Old Physician Zhang was full of confusion, unable to understand how Wang Yikang had suddenly been seized by the authorities.
He felt deeply uneasy. Wang Yikang was a xiucai and held a bit of influence. If he truly lost his credentials, that would be one thing—but what he feared was that Wang might emerge unscathed.
If that happened, and Wang believed that Zhang harbored resentment and had secretly reported him to the Education Commissioner, then using underhanded methods to retaliate against the Zhang family would spell real trouble.
The Zhang family was nothing more than a modest medical household, making an honest living. How could they possibly contend with a scholar backed by status and power?
Just as his thoughts were in complete turmoil, a carriage suddenly pulled up in front of him.
The curtain was lifted, revealing a refined yet unfamiliar face inside. “Are you Old Physician Zhang?”
“That would be me.”
“Please allow me a word with you.”
Old Physician Zhang did not understand why, assuming the visitor was seeking medical treatment. Though his mind was preoccupied with worries, he had always upheld medical ethics. After steadying himself, he boarded the carriage.
As he sat down inside and was about to speak, the young man who had invited him in spoke first, introducing himself.
“I apologize for troubling you today, Physician Zhang. My surname is Du. I am a newly minted provincial licentiate from this autumn’s examination.”
Old Physician Zhang paused. The surname sounded familiar, though he could not immediately place it.
Facing this young licentiate with his striking appearance, Zhang grew even more respectful. “Greetings, Licentiate Du. May I ask if there is something you require of this old man?”
Du Heng said gently, “I am not here for medical treatment, so please do not take offense. The matter is this: a month ago, my spouse went to see the residence you were planning to sell, and he liked it very much.”
Old Physician Zhang suddenly realized. “Was it Qin’s spouse?”
Du Heng nodded.
At that, everything clicked for Old Physician Zhang. He leaned back slightly, and Wang Yikang’s sudden arrest now had a clear explanation.
His respect for the man before him deepened further. Earlier, he had only heard Qin Xiaoman mention that his husband had gone to the prefectural city to sit for the examinations. He never imagined that he truly would pass and become a licentiate.
“Presumably, Wang Yikang will no longer be buying my residence,” Old Physician Zhang said. “Would Physician Zhang be willing to sell the house to the Qin family instead?”
Old Physician Zhang had been worrying over this very matter. The house had become a hot potato in his hands. If the Qin family was willing to take it over despite everything, the problem would be neatly resolved.
He was delighted beyond measure—how could he possibly be unwilling to sell?
Still, Old Physician Zhang remained cautious. “If I can sell the house to a solid, upright family like Licentiate Du’s, that would be a stroke of good fortune for the property itself. It’s just that…”
Du Heng knew exactly what he was about to say. “You only need to return the deposit to the Wang family. Wang Yikang’s arrogance and tyranny made him a festering tumor. Now that he has been caught by the Education Commissioner, his credentials are bound to be stripped.”
Hearing this, Old Physician Zhang’s heart finally settled. “Good. Good.”
That very day, a new notice appeared on the bulletin board outside the county office, drawing a crowd of curious onlookers.
The announcement stated that xiucai Wang Yikang, for abusing his status, oppressing others, and drinking and consorting with prostitutes during his mourning period, had been stripped of his credentials, reduced to a commoner, and permanently barred from ever sitting for the examinations again.
It further warned scholars to strictly observe propriety and filial conduct, and not to rely on their credentials to act with impunity.
At once, the county was abuzz with discussion. Most people praised the decision. Wang Yikang had a terrible reputation in the county, and the common folk who had suffered under his bullying had long wished to see him dealt with. Now that their wish had come true, the mood was one of collective satisfaction.
With no credentials left to shield him, the merchants who had once clustered around the Wang family scattered. Not only did the Wang family lose those who had paid them to live well, but old debts from their past bullying all came knocking at once.
Old Physician Zhang seized the opportunity to return the deposit. Wang Yikang no longer had the heart to think about buying a house. He felt as though he had stumbled upon a windfall, clutching the twenty taels of silver and rushing off to repay whatever debts he could.
