Chapter 54: Family Joy

Wang Jinbao was squatting at the inner room's doorway, taking puffs from his dry-tobacco pipe. Hearing the news, his pipe almost dropped to the ground, and he scrambled to his feet in a flurry.

Mother Wang was wiping her hands on her apron while hurriedly running out of the kitchen.

Sister-in-law Liu was holding a wooden basin, having just finished hanging out the clothes.

Huniu and Gouwa rushed out of the inner room like a pair of cannonballs, bounding around Wang Erniu and shouting, "A letter? Third Brother's/Third Uncle's letter? Quickly, let's see what it says!"

Soon, the main room was packed with people, and the oil lamp was purposely lit.

Wang Jinbao clutched the thick envelope, turning it over and over. His fingers traced back and forth over the words "Urgent" and "To be personally opened by Wang Jinbao," his face a mixture of anticipation and nervousness.

He recognized his own name and those of his family members, but the rest of the characters were a mystery—some he could vaguely make out, while others were entirely unknown to him.

"Huniu! Gouwa!" Wang Jinbao handed the letter to his daughter, who was staring at it with eager eyes. "Which of you... recognizes more characters? Read it to your dad/grandfather!"

Huniu snatched the letter and puffed out her chest. "I'll read it! Gouwa, sit down and listen!"

Truth be told, the two of them were neck and neck in ignorance. Back when Wang Mingyuan tried to teach them to read, after just half a year, neither of them could sit still.

Every time studying was brought up, they would complain of aches and pains here and there, and in the end, they only managed to barely learn all the characters under the stern pressure of their father/grandfather, Wang Jinbao.

Now, Huniu carefully broke the sealing wax, pulled out the letter paper, and cleared her throat.

Under the lamplight, her dark, ruddy face was pulled tight. She read haltingly, stuttering and getting stuck whenever she encountered a character with many strokes, making her scratch her head in frustration.

Gouwa stretched his neck out from the side, chiming in from time to time with reminders.

"Prefectural... prefectural examination... the... the release of the roll... Class... Class A..."

Huniu's face turned red with the strain, when suddenly her eyes lit up, and her voice shot up, crisp and bright.

"First! Class A, First! Dad! Mom! Third Brother won first place! The top scorer! He's the top scorer!"

"The top scorer?" Wang Jinbao drew in a sharp breath, and his tobacco pipe dropped with a clatter onto the floor.

He was stunned for a moment, and then he gave his thigh a fierce smack. "Good! Splendid! The top scorer! I knew it!"

"Those five taels of silver were worth burning! Those Western-region paper maidservants weren't burned in vain! The ancestors have shown their spirit! Manifested great spirit indeed!"

However, that last sentence was something he only dared to shout in his heart, not out loud. First, he was afraid Zhao Shi would give him grief if she found out, and second, because this was a secret between him and Daniu; he hadn't even dared to tell Eryu.

He was so excited that he spun around in circles inside the room, rubbing his hands together, wishing he could immediately go to the ancestral graves and burn a few more bundles of paper money.

Mother Wang's eyes instantly reddened, and she raised the corner of her tunic to wipe her eyes.

"The top scorer... My boy... Just how much hardship must he have suffered, how many late nights must he have endured..."

His eldest brother is away in the prefectural city; who knows if he can take proper care of him...

I wonder if he's lost weight...

I worry if his winter cough has acted up since he went to the prefectural city..."

"Oh my goodness, mother! Sanlang is truly bringing honor to the family!" Eldest Sister-in-law Liu beamed with joy. She completely forgot to put down the bowl of porridge she had just picked up and turned to dash out of the courtyard.

Before anyone could ask, she anxiously blurted out, "I must go tell Second Aunt, Aunt Ma, Aunt Liu, Aunt Zhang, Aunt Wu next door... and everyone else! Our family's Sanlang has made something of himself! The top scorer! Number one!"

With the bowl still in hand and wind at her heels, she went from door to door visiting neighbors, her voice so loud that half the village could hear her.

Second Brother Wang Erniu cracked a wide grin, let out a few silly, happy chuckles, and suddenly turned to head outside as well.

Wang Jinbao called out to him, "Second lad! It's already dusk, where are you off to?"

Without looking back, Wang Erniu tossed back a muffled, stubborn reply:

"I'm happy! I've got strength in me! I'm going to plow those five mu of slope land at the east end of the village!"

Before his voice had even faded, he had already hoisted a plow over his shoulder and strode off into the twilight.

He had to vent this pent-up wave of excitement entirely into the earth.

Second Sister-in-law Qian stroked her heavily distended belly, an uncontainable joy and relief resting on her face.

