◎A Major Family Crisis!◎
“An Ge’er has been acting very strangely lately—checking marriage horoscopes, asking about birth dates, and staring at the master for no reason,” Cao Mama reported mysteriously to Lin Yuebai while Ping’an was swinging in the courtyard. “These past few days, the servants have been whispering that the young master suspects he’s not their biological child.”
Lin Yuebai nearly choked on her tea.
Ping’an looked exactly like Chen Yan’s carbon copy—how could he possibly doubt his own parentage?
“Let him be, he’ll forget about it in a few days,” Lin Yuebai said. Her expectations for her son had always been modest—mainly that he wouldn’t cry at night.
“But what if this spreads and makes us a laughingstock?” Cao Mama worried.
Lin Yuebai couldn’t help but laugh bitterly. “Since when has the Chen family cared about being laughed at?”
Two years ago, when Chen Pingye, the eldest son of North Chen’s second branch, got married, his bride was murdered just three days after the wedding. Chen Jingshi, one of Southern Chen Family’s only two scholars, had his status revoked after representing the deceased in court, then angrily split from the family and left Chen Family Alley. Meanwhile, Chen Pingye received only a two-year prison sentence and was nearly due for release. Nowadays, the two families wouldn’t even share the same river water for laundry, considering it ill-omened.
They’d already been laughed at enough.
“But it’s different when they’re laughing at the entire Chen family versus laughing at you personally,” Cao Mama pointed out sharply.
Lin Yuebai considered this and found some truth in it. “Bring him in, I’ll have a word with him.”
Cao Mama glanced outside where only an empty swing creaked in the courtyard. She asked the maid Mo Lu in the yard, “Where’s An Ge’er?”
“He went to the front courtyard study,” Mo Lu replied.
“Must be going to see his father again,” Cao Mama analyzed.
Lin Yuebai set down her teacup. “Bring him back, bring him back.”
Soon enough, Ping’an’s childish voice could be heard in the courtyard: “Nanny, what are you doing? I have important business to attend to!”
“The mistress summoning you is also important business,” Cao Mama coaxed.
Lin Yuebai came from a family that held a hereditary position as Commandant Adjutant—a genuine military family daughter. Well-educated and trained in martial arts since childhood, she possessed deceptively gentle and refined features while actually being straightforward in temperament and somewhat short-tempered. However, since giving birth to Ping’an, she had resolved to become a loving mother.
“Chen Ping’an.” The loving mother planted her hands on her hips.
As a short-limbed human toddler, he had mastered recognizing the emotions behind his mother’s different forms of address:
Ping’an—stable mood;
My son—thinks he’s adorable, wants to cuddle;
Chen Ping’an—about to get spanked…
Ping’an put on an ingratiating smile. “Mother, that sounds a bit distant.”
Lin Yuebai simply didn’t know what to do with him. She called him closer and pulled out a stack of documents from her pillow chest.
“Here are your father and mother’s marriage horoscope, betrothal contract, gift list, and wedding certificate. This is your household registration. You are the firstborn son legitimately conceived after the Three Matchmakers and Six Rites. Your father didn’t take any other wives, and your mother wasn’t previously married. Therefore, you can only be your parents’ biological son.”
She had always been direct in speech and action.
Ping’an blinked his dark, bright eyes and reached out his small hand to feel his mother’s forehead. “Mother, are you feeling unwell somewhere?”
Lin Yuebai didn’t know whether to laugh or cry as she held his warm little hand. “Mother is fine, but your father is taking the Ke Examination the day after tomorrow. You need to behave and stop disturbing his studies in the study.”
Cao Mama chimed in, “Yes, An Ge’er, the Ke Examination is very important.”
“What’s the Ke Examination?” Ping’an asked curiously.
“The Ke Examination? The Ke Examination is…” Cao Mama couldn’t quite explain it either.
