TATLC Chapter 91 — Chen Jing Borrowed from a Loan Shark

After the spring exams ended, Lu Lin’s shop became popular again. Earlier, a wealthy landowner had bought their store’s treasure rooster for fifty taels, and coincidentally, that landowner’s grandson successfully passed the Xiucai exam.

The grandson was only fifteen years old, making him the youngest among the successful candidates that year. Everyone agreed he had achieved remarkable success at a tender age.

When the grandson became a Xiucai at such a young age, everyone praised him for his talent and said he would definitely pass the higher imperial exams in the future. It wasn’t impossible that he might even become a high official or noble.

The landowner was so happy that he threw a big celebration at home, hosting banquets for several days straight.

At the banquet, the landowner brought out the large doll to show off. He said it was all thanks to the treasure’s blessing that his grandson had such good fortune. Even though fifty taels was expensive, it was worth every coin.

Soon, word spread that the store’s treasure really had magical effects. These rumors even reached the surrounding villages and towns. Many people came specifically to buy dolls, and all kinds of dolls became popular again.

Granny Shen was making dolls in her room, feeling very happy.

Business had been so good recently that they had to work day and night to keep up. It was tiring, but she felt secure.

Xi Que and Lin Chun could now handle everything on their own. Granny Shen only needed to help out occasionally.

The rooster dolls were completely sold out. Without the little yellow chick dolls, customers turned their attention to the other styles.

Lu Lin didn’t think his store’s dolls actually had the magical power to help people pass exams. He thought it was just a coincidence, but seeing how satisfied the customers were made him happy.

The reputation of the store’s treasure was so big that it even spread to their own village.

Both the dolls and the spring exams were hot topics that the villagers loved to discuss.

“This exam produced a Xiucai who’s only fifteen years old. That’s incredible!”

“That’s from the Xu family in town, right? I heard that when the landowner’s grandson was just over three years old, the master found him a teacher to start his education. Rich families are really different from us villagers.”

“Yeah, writing supplies are all expensive. Our village boys have to use every sheet of paper carefully, but the rich young masters in town don’t have those worries.”

The villagers thought of Lu Chengyu and sighed again. They had originally thought Lu Chengyu would pass this time, but he failed again.

“I heard that Landlord Xu’s grandson only passed because of that store’ treasure’s blessing.”

“That treasure is just a bigger doll. It doesn’t look particularly special.”

“How is it not special? It’s worth fifty taels.”

“Only these wealthy landowners have money to waste. Why would anyone spend so much on a single doll?”

“I heard that when this treasure first came out, several landowners fought over it.”

Wan Li was working in the shop when he saw a woman staring at the store from far away with a strange expression.

After a long time, the woman finally walked up to Wan Li and said she was Chen Xiaomi’s aunt and wanted to see Chen Xiaomi.

Wan Li was surprised and sent Qin Lang inside to report.

After receiving permission from Chen Xiaomi, Qin Lang brought Chen Chun’er to the back courtyard to meet him.

Chen Chun’er was the fourth child and Chen Xiaomi’s youngest paternal aunt.

Old Man Chen had always favored sons over daughters and didn’t pay much attention to this daughter.

When Chen Xiaomi was very young, Chen Chun’er had already married and moved away, so he didn’t have a strong impression of her.

She had married far away to a butcher, and the bride price wasn’t low.

Butchers made money quickly, but it was bloody work after all. Every day it was white knives going in and red knives coming out. People here thought butchers had too much violent energy and weren’t good matches.

Back then, after his aunt married out, her family received over twenty taels of silver as the bride price. After the marriage, she rarely contacted her natal family.

After Chen Xiaomi’s father died, the aunt came back to the Chen family once and cried hard. Before she married, she seemed to have a good relationship with his father.

The aunt felt sorry for the three brothers and secretly gave him a hundred wen, telling him to take care of himself and not treat himself badly.

For Chen Xiaomi at that time, a hundred wen was a lot of money. Because of this, he had a good impression of this aunt he rarely saw.

“Aunt, what brings you here?” Chen Xiaomi asked in confusion.

Chen Chun’er hesitated, then said, “Your grandparents came to my house a few days ago.”

Chen Xiaomi asked, puzzled, “Why?”

Chen Chun’er had married a butcher. Chen Xiaomi was very young then and didn’t have a deep impression of that man. But from what the villagers said, the aunt’s husband was a rough-looking man with a scruffy beard who looked hard to get along with. They said butchers were often bad-tempered and liked to hit people.

Chen Chun’er didn’t bring much dowry when she married, and because of the distance, the two families rarely visited each other.

Chen Jing had recently met someone who claimed he could get inside information on the imperial exam questions for fifty taels per set.

Chen Xiaomi exclaimed in disbelief, “There’s such a thing?” The exam questions should come from the prefect’s office. If someone really leaked inside information, it would be a huge scandal when it got out. “It must be fake.” If there really were inside exam questions, it shouldn’t be Chen Jing’s turn to get them.

Chen Chun’er nodded, “Yes, he was scammed.”

Chen Xiaomi thought, As expected. If exam papers really leaked out, that would be a major incident.

“So Chen Jing actually believed it?”

Chen Chun’er nodded, “He did. He went home to ask mother for money, but she didn’t agree, so Chen Jing secretly borrowed loan shark money.”

