Chapter 99

When Xu Ran returned home, he started to get busy again. Whether at home or in the fields, no one felt anything different about him.

It was not until the 15th of April that a Yamen messenger came to the village to announce the good news while beating the drums.

From the entrance to the end of the village, the Yamen messenger announced all the way, “Xu Ran from the Xu Village, got the third place in the pupil test!”

Then, regardless of whether they were busy or not, the villagers followed the Yamen messenger while looking on for the fun.

When they reached the gate of Xu Ran’s house, Xu Ran was busy. Hearing the sound of drums ringing outside, both Tangtang and Guoguo hurriedly ran out to have a look. Then they ran back, “Dad, a Yamen messenger is here. He said that you are in the third place of the test!”

Xu Ran and Liu Tong exchanged glances, put down the things in their hands, and then wiped their hands clean. Xu Ran smoothed out his clothes and went outside. After two steps, he stopped suddenly and turned to Liu Tong saying, “Tongtong, go and prepare a red envelope for me.”

Liu Tong nodded and turned to the inner room.

Xu Ran went out to meet the Yamen messenger for the announcement. Since he had passed the pupil test, it meant he was a pupil now and was qulified to take the Xiucai test in the coming autumn.

Xu Ran and the Yamen messenger were having a small talk when Liu Tong came out. The Yamen messenger took the letter out from his pocket and handed it to Xu Ran. Xu Ran took the red envelope from Liu Tong and gave it to the Yamen messenger. Someone there might notice this, and someone might not. Anyway, the Yamen messenger weighed the evelope in his hand, said a few words of congratulations, and then left.

Xu Ran didn’t try to keep him, and it was not suitable for him to stay.

After the Yamen messenger left, Xu Ran was met with curious inquiries repeatedly because many people in the village did not know that Xu Ran had gone to the test.

And more people believed that Xu Ran could do it. They thought if he had not become a fool those days, he would probably be a Juren (one who passed the imperial examination at the province level).

However, at the moment among the people in the crowd, there was a pair of resentful eyes staring at him angrily. Xu Ran seemed to feel the close eyesight and he tried to find it, but failed. He had to give up his searching. Usually, there were quite few people in the village, but today it seemed quite crowded.

Xu Ran smiled and tried to answer some of their questions, saying that he had been studying hard for so many years, but that he resulted to be a fool when he could go for the test in the past. Fortunately, he recovered and he wanted to have another try in the test. And he didn’t expect that he was so lucky this time to have got the third place.

Xu Ran attributed all his success to luck. Some people believed it, but most of them didn’t, because they saw how Xu Ran had behaved after his recovery. They believed that if he didn’t have the ability, he would not be able to get the third place. After all, it was a test attended by hundreds of people, and the achievement was not easy to get.

However, as they were not very familiar with Xu Ran, it was not good for them to stay for long. After some excitement, they all left.

But things were far from over. Next,  Xu Ran had to meet with such boisterous scenes from their good friends. The first ones were Wu Mei’s and the other two families, especially Wu Mei. His reaction was so fierce that he almost grabbed Xu Ran’s ear and asked him why he took the test without telling them. After blaming Xu Ran, he criticized Liu Tong and asked why he had not taken them as friends and why he even hid such an important matter?

In the eyes of many people there who were not able to go to school, to be able to read was already a great thing, let alone to pass the test and become a pupil. Maybe if anyone among them could be a Xiucai or Juren, he would be regarded as a god in their eyes.

Xu Ran looked helpless and he had to keep silent when being criticized by Wu Mei and the rest. After them, it was Foreman Li’s turn, and the village head was the next that followed. Anyway, all their friends in the village came to express their feelings to him.

Xu Ran could only apologize to them and promised that he would treat them for a big dinner, which was why he was let go at last. Xu Ran couldn’t help but feel his chest. He felt like he had survived after a disaster.

Since it was a treat, Xu Ran had to make some preparations. All the guests were friends, including Wu Mei’s and the other two families, together with the village head, his spouse, and a group of children. Xu Ran felt that it might be better for him to tell everyone about the business of bamboo shoots. There were many things that needed to be done in this matter, where their family couldn’t make much money because they didn’t have enough hands. He felt that it’s better to have more people to participate in it, so that maybe everyone could make a profit from it. After all, his own family was short of money now.

Some of the potatoes in the field could be dug out to serve for the dinner, while the rest could be sold to Mr. Chen for money.

It was still early and it wasn’t even time for lunch, so everyone went back to their homes first and Xu Ran reminded them to come over for dinner in the evening.

It had been a long time since they had eaten together. Apart from the village head and his spouse, the other three families had accepted Xu Ran’s invitation. The village head and his spouse promised to come for the dinner until they had time at night.

Xu Ran didn’t force them and agreed.

Needless to say, Xu Ran was enjoying a happy life, while, here, life in the Xu Family was not peaceful, or to be exact, their life had never been peaceful, especially after Xu Ran left them.

Zhang Yue had been cruelly tortured by Xu Cheng all the time. Although he was skinny and too weak to move, the Xu Family still wanted to keep a close watch on him. Let alone run away, Zhang Yue couldn’t even meet his dad or daddy, nor could he see his two children.

For some reason, Xu Cheng became more and more violent. As long as he got angry, he would hit Zhang Yue desperately. In this way, Zhang Yue’s old injury was not healed, and new injury was added. How could he not be thin and weak?

