Lin Minghai was yanked into a stagger by Second Uncle Lin. He could smell the stench pouring out continuously, yet he could not shake the man off. He was so anxious that his face flushed red.
Old Madam Liu was like a mother hen protecting her chick. She snatched him away from Lin Changsong.
“Go, go, go! Don’t pull our Minghai down…”
Lin Changsong was not annoyed in the slightest. After successfully disgusting Lin Minghai, he patted his backside and walked away, leaving Old Madam Liu gnashing her teeth.
This was the most sumptuous dinner the Old Lin family had eaten since their family arrived. There were two meat dishes and scrambled eggs as well. The three meat dishes were placed in front of the three men of the First Branch—father and sons—and the others could forget about reaching their chopsticks over. Old Madam Liu was keeping watch.
The Third Branch genuinely did not dare, while the Second Branch simply did not care for the food. They had eaten chicken stewed with mushrooms at noon, and that had been much more fragrant than this meat. Shen Shi’s maiden family was poor as well, so she rarely had the chance to cook meat, and her culinary skills were only average. It was nowhere near as fragrant as the meat they had eaten at noon.
The Second Branch was not craving the meat. At the dinner table, they were mainly waging a psychological battle.
“Minghai, eat this! This is nutritious! You’ll need a strong body if you want to become an official in the future!” Lin Changsong pushed the meat and scrambled eggs a little farther toward Lin Minghai, as if Old Madam Liu and Xiao Liushi had been mistreating him.
The husband and wife lavished all kinds of praise on him at the table. He was only a sixteen-year-old boy, yet the constant stream of flattering words made him feel as though he were floating.
Lin Minghai had already heard from his grandmother and mother that the Second Branch’s entire family had changed. He had not expected it to be true, but it did not affect him much.
Old Madam Liu and her daughter-in-law did not see it that way, however. Listening to the husband and wife from the Second Branch fuss over Minghai made them nearly lose their appetites.
After dinner, Lin Minghai walked around the courtyard to aid his digestion, reciting his texts as he went.
Old Madam Liu’s wrinkled face was smiling like a chrysanthemum, and the pride in her eyes could not be concealed.
Seeing her younger son still playing in the mud, Xiao Liushi pulled him over and lightly smacked him. “Stop playing. Come listen to your older brother recite.”
Lin Mingjiang looked thoroughly impatient. “I don’t want to! I want to play!”
“You child, you’ll be attending private school this year too. Learn a little from him…”
Lin Changsong’s eyes shifted. “Father, Mother, Mingjiang is going to private school? Then send our Goudan along as well. The two brothers can keep each other company on the way there and back.”
Old Madam Liu gave him a look that plainly said he was dreaming. “What are you sending Goudan for? Does he even have the brains for it?”
Xiao Liushi nodded vigorously beside her, wanting to add a few words in agreement.
Lin Minghao could not accept that. He could admit that he did not understand social niceties, but saying he did not have the brains for studying!?
“Grandma, I memorized everything Big Brother just recited.”
Old Madam Liu looked disdainful. “With that pig brain of yours…”
Lin Minghao did not argue. He simply recited in a clear voice, “What Heaven has ordained is called human nature; following human nature is called the Way; cultivating the Way is called education. The Way cannot be separated from us for even an instant. What can be separated from us is not the Way…”
It was not a particularly long passage, but the sentences sounded awkward even to the listeners. He had only heard it once, yet he could recite it!
This stunned everyone in the entire courtyard, including Lin Minghai.
This was not some simple primer like the Three Character Classic or the Hundred Family Surnames. What was more, he had only recited it once just now.
Lin Changsong’s gums were practically showing. Leaving aside everything else about his son, the fact that he never forgot anything he saw—or heard—was enough to make everyone else envious!
Old Man Lin’s entire body trembled slightly with excitement. He felt that the ancestors of the Old Lin family had sent smoke rising from their graves—and the shape of that smoke was surely the shape of an official’s hat.
The moods of Lin Changdong and his wife, however, were not nearly as pleasant.
Old Madam Liu’s slanted eyes locked tightly onto that little brat. She snorted through her nose. “What use is being able to recite a couple of lines? Besides, the family has no silver.”
Old Madam Liu was about to walk toward the main room when Lin Changsong grabbed her. “Mother, Minghai is about to become a xiucai. How can a xiucai gentleman have no literate brothers around him? Minghai will need someone beside him in the future who can read and write and help him, won’t he?”
Old Madam Liu flung his hand away. “If Minghai needs an assistant, doesn’t he already have Mingjiang?”