Chapter 56: With Someone in the Imperial Court, It's Easier to Be an Official

"Oh, you're back." Zhao Yu was still setting up her stall by the bluestone road in the town as she had done in days past; seeing Chen Mo's figure, she was both surprised and delighted.

She hurriedly wanted to open her mouth to ask him how this Imperial Examination had gone, and whether he had attained any rank.

However, in her heart, Zhao Yu predicted that Chen Mo had most likely passed.

Because Chen Mo always wore a smile on his face; if he hadn't attained rank, he wouldn't be this happy.

"Let's go home first and talk." Chen Mo gave her a smile, walked up to the small cart, and reached out to take down the coarse cloth awning.

His stature was taller than Zhao Yu's, so he could do this more easily.

"Alright." Zhao Yu nodded with a smile; this was how they had been every time Chen Mo had leave in the past.

She would close her stall to rest for a day, go back to help Chen Mo cook some meals, boil the nourishing medicinal soups he needed for martial arts training, and then let him take the clean, folded clothes to the military camp.

As for the dirty clothes he brought back, Zhao Yu would find time to wash and dry them, waiting for Chen Mo to come back and take them during his next leave.

There weren't many customers coming to the small food stall in the morning; Zhao Yu tidied up the bowls, chopsticks, tables, and chairs, and served Chen Mo two stacks of meat pies.

"Eat these to tide yourself over for now. I heard yesterday that an ox at Ge Family Village broke its leg and couldn't be saved. There might be beef at the vegetable market today; I'll go buy some for you to eat later." Zhao Yu leaned toward Chen Mo with a smile on her lips and spoke softly.

Oxen were important labor for tilling fields; according to the laws of the Imperial Court, killing an ox privately was a serious crime.

The yamen might not care if a person died, but if an ox died for no reason, they would definitely investigate if there wasn't a suitable excuse.

Therefore, beef rarely appeared on the market; whatever was available was either from an old ox or one that had to be slaughtered because it couldn't be saved after various accidents.

Chen Mo nodded, picked up a meat pie, folded it, and stuffed it directly into his mouth.

The meat pies were filled with chives and vermicelli; as the old saying goes, spring chives are endless to pluck.

So the filling of these pies was mostly chives with little vermicelli, carrying an extremely fresh and distinct chive aroma upon entering the mouth.

Spring chives—what one eats is precisely this fresh vitality.

After Chen Mo finished eating the two large stacks of meat pies, the other few customers at the food stall left one after another. After putting away the last two tables and chairs, Chen Mo pushed the cart straight toward his home.

The thatched cottage was still as it had been before, except that Zhao Yu had laid a new layer of thatch on the roof.

Summer rains were heavy, and one couldn't wait until then to lay it, so she had laid a new layer in advance.

"Hurry and find me a clean set of clothes; I need to go take a bath first." Just after pushing the cart into the small courtyard, Chen Mo urged her hurriedly.

Throughout this journey, covered in dust, he had never had the chance to wash up properly.

Moreover, the weather was hotter now than before; he felt as if his whole body was shackled by a layer of filth, and he felt uncomfortable everywhere.

"Alright, wait a moment." Zhao Yu trotted into the house and, before long, brought out a clean set of clothes, as well as a wooden basin containing a towel and soap locust.

"Don't use the towel from the bathhouse; it's not clean. Use our own." Zhao Yu handed the items to Chen Mo and cautioned him carefully.

The bathhouse provided towels to customers who came to bathe, but who knew how many people had already used them? It was cleaner to use their own.

Chen Mo took the things and headed straight for the bathhouse; the bathhouse owner was quite familiar with him.

Firstly, because he was the foster son of Sun Jiangjun, and secondly, because not many people could afford to pay to wash in a private cubicle every ten days.

Some people weren't short on money, but they just didn't care about such things, making do in the large communal pool and not going to the cubicles.

After washing thoroughly from head to toe, Chen Mo felt refreshed and clear-headed, his whole body feeling three parts lighter.

