Top Scholar

Chapter 3 The Value of a Xiucai (a successful candidate in the county-level imperial examinations)

The next morning, the uncle came into the cell with dark circles under his eyes, only to find the father and his two sons sleeping soundly together.

"You heartless brat, living such a carefree life!" Uncle kicked Su Youcai in annoyance. "I haven't slept a wink all night."

"Time for breakfast?" Su Youcai opened his eyes and saw his older brother, so he stretched. Su Tai and Su Lu also woke up.

"Eat your shovel!" the uncle spat out. "The centurion is calling us over to settle accounts."

"Hey." Su Youcai quickly patted his bottom and got up, and his two sons followed their father out of the cell.

As soon as Su Lu came out, he saw his uncle waiting at the door with his neck hunched over, a white cloth wrapped around his head, and his handsome face swollen like a pig's head.

"Second brother, it's all my fault..." the uncle said with tears welling up in his eyes and a sob in his voice.

Although it looked ridiculous, Su Youcai couldn't laugh. He turned to his older brother and asked, "You call this a minor injury?"

"Wasn't that to put your mind at ease?" The eldest uncle coughed and lowered his voice, "Besides, his leg is broken, so we have to play the victim too... Before coming here, I wiped the third brother's face with hemp leaves."

"Oh." Su Youcai nodded. It was something his older brother would do.

Su Lu was dumbfounded. Nettles are actually just that—nettles—with leaves covered in prickly hairs. If you accidentally brush against one while walking, your skin will be covered in red welts, unbearably painful and itchy. His uncle was actually using it to wipe his younger uncle's face! The customs of the people in these mountains are truly audacious…

"Youngest brother, what exactly happened yesterday? Why did they beat you?" Su Youcai asked his uncle again.

"..." The uncle lowered his head and remained silent.

"Second brother, don't ask anymore. My husband and I interrogated him all night, but we couldn't get anything out of him." The eldest uncle said angrily, "Do you think he's stupid? If he won't talk, do you think the Cheng family won't talk either?"

"Exactly, that would be too passive. With a major battle imminent, we can't afford to be completely clueless, can we?" Su Youcai wholeheartedly agreed.

"Second brother, please don't ask. I really can't say." The younger uncle looked ashamed but refused to budge. "The Cheng family won't say a word either. If they did, it would be a fight to the death, and the sky would fall..."

"I could beat you to death, you son of a bitch, and the sky wouldn't fall down!" Uncle raised his arm in anger, but Su Youcai quickly stopped him.

"Forget it, eldest brother, the youngest brother must have his reasons," Su Youcai said. "Speaking up might cause even bigger trouble."

"That son of a bitch has his reasons? I'm the one with a belly full of grievances. What did I do to deserve this? Not only did I have to clean hooks for you guys, but I also got my face spit on by your sister-in-law..." The uncle said with great frustration, "Isn't this trouble a little bit?"

~~
As they were talking, the five members of the Su family arrived in front of the main hall, just in time to meet the arrival of the Cheng family.

Su Lu saw that the person in the lead was wearing a black gauze square scarf and a round-necked black-edged robe, sitting upright on a sedan chair carried by two people, and was surrounded by his clansmen as he came to the corridor.

Without a doubt, that was the Cheng family scholar his father had mentioned. He was practically the embodiment of the local gentry he had always imagined.

Zhou Baihu also came out and greeted him with clasped hands: "It is an honor to have Lord Cheng visit in person."

Then, Master Cheng got off the sedan chair, cupped his hands in return, and said, "I'm sorry to have troubled you, Commander."

"Not at all." Zhou Baihu looked at the stretcher behind him, on which lay a man with a bruised and swollen face, looking exactly like Su Lu's uncle.

But the man's entire left leg was in a splint and wrapped in thick gauze, and he smelled strongly of medicine. He kept groaning.

In the "misery contest," Uncle Su Lu suffered a crushing defeat...

"Is this Brother Cheng? I didn't recognize him at all." Zhou Baihu was also taken aback.

"Ouch, ouch..." Cheng Xiucai's brother didn't say anything, he just kept groaning.

"My elder brother is a vegetarian and a Buddhist, and he is kind to others, but he was cruelly murdered by the Su family. I beg you, Lord Baihu, to do justice..." Cheng Xiucai said in grief and indignation.

