“Young master, the study in the backyard is leaking again. My father checked and said we need to hire someone to fix it this time. Otherwise, when the rainy season comes, the books in the study will be ruined.”
“Understood. Before the New Year, I agreed with the bookstore owner that I could advance half a year’s wages after the New Year.”
“The rice and oil at home are running low. Do you think we should buy more in early spring to stock up?”
“Buy some. It’ll rain a lot soon. Tell your mother to go out less when she has nothing to do. Her legs aren’t as nimble as they used to be.”
Pei Yuan took two silver coins from his half-worn money pouch and handed them over. In total, it was a little over four qian of silver. Besides buying rice, oil, salt, and vinegar, it was enough to buy a piece of meat. A family couldn’t live without a bit of meat in their meals.
The Pei family’s house was in the same alley as the Huang family’s. The Huang family lived at the front of the alley, and their household was always bustling with people coming and going. The Pei family lived in the middle, with a large three-section courtyard house that was the most spacious in the entire alley.
Unfortunately, the old couple of the Pei family had a daughter and a son, but neither survived to adulthood. Later, the family brought in a concubine, hoping to have another child to carry on the family line.
But it just didn’t happen. Ten years ago, his wife, Jiang Shi, passed away first. Not long after her death, the concubine who had been brought into the family also died, leaving Pei Yubo alone to live in seclusion in such a large house.
Four years ago, Pei Yubo fell seriously ill. Perhaps sensing that his time was running out, he went to Fu City to humble himself before the clan, hoping to select a descendant from the Pei family to adopt as his heir.
Pei Yubo had branched off from the Pei family in Fu City. His mother was his father’s second wife, and he was his father’s youngest son.
His father passed away when he was still young, but the old man doted on his youngest son. Despite the objections of his older brothers, he insisted on passing down a Zongqi military position to Pei Yubo.
However, most of the family’s property and wealth went to his older brothers. After the old man’s death, Pei Yubo and his mother were driven out of the ancestral home by his brothers under the pretext that the Weisuo garrison was in Rong County.
In his youth, Pei Yubo once thought leaving the Pei family was a good thing. Although the Zongqi rank was not high, it came with an annual salary of sixty taels. Combined with the income from military colony farming and his mother’s savings, the Pei family was considered a wealthy household in the county in the early years.
But after losing his daughter and son, and then bidding farewell to his mother, wife, and concubine one after another, the blows were too heavy for one person to bear.
In the past, when he held the Zongqi military position, he could still earn some extra money throughout the year. Later, when he was left alone, he no longer bothered with such efforts and simply lived off his annual salary.
After years of no contact with the main family, he went to visit them. Though he appeared respectable, he couldn’t hide the air of despondency about him.
He stated his purpose, and the eldest brother did not refuse his request.
There was only one condition: return the Zongqi military position that the old man had given him. If he returned it, they would select a child from the main clan to adopt as his heir. If not, the matter would be dropped and never mentioned again.
Pei Yubo’s great-grandfather had once served as an official in the capital. After returning to his hometown, he spent decades building the family’s influence in Yuezhou, making the Pei family one of the wealthiest households in Fu City.
The Pei family is currently managed by the eldest master, while the second master serves as a Tongpan in Gaozhou Prefecture, a proper deputy official in the prefectural government. Pei Yuan’s father is from the second master’s branch, ranking third among his siblings. Instead of accompanying his father to his post, he remained in Yuezhou to manage the properties left behind by the second branch in their hometown.
Pei Yuan’s mother was a concubine kept by his father. As the son of a concubine, the Pei family knew of Pei Yuan’s existence, but he had never set foot in the Pei household.
His first visit to the Pei family was arranged by his father, who sent a servant to take him there. He was presented to Pei Yubo, and from then on, he was adopted by Pei Yubo, becoming a grandson of his lineage.
Meanwhile, the military position of Zongqi held by Pei Yubo was inherited by Pei Yuan’s biological father, Third Master Pei, in the name of his nephew. Third Master Pei inherited the Zongqi position first, and Pei Yuan was adopted by Pei Yubo shortly after. Both matters were settled within a month.
The family arranged everything perfectly, yet no one asked whether Pei Yuan or his biological mother, Madam Guan, were willing.
But Madam Guan was willing. She originally came from an official family, but after her father committed a crime, the entire family was exiled to Lingnan.
At that time, Madam Guan was still young. The sudden fall from a life of luxury was not only emotionally unbearable, but the physical toll of the journey from the capital to Lingnan was too much to endure.
Several members of the family—elderly, women, and children—died before even reaching Yuezhou. By the time they passed through Rong County, Madam Guan was critically ill, clinging to life by a thread.
Her mother knew that if her daughter continued on this journey, she would surely die. With a heavy heart, she used hidden jewelry to bribe the escorting officers, wrapped her gravely ill daughter in a straw mat, and abandoned her in Rong County.
