Chapter 1339: At Last, the Examinations for Office Are Open!

Li Jinxue, who had been seized as a White Lotus cultist, escorted to the Niulan Pass on Qiyao Mountain to labor as a coolie for a stretch of time, and who, when he was on the verge of dying from exhaustion but had not yet died, had waited for the royal army and shouted from Niulan Pass the cry "To take the examinations and join the army — is there any such thing as noble birth?", had already returned home more than a month ago to his house in Little Li Village, South Mountain Township, outside Shizhu City.

He had originally had the chance to join the army (enlist in the Ming forces) and draw pay, and could even have been credited with a great merit — because quite a few people had testified that on that day at Niulan Pass, it was he who had first shouted the slogan "To take the examinations and join the army — is there any such thing as noble birth?", and he had also smashed a roving bandit soldier to death with a hammer.

But the problem was that after the battle at Niulan Pass, he had fallen ill!

It turned out that his body had already been close to collapse before the great battle at Niulan Pass, and during that great battle he had staked his life and fought with everything he had, using up nearly all of what little vitality remained to him. He had also been wounded — the back of his head had been split open, and blood had flowed all over the ground. In the end he had survived, but immediately afterward he had come down with a serious illness, burning with fever all over and delirious (the wound on the back of his head had become inflamed), and it looked as though he was about to die.

The Ming troops who had attacked Niulan Pass also knew he had rendered meritorious service, but seeing that he was at his last gasp, they did not recruit him into the army. Instead, they sent two civilian porters from Shizhu to carry him back to his hometown for burial, and also gave him thirty one-tael silver coins as funeral and resettlement expenses, along with a certificate of loyalty.

But the way things developed was beyond anyone's expectation. After Li Jinxue, having already received the funeral and resettlement money, was carried back to his hometown, under the meticulous care of his grandmother, Li née Feng, he unexpectedly recovered and did not die!

Not dying was of course a good thing, but being alive also had its own miseries!

To stay alive he had to eat and drink, and what was more, he still wanted to go out and seek office, seek wealth and rank, and establish himself with a family and career. But the problem was that he had no money!

Of the thirty taels of silver he had received from the Ming army, ten taels had gone to the fellow villagers who had carried him back, another ten taels had all been spent on hiring physicians, getting medicine, and buying food and drink to nourish his body, and the last ten taels had been turned into his burial clothes and coffin — this was truly a matter of life and death: his wife-money had become a coffin and burial clothes!

What was even more fatal was that he could not even make use of this fine coffin. The coffin was a good coffin, made to order by the famous Carpenter Zhang in Shizhu City, with good wood selected for it, and the space inside was very spacious — it looked comfortable just to see. But no matter how comfortable it was, a living person could not sleep in it!

And such a high-grade coffin could not be sold, either! The hereditary garrison households of Shizhu had all fled, and the peasants who remained were all penniless. When they died, it was good enough to sleep in a thin-plank coffin — who would spend several taels of silver to buy such a fine coffin? As for the burial clothes, they were even harder to sell. What living person would wear such clothing? So he had no choice but to wear them himself.

And there was something even more miserable!

Li Jinxue had originally had a younger brother named Li Jinshi, three years his junior, who had also studied under their grandfather. But he was not cut out for scholarship; he was an honest, simple fellow who just老老实实 farmed the land. Yet fate had not spared him, either. After Li Jinxue was arrested, he had still wanted to rescue his elder brother, and had sold everything of value in the house to raise money, hoping to ransom his brother back. In the end, the elder brother was not ransomed out, and he himself was seized as a conscripted laborer and vanished to who knows where.

As a result, the Li family had no one left who could do heavy work, and no one went to harvest the grain in the family's fields!

Watching the weather grow colder and colder, and the food in the house grow less and less, Li Jinxue felt that he had once again reached a dead end. Under the rule of the Shun dynasty, he had become a convict and had nearly been worked to death! Now that the Great Ming had arrived, he still had not turned his fortunes around, and it looked as though he was about to become a corpse starved to death by the roadside!

With no other choice, he had to disregard his grandmother's dissuasion, struggle up from the bed, put on his burial clothes, lean on a hoe, and go down to the fields to work, to gather at least a little grain so that he and his grandmother could survive a while longer.

But sickness comes on like a mountain collapsing, and departs like the drawing of silk thread!

Li Jinxue, who had not yet recovered from his serious illness, had no strength at all. Even walking on the mountain path he swayed and staggered, and he truly did not know how he was going to get down to the fields.

Just as he was walking along panting for breath and dizzy-eyed, he vaguely heard someone shouting in his ear: "The examinations are open for selecting officials! Shizhu County is opening the examinations to select officials — clang clang!"

