74. The Farmer Who Became the Top Scholar
If you only evaluate the original person from the perspective of personal achievement, the other party is undoubtedly successful.
Born into a poor family, he became the youngest number one scholar since the founding of the Jin Dynasty at the age of 18. Because of his handsome appearance, he won the love of the princess and became the consort of the Jin Dynasty.
He was born in a humble family and knew what the people needed. When he served as a local official in foreign affairs, his political performance was the best and he was also the most loved by the local people. From being a sixth-rank Hanlin Academy editor to a fifth-rank magistrate in foreign affairs, From being the fourth-rank magistrate, to being the fourth-rank Dali Temple Shaoqing after being transferred back to Beijing.
It took others more than ten years, or even a lifetime, to get promoted, but it took him only six short years. Among them, his own efforts were indispensable, and it was inseparable from his identity as the consort.
His official career is going smoothly, and he has a loving wife and daughter at home. Apart from his noble status as a princess, even if he is a husband and wife, he still has to perform ministerial etiquette towards his princess wife, so he has almost no worries.
Except for one thing, the secret he tried so hard to hide.
He originally had a wife, and that wife was not the current princess, but Fu Zhenzhen, the child bride chosen for him by his family when he was only nine years old, before he was admitted as a scholar.
If the original person and Fu Zhenzhen actually had no real wedding or marriage contract, the other party fled all the way after a disaster in his hometown. His parents died of illness on the way, and his only brother was also separated on the way. She was sold to the Yan family by her aunt for the price of a bag of old grain.
At that time, the Yan family was worrying about the marriage of their eldest grandson Yan Chu. The seventeen-year-old Yan Chu was still just a child and could continue to study, but the marriage could not be postponed.
The old lady went through a lot of hard work to show her distressed eldest grandson a girl from a down-and-out scholar's family. The other party opened her mouth and asked for a full thirty taels of betrothal gifts, of which ten taels of silver came from her husband Yan Mudan. Got it secretly from home.
The original person had not yet taken the government examination at that time, and no one knew that he would have such achievements in the future. The old lady has always been partial. Although she treats her grandson well, she is still far behind compared to her eldest grandson.
She was afraid that if she married her eldest grandson's daughter from a scholar's family, when her younger grandson grew up, her second family would also clamor for her. On her way to the county to buy red silk for the wedding, she was stopped by Fu Zhenzhen's aunt. When she came down, she saw that the little girl looked good, and because she wanted a better price from Aunt Fu Zhenzhen, she impulsively took her home.
Not long after doing this stupid thing, Mrs. Yan Jiang felt a little regretful, but the food was given and the words were spoken. The old lady didn't know how to deal with this matter for a while, especially with this little grandson. The eldest grandson was even stronger. He passed the county and college examinations at the age of twelve and became the youngest scholar in the local area.
Fu Zhenzhen, who was brought into the family as a child bride, acted more like a little maid in the following days. Since she became a scholar, others no longer take her as a child bride. After all, in the eyes of outsiders, Come on, these two people are no longer compatible.
She was very grateful to the Yan family. At least they gave her a full meal during the famine years and kept her from starving to death. Therefore, no matter what the Yan family did to her or what status they treated her with, Fu Zhenzhen would not complain.
Even though she really fell in love with the original person, because of the sudden change of attitude of the Yan family, she endured the sadness and kept a distance from the other person.
However, there were still surprises. The night before he was admitted to the Juren Examination and was preparing to go to Beijing to take the examination, he might have been confused and infatuated. After the farewell banquet held for him by the Yan family, the two of them lay down in confusion. On the same bed, they did everything they should and shouldn't do, and were even caught by the brothers and sisters in the big room.
Fortunately, only family members knew about this matter, and no one outside knew about it at all.
