73. The Farmer's Son Who Became the Number One Scholar (Revised)

"At the beginning of human beings, their natures are good, they are similar in nature, but they are accustomed to each other and are far away from each other..."

A little boy of four or five years old stood by the window of the book school, standing on tiptoes, secretly raising his head and looking inside. The little man was wearing a wide-sleeved double-breasted coat made from adult clothes, with his hands raised. At some point, the sleeves slid down, revealing a white, fat, lotus-jointed arm.

His hair was tied up high into a ball and tied with a red headband. He had a round face, a high nose bridge, delicate eyebrows, red lips and white teeth. Everyone who saw him had to praise him.

"Xiaobao, why are you here again? If you disturb the third uncle's class, grandpa will beat you."

Mei Hua was about to go home after cutting the pigweed, when she saw her little brother lying outside the school in the village. She was so frightened that she hurried forward, pulled her little brother to leave.

"Second sister, I won't disturb my third uncle's class. I just want to see what my cousin and the others are learning every day."

Yan Chu, now nicknamed Xiaobao, obediently held the hand of his second sister Mei Hua and walked home without any intention of causing trouble.

"Do you want to study too?"

Meihua is eleven years old this year. She is quite tall, but a little thin. She wears ill-fitting clothes and looks like a stick.

However, she looks very good, with an oval face and big eyes. Although her skin is darker, it does not cover up her beautiful facial features.

The siblings are somewhat similar, and they look like they were born to the same parents.

Girls from rural families can be married at the age of 12 or 13, and get married at the age of 14 or 15. In small places, only those families who are really poor and want to keep their daughter for two more years to help the family will keep their daughter. She is seventeen or eighteen years old, and she will not be allowed until she has become an old girl.

Therefore, Yan Meihua, who still looked like a child in the eyes of later generations, now had the air of an adult.

"My family has had a good harvest in the past two years. When you turn six years old, your grandparents may allow you to go to school."

She was carrying a basket of pigweed that was taller than the people in Yan Chu. She moved quickly, like a normal person. She was obviously used to farm work. She looked at her younger brother with hope in her eyes. Yan Meihua did not hit him more, but instead He offered appropriate encouragement.

In fact, it does look like this to Yan Meihua.

The village they live in now is called Yongning Village. The Yan family is a common surname in Yongning Village. Legend has it that the ancestor of the Yan family fled to this wasteland. He took his wife and children to take root here and thrive. Generation after generation. It was only then that this land was reclaimed into this rich and beautiful small village. Therefore, if we talk about it, the people named Yan in the village really had the same ancestor eight hundred years ago.

Later, some people with other surnames moved to this village one after another, and Yan gradually became no longer the only surname in the village.

However, in Yongning Village, the head of the Yan family is the village head of Yongning Village. This will never change. It is inevitable that the Yan family has more say in the village than other people with other surnames.

The ancestor of the Yan family was very forward-looking. He encouraged his younger generations to study. In his later years, he even asked his descendants to clear out part of the fertile land. The annual income from that part of the fertile land was used to repair the book school in the village and help those with poor conditions. The descendants of the Yan family studied. After hundreds of years, the dynasties changed twice, but the family rules of the Yan family have been passed down from generation to generation until now.

Among the nearby villages, Yongning Village is the only one that has its own book school. Except for the children named Yan, other families can come to the school to study if they are willing to pay.

Their school is not a big one, and most of the people in charge of teaching are members of the Yan family who have been admitted to the scholar level and are concentrating on preparing for the imperial examination. They want to relive their past and earn some money to support their families through teaching.

Usually, children who are admitted to Tongsheng will no longer stay in the school to study, but will choose to go to the county school. However, the basics are learned in the school in the village. Since the founding of the Jin Dynasty, the Yan family school has trained all It is already a very good result to have two Jinshi, three Juren, seven scholars and several Tongsheng. Because of this, some families in the town will specially send their children to the Yan family to study. What I like is the learning atmosphere here and the master's ability.

