Qing Yao

Chapter 57 I'll Help You Become an Official

He passed the imperial examination and had to observe mourning for thirty years, and couldn't even get an official position?

Are there such unlucky people in the world?
Zhao An was enlightened. He looked again and saw that the unlucky guy had already walked away in disgrace. He was probably embarrassed to see so many people.

Having nothing to do, he pretended to be curious and asked the shopkeeper what had happened in the old man's house.

Not only Zhao An was curious, but the guests at the other two tables were also very gossipy. After all, this kind of thing was like a fairy tale, and they could use it as a topic of conversation to talk about it with friends and family later.

Seeing this, the shopkeeper simply came out from behind the counter, picked up a stool and sat down. After lighting a cigarette, he told everyone the absurd thing that happened to Old Wu.

It really brings tears to my eyes.

The old man's name was Wu Weiping. He passed the imperial examination for a scholar at the age of fourteen, the imperial juren at the age of nineteen, and the second-class jinshi at the age of twenty-two. Thirty years ago, it was a sensation in Yangzhou City. He was a true young man with unlimited future.

After passing the imperial examination, the Ministry of Personnel was supposed to select an official position for Wu Weiping according to the rules. However, he never expected that news would come from his hometown that his cousin had passed away.

"What does his uncle's death have to do with him?"

This question was not asked by Zhao An, but by a guest next to him.

The shopkeeper smiled and said, "Sir, you may not know this, but according to the laws of the Qing Dynasty, nephews must mourn for their uncles. However, they only need to mourn for five months, not three years."

A customer in the store heard this and said, "Yes, this is called the fifth month of mourning. All officials must abide by this rule, otherwise they will be reported."

Zhao An thought to himself that it was a good thing that he was alone. Not only did he not have any biological parents, he didn't even have any uncles, let alone any cousins.

Then he felt a click of his tongue. Something was wrong. He was Zhao Youlu now. Zhao Youlu's parents were still alive, and he didn't know who else was above him in the Zhao family. What if he had just entered the fast lane of his official career and the two elders of the Zhao family passed away suddenly? Wouldn't he also have to observe mourning?

On second thought, it seems that I was too advanced.

In plain words, I'm thinking a bit far ahead.

He has just arrived.

The shopkeeper went on to say that although Wu Weiping only had to mourn his uncle for five months, he lost the official position he had obtained.

Bad luck.

After returning to his hometown to mourn his uncle for five months, Wu Weiping hurried back to the capital to prepare for another official selection. However, just as the report that he could take up his post after the mourning period was over was sent to the Ministry of Personnel, he received another urgent report from his hometown that Wu's mother had passed away!

This incident not only made Wu Weiping heartbroken, but also made him lose the opportunity to be selected as an official for the second time.

This time, the Ministry of Personnel arranged for him to be a Shujishi, which means he would work in the Hanlin Academy.

It is the best unit for Jinshi candidates to be assigned. If they do well, they will have a chance to be promoted to a ministry or a hall.

What's the use of regret? He has to keep this worry even if he doesn't want to.

According to etiquette, Wu Weiping's father did not need to mourn for his wife, and the Wu family was a wealthy family in the local area, so a year after Wu Weiping's mother passed away, his father remarried a wife named Zheng.

But no one expected that Zheng was also an unlucky person. She fell ill and died less than two years after she got married.

The time point just happened to be when Wu Weiping finished mourning for his mother.

Zheng was the wife Wu's father married with a formal marriage, and was Wu Weiping's stepmother. According to etiquette, Wu Weiping had to observe mourning for Zheng.

There was no other way out, so the unlucky Wu Weiping had to submit a petition to the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Personnel again, requesting to continue his mourning period.

Wu's father was too restless to stay idle. Less than a year after Zheng's death, he married Sun. The same story happened again. A year and a half later, Sun died again, and Wu Weiping had to continue to mourn for her.

Wu's father, who had lost his wife one after another, also chose an auspicious day to pass away. He died when his son's mourning for his stepmother, Sun, was about to end in one month.

The poor Wu Weiping had to report to the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Personnel again and continue to observe mourning for three years!
Three years after three years, how many three years are there in a lifetime?

