Chapter 38: 037: Shameless

In the Xu Ying household, inside the dilapidated main room.

The whole family was there, brows knotted in misery, waiting blankly for the end of the world.

Yesterday morning, the Fei clan's vicious servants had already come once.

They said Xu Ying had injured Young Master Fei, and demanded ten taels of silver for medicine and recovery. They also settled all the back rent owed over the years, adding rolling interest, which came to exactly four taels, seven qian, two fen, and six li of silver.

The family had scrimped and saved to raise a few chickens, just about to start laying eggs, and the vicious servants seized every one of them to offset the debt.

They even took the family's grain stores, leaving them with no rice to put in the pot from now on.

As the vicious servants left, they said: "The Old Master is righteous and kind, allowing you to fall behind on rent. Even with the young master beaten and injured, he still won't drive you to a dead end. Where else in all of Yanshan can you find such a charitable master? It must be virtue your family accumulated over eight lifetimes. The Old Master says he'll give you one more day to scrape together the rest of the silver. If you can't make it up, then get your land deed ready for transfer. Our Old Master is truly merciful — he only wants the subsoil rights; the surface rights he'll still leave to your family. In the future, be sure to remember the Old Master's grace!"

The whole family wailed in grief.

By the classification standards of New China, the Xu family had once been well-off, qualifying as "upper-middle peasants": they had their own land, lived in relative comfort, but couldn't afford to hire long-term or short-term laborers.

But ten years ago, a great disaster struck Yanshan — drought and locusts came together.

Xu Ying's paternal grandfather and grandmother starved to death one after another. His father and two uncles took the whole family and fled the famine to survive.

On the road fleeing famine, Xu Ying's eldest brother, eldest sister, and a male cousin starved to death. A female cousin was sold to a broker for grain. Xu Ying's second uncle also starved to death, and his aunt later remarried. His third uncle, still unmarried, went into the mountains and became a bandit — to this day, no word has been heard from him.

Fortunately, they encountered a good official. County Magistrate Da Jiliang took up his post, erected the Cabbage Stele, distributed gruel and grain, and provided work relief. Xu Ying's family, at least, did not perish entirely.

After returning to their village, they could only borrow at usurious rates to farm.

Interest piled on interest until they couldn't even pay the interest, and their landholdings were gradually seized, most of them gone.

In one stroke, they fell from "upper-middle peasants" to "lower-middle peasants," half-farming, half-tenanting just to survive, and still having to take short-term labor jobs.

Now, with this happening, it looked like their last remaining land would be gone too. The fate awaiting them was to become "poor peasants."

……

"We never should have let the third boy study. If he'd just farmed obediently, how could he have caused such a disaster…" Father Xu's face was bruised from being beaten yesterday, and he kept muttering the same few words over and over.

Mother Xu wept silently. "A person needs something to hope for. What if he passes the exam and becomes a xiucai?"

Father Xu, not daring to defy the vicious servants, could only blame his wife: "He didn't pass the xiucai exam, but he's brought a calamity down on us. The money spent on the third boy's books and brushes would've been better used finding a wife for Hao!"

Hao — that was Xu Ying's cousin, Xu Hao.

When the second uncle's wife remarried, it wasn't convenient to bring a child along, so Xu Hao was given to Father Xu to raise. He was twenty this year and still hadn't married.

Xu Hao was honest and dull, somewhat withdrawn by nature. He said, "Third Brother has been clever since he was little. He should be the one to study. Once he becomes a xiucai, our family won't have to perform corvée labor. I can wait a few more years to marry."

Mother Xu said quietly, "Should we go ask Zhen and her husband for help?"

Zhen — that was Xu Ying's elder sister, Xu Zhen, married to an ordinary farmer in the next village.

Father Xu shook his head. "What help could Zhen give? She hasn't even finished her month of confinement yet. Don't let her know about this."

The whole family sank into silence again.

