TATLC Chapter 102 — First Birthday Ceremony

The excitement from the spring examinations gradually died down, and life went on as usual.

By summer, Yuanbao could already sit up on his own. Lu Lin covered the entire floor of the room with bamboo mats so Yuanbao could crawl around everywhere on them.

Yuanbao could now grab things, and the little guy had a unique interest in throwing stuff around.

Chen Xiaomai really liked his nephew Yuanbao. Whenever Yuanbao tossed something away, Xiaomai would happily run around picking up whatever got tossed, and the two of them had a great time playing together. At Yuanbao’s age, he should have started being shy around strangers, but he was naturally friendly with everyone.

He didn’t cry no matter who held him. Of course, there were still differences. Even though Yuanbao was a chubby baby, he was very reserved and rarely cried or laughed loudly.

When familiar people held him comfortably, Yuanbao would occasionally give them a smile. With unfamiliar people, Yuanbao would just close his eyes and sleep. Although everyone at home said Yuanbao was very well-behaved, Lu Lin secretly worried that Yuanbao was so good-natured he could easily get kidnapped.

His son was so calm and composed that even if human traffickers caught him, he probably wouldn’t cry or make a fuss. But then Lu Lin thought again. Although Yuanbao was usually quiet, if he ever got hungry, it was as if a demon possessed him, crying loud enough to shake the heavens, and it would take a lot of effort to calm him down.

Lu Lin was very satisfied with life here. The shop occasionally introduced new products to keep customers coming.

Children grow incredibly fast, and in the blink of an eye, Yuanbao turned one year old.

Yuanbao had grown chubby with fair skin, looking so plump that people couldn’t help wanting to pinch his cheeks.

Despite his pudginess, he was actually very quick in his movements.

For his first birthday celebration, Lu Lin prepared a first birthday ceremony for Yuanbao.

Lu Lin spread a bamboo mat in the room and placed brushes, ink, paper, inkstones, an abacus, coins, and gold ingots on it. After preparing everything, Lu Lin placed Yuanbao in front of the bamboo mat.

Yuanbao seemed a bit confused by the situation in front of him and lazily yawned.

Chen Xiaomai glanced at Lu Lin and said, “Lin-ge, Yuanbao doesn’t seem interested in any of these things! Maybe he doesn’t like them!”

Lu Lin looked at Chen Xiaomi and said, “How could he not be interested in anything? Yuanbao just hasn’t made his move yet.” They say still waters run deep,¹ and that probably described his son at this moment.

Chen Xiaomai disagreed, “I think he just doesn’t like them.”

He took half a flatbread from his pocket and placed it on the bamboo mat. Lu Lin twitched at the sight. If Yuanbao went for the food during his grab, wouldn’t that prove he was a glutton?

Lu Lin watched Yuanbao nervously. The baby sucked on his finger, looking around, seemingly untempted by the flatbread Xiaomai had put down.

Seeing Yuanbao’s appearance, Lu Lin thought to himself, his son was really making him proud! He actually wasn’t tempted by delicious food. This clearly showed he was destined for great things.

Chen Xiaomi grew impatient watching his son taking forever to make a move and finally couldn’t hold back. He repeatedly urged Yuanbao to pick something. After much coaxing, Yuanbao seemed to finally understand what was expected of him.

Yuanbao toddled on his chubby little legs and grabbed a string of coins.

Choosing money first wasn’t the best choice here, as it would be considered too focused on material wealth.

But Lu Lin thought Yuanbao liking money was pretty good. After all, money wasn’t everything, but without it, you couldn’t get anything done. It seemed his son was quite practical.

After grabbing the coins, Yuanbao threw them away.

Lu Lin blinked and thought to himself, he actually threw them out! That’s money! With his son’s attitude, he wouldn’t become a spendthrift, would he?

After Yuanbao threw the coins, he grabbed a silver ingot. Lu Lin felt somewhat relieved and thought to himself, his son had high standards! He looked down on small money, so he seemed destined to make big money.

Yuanbao waved his hand and threw the silver ingot out too.

Qin Lang, who was watching from the side, couldn’t help saying, “Yuanbao is clearly someone special! This is treating money like dirt.”

