Wang Xichen walked heavily, encountering his elder brother, Wang Xirui, the eldest member of the Wang family. Whenever Ju Zi heard it, she felt an urge to order him to do something, like make a phone call or play some music.
Ju Zi followed gracefully behind the two Wang brothers, quickly summarizing the situation in eight characters: “The imperial examinations are difficult; Xichen sighs.”
This was Wang Xichen’s second attempt at the autumn imperial examinations since obtaining the title of Xiucai (a lower-level scholar), and he had failed again.
Wang Xirui patted his younger brother’s shoulder, offering words of comfort.
Wang Xichen’s shoulders remained slumped, as if weighed down by a thousand pounds.
He and his elder brother and he had both passed the imperial examinations, becoming scholars in the county-level imperial examinations. At that time, everyone within a hundred miles envied the Wang family, saying they had excellent feng shui…
Wang Xichen had originally planned to bring glory to the family along with his elder brother and younger brother, but who knew that the feng shui, as if suddenly realizing it had turned to the wrong person, abruptly disappeared—
First, his elder brother accidentally broke his leg while traveling, leaving him with a disability that prevented him from continuing the imperial examinations and made it difficult for him to have children.
Then, their father was demoted to the remote and uncivilized Lingnan region of Jiaying Prefecture.
He himself became increasingly unsuccessful in the examinations.
Wang Xichen was under immense pressure, so much so that during his recent exam preparations, he even maliciously suspected that his elder brother had deliberately broken his leg because he had suffered enough from the hardships of the imperial examinations… After all, before that, his elder brother had already failed twice and was in a very unstable mental state. His suspicions revealed a clear picture of his mental state…
Since no longer needing to take the imperial examinations, Wang Xirui had visibly relaxed. Now a teacher at a private school in Jinling, he relied on his knowledge and a limp, enjoying the pity of his parents and brothers at home and the respect of his students and scholars outside.
What Wang Xichen envied even more was that whenever people mentioned his elder brother’s disability, they would sincerely sigh, saying that if Xirui hadn’t been affected by it, he would surely have already achieved the Jinshi degree…
At these times, Wang Xirui would shake his head and sigh, thus earning even more affirmation and praise.
At this moment, Wang Xirui still comforted his younger brother: “When we get to Mother later, I’ll speak for you…”
Wang Xichen nodded heavily. Failing the examinations again, what he found most difficult to face was his mother, who had high hopes for her son.
Unexpectedly, his elderly mother simply waved her hand dismissively after hearing this.
Grandma Dong told her son that this was nothing.
The secret to making bad news seem insignificant is often another, even worse piece of news.
Seeing a letter from Guangdong beside his mother, Wang Xichen asked anxiously, “Father has been demoted again?”
“No, not at all,” Grandma Dong corrected, “This time he’s been dismissed from office.”
“…” Wang Xichen and Wang Xirui were both shocked.
Ju Zi, who was already lying by the door, understood too. Oh, it was just a demotion before, but this time he was fired.
Grandma Dong explained the matter to her two sons in detail.
The old lady, strong-willed, didn’t show much emotion, only tightening her forehead band tighter than usual to physically suppress the throbbing blood vessels in her brain.
In Mrs. Dong’s words, her husband was good in every way, except for his stubbornness.
Wang Zhefu, born into poverty, passed the imperial examination at the county level through diligent study, achieving top honors and earning the title of “First-Class Scholar.” Later, taking advantage of Emperor Yongzheng’s unprecedented talent selection process, he was recommended by his teacher and appointed magistrate of Haifeng County, thus embarking on his official career.
It’s worth mentioning that Wang Zhefu was dismissed from his post as magistrate of Haifeng County for speaking out against his superiors; his tenure was short-lived.
Afterwards, he served as a staff member in various households, experiencing ups and downs, before finally returning to officialdom after many years.
Xuanhua Prefecture was a good place. Wang Zhefu had once served as its prefect, but due to political disagreements with his colleagues, he was falsely accused and imprisoned for a time. Later, the truth came out, the guilty were punished, and Wang Zhefu was exonerated. However, he was still considered too harsh and inflexible, and somewhat stubborn, so he was demoted to Jiaying Prefecture in Lingnan.
By this time, Old Madam Dong thought her husband, at his age, should have had his temper tempered, but who knew that even in Lingnan, he wouldn’t stop causing trouble.
Wang Zhefu initially advocated building academies, which wasn’t wrong, but the site chosen for one of the academies was deemed to have disrupted the local feng shui, attracting considerable criticism. This was a harbinger of future conflicts.
