Ping'an Alley, outside the small courtyard where Chen Xu lived.
A wheat-skinned youth was curled up in a squat by the gate. Two baskets sat beside him, filled to the brim and covered with coarse hemp cloth, making it impossible to tell at a glance what was inside.
The youth wore a half-new, half-worn indigo short jacket. Though the collar and cuffs were patched, they had been kept neat and clean.
Chen Xu got out of the carriage at the mouth of the alley and made his way to his door with a cane. The instant his eyes met the youth's, the youth sprang up from the ground in delight.
"Second Brother!" the youth called out repeatedly, charging toward him with joyous enthusiasm, only to steady himself just before crashing into Chen Xu.
Then his gaze fell upon Chen Xu's right hand gripping the cane, and his expression changed at once. "Second Brother, what happened to you?"
Chen Xu sighed inwardly, knowing he could no longer hide it.
The visitor was Chen An, his third younger brother in this life.
Ever since Chen Xu had come to the county after the New Year to study, he had only sent one message home, telling his family that he was temporarily staying in Ping'an Alley. He had not told them about his broken leg.
Seeing Chen An's face change, Chen Xu immediately said, "Don't panic. I only took a fall. This leg can be healed."
Those words, "can be healed," barely soothed Chen An. After hesitating for a moment, the youth ultimately did not press further about Chen Xu's injury. Instead, he turned and lifted the two baskets from the ground with a shoulder pole.
"Second Brother, today is your birthday. Father and Mother told me to bring grain and eggs for your celebration. Come, let's go into the courtyard first."
The two entered the courtyard, and Chen Xu turned to shut the gate.
Chen An carried the two baskets into the kitchen and set them down, then carefully pulled a cloth pouch from inside his jacket.
He emptied everything from the pouch. Inside were seven or eight gleaming pieces of broken silver. At a rough glance, they added up to at least four or five taels.
Seeing the solid silver in his hands, Chen An let out a breath.
Holding the silver in both hands as though it were some priceless treasure, he brought it before Chen Xu and said with a smile, "Second Brother, look. The family scraped together five taels of silver. Mother said you would certainly need money to take the Courtyard Examination, so she told me to bring it to you."
This year's Courtyard Examination had been set for mid-April. Chen Xu had come to the county at the beginning of spring precisely to prepare for this examination.
This was also the final chance Chen Xu had given himself. He had originally thought that if he still could not take the examination successfully this time, he would set aside the Imperial Examination for now.
He had seen all the family's hardships. A true man born into this world could not let his family support him without end merely for the possibility of climbing higher.
Chen Xu looked at the small pile of broken silver in Chen An's palm and sighed softly.
He reached out and pushed Chen An's five fingers inward, making him close his hand tightly around that handful of silver.
"An, tell Second Brother honestly. Where did this silver come from?"
Chen An was startled. A flicker of panic crossed his face as he hurriedly said, "Second Brother, what nonsense are you talking about? The silver... the silver was scraped together by the family!"
"You can't fool me." Chen Xu said, "When I left home at the beginning of spring, the family had already given me five taels of silver. Tell me the truth. Where exactly did this silver come from? Lying to me will not do you the slightest good. On the contrary, your second brother's years of studying were not for nothing. I must know more than you..."
"Second Brother!" Chen An's lips trembled, and his voice rose. At last, unable to hold it in any longer, he said, "It was Eldest Brother. Eldest Brother is going to Jun County to dig canals! The government pays three taels for digging the great canal."
As his words fell, the two brothers looked at each other in silence.
Chen An's heart pounded fiercely. He did not know why, but at this moment, he was somewhat afraid of his second brother.
Chen Xu remained silent for dozens of breaths. No one knew that amid his silence, the chattering squeaks of two rats had begun to ring in his ears again.
"So being human is this hard. Being short of money is truly pitiful."
Little Mouse clicked his tongue in sympathy. His voice was innocent, yet it carried a carefree sort of pity.
Ninth Master's aged voice, however, was filled with surprise. "Eh? The scholar's bad luck has completely vanished. How strange indeed. But since the bad luck is gone, give him a little more time. With the fortune he has now, I reckon earning money should not be difficult."
Chen Xu listened, and his heart stirred as well.
He had begun studying at the age of seven. When he had first been young, he had indeed relied mainly on his family for support.
But once he had become familiar with his surroundings, he had quickly begun figuring out how to earn money himself.
As a science and engineering man, he truly did not lack methods for making a fortune in ancient times. But earning money was easy while keeping it was hard. In this day and age, methods that stood out too much were best left unused. Once used while one was still weak, they were practically an invitation to death.
Chen Xu had only made small, quick sums—for instance, crafting little toys like nine-linked rings and tangram puzzles to sell to his classmates, or helping them solve problems and answer questions.
Besides that, he secretly wrote storybooks, copied books, sold calligraphy, and so on.
These methods had all worked well at first, but after Chen Xu failed his first Courtyard Examination, everything changed.
His bad luck showed itself in every possible way—
There was no need to dwell on that. Now that Chen Xu had escaped this calamity, he should naturally be like a fish leaping through the vast sea from this day onward.
The Rat Demon's words reminded him of the sum of silver he had lacked when his luck had been at its worst.
That had been before the New Year last year. A storybook he had written had sold quite well throughout Yunjiang Prefecture.
According to his original agreement with BoyaScribe Studio, Chen Xu should have received a ten-percent share of the profits.
It was already an extremely low share, yet when Chen Xu went to collect the payment due to him that day, the BoyaScribe Studio manager, relying on the influence behind him, shamelessly refused to pay on the grounds that "the money had been stolen."
Afterward, the manager named Sun Wu had hypocritically told Chen Xu, "Young Master Chen, it truly cannot be helped. Our entire BoyaScribe Studio was robbed—what can we do? But rest assured, Young Master Chen. No matter what, we will not short you what is yours.
"Just wait another two months. Once our owner has recovered, even if we have to smash pots and sell iron, we will make up that writing fee to you, won't we?"
When the other side held overwhelming power, there was nothing he could do.
At the time, Chen Xu had thought that once he passed the Courtyard Examination the following year and earned the title of Xiucai Scholar—
Even if he were only a Xiucai Scholar, that bastard of a manager would no longer dare bully him.
By then, even if he said nothing, would that Sun fellow not take the initiative to deliver his manuscript payment?
That thought had not exactly been naive, but it had been a helpless measure beneath the weight of circumstance.
But times had changed.
After encountering one strange fortune after another, Chen Xu's entire worldview had undergone earth-shaking changes.
The world itself had already changed. Did he still have to cling stubbornly to the rules built from layer upon layer of shackles as he had before?
Rules, from the day they were created, were meant to be broken.
Thinking of what he was about to do, Chen Xu felt a faint thrill of excitement for some reason.
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