Lin Yuebai drew her son close and patiently explained: “If a Student wants to become a provincial scholar, he must take the Xiang Examination. But before the Xiang Examination, the provincial Director of Education will tour various prefectures to conduct preliminary Ke Examinations. Only those with outstanding results can qualify for the Xiang Examination. Understand?”
“Oh.” Ping’an suddenly realized that the imperial examination system was so complicated – there was even a qualifying exam before the Xiang Examination.
“So if you don’t take the Ke Examination, you can’t take the exams for provincial scholar or imperial scholar.” Ping’an counted on his fingers as he summarized.
“Correct,” said Lin Yuebai.
Ping’an said: “Mother, I understand everything now. I’m going to play in the neighboring garden so I won’t disturb Father’s studies.”
“Go ahead,” Lin Yuebai instructed the maid Jiu Huan to accompany him.
Ping’an skipped away happily.
Lin Yuebai straightened up, watching her son’s lively retreating figure, and let out a long sigh: “He’s grown up, much more sensible than when he was little!”
Those days of him crying every night, when she had to carry him back and forth under the eaves in the courtyard – she had finally made it through that difficult period.
Hearing this, Cao Mama said apologetically: “It’s also because we servants are foolish that we’ve made the mistress suffer so much.”
“No need to say that,” Lin Yuebai said half-jokingly. “When a child is difficult, no one can escape responsibility except the mother.”
She had become a mother at eighteen, enduring the hardship of ten months of pregnancy, but no one had ever told her that raising a child was a hundred times more difficult than giving birth to one.
Watching the lively and adorable little Ping’an becoming more well-behaved and sensible day by day, Lin Yuebai finally showed a relieved smile…
Little did she know this smile would last less than half a day.
…
Early in the morning, Ping’an was still fast asleep, his long eyelashes resting on his eyelids, looking adorable and completely harmless.
The courtyard was in chaos – some people were talking, others were running about. They had probably lost something crucial, startling the sparrows from the branches and awakening the goldfish in the lotus pond. Aji ran from outside into the room, sliding to Ping’an’s bedside with a sharp intake of breath.
Something major had happened at home!
Ping’an opened one eye first, then the other, before closing both tightly.
He didn’t know anything, he knew nothing at all!
…
Lin Yuebai stood in the courtyard. Having just risen and not yet dressed properly, her hair was casually pinned up with a hairpiece, her beautiful face filled with anxiety.
“What do you mean it’s missing?!”
“It was originally in the Examination Basket. A Xiang got up early to prepare for loading and counted all the examination supplies – the brushes, ink, paper, inkstone, and some food were all there. Only the master’s Examination Pass is missing.”
The maid Mo Lu’s voice was strained with urgency. The master’s imperial examination was the most important matter, and the front courtyard had already been turned upside down in search, but the Examination Pass seemed to have grown wings and flown away.
Without the Examination Pass, one couldn’t prove their status as a Student – much like losing one’s admission ticket ten minutes before the college entrance exams in later times, forcing them to abandon the examination.
The household was in complete turmoil.
Ping’an felt both pleased and guilty – pleased that his clever plan had succeeded. The Xiang Examination was held only once every three years. If his father missed this Ke Examination and lost his qualification for the Xiang Examination, it meant he would have to wait another three years. Who could say what would happen in three years? Perhaps he would become disheartened and frustrated from then on, eventually inheriting the vast family fortune to become a miserable rich man?
What made him guilty was that he had committed such a “monumental case.” If discovered, the consequences would be severe.
So for the better part of the day, he acted furtively, pretending he’d never been born. The adults were all preoccupied with their own thoughts and in rather foul moods, so no one paid him much attention.
When Zhao Shi received the news, she angrily summoned the young couple to berate them. Ping’an quietly curled up in an official’s hat armchair nearby, munching on an enormous apple.
The apple was nearly as big as his head, perfectly blocking his line of sight and giving him a sense of security in hiding in plain sight.
In her fury, Zhao Shi slapped the tea table with a series of loud thumps: “You can even lose the Examination Pass—how come you didn’t lose the child?”