When Qin Xiaoman heard people casually talking about the incident, he couldn’t help but grin, completely unaware of the twists and turns behind it all. He simply thought that evil had finally met its match.
“Xiaoman.”
Hearing someone call him, Qin Xiaoman finally pulled himself out of the lively gossip. He put away his pumpkin seeds, straightened up from the doorframe, and saw that it was Du Heng who had returned.
As he passed by the storefront, the merchants who had been chatting all respectfully greeted Du Heng.
“It’s almost the end of the Shen hour. Why did the academy let out so late today?” Qin Xiaoman asked.
Du Heng replied, “I went to the county office. I was delayed there for a bit.”
“What were you doing at the county office?”
Du Heng reached out, led Qin Xiaoman into the shop, and handed him a box. “After passing the examination, the county awarded something. I went to collect it.”
Qin Xiaoman’s eyes lit up immediately. He quickly took the box. “You should’ve said so earlier—I would’ve gone with you.”
As he spoke, Qin Xiaoman opened the box. When he saw the deed lying neatly inside, he hurriedly picked it up. “Thirty mu of land!”
Seeing the number, he blurted it out on the spot.
Du Heng smiled and kindly reminded him, “Look at the deed a bit more carefully.”
Qin Xiaoman frowned and followed his advice, reading the deed again. “Thirty mu of farmland at Kuanshui Dam, south of Tianwan Village in the northern county.”
Du Heng nodded in approval. Very good—this time, he had recognized every single character.
Qin Xiaoman suddenly realized something and exclaimed again, “Isn’t Kuanshui Dam just a stretch of wasteland? The wolf-tail grass there grows taller than a person!”
“Right.”
Qin Xiaoman was itching to curse out loud, but with the shop open he feared there might be ears on the other side of the wall. He could only grit his teeth and vent his anger in a low voice. “What is wrong with this county magistrate? How can an imperial reward be a stretch of wasteland? Does he really think flashing the number ‘thirty mu’ is enough to fool people!”
Du Heng shook his head. The magistrate had indeed meant to give a reward, but in the end he was nowhere near as generous as a prefect would be. This time the prize was thirty mu of uncultivated wasteland, with the note that if one had surplus resources, one could clear and open it oneself.
This already counted as an extra favor for him as the jingkui. The other successful examinees had each been given only fifteen mu of wasteland.
Their county magistrate’s abacus beads clicked loudly in his mind. He knew perfectly well that the county could no longer squeeze a single coin of tax from this batch of new juren, yet he also didn’t want to earn a reputation for mistreating scholars by giving no reward at all. After a bit of tidying up, he settled on awarding wasteland and letting people cultivate it themselves.
Once the land was opened up, the county government still wouldn’t collect any produce tax from it, but at least the amount of arable land around the county seat would increase. When the figures were reported to the court, it would look much better on paper.
Qin Xiaoman pursed his lips. Earlier, when Du Heng mentioned that the magistrate might bestow a reward, he had eagerly imagined it for quite some time. Now that the reward had actually come down, his spirits immediately wilted.
“This is worse than when you passed the xiucai exam. Back then there were at least five mu of irrigated paddy fields that could produce grain right away. Now the reward is a lot of land, sure, but it’s all wasteland. What’s wasteland good for? You still have to spend manpower and resources to open it up. Who knows how many years it’ll take before it turns into fertile soil.”
Du Heng felt some regret as well, but he had already thought it through. At the very least, they now had the right to use an extra thirty mu of land, and in any case, they no longer had to pay land tax themselves.
When the time came, the three-tenths produce tax that tenant farmers normally paid to the state would instead go straight to their household. Where before they only earned thirty percent of the harvest, now they could directly take sixty percent.
Just from grain alone, the family’s income would double. With that in mind, he planned to hire more tenant farmers and have them clear the thirty mu of wasteland. Wasteland was hard to open, yes, but once it was cleared, the harvest from that land could be split fifty–fifty with the tenant farmers. There would certainly be people willing to do the work.
