Chapter 110: Enrollment

At this very moment, Heifu was not at Huyang Station. Taking advantage of a rare rest day, he had brought his younger brother Jing into the county town.

For a country boy, a trip to town was no easy affair. The last time Jing had come to the county town was many years ago. He had been small then, and the family poor. He had merely followed his mother on a brief walk, buying nothing before heading back. All Jing remembered was desperately wanting the mandarins sold at the market, but his mother, her purse too empty, had refused to buy them, making him wail and sob dryly the whole way home…

So this time, when Heifu brought Jing to town, he made sure Jing followed him around for a proper look. The two brothers stood at the docks, pointing at the boats coming from the south and heading north, guessing where they were bound next. In the official compound district, they gazed at the auspicious beasts on the eaves from afar, calling out each one's name and pointing out the names of the government offices under the different roofs.

"That is the county prison. Looks rather grim and forbidding, doesn't it? The very first time I came to the county town, it was right there that I faced my accuser in court and ultimately proved my innocence."

"That is the courtyard of the Chief Clerk, who oversees the advancement and dismissal of officials. On the first day of the twelfth month last year, it was right there that I answered twenty legal questions correctly in one go and was appointed Station Chief, and granted the red headband."

"That is the County Commandant's office, heavily guarded. As Station Chief, I answer to that office. If the County Commandant issues an order, I must obey…"

Jing listened with immense satisfaction, watching his second brother point out those lofty government offices with such confidence and exchange greetings with the clerks he knew. He couldn't have admired him more, but he also envied his brother's rich and colorful experiences.

Any one of those stories was enough to boast about for a long time to his companions back in the hamlet.

Finally, Heifu even bought Jing a whole new set of clothes at the market. Once dressed, with a short sword at his waist, Jing was transformed into a well-attired young man who had just come of age, no longer looking like some country ruffian.

After their tour of Anlu County town, Jing's eyes were full of envy. "Second Brother, this county town is truly wonderful. The market is bustling, the clothes are fine, and even those young girls are so fair and well-kept."

"So ignorant."

Heifu laughed and scolded, "No matter how bustling, it's still just a small county town. When you go to the commandery capital someday, you'll see far more! And if you can go to Xianyang, you'll see things you've never seen in your life! Palaces and towers, endless streams of carriages and horses — it has everything."

"The commandery capital might be possible, but Xianyang…"

Jing said with some doubt, "Xianyang is the national capital. It's not a place you can just go to on a whim. Second Brother, haven't you never been there either?"

"I will go there one day, and not as a conscript soldier, but riding in a grand carriage drawn by four horses!"

"A grand carriage drawn by four horses…" Jing bit his tongue, unable to even imagine it.

Heifu patted his brother. "The same goes for you. As long as you study diligently in the academy and graduate successfully, your official career will be a smooth path from then on."

The reason Heifu had brought Jing to the county town this time was none other than to send him to the county academy and enroll him in the student register.

Last month, the news that Qin was attacking Chu had arrived, startling Heifu into a cold sweat. He had therefore moved Jing's enrollment up from the start of spring to the tenth month.

With this early start, Jing was feeling far from confident. He wrung his hands and muttered, "Second Brother, although I've worked hard at learning characters these past six months, I can barely read and write. I've heard that to graduate from the academy, you must master five thousand characters to write official documents! On top of that, you must be proficient in laws and ordinances, mathematics, chariot driving, and swordsmanship… These are all things that clerks' sons learn from childhood, but I don't understand any of them."

Jing's worries were not unfounded. His foundation was too weak, and he truly could not compare with the sons of officials and clerks. The families of hereditary official scribes provided excellent home education — like, for instance, a few decades from now, that Zhang Tang, who at the age of seven or eight would learn from his father's casework and interrogate a rat…

Heifu understood this perfectly, of course, but he did not expect Jing to excel in the academy. He only hoped Jing would obediently spend three years as a student and evade military conscription in the war of unification. Ideally, he would graduate smoothly, in which case the prospects for everyone in the family would be secured.

