Mrs. Xu and Li Qinghe were basking in the sun in the yard when a carriage arrived at her house. It was the town magistrate. His face was filled with happiness as he said, "Mrs. Xu, I went to your house but I didn't find you there, so I knew you would be here. I'm so overjoyed ah! Congratulations to scholar Zhang. He has passed the county exam. He is now a scholar and has a bright and promising future… Ha ha ha… I rushed to announce the good news to you as soon as I received the official document."
The magistrate was so overjoyed that he spoke a little incoherently.
He passed the exam!?
Mrs. Xu was stunned. She then grabbed her daughter's hand and said, "Qinghe, your brother passed!"
Li Qinghe was also very happy, and asked, "When will he be back?"
"I don't know." The magistrate spread his hands and said, "If a candidate passes, then the senior government officials will arrange a banquet for them. And when they go to the county to receive the title, they will have to attend a banquet there too. It will take half a month at the earliest for him to come back."
It can still be considered early. It was a big achievement for them. Not to mention their village, even from their county there were not many officials. They can't really consider Hu Yanxi as he goes to town to give an exam each year but fails it.
When he goes, it gets quite lively, but when he comes back, he quietly starts to collect the scriptures again. The school fees were getting more and more expensive, rising every year, and not many of these students in the village were sent to the schools. It was really not affordable for the villagers to send them.
Within half a day, the entire Wang village, including the town, knew about it. All of a sudden, many people came to congratulate her. Even those wealthy businessmen who she was not very familiar with from the town came in person to congratulate her.
As they were at Mrs. Xu's house many people gossiped that many good and bad things happened to her as a widow. Although Mrs. Xu was not a widow, she could be considered similar. She and her daughter are neighbors all these years and two years after moving here her son was selected as a scholar. Even though Mrs. Xu was a leftover concubine, no one dared to gossip about her.
Li Qinghe also went to help entertain, with eight-year-old Jun'er by her side. He didn't need anyone to look after him, and he ran to the dog house to accompany the dog. This kid didn't like reading, but he liked to study pharmacology. Although he was only eight years old, he liked to run around in the medicinal forest in the back mountain, and sometimes he stayed there for a whole day.
As for Xiyu, he was also selected as a scholar last year, and after he came back, he went to Fucheng with his uncle, purely to see him.
After a few days of excitement, everyone's enthusiasm gradually dissipated.
Half a month later, at night, when Li Qinghe and Zhou Chengkang were about to go to bed, there was a knock on the door.
Zhou Chengkang went to see and then came back in a few seconds, "Qinghe, Xiyu is back."
Li Qinghe turned over and sat up. At this time, she was in her thirties, but she looked like she was in her early twenties. Her spirit and temperament were good, her eyebrows and eyes were stretched, and one could tell from her complexion that she had lived a good life these years.
After walking a few steps, she saw the uncle and the nephew standing at the door. Their book boys beside them were still carrying their luggage.
"Mother!" Xiyu's voice was full of joy. Li Qinghe went to his side and rubbed his head. He was taller than his mother now. "My son is back."
Xiyu looked at Zhou Chengkang at the side and said, "Father!"
Li Qinghe patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile, "Were you good? Did you cause any trouble for your uncle?"
"No sister, he didn't cause me any trouble." Bin'er stepped forward and said. He stood still and was stable compared to Xiyu who was jumping from joy. "I should thank him for taking care of me after I passed the exam."
"Mother, you underestimate me!" Xiyu helped the book boy carry the luggage into the door, "I'm hungry, I want to eat the buns made by my mother."
"You only know how to eat!" Li Qinghe scolded him with a smile. She then looked behind the two of them, and asked again, "Your aunt Yu was still talking about Yan'er two days ago, did he come back with you, or he didn't?"
"He didn't come back." Xiyu held his parents' hand and pulled them inside the house, "He won't come back soon. He insisted on staying in Fucheng to do business. He has made a lot of money recently."