Zhao An did some calculations and raised a question: "According to the shopkeeper, Wu Weiping has only been in mourning for about ten years. How can it be thirty years?"

The other guests also found it strange.

"Listen to me, young man,"

The shopkeeper was quite polite when he saw that Zhao An was wearing official clothes. According to him, when Wu Weiping's grandmother saw that her eldest son had passed away, she decided to adopt her grandson to her uncle's family to continue the family line.

This adoption caused trouble again.

It seemed that Wu Weiping was not destined to be an official. Just a few days after he was adopted, his uncle's wife died. According to etiquette, Wu Weiping had to mourn for his aunt for three years.

"The old lady of the Wu family refused to believe in evil and forced the second son to remarry like the eldest. Hey, maybe the Wu family's feng shui was born to be unlucky with wives. His uncle's second wife, Wang, died of illness within a year of marriage."

Even more despairing things are still happening. Just over a year after Wang's death, Wu Weiping's uncle also died with hatred in his heart.

After finally surviving three years, my grandmother passed away unwillingly.

This went on for a full thirty years.

Wu Weiping was forced to go from a proud young man to an old man.

"My goodness, what bad luck did the Wu family have? Why are they so unlucky?"

"His father is too unreasonable. How could he betray his son like this?"

"Who knows? Maybe his father never thought that his son would be harmed like this by him."

"."

The guests sighed as they listened, and said all kinds of things.

"Shopkeeper, even if Wu Weiping can't become an official, his family has been able to marry wives one after another, so they should be well off. Why would they have to eat on credit at your house?"

Zhao An felt something was wrong. What was the concept of a Jinshi?
Even if he didn't have the chance to become an official, he was still a member of the gentry class and enjoyed privileges that ordinary people could not surpass. How could he have fallen to the level of Kong Yiji?

The shopkeeper glanced at Zhao An and guessed, "Young man, did you just join the government office?" "Yes."

Zhao An nodded. There was nothing to hide.

"No wonder the little brother asked that,"

The shopkeeper knocked on the pipe and said with a smile, "Young man, you must know that mourning is not just about fulfilling filial piety. The waters inside are muddier than the Yellow River!"

Where is the muddy place?
Hunzai family.

After Wu Weiping passed the imperial examination and became a Jinshi, his family kept sucking his blood away. Every time Wu Weiping was in mourning, the elders would find ways to get him to pay for compiling the family tree and building the ancestral hall, polishing his reputation as a filial son and a virtuous grandson.

He was even asked to wear mourning clothes to celebrate the county magistrate's birthday, under the pretext of showing filial piety, but in fact it was a privilege to obtain tax exemption for the family business.

However, Wu Weiping himself did not gain any benefit from it because he was in mourning and could not do business.

His family is not very prosperous. There are only two brothers in his father's generation, and he is the only son in his generation. If he passes the imperial examination and becomes an official, no one in his family will dare to bully him.

But it was because people kept dying in his family that he couldn't even be an official.

In the end, the elders of the clan simply used his title of Jinshi to make money, and no one expected him to become an official.

"With his clan constantly asking for money and his family constantly marrying off, how much wealth can he not squander? Furthermore, the imperial court not only refused to pay Old Wu a salary during his mourning period, but Old Wu also had to send hundreds of taels of silver to the capital every year. It wasn't until last year that he finally gave up on wasting his money."

The shopkeeper shook his head after saying this. He felt quite sympathetic towards Old Wu, but he also had a family to support, so how could he always buy on credit?

"why?"

Zhao An was really confused. I'm not even an official, so why should I be filial to you?

A middle-aged guest nearby chuckled, "If you don't pay the people at the Ministry of Personnel, who will take care of you when your mourning period is over? There are at least five thousand candidates waiting for selection in the capital. If you don't pay, no one will pay you any attention in your next life."

Zhao An was speechless and curled his lips: "Since so much money is given to the Ministry of Personnel every year, no matter how evil the people in the Ministry of Personnel are, they will at least make arrangements for people."

"It's arranged."

This was said by the shopkeeper. Last year, Wu Weiping was exhausted from mourning for his grandmother and was unwilling to let his life end like this, so he collected some money and went to Beijing to report.

