Spring comes to the desperate place

"Hahaha, we only have three pigs at home, and these sweet potato leaves are not enough for them to eat." When talking about raising pigs, Song Dazhuang's face beamed.

At first, everyone in the village said that raising three pigs was very troublesome. Just collecting pig grass took a lot of effort. In their family, Song Dazhuang and his wife were the only strong laborers. They were exhausted just taking care of the 20 acres of land every day, so how could they have time to cut grass for the pigs?

Some people also said that it was a waste of money to send Song Chunsheng to school. Even if a farmer knew a few words, he still had to farm. Instead of spending the money on school, it would be better to save it and buy more land so that the family could have an extra strong laborer.

Song Dazhuang turned a deaf ear to all this. If those people knew that not only Song Chunsheng was learning to read, but also the others in his family, including Song Xiaobao who was over one year old, were learning to read, they would be furious.

Gu Fengyue had never seen pig farming before, so she was very interested in going to see it.

Song Chunlin looked embarrassed: "The pigsty stinks. The three pigs poop a lot every day."

Gu Fengyue: "...How about I take a look from a distance?"

"Okay..." Although he didn't quite understand the rich family's way of thinking, Song Chunlin still took him to the backyard to check out the pigsty.

The pigsty is right next to the stable. Next to the pigsty, Song Amao has fenced off a piece of land where she raises seven or eight white-breasted chickens. These were caught by Song Amao some time ago, and Gu Fengyue is very fond of these half-grown chickens.

As Gu Fengyue walked into the backyard, he could already smell a foul odor. Being a young master in a marquis's mansion, he naturally could not understand how raising pigs and chickens could be such a smelly thing.

Song Chunlin frowned at him and said gloatingly, "I told you it stinks, but you didn't believe me."

Gu Fengyue helplessly spread out her hands: "It's my first time, please forgive me."

The vegetables in the backyard have grown to the height of a palm, and the tender green color is very pleasing to the eye. Gu Fengyue squatted in front of a pepper and asked Song Chunlin what it was. After knowing that this was grown from the pepper seeds he sent, Gu Fengyue's face showed a confused look.

"Why do I always feel that this pepper looks different from the pepper I gave you?" In fact, the corn is also different. Gu Fengyue has never grown crops before. He noticed that it is different, but he is not sure what is different.

Song Chunlin didn't wake him up, but introduced him to the various vegetables grown nearby.

"That one over there is the tomato you ate before. My mom sowed the seeds and a lot of seedlings have grown. When you want to eat it, I'll ask my dad to bring it to you."

Speaking of tomatoes, Gu Fengyue remembered the tomato and egg soup he had drunk before. He still couldn't forget the sour and sweet taste, so he agreed immediately.

"It's settled. Don't forget it when the time comes."

"I won't forget it!"

Gu Fengyue seemed to remember something and reminded him, "If you want to send it, it's best to do it on the fourth day of the New Year. My brother and I happen to be on vacation that day. We are basically not at home during the day at other times."

Song Chunlin was dumbfounded: "Why?"

"Of course, my brother is going to work in the government office, and I am going to study in the academy."

Song Chunlin suddenly realized that he had not lived a stable life since the end of the world. Only now did he remember that Lord Gu also held an official position, and according to Gu Fengyue's age, he naturally had to study. He was a little annoyed that he had forgotten this.

Song Chunlin asked curiously, "Is your academy big? Are the teachers good? Are you going to take the imperial examination in the future?"

Gu Fengyue asked in surprise: "What is the imperial examination? Why should I take it?"

Song Chunlin continued to be dumbfounded: "Don't you have to take the imperial examination? Then how can you become an official?"

Gu Fengyue took it for granted: "Of course it was appointed by His Majesty. That's how my brother became an official. After my father and his family passed away, His Majesty sympathized with my brother's young age and gave him an idle position at first. He just had to report for duty on the first and fifteenth days of the month."

Song Chunlin felt that his three views seemed to be shattered. In the movies, TV dramas and novels he had watched since he was a child, men in ancient times could enter officialdom by taking imperial examinations. But now Gu Fengyue told him that he didn't need to take the exam because they all became officials through connections.

Song Chunlin expressed his incomprehension. If everyone becomes an official through nepotism, then wouldn't those low-level civilians never have a chance to rise?