In the end, Yu Yan and Min Rui only had one child, Yan'er. Unexpectedly, when the child got a little older, he especially liked to do business. Since he was young, he often collected medicinal materials from the villagers and sold them to Wu Li. Later, he heard Yu Yan talk about pickled fish being profitable. He then bought the fish from Li Qinghe's fish pond, asked the women in the village to pickle them, and then quietly ran to the county seat in a carriage to sell.
Yu Yan also complained to her: We both don't value money so much, why does our child only focus on making money?
After thinking about it for a long time, she concluded that he inherited it from the Min family! It can only be blamed on Min Rui for her son's behavior since the Min family was in the business.
Their house was quite lively now. Li Qinghe was about to ask Bin'er's book boy to inform Mrs. Xu about their arrival when she saw he had already run away. After a few seconds, she saw Mrs. Xu come.
Mrs. Xu was now over forty years old. She has been living a comfortable life in recent years and doesn't look old. She walked over hurriedly and then looked at Bin'er from top to bottom. She then turned to look at Xiyu and said with a smile, "It's good you both are back!"
For Li Qinghe and Mrs. Xu, it was just that their sons had returned home after more than half a year, but for the villagers, they were scholars.
With Mrs. Xu's and her daughter's family background, it will be a matter of time until he will be given an official position.
So, upon learning that Bin'er was back, people from the town came again. Many people came to congratulate her and her son, and Mrs. Xu threw a big banquet.
Originally, to celebrate, it was customary to open the ancestral hall and worship the ancestors, but the Zhang family's ancestral hall was in the county. Though the gifts were given every year between that side and this side, there was no contact between the master and the son.
The matter of worshiping the ancestors was put on hold, and after the banquet was arranged, the two families became quiet.
Mrs. Xu was preparing her son's luggage to go to the county when someone knocked on the door. Li Qinghe opened the door and saw that it was a girl in light green clothes. She had clear and beautiful eyes. With a smile she said, "Can I dare to ask this sister, if Zhang Haiya lives here?"
She had a bright smile and a generous face. Li Qinghe sized her from top to bottom. The jade pendant on her waist looked crystal clear, and the jewelry on her hair and ears didn't look cheap.
Why would this kind of girl come to look for a young man? Could it be that Bin'er provoked this girl outside?
She coughed and asked, "Why are you here for him?"
"I came to look for him…" She turned her head and saw the person she came looking for close the window from the room beside her. The corner of her lips turned up and her smile deepened as she said, "To hold him responsible!"
As soon as she finished speaking, she rushed inside the house and went straight to Bin'er room, "Zhang Haiya, you said you would be responsible for me. But you ran away so fast, did you see me as nothing?"
Then came Bin'er's anxious voice from inside. He explained, "Girl, it's all a misunderstanding. It was obviously my room. Who knew you would bathe there in the middle of the day?"
"Then am I worthless to you?" The girl said in an exasperated voice, "If you don't marry me, I'll die…"
"Don't." Bin'er said hastily, "I haven't had time to tell my mother, I have to persuade her to come to propose marriage. So don't pull my ears!"
She is so fierce.
Li Qinghe looked suspiciously at Mrs. Xu who came out of the room. There was a smile in her eyes.
Bin'er was not some kind of reckless young man. He struggled to survive in the cracks of Zhang's family when he was a child. He looked pure and honest, but it was only to his family. He actually had deep thoughts for an outsider before doing anything. If he wasn't really interested in this girl, he wouldn't tell her the exact address.
A month later, Mrs. Xu went to Fucheng to propose marriage in person, and Bin'er's marriage was finalized. The eldest daughter of Official Wang, who also came from a poor family, had already taken a fancy to Bin'er's knowledge. Official Wang agreed very readily to the marriage and personally said to his son-in-law that it was only a matter of time before he became an official.
When Mr. Zhang in the county found out that his son had passed the exam, he came to their house but found it empty. It was through Li Qinghe that he found that the mother and son went to Fucheng to propose marriage. He was happy when he found out about his future daughter-in-law's background but was a little disappointed that they arranged the marriage without asking him.
Li Qinghe didn't care about his attitude. This old Mr. Zhang, who was said to want to live a good life with his wife, took a concubine last year. When Mrs. Xu moved back to Wang Village with her son, she and he were no longer related.