He himself had taken the path of a martial clerk as Station Chief, licking blood at the blade's edge to catch criminals and fighting on the battlefield, gambling on a chance to rise step by step in this great era.

His brother-in-law Yuan had taken the path of the Works Section. Although he was now just a minor craftsman, his superb skill had already won the appreciation of the county Master Artisan.

As for eldest brother Zhong, if the effects of the composting method were confirmed by the Yunmeng Township Field Assistant, Zhong could smoothly enter the field clerk system and become the Field Overseer of Xiyang Hamlet. Field Overseer was the safest of the local minor clerks. If a serious theft or murder occurred, the hamlet chief and hamlet gatekeeper would all be punished for negligence, but the Field Overseer alone bore no such responsibility. As Field Overseer, one merely had to urge the common people to be diligent in farming, fulfill the land tax, and incidentally improve agricultural techniques.

By this reckoning, the family lacked only a civil clerk working within the system. Jing was the youngest and most malleable, so naturally he was the first choice.

But Jing looked utterly unconfident. Heifu felt that, besides words like "future prospects," he needed to give Jing a little extra motivation.

So he cleared his throat and said, "I forgot to tell you something. A while back, when I was recovering from my injury at home, I went to visit Old Man Yan in Bian Hamlet…"

Jing's eyes immediately lit up. "Second Brother, when you visited Old Man Yan, did you see the virtuous daughter of the Yan family?"

Ever since that one fleeting glimpse last year, Jing had been unable to forget that young girl.

Heifu smiled. "I didn't see her, actually, but I heard that she is almost of marriageable age. Old Man Yan has high ambitions and has declared that his granddaughter will not be betrothed without a betrothal gift of ten thousand cash, and will not marry anyone who is not an official…"

Jing was instantly dumbfounded. "How can that be!"

Heifu then said, "Youngest Brother, I know what's in your heart. Your second brother says this in advance: if you can graduate smoothly in three years, I will take ten thousand cash and go to Old Man Yan's house to propose on your behalf!"

"Are you serious?"

Sure enough, Jing was immediately filled with fighting spirit and said urgently, "Three years won't do. Yan Yushu is already fourteen; she'll be married off in two more years. Second Brother, make it two years! Within two years, I will definitely graduate from the academy and become a clerk!"

"Two years?"

Heifu did a quick calculation. In two years, Qin would not yet have completely destroyed Chu, right? He immediately put on a stern face. "First, catch up with your studies, then boast — it won't be too late!"

With that, Heifu led Jing to the academy located in the northern part of the county town. It had none of the airs of an official school — no semicircular pool, no Apricot Altar. In keeping with the Legalist tradition of "modeling after later kings," it did not even venerate any particular ancient sage. There were only a few crude, simple buildings.

The teachers here dressed no differently from ordinary officials and clerks. The sound of loud recitation coming from the classrooms was not the Odes or the Documents, but the dry, tedious articles of laws and ordinances.

Taking the law as doctrine and clerks as teachers — this was the distinctive character of Qin education.

Heifu and Jing paid their respects to the academy master, who was none other than Clerk Xi's younger brother, named Gan, of the rank Bugeng. Gan and Heifu were acquainted, so Heifu entrusted his brother to him and presented the customary tuition bundle…

Gan led Jing through the procedure of enrolling in the student register first. Only when the seal was stamped onto the new "identity card" that Jing received did Heifu finally breathe a sigh of relief.

This meant that, as an academy student, Jing would be exempt from all corvée labor and military service until he completed his studies. He would definitely be able to avoid that great campaign against Chu.

In this way, Heifu had arranged matters for all the male members of his family. But for Jing, Heifu had no way to help him with knowledge from later eras. How his future path unfolded would be up to Jing himself.