After listening to Song Chunlin's point of view, Gu Fengyue was rarely silent. As a nobleman, he seemed to have never thought about this kind of problem, because this was the education he had received since childhood. Commoners will always be commoners. Unless they meet a noble person and are promoted by the noble person, they can only be ordinary people all their lives.

However, the aristocratic families all respected their own bloodline, so how could they easily allow a commoner to step on their heads?

Gu Fengyue thought for a long time, "Chunlin, what exactly is the imperial examination you are talking about?"

Song Chunlin spread out his mental power net, and the mental power threads as thin as hair slowly sank into Gu Fengyue's forehead. Gu Fengyue was unconscious and was still waiting for Song Chunlin's answer.

Song Chunlin waited until he had given the mental hint before he explained to Gu Fengyue what the imperial examination was.

The two sat in the backyard for an entire afternoon. Song Chunlin talked until his mouth was dry before he finally explained the imperial examination system clearly.

"Simply put, the imperial examination system is a barely fair way to select talents."

"Just barely fair?"

"Yes." Song Chunlin brought his people back to the main room. He sat down on a chair, picked up the teapot on the table and poured water into his mouth. After drinking half a pot of water, Song Chunlin felt that his throat was saved.

"I say it's barely fair because ordinary people can't afford to go to school. The tuition alone is a sky-high price for ordinary people like us, not to mention the necessary books, writing brushes, inkstones, etc. All in all, five or six taels of silver a year is the minimum. Do you know how much silver our family spent on food in previous years?"

Gu Fengyue shook his head, indicating that he didn't know.

Song Chunlin showed ten fingers and said, "Ten taels. My grandfather calculated that in previous years when our family was doing well, apart from paying taxes, the rest of the expenses for food, clothing, housing, transportation, and social interactions were around ten taels. The cost of one year's study could allow our family to live an ordinary life for half a year."

Song Chunlin continued, "Besides, you noble families like to keep your good things hidden. There are only a few books that can be circulated on the market. We ordinary people cannot even touch the more profound knowledge. Even if the imperial examination is opened, how many candidates can ordinary people provide?"

Gu Fengyue was completely silent. He had always felt that studying was a very boring thing since he was a child, but he had never thought that some people simply did not have the conditions to study even if they wanted to.

However, the rules of the imperial examination selection did open his eyes to the light. His brother had said that there were many people forming cliques and pursuing personal gain in the court, and many officials even had unclear nepotism. The Gu family was a family of generals, and they had always emphasized strength, and they hated those who relied on nepotism to get to the top.

Gu Fengyue was sure that if her brother knew about this imperial examination system, he would be the first one to support it.

If this were to happen, he would certainly offend many aristocratic families. Being an official in the court was their advantage. If anyone dared to break this advantage, they would certainly be attacked by the aristocratic families.

Gu Fengyue did not come again for the next few days. According to him, he was probably studying in the academy. The Song family's land had been almost cultivated, and there were still 30 acres of wasteland left. Song Dazhuang would go back to clean it up when he was free. In these days, he had cleaned up about three acres of land.

There were too many rocks in the wasteland, and Song Dazhuang could not clean them up by himself. The Song family would occasionally go over to help. Song Chunlin tried to plant a few watermelon vines, hoping that watermelons would grow.

In order to prevent others from discovering these watermelons, he also planted a circle of soybeans around them, which not only fertilized the soil but also provided some cover.

By the time all this was done, it was already March, the weather was getting hotter, and everyone took off their padded jackets and started wearing spring clothes.

Wang Fugui, who hadn't had diarrhea for a long time, had forgotten the pain after the wound healed. Seeing that the Song family was living a prosperous life, and even the crops grown in the fields looked better than theirs, as well as those unknown crops, he initially thought that the Song family were fools. They didn't use the good farmland to grow wheat and rice, but instead grew a bunch of inedible grass. Isn't this stupid?

But after a while, the villagers began to say that the sweet potatoes could not only be eaten but also fed to pigs, and everyone began to praise the Song family for their cleverness.

Wang Fugui has always been unable to bear to see others living better than him, especially the Song family as outsiders.

So one night, Wang Fugui and his wife Wang Zhang sneaked into the Song family's sweet potato field. Under the moonlight, the couple frantically harvested the sweet potato vines in the field. Soon, they had harvested a small piece of land bare.

Wang Zhang held a large bundle of sweet potato vines and stuffed them into her backpack, while quietly asking her husband: "Do you think this is really edible? Don't eat it or you'll get sick."

