The journey of the only child of a peasant family to take the imperial examination

Before leaving, Mrs. Wang whispered to Zhang, "The second daughter has suffered a great deal this time. Her lower body is badly torn. She is very weak now and is out of breath after just a few words. She has very little flesh on her body to begin with, and now she looks even more like a paper man. I'm afraid she won't be able to give birth in the future. She needs to be taken good care of."

In fact, Zhang knew in her heart that it would be difficult for Xu to give birth to two children this time given her current health. The heavy labor and constant childbirth over the past ten years had drained Xu's body. In addition, Xu was depressed because she had not given birth to a son before, and her health was even worse.

Well, fortunately, the baby was finally born this time!

"I understand. Thank you, sister-in-law," Zhang thanked the person politely before sending him away.

Then he hurried to the kitchen to make a bowl of fried eggs and sent it in to Xu. He put three eggs in it. He had originally planned to make egg soup, but he thought it would be better to eat a few fried eggs to nourish himself. After all, he had suffered a lot and gave birth to a son.

After finishing her meal, Xu hugged her son and cuddled with him for a long time before falling asleep. She was really too tired today, and the tears in the corners of her eyes were still there.

Zhang stayed home to help look after the children, while Li had to go to the fields to help out. With the busy farming season, they had to race against time. After arriving at the field, Li deliberately went around to where the men were harvesting rice to tell her family the good news, "Dad, second son, this is incredible! My sister-in-law gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl!"

"Sister-in-law, is that true?!" Zhang Laoer raised his head and wiped the sweat from his face with the cloth around his neck, feeling both excited and worried that it was a joke.

When the fourth daughter was born, Zhang Laoer was not at home. He went to the dock in Ezhou City to carry goods. When he returned home, he was stopped by the village entrance and told that his wife had given birth to a son. Zhang Laoer was so excited that he made an appointment to invite people to a full-moon banquet. However, when he got home, he found out that it was still a girl.

"Hey, Lao Er, you still don't believe what your sister-in-law said. We are family, how can I play tricks on you? They are really a pair of twins, the first one is a girl, and the younger one is a son," Li said, slapping her thigh. She was angry at Zhang Lao Er's distrust.

"No, no, sister-in-law, I'm just a little confused. It doesn't seem real," Zhang Laoer said with a naive smile.

After laughing for a while, he couldn't harvest the rice any more, so he grinned and said to his father and brothers, "Dad, big brother, little brother, did you hear that? I'm giving birth to a son this time!"

Old man Zhang had heard it a long time ago, but he was a person who didn't care about anything. He didn't interfere much with his children or family affairs. He just wanted to make sure he had enough wine to drink and meat to eat.

Speaking of this, we have to mention the situation of the Zhang family. All the people in the Zhangjia Village have the surname Zhang, and they all have the same ancestor. It is said that their ancestors were rich, but by the time of old man Zhang, they were ordinary people. Their lives were a little better than those of ordinary people, but there were no successful people in the clan who became officials.

Old man Zhang has five brothers, and he is the eldest. When he was young, his father sent him to the neighboring Sanyang Town to learn the craft of bamboo weaving. Later, as the eldest brother, he inherited the five large blue brick and tile houses handed down from his ancestors, expanded the courtyard in front and back, and had thirty or forty acres of land. His life was relatively smooth, and he had never suffered any major hardships, so he was rather selfish.

Originally, his family was one of the most well-off in the village. When he was sixteen, he married a wife arranged by his family, who was from a nearby village. However, this wife had a bad fate and didn't even have any children. One of them died of a cold.

At that time, the old man in the family was still alive. He valued his daughter-in-law very much and spent a lot of money to hire a doctor. The medicine and medical treatment cost the family a lot of money. In the end, the person could not be saved because Old Man Zhang wasted several years.

He met his second wife, Zhang, when he was 20 years old. Zhang came here with her parents and brothers because of famine in Henan. When they arrived at Zhangjia Village, her parents, sisters and brothers had all died, leaving only her brother and Zhang. The first house Zhang went to beg for food in Zhangjia Village was Old Man Zhang's house. Old Man Zhang's house was at the east end of the village, which was the first house after entering the village.