As Jing walked Heifu out of the academy, Heifu seemed to remember something and said to him, "You stay right here. Don't go walking off. I'll be back in a moment."

Jing was a bit baffled as he watched his brother's tall figure walk across to the other side of the road. Heifu asked a few questions of some farmers squatting on the ground selling goods, and soon returned, his carry-sack now holding something…

When Heifu came closer, Jing saw clearly: it was an armful of mandarins!

Heifu grinned. "Mother often says that the first time she brought you to the county town, you wanted to eat mandarins. The family was poor then, and she couldn't bear to buy them for you, so you cried the whole way…"

Jing was a bit embarrassed. "Second Brother, Mother has been telling that little story for over ten years now. Every year when winter comes, she brings it up at the dinner table. It really annoys me to death."

"Precisely because of that, I was able to remember it." As he spoke, Heifu dumped the armful of mandarins, their skins mottled green and yellow, into Jing's arms.

"Of all the fine fruits in the Jiang-Han region, nothing beats these mandarins. Late autumn oranges are just at their sweetest!"

Heifu peeled a mandarin and popped it into his mouth. Jing also tasted the sweet-and-sour flesh. What he had thought as a child was the most delicious food on earth, he now realized as an adult was really just a slightly better-tasting sour fruit.

"Youngest Brother, do you still remember the story of 'Yanzi's Mission to Chu' I told you? How did Yan Ying describe the orange there?"

"I remember."

Jing nodded. Over the past year or so, every time his second brother came home, he always liked to tell him stories about people and events from the outside world, like Yan Ying and Su Qin, which had broadened Jing's horizons considerably.

"Yanzi said, 'The orange, grown north of the Huai River, becomes the trifoliate orange; grown south of the Huai, it remains the orange…'"

"Correct." Heifu said, "'The leaves are similar, but the taste is actually different. Why is this so? The water and soil are different.'"

"Youngest Brother, if you had stayed living in that poor, remote backwater of Xiyang Hamlet, mingling and fooling around with those country youths, I'm afraid your future achievements would be no different from theirs. But now, you have come to the county town, associating with clerks' sons and taking legal clerks as your teachers. You have gained broader knowledge. This is just like an orange tree transplanted from north of the Huai to the south — your future prospects should also be different. So, by no means should you belittle yourself."

Heifu pointed to his own head and smiled. "Besides, we were born of the same parents. Your second brother here is so intelligent, answering all twenty legal questions correctly — how much more so you?"

"Second Brother, you're just finding a roundabout way to praise yourself." Jing burst out laughing, but for some reason, his worries about the future had lessened considerably.

"Take care of yourself." Though his younger brother was still young, he was a clever man, so Heifu said no more. He waved a hand at him and left on his own.

Watching Heifu walk away, Jingcai put away his smile and bowed deeply toward his departing back.

Though he never said it aloud, Jing had always been grateful to Heifu for guiding him along the way.

"I shall be diligent, and never betray Second Brother's high expectations!"

On Heifu's side, he had just left the study chamber and turned a corner when he ran into a man hurrying past on horseback. The moment the man saw him, he hastily reined in his horse and shouted, "Heifu, I've finally found you!"

Heifu looked — it was none other than Clerk An Pu. After their cooperation on the last case, the two had become friends and were on very good terms.

"So it's the Clerk." Heifu laughed. "What do you need me for? Could it be you're inviting me to your residence for a feast again?"

This An Pu's family also belonged to the Right Side of the Lane in Anlu County. The culinary skill of their household kitchen was quite good; Heifu still remembered it vividly after visiting once. Though it couldn't compare to later ages, it had a flavor all its own.

"What time do you think it is, and you're still thinking about feasting and drinking!"

An Pu dismounted, grabbed Heifu by the arm, and lowered his voice to warn him: "Heifu, I've heard news — the Left Commandant has designated you to escort convict laborers and garrison conscripts north for corvée service. This is a bitter assignment, and it might even cost you your life!"

(End of chapter)