Chapter 98

One student in a green gown stood up, “So you won the third place, I could’ve expected better than someone who looked as weak as a Ge’er. Tell me, what did you use to bribe the chief examiner?”

Lin Hua was about to curse him but stopped by Xu Ran. Xu Ran stepped forward, faced the man and then spoke with smile. “Sir, it’s fine that you abuse me but you can’t slander the chief examiner. Think about it, it would not be the first time that the chief examiner supervised a test. How come for this time he is accused of being bribed by a student? It’s not okay to say that.”

Xu Ran spoke in a manner that he was caring for the chief examiner, and the people around him were unconciously influenced and started to blame the student, including those who had just accused Xu Ran of bribing the chief examiner.

As the blame was getting increadingly loud, the student’s face darkened. Especially when he saw his companion joined the blame as well, he couldn’t even speak properly, “You… you…”

Xu Ran laughed and was about to give him a harder time when an old man with gray moustache approached from behind, and followed by two young scholars.

Xu Ran recognized that he was the chief examiner.

The chief examiner looked serious and asked, “Why is the noise, what happened?”

There were many students from the He Shui Academy. After they saw the man, they called him respectfully by “Fuzi (respectful appellation of teachers).”

However, there were few answers to his question.

Xu Ran stopped speaking and didn’t need to, but Lin Hua couldn’t restrain himself anymore. He jumped out and pointed at the student in the green gown and said, “Fuzi, Luo Cheng said that Xu Ran bribed you to get the third place. Xu Ran came to He Shui Town only one day before the exam. He didn’t know who the chief examiner was, and how could he even bribe anyone? Fuzi, please punish Luo Cheng.”

Zhao Chen echoed the suggestion as well.

Although the two of them didn’t study well, they were very obedient students. Plus, they won some places in the rank, not good ones, but they made it after all. Fuzi smoothed his moustache and turned to Luo Cheng with anger on his face, “Luo Cheng, did you do what he said?”

“I…” Luo Cheng mumbled for a moment before he lowered his head.

This was undoubtedly an acquiescence to his deeds, and Xu Ran didn’t know to call him smart or stupid. He had been taken advantaged by others but done nothing to defend himself. Who knew for how many times they had set him up.

Xu Ran didn’t want to say anything more. These people were destined not to be businessmen, and he was destined not to be an official, so he wouldn’t be too anxious. Xu Ran dragged Lin Hua and said in a low voice, “Do we leave, or you want to talk to your Fuzi?

Lin Hua hurriedly shaked his head, “No, let’s go!”

Lin Hua and Zhao Chen requested their leave to Fuzi and got approved. The latter didn’t want to meddle in; their leave just relived him from the trouble and they could talk about this later.

The three of them didn’t walk too far before being blocked by someone again. Xu Ran raised his head and was certain that this was someone he didn’t know.

But Lin Hua and Zhao Chen called him, “Senior brother Chu.”

It was their another acquaintance, so Xu Ran silently moved aside and let them talk.

But he didn’t expect that this senior brother Chu was looking for him. “Sir, I’m Chu Yuan. I just learned from junior brothers Lin and Zhao that you won the third place in the exam. I wonder if I can have a talk with you?”

He spoke in such a scholarly manner. Besides, he showed his geniality and won the first place in the test, even though they just met, it was hard for Xu Ran to turn him down, “It’s my honor to be invited, so I will just obey.”

“Take me, I want to go too,” Lin Hua immediately ran over to join in the fun.

Zhao Chen didn’t talk but followed Lin Hua, indicating that he also wanted to go.

Xu Ran smiled, “Please don’t mind.”

After all, Lin Hua and Zhao Chen were his fellow apprentices. Even if he minded, he couldn’t say anything so he said with smile, “Of course not. Junior brothers Lin and Zhao, let’s go together then!”

As soon as hearing what Chu Yuan said, Lin Hua immediately took the lead and the rest three of them followed behind.

As for the other people who watched the four of them left, many of them were so angry with a gnashing teeth and twisted face, but none of the four saw it.

Lin Hua and Zhao Chen were only interested in food, so one could find them wherever there was delicious food. They were going to a genteel tea house this time only because of Chu Yuan’s scholarly manners, otherwise Lin Hua would have gone to a restaurant and had a good meal.

The tea house was well decorated and looked genteel indeed, so Chu Yuan was quite satisfied.

They asked for a nice and quiet private room, and there were only four of them, so Chu Yuan suddenly turned to another person; the first thing he said after sitting down was, “It was too tiresome to pretend to be a decent scholar.”

The other three twitched their mouths simultaneously for Chu Yuan indeed changed too fast.

However, what he was now was more agreeable. Xu Ran smiled and sat down to pour tea. “It turns out that senior brother Chu also has such a moment not to stick to trifles. It’s really rare.”