With a top-scorer Third Uncle like him, when her child was eventually born and grew up, their backbones would be a full three inches stiffer when it came time to talk about marriage!

And who knows, maybe when the child grows up, he can study too, and just like his Third Uncle, become a recognized scholar!

She quietly glanced at her father-in-law, who was rubbing his hands in excitement, and her mother-in-law, who was wiping away tears, while calculating in her heart that she needed to make two fine outfits for Third Uncle and send them over via the courier agency soon, especially since summer was almost approaching.

The happiest of all were Huniu and Gouwa.

Huniu's little face was flushed red as she held the letter, looking at it back and forth as if there were gold on the paper. "Third Brother is amazing! The top scorer! Even more amazing than the young master of Wealthy Man Wu's family in town!"

Meanwhile, Gouwa asked Zhao Shi with bright, sparkling eyes, "Grandma, Third Uncle won first place. Is our family going to throw a banquet?"

"Grandma, a banquet, I want to have a banquet!" little niece Zhuniu chimed in from the side as well.

Hearing this, Zhao Shi turned her head, finally snapping out of her emotional reverie.

She immediately reacted, glaring angrily at Gouwa. "Eat! All you think about is eating! I don't know if you were a starving ghost in your past life, because all that's on your mind this lifetime is eating! It's bad enough that you're a glutton, but you have to corrupt your sister too!!"

"I reckon I haven't beaten you enough! Your Third Uncle has been studying so hard for his exams, and instead of showing any concern, all you care about is eating! I wonder if you inherited this from your gluttonous mother—giving birth to you made you a little glutton too!"

With that, she took off her shoe and chased Gouwa all around the courtyard, trying to hit him. But Gouwa was no longer the little urchin of a few years ago who could be easily caught and thrashed; now he knew how to run.

Suddenly, the entire courtyard was in an uproar of flying chickens and jumping dogs.

Wang Jinbao watched this scene and laughed heartily; he was long used to such spectacles.

What did being a glutton matter? As long as a child's character was upright and didn't interfere with important matters, what was wrong with eating a bit more? Which member of the old Wang family couldn't eat?

However, it did seem like there was one person who couldn't eat...

That evening, beneath the dim, flickering oil lamp, mother Zhao Shi asked for the letter back—the one that had been wrinkled all over by Huniu's reading. She made Huniu read it dozens of times until she had practically memorized it.

She leaned close to the lamp, her fingers trembling as she traced character by character, as if she could feel the warmth of her son thousands of miles away.

When she traced the passage describing the sights and sounds of Chang'an City, she would sigh, marveling at how vast the prefectural city must be and wondering if her boy would get lost since he was only eleven years old... (A mother only counted his actual age).

When she traced the sentence about buying her a hairpin, she would smile and murmur, "To think my boy still remembers to buy his mother a hairpin. Mother already has almost a whole drawer of hairpins you've sent, I can't even wear them all..."

When she traced the part about making new friends, she would nod repeatedly, saying, "My boy is still as kind-hearted as he was in elementary schooling, able to make so many good friends. He just needs to be a bit more worldly and not fall in with bad people..."

When she traced the mention of winning the approval of the instructor, she would fret and chatter, "My boy must be rising early and sleeping late to study diligently, just to earn the instructor's favor. But my boy must also take care of his health..."

When she traced the part about the eldest brother taking care of the third brother, she would scold, "That lout of an eldest son, I wonder if he can even take proper care of the third one. If not, I'll go to the prefectural city for the next provincial exam..."

As for tracing the part about answering the exam questions—well, she didn't understand any of that, and could only mutter, "My boy has always been so clever, I hope my boy stays clever always..."

…………

All kinds of worries, pride, heartache... these emotions intertwined in her gentle eyes.

Meanwhile, the father took the sheet of paper that read "Personally opened by Father, written by Daniur" and found a secluded, empty corner. He cautiously unfolded it to find only two large, crudely scrawled characters written crookedly upon it: "Keep going!"

*Damn it, that clumsy blockhead,* Wang Jinbao cursed inwardly. *If I'd known, when I was forcing Huniu and Gouwa, I should've forced him to learn a few more characters too!*

However, he had grasped the meaning behind the slip of paper; it was a secret shared only between him and his eldest son.

As for Huniu and Gouwa, they were excitedly discussing what delicious treats their Third Brother/Third Uncle would bring back for them...

The room remained noisy and bustling, with everyone excited about something different, yet that lingering joy welling up from the depths of their hearts twisted together into a single strand, warmly filling this vibrant, life-filled peasant farmhouse.