The grandmother at home saw that Zhang was tall and had a big frame, not much different from a man, had a good physique, and was of the right age, so she took notice of her.

After talking to Zhang, he found out that there were only a brother and a sister left in the family. When they were in their hometown, their family ran a security company. The brother and sister both knew some martial arts skills and had a clean family background. So he wanted to marry Zhang to his son.

Although it is not popular to marry someone with the same surname in this place, the old lady is open-minded. After her son's first wife died of illness, she no longer cared about these trivial matters and wanted to find a wife for her son who was in good health and could take care of the household.

Grandma promised to give Zhang's brother a betrothal gift so that he could settle down nearby. So Zhang married in. It has been more than 30 years now. Her brother also settled down nearby. Later, he started escorting again and now runs a small escort agency in the town. He is living a good life.

After Zhang married into the family, she lived up to the old lady's expectations and gave birth to nine children. Two of them died young, and seven survived, including three sons and four daughters. Zhang took care of everything at home and outside, and old man Zhang didn't care about anything.

Because she had experienced family changes and fled famine in her childhood, Zhang had a very strong personality. She was not very loving to her children at home. She was definitely not harsh on herself in life. She drank and smoked water pipe as much as Old Man Zhang. She was an outlier in Zhangjia Village. She was not a good mother-in-law, but she was not a bad one either.

The children are now all married. The eldest son, Zhang, married Ms. Li, who came from Lijiawa in the mountains eighty miles away. Ms. Li is also Zhang's second wife.

The first wife of Zhang Lao Da had the same situation as the first wife of Zhang Lao Tou. She also died of illness. The doctor couldn't tell what the disease was. She vomited blood severely and had been in labor on and off for more than a year. She gave birth to a boy, but the child died before the day was up. Soon after, his wife also passed away.

At that time, the family had no money to find a wife nearby, so they found one from Lijiawa. They said they would marry her, but in fact they bought her for two taels of silver. After more than ten years of marriage, Li rarely went back to her parents' home. Now they have two sons and a daughter. Dazhu is 12 years old, Erzhu is 10 years old, and Danier is 8 years old.

Zhang Laoer married a woman named Xu. Old man Zhang, who was a bamboo craftsman and selling winnowing baskets and sieves, told his second son about Xu when he passed by Liutai Village. At that time, the family bought another wife for Zhang Laoda. In addition, the family had spent a lot of money on medical treatment and medicine for Zhang Laoda's previous wife, so the family was really in financial difficulty.

The villages near Zhangjia Village are all wealthy and the betrothal gifts are high. My son is about to turn 15, and it will be difficult for him to find a wife around here. I am afraid that if I delay any longer, it will delay my son's life. If he remains a bachelor, he will be laughed at.

It happened that when Old Man Zhang was resting in Liutai Village, he stayed at Xu's house. Xu's family was well-off. All the members of the family were carpenters and they opened a carpentry shop in the town.

The shop in the town was too small, so she usually did her work at home and sold the finished products in the shop. The family also had more than 30 acres of land, so Xu lived a very good life in her parents' home. Old man Xu also wanted to find a good husband for his daughter, but the prime of life does not wait for anyone, and after being so picky, she got older and is now 18, so it is even harder to find a good family.

When Old Man Zhang heard about this, he said he was from Zhangjia Village and that his second son was of the right age, so he wanted to match him with his second son. Old Man Xu was moved by the Zhang family's skills and land, which were similar to his own. The man was also not too old, and the woman was three years older than him, which was just right for her to have a fortune. The family also lived in a brick and tile house, so he expressed his willingness to meet her.

Seeing that this was a rare opportunity, Old Man Zhang immediately gave up selling his winnowing basket and went back to the village to find a matchmaker. After they met, they decided to get married.

