The Great Seminary

Chapter 38 Weird Talk
I got up and washed my face.

Zhang Gui started eating the meal his mother had left behind when the courtyard door was suddenly pushed open.

A middle-aged man in a half-new leather jacket walked in.

He stood in the yard, looked around, walked quickly into Zhang Gui's house, and bowed slightly.

"Gui'er, the master wants you to come over."

This man is Zhang Gui’s adoptive father, Zhang Xi, the housekeeper in the household of scholar Zhang Bashan.

Although Xiucai was the lowest level of academic achievement in the imperial examinations of the Ming and Song dynasties, Tongsheng had various respectable titles because he did not have any privileges or public welfare.

First of all, don’t bow when you enter the yamen.

Secondly, the government would allocate five acres of land to the scholar as "farming and studying money", and would also exempt the scholar from the land tax on twenty acres of land.

In addition, the scholar's three generations of direct relatives were exempt from court labor.

In addition, the school would give scholars five dou of rice or flour every month as food.

Otherwise, if a scholar only knows how to study but does not understand business, he will starve to death even if he has land.

Five dou of rice and flour is equivalent to about 80 kilograms, which is enough for an adult man to survive. If it is replaced with coarse grains, it can even feed a wife and children.

Ordinary scholars can live such a secure life, let alone the children of aristocratic families.

Although scholars seem to be too numerous to be worth anything in aristocratic families, they are actually the backbone and the cornerstone of the village.

Because the scholar was willing to give up the imperial examination and join the local government, he was qualified to become a ninth-rank official.

Whether it is the owner of the big market in the county town, the inspector or the town chief in the town, or the farmer envoy or irrigation official in the village, etc.

Only when a noble family has a majority of the grassroots local officials who are capable of working until death can it say that it "leads the village and gathers the wise men."

Therefore, once a member of the Zhang family in Pingyang passed the imperial examination, the clan would immediately allocate 20 mu of clan land and send slaves to cultivate it for their support.

The scholar was also given three stone of fine rice per month as food ration.

If he failed the imperial examination, he was willing to give up the exam and become a minor official, so as to help his family settle down in the village.

The family will also increase the allocated clan land to 100 mu and the monthly food ration to 10 dan.

Zhang Gui's adoptive father, Zhang Bashan, was an old scholar who had taken the provincial examinations for a long time but failed to pass.

Although he lost a lot of support from his clan because he was unwilling to give up the imperial examination, Zhang Bashan still had a father.

His father was also a scholar and had served as an official for decades. He had accumulated over a thousand acres of private land and divided it among his five sons.

The youngest son, Zhang Bashan, was allocated 230 acres and became a small landlord.

When he was in his twenties and had just passed the imperial examination, he lived an extremely comfortable life.

He is also handsome, so he was able to win over Yang's wife.

However, he lost his luck in taking exams and failed to pass the imperial examination. He then took a second concubine and had three sons and two daughters.

The burden increased greatly and he gradually fell into poverty.

Now the only ones left in the family are a housekeeper who grew up from a servant, and a laborer who sweeps the yard, chops wood, and fetches water.

Two maids who cook, sew, clean the house, and make tea and water.

As a bastard born to a concubine outside the royal family, Zhang Gui had a low or even no status in the family.

After Yangsao was able to make a living by selling stinky shrimp paste, Zhang Bashan even stopped providing food for his wife and children.

But who would have thought that now Yangsao's life is getting better and better, while Zhang Bashan's life is getting worse and worse.

A father like this, let alone falling into poverty, would not be able to have a deep relationship with Zhang Gui even if he became rich.

Zhang Gui treated everyone in Zhang Bashan's family with a cold face.

But unexpectedly, he behaved very gently this time and didn't even get angry with the housekeeper Zhang Xi, with whom he always had a bad relationship.

He said slowly, "Are you looking for me, Mr. Xiucai? I'll be there right away."

His attitude obviously surprised Zhang Xi, but it was normal for people to become more sophisticated as they grew up and experienced the hardships of society.

"I didn't expect that after not seeing you for half a year, Brother Gui has become more sensible." Zhang Gui explained:

"It's not that I've become sensible, but I feel like my position has been reversed with Zhang Bashan's.

He tricked my mother into getting pregnant and then didn't take responsibility after she gave birth to me, so he owes me.

Now his whole family and even you servants may be implicated by me in the future, so I owe him something.

The attitude is naturally different.”

Seeing the corners of his mouth, which rarely smiled, curved like a scimitar, Zhang Xi felt a knot in his heart for some reason, and the hairs on his back stood up.

He said dryly, “Brother Gui is saying weird things again.

Although you were dismissed from your post by the clan because of your involvement with the villain Zhang Yan, you may still have the opportunity to make meritorious contributions while serving your sentence.

There is no question of implicating the master, let alone us servants."

Hearing this, Zhang Gui laughed heartily and muttered to himself, "It's best if you think so.

To avoid being chopped off as a servant of the rebel king, and being annihilated with all my clans, I would be in constant fear."

"Gui, what did you say, brother Gui?"

Zhang Xi asked with embarrassment after vaguely hearing the words "chop off the head and exterminate the nine clans".

Zhang Gui waved his hand and said with a smile, "I think this is the best."

He stood up and ignored Zhang Xi, strode out of the yard and walked towards Zhang Bashan's house.

'Qijingfang', where the descendants of the Zhang family gather in Pingyang Town, is considered a quasi-core area.

There is little prosperity here, but a lot of scholarly atmosphere; the young masters are well-off, but the young masters are elites.

The residents' social status is more than two levels higher than that of Youyufang.

Zhang Bashan lives on the outskirts of Qijingfang.

The old house with two entrances was bought specifically for him after his father became seriously ill and before the family was divided.

It was said that he would leave a house for his youngest son, who was the only one who had not yet married, to get married, and it would not be included in the division of family property.

This fully demonstrates the truth of the folk saying "Parents all over the world love their children."

Zhang Bashan's four brothers and sisters-in-law were so angry that they gritted their teeth, but they had nothing to say.

The aristocratic families who pass on their legacy of farming and studying attach the most importance to ethics and morality.

And grandpa is the greatest relative among the five relationships of Heaven, Earth, Emperor, Parents and Teachers.

Not to mention being partial when dividing the property, what difference would it make even if they didn't give a single penny?

When Zhang Gui arrived at the gate of his cheap father's house, the only laborer, Zhang Ni, was standing at the door with his shoulders folded and looking around.

Seeing Zhang Gui hurriedly stepped forward, grabbed him, and dragged him into the house.

"Oh, Master, you are finally here.

The master was getting anxious and asked me to wait at the door, saying that I should go see him as soon as I arrived.

Hey, where's Butler Zhang Xi? Didn't he go to call you?"

"He can't run as fast as me. He lost his footing while chasing me. He's behind me."

The two-entry courtyard can be walked from the gate to the main hall in just over ten steps.

There was no one else in the main hall except Zhang Bashan, who was sitting in the main seat.

Zhang Gui walked into the main hall, stood straight, and asked, "What does Mr. Zhang want to see me about?"

Although his attitude was different, when he really saw Zhang Bashan, he still felt a surge of anger in his heart.

When Zhang Bashan heard his own son talking to him like this, he was so angry that his eyes were burning with anger.

Because they were always unhappy with each other every time they met, Zhang Bashan met his wife who had returned home from Yeyang for the first time after more than two months.

(End of this chapter)