TTLJDFL chapter 25

In the evening, Li Jin went back and finished copying the books, then continued to practice the most basic calligraphy exercises on rough paper.

The young man came over and saw him doing the simplest exercises, and was slightly surprised.

Li Jin put down his brush, turned to look, and asked, “What’s wrong?”

The young man smiled slightly, the vermilion mole at the corner of his eyebrow looking particularly elegant in the candlelight.

He said, “When my elder brothers were studying before, the teacher also had them start by practicing the most basic horizontal and vertical strokes.”

“Before, I saw Ajin only tracing over characters when writing, not practicing, and I wanted to talk to Ajin about it, but I never found the chance.”

After a pause, the young man continued, “Now Ajin is already focusing on improving his writing, so there’s no need for me to say anything.”

Li Jin thought that he must be referring to the original owner, which is why he didn’t give him a chance to make small suggestions. Li Jin asked, “Can you write too?”

By now, he had recalled most of the original owner’s memories and was no longer worried about revealing himself.

However, the original owner had very few memories related to the young boy. Li Jin only knew that the boy was bought by the family, but he did not know much about the boy’s background.

Qin Muwen lowered his eyes and said, “I know a little, but learning to write is useless for me, so I didn’t learn much.”

Li Jin smiled and said, “How could it be useless? In the future, when our family earns money, you’ll have to record the purchases. Once I’ve practiced my writing, I can even teach you.”

The young man’s eyes widened as he looked at Li Jin. Back then, even his father had said that learning calligraphy was useless, that it would be better to learn some musical skills to play for a husband.

But now, his own husband was seriously telling him that he could practice calligraphy and would even have to manage the household in the future.

Li Jin was pleased by his reaction and smiled: “I could teach you to continue practicing calligraphy whenever I have time, but I am still exploring it myself, so I don’t plan to mislead anyone. Once my practice improves a bit, then I will have the confidence to teach you.”

As for the question of his background, Li Jin did not probe further. Even if the young man was born into a wealthy and noble family, the fact that he had fallen to this state proved that the family had already dispersed. Asking again would be like tearing open a wound that had already scabbed over, causing too much pain.

So Li Jin did not continue with this topic. Only when the young man let go of everything and willingly chose to tell him would it be truly natural and inevitable.

Then the young man sat on the bed, soothing Baozi to sleep. Li Jin finished ten pages of character writing, turned off the light, washed up in the yard, and drifted into dreams accompanied by the sound of cicadas.

=

The next day, everything in the morning had already created an unspoken understanding between the two.

The young man cooked porridge, baked potatoes, and mixed a bowl of wild vegetables.

After feeding the child, Li Jin washed up and packed the basket.

Actually, after the next time he sells medicine, he can save up money to buy a study box, just like the ones he sees on TV, which scholars usually carry when taking exams.

They are generally woven from willow branches and hold brushes, ink, paper, inkstone, clothes for changing, and so on.

He doesn’t really need it now, but when the county exam comes next February, he will have to travel a long way to the county. Carrying a study box on the journey is much more convenient than carrying a basket, as it allows different items to be organized separately.

Moreover, the book box has a canopy to block the sun and rain, preventing the items inside from getting wet.

However, the book box cannot be brought into the examination hall; only a simple book basket can be brought in.

That day, Li Jin still arrived relatively early. The scriptures and commentaries Mr. Song gave him yesterday are divided into three parts: upper, middle, and lower, but Mr. Song only gave him one part.

Li Jin calculated that the “Four Books¹[The Chinese term 《四书》 (Sìshū) translates to “The Four Books” in English. The Four Books include: 《大学》 (Dàxué): The Great Learning 《中庸》 (Zhōngyōng): The Doctrine of the Mean 《论语》 (Lúnyǔ): The Analects 《孟子》 (Mèngzǐ): The Mencius ]” are roughly forty to fifty thousand characters, and the “Five Classics”²[《五经》 (Wǔ Jīng) translates to English as the Five Classics. The five classics includes: Classic of Poetry (Shī Jīng / 诗经) – Also known as the Book of Songs or Book of Odes. Classic of History (Shū Jīng / 书经) – Also known as the Book of Documents. Book of Changes (Yì Jīng / 易经) – Also known as I Ching. Classic of Rites (Lǐ Jì / 礼记) – Also known as the Book of Rites. Spring and Autumn Annals (Chūn Qiū / 春秋) – A historical record of the State of Lu.] might be a bit more.