Lin Hua and Zhao Chen had seen Chu Yuan a few times, and also heard how Fuzi talked about Chu Yuan a lot. They really didn’t know Chu Yuan has such characteristics, so they were a little surprised as well.

Chu Yuan didn’t care. He took a piece of cake casually and stuffed it into his mouth. After he chewed it down and swallowed it, he said, “You don’t know how tiresome it is to act so modestly and courteously every day. It’s good this way to pose whatever you want.”

Xu Ran couldn’t help but wonder why Chu Yuan was so relaxed even though they just met each other. With that in mind, Xu Ran asked the quesiton unconsciously.

Chu Yuan stuffed all the pastries into his mouth, and then said, “You grinned when I was talking to you just now, so I knew it.”

Xu Ran rubbed his nose, ‘Well, this guy is really careful to notice that.’

Chu Yuan’s casualness made the other three drop off their courtesies, and then the four of them had a chat with no specific topics. Chu Yuan was once on a study tour so he saw a lot of things, plus with his good eloquence, the other three were attracted to what he said.

From what Chu Yuan said, Xu Ran could tell that he was a talented person. He asked, “Senoir brother Chu, I see you have a good literary cultivation. Why you just attended this exam of province?”

“Oh!” Chu Yuan leaned on the chair and said, “I went to the study tour at 17 and was going to take the test when I came back, but I accidentally wandered outside for aother few more years, so the tour finished a bit late.”

He said that calmly, but Xu Ran could imagine the look of his family when they expected more and better from him.

It must be ferocious!

It was also joyful to talk with smart people, Xu Ran thought so. It was Fuzi’s will that Chu Yuan came to Xu Ran because Fuzi wanted to take Xu Ran as his student.

Xu Ran rejected clearly for he had no intention of being an official. As long as he passed the imperial examination at the county, he would not study further, so it was the same if he had a teacher or not. Besides, this place was not his home, and he couldn’t stay here to study.

In addition to expressing his pity, Chu Yuan did not say anything else. After all, everyone had their own ambition.

Knowing that Xu Ran was here to deliver food, Chu Yuan said that he could also help for free. The Chu family was absolutely a big family in He Shui Town. With Chu Yuan’s help, the business would be just fine.

Xu Ran introduced to him the fermented bean curd and dried bean curd carefully, as well as some dishes cooked with the dried bean curd. Just hearing them would stimulate one’s appetite.

Chu Yuan said that he would definitely visit after there business started.

After having enough tea and two plates of pastries, they left the tea house.

Then they parted each other, and Chu Yuan went back to reply to his teacher while the other three went to checked the shop.

On their way back, Xu Ran bid Lin Hua and Zhao Chen to keep a good relationship with Chu Yuan for Chu Yuan looked like a capable man, which might be helpful when necessary.

Under Xu Ran’s suggestions last time, Zhao Chen and Lin Hua had bought a shop with their own money. Both of their families possessed empty shops, but they didn’t want to work for their families. Therefore, they scraped togther some money and found an acquaintance to buy a shop, though the location was unfavorable.

As the saying went, “Gold will glitter forever”. As Xu Ran had said, they believed the goods would sell well.

Xu Ran looked at the shop, which had a proper size but less proper decoration since it was a new one. Xu Ran thought there was no need to have it overly decorated. They could just put there some shelves and on which all the goods were put in order with a price tag.

As for stuff like finding a shop manager, Xu Ran left it to the two of them. He also wrote down the recipes and ingredients of the dishes he had mentioned and told Lin Hua as well as Zhao Chen as long as the customers spent a certain amount of money, they would be rewarded a recipe of a dish.

Xu Ran did not say more methods of the publicity. After all, they only had a short list of things to be sold, and it could wait when they had more.

Xu Ran stayed in He Shui Town for three days before going back. He bought some local food for his family and some trinkets as well as books for Guoguo and Tangtang, besides those, he took back home several bags of soybeans.

Lin Hua dispatched Lin Xi, his errand boy and also servant of Lin’s family, to accompany Xu Ran to find the way.

While Lin Xi drove the carriage, Xu Ran slept on the bags of the soybeans. They finally got home on the sixth of lunar April. Xu Ran said he would not go out if necessary after this exhausting experience, which was too suffering for him.

Xu Ran’s return didn’t cause a stir, and Foreman Li as well as other people probably had been used to it.

After Xu Ran came back, Wu Mei returned home.

Lin Xi stayed at Xu Ran’s home for the night. The next day, Xu Ran led him through the village and made him know the way. When Lin Xi left, he took a lot of fermented bean curd and dried bean curd with him.

The news that Xu Ran had won the third place in the exam was only known by the family. Even Wu Mei did not know about it. Because there would not be long before the offical messenger come and deliver the news. By then all the people in the village would know. Xu Ran planned to take those days and make more dried bean curds.

–