To casually toss away such a large silver ingot! Did this little guy know how many steamed buns that silver ingot could buy? Yuanbao waved his hand and threw out the brushes too, laughing as he threw them, probably finding throwing things very entertaining.

Lu Lin watched Yuanbao grab a book and slam it on the ground with huffing sounds, and immediately felt his son probably wasn’t cut out for studying either.

After Yuanbao threw everything out, he finally hugged an abacus.

Lu Lin looked at Yuanbao and thought to himself, So he chose the abacus. That must mean he’s going to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a great merchant.

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, another two years passed.

In the fourth year since Lu Lin arrived here, Lu Chengyu finally passed the imperial examination and became a Xiucai.

When Tang saw that Lu Chengyu had passed the exam, she immediately felt like the clouds had parted to reveal the moon. The entire Lu family seemed to stand a little taller and straighter.

Tang exclaimed excitedly, “Good, good, now everything is alright.”

As a Xiucai, Lu Chengyu was exempt from corvée labor, his land was free from taxes, and he no longer had to kneel before officials. The government even provided an annual stipend of two taels of silver. More importantly, it brought prestige.

“My son, you’ve finally made it,” Tang said, overflowing with excitement..

In the past two years, when Lu Chengyu repeatedly failed the exams, rumors had spread throughout the village, putting Tang under a lot of pressure.

Lu Chengyu also felt a subtle sense of relief. Now that he had finally become a Xiucai, he could make a living by teaching in the village if he wanted, enough to keep food on the table. However, this wasn’t his goal.

The next step was to take the provincial exam to become a Juren. Only by passing that could he become an official, rise above the common people, and crush Lu Lin beneath his feet.

In recent years, the business of Huaxia Trading Company had remained stable, constantly introducing new products to ensure a steady customer base.

Many villagers would bring their game and mountain goods to sell to Lu Lin in town. Out of consideration for being from the same village, Lu Lin always offered a fair price. Thanks to the money they earned through him, Lu Lin’s reputation in the village kept getting better.

Earlier, villagers had gossiped about Lu Lin embezzling profits, but after discussing it for a while without any response from Huaxia Trading Company, everyone probably got tired of it and gradually stopped talking about it.

Over the past few years, Lu Chengyu had to endure both the pressure of his studies not going well and the villagers constantly praising Lu Lin. His heart had long been filled with resentment.

Chen Xiaomi looked at Lu Lin and said, “So Lu Chengyu actually passed the exam!”

Lu Lin nodded and said, “Lu Chengyu should have some ability, but he’s just a Xiucai.”

A Xiucai did come with some privileges, but it was mostly just a respectable title. Of course, if Lu Chengyu was willing to teach, he could earn a decent amount of silver. If he did nothing, becoming a poor scholar was very possible.

Given Lu Chengyu’s personality, he would definitely continue taking higher exams.

Chen Xiaomi glanced at Lu Lin and said, “The Xiucai rank is still quite an achievement. If he accidentally passes the provincial exam and becomes a Juren, he could really become an official.”

Lu Lin raised his eyebrows. Officials still had high prestige. If any village produced an official, it could even change the fate of the entire village.

The scholar exam was once a year, but the provincial exam wasn’t simple. It was once every three years. Not to mention anything else, the cost of traveling to the provincial capital for the exam wasn’t low! Many scholars didn’t fail in the examination hall but collapsed on the road.

Lu Lin pursed his lips. These past few years, he had saved quite a bit of silver, already over four thousand taels. Maybe it was almost enough to buy an official position.

Huaxia Trading Company’s business was good, but Lu Lin didn’t rely entirely on it to make money.

Over the past two years, he had earned a lot of silver from brewing alcohol. Lu Lin’s convenience store had beer and some very high-proof liquor. After mixing these with drinks from the store, Lu Lin sold them to restaurants and earned a considerable amount of money.

“Lu Chengyu is probably going to enjoy the limelight for a while this time,” Lu Lin said.

Chen Xiaomi nodded. “Probably.”

At first, Chen Xiaomi often drove a cart to the fields to collect vegetables, but after Granny Shen rented out all the land, Chen Xiaomi found it troublesome and started buying vegetables from villagers. Recently, the villagers who came by never failed to mention Lu Chengyu. But there was no helping it. Since Lu Chengyu passed the scholar exam, Dashi Village could bask in some reflected glory. Having a Xiucai in the village was very prestigious, and it could even help with marriages for the villagers.