But each book is about ten thousand characters.

Yesterday, Mr. Song only gave Li Jin about one-third of a book, which was actually around three thousand words.

So he was able to copy it all in one night.

Li Jin thought that his copying speed was probably three thousand words per two-hour period; yesterday’s book just happened to take a little over that period, and he was quite satisfied with this speed. Once he finishes copying the “Four Books” and the “Five Classics”, it will take at least a month.

Thinking about it, taking exams in ancient times really wasn’t easy. Even the most basic test for young students required memorizing the ‘Four Books’ and ‘Five Classics’ inside out, not to mention things like the ”Shengyu Guangxun’.

Before Mr. Song came to assign today’s work, Li Jin picked up his pen and started reciting what he had copied down yesterday.

He hadn’t made a point to memorize it yesterday, but after all, an adult’s mind focuses on understanding things. Once you grasp some of it, memorizing becomes a lot easier.

When Li Jin had written about a quarter of it, Chen Xiran arrived.

As soon as he came in, he launched into a series of ‘”Aww, aww, aww”³[ “嗷嗷” usually represents the sound of howling, crying, or wailing. “Aww, aww, aww” (Best for general crying or whining)] exclamations!

“Brother Li, the book you just received yesterday, can you recite it from memory today?”

Li Jin gave a wry smile: “No, I was just attempting to recite it from memory; I haven’t mastered it well enough yet.”

Chen Xiran had studied this book before as well. He had a good memory and quickly glanced over what Li Jin had written.

“Even when trying to write it from memory, you didn’t make a mistake! I always thought my memory was naturally suited for studying, but today I realized that there are others better than me. Brother Li , I am ashamed.”

Mr. Song arrived a bit late today, and his expression was sour; it was unclear what had happened. In ancient times, a teacher wielded great power, and if he became angry, he might have declared today’s lesson canceled.

But Mr. Song obviously had good manners and self-cultivation. He took out two books, handing one to Chen Xiran, and the other was precisely the annotated commentary on the sutra that Li Jin had copied yesterday; he gave this one to Li Jin.

“Chen Xiran, go read by the window. Li Jin, you start copying first.”

Both of them responded in unison, “Yes.”

This was Mr. Song’s way of teaching according to each student’s ability. He knew that Chen Xiran had a good memory, and since Chen Xiran’s family was wealthy and his study was full of books, he didn’t make him copy; he just had him go read on the side.

The book in Li Jin’s hands was relatively thin, so it would probably take him just one morning to copy it all.

But then again, it was fortunate that Li Jin knew his family’s actual situation and didn’t have a mind for comparison. Otherwise, he would definitely have felt that the teacher was treating him unfairly—making him copy the book while only having Chen Xiran memorize it.

After Mr. Song left, Li Jin spent half an hour finishing the rest of the dictation. There were a few rare characters that he could roughly recognize by shape but couldn’t actually write.

Then Li Jin began to copy the annotations, and this book still had two types of characters. It seems that Mr. Song’s teacher was very kind and gave him all the books he cherished.

As Li Jin looked further, he even discovered that for those rare characters he didn’t know, Mr. Song had circled them and written a lot of explanations. It seems that even for the ancients, rare characters were not easy to write at a glance.However, this also made it easier for him to understand and remember.

It was still before noon, and the class next door had already dismissed. When Mr. Song entered the study, his expression remained intimidatingly dark.

He did not even discuss any content, instead directly having Chen Xiran recite the book from that morning. He then interrogated Li Jin with several questions.

Fortunately, neither of them had slacked off and answered everything correctly, which made Mr. Song’s expression somewhat more pleasant.

Afterwards, Mr. Song assigned homework to the two of them and directly let them go.

After they walked out, Chen Xiran made faces at Li Jin and said, “I know why the teacher is in a bad mood today.”

Li Jin: “Oh.”

Chen Xiran said, “Don’t you want to know?”

Li Jin :”No.”

