Poor family

  The villagers were originally called by Zheng Chun to worship the Dragon King, but unexpectedly, during the worship process, Su Heng, who was usually listless, suddenly burst out and not only beat up the officials, but also kicked away the Feng Shui master in a trance-like state, and personally chose a well location for the drilling team. Everyone followed Su Heng and others to turn around in the wilderness, watching a thrilling scene. Now this play has not yet ended, it's like an intermission, so everyone returned home.

  "Unexpectedly, Su Hao this fool actually dares to quarrel with an official?"

  "He's so book-smart he doesn't know who's an official and who isn't."

  "Look at him talking to that feng shui master, it seems like even the feng shui master can't outtalk him."

  "No wonder, Su Hao is also a scholar."

  "Xiucai..."

  As they walked from the well to the village, everyone was still talking and discussing, with Su Hao being the focus of all conversations. Of course, people had different opinions about the outcome of this matter. Some said that Su Hao was a divine being who could naturally see more accurately than Chen Shenhan; others were disdainful, saying that Su Hao couldn't even tell crops apart on a daily basis, let alone have the ability to read wells, and that he was just pretending to be mysterious because he was afraid of being blamed by the officials.

  The villagers have a deep understanding of Su Hao's high scores and low energy, and Longkou Village has been circulating a popular joke about Su Hao.

  That was two or three years ago, Su Hao was only 15 years old and went to Longguang Academy in the county town to study for a few months. On the day he returned to the village, he passed by a field of crops and couldn't help but feel a surge of emotion, asking a uncle who was not yet out of mourning clothes:

  "Old farmer, what is this thing in the field with red stems and green leaves that opens white flowers?"

  That uncle saw the young man reading a bit of book and running in front of him, showing off his knowledge, and even calling himself "old farmer", getting so angry that he was about to hit him with a hoe.

  Su Hao was frightened and ran away immediately, shouting "Save me! Someone is being beaten to death in the buckwheat field!"

  "Uncle Tang couldn't help but laugh and cry: 'You little rascal still knows this is a buckwheat field!'"

  After that, Su Hao's calling buckwheat "red stem green leaf white flower" became a common anecdote used by villagers to tease bookworms.

  Su Hao's family situation can only be described as poor. In Su Hao's grandfather's generation, the family was still relatively well-off, and by later generations' standards, they were probably considered wealthy middle peasants. However, when it came to Su Hao's father's generation, things took a sharp turn for the worse. When Su Hao was only four or five years old, his father contracted tuberculosis and spent five or six years struggling with the illness, spending countless amounts of money, but ultimately failed to save his life.

  After Su Hao's father died, there were only three people left in the family: Su Hao, his mother Yang Genjuan, and Lu Xiuer, who was raised from a young age to be Su Hao's future wife. Fortunately, their ancestors had left behind over ten mu of land, which was enough for them to make a living in the rural south.

  It was a matter of life and death that Su Huan, as the only male in the family, had been instilled with the idea of imperial examination since childhood. He spent his days reciting the Four Books and Five Classics, never leaving the house or taking a step outside, leaving all the farm work to his mother and sister.

  In rural areas, the good or bad life of a family depends on how much land they have and how many laborers. Su Hang's family has a lot of land, but lacks labor, which is a big problem. Yang Genji and Lu Xiuer work hard to cultivate more than ten acres of land, but the harvest in the field is still much worse than other families. At the end of the year, they can barely make ends meet, with hardly any surplus.

  If Su Huan only ate and didn't work, that would be fine. The key is that not only can't Su Huan make money, but he's also very good at spending it. He needs to go to the county town and provincial city for exams, and often goes to the county town to find teachers from the book academy to ask for guidance. The expenses and gifts given to the teachers are not small amounts. The income from the land is not enough, and in order to support his studies, they can only use up their savings.

  Raising Su Hang as a bookworm was the dying wish of his late father, and his widowed mother Yang Genjian inherited her husband's legacy. No matter how much money it took for Su Hang to read books, she gritted her teeth and supported him. From the time Su Hang's father passed away until now, the family had already sold three mu of their ancestral property, and Su Hang had only just managed to pass the imperial examination as a xiucai. If he followed his own ideas, wanting to become a jinshi or a scholar-official, it was estimated that even if they mortgaged all the remaining ten-odd mu of land, it might not be enough.

  The villagers all say that if Su Hao really can get a good grade on the imperial examination, then it's fine. But if he doesn't pass, once their land is sold out, Su Hao's whole family will have no choice but to become beggars.

  The villagers pointed and whispered behind their backs, but Su Hao just treated it as a gentle breeze on his face. He walked shoulder to shoulder with Lu Xiuer towards home, thinking about how to cope with the new life in this Ming dynasty.

  Lu Xiuer walked alongside her brother, feeling both excited and worried. The excitement came from the fact that her usually lazy brother had suddenly become so domineering, while the worry was about whether the well pointed out by Su Hao would actually yield water; if it turned out to be another dry well, the official would have something to say, and might even throw her brother in jail.

  "Brother, that place you mentioned, can we really dig up water there?" Lu Xiuer asked Su Hang for the tenth time.

  Su Hao smiled and said: "Of course, you don't see what kind of person your brother is."

  "When did you learn to read feng shui?"

  "I knew it a long time ago," Su Hao said, "I read so many books every day, wasn't I reading them in vain?"

  "Is it also about Feng Shui?" asked Lu Xiuer.

  "What did you think the book said?"

  "How was I supposed to know? I don't even recognize characters."

  "It's okay, I'll teach you how to recognize characters later."

