Chapter 3

However, Jia Hui still shook his head and said: "I have hands and feet, and I have some strength; I won't starve to death in the end."

Jia Yun said: "You can indeed do odd jobs outside, but that will only be enough to support yourself. What about your wife?"

Jia Hui was slightly surprised: "Wife?"

Jia Yun said helplessly: "You forgot, the daughter of Qin Ye, the official of the Ministry of Works on the next street, is your fiancée. This was a childhood engagement arranged when your parents were alive. By rights, you should be married around this year. When the time comes, you won't even be able to afford the bride price, so how will you marry her? And after you marry her, how will you support her?"

Hearing the name of the official Qin Ye, Jia Hui felt it sounded familiar.

The surname Qin, could it be?

"My fiancée is Qin Keqing?!"

Jia Hui was surprised!

"Qin Keqing?! Whether that is her name, I do not know. A girl's maiden name is only known to her closest relatives."

Jia Yun shook his head after hearing this.

But Jia Hui felt it was almost certainly her.

This made Jia Hui's brow twitch.

Because he knew that Qin Keqing was a peerless beauty, one of the Twelve Beauties of Jin Ling in the *Red Chamber*, and the number one beauty at that!

If he could marry such a wife, it would be truly blissful.

In his previous life, he didn't even have a wife.

In this life, he had a stunning beauty as a wife right from the start?

It couldn't be better!

He suddenly liked this world a little.

However, he soon thought of Qin Keqing's fate, which was not good!

"Ningguo Prefecture, Jia Zhen!"

This made Jia Hui's expression turn gloomy.

"Brother Hui, since you know you have a fiancée, you should work hard."

Jia Yun said.

Seeing Jia Hui silent, he thought he had persuaded the other, so he continued to advise, "Either go to the Rongguo Prefecture or the Ningguo Prefecture; they are both the Jia family. In any case, just get a job first. You are a member of the Jia family after all, even if you are beyond the five degrees of mourning, it's better than struggling outside."

However, to his astonishment,

Jia Hui still chose to refuse: "Thank you for your kindness, Brother Yun, but I have no intention of going to the Rongguo or Ningguo Prefectures."

"Why is that?!"

Jia Yun became anxious.

Jia Hui waved his hand without explaining.

If he went to the Rongguo or Ningguo Prefectures, he would be no better off than a slave.

Not to mention the issue of status,

the key was, how much money could he earn?

If he wanted to marry Qin Keqing and support her,

that would be a drop in the bucket!

And Jia Hui knew that Jia Zhen coveted Qin Keqing.

If he worked in the Jia family's two prefectures, and Jia Zhen wanted to snatch his woman, it would be even harder for him to refuse.

So he had too many reasons to refuse working for the Jia family.

But he couldn't afford not to find work and earn money.

He could only seek another path!

"Right now, I only have a few paths: politics, the military, or business."

"First, politics: that means the imperial examination. However, I don't know anything about the eight-legged essay, and I can't even write traditional characters well. How can I take the exam? Even if I study hard, it would take at least a year or two before I could take it. By then, Qin Keqing would probably have been snatched by Jia Zhen for his son, Jia Rong. This path is a dead end."

"Business? Without a backer, or without enough strength to deter petty villains, I wouldn't be able to protect my business at all!"

Thinking of this, Jia Hui's eyes flashed with a sharp light, confident and invincible: "The only plan now is to join the military!"

The source of his invincible confidence was naturally his current peerless martial prowess at the level of Lu Bu!

With this strength of his, was there anything to fear about not being able to achieve merit on the battlefield?

Having made a decision in his heart!

He said, "I want to join the military!"

"Ah!?!"

【3】 Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry! Jia Rong's Arrival

Suddenly hearing Jia Hui say he wanted to join the military, Jia Yun looked at him with astonishment and strangeness.

At one meter seventy-eight, he wasn't too tall or too short.

But while his build wasn't exactly frail, it wasn't robust either.

"Join the military? Brother Hui, have you gone mad? That's a life-threatening business."

Jia Yun felt exhausted, and very anxious.

Everything was fine,

why would he suddenly think of joining the military?

He remembered that Jia Hui had amnesia, so he hurriedly explained and informed him of the severity: "Do you know that the Tatars, Mongols, and Xiongnu are fierce, and every year they enter our Great Gan like they are in an empty land, burning, killing, and looting countless people? Countless soldiers die in battle. It's estimated that two or three hundred thousand barbarians will invade this year. Joining the army is a nine-out-of-ten death sentence!"

However,

what left him even more speechless was that

upon hearing this,

Jia Hui was not afraid, but overjoyed: "This is the perfect time to achieve merit!"

In Jia Hui's view,

it might sound cold-blooded and unpleasant to say,

but realistically speaking,

if the country were too peaceful,

he wouldn't know how many years he would have to struggle before being promoted!

But war was different.

For a capable soldier, was there any fear of not having a good opportunity to achieve merit and rise to the top?

And Jia Hui believed he was a capable person!

And a very capable one at that!

So Jia Hui insisted: "I have already decided, I will join the army tomorrow!"

Jia Yun tried to persuade him further, but couldn't move him at all.

He could only sigh and give up, looking with complex eyes at the boy who had become a different person: "I cannot persuade you. Since you have made up your mind, as your brother, I can only wish that you achieve merit!"

"This is the little bit of silver I have left, take it."

He handed over a tael of silver.

Don't underestimate this tael of silver.

In *Dream of the Red Chamber*, one tael of silver was equivalent to ten thousand yuan today.

Twenty taels of silver and a string of coins were enough for Granny Liu's whole family, a regular farming family, to live on for more than a year.

Jia Yun still had to support his family and had to worry about his own livelihood.

So this one tael could be said to be the limit of what he could take out.

This sentiment could not be considered insignificant.

Even though

he clearly didn't think highly of Jia Hui joining the military in his heart.

Jia Hui felt a warmth in his heart.

This might be what a good friend, or even someone who could be described as a brother, is like. ===== CHAPTER 4 =====