The Jinshi of the Yan family is from the clan leader's branch. He is now a fourth-rank official. His official rank is not particularly high, but he is a capital official. Because of the other party's existence, even the county magistrate and the prefect are more polite to the people in Yongning Village. .

In this area, the surname Yan is a good sign. You don't have to worry about being bullied when you go out. However, that is external. Internally, those with the same surname Yan do not have so much preferential treatment.

Yan Meihua's grandfather and the clan leader are still cousins. When they meet the clan leader, they can still call them cousin.

The father of the clan leader was the eldest son, so he naturally inherited the position of clan leader. Yan Chu's great-grandfather was the second son. After his elder brother inherited the position of clan leader, their lineage became a side branch.

Their grandfather was an only son and inherited from his great-grandfather thirteen acres of high-grade paddy fields, seven acres of medium-grade paddy fields, and twenty-four acres of sandy land. The grain crops harvested from these lands were enough to feed the family for a year, and even It's more than enough. Compared with some tribesmen and villagers who can only feed themselves with food and clothing, their families can go to the pork shop in the town to cut a few taels of pork from time to time, or buy some small game from the hunters in the village to satisfy their cravings.

Yan Huai, Yan Chu's grandfather, was married to Yan Jiang and had two sons and one daughter.

The eldest son, Yan Changxue, studied for a few years in his early years and learned to read. Now he is the shopkeeper of a tavern in the town, earning nearly 800 wen per month. His wife is Liu Fuchun, a girl from the neighboring village. She gave birth to a grandson in the first year after marrying into the Yan family, which gave her some face in the Yan family.

Now the couple has two sons and one daughter. The eldest son, Yan Chu, is 13 years old this year, and the second daughter, Yan Chunhua, is 11 years old this year. The youngest son is the youngest, about the same age as Yan Chu, born only one month earlier than him. Because he is the son of old age, he is very much loved by the couple.

Because Yan Changxue is the shopkeeper of the tavern in the town, it is troublesome to run back and forth. After Yan Chu passed the examination and went to the county school, Old Man Yan and Yan Jiangshi paid for a small courtyard in the town, a full fifty taels. That money almost emptied the savings that the old couple had accumulated over the years.

Since then, the eldest branch of the Yan family has basically lived in the town, and basically has to wait until the New Year and other festivals to come back.

Yan Changxi, the father of Yan Chu in this body, now stays in Yongning Village, helping the old couple of the Yan family to tend the crops in the fields. His wife Li Qiuyue is also from the neighboring village. The couple are the kind of people who don't argue much, and they never dare to raise objections to their parents' orders. This also doomed them to be ignored, ignored and bullied in this family.

The two have three daughters and one son. The eldest daughter Meihua is eleven years old this year, the second daughter Taohua is eight years old this year, and the youngest daughter Lanhua is seven years old this year. Yan Chu is the youngest child. Before he was born, because they didn't give birth to a son, Li Qiuyue's life in the Yan family was very difficult. Because they didn't have a son, the two of them didn't speak hard. Seeing the old couple's blatant partiality, they didn't dare to have any opinions.

Yan Mudan, the youngest daughter of Old Man Yan and Yan Jiang, married early. Her husband is quite capable and runs a small business by himself. Over the years, the business has grown bigger and bigger, and the whole family has moved to the county.

Yan Mudan has a pair of children. She doesn't look down on her second brother who works in the fields. She doesn't treat the second wife's children as well as the first wife's children.

However, Yan Mudan's life is not so easy. Men become bad when they have money. Her husband has taken two concubines since he became rich. Although it doesn't shake her position, she feels disgusted when she sees those two charming women. One of them even has a concubine. Whenever Yan Mudan goes home, she will mention those three women who she hates.

Yan Mudan fully supports her nephew's study and progress. She also wants to have a scholar in her family. If so, her husband will not be so unscrupulous to embarrass her.

Yan Yu, the eldest son of the eldest house, is the child who is expected to grow up by everyone.

