Top Scholar

Chapter 80 Unemployed Youth and Yiyinlian
As it turned out, Chun Ge'er was too optimistic. He said he had received several offers, but when he went for interviews, he encountered the same problem—he was simply too young.

Nobody wants to hire a teacher who's not even eighteen! Whether he's reliable or not is another matter, but how can he keep those brats in line?

Two families, considering his third-place ranking in the county examination, offered him a trial period of a few months, but Chun-ge resolutely refused.

They clearly agreed that I would be their teacher, so how did it turn into a trial period? A scholar will die for one who understands him, but will not serve those who do not trust him!

After a round of interviews, he didn't get a job at any of them. His aunt didn't want him to live too far from home... Now look what happened, he's stuck at home.

His uncle inquired everywhere for him to find a suitable place, but he didn't know when he would receive any news.

Although my elder brother didn't want to be idle, urgent tasks can't be rushed. Moreover, after so many years of hard study, he was already physically and mentally exhausted, so it was necessary for him to rest at home for a while before setting off again.

But Chun-ge'er was the kind of person who couldn't sit still. Every day he fed pigs, looked after children, herded cattle, and planted crops, picking up all the things Qiu-ge'er had done back then...

However, he never lifted a finger and never did any housework. Feeding pigs, watching children, herding cattle that grazed other people's crops, and even cutting his own ankle while cutting grass...

His family was so afraid to let him do any work. His aunt said, "Son, you should just rest and not do anything. It makes me anxious to see you working."

He figured he couldn't do housework, so he'd get Qiu Ge'er to roll some fritters with him that evening. Little did he know, Su Lu was already rolling fritters to his heart's content, his entire schedule was completely packed, leaving no room for him to even get a turn—

The parallel prose taught by the teacher, the prose taught by the headmaster, and the rhyme taught by Su Youcai—none of them could replace Chun Ge'er.

Chun Ge'er finally understood the saying "a scholar is useless in a hundred ways," and also understood why it is said that scholars can only become officials or teachers, because they can't do anything else.

The proud and arrogant third-place candidate in the county examination suddenly became an unemployed youth, leading a rather miserable life.

He was already a man of few words, and now he barely utters a few words a day...

~~
This day was the fourth day of the fifth lunar month. The next day was a holiday for those in their fifties, and it was also the Dragon Boat Festival, so Su Lu was on holiday.

He then realized that the gentleman who decided to take a break every 50 days was truly a genius. Not only monthly classes, but also the Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival holidays would overlap with the 50-day weekend.

But the academy won't adjust the holiday schedule! Two days off have become one day, isn't that ridiculous?!

Fortunately, Mr. Zhang was humane enough not to assign any homework that day. As soon as the blackboard sounded at the end of get out of class, he let them go home.

It was the longest day of the year, and the sun was still high in the sky when Su Lu got home.

Then I saw the older brother standing in the chicken coop on the first floor, feeding the chickens. He was holding a chicken feed bowl in his hand, but he hesitated to put it down. The chickens were getting impatient and started circling around him, flapping their wings and jumping up to reach the feed bowl.

The eldest brother not only ignored it, but also kept making various chirping sounds.

Su Lu felt a chill run down his spine, thinking to himself, "My brother has only been unemployed for a few days, and he's already developed a problem? Isn't he a bit too competitive?"
"Big brother," he called softly, afraid of startling Chun-ge who was 'sick'.

"Oh, you're back?" Su Man turned around in surprise at the sound of her voice, only to bump her head on the low ceiling with a thud.

The first floor is very low; even my aunt, who is quite tall, has to bend over to feed the chickens. It would be strange if he, standing upright, didn't bump his head.

"Ouch!" Chun Ge'er groaned, clutching his head, and dropped the chicken feed bowl. The hungry chickens immediately pounced on it and finally got to eat their dinner.

"Big brother, are you alright?" Su Lu asked softly.