"Last time, Old Wu got drunk and complained in my shop. He said that after he went to the capital, the Ministry of Personnel wrote the names of the candidate officials on bamboo sticks and drew lots in public on the first day of every month. Only those who were drawn could fill vacancies in poor counties."

"Did he win the lottery?"

Zhao An was not the only one who was curious. The other guests were also looking at the shopkeeper intently.

The shopkeeper kept the secret: "Old Wu said he participated in the lottery 28 times and finally won the position of county magistrate in Pu'er Prefecture, Yunnan."

A guest was puzzled: "How come he's still at home if he's an official?"

The shopkeeper said, "According to him, he had just arrived in Hunan when the Ministry of Personnel sent him an urgent document stating that he was from Jiangsu and, according to the new regulations, was not allowed to serve in Yunnan."

"why?"

Everyone asked in unison.

"Why? I did it on purpose."

The shopkeeper pounded his waist and said, "The people in the Ministry of Personnel are very wicked. They deliberately assign candidates who can't go to a certain province to take up their posts, and then declare their appointments invalid halfway through. So if you still want to be selected as an official, you have to pay more. They can make a lot of money just from the rebooking fees."

After saying this, he stood up and said, "In order to go to Beijing to choose an official, Old Wu sold all his family's ancestral property. How could he have any money left to give to the Ministry of Personnel? He was so angry that he went to the Ministry of Personnel to argue. What do you think the Ministry of Personnel said?
Hey, they said that after investigation, the official was over 50 years old and could not be selected as a county magistrate according to the rules. If he really had to pay, the most he could do was to be selected as a teacher in the Imperial College. Old Wu was so angry that he wanted to vomit blood, and he packed up his things and went back that night.

I think it's best for Old Wu to give up his ambition to be an official. If he keeps going on like this, he might end up buried in the official cemetery in Beijing."

Someone asked, "Boss, what is the official cemetery used for?"

"I heard from Old Wu that there's an official cemetery about a dozen miles outside the east gate of the capital. It's full of candidates for the civil service who were forced to die by loan sharks due to lack of money. Those candidates are like pawnshop pawns. Even the King of Hell can't even settle the debt with the principal and interest! Fortunately, Old Wu didn't borrow money from loan sharks, otherwise he probably wouldn't get his money back."

After the shopkeeper finished speaking, he patted his butt and went back to work. Seeing this, everyone stopped talking about it.

Zhao An, however, had some thoughts on his mind. When he was paying the bill after dinner, he casually asked Old Wu where he lived.

"What did you ask him to do?"

The shopkeeper was a little confused.

"Although Old Wu can't become an official, he is at least a Jinshi. I'm also continuing my studies, and I thought if there's anything I don't understand, I could ask him for advice."

Zhao An used this reason to learn the address of Wu Weiping's home from the shopkeeper. After leaving the store, he immediately bought some wine and meat from a roadside stall and went straight to Wu's house.

Wu Weiping had sold the Wu family's original mansion a long time ago to raise money for the official selection expenses in Beijing. Now he lives in a small courtyard left by his grandmother, and his life is very difficult.

In fact, with Wu Weiping's background as a Jinshi, he could still live a good life as long as he was willing to humble himself. Even if he worked as an aide to a wealthy salt merchant or as a tutor, his income would be something ordinary people would not even dare to imagine.

The problem is that this person is too concerned about his reputation and would rather buy things on credit than "work" for rich people, so he lives a poor life.

The gate was not locked, so Zhao An went straight into the yard. He did not dare to rush into the house, so he respectfully called out from outside, "Is Lord Wu here?"

"Who are you looking for?"

A woman who looked to be in her forties heard the sound and came out of the house, looking at Zhao An in confusion.

"I'm looking for Mr. Wu Weiping,"

Zhao An had a smile on his face.

Just as he finished speaking, the old man who had tried to buy food on credit at the small restaurant stormed out, pointing at Zhao An with a furious look on his face: "Who are you and why are you mocking me like that? Get out of here!"

Seeing that the other party was about to chase him away, Zhao An hurriedly said, "I dare not ridicule you, sir. I came here to help you get an official position in Beijing."

(End of this chapter)