Traveling through time and space to become a child, supporting the family by catching fish and shrim

Before the family split up, Chen Erlang was responsible for all the corvée labor in the Chen family.

Although Chen Lang had never experienced corvee labor, he knew from his memory that this was simply not something a human should do.

There are three types of corvee labor: miscellaneous labor, military service, and forced labor.

Among them, forced labor was the most arduous, including things like opening mountains and building roads, and reclaiming wasteland and fields.

Odd jobs are the easiest, such as sweeping the streets and patrolling.

Military service is the most dangerous. You have to work in the military camp, and if you encounter a war, you have to directly participate in the battle.

For ordinary people, the most direct way to avoid corvee labor was to bribe someone.

Those who paid were assigned to menial tasks, those who didn't were sent to forced labor, and those who offended others were sent to military service.

If the money is available, it is not impossible to completely abolish corvee labor.

In addition to paying money, another way to be exempted from corvee labor is to take an examination.

As long as you pass the examination to become a scholar, you can be completely exempted from corvee labor.

At least half of the scholars in the Great Yan Dynasty took the imperial examination in order to avoid labor service.

But it is not as easy to pass the exam as imagined.

The county and prefectural examinations will eliminate more than 80% of the students. When it comes to the academy examinations, two-thirds of the remaining students will be eliminated. Only a few can finally make it through.

In all these years, there have been less than twenty scholars in Nanhe County. You can imagine how fierce the competition is here.

Chen Erlang had used up all his luck in life just to pass the examination to become a student.

Now it was Chen Lang's turn, and he had never even thought about taking the college entrance examination.

Because what one needs to learn for the imperial examinations in ancient times is completely different from what one learns in modern times.

There is a high probability that Chen Lang would not even pass a set of high school entrance examination papers now, let alone take part in an ancient examination.

"Then give me the money. I'll go to the county town tomorrow to ask around and see how much it costs to be exempted from corvée labor." Chen Lang sighed, "It seems that all the money I've earned recently has been spent working for nothing in the government office."

Li Xiuzhi said worriedly, "If you can avoid it by paying, that would be the best. I'm afraid that even if you spend money, you can't avoid it."

Chen Lang touched her beautiful hair. After this period of rest, Li Xiuzhi's hair had changed from dry and yellow when he first met her to black and shiny.

"If that doesn't work, I'll buy a place as a handyman."

"By the way, we also need to make arrangements for Xiaohu."

Li Xiuzhi was about to speak when she heard Guoguo crying from the main room.

The couple quickly put on their clothes and ran over.

Guoguo sat on the bed, crying sadly.

When he saw Li Xiuzhi, he opened his arms and asked for a hug, and there was a bit more fear in his eyes when he looked at Chen Lang.

Chen Lang was completely confused. He was fine when he just got home, so why was he scared again now?

Li Xiuzhi held Guoguo in her arms and coaxed her to sleep softly.

Chen Lang asked, "Guoguo, did you have a nightmare?"

Guoguo said aggrievedly, "I dreamed that Daddy beat Mommy and made her scream..."

Li Xiuzhi's face turned red instantly.

I couldn't control my emotions just now and did shout a little louder.

Because Chen Laojiu's house was outside the village, Li Xiuzhi thought that even if she shouted, the villagers would not be able to hear her.

I forgot that there was a little one at home...

Seeing Chen Lang still grinning, Li Xiuzhi kicked him angrily: "It's all your fault."

Guoguo curled her lips and said, "Daddy, did you really hit Mommy?"

Li Xiuzhi hurriedly said, "No, why would Daddy hit Mommy? You were just dreaming. Dreams are always the opposite."

Guoguo asked, "Is that so?"

Li Xiuzhi said, "You still don't believe what mother said."

"If Daddy hit Mommy, she would definitely be injured. Look, Mommy is fine, there are no injuries."

Guoguo stared for a while and said, "Mom, why are there red spots on your neck?"

Then he looked at Chen Lang: "There's also one on Daddy's neck."

Now even Chen Lang felt a little embarrassed.

Just now, when they were so excited, the couple really hugged each other's necks and bit each other...

"It's a mosquito bite, go to sleep." Li Xiuzhi's face was so red that it was about to bleed, and she directly closed Guoguo's eyes manually.

Guoguo carefully opened his eyes a little and saw his mother's flushed face and his father rubbing the ground with his toes. His little heart was filled with doubts.