Only Xu Ying's little brother, Xu Mao, a snot-nosed three-year-old brat, played all over the floor, oblivious that the sky was about to fall on his family.

After waiting and waiting, Father Xu stepped out of the main room, tucked his hands into his sleeves, and crouched by the door, peering into the distance for any sign of the Fei clan's vicious servants.

They never appeared — like an executioner's blade, held aloft but never brought down.

The vicious servants didn't come, but three schoolboys did.

Fei Ruhe wore a luxurious silk robe, clearly a young master from a wealthy family at a glance.

Father Xu, ashamed of his own shabbiness, dared not meet his eyes. He bowed his head and greeted, "Young Master, may you be well!"

Whichever family's young master it was, offering a greeting first could never be wrong.

Mother Xu, however, recognized them and knew they were her son's schoolmates. She hurried back inside to pour water. "Young masters, please have some water."

Having walked all the way, Fei Ruhe was indeed thirsty. He took the clay bowl and gulped it down. He had seized the chance to slip out and play, and couldn't be bothered with this sort of trouble. He said to Zhao Han, "You do the talking."

Zhao Han set down his bowl, cupped his hands, and said, "I pay my respects, Uncle, Aunt."

Father Xu hastily rose, bobbing and bowing, flustered. "I dare not, I dare not. Young Master, please don't shorten this farmer's lifespan with such courtesy."

"Young Master, you are too polite." Mother Xu actually performed a woman's formal curtsy.

Mother Xu had seen something of the world. In her youth, she had been a maidservant in the Fei household. Because she attempted to seduce the Old Master, the mistress had driven her out. She was first married off to a lame old widower; after her husband died of illness, she remarried Xu Ying's father.

After her curtsy, Mother Xu asked anxiously, "Ying… is our Xu Ying all right? He hasn't come home in two days."

Zhao Han did not tell the truth. He smiled reassuringly. "Xu Ying is fine. The academy head, seeing his intelligence, has arranged for him to live at the academy from now on."

"That's good, that's good." Mother Xu finally set her heart at ease.

Though Father Xu grumbled that they shouldn't have sent their son to study, it was only talk. In his heart, he still hoped his son would rise above others.

Even facing the vicious servants' oppression, about to lose their only remaining land, the whole family dared not let the son know, lest it disturb his studies. They hadn't gone to Pearl-Containing Mountain either, thinking that their son, tucked away at the academy, was better off than coming home to be bullied.

Zhao Han spoke again. "Uncle, Aunt, the rent and interest the Xu family owes — from now on, none of it needs to be repaid."

"Truly?" The Xu family could scarcely believe it.

Zhao Han explained, "The Fei patriarch has passed away from illness. They have no time to press for rent, and great upheaval is likely to follow. The fields you tenant-farm will also be converted to academy land. The academy head has agreed to lease you a few more mu."

Father Xu dropped to his knees with a thud and kowtowed frantically. "Thank you, Academy Head! Thank you, Teacher! Thank you, Young Master! From now on, we'll toil like oxen and horses to repay your kindness. Thank you, thank you…"

The others kowtowed too, kneeling all over the ground in a rush.

Even the three-year-old brat was kneeling, as if he found it especially amusing.

Zhao Han saw that every male in the Xu household bore injuries — the house had likely been ransacked as well. He did not stop them from kowtowing, but left behind a small piece of silver, called for Fei Ruhe and Fei Chun, and departed in silence.

The Xu family kowtowed for a long while before they realized the three young masters had all left, and a piece of silver had been left on the ground.

Father Xu's face was streaked with tears. Wiping them away, he said, "Good people, all of them good people. Today we've met good people!"

……

The Fei clan's internal strife had been going on for twenty or thirty years.

The main reason was that too many branch lineages had split off, making it impossible to unite against outsiders. Moreover, the surrounding land and businesses had already been largely taken over by the Fei family.

If they still wanted to keep expanding, they had to strike at their own kinsmen!