Changing into the clean clothes Zhao Yu had prepared for him in advance, Chen Mo let out a long breath of stale air and strode toward his home.

Before he had even entered the door, he could smell a drifting fragrance; it was the scent of spices mixed with beef.

Chen Mo loved eating beef, mainly because it was very hard to eat in his daily life.

"I bought you twenty catties of beef—ten catties of soy-braised and ten catties of spiced-braised. If you can't finish it, take it back to the camp to eat slowly."

Hearing the door open, Zhao Yu poked her head out from the kitchen, her face full of bright smiles.

The owner of the ox that had fallen to its death wanted to sell it quickly, so the price was cheaper than mutton, and she had taken the opportunity to buy quite a lot.

There was no need to worry about it spoiling if he couldn't finish it; twenty catties of beef would only be eleven or twelve catties left after cooking, and with Chen Mo's appetite, he could finish it in two days.

"I brought back a bolt of cloth from Xingyuan City this time. Later, you take it and make two sets of clothes for me, and make one for yourself too."

Chen Mo said this while walking to the stove to help tend the fire and work the bellows.

"Alright, I'll find time to make them for you later." Zhao Yu nodded with a smile and agreed; she had actually already seen the bolt of silk Chen Mo had brought back.

Although she didn't know exactly what kind of material it was, she knew without thinking that silk must be much more expensive than linen or cotton.

To make a set of clothes with that silk, the cost alone would probably be two taels of silver.

However, she did not refuse, just as she had never politely refused when she made clothes for Chen Mo or helped him wash and cook in the past.

Although the two now had the name of husband and wife, they did not have the reality of it.

Yet in many matters, the relationship between them was no different from that of an ordinary married couple.

It could even be said that the relationship between the vast majority of married couples might not compare to theirs.

After all, how many couples in this world had experienced life-and-death trials and completely trusted the other? Even if there were, they were likely very few.

And the two of them had achieved this.

"I went to the prefectural city to take the Imperial Examination this time and took first place, becoming the Martial Top Scholar of this session." Chen Mo wore a smile on his face as he recounted this to her.

Zhao Yu was stunned for a moment, then hurriedly congratulated Chen Mo with a smile, happy that he had attained rank.

For a commoner, this could absolutely be called rising from the mud; from then on, he was no longer of commoner status but had become a Scholar.

As a member of the noble status, the overt and covert privileges a Scholar could enjoy were simply too many.

To say nothing else, a Scholar didn't have to take the "deterrent beatings" first when reporting to the authorities, whereas ordinary commoners had to take twenty deterrent beatings first, regardless of whether they were right or wrong or had a case.

"Here, this is a red envelope for you." Chen Mo took two red packets from his Huai and stuffed them into her palm.

"One only gives red envelopes to outsiders for congratulations; how could one give a red envelope to one's own family?" Zhao Yu chided him, not feeling at all that there was anything wrong with what she had said.

As the braising liquid on the stove boiled, Chen Mo added a few more pieces of firewood before he stopped working the bellows.

There was no need to worry about it anymore; what was needed was slow braising over a low fire so the flavor would penetrate the beef.

Seeing this, Zhao Yu adjusted the stove's air vent to be smaller; she was very skilled with fire, otherwise, how could she cook such good food?

Besides the beef, she had also bought quite a few pork ribs and a large fresh fish, preparing to cook them for lunch.

As for the pork knuckle? It takes quite a bit of time to prepare well, and since there is beef, there is no need to buy any.

"I can look after things here; you just finished bathing, so go rest quickly to avoid breaking into a sweat again."

Seeing that she could easily handle the remaining chores by herself, Zhao Yu smiled and shooed Chen Mo out of the kitchen.

Walking back to the main room, Chen Mo picked up the teapot on the table and poured himself a cup of tea; sure enough, the pot contained brewed tea, with some extra sugar sprinkled in.

The reason for adding extra sugar was to make the tea go down more smoothly.

Those who do not perform manual labor can drink plain tea, but soldiers like Chen Mo who train daily, or laborers who pull carts, carry heavy loads, or build houses and make mud bricks, prefer this tea with added sugar.

