Rebirth: Making a Fortune in Ancient Times

Fang, a scholar, was originally a poor boy who earned money by writing and copying books before passing the county-level imperial examination. Later, for some unknown reason, he caught the eye of his father-in-law, Master Ding, who felt that he possessed the spirit of a scholar. Master Ding was originally a businessman and had money, but he was not very educated, so he held Fang, who came from a poor family but persisted in studying, in high regard.

So he married his daughter, Miss Ding, to him, bringing with her a large dowry of gold and silver. He hoped that his daughter's dowry would help his son-in-law pass the imperial examinations and later enter officialdom, providing support for his youngest son.

Unfortunately, before Fang could pass the imperial examination and become a Jinshi, Master Ding offended someone he couldn't afford to offend in business and was framed and imprisoned. No matter how much money the Ding family spent, they couldn't get him out. At that time, Fang was already living a life of plenty, with servants and slaves, thanks to his wife's dowry.

After his father-in-law was imprisoned, Madam Fang begged him for help, asking if he could find someone to help get Master Ding out of jail, with the Ding family providing the funds. However, at the time, Fang, fearing that his father-in-law's affair would implicate him, refused to help find anyone, no matter how much Madam Fang pleaded. He only said...

“The magistrate is a reasonable man and will not wrong my father-in-law. If my father-in-law is truly innocent, he will be released without any trouble one day.”

And so it dragged on for over a year, with the Ding family finding no way to reach them. They sent out large sums of money, but still received no news of Master Ding. Finally, a junior jailer, seeing their plight, took pity on them and secretly told them...

"Don't send any more money. The people you've offended have too powerful a background; no one dares to interfere. Besides, Master Ding passed away from illness in the fifth month of his imprisonment. You should quietly take the money and move somewhere else to live; don't stay here." He then specifically instructed them.

"Don't tell anyone I told you this. If word gets out, I'll lose my life."

When Miss Ding's younger brother told the family about this, Madam Ding vomited blood and died on the spot. In the past year or so, the family's earnings had been almost entirely spent. The siblings barely managed to arrange Madam Ding's funeral and dismiss the few remaining servants. Miss Ding's younger brother packed his bags, leaving only a letter for his sister, and left.

No one knows what was written in that letter, nor where Young Master Ding went. The once prosperous Ding family has fallen into ruin just like that.

From then on, Miss Ding began to live a life of vegetarianism and chanting Buddhist scriptures, ignoring all worldly affairs. At first, Scholar Fang was relatively obedient, but later, seeing that his wife truly cared for nothing but educating their children and focusing solely on chanting Buddhist scriptures, he used the excuse of having no one to manage the household to take a concubine to assume the wife's role.

Once he had his first concubine, he had a second, a third, and a fourth. Miss Ding completely ignored Fang Juren's behavior.

After the concubine took over the household affairs, she took the opportunity to dismiss the servants brought by Miss Ding one by one and replace them all with her own people.

Perhaps due to years of pent-up emotions and unhappiness, Miss Ding suddenly passed away from illness when she was in her thirties and her son was old enough to take the imperial examinations. From then on, the Fang family seemed to be cursed. Just two months after Miss Ding's death, her five-year-old daughter with the scholar Fang also died of illness. Four months after her youngest daughter's death, her ten-year-old second daughter also died of illness.

After his second daughter died young, Fang was terrified. He went to a temple and invited a high-ranking monk to perform a Buddhist ritual for his deceased wife and two daughters for forty-nine consecutive days, praying for peace and safety for his family.

Even so, it didn't stop the Fang family from continuing to die. Three months after the funeral rites were completed, the eldest son also died of illness. Within a year, the Fang family lost his wife and three children in succession.

This incident caused quite a stir at the time. Some said it was a vengeful spirit seeking revenge, while others said it was because Fang Juren's concubine couldn't tolerate several motherless children.

Just as everyone was wondering if more people in the Fang family would die, Fang Juren himself was also terrified, fearing he would be next. He lived in fear for a year, thankfully without any major mishaps. Therefore, people leaned more towards the second theory: that Fang's concubine had murdered the first wife's children.

But by this time, more than a year had passed since the deaths of the Fang family members. The Ding family was gone, and Fang himself was the aggrieved party; if he didn't report it to the authorities, naturally no one would investigate. Thus, in the end, no one could clearly explain how the Fang family children had died.

At this point, Fang Ju realized that he was already over thirty years old and had no children.

So, the scholar Fang married a sixteen-year-old girl as his second wife, hoping she would bear him children. But fate was unkind; the second wife died of illness less than five years after marrying into the Fang family, leaving no children for the scholar.

At this time, Fang, the scholar, was almost forty years old and no longer confused. Many people said that Fang must have done something immoral, otherwise how could he have become childless?

These rumors naturally reached Fang, the scholar. At this point, he had no interest in the imperial examinations; his daily energy was devoted to the women in his household, and he wanted them to bear him a child, boy or girl. But no matter how hard he tried, none of the women in his household became pregnant.

When the concubines at home weren't enough, he would bring new ones into the household, sometimes as many as five in a single year. Even so, none of them ever became pregnant.

Just when Fang, the scholar, thought he would never have children again, a concubine who had been brought into the household at some unknown time became pregnant and gave birth to a son. Holding his newborn son, Fang, the scholar, was overjoyed and tears streamed down his face.

For the sake of his son's lineage, he elevated the concubine who had given birth to his son to the status of his third legal wife. This was the "old hag" that Liu referred to.

This son was Fang Zhiming, the apple of Fang Juren's eye. He truly cherished him, afraid he would melt in his mouth or break in his hands. From a young age, whatever his son wanted, he would fulfill within his means. The only thing he went against his son's wishes was probably the marriage with Qinghe.

Fang Zhiming resembled his mother and was quite handsome. In addition, he was an only son, his father was a scholar who had passed the imperial examinations, and his family was wealthy. These factors led Liu to choose him as her son-in-law.

However, after Fang Zhiming secretly came to see Qinghe's appearance, he went back and had a big fight with Fang Juren, and he disagreed with the marriage.

However, Fang Juren, who had always done things his way, was now as stubborn as a mule and insisted that his son marry Qinghe.

He escaped poverty and achieved his current comfortable life by marrying Miss Ding. Having tasted the sweetness of success, he naturally wanted his son to follow the same path.

He had high hopes for Zhang Chengwen's future. If his son could have such a brother-in-law to help him in his official career, his son's path to the imperial examinations would be much smoother. Moreover, Zhang Qinghe had more than just this one capable brother. Although his third brother, Zhang Youtie, was a businessman, he was wealthy. If his fourth brother paved the way for his son's official career and his third brother helped him financially, wouldn't his son's future be limitless? At least much better than his own.

After having a son, he felt regret whenever he thought about his own path in the imperial examinations, believing that his father-in-law had offended someone, which caused him to fail the examinations repeatedly. Therefore, he was determined to find a powerful maternal relative for his son, and Zhang Qinghe, who was not good-looking but had two good older brothers, caught his eye.

Even after Fang, the scholar, explained the situation to his son in great detail, Fang Zhiming was still unwilling. Later, it was only after his mother secretly promised him that she would marry him several beautiful concubines in the future that he reluctantly went to the Zhang family to meet them.