"It's alright, luckily I have a hair bun." Chun Ge rubbed his head and crouched down as he came out of the chicken coop.

"I'm not just talking about the bump, but also... are you alright?" Su Lu held the door frame to prevent his dazed older brother from bumping into it again.

"I'm fine," Chun-ge'er said, puzzled. "Is there something wrong with me?"

"What were you doing just now?" Su Lu asked.

"Feed the chickens."

“But feeding chickens is done with ‘cluck cluck cluck,’ not ‘cheep cheep cheep,’” Su Lu said. “And only the level tone is needed; all four tones are not required.”

"Oh." Su Man then realized that Qiu Ge'er had misunderstood, and said with a smile, "I was thinking of a couplet with one sound, but I can't think of a matching line for the moment. Why don't you come up with the matching line?"

"What do you mean by 'one sound link'?" Su Lu asked.

"It's all about homophones in the first line," Su Man said. "Listen carefully."

After saying that, he recited the first line of the couplet, which, to Su Lu's ears, sounded like, "Chirp chirp chirp chirp, chirp chirp chirp. Chirp chirp chirp, chirp chirp chirp, chirp, chirp chirp chirp."

After a moment's thought, he smiled and said, "I've got it! My second line is..."

To Su Man's ears, it was simply, "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes."

"Don't try to fool me. Not only are there homophones but also different characters. The whole passage is a complete story," Chun Ge'er laughed.

“What a coincidence, me too,” Qiu Ge’er said with a smile.

"I'll write down the first line right now, let's see how you talk big then." The two went upstairs and into the room of the younger uncle. Su Man picked up a brush and wrote down the first line:

Ji Ji gathered thorny chickens, which were hungry. The chickens hurriedly climbed onto a bamboo basket, but Ji Ji, fearing for their safety, struck one of them, killing it. This is the story of "The Chicken-Striking Tale."

Su Lu then took the pen and wrote the second line:
'The Shi family had a fondness for eating lions. A lion happened to be in the market. Relying on his arrows, he killed the lion, retrieved its carcass from a stone chamber, and ate it. This is the story of "The History of Eating Lions."'

"Hahaha!" Su Manguan laughed loudly, giving a thumbs-up and saying, "My brother has great talent!"

"I just happened to have read a similar piece of text with only one syllable, and I just cut it out haphazardly," Su Lu said honestly with a smile. "And the tones don't even match."

"There's no need to be strict about meter in this kind of word game; as long as it matches, that's excellent," Su Man said with a smile.

"Yes, it's worth it if it makes you smile, brother," Su Lu said with a smile.

"Am I Bao Si or Xi Shi? Do I need you to make me laugh?" Su Man touched his stiff facial muscles; he really hadn't been used to laughing lately. "It's okay if you don't laugh. I'm always going for a cool and aloof image," Su Lu quickly reassured him.

"All I feel now is cold." Su Man said with her usual expression turning cold. "By the way, Xia Ge'er told me to tell you to come back and visit your godmother's house."

"Oh?" Su Lu knew what it was about as soon as he heard it, and immediately said impatiently, "Let's go, let's go watch the ceremony together."

"What kind of gift?" Su Man asked, puzzled.

"You'll know when we get there." Without waiting for a reply, Su Lu pulled Su Man away. "Just consider it a way to clear our heads."

~~
The two walked through long streets and alleys and arrived at the He family compound nestled in the mountains.

For the past six months, my godmother and her family of three have been living in town. Their once impressive courtyard has become deserted after spring.

When Su Lu came back last time, he saw that weeds were growing everywhere in front of the door, and green moss was climbing on the white wall. Wild wormwood was growing wildly along the wall, perfect for filming a ghost movie.

The courtyard gate was now spotless, with no cobwebs or weeds left, and even the peeling paint on the walls had been repainted and repaired.

"Second Brother is such a good person." Su Lu sighed softly. This must have been done by Xia Ge'er.