Chen Xiran’s words were caught in his throat: “You are really, truly uninteresting. Forget it, I’ll tell you. A while ago, the master’s mother passed away, and just three years later, the people in their village, in an effort to please him, actually gave a young unmarried woman to the master’s father as a new wife.”

Chen Xiran continued: “Can you imagine how dark the master’s face must be? After all, he has to call a girl who is even younger than him ‘mother.'”

Li Jin frowned: “Mr. probably won’t agree to this, right?”

Although it was his father marrying a second wife, it was now obvious that Song Yuan was the one with prospects, so his father should consult his son’s opinion.

Chen Xiran said: “Of course he won’t agree. To be honest, Mr.’s father didn’t agree either, but that family insisted that the old man had tarnished their daughter’s purity…”

This really is something that can’t be cleared even if one jumped into the Yellow River.

Chen Xiran said, “The old man was able to raise a scholar, so he’s definitely not stupid. If he had done this, master would also have been stripped of his title. In my opinion, someone is deliberately framing the master.”

Based on his recent interactions with Mr. Song, Li Jin also felt that Mr. Song was upright and trustworthy. His father wouldn’t have been interested in someone young enough to be his granddaughter at his age.

So, what exactly is the purpose of these people?

Chen Xiran sneered, “My father has already gone to check it out, don’t worry, we’ll definitely clear master’s name.

Think about it, we’re about to take the Tongsheng exam, and if master is stripped of his title, where would we even find another scholar to vouch for us?”

Each scholar only has a limited number of spots to vouch for someone.

Within ten miles, there are only three scholars. Li Jin doesn’t know the other two at all, not to mention whether those scholars would even be willing to vouch for him.

Just saying whether they still have other guaranteed spots on hand is already a problem.

Li Jindeng became serious: “So, according to what Brother Chen said, these people’s ultimate goal is us two?”

Is that really necessary?

Chen Xiran replied with shame: “Yesterday, I looked into Brother Li’s reputation. Those people probably aren’t worried about you passing the exam; what they worry about is me.”

Although the town is small, there is still competition.

If the guarantor of a scholar also passes the scholar examination, the court would reward the guaranteed scholar as well.

In this way, Mr. Song’s reputation could surpass the other two scholars in the town.

Li Jin thought that this scheming and intrigue were even more exciting than what he had read in storybooks.

Earlier, he had heard of people giving laxatives to examinees in the same test to delay them and prevent them from taking the exam. Now that it happened right before his eyes, he realized he would have to be more cautious in the future.

But why was Chen Xiran so confident in claiming that the mastermind was worried about him passing the Tongsheng examination?

Chen Xiran seemed to know what Li Jin was wondering, and he said, “Brother Li, you truly do not care about the minor gossip in town. As for me, I have always been quite high-profile. When my family first moved here, I already declared that I would surely pass the Tongsheng examination in this round…”

Li Jin remained silent.

Sure enough, showing off will get you struck by lightning—it’s an eternal truth.

Li Jin said, “If you need my help over there, just call and I’ll be there.”

Chen Xiran said, “Don’t worry, Brother Li, I won’t get you into trouble!”​

• 1
  [The Chinese term 《四书》 (Sìshū) translates to “The Four Books” in English. The Four Books include: 《大学》 (Dàxué): The Great Learning 《中庸》 (Zhōngyōng): The Doctrine of the Mean 《论语》 (Lúnyǔ): The Analects 《孟子》 (Mèngzǐ): The Mencius ]
• 2
  [《五经》 (Wǔ Jīng) translates to English as the Five Classics. The five classics includes: Classic of Poetry (Shī Jīng / 诗经) – Also known as the Book of Songs or Book of Odes. Classic of History (Shū Jīng / 书经) – Also known as the Book of Documents. Book of Changes (Yì Jīng / 易经) – Also known as I Ching. Classic of Rites (Lǐ Jì / 礼记) – Also known as the Book of Rites. Spring and Autumn Annals (Chūn Qiū / 春秋) – A historical record of the State of Lu.]
• 3
  [ “嗷嗷” usually represents the sound of howling, crying, or wailing. “Aww, aww, aww” (Best for general crying or whining)]