That day, Xu Cheng went out early. Not long after, Zhang Yue heard the sound of drums from outside. The Yamen messenger’s voice was quite loud so that Zhang Yue was able to hear Xu Ran’s name and something like the pupil’s test.

Zhang Yue guessed that Xu Ran should have passed the examination for the pupil, and this Yamen messenger was here announce the good news.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t see this scene, and it should be said that he was not qualified to watch it, from the moment he agreed to marry Xu Cheng.

At the moment, Zhang Yue was crouching on the ground with his head in his arms, feeling sad and a little bewildered.

He knew that no matter how good the man was now, he had nothing to do with him, and he had never darted him a glance.

As Zhang Yue lost himself in the thinking, the door was kicked open suddenly. Zhang Yue stood up in panic and took two steps backward，trembling.

Xu Cheng’s angry face was flashed into Zhang Yue’s eyes, “You, you, what are you doing?” Even Zhang Yue’s voice was trembling.

Xu Cheng approached him step by step. The anger on his face was obvious and he even wanted to tear him apart, ” What am I doing? You are my person, so what do you say I want to do? Or are you thinking about others so that you have forgotten your identity? Is it Xu Ran that you are thinking of? You bitch, see if I won’t kill you?!

“Ah! No! It hurts! Stop, stop! It hurts, ouch! “Zhang Yue was screaming.

Xu Cheng had completely lost his mind. Even if Zhang Yue didn’t say anything, he would still put all the blame on Xu Ran. His fists kept falling angrily on Zhang Yue’s body endlessly. Zhang Yue screamed at the beginning, but later, just like before, he got used to it. He just sat silently at the place and let Xu Cheng be. He knew as long as Xu Cheng was tired, he would stop his beating.

But this time, it seemed a little longer than usual.

This was what Zhang Yue thought before he passed out.

It wasn’t until the person under him had no any reaction, and even his breathing started to weaken that Xu Cheng suddenly came to his senses and instantly panicked.

“You bitch, what are you pretending to be? Get up quickly. Don’t you want to see Xu Ran? He is in the third place of the test.

You bitch, get up!

Zhang Yue, wake up, Zhang Yue!”

Xu Cheng kept calling. The more he called, the more flustered he was, and Zhang Yue didn’t wake up no matter how he tried.

Xu Cheng carefully reached his fingers under Zhang Yue’s nose. He let out a sigh of relief when he felt a weak breath there.

Looking at the fainting person, he suddenly felt a little scared. He was clear that his family couldn’t afford to hire a physician now. What if Zhang Yue died in their home then?

Xu Cheng suddenly thought of an idea. What if Zhang Yue didn’t die at their house? What if he was found dead somewhere else, say at Xu Ran’s home?

As for the idea of finding a doctor for Zhang Yue, it had never occurred to him.

Xu Cheng did what he wanted. He took a disgusted look at the person lying on the ground who was already in a mess like a corpse. Then he went to find a sack, picked up Zhang Yue and stuffed him into the sack.

Then he first sneaked a look outside the door. At this time, everyone was busy, so no one passed by.

After the careful observation, Xu Cheng was sure that no one was around. He immediately carried the sack of Zhang Yue out of the house. After quickly closing the door, he went up the hill from the path behind his house.

At this very moment, he was on the same road that he had taken that time when he hurt Xu Ran. But today, he didn’t want to push Zhang Yue down the mountain. Instead, he planned to go around the mountain at the back of their house to Xu Ran’s home and secretly left there the sack of the person.

However, Xu Cheng seemed to have forgotten about the four dogs of the Xu Ran’s family which were not very popular in the eyes of outsiders.

Xu Cheng walked down from the mountain to the back of Xu Ran’s house. The workers were busy with their own business, while Xu Ran and his family were also in the house. There was no one in the yard with only the four dogs lazily basking in the sun.

The door of the yard was shut, and Xu Cheng didn’t dare to go in. He noticed where the pigsty was. He even saw that big black horse was eating grass leisurely, and the jealousy in his eyes could not be concealed.

He couldn’t help telling himself that he had planted it anyway, so it would be nothing for him to take another horse by the way! Not to mention, the horse was worth at least tens of taels of silver!

The four dogs had found Xu Cheng when he just sneaked into the pigsty.

They all stood up. Two of them then ran into the house while the other two rushed towards Xu Ran. They were all very smart and didn’t bark at all.

Xu Ran and Liu Tong were cleaning the house when they were bitten by the two dogs on the trousers. The dogs were trying to drag them out. Both Xu Ran and Liu Tong exchanged their glances and guessed that something should have happened outside.

At this moment, the dogs’ barks were suddenly heard from outside. Xu Ran pulled out his trousers from a dog’s mouth and ran out quickly. There he saw Xu Cheng carrying a sack on his shoulder with something inside. He was bitten by a dog on the leg while the other dog was barking at him wildly.

When the people on the construction site heard the sound of the dogs, they all rushed over. When there was nothing happening, the dogs wouldn’t make any noise. Even if someone passed by without entering the yard at night, the dogs wouldn’t give any threatening signal at all.

Therefore, the moment all the people heard the dogs, they felt that something was wrong.

There they saw that Xu Ran was also present, opposite whom, was standing another person with something on his shoulder.

Thus, everyone present knew that something was indeed happening.