"How did this happen?" Zhou Baihu asked, somewhat puzzled. The people in the border area between Sichuan and Guizhou are known for their fierce and aggressive nature; fighting is commonplace, and broken bones are frequent. However, a broken thigh is truly rare.

"I was studying at home at the time," Cheng Xiucai said to his nephew, "Weren't you in the fields yesterday? You tell me."

“Yes.” His nephew nodded and said, “...First, Su Youcai kicked my old man from behind, sending him sprawling face-first into the mud. Then his son rushed over and stomped on my old man’s thigh, breaking it with a crack.”

Everyone turned to look at Su Tai; his bear-like physique certainly could break a person's legs...

Su Tai lowered his head in fear, unsure of what to do with his hands, like a child who had committed a terrible crime.

Su Lu gripped his hand tightly and said loudly, "I saw it clearly, my brother didn't touch him at all."

“Yes, yes, back then, I kicked Master Cheng two zhang away. How could Brother Xia have stepped on him?” Su Youcai didn’t know if Su Lu was telling the truth or not, but at this moment, he definitely had to extricate Su Tai from the situation.

"You're lying! It was your son who stepped on it!" the Cheng family members shouted. "And it wasn't just stepped on, it was stomped on!"

"No way! Brother Xia didn't step on it!" The Su family retorted loudly, not to be outdone.

"Stop! Stop!" Zhou Baihu quickly stopped both sides and then asked Su Youcai, "Why did you kick Master Cheng?"

"Seven or eight of them surrounded my younger brother and beat him to death. He was covered in blood, I thought they were going to beat him to death!" Su Youcai said, pointing to his younger brother's swollen head.

"Why did you beat up Su Youma?" Zhou Baihu asked the Cheng family again.

"Well..." The Cheng family members looked at each other, and finally Cheng Xiucai's nephew said, "It was my old man who made me get beaten up."

Everyone looked at the old man of the Cheng family lying on the plank, but he turned his head away and just groaned without saying a word.

“Sigh, I asked my elder brother all night last night, but he wouldn’t say why.” Cheng Xiucai sighed: “That kid must have done something heinous. My elder brother is afraid of creating bad karma by saying it.”

"He deserves to die!" Old Master Cheng suddenly stretched his neck and roared.

"Listen to this! What utter indignation!" Scholar Cheng exclaimed, wringing his hands. "It's like a cuckoo weeping blood, a heart breaking with grief!"

"Arima, what despicable thing did you do to make him so angry?" Zhou Baihu asked Su Lu's uncle again.

"Don't ask, sir. I'd rather die than tell..." the uncle whispered.

"Sigh, what's going on here?" Commander Zhou sighed helplessly. "None of them are saying a word. How am I supposed to solve this case?"

“Let’s skip this roundabout way and get straight to the point,” suggested the trial centurion. “Alright, let’s be straightforward then,” Zhou centurion readily agreed, and said to Scholar Cheng, “Prime Minister Cheng, could you state the price? How much will it cost to start the discussion?”

"Twenty taels." Scholar Cheng said without hesitation, "My elder brother's leg is worth far more than that, but even if it were more, I doubt his family could afford it."

“Yes, yes, yes…” Zhou Baihu then looked at Uncle Su Lu.

"No!" the uncle said decisively.

In those days, silver was extremely precious. Even if his whole family didn't eat or drink, they couldn't earn more than twenty taels a year.

"How much can you offer at most?" Zhou Baihu asked.

"One ounce." The uncle held up one finger.

"That's it!" Cheng Xiucai roared in anger, then clasped his hands in a fist salute to Zhou Baihu and said, "No need for you to worry, Baihu. We'll go to the county to file a complaint and let my parents make a judgment!"

"Don't get angry, just ignore him. His family are military households; in the end, even the county magistrate will have to hand them over to the garrison." Zhou Baihu quickly grabbed Cheng Xiucai, who was about to leave, and turned to glare at Uncle Su Lu:

"Damn it, what are you up to? Make more!"

"There's really no way, I couldn't even get it if I sold my wife..." the uncle said with a bitter face.

"Selling your wife? Dream on!" Zhou Baihu said irritably, "I'll stand up for you, ten taels!"

"Not even ten taels..."

"Shut up!" Zhou Baihu glared at his uncle, then turned to Cheng Xiucai with a friendly smile and said, "Come, come in, Master Cheng, have some tea, and let's have a good chat."

