Qing Yao

Chapter 5: Most Unfaithful People Are Scholars

If there is no save file, then there is no save file. Zhao An doesn’t care.

He was originally planning to make a fake certificate, so is the fake certificate archived?
Compared to fake certificates, this unarchived academic certificate is genuine.

At least the paper is absolutely authentic.

Besides, he is just a student, not a Jinshi degree, so there is no need to be too particular about it.

After receiving his academic certificate with satisfaction and expressing his deep gratitude to the principal for his kindness, Zhao An hurried home to pack up.

I have been delayed for several days for this diploma, and I can't waste any more time. I guess my cousin Wang Defa is waiting anxiously. What if there are other children who want to join the tax bureau, then this matter may be ruined.

As the old saying goes, good things should be done early!

Before leaving, I went to the Zhao family's ancestral tomb. It is called an ancestral tomb, but it is actually a few conical mounds, all of which are covered with a "black hat".

No one knew when this custom was passed down. In his previous life, Zhao An had read unofficial history, which said that when Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was a cowherd boy, he sat on a grave mound with a black gauze hat and conferred official titles and ranks on his little friend Tang He and others. As a result, they really got the titles.

Therefore, it is destiny.

This unofficial history is really wild.

Given the Zhao family's current circumstances, they definitely don't have the money to erect a monument for their ancestors. Who is the great-grandfather, who is the great-grandfather, and who is the grandfather are all passed down orally from father to son, generation after generation.

If the time is a little further back, future generations probably won’t be able to figure it out.

Zhao An had almost spent all his money. He was too short to buy incense and candles, so he could only buy two pieces of paper money in the town as a token of his appreciation.

On the way to the grave, he met two gangsters in the town, one named Bao Dawei and the other named Yang Xiaoshuan. They were both hanging out with Zhao An's predecessor, and they had stolen chickens and fought many fights.

Seeing Zhao An, Bao and Yang quickly followed him. The former looked curious: "Brother An, didn't you go to Yangzhou? When did you come back?"

"That's right, why didn't An Ge come to play with us when he came back?"

When Yang Xiaoshuan saw Zhao An holding two pieces of paper money in his hand, he hurriedly took one and held it in his hand. When he knew that Brother An was going to visit the grave, he insisted on going with him.

Zhao An, who had been reborn, was definitely not willing to deal with these two bad guys anymore, but he couldn't stand their excessive enthusiasm. They insisted on accompanying him to visit the grave, so he had no choice but to let them follow.

On the way, he told the two of them some things about Yangzhou in a casual manner, but he did not say that he was going to work in a formal unit and would be considered half a member of the system in the future, and would no longer be the same kind of person as them. He only said that his cousin had found him a job in Yangzhou, and he would leave for Yangzhou to work after visiting the grave.

"Brother An, if you can make it in Yangzhou, we'll come find you. You can't just ignore us."

"Yes, An Ge, if you want to make it big, don't forget us. I heard that the bathhouses in Yangzhou are very pleasant and can make people groan."

Bao and Yang, who have only been to the county town since their childhood, must have an infinite yearning for Yangzhou City, but they have no relatives in Yangzhou, so they instinctively place their hopes of "developing" in a big city on their eldest brother Zhao An.

What else could Zhao An say? He could only say some polite words to deal with these two people who no longer cared about him.

Bao Dawei was more diligent. Seeing Zhao An's father's grave overgrown with weeds, he immediately started pulling them out without Zhao An asking. Seeing this, Yang Xiaoshuan felt embarrassed to just stand there and helped An Ge clean up the grave. It's a good idea to not hit someone who smiles, and these two friends who played well with him, while they might have been a bit of a jerk, weren't really bad people.

Even though Zhao An's predecessor seemed to be causing trouble, he never bullied the elderly, the weak, women, and children, or did anything unreasonable.

After smiling and shaking his head, Zhao An spread out the paper money he had brought, took out a copper coin from his arms and began to brand the top paper money.

Just press the copper coins hard on the paper money, and then continue pressing on the edges, finally forming rows of copper coins on the paper money, so that the relatives below can receive real money.

This is actually a long-standing custom that Zhao An inherited in his previous life, but the copper coins were replaced with hundred-yuan bills.

It can be seen that inheritance is imprinted in the bones of the Han people and cannot be changed no matter how customs are changed.

After printing the paper money, Bao and Yang had almost cleaned up. Looking at the Zhao family's ancestral tomb which was basically free of weeds, Zhao An couldn't help but feel a little satisfied. He glanced at Bao and Yang and felt that if he really wanted to make something of himself in Yangzhou, he could really help these two.

After all, if you know the product well, you can use it with confidence.

There are four graves in total, including the old man and his wife. As a descendant, Zhao An certainly cannot favor one over the other, so he divided the paper money he brought into four parts and started burning it from the old man's grave.

When I arrived at my grandfather's house, I specifically muttered a few words on behalf of my cousin Wang Defa. Even though it was just formality, I still had to say it.

Without the help of his grandmother's nephew, how could Zhao An have gone to work in a big company in Yangzhou?

Finally, he went to his parents' graves and muttered a few more words, hoping that his deceased parents would bless him, their "wild son", to have a prosperous life, so that he could return home in glory and renovate the ancestral tomb, set up a feast with a hundred or eighty tables, and make a sensation in the village, so that his parents and the old man would be proud.

After finishing their work and calculating the time, they found that the passenger ship to the county town was about to depart. Zhao An asked Bao and Yang to go back, but they wanted to see An Ge on board.

When they arrived at the dock, Zhao An was about to board the boat when Yang Xiaoshuan and Bao Dawei whispered something. The latter hurriedly took out a few copper coins from his pocket and stuffed them into Yang Xiaoshuan's hand. Yang Xiaoshuan also took out a few copper coins from his pocket and stuffed one into Zhao An's hand, saying very earnestly: "Brother An, Yangzhou is a big place. I heard that things are expensive. Dawei and I don't have much money. Keep these copper coins and buy a bowl of noodles on the way."

"."

Zhao An put the copper coin into his arms, patted Yang Xiaoshuan on the shoulder, nodded to Bao Dawei, turned around, jumped onto the black-sailed boat and found a seat near the bow.

He didn't say a word from beginning to end, until the boatman used a bamboo pole to push the boat away from the dock and slowly rowed it towards the county town. Only then did Zhao An breathe a sigh of relief, thinking of an old saying in his heart - "Those who are loyal are mostly butchers, and those who are unfaithful are mostly scholars."

It's quite self-deprecating. The work at the tax bureau hasn't even been finalized yet, but I've already started to consciously distance myself from my old playmates. Isn't this a typical behavior of a scholar?

On the other hand, although Bao and Yang are considered to be bad people in the eyes of the villagers, they value loyalty as much as Zhao Anqiang, who already claims to be a member of the system.

Just for this reason, Zhao An felt inferior to himself and couldn't help feeling guilty, which made him more determined to make a name for himself in Yangzhou.

There were not many passengers on the boat, only five people including the boatman. When the boat first started, those who knew each other were chatting and talking about everything. But half an hour later, the boat was completely silent.

Zhao An, who was leaning against the bow of the boat, had already fallen asleep against the hull. The sound of flowing water and the occasional sound of the oars breaking water were in his ears.

(End of this chapter)