After drinking half a pot of tea alone, Chen Mo stood up and walked to the side to begin his cultivation routine.

By now, his Dantian Internal Qi had accumulated nearly twenty percent, and the Qi and Blood accumulated by the Transformation Pearl was nearing completion.

According to his estimation, in about three to five days, he would be able to undergo his next Mortal Transformation.

"Let's just eat something simple for lunch today; I'll slice the beef and stir-fry a few good dishes for you tonight."

Chen Mo hadn't been cultivating for long when Zhao Yu began bringing out the prepared dishes from the kitchen.

A large basin of braised pork ribs, accompanied by a small basin of fresh fish and tofu soup, along with a few catties of freshly griddled unleavened scallion pancakes; she had added several extra eggs to the dough, making the pancakes very chewy.

There was also a plate of stir-fried bean sprouts, serving as a vegetable dish to cleanse the palate.

"Alright." Hearing this, Chen Mo slowly stopped his cultivation, took two steps to the chair, sat down, picked up his chopsticks, and began to wolf down the food.

There were no constraints when eating at home; there was no need to worry about Wind or etiquette—he just did whatever was comfortable.

He stayed at home until the afternoon, helping Zhao Yu with some chores she found difficult to do on her own.

Chen Mo then had to leave before the curfew; when there are no festivals or holidays, soldiers in the military camp are simply exempt from training, but they must still report back to the camp before curfew, or else they would face the military rod.

Given Chen Mo's status, even if he didn't return, there would be people willing to cover for him.

It was just that he didn't want to break this rule lightly.

He was currently in charge of the military camp's defenses, and this matter fell under his jurisdiction; if he didn't follow the rules himself, how could he have the face to make others follow them?

Since there would be another day off tomorrow, he didn't take too much of the beef Zhao Yu had prepared, only taking two catties of spiced beef and soy-sauce beef.

He didn't intend to eat this meat himself; he mainly prepared it to give to his foster father to taste, as a small treat.

Beef was rare, and his foster father's household didn't have cows falling to their deaths often.

When he rushed back to the military camp, it was just evening; Chen Mo asked other Personal Soldiers for his foster father's location and immediately headed straight to the study with the beef in hand.

"Foster father, today is a day off. I didn't expect that a cow fell to its death at Ge Family Village yesterday, and there was beef for sale at the market, so my foolish wife bought plenty for me to eat."

"Beef is rare, and my foolish wife's cooking is decent, so I thought I would bring some for you to taste, foster father."

Chen Mo bowed and handed over the oil-paper parcel containing four catties of beef.

He truly had no other motives in doing this; it was just that his foster father had been quite good to him, and the beef tasted decent, so he brought some for him to try as well.

"Oh!" Sun Shouren looked slightly surprised upon hearing this, but couldn't help but reveal a smile.

Four catties of beef meant nothing to him, but the fact that Chen Mo had delivered it personally still made him quite happy.

That Chen Mo could think of bringing him beef showed that he held his foster father in his heart, at least regarding him as someone close, which made his own kindness toward him worthwhile.

He immediately ordered his attendants to bring good wine and invited Chen Mo to drink together, with the four catties of beef serving as a side dish.

…………

Two days later, the Official Documents for Chen Mo and the others were finally issued, and Sun Shouren had also written the appointments for the three of them.

As a Fifth Rank Guardian, he could independently appoint or dismiss military officials below the Seventh Grade within the Xingyuan Prefecture Garrison Army without needing to report to the Imperial Court.

As for military officials of the Seventh Grade and above, he only had the power of recommendation and could not appoint or dismiss them at will.

Of course, in the vast majority of cases, the Imperial Court would agree to those he recommended.

As the top scholar of this year's military examination, combined with the merit he had previously earned from beheading bandits, Chen Mo was different from the other two; he received a proper Ninth Rank official position.

This chapter is 3,000 words, which is why it was posted a bit late. I originally wanted to save 1,000 words for the next chapter, but I thought it would be smoother to read it all at once, so I posted it all.

(End of chapter)