The Prestigious Family’s Young Miss and The Farmer – Chapter 46 Part 4

Chapter 46 Step Three – Lay a Trap Part 3

So, actually, what happened was that…… Ater they reached the county, they looked for a small inn to stay along with the schoolmate surnamed Chen and his father.

As the silver He-shi gave them was only a bit, the two of them rented only one room. Naturally, Yang Xuezhang took the bed, leaving Yang Tiegen to make his bed on the floor.

That day they rested in the inn. As they arrived a bit earlier, Yang Xuezhang and his schoolmate, surnamed Chen, still had a day to spend at their leisure.

The next day before the daybreak, both of them signed in for the exam at the county office. Before stepping in, they were bubbling with complacence and confidence.

Yang Tiegen and Schoolmate Chen’s father waited outside the county office until the afternoon when the exam candidates gradually started flowing out of the venue.

Yang Xuezhang and Schoolmate Chen also walked out whilst supporting each other with deathly pale faces. They appeared to be battered out of their senses, seemingly not daring to believe, as if they had suffered a huge blow.

Yang Tiegen hurriedly questioned the two of them, only to find that – after Yang Xuezhang and Schoolmate Chen entered the examination room, and opened the question paper, ready to answer them confidently.

But to their dismay, despair shrouded their faces when they saw the subject of the literary work. The two glanced at the topic for the eight-part essay and then at the topic for the poetry.  At once, their faces paled as if thunderous lightning struck them down. It turned out that the topics that Scholar Hu gave them were completely different from the examination topic.

At that moment, both of them were no longer in the frame of mind to continue with the exam. All of their thoughts were filled with where the situation went amiss. With their brains occupied by such thoughts, they couldn’t even put a single word on the answer script until the last minute of the exam and had to submit a blank piece of paper. Only when all the candidates started coming out of the exam room, the two people soullessly walked out of the venue while supporting each other. 

After listening to two of them recount the situation, Yang Tiegen and Schoolmate Chen’s father became dumbstruck, not knowing what to do. But looking at both of their terror-stricken and soulless appearances, the two quickly escorted them to the inn.

After listlessly being at the inn till the evening, Yang Xuezhang and Schoolmate Chen became sober. After discussing a bit, they both set off to look for several other exam candidates who had bought questions like them and had come to the county to take the exam, with Yang Tiegen and Father Chen in tow.

Most of the exam candidates who came to the county stayed in the small nearby inns. Yang Xuezhang and Schoolmate Chen were aware of the addresses of their accommodation.

After meeting all of them, they found others were also in a similar situation as them. Only then did they realize that all of them were scammed.

All the people who bought questions from Scholar Hu were swindled by him. None of the questions were correct. But ironically, they had invested a lot of time to prepare these topics.

All the scholars, who were deceived, sat together for a long time. Discussions went for half a day before they all unanimously decided to look for that fellow by surname Hu the next day.

But again, where should they go to look for him?

Summing up all the information they had on him, the only thing they knew was that he was surnamed Hu, was a native of Xuyi county, and few of his friends and relatives resided in Luoyun town. When the exam questions given to him by were themselves fake, his personal information might also be fake.

But, in any case, it was a matter of 50 taels of shining white silver. All of these exam candidates didn’t come from well-off families. To pool over these 50 taels of silver, they had almost hollowed out the entire house.

This search was bound to be unpropitious was an imaginable search. They searched all over the county and kept making inquiries here and there for two days to no avail. Moreover, this matter was but an act of cheating. As such, they also couldn’t make it big nor report it to authorities. They could only try looking for him discreetly.

After an unfruitful search of two days, after another discussion, several of them could only go back to the town to try looking for him there. During this while, the reproach and inconsolable grievousness od their respective family members, who accompanied them, were indescribable. 

Back in Luoyun Town, Yang Xuezhang stayed at Schoolmate Chen’s place, intending to continue to look for that Scholar Hu along with the others. Realizing that several days had passed and he couldn’t return home this while, he sent Yang Tiegen to return home and let everyone know of teh situation.

After hearing everything, He-shi at one started bawling. Even Yang laoyezi’s face paled. 

