rivers, fresh air, which eliminated Tan Yanxin's fatigue on the journey, and he remained energetic until he arrived in Fuzhou.

  At this time, Tan Zhonglin was appointed as the Governor of Fujian and Zhejiang. The nine "Fu" characters written by Empress Dowager Cixi in her own handwriting can be seen from the book given to him, indicating that Tan Zhonglin still had a good relationship with the imperial court, and Empress Dowager Cixi was supporting him behind his back. According to Tan Yanke's memory, two years ago, Tan Zhonglin resigned due to eye disease and returned home for treatment. After recovering from his illness, he received an inquiry about his health from the Qing government and was urged to return to Beijing as soon as possible after his recovery. Upon his return, he was indeed promoted to Minister of Personnel. At that time, Tan Zhonglin was already nearly 70 years old, and it was rare for someone of such advanced age to be appointed to such an important position as Minister of Personnel. Although he was transferred to the post of Governor of Fujian and Zhejiang in just a few months, it can still be seen that Tan Zhonglin's position in the imperial court was quite stable.

  "The most important thing is probably that the Old Buddha needs Tan Zhonglin to hold real power!" Tan Yanke thought with some skepticism. Although he was not very clear about the history of the late Qing dynasty, he also knew that there were many factions within the late Qing court, and its complexity was really unimaginable. It was hard to imagine that an old official like Tan Zhonglin who had retired could still be appointed.

  Just like Tan Yanxian's current focus on the official script style of the imperial court, this was what Tan Zhonglin had strictly required him to practice after meeting Weng Tonghe in Beijing last year - Weng Tonghe is a master of the standard official script style, with bold and powerful strokes, round and full, with hidden treasures within. Weng Tonghe's mastery of this style had earned him extra points in the imperial examination during the Xianfeng reign, allowing him to become the top scholar. In the capital city, the literati looked down on the official script style and did not practice it diligently, instead showing off their elegant and refined running script, which would be useless in an examination setting.

  It was Weng Tonghe, a close friend of Tan Zhonglin, who was also the leader of the Qing court's Qingliu faction. However, when Tan Zhonglin and Tan Yanke talked about the past affairs of the imperial court in private, they would often say with disdain: "As leaders of the Qingliu faction, Weng Shuping and Zhang Jiayou (Zhang Zhidong) had a deep rift between them, which was sown by the Weng and Zhang families during the struggle for power in the new and old military machines. When the Weng family was in trouble, Zhang Zhidong did not help to alleviate their difficulties, but when Zhang Zhidong was governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, he secretly stabbed Zhang Jiayou in the back, almost causing him to fall from power. Such is the rise and fall of officials in the imperial court!"

  Although Tan Yanxin was young, he was the most reliable of his sons in terms of helping Tan Zhonglin handle government affairs. In his spare time, Tan Zhonglin would often tell Tan Yanxin about the secrets of the imperial court, using his own experiences as a veteran official who had been active in politics for nearly 70 years to warn Tan Yanxin that everything on the surface may not be true!

  As for this warning, Tan Yanqing was deeply moved at this time. After all, Feng Wengu knew the general trend of world history in the next hundred years. To say nothing of the next hundred years, just some things that happened in China in the next 20 or 30 years would be unbelievable if they were put in the present. In comparison, the grudges between Weng Tonghe and Zhang Zhidong, both leaders of the Qingliu faction, seemed like child's play. However, this hit Tan Yanqing from another angle - although he knew the general trend of future history and the final fate of some famous historical figures, it did not mean that the historical figures he was familiar with would become NPCs in a game in front of him. They were all seasoned heroes or villains on the same level as Cao Cao. It wasn't that Feng Wengu didn't love his country, but when facing such a group of famous historical figures, it was really hard to say "no problem".

  When Feng Wenyu possessed Tan Yanxin for the first time and saw his father, Tan Zhonglin, he couldn't help but think to himself: "This old man can be considered as my grandfather's generation!"

  At this time, Tan Zhonglin was already 69 years old, compared to the 15-year-old Tan Yanqin, he can indeed be called a grandfather. However, thinking back to the social norms of that era, it's not hard to understand - as long as you have money and power, marrying a young concubine in your 40s is nothing unusual. Zhang Zhidong even had a concubine who was less than 20 years old when he was older, which is even more extravagant than Tan Zhonglin.