Chapter 023 Traitorous Minister 23

The Xiao family was an outsider household and had few relatives in the village. Apart from wishing New Year's greetings to Mr. Wang, the head of the village, the elders of the clan, Aunt Zhao, and people with whom they had previous close relationships, they were not as busy as other families.

The relatives on Xiao's mother's side are not usually close.

Xiao's mother's biological mother passed away early, and the stepmother who came in later gave birth to a daughter. The stepmother wasn't the vicious stepmother rumored, but she wasn't overly close either. However, when Xiao's mother disobeyed her biological father's arranged marriage and insisted on marrying Xiao's father, creating a rift between father and daughter, she helped smooth things over.

Unfortunately, Xiao's biological father and mother were just as stubborn, and they didn't calm down until one died of illness and the other died in an accident.

Soon after, some people in the clan wanted to wipe out the family, so the second wife hastily sold her belongings, wrote a letter and some silver to her original body and Xiao Chen, and then remarried with her daughter.

The second wife was a woman brought back by Xiao's mother's father. It was said that she fled here due to famine, and no one knew who she remarried. There has been no news about her to this day.

In this backward dynasty, it is quite difficult to contact a person who has no news.

The two families had not been in contact for many years, and the "ties" between them no longer existed. At best, they could only be considered cousins, and there was also the issue of remarriage that needed to be avoided, so they did not force it too much.

After paying New Year's greetings to the villagers, Xiao Yan and Xiao Chen returned to the town to pay New Year's greetings to Master Wei and Manager Pan.

Many people came to pay New Year's greetings to Master Wei. In addition to relatives and sisters-in-law, there were masters who worked with him at Chongshan Academy, old classmates, students he taught, and some families who wanted to establish good relationships with him. It would not be an exaggeration to say that his house was crowded with people.

Xiao Yan and Xiao Chen were just going through the motions to show their sincerity, and didn't bother too much when he was so busy.

As for Shopkeeper Pan's place, most of the people who came were merchants to keep in touch with each other. Xiao Yan and Xiao Chen had to enter the examination hall and wanted to avoid causing unnecessary trouble, so they chose to pay New Year's greetings when there were fewer people around.

The Chinese New Year is always busy. Less than ten days later, we enter the stressful entrance examination period.

Chongshan Academy is a well-known academy, and many students from nearby towns come to study there.

At a glance, there are nearly a hundred people who want to enter the academy, not including the existing students.

To enter Chongshan Academy, one must be in the top 30, and those existing students must also take the exam. If they fail to achieve this and have poor performance, they will be expelled.

Survival of the fittest is vividly reflected.

On the eighth day of the first lunar month, the weather is slightly cold.

Xiao Yan was wearing thick clothes and standing in the crowd with Xiao Chen.

Most of the people here are between their early teens and twenties, and there are only a handful of them who are this young.

Xiao Chen seemed oblivious to the glances from others, whether intentional or unintentional, and had a worried look on his face.

I heard that the examination room is outside with no shelter. If my brother catches a cold, wouldn’t he be in danger of catching a cold?

Fortunately, there was hot ginger soup and soft cushions prepared, which provided some comfort.

Xiao Yan looked at Xiao Chen pretending to be mature and couldn't help laughing.

"Don't worry, little brother. I'm not weak..."

As he was speaking, a noise came from not far away.

I saw a young man in fancy clothes, looking at a student in simple clothes who had fallen to the ground with contempt, saying something. There were also other students from wealthy families following him.

It's obvious at first glance that this has been happening everywhere - the children of powerful families rely on their family background to bully the children of poor families.

This kind of drama happens from time to time and we are no longer surprised by it.

"Who is this blind person who angered Master Chu again?"

"Oh, it's Mu Feng from Tonghuan Town. He's always been arrogant because of his talent, and he didn't know that it's people like him that Master Chu hates the most. Isn't this just a coincidence?"

The crowd chattered and whispered to others, and Xiao Yan had also heard of it.

The bullied Mu Feng was a brilliant student in Tonghuan Town. Normally, a family with such a talented student would have dedicated their entire family to supporting his education. Unfortunately, for some unknown reason, the Mu family ignored their promising son and favored their youngest.

They even knew that he had a talent for studying and tried to stop him from pursuing education. Later, with the intervention of the clan elders, they failed.

