TATLC Chapter 89 — Another Failure

With spring’s arrival, people who had rested all winter got busy again.

Scholars focused on the imperial exams, while farming families tended to their fields.

Tang pestered Li Fangyue every day, asking how things were progressing, but Li Fangyue never dared to make any promises.

As the family’s finances grew tighter, and Tang desperately hoped that Lu Chengyu could pass the Xiucai examination to bring her honor.

How could Li Fangyue guarantee anything? At the beginning of the year, the Chief Clerk had taken another concubine. She came from a brothel and wasn’t particularly beautiful, but she was irresistibly seductive and had the clerk completely bewitched. Her sister couldn’t say much and influence him anymore.

Her sister was already overwhelmed with her own troubles and couldn’t help with Li Fangyue’s matters.

Tang grew impatient with Li Fangyue’s evasive answers and started arguing with her. With the examination drawing closer, Tang questioned whether it was because her sister was just a concubine that she couldn’t speak up at all.

How could Li Fangyue admit this? She could only put on airs, saying her sister was very favored and just waiting to give birth to a son so she could be promoted to wife.

The argument between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law grew so heated that Lin Xiu’er, who happened to be passing by, overheard every word. Stunned by what she heard, it took her a moment to collect herself before she entered the house.

“What’s wrong with you?” Lu An saw that Lin Xiu’er looked off and couldn’t help asking.

It took Lin Xiu’er a while to calm down before she said, “Li Fangyue’s sister is a concubine.”

Lu An stared at her, shocked. “What did you say?”

Lin Xiu’er calmed down and repeated slowly, “Li Fangyue’s sister is a concubine. Sister-in-law said it herself.”

Lu An’s eyes widened. “How is that possible? If Li Ru is just a concubine, why did Chengyu marry her?”

Lin Xiuer thought for a moment and realized it made no sense. If Li Ru was only a concubine, why did Lu Chengyu marry Li Fangyue in the first place?

“Maybe Chengyu didn’t know Li Fangyue’s sister concubine at first.”

Then, Lin Xiu’er suddenly remembered that Tang had treated Li Fangyue pretty well at first, but then her attitude suddenly changed at some point. She thought Tang probably found out around that time, but maybe she kept it secret from the family and the villagers because she was afraid of losing face.

Lu An’s face darkened with anger. “So after all this time and all the money we spent, we ended up marrying the sister of a lowly concubine.” He had always been accommodating to this nephew’s wife, only to find out it was all for nothing.

In the eyes of many villagers, the concubines of wealthy families were a special existence. Villagers both envied their fine clothes and food, yet also felt these people had degraded themselves.

Lu An thought about all the betrothal gifts sent to the Li family when Lu Chengyu got married, then thought about how the family now argued over every single tael of silver. He immediately felt furious. After his anger passed, Lu An finally gradually calmed down.

Lin Xiu’er looked at Lu An and asked with some confusion, “You were in town before, didn’t you know about this?”

“I heard people say the Li family’s daughter was the clerk’s wife.” Who could have thought she was just a concubine?

Lin Xiu’er’s heart was full of anger. Li Fangyue had recently given birth to a daughter, so her arrogance had died down a bit, but when she first entered the family, it wasn’t like this. She used her sister as a front and even tried to intimidate her. Back then, she was unsure of Li Fangyue’s background and didn’t dare offend her. Now it turned out the truth was nothing like what she had imagined.

“Husband, do you think we should let mother know about this?” Lin Xiu’er asked.

A trace of viciousness flashed in Lu An’s eyes. After a moment of contemplation, he said, “Let’s wait until after Lu Chengyu’s spring examinations are over.”

If Lu Chengyu passed, then exposing Li Fangyue’s situation now would just offend people for nothing. If Lu Chengyu failed, then the eldest family treating their family like monkeys would have to be addressed properly.

Lin Xiu’er nodded. “Then let’s wait until after the spring examination. There are only a few days left anyway.”

The annual spring examination was a matter of life and death for many scholars. There were even quite a few candidates who fainted in the examination hall from excessive nervousness.

On the day of the exams, Lu Lin watched the nervous scholars going to take the test and couldn’t help smiling.

Chen Xiaomi glanced at Lu Lin and asked, “What’s making you so happy?”

Lu Lin smiled. “Nothing, watching people take exams is a happy thing.”

Back when Lu Lin took his college entrance exams in his previous life, he felt he hadn’t done well on the first day and couldn’t sleep all night. Every time he closed his eyes, he regretted not being more careful when answering questions. When he watched people take the college entrance exam the next year, his mindset was completely different.

Chen Xiaomi gave him a look and felt he had some twisted sense of humor.

“I heard that some people bought our rooster dolls and put them on altars to worship them.” Lu Lin rubbed his nose, really not understanding the customs of this world.

Chen Xiaomi sighed. “We sell the dolls. What the customers do with them afterward is none of our business.”

Lu Lin nodded. “You’re right.”

Taking advantage of the spring examination, several doll styles related to the spring examination in Lu Lin’s shop sold out completely.

Chen Xiaocai was organizing the dolls in the shop. Recently, the dolls sold in the shop had gained some literary flair. For example, this bear doll held a heart in its hands with two words painted on it: “Top Scholar¹.” There were also ones painted with “Second Place²” and “Third Place³.”

Lately, many customers had been buying these Top Scholar Bears and Top Scholar Rabbits, hoping they would bring good luck in the imperial examinations.

Liu Town had also recently sold a rooster treasure for sixty taels of silver.

Every time Chen Xiaocai looked at the silver in the cabinet, he felt nervous. Before, he thought all the earned silver had to be given to the big boss above, so sometimes even when there was a lot of silver, he just felt there was a lot of silver. Now knowing that all this silver belonged to their own family, it felt different.

There was a time when Chen Xiaocai’s dream was to earn some money, then buy a few mu of land and live like ordinary villager. With land, his big brother wouldn’t have to risk his life hunting in the mountains all the time. But now, just selling one big doll could bring in dozens of taels of silver, enough to buy several mu of land.

Shen Chi rested his chin in his hands and said, “The shop treasure really makes money! But Brother Lin won’t let us make too many.”

Chen Xiaocai said gloomily, “Brother Lin says rare things are precious. If we make too many, they won’t sell.”

Shen Chi tilted his head. “I don’t really understand, but Brother Lin is really amazing! He learns characters really fast.”

The old scholar Lu Lin hired had quite an attitude and often went on strike. But Lu Lin only needed the old scholar to read through articles once to remember the pronunciation of all the characters using pinyin. Learning to write characters wasn’t difficult either. When the old scholar wasn’t there, Lu Lin taught the two of them to read.

Chen Xiaocai nodded. “Brother Lin is very capable.” In his heart, he admired Lu Lin completely, but he would never admit this in front of Lu Lin.

After a long and anxious wait, the exam results were finally posted.

On the day of the announcement, many people went to join the excitement. Many villagers who couldn’t even read still crowded around the announcement board, watching with great interest. Lu Lin stood at the edge of the crowd, amazed by the sea of people surrounding the board.

“I passed, I passed!” A student suddenly screamed with excitement, then collapsed on the roadside.

Lu Lin thought, So the story of Fan Jin going crazy after passing the exams wasn’t just fiction after all.⁴ There really are people who faint from excessive excitement.