Wang Fugui growled impatiently, "If you don't want to eat it, feed it to the pigs. I'm not begging you to eat it. Why are you talking so much? Hurry up and do it. Doesn't the Song family like to give this broken thing away as a gift? I'm doing them a favor and I'll let them give it away as much as they want!"

The couple cut two large baskets full of sweet potato vines in one night, almost clearing one-fifth of the sweet potato field. They were afraid of being discovered, so they did not dare to take the vines back home, but took them to Wang Zhang's parents' home in the next village.

Late at night, when the Zhang family was still fast asleep, there was a knock on the door. The eldest of the Zhang family went to open the door cursing and found that it was Wang and Zhang. He was about to turn his face away and chase them away, but they squeezed in directly.

"Hey brother, please move aside. This thing is so heavy that it's killing me." Wang Zhang muttered as she walked to the door of the woodshed and took off the bamboo basket on her back.

Only then did Boss Zhang realize that she was actually carrying a basket of grass back. His face suddenly turned even darker and he couldn't help but scold the two of them.

"I say, you two, why are you here in the middle of the night like thieves, just to put these two baskets of grass? Did you get kicked in the head by a donkey, to be so troublesome in the middle of the night?"

Wang Fugui smiled mysteriously: "Brother, you don't know, this thing is not an ordinary grass, it's called something, sweet potato leaves, oh yes, it's the vegetable that everyone has been talking about recently that can be eaten and fed to pigs."

The village where the Zhang family lives is not too far from Wang Fugui's village, and it only takes a stick of incense to walk there. So he also heard about this matter recently, but he treated it as a joke at the time and didn't take it seriously at all. He didn't expect that these two good-for-nothings would actually steal other people's sweet potato leaves.

"You are really stupid. Do you believe this nonsense? I have never seen this before. It's not like I haven't cut grass for pigs before. Look at the mountain. Where can I find this kind of grass?"

Seeing that the eldest son of the Zhang family still didn't believe it, Wang Fugui didn't get angry.

"No matter whether this thing is true or not, the Song family's pig is not dead. The Song family often sends this dish to other people in the village. I see that those people are fine after eating it. If you are really worried, why not find a mouse to verify it?"

Boss Zhang seemed to be convinced by him. After all, they had already cut it, so it would be a waste if they didn't want it. It was at least a dish on the table. If it didn't taste good, they could just throw it away and feed the pigs. Anyway, he wouldn't lose out.

Seeing that people had been persuaded, Wang Fugui stood up and said goodbye to leave.

Boss Zhang: "You're leaving now? Aren't you going to take some of these back with you?"

"Why take it with you? Just go to the field and harvest some more on your way back."

Boss Zhang was speechless: "How long are you going to keep your anger with the Song family? Didn't you say last time that there was a noble person behind the Song family? Aren't you afraid of offending the noble person?"

Wang Fugui said disdainfully, "Humph, what noble person? I've already observed that the noble person hasn't been to the Song family for a long time. Besides, isn't Song Dazhuang quite hospitable? I harvested these for him, and he will probably thank me."

Seeing that his persuasion failed, Boss Zhang remained silent. Wang Zhang didn't say a word from beginning to end, which showed that she agreed.

After seeing the couple off, Zhang Lao Da returned to his bedroom. His husband asked him what happened, and Zhang Lao Da told him everything.

After hearing this, the husband could not sit still. He had heard a long time ago that the family that moved in recently planted two strange things. The Song family was generous and gave some to all the families that were on good terms with them. The husband had been curious about this for a long time, so he got up immediately, lit a lamp and went to look through the pile of sweet potato vines.

"Boss, are these all for us?"

Boss Zhang: "Of course. Remember to store all of these in the warehouse tomorrow. Don't let anyone know."

The husband patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, I promise that no one will know."

Early the next morning, Song Dazhuang had breakfast as usual and came to inspect his fields. From a distance he saw that there seemed to be a large empty area in the sweet potato field. When he got closer, he found that it was true. Not only was there a large empty area, but the thief who stole the sweet potato leaves seemed to want to kill them all. Many sweet potatoes were pulled out by the roots and thrown on the ground, and some were trampled into pieces.

Seeing the mess on the ground, Song Dazhuang felt very distressed and hurriedly buried some intact sweet potatoes, hoping that they could still be saved.