Ping’an looked up: Wait, what?
Seeing his son and daughter-in-law remain silent, Chen Laoye quickly stepped in to smooth things over: “This matter is indeed rather strange. It wasn’t taken outside, so how could it just disappear from the house…”
Zhao Shi was as frantic as an ant on a hot stove. Seeing Chen Yan remain silent and utterly unperturbed, she scolded him in exasperation: “You’re just like a wooden fish that can’t be struck—you ought to be placed in a grand Buddha hall.”
Chen Laoye couldn’t help but ask with a serious expression: “If it can’t be struck, what’s the point of putting it in a Buddha hall?”
Enraged, Zhao Shi grabbed an apple and hurled it at him. So Chen Laoye ended up sitting beside Ping’an, munching on an apple together.
Zhao Shi turned to the servants: “Hurry up and search for it!”
The servants accepted the order and withdrew, turning the entire residence upside down.
Two days later, the Examination Pass was dug out from the firewood pile in the kitchen. If not for the sharp eyes of a young servant, it would have been burned to ashes. The person who did this had a very clear purpose—to prevent Chen Yan from taking the imperial examinations.
“Could it be someone from North Chen?” Zhao Shi speculated.
Hearing this, Chen Laoye folded his hands and said: “That’s unlikely. After all, we share the same surname Chen.”
Ignoring him, Zhao Shi ordered the old steward Chen Shou to investigate immediately.
With so many people coming and going from the kitchen every day, they quickly cross-referenced who had been to the master’s study and also visited the kitchen. After questioning everyone one by one, they soon narrowed down the suspect.
The study’s errand boy A Xiang had been shuttling between the study and the kitchen since he was twelve, serving Chen Yan’s daily needs faithfully for seven years without change. He had no reason to do such a thing, which left only…
…
“Achoo!” Ping’an, who was squatting in the courtyard assembling a puzzle, rubbed his nose: “Aji, someone’s cursing me.”
Aji also sneezed in the wind.
Ever since he stole his father’s Examination Pass, the household had been in turmoil. His grandmother had thrown one tantrum after another, and together with his mother, they had dug out all important documents like deeds and promissory notes, reorganizing and storing them anew. Even the accounts were thoroughly reviewed, as if a first-level alert had been sounded.
These past two days, Ping’an had been living on edge, terrified that his misdeed would come to light. For the first time, he realized the immense psychological pressure that came with being a mischievous child.
…
After hearing Chen Shou’s report, Zhao Shi was more puzzled than angry: “An Ge’er? Why would he do such a thing?”
Chen Shou bowed slightly to indicate he didn’t know.
“When A Yan was little, he even hid the property deed in the doghouse,” Chen Laoye said. “There’s no reasoning behind a child’s mischief.”
Zhao Shi thought this made sense and asked: “What should we do about it then?”
Chen Laoye was immensely excited—in over twenty years of marriage, this was the first time his wife had ever asked for his advice.
“Children are all afraid of their fathers. First, keep it from A Yan and discuss it with your daughter-in-law. She has a gentle temper—let her talk properly with the child and make it clear there won’t be a next time,” Chen Laoye suggested.
Zhao Shi was also relieved. After over twenty years of marriage, this was the first time she had heard her husband say something useful.
So she wisely followed his advice, summoned Lin Yuebai, and tactfully explained the situation. She then advised, “He’s just a four-year-old child who barely recognizes any characters. How would he understand the importance of an Examination Pass? Most likely, he was just being mischievous and playful. Have a proper talk with him, alright? But don’t let A Yan know, so as not to disrupt his studies.”
Lin Yuebai’s heart sank immediately. Who would know better than her how many characters Ping’an recognized? Whenever she had free time, she would teach him to read. The child learned characters quickly and had an excellent memory—he just hadn’t learned to write yet.
He was four years old, not one or two. Why would he hide his father’s Examination Pass for no reason?
【Author’s Note】
Two updates today, none tomorrow. Don’t come running for nothing~