The first branch’s couple became lifeless, seemingly unable to believe the matter would turn out in the manner.

Yang Tiegen came to know this matter long back and was along with them, helping them search all these days. As such, at this moment, his face was expressionless. Conversely, Yao-shi and Lin Qingwan exchanged a look, unaware of what to speak. 

“Heavens! How could one live after this? Those were 50 teals of shining white silver, ah….”

At this moment, He-shi could care the least if her son could become a xucai. Her entire mind was solely preoccupied with those 50 taels of silver, feeling distressed to death. This time her cry was truly filled with grievances. Slapping her thighs, she bawled terribly, washing her face with tears. 

Wang-shi jolted up from the shock and jumped high to clamor. 

“Mother, what do you think is to be done? Those 50 taels of silver, our entire family’s savings, are lost just like that?”

However, no one paid any heed to her. At this moment, both He-shi and Yang laoyezi were deeply immersed in their sorrows and agony. Where would they have the strength to pay attention to her?

“This sort of person ought to be chopped into tens of thousands of pieces. How about we go report it to authorities?” Yang Tieshuan’s teeth were also itching with hatred. 

Yang Tiegen, who had been sitting there with his drooped down, raised his head and said a word. “We can’t make a huge ruckus out of this matter. If a big deal is made, you can’t escape the responsibility. After all, this is nothing but cheating. If this matter gets known outside, it could either become huge or small one.”

Yang Tiegen couldn’t comprehend the connection within and had merely come to know this while listening to those students’ discussions.

At first, after listening to her eldest son’s proposal, He-shi halted crying, feeling this idea might be good. But after hearing these words, she once again started bawling.

Can’t report to the authorities, can’t find the person even after the search – it seems they truly didn’t have any way out of this.

The room became quiet. Only He-shi’s grievous sobbing sounds could be heard. 

After standing for a while, everyone retired to their rooms. Lin Qingwan, after going back to the room, recounted the entire matter to Yang Tiezhu.

After listening to everything, Yang Tiezhu didn’t even have a bit of expression on his face. After a good while, he slowly opened his mouth to say – 

“At the beginning itself, I wanted to them to not get involved in any dishonest practices. But after looking at father’s, mother’s, and laosi’s appearances, I deemed they would not pay heed to my words.”

Fearing that he might blame himself, Lin Qingwan placated him: “This matter has nothing to do with you. Don’t blame yourself.”

Yang Tiezhu replied with a smile, “I am not blaming myself. I was just thinking….” After a moment of silence, he said again: “That time, regardless of my life and death, if father and mother would have known that giving money for laosi’s exam would be futile – then would they have made a different choice?”

There are no ifs. Many things are like that; there are no ifs and what-ifs!

Yang Tiezhu also seemed to care about this matter a lot and wasn’t as calm as he appears to be on the surface.

Lin Qingwan grasped his hand with a smile and softly said: “Everyone holds something or someone important in their heart. In order to protect that, they can sacrifice everything else…. just like Yang Xuezhang’s position in father and mother’s hearts…. just like your position in my heart. You…. still have me….”

Yes, I still have you! In the eyes of the man, who was usually as strong as steel, tears welled up as he tightly squeezed his wife’s hand. Yes! I still have you! From this very moment, you and I will support each other as we live to a ripe old age in conjugal bliss and ignore all other irrelevant people….

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Chapter 47 part 1 – Teaser

The main room was unlit and obscure. But the lamp in the east room was lit, enabling them to distinguish the situation within the room vaguely.

Entering in, Wang-shi’s disheveled hair and clamorous hysterical appearance came into their sight. Seated on the kang, He-shi was trembling with rage. While Yang laoyezi, also seated on the kang, was taking a drag on his tobacco from a pipe, without any utterances.

Yang Tiegen took out a flame stick and lit a lamp. Under the illuminated lamp, vivid expressions of Wang-shi and He-shi’s grim face came into Lin Qingwan’s view through wisps of smoke that filled the entire room.

“Eh? Do you have to be biased to this extent? Every time you feel uncomfortable in your heart, do you have to dray the entire family along with you…can’t you hear the kid’s wails of hunger till here, ah?”