The spring breeze brushed against their faces as the peach tree in the courtyard blood. Lin Shiheng sat by the window, and coincidentally, a pink petal drifted into the room with the spring breeze.
This scene was beautiful no matter where it was placed, but unfortunately, the original owner didn’t think so.
Since his birth, this peach tree in the courtyard had been growing. Starting from so year, it only blossod but never bore fruit. For other farming families, a fruitless tree was just that, a fruitless tree. After all, they relied on crops, not fruit trees.
But for the original owner, this peach tree represented his repeated failures in the imperial examinations, despite his success in becoming a scholar.
It blood early but never bore fruit.
The place where Lin Shiheng currently resided was a village called Linyang, and the house he stayed in was the old house of the Lin family.
The Lin family had three sons. The eldest and second sons were ordinary farrs, but the third son, the original owner, was the one who received the most love from his parents due to being born to them in their old age. He had fair skin as a child, and he didn’t look like soone who could work in the fields. Because his parents were getting old and feared that he would lose their support before growing up, they decided to send him to the town to study.
The original owner indeed had so intelligence and talent. When he was 13 years old, he passed the township examination for scholars.
In a vast country like Ye, there were naturally many township scholars. There were even so who achieved that at a young age. During the reign of the previous Emperor, there was even a 14-year-old top scholar.
However, in remote and impoverished places like this, a scholar as young as him was extrely rare, especially considering that it was his first attempt. He could be considered a precious gem.
When the news of a 13-year-old passing the scholar examination arrived, it caused a sensation throughout Linyang Village. Everyone said that the Lin family was lucky, and in the future, they would have an official in their household.
The original owner, who had the potential to beco an official, was naturally praised to the skies. He didn’t have to travel far, and his teacher, who taught him for his whole life, was only an old scholar. He didn’t know that there were more talented people beyond his horizon. He believed it when people said he was an exceptional prodigy that only appeared once in a millennium.
From that point on, he didn’t study as diligently as before but focused on cultivating his own image.
He had to have the best brushes, ink, paper, and inkstone. His robe and clothes had to be spotless. Coupled with his decent face, he truly beca a beautiful sight in the dusty countryside.
Unfortunately, no matter how beautiful he looked, without ink in his belly, he couldn’t pass the examination for the provincial scholar.
(TNote: ink in his belly = knowledge/book smarts.)
From the age of 13, he kept taking the exams until he was 22. At an age when others already had three children, the original owner still hadn’t found a wife because of his failure in the exams.
Of course, it wasn’t that others didn’t find him attractive. Although he couldn’t pass the imperial examination, he was still a talented scholar. If he were willing to give up on the civil service examinations and beco an accountant in town or open a school, he would certainly earn more than the peasants who toiled in the fields. Moreover, his appearance had caught the attention of many girls in the village.
The reason why the original owner remained unmarried was because he wasn’t willing to settle.
He was handso and talented, so why should he marry an illiterate country girl? As for the attractive rchant’s daughters, there were inquiries from them when he first beca a successful candidate, but at that ti, the original owner didn’t think highly of rchants. He wanted to marry a daughter from a wealthy and influential family, soone who wasn’t only rich and powerful but also beautiful.
Now that he was older and had repeatedly failed the provincial exams, he considered marrying a rchant’s daughter as a backup plan. However, those shrewd rchants weren’t willing to marry their daughters off to a countryside boy who had been trying for 9 years and still hadn’t passed the provincial examination.
However, the village girls didn’t mind the original owner, but he himself didn’t fancy them.
Originally, there was no problem with things continuing like that, but in the year he turned 22, Father Lin fell from the cart while driving the cattle.
Father Lin was now 60 years old, which in this era was considered almost halfway to the grave. The fall nearly cost him his life. The doctor they called didn’t say it couldn’t be treated, but he ntioned that it required a lot of money. Even if it were treated, he wouldn’t be able to do heavy labor in the future and could only rest properly.
Upon hearing that, Eldest Bother Lin and Second Brother Lin hesitated.
They didn’t want their father to seek treatnt. Being rural folks, their family wasn’t particularly wealthy. Spending a large sum of money on treatnt would only bring back a weakened laborer instead of a healthy one. Moreover, they would have to take care of him in the future. It simply wasn’t necessary.
Of course, they didn’t show their hesitation openly. It was only their wives who expressed it. Lin Da and Lin Er just didn’t take their parents’ side when their wives spoke.
(TNote: Rural nas tend to use the sequence of birth, Lin Da/Big Lin = Eldest Brother Lin; Lin Er/ Two Lin = Second Brother Lin.)
But even so, it was enough to chill Mother Lin’s heart.
As parents, they had worked hard to raise their sons, providing them with food, clothing, and helping them start families. Yet when their own father encountered a problem, his sons didn’t want him to recover.
