CH 1

The sky was so gloomy that there wasn’t even a trace of sunlight, but it also didn’t rain. It was hot and stuffy to the point of suffocation.

Zhao Su was afraid that she might cry again: “Let’s not talk about this anymore. Mother, today, while I was up at the mountain top, I picked up some wild vegetables, they’re really fresh, let’s eat them tonight?”

Lady Chen nodded her head, she forced a smile: “Mother will go prepare it now.”

Zhao Su stopped her: “You can rest today, let your son work on my cooking skills, and show my filial piety.”

The locals all spoke with Fuzhou dialect, Zhao Su, however, unconsciously, used a Beijing accent, which sounded a bit weird, but Chen was so troubled in her heart that she did not even notice this detail.

Since mother and son were kicked out of Zhao manor, the youngster had continued to be heavily negative, depressed, sometimes he would even hide himself and secretly cry. Never had he been this mature and sensible as now, Chen was surprised and moved but felt even more guilty.

Zhao Su fled in the midst of Lady Chen’s emotive gaze, and waited until he entered the kitchen before slowing down and sighing. Half a month ago, Zhao Su was not Zhao Su, but he was called Wang Ning.

In Wang Ning’s world, even if communism had not been achieved. Everyone had enough to eat and had warm clothes to wear, had some small talk over current affairs during a meal, and could complain about politics. If he had nothing to do he’d just go online, pick up a girl, his days would go by calmly and comfortably.

Before becoming the owner of this body, he felt that the days were tasteless and dull but after coming here, he realized that feeling bored was also a kind of happiness.

The Zhao family roots could be traced back to the Song Dynasty. and are said to be descendants of Zhao Delin, the third son, of Emperor Taizu of Song. Zhao Su’s senior ancestors had long settled in Changle, Fujian for several generations, and the Zhao family thus multiplied into a large local clan.

Zhao Su’s father was called Zhao Xifeng, he spent over ten years studying for the imperial exam but only ever achieved Xiucai. In the end, this took a toll on his body and he died three years ago. Zhao Xifeng’s legitimate wife was surnamed Wu.

The Wu family were a functionary family of the Tong’An district, it is said that there is also an uncle elsewhere who is also a court official.

Zhao Su’s birth was accidental.

One time, Lady Wu left to visit relatives, Zhao Xifeng got drunk and forced himself on Lady Chen, who knew that this incident would end up in a pregnancy and the conception of this child would lead to so much trouble for the former.

In the Ming Dynasty, the status between the first wife and concubines were clearly defined, and the status of concubines could never surpass that of the first wife, and any children born to concubines could not inherit the family property. Also, Lady Chen couldn’t even be counted as a concubine, at the most, she was only ever a personal servant. Sleeping with him would be one thing, but she had to bear him a son, how could Lady Wu not be surprised and angry?

From then on, Lady Wu hated this lowly servant to the bone.

But with an heir, the situation is a little different, however unsatisfied the first wife was, she couldn’t sell off the birth mother of the bastard. The Zhao family was still a literary family who valued their reputation, if word got out then it would definitely be bad.

Lady Wu feigned well on appearance but had trickery in mind. Plus, because of what he had done Zhao Xifeng was afraid of the consequences, he knew he was in the wrong and didn’t dare to say anything, as long as Lady Wu didn’t kill his son, he let her do whatever she wanted to torment Lady Chen.

Lady Chen was of a soft nature, her lowly birth made her easy to bully, and be tricked by men, but in this era, the status of women was low, and she is a servant girl, even if there is a son, in the future he’d have to address the first wife as mother.

In another twenty years, Li Shizhen will finish the 《Compendium of Materia Medica 》.

After another ten years, Hu Zongxian, a famous general who fought against the Wukou would committed suicide in prison.

After another three years, China will have its first gun rifle.

The West will have entered the age of great sea voyages, they began to travel all over the world, including to China.

And at this time, the Ming Empire, including the extremely smart Emperor Jiajing, many smart people were rising in the Ming dynasty political arena. Entering into the arena one after the other, it was extremely lively.

Zhao Su thought for a moment, the current senior Grand Secretary should be the famous Yan Song. This person dominated the Imperial Court for twenty years, and now the spring is in full swing, there are still some years ahead before he steps down.

To survey the entire Empire, the North had the Tartar tribe, the Southwest had the Wukou, the Emperor was busy practising Taoism, the court officials were busy with internal conflicts, the people had no surplus grains, life was hard, the people have no way to make a living, so that’s why there was this infamous folk song: “JiaJing Jiajing, jia jia, ganjing”

Right now, Zhao Su is one of these poor people.