He showed his talent for reading since he was a child. He passed the boy's test at the age of eight. The teacher of the county school was optimistic about him. Everyone thought that his future was bright, including the Yan clan, who provided a lot of financial support to this promising clan child.

But Yan Yu is already thirteen years old this year. He failed the college entrance examinations several times. Fortunately, he is still young. Although many people think that he does not have the spirituality of his childhood, they still firmly believe that for this child who passed the boy's examination at the age of eight, it is only a matter of time before he passes the examination for a scholar.

At this time, it is definitely not a simple matter to support a scholar. Even with the support of the clan, Yan Mudan smuggled some things to the family from time to time, but Yan Yu's expenses in the county still made the Yan family stretched. One scholar has made the family so hard, let alone two.

The Yan family has not yet split up, so all the expenses come from the public treasury. However, it is better to say that it is the money of the public treasury than the money of the old man Yan and his wife and the second son's family.

Yan Changxue has a monthly salary of 800 wen. During festivals, the tavern will also distribute some meat, rice and oil, etc., but those money and grain have never been seen to be handed over to the public treasury, and the second son Yan Changxi's family, the money earned from the harvest in the fields has always gone directly to Yan Jiangshi.

Occasionally, during the slack season, Li Qiuyue and her daughters would earn a few or ten coins from knitting, and Yan Changxi would also be ordered by Yan Jiangshi to hand over the money he earned from the odd jobs he took in the town and the county. The whole family might not be able to find ten coins.

Yan Meihua understood better than her foolishly filial parents, so although she said it easily, she herself had no idea whether her brother could read.

Based on the character of her uncle and aunt, if the family had another scholar, it would definitely be their youngest son.

Grandparents are used to partiality, and it is not certain what will happen in the future.

The two siblings, one tall and one short, walked slowly towards home. Because they were hiding something in their hearts, they did not notice when Yan Taohua walked in front of them.

"What are you thinking about, second sister?"

Yan Taohua waved to Yan Meihua, then took out a small piece of soybean cake from her arms and stuffed it into her brother Yan Chu's mouth.

"Eat quickly, aunt is back, she gave it to me as a reward."

Yan Taohua was a bit aggressive, and she didn't get close to her aunt who looked down on people. Every time she came back, she brought something, most of it was for her grandparents and uncle's family. Giving them a few cakes was like cutting meat, so every time Yan Taohua said her aunt gave her something, she liked to say it was a reward.

"Aunt is back?"

Yan Meihua didn't think there was anything wrong with her sister giving food to her brother instead of herself.

Firstly, she is the eldest sister, and she should give in to her younger brothers and sisters. Secondly, if it weren't for the birth of her younger brother, their lives would be more difficult. Therefore, it is not just Yan Meihua, but the three sisters in the family all love this younger brother very much.

"Not only the old aunt, but also the uncle and aunt seem to be talking about sending Yan Lu to school. Obviously, the younger brother is only one month younger than Yan Lu, why don't they talk about sending the younger brother to school."

Yan Taohua looked angry. Grandpa and grandma are old, and the family's land is basically taken care of by their parents. The money earned by the uncle's family is only enough for their own expenses in the town. They worked like cows and horses to support their eldest cousin to study, but they didn't get a word of praise. Now there is a little cousin, and their family owes them. Grandpa and grandma are too partial, and Yan Taohua is dissatisfied.

"You said that the uncle and the grandma are talking to grandpa and grandma about sending Erbao to school?"

Yan Meihua thought for a while: "Taohua, go to the field and call my parents."

After that, she lowered her head and looked at her younger brother beside her.

"If the family needs to support another scholar, it must be you, Xiaobao."

Yan Meihua's expression was firm. Yan Chu had seen this scene once when he accepted the plot of this world, but the emotion he felt when he experienced it in person was completely different from when he was just passing through this world.

The original body was very lucky to have such a sister who loved him. He didn't know how to cherish her. She would help him take good care of them. In this life, he would not repeat the mistakes made by the original body.