Top Scholar

Chapter 2 The Easily Hurt Man

Erlangtan Hundred Household Office

The three members of the Su family, father and sons, sat on a pile of rice straw, staring at each other.

"Are you both alright?" Su Youcai looked his two sons over.

Su Tai and Su Lu shook their heads in unison. The brawl did not last long and was quickly suppressed by the Hundred Households.

"It was clearly the Cheng family who started it, so why are they only arresting us?" Su Lu said indignantly.

"Because there's a scholar in their family," Su Youcai sighed.

"Isn't my uncle still a seventh-rank official in the centurion's office?" Su Lu asked, puzzled. "Isn't it said that if he stomped his foot, Erlang Beach would shake three times?"

"Sigh, listen to his bragging." Su Youcai said with a wry smile, "He's just a lowly seventh-rank officer, nothing special."

"That's still better than a pedantic scholar with no rank or grade, isn't it?" Su Lu said incredulously.

As the saying goes, "The most deadly harm is the unintentional one." Upon hearing this, Su Youcai's lips twitched, and he remained silent for a long while.

Su Lu then remembered that his old man had worked hard for half his life but had never passed the imperial examinations to become a "no-rank, uneducated scholar," so he quickly changed his words and said, "It seems that scholars are quite precious."

"Of course! If I had passed the imperial examination and become a scholar, would I have ended up in such a state?" Su Youcai sighed. "Back then, how did your grandfather lose his position as a centurion? Wasn't it because he injured Scholar Cheng?"

Su Lu thought to himself, "Good heavens, they've been at odds with the Cheng family scholars for generations..."

Su Youcai sighed again, his emotions complex: "Things are not like they were at the beginning of the dynasty. Since the Tumu Crisis, the status of military men has been declining. The current Hongzhi Emperor is even more inclined to value civil officials over military ones, alas..."

As the father and son were talking, they suddenly heard a gurgling sound, and both of them looked at Su Tai, who had been very quiet.

Su Erlang touched his belly and lowered his head in embarrassment.

"Eat it, I saved it for you." Su Lu took out a cracked melon from his pocket and stuffed it into his second brother's hand.

"I have already eaten."

"That's a lie, there's no third melon stalk on that vine." Su Lu sighed.

"Qiu-ge'er is so clever." Su Tai chuckled and broke the melon open. "Let's eat together."

Su Lu's nickname was Qiu Ge'er because he was born in autumn.

“We’ve already eaten,” Su Youcai and Su Lu shook their heads. “It wasn’t good at all.”

"Oh." Su Tai then picked up a piece of melon and began to eat it, taking small bites with his mouth pursed.

“We’ll be able to go out soon, Xia-ge’er, you don’t need to be so frugal.” Su Youcai pinched Su Tai’s soft chin. Xia-ge’er was Su Tai’s nickname, because he was born in the summer.

"Really?" The two brothers' eyes lit up.

"Of course. Commander Zhou was your grandfather's deputy back then. He's just putting on a show for outsiders. Do you really think he's making things difficult for us?" Su Youcai said with considerable experience.

"That's good!" the two brothers exclaimed with delight.

~~
The father and his two sons waited patiently. It wasn't until evening that the cell door creaked open, and a junior officer wearing a blue round-collared robe and a black folded-brimmed hat walked in.

The man was tall, with a round head and face, and a short beard, bearing a striking resemblance to Su Tai. Seeing him enter, the three quickly stood up and said:

"Uncle."

"Big brother."

"Hmm." The man nodded. He was Su Lu's uncle, Su Youcai's elder brother, and Su Youjin, a junior officer at the Erlangtan Hundred Household Office.

"Let's go, let's go home." Su Youcai patted his bottom and called to his son, "If we go home too late, your aunt won't leave any food for us."

"Alas, we can't go back today," the uncle sighed. "Scholar Cheng has become our crony."

"What's wrong?" Su Youcai asked, puzzled. "The Cheng family beat the third son into a pulp, and now they want to turn the tables on him?"

"The third brother only has superficial injuries, and his nose was broken. He looks scary with all the blood, but it's not a big problem..." The eldest uncle sighed again: "But it's Cheng Xiucai's brother whose leg you broke."

"Huh? That can't be right, we men are too weak to even kill a chicken," Su Youcai exclaimed in surprise.

Before he could finish speaking, two loud thuds were heard as Su Tai stomped his foot. Then, with a crack, the cell floor tile snapped in two...

"My legs are numb, I'm stomping them," Su Tai said softly, looking down like a child who had done something wrong.

"..." The uncle was speechless for a moment and said, "You call this being unable to even kill a chicken?"

"Haha..." Su Youcai said awkwardly, "Brother Xia knows his limits and has never hurt anyone."

"People are already injured, what's the point of saying all this?" the uncle said irritably. "Scholar Cheng has declared that if the local police station can't give him a satisfactory explanation, he'll go to the county to beat the drum and appeal for justice!"

“If the Hundred Household Office can’t solve it, go to the Thousand Household Office. What’s the point of making a scene at the county level?” Su Youcai said unhappily.

Erlangtan was the territory of the garrison, and originally all kinds of civil and political affairs, security, and land disputes should have been under the jurisdiction of the garrison. However, after nearly 150 years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the garrison had become seriously neglected, and the administrative offices and judicial offices were practically useless. There were more and more problems that could not be solved, and in the end, they could only rely on neighboring prefectures and counties for support.

"Who can blame him? He's a county student, so the county magistrate will definitely take care of him." The uncle said dejectedly, "Even the commander can only watch helplessly, and he'll have to scold Zhou the centurion for making him lose face."