And while shouting, the person was also beating a gong!

But Li Jinxue did not react for a moment. He was in a daze, and thought it was an illusion — perhaps he wanted to take the imperial examinations too much. During those days when he was recuperating at home, he had more than once heard someone shouting that the examinations were about to be held, but when he asked his grandmother, he learned that it had only been a dream of millet and yellow grain.

But thinking it over carefully, it made sense. Sichuan had only just been recovered in one corner; how could the court have the energy to hold examinations in Sichuan? To hold examinations, they would have to wait until the whole of Sichuan had been recovered!

He sighed, and was just about to continue on his way when the shout came again to his ears, a rather familiar voice: "Xiucai, is that you, xiucai?"

Because Li Jinxue had worked as a teacher in Shizhu City, the villagers of Little Li Village all called him xiucai.

Li Jinxue turned his head with difficulty to look, and found it was Li Daniu from the same village, whose family and Li Jinxue's family were fellow natives of Chengdu. His family and Li Jinxue's family had moved to Shizhu one after the other, and the two of them had been good friends who had grown up together since childhood.

But this Li Daniu had had much better luck than Li Jinxue. His family had many able-bodied laborers, he himself was sturdily built and could do farm work, and his father had even become the head of the tithing unit in Little Li Village, which brought in a bit of extra income. So this Li Daniu had long since taken a wife, and already had three or four children.

Li Daniu, short, stocky, and solidly built, came up quickly to Li Jinxue with a bronze gong tucked under one arm and a wooden stick in the other hand, and opened his mouth to ask: "Xiucai, are you better now?"

Li Jinxue gave a bitter smile: "Brother Daniu, looking at me like this, do I look like I'm better?"

Li Daniu studied him for a while, then shook his head and said: "You really don't look it. Your complexion is bad, your eyes are dull, you sway when you walk, and you're wearing those clothes — why are they so strange?"

Burial clothes! They were different from the clothes living people wore. A long black robe (in Sichuan, blue was esteemed, but commoners were forbidden to wear blue clothing, so the common people could only use black clothing as a substitute for blue, making burial clothes for the dead to express the family's fine wish that the deceased might become a hereditary garrison soldier in the underworld), with sleeves both long and wide, and embroidered on the surface with many "longevity" character patterns.

Li Jinxue glared at him, and leaning on his hoe, made as if to continue on his way.

"Wait," Li Daniu blocked Li Jinxue's path. "Why are you still leaning on a hoe?"

"I'm going to the fields!" Li Jinxue did not know whether to laugh or cry. "There's no food left at home. If I don't go to the fields, we'll starve to death!"

Li Daniu waved his hand. "What time do you think this is, and you're still thinking about eating?"

Li Jinxue was stunned. What did he mean? He wasn't even allowed to eat?

"The examinations are on!" Li Daniu stamped his foot. "I've shouted myself hoarse — didn't you hear?"

"Don't joke with me. I still have to go to the fields and work; the family is waiting to eat!"

Li Daniu grew anxious too. He stuck the wooden stick and the bronze gong into his belt, then went up and snatched the hoe from Li Jinxue, tossed it aside, and grabbed one of his arms and dragged him down the mountain.

As he walked, he said: "Have you, Master Xiucai, burned yourself silly with fever? Can't you tell which matters more, eating or the examination? Is your grandmother going to starve to death from missing one meal? If not, you can still come eat at my house! Today is the last day of the written examination for Shizhu County's opening of the examinations to select officials. If you pass, you'll have the chance to become an official!

An official! It's what you've dreamed of every day since your grandfather's time. Now that the opportunity has come, you still have time to eat?

Do you know? Every literate man in the whole county has gone to try his luck. If I were literate, I'd have gone too! It's a pity I can't read."

It turned out that when Li Jinxue had earlier heard someone shouting "the examinations are open for selecting officials" and the like from his sickbed, it had not been an illusion — the examinations really had been opened! It was just that his grandmother was old and hard of hearing, and had not heard clearly!

And today was already the last day of the written examination for the Shizhu County imperial examinations. If he did not go take it now, he would miss the opportunity!

Li Jinxue was dumbfounded. The examinations really had been opened! This was not a dream; it was real. He really did have the chance to become an official!

Whether it was a case of joy putting a man in good spirits or not, Li Jinxue, who just a moment before had looked sickly and on the verge of death, was suddenly full of energy from head to toe, and all his illness was gone! He no longer needed Li Daniu to drag him along; on his own he strode off as if flying, racing down the mountain toward Shizhu County town.

(End of chapter)