After hearing his calculations, Qin Xiaoman puckered his lips again. It wasn’t ideal, but there was no other way.
On the way back, Qin Xiaoman remained a little dispirited. He had placed quite a lot of hope in the reward for Du Heng’s success this time, especially after days of one congratulation after another that had made everything feel unreal, as if their family’s life was about to change overnight.
Now it seemed that, aside from the nearly fifty taels of silver that Du Heng had already spent, and these thirty mu of land that would require careful management, there was nothing visibly better to show for it.
Feeling unhappy, he flopped forward and rested his head on the counter.
“It’s raining.”
There was a sudden commotion outside. Idle shopkeepers hurriedly grabbed their stools and dispersed. The two of them looked out and saw that most of the bluestone street was already wet.
“Alright, let’s close up and head home,” Du Heng said. “Once the road’s soaked, it won’t be easy to travel.”
One autumn rain brought one autumn chill. As soon as the rain fell, the cold became obvious.
Qin Xiaoman sucked in a breath of cool air as he drove the carriage.
“It’s really cold this late in autumn. We can’t even drive the carriage fast—what if it slips.”
He let out a long sigh. “I wonder when we’ll finally be able to stop rushing back to the village on rainy days like this.”
“Thinking about living in the county seat?” Du Heng rubbed Qin Xiaoman’s icy hands. “I heard you went to look at houses while I was taking the provincial exam?”
“I just took a look,” Qin Xiaoman said. “Too expensive. They wanted three hundred and sixty taels. They were being sincere and didn’t jack up the price, but when I counted what we have on hand, we’re short by a huge margin. Even if we smashed pots and sold iron to buy it, we’d still need money to keep all our businesses running—how could I dare touch it? Besides, someone else had their eye on that house too. How could I ask the owner to hold it for us?”
Du Heng asked, “Then why didn’t you tell me?”
“It didn’t work out anyway, so why bring it up? And you’ve had so many social obligations lately—I didn’t want you worrying about it.”
Du Heng rubbed Qin Xiaoman’s hair and pulled him closer into his arms so he wouldn’t get cold.
By the time they got home, the autumn rain was pouring harder and harder, mixed with layers of fog. Before long, it was impossible to tell east from west.
Both of them were stiff with cold, but thankfully hot water had already been prepared at home.
After dinner and a bath, they finally warmed up.
Qin Xiaoman finished washing, wiped his hair, and went back into the room. Just as he was about to pour himself a cup of hot water, he looked up—and shuddered.
There was Du Heng, dressed only in his underclothes, lying sideways on the bed with his long legs draped down. His collar gaped faintly open, his hair loose, one hand propping up his face as he patted the bed at him with a meaningful look.
It was like he’d been possessed by a ghost.
“What are you doing?!”
Qin Xiaoman stared at him in shock, spilling hot water straight onto the back of his hand.
Du Heng sat up. “You don’t like it?”
Qin Xiaoman wiped at the water. “If you keep this up, I’m calling a Daoist priest.”
Du Heng pouted. Heartless, honestly.
“Where’s Chengyi? It’s cold today with the rain. Whenever it’s cold, he usually loves burrowing into the blankets.”
“I had Qin’er carry him to the other room to sleep,” Qin Xiaoman said.
He gulped down the water. “What are you trying to do?”
Du Heng smiled at him. “Isn’t it obvious?”
Qin Xiaoman stood by the table, refusing to go over.
“What’s wrong? No mood today?”
Qin Xiaoman tossed aside the cloth he’d been using to dry his hair, kicked off his shoes, and lay straight down on the bed.
“It’s too cold. I don’t feel like moving. I just want to sleep. Maybe there’s another baby on the way.”
Du Heng nearly bounced off the bed. “Really?!”
Qin Xiaoman quickly grabbed the corner of his robe. “I was just making it up—don’t tell me you believed it! There’s nothing there but undigested dinner.”
Du Heng quietly lay back down. “You looked so lazy and unwilling to move, I thought it might be true.”
“Alright. Go to sleep.”