He knew how to read, but penmanship couldn’t be trained overnight, so it wasn’t possible for him to go out on the streets offering to be a scribe, helping people to write their letters or papers to earn money.

Go to Zhao Manor asking for food and money? Of course, that was no good either. They didn’t care about mother and son at all, Not to mention that going to the door is equal to self-humiliation, even if he suffered all the insults, he still may not be able to get the food and money.

How about starting their own little business? This was also not good, because firstly, they had no money to set up and secondly, they didn’t have any contacts so what kind of business could they do?

Next was to study, and participate in the imperial examination.

In ancient times, everything was inferior, only studying could he achieve scholarly honor. Even if it was Xiucai, he’d definitely attain a certain social status, this way, they would no longer be humiliated and bullied.

The original Zhao Su couldn’t read, so he used standing outside the Clan school slightly listening to the lessons as a form of deception, but in order to take part in the imperial exam, he must know the ins and outs of the Four Books and the Five Classics to succeed.

People from ancient times always talked about ten years of arduous study and this wasn’t to be said lightly.

Even if Zhao Su already had the mature understanding of an adult, without a teacher, not speaking of trying to figure out the exam questions, even getting his foot in the door would be a problem.

There wasn’t a shortage of problems when laying it out like this. Although people are born to solve problems, he thought that he was very far from the happy lifestyle of eating meat and drinking alcohol, simply it was like the distance between the north and south pole.

He’d been thinking all day but to no avail. Zhao Su got up, but he suddenly felt like his eyes were going black, his body shaking, holding on to the wall whilst sighing to himself.

Because of long-term malnourishment, this body was anemic and had calcium deficiency, he was so thin it was like skin and bone. He stretched out his withered hands, even the thumbs were deathly pale, there was any sign of blood. He’d need at least 3-5 years of care to regain full strength and vitality.

In the end, it was all about money, without money it was hard to go on.

Zhao Su took out the celery and mushrooms he had picked in the morning and used water to wash them and then proceeded to chop them up. He waited for the congee to soften before adding the ingredients in, he cast some salt, and suddenly a fragrance flowed over the place.

His brain sparked suddenly, and he came up with another idea.

He was thinking about the possibility of success whilst taking the congee out all the way into the house.

The sky sounded a burst of thunder, a heavy rain was about to hit.

Zhao Su opened the door and entered, in a soft voice: “Mother, time for dinner.”

Lady Chen answers yes, she got up to help him set the table, and then mother and son ate together.

The little congee was fragrant and sweet, Lady Chen was astonished: “Su-er has some culinary skills.”

Zhao Su smiled: “If mother likes, from now on, I can cook every meal.”

Lady Chen said lightly: “I will pick up some more embroidery work, save up some more money so you can go to school. I’m afraid from now on you may have to actually take care of the cooking.”

Zhao Su had just said it casually, but Lady Chen had taken his words to heart, Zhao Su felt moved: “Your son will also try to find a way.”

“These days when I have been going up to the mountain to collect vegetables, I discovered that there are quite a lot of medicinal herbs up there. I want to pick some and sell it to the apothecaries. Mother, do you know if they will accept wild medicinal herbs?”

Lady Chen was very surprised, she would never have thought that Zhao Su would think of earning money himself, the youth in front of her certainly looked as frail and weak as before but he was no longer his disheartened former self?

“Yes they will accept it, but the price will be lowered considerably, but there are not many pharmacies in the city, the biggest one is called “Hui Chun Tang”, it’s a shop with a long established reputation, if you give the medicine to them, the price will not be as low.” Lady Chen said whilst thinking that this idea was not bad. On second thoughts, she did find it a bit strange: “Su’er, when did you learn to recognise medicinal herbs?”

Lady Chen was a local afterall, and understands matters much better than he did, so once she inquired, Zhao Su also felt that there is great potential, casually found an excuse to shrug it off, while asking for more details, and finally smiled and said “Mother, if this works, we could stop accepting goods from Zhao Manor and rely on our own two feet, you could also stop your embroidery work”.

The many days of dullness cleared away, everything was difficult at the beginning, the future will always be better.

This is how Zhao Su thought half a month after arriving here. He, who was wearing coarse clothes, eating wild vegetables and plain congee, and sitting in a run down house that could barely keep out the rain.