"Sigh, if only you could have passed the imperial examination and become a scholar back then..." He couldn't help but grumble to his brother again.

"Can we not bring this up?" Su Youcai was annoyed. He had just been hurt by his son, and now his elder brother was rubbing salt into the wound. "What does Commander Zhou mean?" "Settlement privately." The elder brother said, "Commander Zhou invited Master Cheng to the office tomorrow so that both sides can discuss a plan... To put it bluntly, it's about figuring out how much to compensate them."

"Sigh, why don't we just try to extort as much as possible?" Su Youcai's face turned ugly.

"They're asking for an exorbitant price, let's try to negotiate." The uncle sighed resignedly, took out a bag of dry food from his pocket, and handed it to him, saying, "This is the dinner your sister-in-law prepared for you."

"You'll be staying here tonight?" Su Youcai took it.

"Nonsense, how can we release people if we can't reach an agreement?" the uncle said helplessly.

"Then let Xia Ge'er and Qiu Ge'er go back first," Su Youcai said as a compromise. "I'll be fine here alone."

“Old man, I’ll stay with you.” Su Tai shook his head firmly.

"Me too," Su Lu could only echo.

~~
The night is deep, and autumn insects chirp.

The Hundred Households Office was pitch black, except for the three men in the cell.

The Su father and son each held a dry, hard sorghum cake, gnawing on it until their teeth ached. After finally managing to bite off a piece, they choked, their eyes rolling back in their heads…

"My throat feels like it's going to pierce..." Su Lu's face turned red from holding it in, and she finally managed to swallow a piece.

"Brother, really! All you send is dry rations, no water." Su Youcai pounded his chest, but couldn't swallow. "Trying to choke us to death?"

"Take small bites and chew slowly." Only Su Tai was still able to eat normally.

"Second Brother is more experienced." Following his method, Su Lu chewed for a while longer and finally swallowed a mouthful successfully.

"Hehe..." Su Tai chuckled and said, "The more you eat, the more experience you gain."

The Su family was considered well-off, but they still ate sorghum cakes and sorghum rice three times a day. Even Su Lu had gotten used to the bitter taste of sorghum.

"Sigh, I wonder what kind of family can afford to eat fine grains?" Su Lu said, struggling with the sorghum cake while reminiscing about the taste of rice and steamed buns.

It was only after arriving here that he realized that the ordinary life he had taken for granted was actually anything but ordinary.

"Cheng Xiucai's house," Su Tai replied, a beat late.

"Really?" Su Lu hadn't expected that the scholar not only had face, but also substance.

"Of course, haven't you heard people say, 'The scholar is eating so deliciously, millet and white flour smothering his mouth'?" Su Tai's mouth was practically watering.

"Old man, do you want to take the exam again?" Su Lu turned to ask Su Youcai.

"So this is going to never end?!" Su Youcai, feeling utterly defeated, took a bite of the sorghum cake in frustration, almost breaking his teeth in the process.

"Never mind what I said, don't get angry." Su Lu quickly apologized.

"Hmph..." Su Youcai snorted twice, rubbing his cheek, and said, "Do you think I don't want to take the exam? My family has offended the county magistrate. As long as he's in power, I have no way out."

"How many years has he been in power?" Su Lu asked.

“Ten years…” Su Youcai said bitterly.

"No, his term isn't over yet?" Su Lu was dumbfounded.

"You're asking me? Who should I ask?" Su Youcai said with a bitter face. "Theoretically, it's a three-year term, or at most three. But there are always exceptions. Some officials in remote mountainous areas like ours can serve for more than ten years."

"Good heavens..." Su Lu gasped, thinking to himself that they were using one person to the extreme.

"Sigh, anyway, there's no hope for you, old man," Su Youcai sighed resignedly. "If you want to take the exam, you can take it yourself."

"Okay, then I'll take the test myself!" Su Lu slapped his thigh.

"Cough cough..." Su Youcai almost choked to death on the sorghum residue.

"What's wrong?" Su Lu quickly patted his back.

“Son, it’s good to have ambition.” Su Youcai carefully chose his words, afraid of hurting him, “But you have to be realistic. Your old man has not only offended the county magistrate, but also because it’s too difficult to pass the county-level examination.”

"Our remote and impoverished area doesn't have a local school. If you want to take the imperial examination, you have to go to the county seat of Hejiang to take it." He sighed as he spoke.

"This is just the first step. After passing the county exam, we still have to take the prefectural exam along with all the other candidates from Luzhou. We are in a remote area, but Luzhou is not. It is a major center of education in Sichuan, producing a large number of successful candidates in each imperial examination. How can we compete with them for the title of Xiucai?"

He fully expected his son to give up this unrealistic idea after hearing this, but to his surprise, Su Lu insisted, "I still want to try..."

"Try it, you little punk!" Su Youcai, seeing that he hadn't listened to a word, grabbed Su Lu's ear and said, "You've refused to study since you were little, you don't know a single character. You want to learn from others and take the imperial examinations? Dream on!"

"Don't twist it, don't twist it, you'll end up with henpecked ears!" Su Tai quickly protected his younger brother.

"Su Laoquan, at twenty-seven, began to study diligently!" Su Lu, hiding behind Su Tai, said, "I'm not even half his age yet, so why can't I dream?"

"Old man, Qiu-ge can even recite the Three Character Classic!" Su Tai exclaimed with delight. "He might really pass the imperial examination and become a scholar."

"Scholar, this is more like chives..." Su Youcai didn't want to deal with these two clowns and turned his head to focus on the sorghum cake.

P.S.: Starting tomorrow, updates will still be at 7:30 AM.

(End of this chapter)