Upon hearing this, Chen Wanyue quickly looked outside to make sure no one was there, then hurriedly closed the door and turned to glare at the old woman with a mix of reproach and anxiety.
"You really are something—I told you this is a secret, so you should at least lower your voice. I haven’t even told my parents, only you. I’m risking divine punishment by sharing this! Grandmother, if not for my sake, then for our family’s, you must keep your lips sealed from now on."
The old woman was genuinely frightened by her words and immediately fell silent.
The matter of Wanyue’s dream was truly extraordinary.
A month ago, the girl had gone to the chicken coop to collect eggs when the ill-fated Shou’an pushed her, causing her to hit her head hard against the coop.
The coop was made of sun-dried mud bricks mixed with gravel, making it extremely sturdy. The impact knocked Wanyue unconscious.
From that day on, the girl seemed possessed, constantly uttering strange, mystical words.
The other three older members of the household were often away making baked flatbreads for work, so usually only the grandmother and granddaughter were home. Since the grandmother paid no mind, others didn’t bother about it either.
Unexpectedly, a few days later, Wanyue came to her, claiming that deities had sent her a dream: wild boars were going to invade their fields.
Wasn’t it common for wild boars to come down the mountain every year?
Not just during harvest season—even in ordinary times, wild boars would often wander down.
After all, their village was nestled right against Xia’ao Mountain. For the boars, it was just a casual stroll downhill.
The grandmother didn’t take it seriously, but Wanyue insisted that not only would the boars enter their fields, they would also injure someone there—specifically, someone from the Big Bucktooth family in the village.
The Big Bucktooth family was named for their hereditary prominent front teeth. The members of this household were neither clever nor hardworking; generation after generation, they remained penniless.
Their poverty stemmed from laziness—but how lazy were they?
So lazy that they would rather let their four acres of fertile land lie fallow and overrun with weeds than lift a finger to farm. The entire family survived by sponging off neighbors and engaging in petty theft.
As luck would have it, during this year’s harvest, the father and son were stealing corn when they encountered a wild boar. If not for a sudden clap of thunder in clear weather that scared the boar away, the Big Bucktooth family might have been mauled.
They survived, but without money to treat their leg injuries, the family came to their doorstep to extort compensation.
The old woman didn’t believe it at the time, dismissing it as the child’s ramblings.
Yet, just a few days later, while she was napping at noon, a thunderclap truly rang out in clear skies.
The sound was so deafening it felt as if her heart, liver, and lungs had leaped into her throat.
It took her a long while to recover, and her legs were still weak. Before she could even get out of bed, a neighbor rushed over in a frenzy to tell her that the Big Bucktooth father and son had been stealing corn in their field when a wild boar came down the mountain and gored straight through their thighs.
At that moment, her mind went blank, and her soul seemed to flee her body.
From then on, she practically enshrined Wanyue, following her every instruction and treating her words as absolute truth.
It was also Wanyue who told her that the marriage proposal from the Zhao family would bring her misfortune, while the one from the Li family would not only benefit her but also bring prosperity to the Chen family. It was with this half-belief that she went to the main branch of the family.
But it was futile—Xu Suying refused outright!
Seeing her grandmother’s hesitant expression, Chen Wanyue gritted her teeth and administered a potent dose of persuasion.
"Li Cun’s future is indeed brighter. The deities revealed to me that if a Juren is to emerge from our region within the next ten years, it will be none other than Li Cun."
"Really?"
The old woman’s voice trembled. "That boy from the Li family… could actually pass the provincial examination and become a Juren?"
The grandmother’s heart raced with excitement, yet a sliver of reason still held her back.
"Li Cun, that lad, was also taught under Scholar Zhao in earlier years. It was only after Scholar Zhao passed away that he and Baoshan transferred to the county town's Martial Scholar. At the time, everyone said that in terms of talent and learning, the best among their group was Zhao Jing."
Chen Wanyue wore a wistful expression. "That's what they said, but how much of it was true, and how much was false? You must understand, Zhao Jing is Scholar Zhao's own son. It's possible everyone was just flattering him out of respect for Scholar Zhao."
"No one but Scholar Zhao could truly gauge Zhao Jing's abilities. But Li Cun, under the Martial Scholar, was judged to be destined to pass the Juren exam one day. Grandmother, choose Li Cun. Even for the sake of my second and third brothers, you must help arrange this marriage for me."
The old lady still hesitated. "They say where there's a great reputation, there's no emptiness beneath it. With such a reputation, could Zhao Jing's learning be fake? I still favor Zhao Jing more! After all, this child grew up right before our eyes. Even if he isn't that talented, he's diligent. A person, as long as they're willing to put in the hard work, there's nothing they can't accomplish."
"I'm not saying Zhao Jing can't pass the Xiucai or Juren exams, but when he'll pass them is uncertain, isn't it? In my dream, even ten years later, Zhao Jing was still just a Baishēn."
"Baishēn? That's impossible! That child works so hard…"
"What's the use of just working hard? If luck isn't on your side, even with a belly full of poetry and books, it's all for nothing."
The old lady sat up straight. "Bad luck? What do you mean by that?"
Chen Wanyue spoke mysteriously to the old lady. "Look, the year Scholar Zhao died, Zhao Jing was originally prepared to take the exam. But that same year, in the first month, Scholar Zhao went out to meet friends and on his return, he slipped on accumulated snow and fell into a ditch. It wasn't until Zhao Jing and Mrs. Zhao realized something was wrong and asked villagers to search everywhere that Scholar Zhao was found."
Scholar Zhao, with his scholar's constitution, was frozen inside and out. He immediately suffered repeated high fevers and convulsions, lying in bed for two months without getting up.
This delay meant Zhao Jing couldn't take the exam that year.
Finally, by harvest time, Scholar Zhao could get out and about a bit. Then, a local gentry held a banquet, and Scholar Zhao attended.
Unexpectedly, the banquet was set on a passenger boat. Scholar Zhao was a landlubber, prone to seasickness and fear of water. Perhaps he drank too much, or perhaps he lost his balance when the wind picked up—he stumbled and fell into the river.
It was late autumn, the water icy cold, and it rained afterward. Scholar Zhao suffered terribly. When he was carried back, he was burning up like a furnace. After a month of recurring fevers, he ultimately didn't survive.
With Scholar Zhao's death, Zhao Jing was delayed from taking the imperial exams for three years. Finally, this year, after completing mourning, he could take the Tongzi Exam next year, but then his mother passed away, requiring another three years of mourning.
Later on, either he'd suffer unbearable stomach pain before exams, or his Tongshi Personal Declaration Form would be stolen just before entering the examination hall…
For those years, bad luck chased Zhao Jing relentlessly. Anyone who knew him couldn't help but say, 'What a pity.'
But no matter how pitiful, it was useless. A person's fate is decreed by heaven. No matter how determined you are, if you lack the destiny to become an official, all your efforts are just wasted time.
Of course, now Zhao Jing hasn't yet completed mourning for his father, and his mother is naturally still alive and well."
Chen Wanyue had no intention of telling the old lady that Zhao Jing would lose his mother this year.
For one, the matter was of great importance, and she feared the old lady might inadvertently reveal something, allowing others to uncover the truth and implicate her.
For another, Zhao Jing's loss of his mother was partly due to her involvement, and feeling guilty, she preferred not to dwell on it.
Chen Wanyue repeatedly emphasized to the old lady that Zhao Jing was simply unlucky—even if he attempted the imperial examinations, he would never make it into the examination hall, always halted by various reasons just outside.
His life had been half-wasted in futility, and she couldn’t knowingly leap into such a pit of fire, could she?