To celebrate Lu Chengyu passing the Xiucai exam, the Lu family held a banquet. Tang invited all the important people in the village and had a grand celebration.

Li Fangyue and Lu Chengyu’s relationship had been very tense these past two years. Li Fangyue had originally thought things would improve once Lu Chengyu became a scholar, but unexpectedly, their relationship became even more strained.

A few years ago, when Lu Chengyu didn’t pass the scholar exam, the villagers spread rumors that marrying Li Fangyue had been useless for him. Now that Lu Chengyu had passed, some jealous people said, “Lu Chengyu could only pass the scholar exam because of Li Fangyue. After all, marrying an official’s wife really helps! That’s how he passed!”

In the second year after Lu Chengyu married Li Fangyue, when he didn’t pass the scholar exam, he became completely disappointed in Li Fangyue.

This spring examination, Lu Chengyu didn’t use connections either, so Lu Chengyu felt that his passing the scholar exam was entirely due to his own hard work and had nothing to do with Li Fangyue. Marrying Li Fangyue was his biggest mistake.

Tang made chicken soup for Lu Chengyu and said with great satisfaction, “Son, you’ve finally brought honor to your mother.”

The Lu family had spent a lot on the lavish banquet earlier, but since most villagers brought gifts, they actually ended up making a profit. Tang felt that life was finally starting to look promising.

“Chengyu, what are your plans next?”

Lu Chengyu was firm as he replied, “Now that I’ve passed the imperial examination and become a Xiucai, naturally I’ll continue taking higher exams.” If he could become a Juren, a mere Chief Clerk would be nothing in his eyes.

Unable to rely on this relative connection, Lu Chengyu even began to resent the Chief Clerk. His heart was set on rising high and trampling all those who looked down on him.

Tang sighed with regret, “Lu Lin is really too arrogant. He stayed in town and didn’t even come back.”

Earlier, when hosting a celebration banquet, she had sent someone to invite Lu Lin to come back for a meal.

Tang’s reason for inviting him was mostly to show off in front of him.

Over the past few years, the villagers had constantly praised Lu Lin as capable and talented, saying he was blessed with good fortune. It had frustrated her to no end.

Now that Lu Chengyu had finally passed, Tang wanted to use this opportunity to make Lu Lin understand that he was just someone working for others, while her son was the scholar destined for greatness. But Lu Lin had turned her down.

Lu Chengyu said gloomily, “Lu Lin has been at Huaxia Trading Company for a long time now.”

Tang nodded and said, “Yes.”

Back then, when Chen Jing had caused that major incident, Chen Xiaomi immediately came up with thirty taels of silver to sever ties with the Chen family. Tang had always held a grudge ever since.

After all these years, the owner of Huaxia shop had never appeared, and Lu Lin sat firmly in his position. Tang had always suspected Lu Lin had pocketed a lot in kickbacks.

She did some rough calculations. If Chen Xiaomi and Lu Lin each earned two taels per month, that would be over forty taels per year. Not counting kickbacks, they must have saved more than a hundred taels over the years.

Every time she thought about Lu Lin getting rich with Chen Xiaomi while their family couldn’t benefit at all, she felt like her heart was being cut with a knife. Tang looked at Lu Chengyu and said, “Chengyu!”

Now that Lu Chengyu had become a Xiucai, Tang felt relieved and couldn’t help thinking about other matters.

Lu Chengyu and Li Fangyue had been married for several years but only had one little girl.

Tang also knew that her son and Li Fangyue hadn’t gotten along well these past few years, so they had been sleeping in separate rooms. Since she herself had never liked Li Fangyue, she had let it be. But as she got older, her desire for a grandson grew stronger, and she was gradually becoming anxious.

Lu Chengyu replied indifferently, “We’ll talk about it later.”

Recently, he felt disguted just looking at Li Fangyue. At a recent banquet with his fellow scholars, he had been dragged to a brothel. Surrounded by beautiful courtesans attending to him, Lu Chengyu couldn’t help but entertain other thoughts.