Chapter 116 City Streets 16

Chapter 116: The Prefecture City Market 16

They didn't take the water route back to Fushui Town this time, but the carriage ride was still rough. Ancient times were nothing like the modern era; nowadays, you can lie down on a sleeper berth, and the journey doesn’t take as long. After days of sitting in the carriage, their backsides felt numb.

Once back in the village and stepping into their own courtyard, Liu Guyu immediately collapsed into the bamboo rocking chair under the eaves, not caring if two months of neglect had left it dusty.

Lucky hadn’t seen his family in quite some time. The dog was overjoyed, jumping on everyone in turn and leaving their already dusty travel clothes even dirtier, with several dark paw prints smudged on the hems.

After two months away, they had no idea what the silly dog had been eating—it looked like he'd even gained weight.

It was nearly evening now, with only a patch of red clouds lingering in the sky.

The Lins across the way heard the commotion and came out to check.

Lin Xingniang was the first to spot them and exclaimed excitedly, "Oh! You’re back? Finally back! Did you just arrive?"

Cui Lanfang had just gone inside to drop off their bags. When she came out, she saw several people had already gathered in the courtyard. She hurried into the main room to grab a couple of stools, quickly wiping off the dust with a cloth.

She said, "We just got back. I see the courtyard is all clean—you must've cleaned up!"

Lin Xingniang laughed. "Hey, it was nothing."

She then turned to Qin Rongshi, grinning so wide her eyes nearly disappeared. "I heard Erlang passed the imperial exam! And he got some… what was it called? The top score! Oh, this is such wonderful news! That boy has a bright future ahead—you’ll be set for life!"

Cui Lanfang asked in surprise, "Oh, how did you find out? Has the news already spread back here?"

Lin Xingniang gave her a look and gave her arm a light slap, acting annoyed. "Such good news, and you wanted to keep it quiet!"

"A few days ago, a group of messengers came to the village to deliver the good news! Oh, what a show it was—a whole team of them, all dressed in red! There were gongs beating, drums pounding, and even suona playing! The whole village came out to watch. Everyone knows your Erlang passed!"

Normally, passing the imperial exam at the county level wouldn’t warrant such fanfare, but Qin Rongshi was top of the county exam, which set him apart from ordinary scholars.

Qin Rongshi, the one at the center of it all, felt awkward and was about to sneak off to the kitchen, pretending to need to boil water to avoid the attention.

But Lin Xingniang called out to him, her eyes crinkling up as she laughed. "Oh, no need, no need! Your kitchen hasn’t been used in two months—there's thick soot in the pot! It’ll take a while to clean up. Don’t trouble yourself!"

Then she turned to Luo Maier, who was already whispering with Qin Banban, and called out, "Mai'er, go back to our place and bring over a pot of hot water for your aunt and uncle! They can make do with that for now!"

Hearing this, Cui Lanfang seemed to remember something and waved her hand. "Wait a moment! I brought back some specialties from the prefecture—perfect for Mai'er to take back!"

With that, she hurried inside and brought out a small bundle, then showed her what was inside to Lin Xingniang, excitedly explaining:

"This is kelp! It’s a vegetable that grows in the sea. It makes soup really flavorful—take some back and try it! And this is beef jerky—it keeps forever. Whenever you feel like having some, just pop some in your mouth. Very convenient!"

In ancient times, it was forbidden to slaughter farm oxen randomly, so people in small towns hardly ever got to eat beef. Fushui Town had no place to buy it.

But Jiangning Prefecture was a major city, and the meat market occasionally sold beef. Liu Guyu had cooked it a few times—stir-fried or stewed—and it was really delicious.

It was a pity fresh meat couldn’t be easily transported; otherwise, Cui Lanfang would've loved to bring some back for Lin Xingniang to try. As it was, she had to go with beef jerky.

Besides that, there were also pastries only available in the prefecture. Cui Lanfang added, "These are varieties you won’t find in our town, but I didn’t find them particularly special. Still, try them out."

