Poor but talented scholar

Chapter 8 End of February

From that day on, Lu Chuan's fate became fixed.

Every day at dawn, he would get up, rub his teeth with charcoal, and then rinse with water.

Lu's mother got up even earlier than him. When he came out, there was always a bowl of hot porridge on the stove. After he finished drinking it, he would pick up his bag and walk towards the east end of the village.

Uncle Qi would recite a line, and the other three would repeat it.

After reading for a few days, Lu Chuan discovered a pattern: after each section was finished, Uncle Qi would stop and call on one person to recite it.

When it was Lu Gen's turn, he lowered his head and recited very slowly, pausing several times in the middle. In the end, he still managed to finish reciting it, albeit haltingly, and made a few mistakes. His seventh uncle made him go home and copy it ten times.

When it came to Lu Ming, he would stumble seven out of ten times, and on the remaining three times, he would pause and stagger out the answer.

Lu Chuan didn't take it seriously. He had already learned this knowledge in his previous life. In order not to be discovered by his seventh uncle, he pretended that he had just learned it.

When Uncle Qi called on Lu Chuan, Lu Chuan recited the passage, and Uncle Qi grunted in acknowledgment before moving on to the next section.

At first, Lu Chuan thought that the "um" didn't mean anything, it was just a habit.

Later, he noticed that whenever his seventh uncle asked Lu Ming to recite something, regardless of how well or poorly he recited it, he would always say "Recite it again" or "I've got it." When he asked Lu Gen to recite something, he would occasionally say "Not bad." Only when he asked Lu Gen to recite something would he say "Hmm."

One day, when they came to the line "Jade that is not carved cannot become a vessel" from the Three Character Classic, Uncle Qi finished reading it but did not have the three of them repeat after him. Instead, he put down the book and asked a question:

"What does this sentence mean? Who can explain it?"

Lu Ming thought for a moment and said, "So jade needs to be polished to look good?"

Seventh Uncle made no comment and looked at Lu Gen.

Lu Gen lowered his head, thought for a long time, and slowly said, "It means... you have to work hard to succeed?"

Seventh Uncle looked at Lu Chuan again.

Lu Chuan thought for a moment and said, "Jade is inherently good, but you can't see it unless you examine it. It's the same with people; their usefulness isn't determined by what they're born with, but by how they're shaped."

Uncle Qi looked at him for a moment, then picked up the book again and turned to the next page.

"continue."

Lu Ming, standing nearby, quietly nudged Ji Luchuan with his elbow and whispered, "Your answer is different from ours."

At my seventh uncle's place, we studied and wrote in the morning, and then went home at noon.

With nothing else to do in the afternoon, he stayed in the courtyard, repeatedly going over what he had recited in the morning in his mind until he knew it by heart, before thinking of the next sentence.

Since he couldn't bring the sand table back, he would draw on the ground with a twig, smooth it out, and then draw again. Sometimes Lu Xiaoman would squat beside him and draw along, and sometimes he would find a twig and start a new plot of land. The two of them would draw their own plots, and the rustling sound in the yard would echo from morning till night.

At first, the villagers just found it strange.

The third brother's son, Chuanzi, goes to Seventh Uncle's place every day without fail.

Every child in the village runs around wildly, but this kid is different. Every morning he goes to the east end and comes back on time at noon. In the afternoon, he draws words in the yard.

The women by the well spoke with a tone that was somewhat ambiguous:

"Do you think this child is capable?"

"Who knows? Uncle San accepted them all; he couldn't have accepted them for nothing."

"Given the situation of the third son's family, I don't know if they can hold on..."

Before he could finish speaking, someone next to him chimed in, "Have you forgotten about the ledger incident? That kid's got a sharp mind."

Gradually, the discussion moved from behind to in front of us.

As Lu Chuan passed the old locust tree at the village entrance, the old man squatting in the sun raised his eyelids, smiled at him, and said, "Chuanzi, going to study again? Don't forget the villagers when you pass the imperial examination and become a scholar."

Lu Chuan cupped his hands in greeting, said nothing more, and continued walking.

Some people stopped him and handed him a crumpled piece of paper, saying it was a notice posted by the county and asked him to read what it said.

Lu Chuan looked at it, read it aloud word by word, and the man nodded repeatedly after listening, said "Thank you for your hard work," handed him two boiled eggs, and turned to leave.

Lu Chuan carried the two eggs home. When his mother saw them, she didn't ask any questions and took them into the kitchen.

Such incidents gradually became more frequent.

Sixth Uncle also noticed it.

One evening, Lu Chuan returned from his seventh uncle's house. As he passed the village entrance, his sixth uncle was sitting under the old locust tree, holding a rough porcelain bowl in his hand, squinting at the distance.

When Lu Chuan came over, Sixth Uncle didn't say anything, but just raised his chin, gesturing for him to come over.

Lu Chuan walked over and stood beside him.

Sixth Uncle took a sip of water from his bowl and slowly asked, "Seventh Uncle, where are we in your reading?"

"We've almost finished reciting the Hundred Family Surnames, and we've only just begun the Three Character Classic."

Sixth Uncle hummed in agreement, his gaze returning to the distance. After a moment of silence, he suddenly spoke again:

"How is your father's health?"

"I'm feeling better; I can walk around now."

"Yes." Uncle Liu nodded. "Read it carefully."

Those were the last three words, and that was the end of it.

Lu Chuan responded and turned to walk home. The setting sun cast a long shadow of his, which stretched diagonally across the dirt road.

During this period, Lu Youcai did not visit again.

One day, while his seventh uncle was out in his courtyard, Lu Ming leaned over and whispered, "Chuanzi, do you know, your eldest uncle has been telling some people in the clan that your seventh uncle took you in on a whim, saying that given your family's circumstances, they won't be able to support you sooner or later."

Lu Chuan lowered his head, drawing names on the sand table without looking up.

"Are you done talking?"

Lu Ming was taken aback: "Aren't you in a hurry?"

"What's the rush?"

Lu Ming glanced at him, scratched his head, sat back down, and whispered, "My dad said your uncle is vengeful, so be careful."

Lu Chuan smoothed out the sand table and started over.

"knew."

When Uncle Qi walked in from outside, Lu Ming immediately lowered his head and pretended to be writing seriously.

One evening at the end of April, Lu Chuan returned from his seventh uncle's house and entered the courtyard. He saw Lu Shouye sitting under the eaves, holding a tree branch in his hand, with his head down, drawing something on the ground.

Lu Chuan stood at the gate of the courtyard and glanced at it.

The characters "Zhao Qian Sun Li" were drawn on the ground. They were a bit crooked, but the strokes were correct.

Hearing footsteps, Lu Shouye looked up and saw it was him. He put down the branch he was holding and moved it aside to make room for him.

Lu Chuan walked over and squatted down beside him.

The father and son, each with a tree branch, were drawing their own lines on the ground in the yard.

Lu Xiaoman ran out of the kitchen and saw the father and son squatting on the ground drawing words. She glanced at them from the gate, then ran over, picked up a twig, and squatted down on the other side of Lu Chuan.

"Brother, I learned a new word today."

Which one?

Lu Xiaoman drew a line on the ground, then looked up at Lu Chuan: "Right?"

Lu Chuan looked down and nodded: "Yes."

Lu Xiaoman grinned, lowered her head, and drew it again, this time it looked a little better than before.