After all, continuing forward meant certain death. It was better to take a gamble—perhaps someone would find her daughter and take her in. To live, no matter how difficult, was better than death.
This was a phrase Madam Guan always remembered, whispered countless times by her mother in her ear.
Madam Guan’s luck was neither particularly good nor the worst. She was indeed found and taken in, but the place she ended up was far from respectable.
By the age of eight or nine, a girl’s appearance was already discernible. As the daughter of an official family, Madam Guan possessed exceptional grace and beauty. She was taken in by a widow living alone, who raised her for a few years before attempting to force her into clandestine prostitution.
However, before she could begin, Pei Yuan’s father intervened, buying Madam Guan from the widow with silver and keeping her as his concubine.
Madam Guan knew that whether she stayed with the widow or followed Third Master Pei, she was merely a plaything in their eyes.
For a time, she lived recklessly, indifferent to propriety. When Third Master Pei visited, she served him; when he didn’t, as long as he left enough silver, she could survive on her own. Her life was already a second chance, and whenever it ended, she would have no regrets.
It wasn’t until she gave birth to Pei Yuan that everything changed. The newborn, red and wrinkled like a little monkey, was something she didn’t even know how to hold. Cradling him in her hands, she wept alongside her child. Only after crying did she truly come back to life, slowly beginning to live like a human being again.
Yet, no matter how much she resembled a proper person, Madam Guan knew that her son could never walk with true dignity like other men, all because of his origins.
The identity of “son of a concubine” was a sin he was born with. Beyond the whispers and judgment in daily life, the fact that he was barred from the Keju examinations severed all his future prospects.
Although the court had not explicitly stipulated that children born out of wedlock could not take the imperial examinations, candidates for the Tongsheng examination required a guarantee from a Linsheng who had already passed the Xiucai examination and possessed a clean family background. Given Pei Yuan’s status, even if he excelled in his studies, no one was willing to vouch for him.
Upon hearing that the Pei family intended to adopt their son as Pei Yubo’s heir, Madam Guan had no objections. The Zongqi position had been given to Pei Laosan, and it was not something that belonged to her family in the first place. As long as it could secure a respectable identity for her son, it was worth it.
Before following Pei Yubo home, Pei Yuan returned to pack his belongings. Madam Guan repeatedly urged him not to think of himself as her and Pei Laosan’s son once he left. His grandfather was now Pei Yubo.
Serve the family well and study diligently. Do not dwell on your own circumstances; just remember one thing: live, as long as you are alive, live well. If he prospered, she would benefit in every way.
In the quiet of the night, Pei Yuan would close his eyes and recall his mother standing by the door, crying and laughing at the same time. She cried because she could not bear to part with her son, and she laughed because her son had finally climbed out of the mire and was heading toward a bright and respectable future.
For this reason, after being taken home by Pei Yubo, Pei Yuan genuinely regarded him as his grandfather. After all, he had hardly known his biological grandfather. The old man had given him a presentable identity, and this was a debt of gratitude akin to a second life.
However, Pei Yubo had left little family wealth over the years. After bringing Pei Yuan home, perhaps feeling that he had accomplished the last major task of his life, he fell ill within a few days.
When he fell ill, Pei Yuan cared for him without complaint. After half a year of illness, the family’s savings were completely depleted. Pei Yuan even spent most of the private funds Madam Guan had secretly given him. In the end, when the money ran out, Pei Yubo passed away.
The coffin was borrowed by Pei Yuan from a bookstore owner for whom he had copied books for over half a year. After the funeral, he was left with only twelve taels and eight mace of silver.
All the hired laborers and the cook were dismissed, leaving only the family who had served the Pei household for most of their lives.
The son, Gao Yi, was responsible for miscellaneous tasks inside and outside the house. The old man, who had previously been in charge of driving the carriage, now had no carriage to tend to after Pei Yubo’s death, as it had been sold. Old Gao was now tasked with guarding the house and helping his son with odd jobs. The kitchen duties fell to Gao Yi’s mother, Mama Shui.
The family’s three-courtyard compound, even with the rear rooms of the third courtyard locked and unused, required significant annual expenses for maintenance and repairs. In addition, there was the servant who had followed Pei Yuan since childhood, making a total of five mouths for Pei Yuan to feed alone.
Copying books for bookstores, writing letters, invitations, and legal petitions for others, serving as a temporary scribe for the County Yamen’s Liufang—during the three years of mourning, Pei Yuan took on every job that could earn him money.
Even after three years of such efforts, he remained financially strained. Now, as the mourning period was about to end, he would be eligible to take the Tongshi examination early next year. This would require another significant expense, and figuring out where to get the money was truly a headache.
However, perhaps he had already passed the lowest point of his poverty. Before Pei Yuan could even devise a plan to earn money after the mourning period, Grandma Tian arrived at his doorstep with quick, small steps.