Even Banban joined in, pulling out a long, narrow cloth bundle from the package. Inside was a wooden hairpin.

"Mai'er, come here quick, look! I bought this for you! You won’t find this style in our town. I thought it suited you perfectly, so I specially bought it as a gift!"

The hairpins in town were all ordinary designs—carved with peach blossoms, pear blossoms, or auspicious clouds. It was hard to find anything more novel.

But the one Qin Banban held was quite unique: long and slender, without elaborate patterns. The tip was sharply pointed, and the end had a protruding wooden knot carved with decorations resembling bamboo branches or pine needles. From a distance, it looked like an exquisite little sword.

Luo Maier liked it right away and put it right into her hair, saying, "This hairpin is so interesting! It can even be used for self-defense! If anyone dares mess with me again, I’ll just take it out and jab their eyes!"

Lin Xingniang scolded her in exasperation. "You silly girl! Talking crazy again! Look at you—that's no way for a young lady to act!"

Luo Maier pouted, entirely unbothered, and holding onto her gifts, she swayed her head and headed back to her own courtyard.

Cui Lanfang and Lin Xingniang sat in the courtyard chatting for a while longer, sharing all sorts of fresh stories from the prefecture—how wide the Meijiang River was, how tall the city gates of Jiangyang Prefecture stood, how packed the city was...

After they had had their fill of talking and drunk some water, Lin Xingniang finally took her family back home.

Liu Guyu and the others went inside to tidy up briefly. After days on the road, they were exhausted. They did only the most essential cleaning, boiled two pots of water, washed off the travel dirt, and turned in for the night. Everything else could wait until tomorrow!

*

The next day, the entire village learned that the Qin family had returned, and everyone rushed over to see the new scholar!

It wasn’t as if they had never seen Qin Rongshi before—handsome, fair-skinned, but still just a person with one nose and two eyes, nothing out of the ordinary.

But now it was different. Looking at him now, it seemed as if even his hair glowed.

"Oh! So this is our village’s scholar!"

"And not just any scholar! I heard he ranked first in the entire county!"

"First in the county? More like first in all of Jiangzhou! Good heavens, how incredible! He must be the reincarnation of the Literary Star!"

...

The village had produced scholars before. Liu Guyu’s father was an old scholar, and after he passed away, there was also a young scholar.

Scholars weren’t a novelty here.

When Liu Zaiwen passed the imperial exam, the villagers had also praised him, calling him the reincarnation of the Literary Star.

But this was different!

No other scholar had a whole procession of messengers announcing the news—beating gongs, drums, and celebrating all day long!

When Liu Zaiwen passed, the villagers mostly offered flattery and sweet words.

But this time, Qin Rongshi had achieved the top rank among scholars. Passing the exam was hard enough—being first was extraordinary! If that wasn’t the mark of the Literary Star, what was? This time, they truly believed Qin Rongshi was the reincarnation of the Literary Star, praising him to the heavens!

Just then, Aunt Hua suddenly called out, "Hey! Isn’t that Qiaozhi? Here to see the scholar too? Oh, why are you standing so far away? Come closer for a better look!"

No one had noticed when Zhou Qiaozhi arrived. She stood at a distance, tiptoeing to peer over.

No one knew how Aunt Hua spotted her so keenly, but she raised her voice to call out, instantly drawing everyone’s attention.

The village wasn’t aware that Zhou Qiaozhi and Cui Lanfang had once been at odds. Aunt Hua had clearly called out intentionally, wanting to see Zhou Qiaozhi embarrassed.

Zhou Qiaozhi used to have a fiery temper—anyone who crossed her would be met with shouting and scolding. She was sharp-tongued and fierce!

She and Cui Lanfang never got along, and whenever they met, she would make sarcastic remarks, especially after Qin’s father passed away—her words grew even more cutting.

But times had changed. She looked completely different now.

