Studying Himself Stupid

A bone-piercing cold, like countless fine needles stabbing into his flesh.

Fang Yuan regained a sliver of consciousness amid jolting motion and marrow-deep chill.

His eyelids were too heavy to lift. Beside his ears howled the north wind, along with the crunch of footsteps, deep and shallow, through the snow.

He felt as if he were being carried by something, swaying back and forth.

Every jolt sent a sharp agony through his chest, nearly leaving him unable to breathe. He could only force out faint gasps through his throat.

His memories were a hopeless mess. His last impression was of snow filling the sky, several blurry, vicious figures, and a heavy blow that struck his side.

"...That kid really studied himself stupid, didn't he? He actually dared offend the County Education Official!"

A grating voice came and went through the wind.

"Shh! Keep it down!... But you're right. Ten years at a cold window, and his scholarly title was almost in his grasp. Now it's all over, and he's ended up like this... Tsk, tsk. What a pity."

The other voice lowered, tinged with regret.

The jolting stopped briefly. The people carrying him seemed to be taking a rest.

Icy snowflakes drifted down onto his face, slightly stirring his muddled consciousness.

County Education Official... scholarly title...

Those words were like keys, violently thrust into the lock of his memories!

The brightly lit Main Hall of the academy.

The County Education Official's carefully maintained yet quietly imposing face.

Fang Yuan held up his own essay, his fingertips trembling slightly with rage as he publicly exposed corruption in the examinations and the trafficking of scholarly titles.

He had thought he would bring justice into the light of day. Instead, what he received was the County Education Official's instant change of expression after his fury, followed by a cold sneer.

"Bold Fang Yuan! Caught cheating in the examinations red-handed, and you still dare falsely accuse your superior? Men, seize him!"

"I didn't!" he argued, only to have wolfish bailiffs cover his mouth and drag him away.

Amid the chaos, someone's vicious elbow slammed hard into his ribs. Pain and suffocation swallowed him whole in an instant.

He stared fixedly at the County Education Official's cold, mocking eyes, and at the smug smile on the rich young man's face beside him—the man who had taken his scholarly title in his place.

His certificate of scholarly title was brutally snatched away, crumpled into a ball, and thrown in his face.

The jolting finally stopped.

Fang Yuan realized that he had transmigrated. In his previous life, he had clearly been taking a bath; the next instant, he had entered this unknown world.

"Madam Fang! Open the door, quickly! We found him!" the grating voice shouted into the courtyard.

With a creak, the battered wooden door was yanked open. Dim, warm light poured through the gap and fell upon Fang Yuan's icy face.

Two women stumbled out through the wind and snow.

The older woman's hair was disheveled. She wore only a thin padded jacket, with not a trace of color in her face and trembling lips.

The instant she saw Fang Yuan laid upon the crude stretcher, her eyes reddened.

Behind her hid a little girl, clutching the woman's hem as she timidly poked out half her head. Her large eyes were filled with terror.

With a sob in her voice, she called out, "Brother...!"

They seemed to be this body's wife and younger sister.

Fang Yuan's muddled mind struggled to recognize the two figures. Something seemed to seize his heart viciously, hurting even more than the wound beneath his ribs.

They were the only ones left in the family.

"Quick, carry him inside! It's freezing out here!" one of the men carrying him urged.

The two women hurriedly lifted Fang Yuan and moved him into the low, dilapidated mud-brick house.

It was not much warmer inside than outside, but at least it blocked the knife-like wind.

He was carefully laid on the cold earthen kang bed.

His wife threw herself to the bedside. Her icy, trembling hands brushed aside the tangled hair on his face, matted with snowmelt and mud.

When she saw his paper-pale face and tightly shut eyes, her tears finally spilled over, striking his collar hot as fire.

"Husband... you... what happened to you?" Her voice trembled, thick with tears.

The little girl came closer as well, her tiny hands tightly clutching her brother's cold, stiff fingers. She whimpered softly, not daring to cry aloud.

One of the men rubbed his hands and sighed.

"We found him in a snow hollow behind the mountain. He was nearly frozen stiff... Sigh, sister-in-law, at least he got his life back."

He paused, his tone growing heavy. "It's just... I heard Brother Fang's scholarly title... is gone?"

His wife's body stiffened violently, and her face turned even whiter than Fang Yuan's.

She raised her head. Her eyes held not only worry, but a terror bordering on despair.

"No scholarly title..." she murmured.

"The authorities... the notice they posted the day before yesterday... they'll be conscripting able-bodied men this winter... Without a scholarly title to exempt the family, every adult man will have to..."

She did not dare finish. She merely clapped a hand over her mouth, suppressing her sobs as her shoulders shook violently.

The two men helped settle Fang Yuan on the kang bed and could not stay any longer. One of them sighed and shook his head before turning to leave with his companion.

At the doorway, the man with the grating voice paused, falling behind.

He quickly glanced back at Fang Yuan, whose breathing was weak upon the kang, then looked at the pale, helpless woman and the sniffling little girl.

A flicker of pity crossed his rough face. His lips moved as though he wanted to offer some comfort, but he swallowed the words.

In times like these, empty words were the least useful thing.

He swiftly untied a filthy little cloth pouch from his waist and, somewhat clumsily, stuffed it into the woman's hands. Lowering his voice until it was nearly trapped in his throat, he said:

"Sister-in-law... take it. It's not much, just a little millet. Cook it thin, keep him alive..."

The pouch felt slightly hard in her hand, heavy and solid—the weight of something that could save a life.

The woman froze, then instinctively tried to push it back as though it had burned her.

In these hard times, whose family had surplus grain? This pouch of millet might have been scraped from between the man's family's teeth.

But the man would not hear of it. He pressed the pouch deeper into her arms and quickly said in his rough voice:

"Hide it. Don't let anyone know... If you truly can't get by, come find me at the east end of the village. I may not be much, but I've still got a bit of strength."

He paused, his voice dropping even lower, carrying a simple, heartfelt respect.

"Our village... all these years, Brother Fang has been the only true scholar we've produced. He has backbone! He's a good man! He can't just..."

He did not finish. He only sighed heavily, then abruptly turned and strode over the threshold.

Chasing after his companion's figure, he soon vanished into the wind and snow, as though afraid that if he walked too slowly, that small token of kindness would be returned.

The woman clutched the life-saving pouch of millet and watched the direction in which he had disappeared. Her eyes reddened even more than before.

She stood in the doorway as the cold wind whipped snowflakes against her thin body, yet she seemed unable to feel the cold at all.