Chapter 178

After dividing up the rooms, they had to go buy supplies for daily life.

Pots, bowls, ladles, and basins, as well as quilts and blankets, and the rice and vegetables they would eat.

Since this was a home, it had to look like one.

Time seemed to flash back to two years ago when they were renting a house in Xieyang County. Back then, they brought all their living supplies with them and could live in stability wherever they had a foothold.

But now, they didn't even have a needle and had to buy everything anew.

Luckily they had Auntie Zhang.

A woman's attentiveness was something men could not understand. Jiang Sheng was even more clueless.

Although Fengjing's prices were shocking, Auntie Zhang only took half a day to get all the bedding arranged, as well as the necessities for the kitchen. She even cooked up a table of fragrant food.

After over a month of rushing around and sampling all kinds of delicacies, they were still tired and worn out in the end, so they couldn't really eat well.

It wasn't until they sat at the wooden table in the small courtyard that they truly felt what it meant to enjoy peaceful days and quiet contentment.

That night, everyone slept well.

Except for Zheng Ruqian.

Knowing the family only had five hundred taels, rent and deposit had taken eighty taels, the pots, bowls, blankets and quilts took another fifty taels, leaving them with three hundred seventy taels.

In Shili Town, in Xieyang County, three hundred seventy taels was a huge sum, enough for a family of three to live for half a lifetime.

But this was Fengjing, where even pork cost twenty wen per catty, and rice and flour started at five wen per catty. The cost of living was at least three times that back home.

With just three hundred seventy taels, even daily life would be difficult, let alone earning more money. For the first time, Zheng Ruqian regretted taking all their savings to aggressively buy the courtyard house and hoard ice.

Perhaps this move would bring tremendous profits in the coming years, but Fengjing's difficulties were right before their eyes. If they didn't resolve the present, how could there be a future?

Zheng Ruqian thought too much and his mind grew heavy. He didn't even dare to toss and turn for fear of affecting Xu Mo who had to report to the Imperial College the next day.

But Xu Mo still noticed his younger brother's short breaths. He opened his eyes and gazed at the blurry ceiling beams. After carefully considering his words for a long time, he finally said, "Does my second brother feel we have the same difficulties as when we first started?"

Zheng Ruqian was startled.

How difficult it was at the very beginning! They couldn't afford food and could only pick rotten vegetable leaves. Xu Mo still had to copy books even with his broken leg, just to earn those few pennies in copying fees.

He still remembered their first savings came from selling mushrooms, which, together with Xu Mo's copying fees, added up to only twenty or thirty wen.

But to them back then, it was already a huge sum.

Zheng Ruqian still remembered how happy Jiang Sheng was. She counted those dozen or so copper coins like they were gold ingots, with an extremely satisfied expression.

How could he now feel uneasy with three hundred seventy taels of silver in hand?

Zheng Ruqian felt he had been provoked by Fengjing's prosperity.

Back in Anshui Prefecture, he thought himself at least half a household owner. Although he hadn't eaten at Youran Academy, he at least had the courage to go in and out of there.

But in Fengjing, even a nobody dared to cut across his chest. Everyone could see their poverty, their timidness, and the lack of money in their pockets.

Three hundred seventy taels would have made many families in Anshui ecstatic, but thrown on the ground in Fengjing, it probably wouldn't even make a sound.

But did every household in Fengjing really have three hundred seventy taels?

Just because there were many wealthy people didn't mean everyone here was rich, did it?

Zheng Ruqian didn't believe so.

No matter how much more prosperous Fengjing was compared to Anshui, there would still be poor people, and people living in hardship.

Three hundred seventy taels was all he had in hand, but it was also the unreachable dreams of many others.

On what grounds should he underestimate himself?

And on what grounds should he feel uneasy?

Back then, they went from having nothing to accumulating thousands of taels, to having a workshop and hiring workers, and finally to buying a courtyard house and hoarding ice.

Now with three hundred seventy taels, he, Zheng Ruqian, could turn it into three thousand seven hundred taels, and then thirty-seven thousand taels.

Jiang Sheng's feet would definitely have smooth and round Eastern Pearls!

Without a sound, the youth who was just full of thoughts fell asleep.

In his dreams, his sister wore embroidered shoes inset with Eastern Pearls and danced happily.

In his dreams, his third brother rode a horse wielding a spear, with striking gallantry. In his dreams, they sat in a wealthy courtyard house, drinking wine and tea, with countless servants and inexhaustible riches.

Most importantly, they lived together and would never be apart.

Hearing Zheng Ruqian's steady breathing, Xu Mo reached out and tucked the quilt around him, then also fell asleep with an upturned mouth.

The next day.

Xu Mo was going to the Imperial College to enroll and prepare for the entrance exam.

His family busily prepared brush, ink, paper and inkstone. Jiang Sheng even suggested buying a high quality gauze robe, afraid he would be looked down upon by other students at the Imperial College.

Xu Mo declined with a shake of his head.

The fourteen-year-old boy said firmly, "No matter how nice the gauze or silk is, it's not as good as studying diligently. I'm going to the Imperial College to prepare for the exam, not to compete and show off clothes. If my fellow students look down on me just because of some clothes, then so be it if we don't get along."

He went just like that, stubbornly wearing the light blue cotton robe brought from Anshui Prefecture. The narrow sleeves were convenient for grinding ink, the cotton was durable and wouldn't get damaged easily, and the light blue resembled his steady personality - looking unremarkable at first glance but impossible to ignore.

Even his brush, ink, paper and inkstone were what he used before as much as possible, without buying anything extra.

Zheng Ruqian sniffed, "Big brother, you don't have to deliberately save money for me. Whether it's three hundred seventy taels or three hundred, it won't stop me from doing business and making money in Fengjing."

"It's not for you," Xu Mo said as he patted his shoulder. "Just being myself."

No matter how chaotic and dazzling Fengjing was, as long as he stayed determined inside, even endless flowers were only illusions.

The location of the small courtyard in the second yard was quite good.

Going out by carriage, it only took a few tea times to get anywhere.

The Imperial College was the highest institute of learning in the entire Dayu Dynasty. Its students were also called monitor students, mainly recruited from outstanding young masters of prominent families, who could even enter officialdom without taking the imperial civil service exam because of their outstanding performance.

But after scholar-bureaucrats started rising to prominence through the exam system, it became a bit difficult for monitor students to bypass the exam and enter officialdom.

In order to fairly and justly cultivate talents, the current Dayu emperor had ordered that the Imperial College could recruit exceptional students from all over who had passed the local civil service exam, as long as they had a letter of recommendation from their prefectural magistrate.

Right now, what Xu Mo held in his hand was precisely the letter of recommendation to the Imperial College written by Prefect He Chengzhang.

The fourteen-year-old top laureate took a deep breath and strode to the entrance of the Imperial College. Just as he was about to enter, raucous sounds of people dismounting horses came from behind him.

Soon after, several figures surged past him.

There were teenagers about ten-something years old, people in their early twenties who had come of age, and even a man in his thirties with a beard.

This wasn't too surprising either. Many people studied their whole lives for the provincial exam but never passed.

Xu Mo took a deep breath and was about to step into the Imperial College.

Unexpectedly, he saw the side profile of the middle-aged man and his whole body instantly froze as all his blood coagulated. No matter what, he couldn't move an inch.