258, Goodbye Cousin

258, Goodbye Cousin

"Opening the ancestral hall——"

Following the order from the old patriarch, the door of the ancestral hall was pushed open from the outside.

This time, Lu Mingfei walked at the front of the team. He was the first to step into the gate of the ancestral hall and led everyone behind him into the hall.

Lu Youtian, along with his wife and youngest son, stood beside his eldest son. He looked at his eldest son standing in front of him, his eyes full of pride.

If he had previously returned to the village with the thought of avenging his past humiliation and making his family, who had once abandoned him, regret it, this time, he found that he had let go of many things and no longer harbored the same resentment towards his biased parents and the brother who had hurt him.

One must look forward. Their family was getting better and better. The eldest son had achieved top spot in the imperial examination and was about to enter the Hanlin Academy as an official. The second son was also intelligent and a learned child, and he was sure to follow his brother and achieve top spot in the imperial examination. Therefore, he let go of those insignificant people and past events.

This time, Liu Sanniang also returned to the village with her husband and two sons. This was the first time she came back here after leaving the village for more than ten years.

When she returned to the village this time, she found it had changed dramatically. It was no longer what she remembered. The villagers she once knew had aged even more, and the women her own age looked weathered. The children had grown up, and many new faces had appeared.

When their family of four came back to the village this time, all the villagers praised them highly and praised them.

Even those family members who bullied them in the past became submissive in front of them this time and no longer dared to be as arrogant and domineering as before.

[As expected, people change.] Liu Sanniang thought to herself.

When everyone walked into the inner temple and stood in front of the tablets of their ancestors.

The emcee standing in front shouted loudly: "Ancestors of the Lu family, today, Lu Mingfei, a descendant of the Lu family, has passed the imperial examination and has won the first place. I have come to inform you of this. I hope that if you know about this in your afterlife, you will bless our descendants of the Lu family to have a smooth official career and a step-by-step promotion."

"May the descendants of our Lu family be blessed with talents. May the Lu family grow stronger and stronger, and may our descendants be prosperous and safe."

Lu Mingfei took the cigarette handed to him by someone else, bowed three times to the tablet of his brother and ancestors, and then inserted the three incense sticks in his hand into the incense burner, completing the ceremony.

After putting the cigarette in the stove, he walked aside to make room for the person behind him.

Unexpectedly, when he walked out here, he met his cousin Lu Zhiyuan.

This cousin was no longer the young man in his memory who always wore a blue shirt and dressed himself like a scholar. Instead, he had become a fat, middle-aged man with a big head and ears and a big brain.

"Seventh, Seventh Brother." Lu Zhiyuan smiled ingratiatingly when he saw his cousin again. But only he knew in his heart how jealous he was when he saw his cousin pass the exams from Tongsheng to Xiucai, and then from Xiucai to Juren and Zhuangyuan.

In contrast to his cousin's successful imperial examinations, he himself failed again and again and could not even qualify as a scholar.

But he knew in his heart that his cousin was no longer the cousin who allowed him to bully him yesterday, but had become the top scholar chosen by the emperor and would soon become an official in the court.

"It's my eldest cousin." Lu Mingfei almost didn't recognize his eldest cousin. His eyes swept over Lu Zhiyuan and he couldn't help laughing.

Years ago, he had heard some stories about the Lu family's eldest branch from his father and two other cousins. This eldest cousin had followed his wife to help out at the shop on her side of the family's family's side, and later became the shopkeeper. As for the woman he had brought back from outside, it was said that his eldest aunt and uncle had teamed up to tie her up and sell her off.

The son born to that woman was raised by his uncle and aunt.

Lu Zhiyuan followed his first wife and her two children to live with his father-in-law, and lived a good life relying on his father-in-law's family.

However, Lu Mingfei looked down on Lu Zhiyuan and the people from the Lu family's main branch. So when he saw his eldest cousin here today, he knew that he had come back specifically to find him, probably hoping to establish some kind of relationship with his cousin so that he could do something more convenient in the future.

"Yes, yes, we two brothers haven't seen each other for many years. I didn't expect that the seventh brother still remembers his elder brother." Lu Zhiyuan nodded repeatedly and pulled his son who was following him to meet this cousin.

Lu Mingfei had no ill will towards the child. He just looked at his little nephew, nodded, and walked away.

On this day, they return to the village not only to worship their ancestors, but also to hold a banquet in the village.

However, as long as their family paid, the villagers would take care of everything else. So they returned to the village to burn incense for their ancestors, had a meal with everyone, and after a few words, the four of them left the village after noon.

That afternoon, the family returned to the city.

Originally, the family wanted to set up a few tables of dinner in the city, but Lu Mingfei didn't want to be too high-profile at this time, so he asked his father not to do it. So their family just set up two simple tables of dinner in the store and invited his adoptive parents and their family, as well as the employees of the store to have a meal together.

