The young boy puffed out his cheeks, turned around, and ran off holding his bamboo dragonfly.
He returned to his own room, wanting to put his beloved bamboo dragonfly back into its chest.
“Who are you! Why are you lying on my older brother’s bed! Bad guy!”
Xiao Hanyu was shaken awake amidst the jostling. Enduring his inner displeasure, he opened his eyes to see a scrawny young boy who looked to be around fourteen or fifteen years old, yet exuded a strange vibe that he couldn’t quite put his finger on.
“Who are you?” he asked.
Xu A-bao, however, did not answer him. Anger flashed in his eyes like a provoked little lion, and seeing that the person in front of him remained completely still, he immediately stepped forward to push him.
Although Xu A-bao looked scrawny, his strength was much greater than that of the injured Xiao Hanyu, and to make matters worse, Xiao Hanyu was caught off guard, causing him to actually be shoved aside.
With a heavy “thud,” he tumbled off the bed, and the back of his head struck the wooden cabinet beside the bed with a hard bang.
A sudden, sharp pain accompanied by a wave of dizziness instantly surged up, bringing with it an intense feeling of nausea. Xiao Hanyu clenched his fists, unable to suppress the violent discomfort rising from his mind.
Having been plotted against by his trusted aides overnight, had he really fallen to this state?
The moment before he lost consciousness, Xiao Hanyu gave a faint, self-deprecating smirk.
Xu Mother had been drawn over by Xu A-bao’s shrieks. The moment she stepped into the room, she was met with this disheveled scene.
The youth her eldest son had brought back was collapsed unconscious on the floor with his condition unknown, while her second son was sobbing tears streaming down his face, letting out harsh, unpleasant sounds from his throat in a terrified state.
Catching sight of a familiar person, Xu A-bao immediately cried out, “Mother, Mother… pushed down, dead, dead!”
“Oh, sweet mother of mine, cough, cough, cough!” Xu Mother coughed repeatedly out of shock, her face pale as death. Still calling me Mother? Mother doesn’t know what to do either…
Xu Wen had no idea that mere moments after stepping out of the house, trouble had broken out at home.
At this time, walking along the potholed road, it took him nearly an hour to reach the town.
The town was evidently much livelier than the village. Cries of hawkers and sounds of bargaining echoed from time to time, and small vendors frequently popped up in the alleys and street corners. Most people wore dusty gray cloth tunics, and occasionally someone walked down the street in bright, vibrant yellow garments, drawing frequent glances from the crowd.
Xu Wen’s attire was unremarkable just an ordinary gray tunic yet his exceptionally striking appearance still made him stand out extraordinarily in this remote little town.
Accustomed to the measuring gazes of the crowd, Xu Wen looked straight ahead, walking directly into a ready-made clothing store.
A shop assistant immediately hurried forward, a warm smile blooming on his face, though the smile froze momentarily upon landing on his patched clothing.
The assistant’s scrutiny seemed subtle, but the abruptly chilled attitude spoke volumes.
Unbothered, Xu Wen smiled mildly at the assistant, “Hello, I am looking for Shopkeeper Cheng.”
“You… what business do you have with our shopkeeper?” The assistant masked his disdain, asking in a lukewarm tone.
Maintaining his good-natured demeanor, Xu Wen replied, “I’ve brought today the embroidered handkerchiefs supplied to your esteemed shop.”
“Embroidered handkerchiefs?” The assistant was aware of this arrangement, but he recalled that it had always been a middle-aged woman who came to deliver the goods. Why was it a destitute scholar showing up today?
Knowing this matter was beyond his purview, the assistant could only nod, “Please wait a moment, I will go fetch the shopkeeper.”
The assistant turned, lifted the curtain, and ducked into the courtyard at the back of the store.
While waiting, Xu Wen casually glanced at the interior layout of the shop.
This store was the only ready-made clothing shop in town, and the styles of garments on display were the trendiest of the day. They even sold bolts of silk originating from the distant capital, making the shop consistently popular among the townspeople and nearby villagers, especially women.
Even now, in several corners of the store, a few female customers were still picking out clothes. Though at the moment, all of them had their attention drawn away by Xu Wen, casting lingering, sidelong glances at the man standing by himself.
The man wore coarse hemp clothing, yet it failed to conceal his resilient, pine-like posture beneath. Though somewhat slender, his exposed hands were broad with long fingers, and as he slightly curled his knuckles, faint veins ridged the skin, projecting an aura of frosty elegance.
His demeanor was casual and unhurried as he lazily raised his gaze to look over, startling the peeping female customers into hastily turning away.
Xu Wen withdrew his gaze expressionlessly.
“Yo, who do I see? If it isn’t really Xu Poor, our academy’s very own pauper!” An arrogant voice rang out, accompanied by a man walking into the shop, shattering the peaceful atmosphere of the clothing store.
The newcomer was dressed in purple brocade with his hair secured by a jade crown, clearly signaling a wealthy family background. However, his eyes were the size of mung beans, his lips thicker than sausages, and though broad-bodied and plump, he gave off an air of physical depletion.
Believing himself to be dashing, he waved a folding fan inscribed with the four characters “graceful and debonair,” putting on a pretentious show of fanning himself.
He dragged his heavy frame right up to Xu Wen, tilted his head back, and forced an expression of arrogant disdain.
Yet due to his lacking height, Xu Wen only saw his square, round, oily face.
Xu Wen effortlessly plucked the identity of the person before him straight out of the original host’s memories.
Jin Liteng, the sole son of Ping’an town’s magistrate, and also a fellow student of the original host’s at the academy.
This fellow was completely uneducated and unruly. From the age of thirteen, he had frequently frequented the pleasure quarters in town, or else brought along a pack of sycophantic lackeys to bully people everywhere and harass decent women.
Even though his behavior was arrogant, he had always lived safely and soundly thanks to having his biological father, the magistrate, acting as his protective umbrella.
At the academy, this person constantly mocked the original host for being poor, ordered everyone to isolate the original host, and bullied him relentlessly.
Tearing up the assignments left behind by the tutor was a minor offense; sometimes he would frame the original host for stealing his jade pendant or belt, stubbornly forcing the original host to pay compensation, threatening to march straight to his home and demand it from the original host’s parents if he refused!
The original host could never allow such hoodlum-like scoundrels to disturb his parents, whose health was already frail, and could only grit his teeth and pay for things he never ruined.
Yet the Xu family was already so poor they could barely make ends meet, and the original host still needed money for his studies; where on earth could he find extra cash for compensation? He had no choice but to take on more copying work, skip a few meals, and desperately scrape money together.
However, by the time the original host managed to gather the money, Jin Liteng would laugh hilariously and casually toss those strings of copper coins right into the nearby drainage ditch—a ditch that connected directly to the outhouse.
Not only did he trample upon the original host’s hard-earned money, but he also ordered his servants to force the original host down to crawl like a dog to retrieve the coins.
For a scholar, nothing was more important than his pride and backbone.
Yet a petty villain like Jin Liteng, who detested studying himself, simply couldn’t stand seeing a poor scholar excel academically, and brutally crushed a scholar’s pride, stomping him deep beneath his feet.
Life at the academy had been both a source of despair and hope for the original host.
Even when he was frequently locked inside an empty classroom through the freezing depths of night, beaten black and blue, he never gave up on studying. Because he yearned to pass the imperial examinations through learning, so that he could afford his family a better life.