Chapter 25: Even a Landlord's Family Has No Surplus Grain

Xu Jia left that place and entered his father's study. His father was inside reading an essay, and upon seeing Xu Jia arrive, he revealed a sense of gratification.

"Don't be too tired; rest when you should rest."

In order to understand the worldview, Xu Jia had to read more books; otherwise, it would be troublesome if some historical knowledge didn't align.

"It's fine, reading books passes the time, and it's impossible to just lie down all day long."

Having said that, he picked up a copy of *General Meaning of the Great Ning Classics* and began to read.

The benefit of a powerful soul is never forgetting what one sees, but the downside is that it is easy to get "high blood pressure." Once the brain is overused, the temples will bulge and throb, and one is also prone to dizziness.

Because he never forgot what he saw, Xu Jia flipped through the books very quickly, which caught his father's attention.

Seeing that Xu Jia finished a book in less than a quarter of an hour, put it back, and pulled out another, he muttered to himself: Is he not looking for this book? Why does he insist on flipping every page? Even reading ten lines at a glance isn't this fast.

The second book Xu Jia took was *Selected Essays of Ancient and Modern Times*. The pre-Qin essays in it were no different, but after the founding of Great Chu, there were many authors and essays he did not recognize. However, it did not matter; he would just stuff them all into his brain first.

After scanning and archiving them, Xu Jia put the second book back and picked up the third.

Ordinary scholarly families simply did not have history books, and Xu Jia could not accurately understand history from his father's collection; after all, only extremely wealthy families could afford to read history.

If one insisted on studying history, one could only go to families with rich collections to borrow books, or visit famous Masters to lecture on history.

In his early years, his father was obsessed with fame and career, so most of these were lecture notes for writing essays, the so-called "study guides," entirely for the purpose of "getting ashore."

He did not know much about the specific history, his concepts were vague, and he had never read the essays of the famous masters since the pre-Qin period.

Xu Jia had no choice, so he opened this third book, *Selected Essays of Candidates from Qing'an Prefecture for the Jitai Era Anniversary*.

He heard his father say: "You are aiming too high; why read these essays by provincial graduates? You flip through books so fast, how much have you actually taken in?"

"Could it be that because I lectured you a moment ago, you are just putting on a show in front of me?"

Xu Jia did not even lift his head, only flipping the pages as he said: "Having read it, naturally, I have taken it in."

His father suppressed his anger: What a big mouth!

He immediately asked: "Let me ask you, 'Subdue one's self and return to propriety is benevolence'—how would you break the theme?"

Xu Jia smiled slightly; his mind had already begun to search. There was no need to adapt; he only needed to copy it directly. He opened his mouth and said: "Subduing one's self and returning to propriety means cultivating one's virtue internally and practicing propriety externally; it is the ultimate of benevolence. As for subduing one's self, it is not merely about cutting off desires and forbidding emotions, but truly suppressing private desires to manifest public righteousness..."

This topic was standard and conventional, but the subject was vast, directly asking about "benevolence."

However, Xu Jia had previously read the books of his predecessor in his room, had just read two or three of his father's study guides, and added to the fact that he had lived over a hundred years in his previous life, he had read some Confucian classics, and now he used them all together.

It could only be said that the time for showing off had arrived.

Xu Jia knew that his father had doubts about him, but if he could fulfill his father's long-cherished wish, pass the imperial examinations, or help his father achieve fame, those doubts would vanish, because these were tangible benefits, and this fame was also an honor on the Xu family genealogy.

Of course, Xu Jia could also abandon this family, wander the world, and cultivate alone.

But Xu Jia was not that kind of person, and if he felt guilty in his heart, that would be another Cause and Effect here.

Hearing Xu Jia's reply, his father's tone softened: "Not bad. Although it is not a great improvement, you have not forgotten what you learned. Passing the county examination should be stable. However, you must not be arrogant; stop showing off your cleverness. Only by being steady can you go further."

"You have had a talent for reading since you were young, but you must exert this talent and work even harder; otherwise, if you waste your talent Qi, it will be difficult to achieve anything."

"There is another box in my room, which contains the essays and policy critiques of successful metropolitan graduates copied from the capital. Although they were topics from the Imperial Examination three years ago and are no longer in vogue, looking at the bones rather than the skin is enough for you to ponder for a long time. Since you like reading, I will give them to you tomorrow."

Xu Jia did not like such nagging lectures; perhaps he saw himself from his previous life who loved to be a teacher? But he did not expect that a county graduate's family would actually have a collection of metropolitan graduate essays... This was an unexpected surprise. It seems the "printing industry" in this world should be quite developed... Another money-making technology gone.

Xu Jia himself was not obsessed with fame; passing the provincial examination would suffice, and that was also for the sake of "identity," which is "fame."