Dressed in drab, faded clothes, she had grown much thinner, making her garments hang loosely on her frame.

She had aged, too—crow’s feet etched the corners of her eyes, and her back was noticeably stooped.

Her only daughter Tian Hexiang married into a family in the county town, and then all contact stopped, never sending letters or gifts home.

For the first half year, she cursed, saying this daughter was ungrateful—she had found her such a good husband’s family, and yet the daughter forgot her own mother, vanished without a trace!

But after all, she was her own flesh and blood, and as time passed, she couldn’t help worrying, afraid her daughter was struggling in her husband’s home, which was why no word was getting out!

She spent money to ask an itinerant trader to inquire in the county town, but the man ran off with the money, bringing back no news at all, which made her pound her thighs and weep in frustration.

As for her husband and son, one was often away working as a peddler, and the other was learning accounting in another town—they only came back twice a year during festivals.

The house was empty, and on normal days, only Zhou Qiaozhi was there. With her normally chatty, sharp tongue, this time there was truly no one to listen to her.

As time passed, she gradually spoke less and less.

When she heard Aunt Hua call her, she only smiled awkwardly, her mouth twitching as she said, "No need, no need, I—I was just… just passing by, passing by."

After saying this, she left with her hands behind her back, without so much as a glance at Cui Lanfang throughout.

Cui Lanfang, however, looked at her a few times, suddenly remembering the time before she was married, when she and Zhou Qiaozhi had been very close. They had even said back then that after they married, they must not break off contact.

That was many years ago, and to be honest, Cui Lanfang could hardly remember clearly anymore. She only recalled that Zhou Qiaozhi had been quite pretty in her youth, with many families wanting to marry her.

Her parents thought that being a peddler was profitable and that traveling north and south gave broad experience, so they married Zhou Qiaozhi off to Tian Dacheng.

Ah.

She sighed, shook her head, withdrew her gaze, and turned all smiles to greet the other villagers who had come to offer their congratulations.

Before long, even the village head came.

But he wasn’t there for Qin Rongshi’s success in the imperial examination. He walked in with his hands behind his back, chuckling cheerfully, and went straight to Liu Guyu.

“Ah! Your whole family really brings honor to our village! One earned the County First rank, and the other received recognition from the authorities! What an accomplishment!”

Liu Guyu: “???”

Liu Guyu couldn’t recall what this was about at first and asked doubtfully, “What praise?”

Chen Qiaosheng slapped his knee and said, “You forgot?! The grain matter! Two years ago, the fields in our village doubled their yield, which got the county's attention. The county sent farm officials down to learn and spread the fertilizer-making method! It spread farther and farther, eventually reaching the prefecture capital!”

Hearing Chen Qiaosheng’s words, Liu Guyu immediately remembered.

He hurriedly asked, “That matter! Has the reward finally come down?”

These days, between buying a courtyard, ordering furniture, and going to the prefecture capital with only spending without earning, the money Liu Guyu had saved over the years had dwindled to under a hundred taels.

Now he could only hope for a cash reward! Money was what truly mattered!

Chen Qiaosheng nodded repeatedly, saying cheerfully, “Exactly! But I’m not too sure what the reward is. Some time ago, the higher-ups notified me that the reward should arrive in a few days! I was getting anxious, afraid you wouldn’t return in time and miss this matter!”

Liu Guyu nodded understandingly. Finally, he and Cui Lanfang thanked the villagers gathered outside the courtyard, giving each a handful of peanuts and red dates before seeing them off.

Only then did they have time to attend to the village head. Liu Guyu invited him into the main room, and everyone else also went inside to sit down.

After pouring tea for Chen Qiaosheng and setting out a plate of tea cakes, Liu Guyu said, “Since you’re here, there’s something I’d like to ask your help with.”

Chen Qiaosheng now loved it when the Qin family asked him for favors—the more, the better.

He beamed and hurriedly asked, “Oh, we’re all from the same village! Don't mention it! Tell me, what is it?”