The original person didn't know how he left home. He knew that his family would not agree to Fu Zhenzhen marrying him. In the eyes of the Yan family, the original person, who had already become a scholar and had a greater future, deserved to marry an official lady. One of them is like the clouds in the sky, the other is like the mud on the ground, they don’t match each other at all. They wouldn't do anything excessive to Fu Zhenzhen, but they would definitely tell Fu Zhenzhen to recognize her identity and stop her from trying to get along with the most outstanding child of their Yan family just for a one-night stand.
As for what happened after the original person came to Beijing, everyone also knows.
By some strange coincidence, when the emperor asked him if he had a wife to marry, the original man shook his head, and then the finger-marriage took place. He also became the consort of the Jin Dynasty, and through this he had a prosperous official career.
He tried his best to conceal this past. He was afraid that his family members would tell them, so he gave them a lot of gold, silver and jewelry, but forbade them from visiting him in the capital. Including the sisters who once had a deep love for him, they were all originally. Don't want to meet them.
However, no paper can cover the fire. No matter how perfect the lie is, sooner or later it will be exposed.
The original person didn't know it, but it turned out that that night, Fu Zhenzhen was pregnant with his child. The Yan family may have all kinds of bad habits, but they are definitely not the kind of ruthless people, and they can be regarded as the whole family watching. Fu Zhenzhen, who had grown up, and the descendant of the Yan family in her belly, no one thought about killing the child in her belly.
They soft-heartedly sent Fu Zhenzhen to the county and entrusted Yan Mudan to take care of her, where the Yan family had few acquaintances.
The news of the original marriage to the princess came and it was also the day that Fu Zhenzhen gave birth to her son Yan Yujun.
The grandson married the princess, but Fu Zhenzhen gave birth to the grandson's child. If this news spread, it would not only be a crime of deceiving the emperor, but the whole family would be beheaded. The Yan family was scared and at a loss. Without obtaining Fu Zhenzhen's consent, they directly recorded him under Yan Ru's household registration and made him Yan Ru's concubine, and the child she gave birth to for the original body also became Yan Ru's illegitimate son.
When the original body got this news, everything had been settled.
He had some friendship with Fu Zhenzhen, but those friendships could not compare with glory and wealth, so he chose to acquiesce and gave Yan Ru many benefits to let him keep this secret forever.
People's hearts are greedy. Yan Ru has been the most valued child of the Yan family since he was a child. He is arrogant and conceited. When he barely passed the examination for a scholar, his cousin from the next room became the champion and married a noble princess. Yan Ru's heart was in disarray.
He was jealous of the original body, and he couldn't do anything to the original body. He even wanted a superior life, and he had to curry favor with the original body, so he vented his anger on Fu Zhenzhen. When some of the other members of the Yan family were really unaware and some pretended to be unaware, Fu Zhenzhen suffered humiliation and torture. She never thought that she could be in hell while alive.
She wanted to die, but Yan Ru threatened her with her child. She could only live in pain and humiliation until she really couldn't hold on anymore, because the wounds on her body were corrupt and festering and were not treated in time. She died in the best years of a woman.
Yan Ru was a little panicked when he saw Fu Zhenzhen dead. He hastily buried Fu Zhenzhen on the grounds of sudden malaria, and bribed all the people who knew about it to keep the secret from the original body.
No one knew that Fu Zhenzhen's long-lost brother would come to her house, and the other party turned out to be the guerrilla general who defeated the Tuyu tribe in the north and a big shot in front of the current emperor.
The Yan family's affairs were kept secret, but if someone wanted to investigate, it was not impossible to find out.
His sister died too unjustly, and Fu Yugui chose to open the coffin despite the world's disapproval. At that time, Fu Zhenzhen had not been buried for long. He saw with his own eyes the deep and shallow scars on his sister's body, and the guilt and resentment in his heart reached the peak.
The things that the original body concealed were soon exposed. The people of the Jin Dynasty were open-minded, and it was not uncommon for the princess to remarry. Originally, the princess was only obsessed with his skin. After getting along for a long time, one was a delicate girl raised with gold and jade, and the other was a farmer who had to do farm work since childhood. The one copper coin was broken into two petals. Even if the original body concealed it well, the "rustic" given to him by the farmer could not be concealed.