After finishing his family matters, he took a day off to visit several teachers, to inform them of the good news and to give them generous gifts.

By the way, I also made an appointment to get together with Ye Zhuoran, Zhang Lingxuan, and their senior brother, who are old friends with whom I have a good relationship.

After spending two days arranging things in the city, Lu Mingfei told his family that he was going out for a walk and would be back for a while.

Compared to those second- and third-class Jinshi who are still waiting for the Ministry of Personnel to assign them positions, the positions of the top three in the first class have already been decided, so they don't have to run around for positions.

There were still three months left before the deadline to report to the Hanlin Academy. These three months were reserved for those who lived far away to return home to visit their relatives, but his family was in Kyoto Prefecture, so he saved the time spent on the journey.

However, Lu Mingfei did not plan to report to the Hanlin Academy too early. He had studied hard for so many years, and had not had a winter or summer vacation in more than ten years. So this time he planned to give himself a long vacation to make up for the holidays he had missed in the past, and then report to the Hanlin Academy after the Chinese Valentine's Day.

Anyway, he has already passed the exam and the emperor has arranged a position for him. We can't just revoke his position just because he didn't report to the unit in advance, right?

He had discussed this matter with Zhang Lingxuan a few days ago, and they both decided to report to the Hanlin Academy later.

As for Fu Lianxin, they didn't even bother to greet him. They weren't very familiar with him to begin with. If he wanted to go to work at the Hanlin Academy early, then he would have gone. There was no need for them to greet him and ask him to go later, right?

However, he and Zhang Lingxuan are quite familiar with each other, so it wouldn't seem too abrupt for the two of them to discuss such matters together.

…

It took two days to arrange things in the city. He visited all the teachers he needed to visit and met all the friends he needed to meet. Early on the third day, Lu Mingfei got on the carriage that Zhao Lang came to pick him up. The two of them left the city together and went directly to Zhao Lang's farm on the outskirts of the city.

He told his family that he was going out of town for a trip, and he wasn't lying to them.

They stayed at Zhuangzi for three days. After Lu Mingfei gave the drawings he had drawn to the craftsmen to make the finished products, he and Zhao Lang took a walk around Kyoto Prefecture.

However, because Zhao Lang could not leave Beijing for too long, they only stayed outside for half a month before returning to the city.

After returning to the city, Lu Mingfei did not go home. After learning that everything was fine at home, he stayed in Prince Ding's Mansion to help Zhao Lang deal with the assets left by Prince Ding's Mansion in Kyoto Prefecture.

The day after they returned to Kyoto Prefecture, rumors spread that Prince Ding was frequenting brothels and gambling houses. It was said that Prince Ding owed the gambling houses a lot of money and had used his family's shops as collateral to pay his gambling debts.

Not long after, someone said that they saw the steward of Prince Ding's mansion secretly taking the servants of the mansion to the pawnshop in a carriage at night to pawn things.

There was a rumor going around that the steward of Prince Ding's mansion had taken things from the mansion and sold them to exchange for silver to pay off the prince's gambling debts.

When Qi Jun heard these rumors, his first reaction was that someone was talking nonsense and making up rumors about Zhao Lang. However, when he found Zhao Lang drunk with a group of women in the brothel, he couldn't help but believe what he saw.

"Zhao Lang, wake up? Are you crazy? You don't even go back to attend classes at the Imperial College, but you spend all day running to places like this to drink with women?" He picked up Zhao Lang, who was lying on the woman, and tried to shake him awake.

Zhao Lang pushed Qi Jun's hand away and asked the newcomer drunkenly, "Who are you? Do you think I have any business?"

"You!" Qi Jun was so angry that he couldn't speak.

But seeing Zhao Lang like this, he really couldn't ignore him, so he stepped forward and grabbed Zhao Lang's hand, "You must come with me today!"

"Get out of here! Mind your own business!" Zhao Lang shook off the person holding his hand and turned back to continue drinking with the woman.

The madam who came over upon hearing this hurriedly advised the two young masters not to cause trouble, "My two young masters, if you have something to say, please talk it over nicely. Don't use violence."

Qi Jun, who had been thrown off by Zhao Lang and stepped back two steps, stood there, looking incredulously at the man who was drinking with the woman, looking drunk and dreaming. He gritted his teeth and said, "Zhao Lang, you will regret this!"

After saying this, Prince Qi left with an angry look on his face.

"Sir, let's continue drinking." The beautiful woman picked up the wine jug and poured wine into the glass of the handsome and wealthy young man.

When Zhao Lang took the wine glass and poured the wine into his mouth, he glanced at the back of Qi Shizi leaving from the corner of his eyes and continued to be "addicted" to drinking with these women.