Chapter 122: Chapter 71 Grudges_2
"I heard it at that time; they said it was preserved goods given by paupers, all decayed and taking up space in the mansion, so they just sent them over to us!"
Paupers... decayed...
Qi Chuan’s fists couldn’t help but slowly clench.
He was like a dog raised by the Fan Family, without dignity, without prospects, without anything.
In the rainy night, Madame Ma was still cursing: "Can’t even piss and take a look at himself, the short-lived servant, you can’t count on anything, making my whole family drink northwest wind..."
"Shut up!" Qi Chuan kicked over the table, and then the shrimp shells scattered all over the floor with a "clatter."
Madame Ma was stunned. In ordinary days, Qi Chuan never talked back when she cursed him; he was like a dumb gourd. She lifted her head to look at her normally reticent husband, only to see his eyes dark and gloomy, as if enveloped in raging fire, like a fierce ghost in the rainy night, staring ferociously at her.
She suddenly became frightened and stopped cursing any further. It wasn’t until the man kicked away the clutter bucket in front of him, as if he could no longer bear the oppressive small house, and with a slam of the door, turned and rushed back into the curtain of rain outside.
A long while later, Madame Ma came back to her senses, spat at the empty doorway, and spitefully said.
"A curse on him, better he dies out there!"
...
Several bursts of autumn rain washed away the last bit of heat lingering in Shengjing.
After the white dew, each night grew cooler than the last. Posh households got up early in the morning to "gather the morning dew." Medical texts say: "Autumn dew on the grass, collected before dawn, cures a hundred diseases, quenches thirst, makes the body light and not hungry, and the muscles sleek and moist."
Posh households had the leisure and refinement for such things, but the scholars were very busy. Tomorrow was the first day of August, and the autumn examinations were impending. The scholars were all at home, getting their writing brushes and ink prepared. Blind Man He’s fortune-telling at the temple entrance was strangely bustling—there were always families wanting to seek an auspicious sign for their son who was about to take the exams.
The street vendors on West Street packed up earlier than usual. In Wu Youcai’s fresh fish shop, the white mourning banners and streamers had not been completely removed, and at a glance, it appeared cold and desolate.
Mother Wu was buried seven days ago. Blind Man He chose a good day with lucky stars and picked a burial site with excellent feng shui. Before leaving, he said to Wu Youcai, "This is a lucky spot. Young master, rest assured, with your mother buried here, this land will yield a top scholar. You’re sure to become an official in the future."
Wu Youcai just smiled faintly upon hearing this.
Now that his mother had passed away, whether he became the top scholar or an official, either way, his mother would no longer see it.
The autumn wind wailed as Wu Youcai cleaned the weeds from the courtyard’s entrance, then turned back into the house to prepare the paper and brushes he would need the next day.
In the past, before every autumn examination, his mother would be the one to carefully prepare these for him. Now that his mother was gone, he was left to arrange and tidy up everything himself. The memories of the past made him feel even more desolate.
Wu Youcai bent down and dragged the old exam basket from under the bed.
This exam basket was bought from a successful candidate by his mother for fifty coins when he first went to school, hoping to share the person’s good luck. But in the blink of an eye, more than ten years had passed, and even after his mother was gone, his wish remained unfulfilled.
After dragging out the exam basket, he didn’t open his bookcase but instead sat down on the ground, his gaze sweeping over to a small paper package lying in front of the little table in the corner.
That was the paper package given to him by Lu Tong.
In the pitch-black room, the paper package seemed to emit a faint white light, seizing his entire mind like a malevolent little ghost sitting at the head of the table, grinning maliciously at him.
Wu Youcai was somewhat in a daze.
Lu Tong’s words from that day echoed in his ears again.
"Wu Youcai, you first took the exams at eighteen, and now twelve years have passed. In all these twelve years, have you never wondered why you didn’t pass even once?"
"If the issue of cheating in the imperial examination isn’t addressed, then after you finish mourning, burning paper money, and buying burial land for your mother, your future will still be the same as before—you’ll spend your whole life hustling and bowing to mediocrity. It’s your fate."
"If someone were to die at the examination hall, one or two lives lost, then it wouldn’t be a minor issue that just the Ministry of Rites could cover up. The Trial Court, even the Department of Military Affairs would be involved. The more people there are, the less likely it is for a big issue to be downplayed. Once various interests are intertwined, what was originally simple becomes complicated."
"Those chief examiners, dressed in their finery, yet swine amongst men, they disrupt the officialdom, causing the talented to be suppressed by the talentless. If it were me... "
"Of course, I would kill them."
Kill them...
Wu Youcai suddenly shivered.
He hurriedly snapped out of it as if waking from that terrifying dream, his hands gripping the lid of the exam basket forcefully.
Killing a chief examiner wasn’t such an easy task. Not to mention whether such a deed could be accomplished, now that he was all alone, with not a single relative left alive, he didn’t need to worry about implicating anybody. However, as someone who had been taught from a young age to "revere the virtues of ancestors, to extend the lineage of parents; to repay the kindness of the country, to seek the welfare of one’s home; to aid others in need, to curb one’s own evil thoughts," the very idea of killing innocent people for his personal desire seemed utterly wicked and alluring.