When word spread that Fei Songnian had been angered to death, nearby clan members struck first.

On the way there and back, Zhao Han had already witnessed several fine spectacles.

"Stop right there — this is my master's field!"

"Your master? Your master's been angered to death already. Your mistress has done fine work, shaming the whole Fei clan's face!"

"Touch that field ridge again and we'll start something!"

"You'll start something? Grab the tools, beat them dead!"

"……"

The two gangs of household slaves started brawling right there at the edge of the field. The field ridge belonging to Fei Songnian's family was ripped up bodily by the clansmen and shifted more than ten zhang away.

Just outright robbery — utterly shameless.

Www⊕ ttкan⊕ ￠○

After Fei Songnian died, only a widow and young son remained, his daughters all long married off. If not now, when better to seize it?

Not only that — nephews and grand-nephews with closer blood ties to Fei Songnian also came one after another to press debts. They claimed that back when the old master (Fei Songnian's father) divided the estate, it was done unfairly: such-and-such shop should belong to me, such-and-such house should go to him. They even said Fei Songnian had usurped the famous calligraphy and paintings the old master left behind.

Lady Zhang, dressed all in mourning clothes, took her son to the ancestral residence to weep and plead. The clan head, most inconveniently, fell ill.

Thereupon Lady Zhang sent word to her maiden family for help. Her brothers, burning with righteous fury, led over a hundred household slaves to come demand justice.

This move provoked the Fei clan's public outrage: how could the Fei clan's internal affairs tolerate outsiders meddling? Was the Zhang family trying to seize the Fei clan's property?

The two clans quarreled beyond reconciliation and had already resolved to go to court, giving County Magistrate Feng Xun a splitting headache.

As the chief official of a county, when a property lawsuit landed on his desk, he could feast on the plaintiff and then feast on the defendant.

But that depended on who the aggrieved parties were. With the Fei and Zhang clans, Magistrate Feng dared feast on neither — and so Magistrate Feng also fell ill.

The two clans staged armed clashes, and several lives were lost.

The Fei clan had greater numbers; the Zhang clan could not win. They sent men directly to Nanchang to file a complaint with the Regional Inspector.

The Regional Inspector came swiftly, squeezed and extorted his fill, then turned around and vanished without a trace — said he was going undercover to investigate the course of the case.

Pearl-in-Mouth Academy.

Hu Mengtai said mockingly, "Brother Dazhao, the Fei clan's family conduct truly opens this foolish younger brother's eyes."

Fei Yinghuan could actually still laugh. "Let them make a scene. It's rotten through anyway — might as well strip naked and let outsiders see it all clearly."

Hu Mengtai was stunned, and found himself with no retort.

Fei Yinghuan shook his head and sighed. "Come, let's go find Brother Zhan and study. I've seen it clearly now — the Fei clan is beyond saving. It only matters whether I can pass the jinshi exam myself and leap out. Seclusion, seclusion — study with all my might. In three years I'll go to the capital for the metropolitan exam. If I fail, I'll buy an official post and become a county magistrate."

Fei Yinghuan and Hu Mengtai then went to find Zhan Zhaoheng to study and practice examination essays together.

The three were set on the civil examinations. They honed their skills with one another daily, and their days passed quite fully.

Zhan Zhaoheng in particular — though only fifteen years old and not yet even a juren — could utterly crush Fei Yinghuan and Hu Mengtai with his eight-legged essays.

The Jiangxi provincial exam was hellish in difficulty, yet to Zhan Zhaoheng it was like plucking something from a pouch. If he passed the provincial exam two years from now, he could sit the metropolitan exam in the fourth year of Chongzhen — and might even obtain his jinshi degree ahead of them.

The three encouraged one another, paying no heed to the tangled affairs outside.

As for helping set the academy in order, Fei Yinghuan only needed to use his status as the sole juren heir and show his stance at the critical moment — that alone would easily net him a shop in Hekou Town.

(End of Chapter)