  "Really? But it's useless for girls from good families to learn how to read..."

  The two siblings walked and talked as they returned home, pushed open the door and entered the house. Yang Genyi came forward to greet them, circling around Su Huan several times to make sure he hadn't lost a single hair before muttering: "Thank goodness my son is fine."

  "Mom, what are you muttering about?" Su Hao asked. He still had the memories of his original body and didn't feel any psychological discomfort calling Yang Genyuan "mom". He remembered that this woman, who was not yet 40 years old, was extremely caring towards her son, almost to the point of being excessive. Whenever there was something good to eat at home, Yang Genyuan wouldn't touch it herself, nor would she let Lu Xiuer eat it, instead saving it all for Su Hao. Since her husband's death, Yang Genyuan hadn't bought a new piece of clothing for herself, but whenever Su Hao needed money to buy books or go to the county town to see his teacher, Yang Genyuan never hesitated to give him silver.

  Just now, when all the men in the village went to worship the Dragon King, Yang Genjian arranged for Lu Xiuer to watch Su Hang from a distance, fearing that Su Hang, who was not familiar with the world, would make trouble. She herself went to the distant mountain pond to fetch water and irrigate the fields. When she returned home, she heard her neighbors talk about the things that happened at the worship scene, which scared her out of her wits. Just as she was about to go out and find Su Hang, she saw Su Hang and Lu Xiuer laughing and chatting as they returned.

  "Hao'er, I heard that you hit the official's old master?" Yang Gen asked hastily after making sure Su Hao was not injured.

  "It's over." Su Hao said bluntly.

  "What did the official do to you?"

  "What can he do to me?" Su Hao said, "He himself won't dig wells, but he's quite enthusiastic about feudal superstitions. If I report him to the county magistrate, he'll be in trouble."

  "Don't go, whatever you do." Yang Genjian said, "Son, the official didn't bother with you, that's the blessing of the Bodhisattva. You must never dare to cause trouble again. I've heard people say, ordinary people don't fight against officials, we common folk, who dares to provoke the official?"

  Su Hao smiled and said, "Mom, don't take the official business too seriously. I've asked around, that Zheng Chun guy is just a small fry in the county government, he can bully ordinary people, but in front of the magistrate, he doesn't even dare to fart."

  Yang Genjian was, after all, a rural woman who didn't have much of a concept about these things. Hearing her son speak so confidently also made her slightly more at ease, and she went on to ask about the next thing:

  "Hao'er, I heard you went down into the well? Was it because Officer Lao punished you?"

  "Mother, my brother went down the well himself. He went down five wells and then pointed to a place and told the official that if they dug a well there, they would definitely find water." Lu Xiuer answered on behalf of Su Hang.

  "Is this true?" Yang Genjian's eyes widened, her own son, how could she not understand him, when did he learn to read the feng shui?

  Su Hao had no choice but to push the book he was reading: "Mom, this is all true. The feng shui master invited by the official, is just a charlatan, doesn't understand anything. In the book I'm reading, it's clearly written about how to find water. The place I pointed out, isn't just randomly pointed out, it's in accordance with the five elements and eight trigrams, there's a reason for it."

  "That's good, that's good. If we can really get water out of it, our whole village will be saved." Yang Genjian knew that her son was not very emotionally intelligent, but he was a decent person and wouldn't make up nonsense. Since he sounded so certain about this well, it was probably going to work out.

  "Mom, is dinner ready? I've run a big circle and I'm really hungry." Su Hao said.

  "I'll get it done right away." Yang Genjian said as she ran into the kitchen.

  Seeing Yang Genjian go to cook, Lu Xiuer turned to the firewood house, carried a basket on her back and shouted towards the kitchen: "Mom, I'm going to pick up firewood."

  "What kind of firewood are you picking?" Su Huan asked sullenly.

  "Of course, it's the firewood that's burning." Lu Xiuer gave him a white eye, she went out to pick firewood every day, and this bookworm brother actually knew nothing about it, which was really infuriating. As for Su Hang being enthusiastic about taking the imperial examination, Lu Xiuer was extremely disdainful of it, but couldn't resist Yang Genyuan's will. In other families, 17-year-old young men were all able to work independently in the fields, who would be like them, still relying on women to farm.

  "Lighting a fire?" Su Hao still didn't quite understand. The bookworm from before had never paid attention to this matter, so Su Hao didn't have any information about it either. He walked into the kitchen and saw Yang Genie busy lighting a fire to cook porridge, and asked: "Mom, isn't our family burning straw? Why did Xiu Er say she's going to pick firewood?"

  Yang Genjian said helplessly: "Haoer, this is none of your business. You've been running around for half a day, aren't you tired? Go back to your room and rest, dinner will be ready soon."

  Alas, seeing his predecessor is really a foodie, Su Hang secretly sighed in his heart.

  ——————————————

  P.S. Some people in the book review section criticized that ancient people did not shout "mom" but shouted "niang", I have made a special explanation in the "Works Related" section of this book, but some people did not see it.

  Here is another piece of evidence:

  "Notes on Folk Customs" Volume 17 "Folk Customs II" - Dialects:

  Grandfather is called "yéye". Grandmother is called "nǎinai". Father is called "diē", also "bié" and "dà". Mother is called "mā". Parents call their son "gēge". Call their daughter "jiějie". ... The daughter-in-law calls her father-in-law "diē", mother-in-law "mā". The son-in-law calls his wife's father "diē", wife's mother "mā".

  The miscellaneous notes were written in 1593, which is exactly the time of this book. I think this evidence is more authoritative than TV dramas?