Du Heng rested his forehead against Qin Xiaoman’s. “But I really miss you. I’ve been out so long—haven’t you missed me at all?”
“I can miss you with my eyes closed,” Qin Xiaoman said. “No need to move. It’s cold out there, with the rain pattering down.”
“I’ll do the moving. You don’t have to.”
Qin Xiaoman said coolly, “You’ve had plenty of excuses like that before.”
“I never meant to dodge it,” Du Heng replied. “I was just embarrassed, that’s all.”
“Your success keeps climbing—looks like your hide’s gotten thicker too.”
Qin Xiaoman looked at Du Heng. “You were in the prefectural city all those days—don’t tell me you didn’t go out and sow some wild oats?”
Du Heng narrowed his eyes. “Then take a look and see whether I did.”
He flipped the quilt up and covered Qin Xiaoman head and all beneath it.
“I already said I don’t want to—mmph—”
Whether you want to or not.
Some time later, Qin Xiaoman, limbs weak and unsteady, shoved the person who clearly had no sense of restraint away and refused to continue no matter what.
Du Heng was right in the middle of things and unwilling to stop. He pinned Qin Xiaoman by the waist. Looking at the flushed face and unfocused eyes beneath him, he found it even harder to hold back.
Breathing lightly, he sounded like a hawker standing at the entrance of his shop, trying to lure customers inside. “There’s something new.”
Qin Xiaoman’s head felt foggy. “What’s new?”
“A new trick.”
Qin Xiaoman sobered up a good bit at once. Instead of being tempted by Du Heng’s words, he grew alert. “Where did you learn some ‘new trick’ from?!”
Du Heng pulled out a booklet from beside the bed. “From a book, of course!”
The booklet looked familiar to Qin Xiaoman—it seemed to be one of those introductory readers Du Heng had brought home not long after they were married. He relaxed a little.
Du Heng lifted his brows. “Want to try it?”
Qin Xiaoman snorted. “Not focusing on your studies, yet you still have time to read this sort of thing.”
“Wasn’t this stuffed into my book chest by you before I left for the exams, saying I could look at it whenever I missed you? How come now you’re turning around and blaming me?”
Qin Xiaoman felt a bit embarrassed. “Who knew you’d actually read it.”
Waiting around in the prefectural city with nothing to do, long nights stretched on—one had to find something to pass the time.
“When I read it, I was thinking of you the whole time. Want to try?”
Qin Xiaoman looked at the man braced over him and muttered, “Then why didn’t you try it earlier?”
“I forgot.”
“No.” Qin Xiaoman turned his head aside. “Another time.”
The words had barely left his mouth when he heard a jingling sound. A long string of keys suddenly appeared before his eyes.
One glance was enough to tell they were for a residence.
Qin Xiaoman’s eyes widened. He turned to Du Heng. “Where did these keys come from?”
“Obviously, the keys to our house in the county seat.”
Du Heng leaned in close. “So—do you like it?”
Qin Xiaoman pushed himself upright and asked seriously, “Is it the house in Fujixiang, the one that belonged to Old Physician Zhang?”
Du Heng nodded.
“But wasn’t that let to Wang Yikang—” Before Qin Xiaoman could finish, it clicked. “You reported Wang Yikang and took the house back from him?”
“How is that taking it?” Du Heng said. “He was squatting in Physician Zhang’s house without paying, and the owner never wanted to sell it to him in the first place. I went to find Physician Zhang—he was practically beating gongs and drums to sell the house to us. I just did him a favor along the way.”
Qin Xiaoman was both shocked and delighted. He had had no idea that amid all Du Heng’s social obligations these days, he had still found time to take care of this.
Not even minding how cold the keys were, he tucked them into his bare chest like a treasure.
“Wait—if you’ve got the keys already, doesn’t that mean you’ve paid for it?!”
“Of course.”
“Where did you get that much silver?!”
Du Heng let out a breath and carefully went through the accounts with Qin Xiaoman.
Now that he had passed the examination, all of the family’s commercial taxes were exempt. The paper shop brought in about ten taels a month, and the grain shop about twenty—together, thirty taels.
