Chapter 285: Chapter 286: Can’t You Make an Exception?
Bai Yugang announced, "Apologies, my lords. By order of the Holy Emperor, I am posted here on guard. No one is to enter or leave."
"That’s unreasonable! The morning is supposed to be for everyone to enter and get acquainted with the layout. The exam doesn’t officially begin until the afternoon. Going in now won’t bother anyone."
Everyone was growing anxious. ’If we can’t go in and make our rounds, how will those unperceptive officials inside know to give our sons special treatment?’
As men who had gone through the imperial examinations themselves, they understood better than anyone the importance of a well-positioned examination cell.
If one was unlucky, they’d be half-dead by the time they endured the nine days.
As Bai Yugang watched the crowd of robed officials grow, his scalp began to tingle. He was about to offend more than half of the entire court. "That is not my concern. I am only here guarding this place under imperial orders. Surely, my lords, you don’t intend to defy a direct decree?"
"Can’t you make an exception?" Zhou Shicong’s expression soured as he saw the growing crowd. With things like this, it would be difficult to even try and plead his case.
Seeing Marquis Wu’an shake his head, Zhou Shicong didn’t press the matter and turned to return to his carriage. "Back to the residence."
"My lord, what about the young master?" his attendant asked, concerned.
Zhou Shicong replied, "Everyone’s in the same boat. If his luck is bad, the worst he’ll do is suffer a bit. Leaving early now keeps us from being an eyesore to our superiors."
He had only come along to follow the crowd and to prevent the boy from being slighted by someone unperceptive.
Now they were all at the same starting line. It was all up to his own abilities.
With Zhou Shicong taking the lead, those who could read the situation clearly quickly followed suit.
Only a few, still clinging to a sliver of hope, lingered and refused to leave.
&
"Le Huan, why don’t you go have a look?" Wang Caiyue tried to persuade Gu Lehuan again.
Gu Lehuan shot back, "Mother, why don’t you send my younger brother? We’re talking about marrying into the wife’s family. I’m your eldest son!"
"Your brother is still too young, isn’t he? Besides, there has always been a proper order between the old and the young. And the Xu Family is wealthy. If they didn’t have only one daughter, they never would have resorted to this."
Gu Lehuan retorted, "Well, I’m not going. If we can’t survive here, let’s just go back to our old home to find Grandpa and the others. With so many of them in the family, they won’t just stand by and watch us starve."
"Mother, Shangjing really isn’t as wonderful as you think. Look at us—the three of us men take on work day and night, and we can still barely fill our stomachs. Why are you so insistent on staying here?"
Gu Lehuan had long grown weary of this life. In this strange place, they knew no one outside of their own family.
Without the protection of their clan or the support of relatives, his own mother was now scheming to have him marry into another family, all for the sake of a better life.
"What’s so bad about it here? You really want to go back to that backwater village?"
"We might be struggling and tired now, but once we get through this difficult time, we’ll be residents of the Imperial City."
"Think about it. Back in our village, if you three men went looking for work, you might not earn a single copper coin all day. It’s different here. There’s an endless supply of jobs." Wang Caiyue’s eyes shone brighter as she spoke.
Gu Lehuan gritted his teeth. "So what? After rent and food for the four of us, Mother, how many copper coins have you actually saved?"
Wang Caiyue replied, "At least it’s a good start."
"Do you want to be like your uncles? Go back to that aimless, muddled life?"
Gu Lehuan kicked a stone block in the corner. The jolt of pain in his foot seemed to clear his head a little. "In any case, I will not marry into another family. I want to marry a wife and have children with dignity."
"Are you trying to be the death of me? Have you forgotten our family’s situation? We have nothing left to put in the pot, and you’re still thinking about getting married and having children?"
"Let me tell you, you’re going whether you like it or not. I’m your mother, and what I say goes."
"Woman, what are you shouting about now?" Gu Yuanmu said bad-temperedly as he walked in with a carrying pole on his shoulder. He and his sons were exhausted from a long day of hard labor, only to come home to endless nagging.
"Father, Mother wants me to marry into another family. Is this your idea, too?" Gu Lehuan asked Gu Yuanmu, pointedly ignoring Wang Caiyue’s warning look.
"Marry into another family? Who said anything about that? No one from the Gu Family marries into their wife’s family." Gu Yuanmu tossed his pole into the corner. "If it really comes to it, we’ll just go back home. With the family’s few acres of land, we’ll find a way to get by."
"Go back, go back, go back!" Wang Caiyue shrieked. "We walked for months to get here on our own two feet. Are we supposed to walk all the way back?"
"Back then, we were in a group of several hundred, living in constant fear every single day. Now it’s just the four of us. You think we can just go back that easily?"
"I’ve been trying to find people from our hometown lately. After all, so many of us came into the city together," Gu Yuanmu said, a bitter taste in his mouth. ’If we hadn’t been so determined to push forward then, would our whole extended family still be together?’
"Hah! You and your son make it sound so simple. What about food for the road back? We had some savings when we came here. Now you’re empty-handed. How do you propose we return?" Wang Caiyue slumped into a corner and began to cry. ’Who wouldn’t want to go back? But what do we have to go back with?’
Both father and son fell silent. They knew Wang Caiyue was right. They were truly caught between a rock and a hard place.
Back when the court was sending refugees back to their hometowns, there were at least subsidies provided.
They didn’t know what had possessed them back then. Now they had nothing, and it was too late for regrets.
"All right, stop crying." Gu Yuanmu went to help Wang Caiyue up, but she slapped his hand away.
"Do you think I want to do this? No matter what, Le Huan is our eldest son! I’m just trying to find a way out for this family."
"The landlord is already demanding rent for these two little thatched huts. We can’t just let ourselves be thrown out of Shangjing."
With nowhere to live, and with Shangjing’s curfew, they wouldn’t be able to stay in the city.
"...Mother, stop crying. I’ll go," Gu Lexi said as he walked in.
"I wish you could go, but you’re far too young for her..."
Gu Lehuan scrubbed his face with his hands. "Stop fighting. I’ll go, alright?"
Gu Yuanmu pounded his head with his fists. "It’s all because I’m so useless! How did our lives ever come to this?"
...
Standing in front of her new shop, Jin Qianqian watched the customers stream in and out. She turned to Hong Tianbao. "How much longer will our previous shipment of soap last?"
Hong Tianbao answered, "Even though we’re rationing it daily, it won’t hold out for much longer. I estimate we have less than half a month’s worth left."
Business was booming, which made them happy. But the thought of their stock dwindling day by day, with the next shipment from Fu County yet to arrive, made them anxious.
Jin Qianqian bit her lip. She knew that estates near Shangjing were incredibly hard to buy. The moment one came onto the market, it was immediately snatched up by someone with connections.
Besides, she couldn’t keep troubling Prince Bai with these matters. It looked like she would have to make the rounds at the various brokerages.
