TTLJDFL chapter 20

Because rough-edged paper is three chi in size, it’s a bit smaller than the four chi bamboo leaf paper.

It could barely fit on the storage cabinet at the foot of the bed in the room.

Although the boy still looked a bit awkward in his movements, he held back from saying anything and quickly offered to help Li Jin clear the things off the storage cabinet.

Li Jin said, “Wenwen, I can handle it.”

The name ‘Xiaowen’ ended up sounding a little too feminine, so after some consideration, Li Jin called the boy Wenwen.

The young man turned his back to him and spoke earnestly, saying, “These are all miscellaneous items. I use them when I work, and I have organized them myself, so it will be convenient to find them next time.”

Li Jin looked at those jars and bottles. Although they were old, they were very clean, indicating that the young man had often wiped them before.

Li Jin was fairly satisfied with this, as doctors more or less tend to have a bit of an obsession with cleanliness. After all, they are in contact with patients all day and must pay attention to personal hygiene.

Just like on the first day he crossed over, he went to wash his own clothes. In his view, clothes stained with vomit that are left for a few days until the young man can move before washing would really start to smell.

Qin Muwen seemed to often organize these things, quickly moved them away, and wiped the storage cabinet twice more. In the candlelight, when he lowered his eyes, his eyelashes were like little combs, long and dense.

When he turned his head, his eyes were sparkling, and he smiled sweetly, “All done.”

Li Jin placed the ragged paper and rabbit hair brush on it and noticed that the boy’s bamboo basket for sewing was already full of finished sachets and handkerchiefs.

He thought that the boy had clearly told him to finish the sewing in seven days, yet it had only been five days, and he had already completed everything.

Really… it’s heart-wrenching.

The boy finished tidying the table, his legs trembling.

Seeing this, Li Jin frowned and, without a word, lifted him to the edge of the bed, then crouched down to take off his shoes and socks.

The boy was startled, a shout stuck in his throat, leaving only the sound of him gasping.

Li Jin then tucked him fully into the blanket and said, “Today’s allowed time to walk around outside is over. From now on, except for getting up at night, you have to stay in bed. No getting down.”

He realized that only by using commands would the boy behave obediently, one instruction, one action. Otherwise, the boy really didn’t seem to have the concept of ‘I should rest.’

Sure enough, after saying that, the boy obediently lay down. He just didn’t look at Li Jin, but instead turned his head toward the little face of Baozi, who was sleeping soundly.

To Li Jin, a man who had lived for twenty-nine years, both of them were like his kids.

When the cubs are naughty, you have to keep an eye on them.

=

The two cubs lay quietly on the bed, and only then did Li Jin start grinding his ink, getting ready to practice in Liu’s style first.

He roughly remembered fragments of how the original owner practiced calligraphy, but the original owner’s handwriting was really ugly.

No wonder Mr. Song flatly said he definitely wouldn’t pass the upcoming Tongsheng exam.

Handwriting reflects the person; it’s a person’s face.

For the Tongsheng exam, candidates weren’t required to have a particularly stylish or graceful handwriting, but it still couldn’t be an eyesore.

Luckily, Li Jin already had some calligraphy practice under his belt, so picking it up again was much easier than starting from scratch. But when it comes to writing, there’s really no shortcut—it’s all about practice.

In just one night, Li Jin spent his time practicing the basics of lifting the brush, pressing it down, and finishing the strokes, going through five sheets of rough paper. And he wrote on both sides of them.

Although these are all basic exercises, Li Jin, having lived for almost thirty years, knows that only by solidly mastering the basics can his writing be both fast and full of character.

One bundle of paper costs forty wen. If he really puts in the hard work, he’d have to write at least twenty sheets a day.

A bundle contains a hundred sheets, which would only last five days.

When you break it down like this, studying really does cost money… Back then, it wasn’t easy for scholars from poor families to make a name for themselves.

After Li Jin finished his calligraphy, he shook his arms and went out to wash up. When he came back, the young boy was already sound asleep.

He blew out the kerosene lamp, and the room went dark, with only the bright moonlight shining through the window.

Amid the chorus of cicadas outside, Li Jin quickly felt sleepy too.

Even someone as rational as him didn’t realize that he was gradually becoming more and more accustomed to this world and this era.

The next morning, as usual, Li Jin fed Baozi with goat milk porridge. After getting up and washing, the young man went to the kitchen to cook. By the time Baozi had eaten his fill and started dozing off again to sleep, Qin Muwen had also prepared breakfast for the two of them.

The rice and flour eaten by ordinary families in ancient times were not like those of modern times. Much of the husk on the rice remained, and there were a lot of bran left in the wheat flour. In ancient times, without the advanced technology of today, it was impossible to completely remove the husks from these crops by hand.

But the boy’s skills were pretty good. He cooked the porridge just right, and with a plate of wild vegetables mixed in, it was enough to really wet your appetite.

After eating, the boy also put two roasted potatoes and two boiled eggs into Li Jin’s basket. He hadn’t had time to make pancakes or steam buns lately, otherwise Li Jin’s meals could have been even more plentiful.

Li Jin smiled and said, “Master only has lessons in the morning and finishes by noon, there’s no need to prepare so much.”

However, the transportation wasn’t convenient, and he had to rely on his own two legs to get around. Even if he came back, it would already be afternoon.

Li Jin said again, “Like we talked about yesterday, I’ll make you braised pork this afternoon. Wait for me to come back.”

The boy’s lips curved up, a shallow dimple forming.

It was only with that ‘wait for me to come back’ that he really felt this was like a home.

Li Jin packed ten more sheets of bamboo leaf paper, brushes, and ink blocks into his basket and went out again.