The two shops in the prefectural city were even more profitable. The salt shop earned fifty taels a month, and the iron shop thirty, for a total of eighty taels.
In other words, the family’s existing shops were now bringing in over a hundred taels a month.
In the future, with more land and greater grain yields, the grain shop would earn even more.
Of course, the money for the house still came from dipping into the family’s savings and adding a bit more on top. Even with shop income, one couldn’t conjure that much silver out of thin air all at once.
But even borrowing to buy the house posed no worries. In two or three months the money could be paid back. Even if they had emptied the coffers to buy it, there would be nothing to fear.
“Why didn’t you tell me earlier that we had all this!”
Qin Xiaoman punched Du Heng lightly in the fist. He had thought there was no reward at all—who would have guessed Du Heng had been keeping this from him.
“I just wanted to finish calculating everything before telling you, so you’d be happier,” Du Heng said. “I married into the family—this all belongs to you anyway.”
Du Heng had heard that once one passed the provincial exam, life could change overnight. Before, he had thought that aside from tax exemptions and the chance to become an official, it wouldn’t make such a dramatic difference.
He had even wondered how county gentry, with such high status, actually made their living.
He knew that because of tax exemptions, wealthy farmers and merchants would be willing to attach themselves to a juren, sheltering under his wings to avoid the court’s heavy taxes, and in return offering the juren a generous compensation.
But scholars prized their purity and reputation, seeing themselves as upright and untainted. Wanting to preserve a good name for future official appointments, many juren were unwilling to entangle themselves with merchants and be stained by the smell of money.
So naturally, they refused to act as shields for wealthy farmers and merchants.
Only after Du Heng himself passed the exam did he truly understand how it worked. Layer upon layer of rewards came down, already enough for a juren to live with comfort and dignity.
Someone like Du Heng, who already had some family assets and had placed highly in the examinations, could naturally live even more comfortably.
It was just that he had been busy lately and hadn’t yet sat down to show Qin Xiaoman all the figures.
“I’m going to check the almanac right now and pick an auspicious day so we can move in as soon as possible!”
Du Heng grabbed the person who was yanking up his trousers and about to jump out of bed. “Didn’t you say you were tired?”
“We’re moving into a new house—who’d still be tired!”
“Pick a day tomorrow morning,” Du Heng said, shaking Qin Xiaoman’s hand. “It’s raining and cold.”
Qin Xiaoman’s brows lifted slightly. It wasn’t that it was raining and cold—it was clearly that Du Heng wanted company but was too embarrassed to say it outright.
Playing the role of a considerate spouse, Qin Xiaoman smiled and snuggled back into Du Heng’s arms.
The very next day, Du Heng and Qin Xiaoman chose an auspicious date close at hand and began the move. Before that, there was plenty to keep them busy.
Qin Xiaoman had Shui Qincai arrange for two hired hands to clean the house from top to bottom.
A two-courtyard residence was no small place. Before moving in, every room had to be treated with insect-repelling powder, and the floors even needed to be washed down with water.
There were more than ten rooms of varying sizes. Cleaning them all was no easy task. The outer garden was also sizable, and since the house had been vacant for a month or two after being put up for sale, no one had tended to it.
By late autumn, fallen leaves from the plants and trees in the garden had been blown everywhere by the wind. The place looked a complete mess, and cleaning it up was another headache.
Only Chengyi was happy not having to work, chasing after the leaves skittering across the ground in the garden.
Once the main gate was shut, the space was wide enough for a child to run freely, and there was no longer any worry about him being snatched away by someone.
Qin Xiaoman, however, was exhausted to the point that his arms and legs felt weak. When he got home, he told Du Heng that they really ought to hire two more servants. After all, a juren household did not pay corvée taxes, and that applied to servants as well.
If they didn’t hire help, there was no way the two of them alone could manage a house this large.
In truth, even if Qin Xiaoman hadn’t said anything, Du Heng was already planning to do so. It wasn’t just that the house was bigger and needed people to watch over it—now he was a proper county gentryman with the prospect of holding office. Matters would only grow more complicated. Without two servants to run errands and handle odd jobs, how would anything get done?
