After the cannon fodder father and daughter married into the family, the whole family regretted it

After Qin Shucai returned home with his father, he went straight to see his grandfather.

The Qin clan leader was delighted, patted his shoulder and said "good, good!" several times.

Even though his son is not good enough, his grandson has made some progress. His studies have not been in vain. It brings honor to him!

He was the patriarch of the Qin family, and at least one of his descendants had to be promising, and finally, one did happen while he was still alive.

He glanced at his smug son and said, "You go ahead. I'll talk to Shucai for a while."

Qin Gaofei didn't think much and just walked away with his arms swung.

Qin Shucai roughly knew what his grandfather was going to say, that his family would continue to support him in his studies, etc.

After saying this, he began to say what he wanted to say.

If his father can't be persuaded, he has to talk to someone who can. His grandfather is not only the head of the family, but also the head of the clan. As long as he agrees, his father will have to restrain himself even if he has some thoughts.

"Grandpa, Dad has always had... a lot of opinions about Mr. Qin. He's gone now, and the dead are the greatest, but Dad still always speaks without restraint in the village."

Patriarch Qin sighed: "Your father has always been like this. He won't listen even if I tell him."

Qin Shucai frowned slightly: "I know, but I think, at least let him stop making things difficult for Qin Yan and Aunt Qian. When the master was away, they had a very difficult time."

"Okay, just focus on your studies. I'll remind your father not to worry about these things and to prepare well for the provincial exam."

Only then did Qin Shucai leave with peace of mind.

Patriarch Qin stood in the hall with his hands behind his back, watching his grandson leave and shaking his head slightly.

His grandson is not like his son, he has a kind heart. This is good and bad.

He concentrated on studying all day long, and had no idea how difficult it was to support a scholar. How could he not use some means?

Qin Shucai rested for a while, left home again and went to the cemetery on the mountain.

Today is not the anniversary of Qin Xiucai's death, but he just happens to have time at this time. He has just passed the county exam and he is not confident about the prefectural exam, so he thinks it is just the right time to see the teacher.

He also brought incense from home.

Unexpectedly, someone took the initiative to come and pay tribute to Mr. Qin on this meaningless day.

He knew who it was without even looking.

Qin Yan heard footsteps behind him and turned to see that it was Qin Shucai. He was surprised for a moment, but quickly nodded and said, "Brother."

Fang Nanzhi was weeding Qin Xiucai's grave, and there was already a pile of weeds at his feet.

"Brother Shucai!"

Qin Shucai was indeed very focused on his studies. He hardly spoke to this little girl from the same village and just nodded slightly when he saw her.

"I heard that my cousin passed the county exam. Congratulations."

Qin Shucai was a little embarrassed: "My ranking is low, and I don't know how I will do in the provincial examination, but I have passed it after all. I am here to express my gratitude. Without your enlightenment, I would not be where I am today."

Qin Yan looked at him and felt a little warm in his heart. Not everyone had forgotten what his father had done during his lifetime.

"Since you've already passed the county exam, you don't have to worry about your ranking. You achieved this through your own knowledge. The prefectural exam questions are different, and others don't know how they'll fare either."

"Relax, my brother will get better results than the county exam, and I believe you can pass it."

When talking to his grandfather, Qin Shucai felt a lot of pressure and felt that he had responsibilities. Being encouraged by Qin Yan, who was younger than him, he actually felt a lot more at ease and smiled foolishly.

Fang Nanzhi had already pulled out a lot of grass and listened to their conversation, and understood a little bit about the relationship between them.

It seems that Brother Shucai studied with his brother's biological father, and they seem to have a good relationship?

Qin Yan made way for him to offer sacrifices. After he finished, the little girl had almost pulled out all the grass.

She demonstrated one of the strengths she inherited from her father and further nurtured through upbringing: her outgoing nature.

"Brother Shucai, you went to the county exam. What is it like? What do you do? Do you just answer the questions given by the teacher and then leave?"

Qin Shucai had just passed the county exam, and now was a rare moment when he felt relaxed, so he couldn't help but want to chat more with them.

"No, there are five exams in total, and the subjects are different on each day. They include Mo Yi (literally "ink interpretation"), and Shi Tie (test poem)..."

Speaking of this, Qin Shucai was very talkative and even complained to them about the exam conditions.

"The place was very narrow, even turning around was difficult. When I came out of the examination room, I felt the smell all over my body..."

Fang Nanzhi listened with great interest, but she also felt that the place where he mentioned the county examination was not very good.

It seems that one still has to endure some hardships during the imperial examination period.

"However," Qin Shucai thought of something, "during the last two exams, someone started selling something called 'self-heating rice' near the exam room. I've never seen that before."

"Self-heating rice?" Fang Nanzhi's curiosity piqued upon hearing this. "What kind of rice is that? Is it delicious?"

Qin Shucai began to try to describe it to them: "It's rice served in a thick bamboo tube. The bamboo tube is divided into two sections, the upper and lower sections. When you eat it, add water from both sides. Then the bamboo tube will heat up by itself and cook the rice."

"I was also very curious at the time, so I bought it and tried it. It tasted okay, and the best part was that it could be heated up without any fire. It was not easy to eat something hot during an exam."

After he finished speaking, Fang Nanzhi became even more curious. She couldn't imagine what it would be like to heat up food by itself without making a fire.

“How can you heat it up by just adding water?”

Doesn’t water also need to be heated by burning wood?

Qin Shucai scratched his head. "I don't know either. When I bought it, the seller specifically reminded me not to open the bottom after adding water, otherwise I would get burned. In the end, I didn't open it."

He didn't understand it either, but the county examination was more important at the time, so no matter how curious he was, he didn't have time to think about it.

The three chatted for a while, went down the mountain together, and went home separately.

After returning home, Qin Yan told his family what Qin Shucai had said today.

"Since businesses are allowed in front of the exam hall, can we also sell snacks at home for a few days?"

Qian Fengping nodded: "Yes, of course, and our family's food is all prepared in advance, but we just use a bullock cart to transport it to the county town."

"But it's going to be hard."

Qian Fengping smiled: "What's so hard about it? If I can earn money to support my family through work, it's not that hard at all."

After being able to earn money by working at home, her days are fulfilling and she sleeps soundly at night.

I no longer have to worry when my son goes up the mountain, I no longer have to toss and turn because my son can't study, and I no longer have to stay awake all night because I feel I can't stand up for myself and drag my son down with me.

For her, these are more difficult.

She had even discussed with Fang Tong a few days ago that they should take advantage of the current good times to expand their business and at least eventually have two shops.

One room for the son and one for the daughter, so that they have the capital to support themselves.

For this, they, as parents, have endless energy.