"Of course, and at least eight-tenths good." Chun-ge'er, having never been here before, naturally didn't understand his exclamation. He asked, "Isn't the door locked?"

Su Lu reached his hand through the crack in the door frame, skillfully pulled out a key, and unlocked the door.

It felt just like coming home...

After leading his older brother inside, he locked the door again and hung the key back up.

Hearing the commotion, Su Tai came out from inside and greeted them with a simple smile, "Big Brother, Qiu-ge, you've arrived?"

"Mm." Su Man nodded.

Su Lu asked with a smile, "Second Brother, are we about to open the cellar?"

“Yes.” Sutai nodded. “I feel it’s about time.”

"Opening the cellar? You're brewing wine?" Su Man was a child of Erlangtan, so he was naturally familiar with this term.

"Yes," Su Tai nodded. "We'll only know if it's successful after we start distilling the wine today."

"Why are you being so secretive?" Su Man said, then suddenly paused, "Wait a minute, didn't you only meet this family during the New Year? Even if you went to the sand pit on the first day, it's not time to start cooking yet."

“We’re not that abnormal,” Su Lu laughed. “Second Brother only fell into the sand last month.”

“Yes.” Su Tai added, “The sand dunes are set on the seventeenth, and the cellars are opened on the eighteenth.”

"That's less than twenty days!" Su Man couldn't help but say, "There should be a limit to nonsense, shouldn't there?"

Even though he had never eaten pork, he had seen pigs run and knew that the sorghum liquor from his family's distillery required a complex process of "nine distillations and eight fermentations." Each fermentation cycle lasted about a month, for a total of eight months, before entering the "seventh distillation" stage.

Twenty days isn't even enough for one fermentation cycle, so what kind of wine are you making?

"What you're talking about, brother, is the good wine brewed in our family's distillery. We brew mid- to low-grade wine here, which doesn't require that much trouble. One fermentation is enough," Su Lu said with a smile and a wave of his hand.

"It's hard to say whether it's enough; we'll only know once the cellar is opened," Su Tai said cautiously.

"Alright, I'll watch your show." Su Man fell silent.

~~
Before opening the cellar, Su Tai and Su Lu first went to the hall, where the memorial tablets of the deceased members of the He family were placed.

The two newest black wooden plaques are those of Da He and Xiao He, who were buried in Dabingtan.

Su Tai had already arranged the offerings, lit an incense stick, and bowed deeply four times, saying in a deep voice as he offered the incense:

"I prayed to you two before that your Erlang wine would see the light of day again. Today is the day to open the cellar, and I pray again that my brother and I will take care of our godmother in her old age, raise Tiantian to adulthood, and carry forward the glory of Erlang wine!"

He then inserted the incense sticks into the incense burner and said in a deep voice, "If you two agree, please bless the opening of the cellar with good fortune!"

Then, Su Lu stepped back and bowed four times again.

A sudden gust of wind blew through the hall, carrying wisps of smoke from the incense...

~~
After paying respects to the original owner, Su Tai, accompanied by his brothers, went to the cellar in the backyard and solemnly removed the seal.

The moment the cellar was opened, a warm aroma mixed with the smell of yeast and fermentation wafted out.

Once all the mud in the cellar was removed, the dark brownish-yellow grain mash was revealed.

Su Tai washed his hands, picked up a handful of warm, moist grain mash, and gently squeezed it, from which many transparent droplets of liquid seeped out.

If you smell it closely, the aroma of the liquor is not very strong. Instead, you can smell the sweet aroma of fermented bran, which is indeed different from the grain mash of Kunsha liquor.

However, the aroma is clean and direct, with absolutely no putrid smell, which proves that the fermentation was at least successful. But how the wine will turn out remains to be seen after it has been distilled.

P.S. This chapter is to repay last month's guild leader 'Xiaomin' for his support; we're old friends.

Today's update is another 12,000 words in four chapters! That's equivalent to six chapters before!

See? The monk is really on fire! Please vote and subscribe!

(End of this chapter)