Because the woman was old and couldn't wait, they got married after the autumn harvest that year. The Xu family were all honest people, and Xu was old and anxious to get married, so they didn't ask for much in the betrothal gifts, only two taels. Later, the old man didn't keep a penny and added another three taels. All together, he took the five taels back to Xu as a deposit.

Xu had not lived a happy life in recent years and did not care about food, clothing or dressing up, so the money was not touched much and was still in her hands. Now she had six daughters and one son. The eldest daughter was 9 years old, the second daughter was 7 years old, the third daughter was 5 years old, the fourth daughter was 3 years old, the fifth daughter was one and a half years old, and there were also the newborn twins.

Zhang Laosan married Ma, whom Zhang Laosan fell in love with when he went to the market. Zhang knew Ma's mother and realized that she was not a woman suitable for living a normal life. She originally disagreed, but Zhang Laosan insisted on marrying her.

Zhang Laosan was the youngest son and had been spoiled more than his brothers since childhood. He received some belated maternal love from Zhang and was also eloquent. Zhang couldn't resist and agreed.

The negotiation of the betrothal gift almost broke down. The betrothal gift in the surrounding villages was basically around five taels, but Ma's mother asked for eight taels. She sent matchmakers to talk to her several times but it was no use. She insisted on eight taels. This really pissed off Zhang. She said, "It doesn't matter if your daughter is the daughter of the Seventh Fairy. That's not how things are done!"

Zhang was a person with a hot temper. She didn't care about Zhang Laosan's crying and making a fuss, and decisively told the matchmaker that the marriage was not going to take place.

In the end, it was Ma who compromised first and agreed to five taels. After the marriage, Zhang accidentally found out that Ma was secretly pregnant with the third son and had to give in because she could no longer hide her pregnancy. Zhang was disgusted and felt that five taels of betrothal gift was too much. However, since it was her own son who did it, she had to pretend not to know.

Because of the difference in betrothal gifts, Ma always looked up to herself, thinking that she was the legitimate daughter-in-law of the Zhang family, and that she was different from the eldest and second sisters-in-law. She also wanted to outdo them in everything she did. She had two sons and two daughters: Dahe, 8, Erhe, 6, Dahua, 4, and Erhua, 2.

Now the Zhang family has divided the family but not the household. Neither Mrs. Zhang nor Old Man Zhang is the kind of person who loves their children much. As soon as each son gets married, he or she is sent out to live on his or her own. They collect filial tribute every year and they both consciously fulfill their responsibilities.

Zhangjia Village is the only one that does this, and other families are eager to have several generations of their family live together to celebrate the occasion.

Now the Zhang family only eats together during the busy farming season or during festivals. After the grain is harvested, each family goes their own way and pays taxes in proportion.

Among the three brothers in the family who learned the craft of bamboo weaving, Zhang Laoer was the most diligent and the best.

Boss Zhang felt that since he had been allocated so much land, he was not that interested in this craft. He also felt that making bamboo products was too hard and he had to go to the market everywhere to sell them. He was not very flexible, so he gave up. Usually, he only made small items for his family and the two surrounding villages.

Zhang Laosan was trying to start a business in mountain products, but he was unwilling to work hard to split bamboo strips and make bamboo tools, which would leave his hands covered in sore skin.

In fact, Zhang Laoer has been living a very depressed life in the past few years. He doesn't know why he works so hard, and his life has no direction. The gossiping women in the village often say that he is going to have no family. He has heard it many times but can only pretend not to hear it. He would feel even more embarrassed if they argued with him in person.

Sometimes I would have conflicts with villagers, arguing over a few soybeans on a ridge. If they ignored me, I would use the fact that I didn't have a son to poke them with, saying, "What's the point of arguing so much when you don't have a son?" The fact that I didn't have a son was like my lifeline, a sore spot that no one could talk about.

Fortunately, Sanniang gave birth to a son this time. Zhang Laoer now saw the sky was blue, the water was green, and he didn't even feel the heat anymore.

"Dad, I'll go home first and come back later." Without waiting for Old Man Zhang to agree, Zhang Laoer put down his sickle and ran home. He really couldn't wait to see his son now. Hehe, he had a son!