The proud princess was tired of him, so she divorced him without a second thought, using this as an excuse, and took away the little princess she gave birth to for him.
In the second year after the divorce, the princess married the new top scholar, a man who was as handsome as the original body. The princess did not hide her superficial love as always.
As for their daughter, the queen mother took pity on her and brought her up by her side.
The original body had deceived the emperor in front of the palace, concealed the fact that he was married, and even had a concubine's son before marrying the princess. He was stripped of his honors, and the three clans of the Yan family were all sentenced to exile. Yan Yan, who killed Fu Zhenzhen, had the worst fate. On the way to exile, he was bitten to death by a wild wolf in the forest.
The client of this mission is Fu Zhenzhen's son. When the Yan family was exiled, as the son of the original body, he should have been among them, but Fu Yugui was a meritorious official. Although Yan Yujun was a descendant of the Yan family, he was also Fu Yugui's only relative now.
After the Yan family got into trouble, Yan Yujun was renamed Fu Yujun. Fu Yugui never married for this nephew and to atone for his sin of not being able to find his sister in time to protect her. He often talked about his mother with his nephew, telling him how beautiful and gentle she was.
Fu Yujun was full of expectations for his mother. He had two wishes. The first was that he hoped his mother could live and find someone who truly loved her.
The second was that he felt that the original body had not received enough lessons and retribution, because in the previous life, although the other party was a sinner, he was still the princess's former husband, and there was also a daughter who was named a princess and married to a foreign country. Considering the diplomatic relations between the two countries, the original body finally died in peace, which was not fair.
The former of these two wishes is relatively simple, but the latter...
Yan Chu couldn't figure it out. Now he is the scumbag. Should he punish himself?
Since it has come, he should make the best of it. Yan Chu looked at his little arms and legs and didn't consider the complicated problem for the time being.
*****
"Mom, Erbao is almost the same age. When Dabao was this age, he was praised by all the teachers. Erbao is Dabao's younger brother. He will not be worse than Dabao. You and Dad should send Erbao to school, right?"
"It's not that mom doesn't want to send him, but it's hard enough for the family to support Dabao alone. How can we support another one? Besides, you forgot Xiaobao. He is about the same age as Erbao. It doesn't make sense that your eldest brother's two children are going to school, and your second brother's family doesn't support any of them. If you do this, your second brother will quarrel with me no matter how honest he is."
"Second brother is so stupid. Xiaobao is his son. Can he study well?" The young female voice was quite disdainful.
When Yan Chu followed his eldest sister into the house, he heard this conversation between the old aunt and the grandmother.
Looking at the siblings from the second room just walking in, perhaps they heard their conversation just now, Yan Mudan's face was a little red, looking at the transparent eyes of her little nephew, she couldn't help feeling a little embarrassed.
"Meihua, you just came back from cutting pig grass, you are such a sensible child, here, the cakes that your aunt bought for you, take them and sweeten your mouth."
Yan Mudan smiled stiffly and took out two cakes that were not much bigger than a fingernail from a delicate box on the side, handed them to the two siblings, one for each, and then tightly closed the box again.
"Grandma, aunt, I just heard you talking about reading. Xiaobao is also old this year. The eldest cousin got a book at this age."
Yan Meihua spoke softly, her eyes were very bright, and Yan Mudan felt a little scared. After all, she just said that the second brother's family were all idiots, and this second niece talked about reading at this juncture, wasn't that a slap in her face?
But Yan Mudan thought again, there is nothing wrong with what she said, the eldest brother is smart, so the child he gave birth to is smart, the second brother is stupid, so the child he gave birth to is also stupid.
Although Yan Chu's nephew is the best looking, writing is not based on appearance, good looks do not mean anything, and she is the elder, there is no reason for her to be afraid of the two children in front of her.