The identity of a provincial graduate could better assist his cultivation of the Dao. Moreover, provincial graduates generally could not become officials unless they actively donated for a position.

With this identity, walking sideways in the county was no problem. As long as one did not forcibly go against the government, some small wishes would be fulfilled by someone immediately upon opening one's mouth.

Provincial graduates could also set up various industries, which was something county graduates could not do.

Xu Jia's cultivation of the Dao would spend money like water, which was already foreseeable. Whether he passed the examination himself or helped his father pass, it would be enough to support the consumption of the early stages of cultivation.

Regardless, passing the examination was a "high-return" investment.

Seeing that his father's lecture showed no signs of stopping, Xu Jia interrupted him after finishing the book: "Father, besides the rent from the hundred acres of fertile land, does our family have any other income?"

"We also lend out some money." His father was interrupted and was a bit stunned.

He still wanted to give a long lecture on how "a child prodigy may not grow up to be a great man" to motivate Xu Jia to study better, and then hope his son would become a dragon, see Xu Jia pass the provincial examination, and become a metropolitan graduate.

Xu Jia frowned: "Anything else?"

"Why ask this?" His father became vigilant.

"I never asked before. I am sick now, and recuperating requires a lot of money, so I must ask. If we are eating the family poor, then we should be frugal; if we are doing okay, then being a bit more generous is better," Xu Jia coaxed him.

His father explained: "Your grandfather was quite wealthy at that time, but later he suffered a great loss, so he sold everything. He didn't even keep the merchant ships, just exchanged them for this house and the foundation of a hundred acres of fertile land. When your mother married into our family, she brought a dowry of ten acres of mulberry fields."

"According to the accounts of previous years, the rent collected from those hundred acres of fertile land is about one hundred taels, more in a good year and less in a bad year. After deducting taxes, about eighty-something taels remain."

"However, the Work Wages for the servants, the filial offerings to the county office during festivals, our own food and clothing, and social obligations spend most of it. By the end of the year, if we are frugal, we can save twenty or thirty taels of silver."

"Those ten acres of mulberry fields can raise ten mats of silkworms, harvesting cocoons twice a year. If there are no mistakes, they can produce two or three hundred catties of raw silk."

"With this raw silk, your mother and the female servants weave it into silk fabrics together, which can make about fifty or sixty bolts, and can earn about thirty or forty taels of silver." Hearing this, Xu Jia had only one thought in his mind, and that was: Even a landlord's family has no surplus grain!

Xu Jia looked at his house, which was so large, covering two or three acres, and thought it was quite glorious.

Hearing his son care about these things, his father did not think it was neglecting his proper work; after all, if one cannot sweep one's own house, how can one sweep the world? Governing a family and governing a country are the same.

"It sounds like saving fifty taels of silver a year is a lot, but if you calculate carefully, there is actually not much surplus. You and I, father and son, study, buy ink and paper, pay the tuition for your Master, or buy some newly published books and essays. Even if we don't buy books and just pay people to copy them, it is an expense, and it is more expensive than food and clothing."

Xu Jia was even more silent. After calculating, they could barely maintain their income and expenditure every year, and there was even a possibility of a fiscal deficit.

That hateful Huang Zhenren, didn't he say to be reincarnated into a moderately wealthy family? That it could support early cultivation? Does he want a "son selling his grandfather's land" style of cultivation?

Seeing Xu Jia's visible disappointment and even disdain, his father's temples throbbed. Somehow, he opened his mouth and said: "Of course, your grandfather still had some savings left from when he was in business."

Xu Jia's eyes lit up again, and he immediately asked: "How much?"

His father immediately regretted it. He had intended not to tell him, but he wasn't afraid of thieves stealing, just afraid of thieves coveting...

Since his son had asked, he would take him to see it.

After taking a deep breath, he stood up: "Follow me!"

He led him to the back room. There was a side room in the back that had been converted into a latrine with a chamber pot. His father moved the chamber pot and the floorboard, and there was actually a cellar. His father led Xu Jia down, felt his way in the dark to two boxes, one large and one small.

His father opened the boxes and then lit the fire starter, which immediately illuminated the room. The large box was filled with silver, and the small box was filled with gold.

At this moment, they were all reflecting light, shimmering with precious radiance.

"This is what your grandfather left behind. There are two thousand taels of silver and one hundred taels of gold. This gold is in five-tael bars, totaling twenty bars. This silver is cast into twenty-tael ingots, totaling one hundred ingots."

"In addition, our family's house deeds, land deeds, and field deeds are all kept here."

"This counts as showing you the bottom line, kid," Xu Jia's father said. "Your grandfather originally prepared this money for me to use to arrange a small position with real power after I passed the provincial examination, but it was never used."

