二十三世祖吴时来（1527—1590），十岁能诗文，有神童之称。嘉靖二十八年（1549）乡试中举，次年会试不第。归乡后至离家二十里的景星岩古刹，面壁苦读，足未出山达两年之久。一日，其父前往探视，时来出示新作一部，父亲大喜，却见时来埋首作文处四壁皆血痕。父亲急问，答曰：“作文时吐出的。”父亲大声泣曰：“吾儿呕出心血矣！”于是促时来归家。后时来登嘉靖三十二年进士，官至左都御史。
The twenty-third ancestor Wu Shilai (1527-1590) was an accomplished writer and poet by age ten, and was acclaimed a child prodigy. In the 28th year of the rule of Jiajing Emperor (1549), he passed the provincial exam; but the next year failed the subsequent examination. Returning home, he went to study at the ancient Jingxingyan Temple, around seven miles away from his family home, and worked incredibly hard, not leaving the mountain for two years. One day his father came to visit him, and he showed his father a recent composition, which pleased his father greatly. But when his father looked closely at the walls of his study-cell, he noticed that they were all stained with blood. The son explained to the anxious father, “When I write compositions I spit it out”. On hearing this, his father wept loudly, “My son studies so hard as to spit blood!” He urged his son to return home immediately. Later, in the thirty-second year of Jiajing, Wu Shilai attained the highest honor in the imperial examinations, and at the height of his career was ranked a Censor-in-Chief [at the Institute of Supervision].