Besides managing household affairs, they also needed strong men to guard the property.
Arranging this was straightforward enough. Du Heng went through this year’s accounts for the hired farmhands and called for people to clear weeds and reclaim the newly acquired thirty mu of wasteland. Anyone interested could send their sons or grandsons.
Within days, six people were brought in—four younger ones and two older.
The younger ones could work in the inner courtyard, while the older ones could run errands and serve as attendants.
Once they moved to the county seat, Dazhuang would stay behind in the village to handle affairs there, so the old house would still have someone watching it.
All in all, it was a stretch of frantic, battle-like busyness. On the sixth day of the tenth lunar month, Qin Xiaoman, his husband, and their child packed up everything—cart after cart—and moved the entire household to the county seat.
Early that morning, villagers who had heard the news all gathered at the Qin family’s gate to watch.
“So you’re really going to live in the county seat?”
“Will you still come back?”
“Xiaoman really is blessed. Du Heng just kept passing exams one after another. It’s only been a few years since he came to our village, and now he’s already a juren.”
“From now on it’s nothing but good days ahead. I heard the house in the county seat is a two-courtyard place, in a prime location—Fujixiang!”
“Looking across the whole village, only the Qin family has made it this far. Two juren in one household—absolutely incredible.”
Some villagers asked questions, others chatted among themselves.
Over the years, there had been arguments and minor conflicts, but Qin Xiaoman had grown up in the village. The older generation had watched him grow from a child.
Now that the whole family was moving to the county seat, no longer running into people on the village paths or out in the fields like before, it was hard not to feel a twinge of parting sorrow.
“Xiaoman, live well in the county seat. If you ever want some of the village’s humble fruits or vegetables, tell your auntie and we’ll bring them to you.”
“If there’s ever anything you need, just say the word—we’re all fellow villagers!”
Qin Xiaoman was moved as well. Despite past quarrels, there were still more than twenty years of shared life and affection.
He said his goodbyes in return. “If any of you need anything in the future, come find Du Heng and me. Take care, everyone.”
Qin Xiong, who had come to help with the move, drove the ox cart and tried to reassure everyone. “The county seat isn’t far. We’ll be coming back often enough. What’s with all this fuss?”
After some persuasion, they finally set off slowly along the main village road.
Watching three or four ox and horse carts roll along the dirt path, the Qin family’s strong hands driving them, bustling toward the county seat and toward brighter days ahead—
Zhao Family’s wife, turning the soil in a nearby field, let out a long sigh.
She looked at Qin Xiaoman, holding a child as round and fair as a jade dumpling, sitting calmly by the side of the carriage, and her heart felt unsettled.
This ge’er was no longer the reckless youth who used to run wild through the countryside. He had grown much steadier.
She knew that in this lifetime, she would never again be able to reach the Qin family’s threshold. Who could have imagined that the lame man Qin Xiaoman had brought home would lead him to the life he had now?
She didn’t know whether the villagers still remembered the teasing and mockery of those earlier days. She herself remembered all too clearly how little faith she had had back then.
All she could think was how unpredictable the world was. Now they had put down their hoes and could order people around as masters, while the Zhao family was still buried in the fields, enduring wind and cold as they dug the earth.
Zhao Qi watched the Qin family’s flourishing scene, his heart a jumble of emotions. For a moment, he didn’t know whether he should feel relieved that Qin Xiaoman had not ended up with him, or grieved that Qin Xiaoman now lived a life he could never have given him.
In any case, this chapter had been turned.
All he knew was that from now on, he would no longer see Qin Xiaoman around the village.
What he did not know was that this farewell would last many years. The next time he saw Qin Xiaoman, both of them would already have gray at their temples.
Lord Du, having retired from office, would return to his hometown with his spouse. The county magistrate would lead a group of local gentry and scholars to greet them at the city gate. From within the crowd, Zhao Qi would catch only a fleeting glimpse.