In Jiaying Prefecture, the people’s faith in deities was deeply ingrained. Local officials spent considerable manpower and resources annually constructing and repairing various temples dedicated to deities. Wang Zhefu, however, believed that such a barren land should not be wasted on such expenditures and strongly opposed this, instead proposing the construction of academies and irrigation works.
This tug-of-war of conflict not only offended local officials and dignitaries but also incurred the discontent of the populace.
One of Wang Zhefu’s protégés held an official position in the capital. Recently implicated in a factional struggle, local officials in Jiaying Prefecture seized this opportunity to accuse Wang Zhefu of close ties with him, exaggerating Wang Zhefu’s past misconduct in a case and using public opinion to smear him, thus leading to his dismissal from office. Old Mrs. Dong didn’t elaborate on the origins of the factional strife, but the Wang brothers had heard of the bloody purges in the capital that terrified everyone…
The success or failure of factional struggles in the capital’s court, even the slightest connection, could become a catastrophe if seized upon.
The Wang brothers were acutely aware of the gravity of the situation. This time was different from before; at this juncture, there was absolutely no way to use connections or influence to smooth things over.
“It’s good enough that you’ve survived…” the old lady sighed. “We’ll talk about the rest later.”
The old lady had her two sons write to their father. Her words could be summed up in one sentence: If you don’t want your family to be destroyed, keep your tail between your legs, and stay quiet—that’s better than anything else.
A gloomy atmosphere hung over the Wang family because of this incident, and winter seemed to arrive earlier than expected.
But a four-year-old child doesn’t understand these things, and neither does a cat, so Zhenyi and Ju Zi’s lives continued as usual.
Zhenyi’s curiosity about the world grew stronger each day, especially drawn to the unknown. For example, the dark artificial mountain and cave in the garden; the other children said there were ghosts inside, but she would cautiously crawl inside to investigate.
Ju Zi felt that Zhenyi must have been a cat in her past life. Of course, there was another possibility: whoever raised her resembled her—after all, it was Ju Zi who raised this little doll.
The empty, cramped cave, devoid of ghosts, quickly lost its appeal to Zhenyi. She began to enjoy looking at the sky; the boundless sky was far more unknown than the dark cave.
This winter, Zhenyi, barely four years old, loved to ask questions about the sky—
“Why does it get dark? Does someone in the sky blow out the lights?”
“Why does it rain? Who’s pouring water down there?”
“Where do the stars come from? Why don’t they fall down? When it gets light, who picks them up one by one? Do they put them in a box to keep them?”
“…”
Looking into Zhenyi’s eyes, which shone even brighter with curiosity, Chun’er always had to rack her brains.
Fortunately, Yang Jinniang had a solution. She stroked her daughter’s fluffy hair and gently answered, “Things in the sky are all managed by the gods.”
Zhenyi blinked, half-understanding. After her mother left, she squatted down, placed her hands on her knees, and asked earnestly, “Ju Zi, are there really gods?”
Ju Zi meowed, and Zhenyi seemed to be deep in thought.
That winter, in a small village outside Jinling City, many people fell ill with a strange disease, and dozens died.
Zhenyi heard about this from Mrs. Qian next door. Mrs. Qian felt sorry for the people, uttered “Amitabha” for them, and then sighed in bewilderment, “Alas, I don’t know what kind of divine retribution they suffered…”
Divine retribution… So it’s the gods in charge again?
Zhenyi didn’t like this idea, but she couldn’t explain why.
That night, Zhenyi had a very strange dream.
In the dream, she wanted to walk forward, but a wall suddenly appeared and blocked her way. She turned around and ran back, but another wall appeared. Then, walls appeared from all directions, trapping her inside.
She strained with all her might, pushing with her chubby little hands until her cheeks puffed up and turned red, but she couldn’t budge it an inch.
She could only think of climbing over, but when she looked up, she saw those enormous walls towering into the clouds, and the small patch of sky they enclosed was endless darkness, without moon or stars.
Zhenyi suddenly felt an immense sense of claustrophobia and fear. She froze, trembling uncontrollably, while the walls continued to close in and press against her.
Until something soft and furry landed on her forehead.
Zhenyi jolted awake from the nightmare.
In the dim light, a cat’s paw was on her forehead, followed by a slightly confused meow.
“Orange…” Zhenyi groggily turned over, hugged the large cat to her chest, wiped her tears and cold sweat on it, and listened to the cat’s purring before finally falling back asleep.
Zhenyi had another dream, but this one wasn’t as terrifying. She dreamt of her grandfather, but couldn’t see his face clearly. She had never met her grandfather before, but her mother told her that he would be coming home soon.
Like the other children in the family, Zhenyi eagerly awaited that day.