Actually, when Grandma Chen heard that Chen Jing had connections to get exam questions for fifty taels, she was excited too. But time was too tight then, and the Chen family didn’t have much spare money. To quickly gather fifty taels, they would have to sell land. Unless they sold the land cheaply, it couldn’t be sold quickly, which would delay things.

The old woman was afraid of taking risks, so she painfully refused.

Blinded by the bright future the swindler painted, Chen Jing felt this was his one shot at success. So he secretly borrowed from loan sharks.

Chen Xiaomi frowned. “Is he insane?” Did he have any idea how dangerous loan sharks were? The interest could double the principal in just two months.

Chen Chun’er shook her head, “Ah Jing really believed it.”

After Chen Jing spent fifty taels to buy the “exam questions”, he thought everything was set. He just had to wait for the exam to start, win first place among the scholars, and then rise to success. Then he’d ask his grandmother for money to pay back the debt.

But when the exam papers were handed out, Chen Jing realized he had been cheated. The actual content had nothing to do with the questions he bought.

Chen Jing realized he’d been scammed. When he went back to find the person who sold him the questions, that person had already disappeared without a trace. Buying exam questions was cheating to begin with. If he reported it to the authorities, he might get in trouble first. The government investigated cheating very strictly. If caught cheating, the light punishment was prison, the heavy punishment was execution.

Chen Jing had no choice but to swallow this bitter pill.

When the spring exam results came out, Chen Jing’s name wasn’t on the list. The family was extremely disappointed that he failed again. Chen Jing never dared mention the fifty taels of loan shark money.

At first, he was terrified. But maybe because the lenders didn’t immediately come after him, he started thinking he could drag it out and eventually default.

Those who lent money at high interest rates weren’t ordinary folks. If someone borrowed money and didn’t pay it back, they definitely wouldn’t let it slide.

A few days ago, several tough-looking men came to the Chen family demanding payment.

They beat Chen Jing up and threatened the Chen family that if they didn’t pay a hundred taels within the deadline, they’d cut off Chen Jing’s hands.

Grandma Chen was usually domineering, but facing several burly men, she couldn’t act tough and could only wail.

Chen Xiaomi said calmly, “So what? He borrowed it, but it doesn’t matter. Grandpa and grandma will probably pay it back for him.” The family still had over twenty mu of land. If they sold it all, it would be worth over two hundred taels. Selling just half would be more than enough to pay Chen Jing’s debt.

Chen Chun’er sighed, “What kind of mess is this?”

It had been a long time since Chen Chun’er had any contact with the Chen family. Unless something major happened, they usually wouldn’t notify her. The Chen family was indeed in big trouble now, so her eldest brother called Chen Chun’er back. Of course, he didn’t say Chen Jing had caused trouble, but said the old man was sick.

Old Man Chen was already old. When Chen Chun’er heard he was sick, she didn’t suspect anything.

When Chen Chun’er returned to the Chen family, she discovered that her father wasn’t sick at all and was perfectly healthy. Instead, Chen Jing was the one who looked half-dead after being beaten up.

Chen Chun’er had been wondering why the family suddenly thought of her, a married daughter. Later, she learned that the reason they remembered her was because her eldest brother was desperate and, in his panic, was trying every possible solution. He insisted that she also contribute some money.

When Lu Lin came back, Chen Chun’er had already left.

“Xiaomi, I heard your aunt came,” Lu Lin asked as he walked in.

Chen Xiaomi nodded, “Yes.”

“What did she come for? Didn’t you ask her to stay for a meal?”

“I did, but she said she had to go back early or it would get dark and walking at night wouldn’t be safe.”

Chen Xiaomi explained what had happened with Chen Jing, and Lu Lin listened with amazement.

“Aunt asked to borrow five wen for cart fare,” Chen Xiaomi added.

“Five wen?” Lu Lin asked in surprise.

Chen Xiaomi nodded, “The Chen family took all her money. When Chen Chun’er heard grandpa was sick, she didn’t think much and went straight back to the old house. But when she got there, the whole family asked her for money, and that’s when Chen Chun’er realized she’d been tricked.”

Chen Xiaomi told Lu Lin everything he’d heard from Chen Chun’er.

Lu Lin rolled his eyes, feeling somewhat speechless.

“Chen Jing bought exam answers? There are quite a few people here who like to take shortcuts too. Those who buy exam answers are usually not good people to begin with. Anyone who buys something like that won’t go around advertising it. When they find out the answers are fake, they can only blame their own bad luck.”

When he was still a student, Lu Lin had also heard about buying exam questions. Sometimes you could buy real ones, but more often than not, they ended up with fakes.

Chen Xiaomi curled his lip, “That fool actually believed in such pie-in-the-sky¹ nonsense.”

Lu Lin thought, Why wouldn’t he believe it? Everyone has wishful thinking. In my previous life, plenty of people believed fcnt content=”Many fraudulent investment schemes notoriously set their buy-in price at around that price.”]sixty-eight thousand[[/fcnt] could turn into millions or even tens of millions.

“If Chen Jing really owes a hundred taels, your grandparents will probably come here and make a scene,” Lu Lin said.

Chen Xiaomi nodded, “Most likely.”

A hundred taels was no small amount for villagers. With the Chen family’s resources, coming up with this money wasn’t impossible, but it would definitely hurt them badly.