“As you know, our Erlang has now passed the imperial examination. It's an honor, but his official path is only just beginning. His teacher has gone to trouble, hoping he can study at the Xiangshan Academy in the prefecture capital, which is quite far. We thought the family shouldn’t be separated, so we decided to move altogether to the prefecture capital.”

“But we're still rooted in the village. The old house and the fields need someone to look after them. Especially the fields—we’d like to trouble you to help us rent them out. We’re all from the same village, so we’re not looking to make money. A low rate's fine, as long as the tenants are honest. We can’t have another Chen Guicai situation.”

The Qin family originally had two plots of land, which they had earlier rented to Chen Guicai, an outsider in the village. But the Chen family was poor, with many children to feed, often went hungry, and they couldn’t even pay the rent.

Though it was their own land, after renting it out for so long, it almost seemed to belong to the tenants. Getting it back had caused real trouble.

Chen Qiaosheng understood Liu Guyu’s meaning and thought the concern was justified. It was just a pity that the village had finally produced a County First, and now, after such a short time of celebration, they were leaving.

But then again, Qin Rongshi was pursuing an official career—how could he stay trapped in this mountain village forever? Sooner or later, he would leave. But his ancestral home would always remain in Shanghe Village; that could never change.

Chen Qiaosheng quickly understood and nodded cheerfully: “Good, good, this is simple. Leave it to me!”

Liu Guyu nodded and continued, “The fields under a scholar’s name are exempt from taxes. Our Erlang is the County First, with a quota of eighty mu. Our family has twelve mu of land, leaving sixty-eight mu remaining. You’re the village head and have always been good to us. I remember your family has twenty mu of land—you can register it under our name to save the tax grain. We’ll leave another five mu for families we're close with.”

In Shanghe Village, his family wasn’t close to many, so these five mu were reserved for Lin Xingniang’s family.

Lin Xingniang’s family also had land, though not much—only five mu. With no men in the family and Lin Xingniang usually busy with her flatbread business, they paid others to manage the fields.

Liu Guyu continued, “That leaves forty-three mu. We’ll trouble you with this as well. We young people don’t understand the market rates. You’re the village head and are experienced in this—please help us rent out the remaining quota and collect some registration fee income.”

Scholars could exempt fifty to eighty mu of land from taxes. As the County First, Qin Rongshi could exempt eighty mu. But since the family didn’t have that much land, they couldn’t waste the exemption.

Liu Guyu knew that some landowners and wealthy families liked to support scholars and *juren* (successful provincial examinees), partly to make use of their tax-exempt quotas.

Chen Qiaosheng was even happier hearing Liu Guyu’s words!

Land tax was collected twice a year, summer tax and autumn tax, each time taking thirty percent of the harvest.

If the land tax was exempted, the family could save a lot of extra grain!

If Chen Qiaosheng had agreed earlier half out of his duty as village head and half out of admiration for the Qin family’s talents, now it was different—he was genuinely delighted, smiling so widely that wrinkles appeared on his face.

“Good, good, thank you! Thank you! This matter is in my hands, don’t worry! I’ll definitely handle it well! After you leave, I’ll make sure to look after your house and fields! I guarantee no one will dare sneak into your courtyard or ruin your land!”

With these matters entrusted to the village head, he pounded his chest with assurance, feeling very pleased!

On one hand, he was happy about the tax exemption, which would save his family a lot of money and grain; on the other, he felt touched and honored that the Qin family, now successful, still remembered him.

Afterward, he also spoke privately with Qin Rongshi, discussing matters related to his official career, chatting for a good while before leaving.

As he walked away, he hummed a little tune, clearly still in high spirits!

A few days later, the sound of gongs and drums echoed through Shanghe Village again. A group of minor officials in red clothes arrived, several carrying a plaque covered with a red cloth.

Someone beat a gong and shouted:

“Delivering a plaque for the honorable one! Make way, everyone!”