You only give a scholar’s gift to the teacher after returning from a long holiday or when first becoming a disciple; after that, you don’t need to bring a gift every time you visit the teacher’s house.

This time, Li Jin didn’t go buy stuffed buns, but went straight to the teacher’s house. The seven-year-old child opened the door for Li Jin, probably having been instructed beforehand, and directly led him to Mr. Song’s study.

“These books were chosen by my father, and you can copy them here.
Father said that since you need to prepare for the entry-level examination, you can take your time with your lessons first. Once you finish copying these books, he will give you a private lesson on the exam.”

Li Jin agreed, and the child politely left, making sure to close the door for him on the way out.

Li Jin thought to himself that fortunately, Mr. Song’s students changed frequently here, and the original owner often skipped classes, so there weren’t many good connections anyway.

Otherwise, facing his classmates, he was really worried about exposing himself.

Because Li Jin got up early, and the road was cool in the morning, he walked quickly. At this moment, it was not yet the hour of Si (around 9 a.m.). At most, he had two hours to copy the books.

The surface of bamboo leaf paper was smooth and showed ink vividly; its only drawback was slow absorption.

After Li Jin finished writing a sheet, he had to lay it flat on the ground for a long time to dry, to ensure the characters wouldn’t smudge with even a single touch.

Mr. Song’s study was not on the same side as the annex where he usually taught his students, but just after the hour of the Snake, Li Jin could still hear the clear sound of reading coming from that side of the annex.

He didn’t need to distinguish each voice to know that those reading were young.

This gave Li Jin a sense of urgency. He already had to support his family and work the fields, so he didn’t have as much time for studying as others. That meant he had to work even harder.

If you first pass the Tongsheng exam, you can be exempt from paying land taxes and also improve your social status, would make life much easier for the young guy in the village too.

As for whether he could go on to pass the juren, gongyuan, or jinshi exams, Li Jin felt it would be really tough.

The higher up you go, the more it tests a person’s grasp of current politics. As someone who’s traveled through time, he still mentally struggled to adapt to a society without absolute royal power.

Li Jin didn’t truly feel any genuine respect for the current emperor.

He felt that the higher he aimed in the exams, if there really was a palace exam one day, his attitude might be noticed by others, and that could cause serious trouble.

Besides, his family was too poor right now. Even if he passed the provincial exam, he would still have to go to the capital for the metropolitan exam. He couldn’t just leave his husband and child in the village; he wouldn’t be able to rest easy doing that.

Unconsciously, Li Jin finished copying one sheet of paper and laid it on the ground to dry, then started on the second sheet.

The four chi bamboo-paper sheets carried Li Jin’s rather small handwriting, and it took him two hours to copy just seven sheets.

When Mr. Song entered the study, the floor was already completely covered with the papers copied by Li Jin, and it was evident that the characters in the earlier pages were still not well controlled in size and uniformity. However, as he progressed, neat and clean characters flowed from his pen, and Song Yuan became increasingly satisfied.

When Li Jin finished copying a page and prepared to let it dry, he finally noticed Song Yuan standing behind him.

He quickly bowed: “Sir.”

Song Yuan said, “Your Liu-style calligraphy has made significant progress. Not bad, not bad.”

He said ‘not bad’ twice in a row, feeling very pleased.

Then he asked Li Jin where he had copied to, and Li Jin felt a bit ashamed: “I just finished copying ‘Shengyu Guangxun’¹The Shengyu Guangxun (聖諭廣訓), or Amplified Instructions on the Sacred Edict, is a 10,000-character text issued by the Yongzheng Emperor in 1724 during the Qing dynasty. ”

Song Yuan, thinking about the backgrounds of both Li Jin and himself, both coming from humble families, asked, “Which chapter is ‘Emphasize agriculture and sericulture to ensure sufficient food and clothing’ from?”

The significance of copying books is not only in looking back at what has been copied.

The process of copying itself is a way of learning extensively and memorizing firmly.

Li Jin thought to himself that fortunately he was not an ordinary teenager. As a medical student, he had memorized countless cycles and countless term definitions over eight years of university, and he had long been accustomed to trying to understand and memorize while taking notes.

Of course, classical Chinese was still somewhat difficult to understand, but he had marked everything he didn’t know and would ask whenever he didn’t understand. Song Yuan’s question was relatively practical, and Li Jin quickly came up with an answer.

Song Yuan immediately praised Li Jin highly: “Excellent!”

Afterwards, Song Yuan explained the main principles conveyed in the ‘Shengyu Guangxun’ to Li Jin, instructing him to memorize it by tonight and come early tomorrow for a dictation.

Li Jin: “…” Although he had mentally prepared himself, he still felt a chill run down his spine.

However, taking the imperial examination is not something one can succeed in without effort.

Without hard work, one should not expect to pass it in a lifetime.

Song Yuan saw the potatoes in Li Jin’s backpack and, feeling a moment of compassion, asked if Li Jin wanted to stay for a meal.

Li Jin, however, waved his hand to politely decline: “My husband and child are still at home; I am concerned for them.”

By the time Li Jin returned home, it was already past four in the afternoon.
He was actually quite hungry, already eaten the potatoes and eggs on the way, and had planned to cook braised pork for the young boy after returning.

As it happened, there were still quite a few people returning to the village from the town. Now that Li Jin had a good reputation, they were also happy to greet him.

“Li Jin, why are you eating potatoes again? Why not come to my house for dinner tonight with your husband and child?”

Li Jin: “…You just didn’t see that I ate eggs earlier.”​

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  The Shengyu Guangxun (聖諭廣訓), or Amplified Instructions on the Sacred Edict, is a 10,000-character text issued by the Yongzheng Emperor in 1724 during the Qing dynasty