readsfreenovel Chapter 83 The Hunter's Daughter in a Fictional World (Part 8)
Chapter 83 The Hunter's Daughter in a Fictional World (Part 8)
Time never stops for anyone; it always moves forward. In the blink of an eye, it was time for Liu Yuxi and Liu Yu'an to leave their mourning period. Liu Yu'an had also reached the age to start school. His maternal grandparents were still alive, but their health was not as robust as before.
Liu Yuxi now often prepares medicinal meals for the elderly couple to help them regulate their health. The grandfather no longer works in the fields, but he can't stay idle, so he usually herds cattle at the foot of the mountain.
Now, all of the uncles' families raise cattle, and their lives are getting better and better. Wang Xin and Liu Yu'an went to study at a private school in the county. With the family's better conditions, they naturally wanted to give their children a better education. Liu Yuxi drove an oxcart to pick them up and drop them off every day.
Even after Liu Yuxi finished her mourning period, some matchmakers still came to propose marriage. After all, she was really good at making money. The Wang family also said that they could take care of Liu Yu'an. But she was getting on in years. Those who were older than her and hadn't gotten engaged or married must have their own problems, or they were second-time brides who had lost their wives.
Liu Yuxi didn't like any of them and didn't want to get married. She wanted to live her own life happily and do whatever she wanted. Why should she get married, take care of someone else's family, and have several children? Childbirth was so dangerous in ancient times, and having children meant worrying about them for the rest of her life. How tiring!
The longer it went on, the worse the conditions of the men she was being matched with became. Her grandmother disapproved of many of them. By the time Liu Yuxi was 20, she still hadn't found a suitable match. She couldn't very well force her to get married knowing that her daughter would be unhappy. So her grandmother started telling Liu Yu'an that if she got married and had children, she should adopt one to support Liu Yuxi in her old age. Liu Yu'an naturally agreed.
Liu Yuxi registered her household at the age of 20 and bought a small courtyard in the county town. In the future, Liu Yu'an and Wang Xin would always stay in the county town when they went to take the imperial examinations. Staying in an inn is not as comfortable as staying at home, right? We are not short of money! She also bought two shops, one for her and one for Liu Yu'an. Now they are rented out and there is rent income every month.
Liu Yu'an now owns 20 mu of land. During the busy farming season, Liu Yuxi hires people to work, including his uncles' land. At other times, he relies on his uncles' families for help.
From the day Liu Yu'an entered school, his older sister had been tutoring him, and Wang Xin wasn't spared either. Every day on the way home from school, he had to retell the day's lessons to his sister. Once home, he would help his older sister learn characters and practice dictation. His older sister had a photographic memory, and in her words, she regretted not being interested in studying before. Otherwise, she wouldn't have to go through all this trouble now, having to wait for him to learn first! It's likely that once his older sister learns some more, she might not be able to teach him, but they could certainly discuss things together!
This forced him and Wang Xin to work harder than other students in the private school. Liu Yuxi would lead them to get up early every morning to practice martial arts. You can't take the imperial examination without good health. They also had to do their chores at home and work in the fields during the busy farming season. No matter whether they could pass the exam or not, they could not forget their roots.
She gradually took out the books and test question sets she had bought. When Liu Yu'an was 12 and Wang Xin was 13, they passed the preliminary examination. Liu Yuxi firmly believed in the effectiveness of exam-oriented education. Don't talk about spirituality or anything like that. It's not too late to talk about these things after you pass the exam. A farmer's son like you can't even be exposed to all six arts of a gentleman. So before you pass the exam, thinking about anything else is just overthinking.
After Liu Yu'an and Wang Xin became students, their private school teacher told them that they should study for another two years and try again in the next provincial examination if they were more likely to succeed. Liu Yuxi considered that they were still young and agreed with his teacher, so he took the two young boys on a study tour.
Start by exploring your surroundings. As the saying goes, "Reading ten thousand books is not as good as traveling ten thousand miles!" The more places you go, the more local customs and cultures you see, and the more things you encounter along the way. Your horizons and knowledge will naturally broaden, and your perspective on issues will become more and more objective.
After a year of wandering, the ancient means of transportation were too slow. Even though the official roads were paved with cement, there were always places where you had to take side roads. A year was only enough to travel around the prefectural city once. The group was quite exhausted, so Liu Yuxi took them back to Wangjia Village.
My maternal grandparents are already in their seventies, and after that, no one traveled far anymore. Wang Xin and Liu Yu'an studied in the county town on their own. They had already learned how to cook and do laundry during their year of study abroad, thanks to Liu Yuxi's training. They would return to Wangjia Village during their ten-day breaks, and Wang Dahe and the others would visit them every day when they delivered goods, so there was nothing to worry about.
Liu Yuxi spends most of his time in the village with the elderly. Sometimes when he goes hunting, he doesn't go deep into the mountains anymore, because he's afraid of accidents if he stays there for too long.
Sure enough, both elders passed away that winter, happy as their family prospered, four generations living under one roof, and the third generation was on the verge of producing a scholar—the family was about to achieve a complete transformation in status. However, there was still a tinge of regret, as they hadn't witnessed these achievements firsthand, and the elders were still somewhat concerned that Liu Yuxi hadn't married.
The following year, both Wang Xin and Liu Yu'an passed the imperial examination and became scholars. Liu Yu'an's marriage was arranged by himself and Liu Yuxi. His wife was the youngest daughter of his private tutor, whom he had met when they were children. His tutor had also been keen to arrange a marriage between the two young men. Liu Yuxi then hired a matchmaker to propose marriage and bought a two-courtyard house for Liu Yu'an near his tutor's house for them to live in after their marriage. Since they were both married and living in the county town anyway, it didn't matter where they lived, and it was better to be closer to his sister-in-law's family home.
Before the marriage, she had already told his master's family that one of the children would be adopted by Liu Yuxi after the marriage. So, Liu Yuxi bought a courtyard house next to his family's house, so that the children could visit each other's houses in the future! Although adoption would indeed make them two families in ancient times, Liu Yuxi did not intend to hide it from the children or anything. They were all real relatives, and her only connection in this world was Liu Yu'an.
Liu Yu'an took the imperial examination twice before finally passing. Feeling hopeless about becoming a Jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations), he returned to teach at a private school in the county and focused his energy on raising his children. Liu Yuxi, on the other hand, lived between the village and the county. He would return to the village when he wanted to hunt, and otherwise stay in the city to help his sister-in-law take care of her children.
Both her son and Liu Yu'an's son passed the imperial examination and became Jinshi (successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations), but because they had no powerful connections or influence, they only held the rank of fifth-grade official until their retirement.
Liu Yuxi also took advantage of his two children becoming officials and hired two old women from the palace to teach them some etiquette of aristocratic families and some rules of the palace, in order to prepare for the world in the future. Even if they were different, there would still be some similarities.