What comforted Mother Lin was that her most beloved youngest son firmly stood by her side and expressed his determination to get their father treated.
In reality, the original owner wasn’t as filial as Mother Lin believed. He had never worked in the fields since he could rember, relying entirely on the family’s support. The money for buying brushes, paper, books, clothes, and even the travel expenses for his exams, all ca from his parents’ hard-earned inco.
However, the eldest and second brothers always had reservations about the expenses for his education. If their father really passed away, leaving only Mother Lin alone, it would be difficult for her to manage the eldest and second brothers. Who would support him then?
This farce, triggered by Father Lin’s need for treatnt, ultimately ended in a separation of the family.
Mother Lin felt disheartened by her two sons’ attitude and called upon the elders of the clan and neighbors as witnesses. The Lin family divided, with the eldest and second brothers living separately, while the two elderly parents followed the youngest son.
This was sothing the original owner hadn’t anticipated.
He only wanted his parents to continue supporting him, but he never expected that the responsibility of providing for their parents, which should have fallen on the eldest brother, would end up on his own shoulders. He deeply regretted his past choices.
With Father Lin unable to do heavy work even after recovering and Mother Lin having to tend to the fields and her husband, the burden of household chores fell on him. In just a few days, he couldn’t maintain his previous noble image and was overwheld by exhaustion.
Finally, when Mother Lin cautiously suggested finding a wife for him to take care of the household chores, he reluctantly agreed, thinking about not having to do chores anymore.
The bride he married was 18 years old. The reason she hadn’t married despite reaching 18 was twofold. Firstly, her family was extrely poor, and although her father was a good man, kindness alone couldn’t alleviate poverty.
Secondly, her mother had passed away early, and a daughter without maternal upbringing was always deed undesirable for marriage. Moreover, there were rumors in the village that this young girl had prevented her father from doing good deeds, leading people to believe she must be ill-intentioned.
Consequently, families who feared bringing a troublemaker ho would dare to marry her in.
Thirdly, the girl’s mother had co to the village 10 years ago, but after giving birth to this lone daughter, she passed away. People were afraid that this girl would follow her mother’s fate and wouldn’t be able to bare a male child.
In short, due to various circumstances, this 18-year-old girl beca an unmarried old maid.
The original owner didn’t want to marry her, but he needed soone to support him, so he reluctantly married her with a cold face.
It was obvious that he didn’t like her, so naturally, he wouldn’t treat her kindly.
After the girl got married, she worked tirelessly every day, taking care of the fields, serving her in-laws, and attending to her husband’s needs. The original owner despised her lack of knowledge, even though she was good-looking, she was just a country girl. He also neglected their intimate life, which resulted in her not conceiving for 3 years after marriage. Finally, when the original owner passed the provincial examination and beca a Juren, she beca pregnant. She thought the days of hardship were finally over, but instead, she received a divorce letter.
(TNote: Juren = a rank achieved by people who passed the township examination.)
The original owner had been disgusted with this wife for quite so ti. Previously, he still needed her support, and even if he disliked her, it wasn’t appropriate to divorce his wife. Now that he had achieved fa as a Juren, stood in the spotlight and admired by everyone, he naturally didn’t want to continue to endure this hardship.
He wasn’t foolish either. He knew it wouldn’t look good if he divorced his wife imdiately after passing the provincial examination. Furthermore, with his disdain for the ailing Father Lin and his affair outside, he ticulously planned a case of ‘daughter-in-law kills father-in-law.’
As a result, his wish ca true, as he sent his wife to prison and got rid of the burden, Father Lin.
After that, he never passed the Imperial Exam and remarried his forr lover, the daughter of a wealthy rchant.
He thought he could enjoy life from then on, but because his lover’s family was wealthy, she developed an arrogant attitude. She also held the leverage of accusing him of killing his father and framing his wife. Even though she herself couldn’t have children, he firmly prevented him from taking concubines.
In ancient tis, not being able to have one’s own child was the greatest punishnt. Countless tis, the original owner regretted accusing his forr wife despite her pregnancy. If he wanted to accuse her, he should have waited until the child was born.
When he was in his forties, he suffered a sudden heart attack due to the shock of discovering his wife’s affair and died in agony shortly after.
[Ding! This small world mission: Protect LI Lanlan, task completion progress: 0]
Li Lanlan was the one who wholeheartedly cared for her husband and in-laws for 3 years, only to be wrongly accused by her forr spouse.
Lin Shiheng was sowhat surprised, “The original owner doesn’t seem like soone who would give up their soul to protect soone.”
[His desire was to have his wife and the adulterer killed, and then get mad. The task to protect Li Lanlan is a system assignnt, and the two cannot be confused.]
“Alright, got it. You can withdraw now.”
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