"Hmph." Only then did Scholar Cheng reluctantly enter the hall.

Uncle Su Lu wanted to go in too, but Zhou Baihu stopped him: "You stop and wait for us to finish talking!"

"Oh..." The uncle could only stand at the door, sighing deeply. This time it would definitely be no less than ten taels of silver; how was he going to explain it to his wife?

The others also split into two groups, waiting under the eaves. The Cheng family members whispered among themselves, all looking calm and collected, as if they had the Su family completely under their thumb.

The atmosphere at the Su family's place was much more somber. Su Youcai, having studied for so many years, was well aware of Zhou Baihu's and Cheng Xiucai's thoughts... Since it wasn't Zhou Baihu who was losing money, he naturally wanted to resolve the matter internally to avoid being blamed by his superiors.

Cheng Xiucai exploited this psychology, coercing Zhou Baihu to pressure his elder brother into submission. His elder brother was Zhou Baihu's subordinate; in the end, even the most stubborn man would likely have to give in…

Uncle Su Lu kept muttering to himself, "It's all my fault, it's all my fault..."

Su Lu, however, kept glancing furtively at the injured leg of the eldest son of the Cheng family.

"You've been looking at his legs from the very beginning, what's so interesting about them?" Su Tai finally couldn't help but ask in a low voice, "Is it because they're white?"

"Shh." Su Lu made a shushing gesture and beckoned his second brother to come out with him.

The two brothers were of no importance, and the Cheng family didn't care, letting them leave.

~~
After a long while, Zhou Baihu and Cheng Xiucai came out of the office.

Zhou Baihu then smiled at Su Lu's uncle and said, "Master Cheng is kind. If your family really can't afford the money, then they won't take it."

"Then what do you want?" Uncle Su Lu wasn't so naive as to think the other party would let his family off the hook.

“Your house is next to the Cheng family’s ten mu of sorghum fields,” Zhou Baihu coughed and said, “just transfer them to them for brewing.”

"How can that be?!" The eldest uncle immediately became agitated. "That was dug out by my grandfather and my old man, hoe by hoe! The best sorghum field in Erlangtan!"

“That’s not worth much!” Zhou Baihu said with a long face, “It’s settled then. Bring the land deed tomorrow and go to the county to transfer the ownership!”

"No, how can it be decided?" the uncle said, his mouth dry.

"Then send your brothers and nephews to jail?!" Zhou Baihu said irritably.

"I'd rather go to jail than let my brother agree to that!" Su Youcai shouted.

"Hmph, I told you so!" Scholar Cheng added fuel to the fire from the side, "The centurion's good intentions have been completely wasted!"

"Don't be so stubborn!" Zhou Baihu was indeed provoked and pointed at his uncle's nose, saying, "I may not be able to deal with others, but I can certainly deal with you!"

"..." The Su brothers were immediately speechless. A local official is more powerful than a county magistrate; the centurion was in charge of every aspect of the military households under his jurisdiction, and could indeed have his family completely under his control.

Seeing the Su family cornered, the Cheng family members gloated. Even the eldest son of the Cheng family forgot to hum and craned his neck to watch the show.

Suddenly, he felt a chill on his neck and instinctively reached out to touch it, only to grab a slippery, living thing.

Before Grandpa Cheng could react, he felt a sharp pain in his wrist. He quickly looked down and saw a small, bright green snake biting his wrist.

He jumped three feet high in fright, screaming in terror, "Snake! It's a bamboo viper! I've been bitten by a bamboo viper! I'm going to die!"

The Cheng family members standing nearby were all terrified, and none of them dared to step forward to help.

Su Lu, who had returned, grabbed the green snake and laughed, "Don't worry, it's not a bamboo viper, it's a non-venomous green snake. My brother caught it specifically to treat your leg."

"Wow, this method is amazing! It cured him in no time!" Su Tai followed behind, clapping his hands in admiration.

It turned out to be a false alarm, and the Cheng family breathed a sigh of relief, followed by an awkward silence...

All eyes were on Grandpa Cheng, who was standing there with both legs on the ground, showing no signs of a broken thighbone.

Grandpa Cheng's face turned even redder, wishing he could disappear into the ground. Completely at a loss, he actually did a one-legged stand.

"Enough, stop acting!" Commander Zhou turned his attention to him and shouted angrily, "You've completely disgraced Master Cheng!"

(End of this chapter)