The adult world... is so hard to understand.

After being interrupted by Guoguo, the pressure brought by corvee labor was relieved a lot.

The family of three fell asleep quickly.

The next day.

Guoguo woke up first. Seeing that his father and mother were still sleeping, he obediently did not disturb them.

He put on his clothes and shoes, walked to the door, and made a "yo ho ho" sound.

Little Huihui ran over happily and circled around Guoguo.

Guoguo tapped Xiao Huihui's wet nose and said, "Don't make any noise. Daddy and Mommy are still sleeping."

"Come on, let's go cut some grass to feed the ducks."

The little girl carried the small bamboo basket that Li Xiuzhi had specially woven for her and skipped out of the house.

When he reached the door, he immediately stopped.

"Huh? A big horse?" Guoguo stared at the horse, his mind a little confused.

Isn't there a cow at home? How did it become a horse?

Guoguo approached cautiously and poked the horse's belly with his little hand.

"Are you a horse or a cow?" Guoguo asked.

The horse snorted, looking extremely aloof.

However, after seeing Xiao Huihui, the horse instantly showed some fear and became a little restless.

Guoguo turned around and patted Xiao Huihui on the head: "Don't scare it!"

Little Huihui barked twice, meaning, "I didn't do anything, little master. There's nothing I can do about this natural kingly temperament that can't be suppressed."

Guoguo said to the horse again, "You better be good. I'll cut some more grass and feed it to you later."

After saying that, he jumped away.

Half an hour later, Guoguo came back panting, carrying a basket of dew-soaked grass. Standing at the door, he wiped the sweat off his face, then put his hands on his hips and sighed, "Ah, I'm so tired."

"Guoguo, you're out cutting grass so early in the morning. What a good kid you are."

Guoguo turned around happily, but ignored Sun Yuwei and said to Cuicui, "Sister Cuicui, look, my big cow has become a big horse!"

Cuicui was surprised and said, "Teacher, are you so powerful? Can you turn a cow into a horse?"

Guoguo raised her little face and said proudly: "That's right, my dad is the most powerful in the world."

Sun Yuwei was at a loss whether to laugh or cry, but he did not correct the two little men who were discussing "how a cow turns into a horse". Instead, he carried the soy milk into the yard.

Li Xiuzhi had just gotten up and was tying her hair in the yard.

As someone who had experienced this, Sun Yuwei could tell at a glance that Li Xiuzhi had been "rained and dewed" last night.

Then he thought of his deceased wife and let out an inaudible sigh.

"Brother Sun, good morning."

"Sit down and rest for a while. I'll make breakfast right away."

Sun Yuwei asked, "Is Erlang back?"

Li Xiuzhi nodded: "He's still sleeping in the house. I'll go wake him up."

Sun Yuwei said hurriedly: "No, let him sleep."

Li Xiuzhi said, "That's fine. Just sit down. Breakfast will be ready soon."

Not long after, Chen Tao also came carrying a wooden barrel full of soy milk.

After Li Xiuzhi made breakfast, she called Chen Lang.

Chen Lang rubbed his head and walked out of the room, saying apologetically, "Sorry, I overslept for a while."

Li Xiuzhi said, "Go wash up quickly, it's almost time for dinner."

Chen Lang quickly took care of his personal hygiene and returned to the stone table in the yard.

Sun Yuwei hesitated for a moment, but couldn't help but say, "Erlang, I want to ask you for a favor."

Chen Lang picked up a steamed bun and said, "Brother Sun, what's the matter?"

Sun Yuwei said, "I'm about to do my labor service. I'd like to ask you to ask Xiuzhi to take care of Guoguo while I'm doing my labor service."

"Last year, when I was doing corvée labor, I took her with me and she was almost abducted by human traffickers."

"I'll probably be assigned to forced labor again this year, and then I won't have time to take care of Cuicui."

"In return, I will not ask for any wages during this period before the corvée comes."

Chen Lang said, "Brother Sun, Cuicui is also my student. It's only natural for a teacher to take care of his students."

"You can take your wages. Before you go to perform your labor service, just send Cuicui to my house."

Sun Yuwei burst into tears of gratitude and said, "Erlang, I really don't know what to say."

"Thank you, thank you very much."

Chen Lang said, "Brother Sun, let's not talk about this anymore. Let's eat."

Sun Yuwei took a bite of his steamed bun and suddenly realized something: "Erlang, you also have to do corvée labor, right?"