"Now I say the same: once you pass the provincial examination, you can dispose of this money however you like. As for nourishing your body, your mother and I have two hundred taels in our own separate savings, accumulated over these years. If you don't specifically eat those Ginseng slices like meals, no matter how delicately you nourish yourself, it is enough to last you a year or two."

Xu Jia thought to himself: A year or two? I'll spend it all in a month or two! Adding this family fortune, lasting a year or two is about right.

Xu Jia looked at the gold and silver, estimated how long it could last, and asked, "Father, are you just going to sit at home and live off your savings, with no plans to open up new sources of income?"

Xu Jia's father said, "I have thought about it. If I exchanged it for farmland, it would certainly be able to generate more money, but the imperial court has regulations, and our farmland has already reached the maximum limit."

"As for doing business, I am not that type of person; I might end up squandering it all instead."

"Now I only hope to fulfill your grandfather's dying wish, to turn our fortunes around through the imperial examination, become a provincial graduate, and have a good start in life."

"Counting it up, it has been five years since your grandfather passed away and two years since your grandmother passed away. Next year, the mourning period will be over, and we father and son can go to take the examinations together."

Xu Jia's father was actually only just over forty, belonging to the "prime of life," so even if he took the exams until he was sixty, he could still take them four or five more times.

When Xu Jia heard him say this, he knew this money could not be spent for the time being, and he thought to himself: No matter how much you urge the Feng Shui of this house, you won't urge out a provincial graduate with two people living off their savings.

If no one passes the exam, this family fortune will be squandered in a few years. How will I be able to pay-to-win my cultivation?

Should I go move the ancestral graves? Urge some official luck and Literary Luck for the Xu family?

The art of Feng Shui is divided into Yang Dwelling and Yinzhai. Xu Jia was skilled in Yang Dwelling Feng Shui, arranging physical Daochang, and his research into Yinzhai was quite average, but even this average exceeded many ordinary Feng Shui masters.

In fact, it was also the "Immortal path values life" ideology at work; as long as one lives comfortably, why care about the affairs of descendants after death? It emphasizes the present and treats the afterlife lightly.

Moreover, the basic environment of his previous life did not allow for the random alteration of ancestral graves; digging up the remains of ancestors and moving them elsewhere was not something one person could decide on their own.

Since it was useless for his own family, there was even less reason to study it.

However, those disciples from his previous life were very interested in such things. They often looked at Yang Dwellings and measured Yinzhai for those in power and the extremely wealthy and prominent. After earning large sums of money, they would purchase various treasures needed for cultivation to provide for Xu Jia.

Back then, when Xu Jia built a Daochang in San Francisco, America, he used dismantled Ming Dynasty architecture, relocated and restored Ming Dynasty murals, various Taoism inscriptions and stone carvings, and ancient classics, all filling the space, along with antique Magic Tools and inheritances from various lineages, arranged into an array...

After the Daochang was set up, Xu Jia could even leave his body during the day to roam the Dharma Realm, but the Dharma Realm of Blue Star was extremely chaotic.

America was even more filled with devils and evil spirits blooming everywhere.

In order to open up this Daochang, Xu Jia even imitated the ancestral Heavenly Master who subdued the ghosts of the six heavens, suppressing demons and eliminating evil to maintain order in that region.

After the Daochang in San Francisco, America was set up, it did not fail Xu Jia's expectations. Although it was not a natural Cave Heaven Blessed Land, it was still an Immortal residence.

Xu Jia lived within it, his vitality not diminishing with age, and his wisdom becoming increasingly sufficient. Only then, at the age of nearly one hundred, did he succeed in forming his Golden Core, with a realm not inferior to the likes of Zhang Sanfeng. It was just that Xu Jia was not as good at fighting as Zhang Sanfeng, nor had he passed the final Demon Examination illusion.

Seeing Xu Jia lost in thought, Xu Jia's father said, "What? Is there pressure even for a mere County Examination?"

Xu Jia shook his head and left the place. If he wanted money, he still had to rely on Niu Congcong.

Seeing his look of being unreliable, Xu Jia's father felt a bit unconvinced: What does that head-shake mean? Are you saying I can't pass, or you can't pass, or do you think the family fortune is too thin? The two left the cellar, and Xu Jia's father closed the bricks and put the chamber pot back in its original place.

Having understood the specific family fortune, Xu Jia had a plan in mind and intended to formulate a specific plan for his future Immortal cultivation.

He first returned to his room to tap and massage his acupoints for a while, then held a slice of Ginseng in his mouth and began to close his eyes and rest his mind.

Calling it resting the mind was actually digesting the books he had seen. If one wants to cultivate to become an Immortal, besides relying on others for support, one must rely more on oneself.

(End of chapter)