In the past, clan studies could relieve him of such a heavy burden, but if he wanted to continue to take higher exams, he could only enter Chongshan Academy to learn more knowledge.

He was also smart. He made use of copying books and selling paintings to raise money for his studies. There were also merchants who wanted to use this opportunity to recruit him as a son-in-law, but he had rejected them.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have entered Chongshan Academy at the age of nearly eighteen. With his amazing talent and diligence, he would have already achieved fame and honor. How could he have delayed until now?

If we talk about Mu Feng's shortcomings, the first is that he is burdened by his family background, and the second is that he is aloof and cold-hearted person. He is taciturn and doesn't like to socialize with others. That's why he has the reputation of being arrogant and conceited.

According to gossip, Master Chu was the son of an official in Beijing, or the fake master in the story who was mistakenly adopted. In order to make room for the real master, Master Chu was sent back to his hometown to avoid suspicion.

But even if he was a fake young master and there was no blood relationship, the family affection over the years could not be faked. What's more, it was just a mistake at that time and not intentional. In addition, both Mr. Chu's biological father and mother had passed away, so they couldn't bear to drive him out.

No matter how powerless Young Master Chu is now, as long as he still has weight in the hearts of his adoptive parents, they are not people from small places like them who can afford to anger him.

Therefore, almost all students like Mu Feng, who are smart but come from poor backgrounds, will be targeted by Master Chu.

I don’t know why Mu Feng was targeted this time.

The crowd was watching, some were watching with indifference, some were gloating, and some were feeling the same. Regardless of which one, their identities and backgrounds determined that they would never anger Master Chu for a classmate who was not related to them.

The cost is too high. They have families to take care of and they cannot afford the consequences.

Xiao Chen's eyes flashed, and he whispered to Xiao Yan, "Brother, I want to help him."

Xiao Yan glanced at the other party and nodded, "If you want to go, then do it."

Xiao Chen was also a little surprised and couldn't help asking, "Brother, why don't you ask me why? If you do this, it is very likely to bring trouble to our family."

He is not a pretentious person. Perhaps he has felt the love of his family in this life and is a little too greedy. He wants to see how far his brother can go for him.

Sometimes he always wondered if this life was just a dream, otherwise how could anyone really care about and love him?

The warmth seemed unreal.

If this is a dream, being a little bit greedy shouldn't be too much, right?

Xiao Yan was speechless. He looked at Mu Feng, who was being pinned to the ground. "Do you want to explain this to me in more detail?"

The meaning is self-evident. If I were to explain it in detail, I'm afraid there wouldn't even be a chance to offer timely assistance.

Xiao Chen: “…”

Xiao Chen looked at his brother deeply, then trotted out.

Xiao Yan knew that he probably had to ask the teacher to come and solve the problem, but at this moment, a young boy with a white face and red lips appeared from somewhere, holding a broom to drive away the lackeys who followed Master Chu.

"Get out of here!"

In a moment of carelessness, he was actually hit by the young boy.

The weather was cold and they were wearing plenty of clothes, so they didn't feel much pain, but this scene made them feel a little embarrassed.

How could they, with so many people, be beaten by a weak kid? If the news got out, how would they survive in the academy? If Young Master Chu looked down on them, how would they curry favor with him?

Those lackeys came to their senses and quickly dodged the brooms by relying on their numbers.

Xiao Yan: “…”

Wow, this is really good. Xiao Chen just left and his story was intercepted by someone.

That’s right, in his previous life, Mu Feng later became a famous prime minister. Although the two had different political views, they had a certain sympathy for each other.

In his previous life at Chongshan Academy, Mu Feng was troubled by Master Chu, and it was Xiao Chen who secretly helped him. Now this young man who appeared out of nowhere, this person did not exist in his previous life.

However, things like the plot will always change with the butterfly effect, and to be honest, there is no such thing as intercepting or not intercepting.

only……

Xiao Yan looked at this woman who had painted eyebrows, rouge on her cheeks and lipstick on her lips. Not only did she look like a woman, but her voice was as clear as an oriole. It was unbelievable that she was a woman.

He looked at the crowd in shock, who didn't notice anything was wrong at all, and fell into deep thought.

Ah this, Aba Aba~

Do they really think there is nothing wrong?!

Who the hell is dressing up as a man and wearing women's makeup? Are they afraid others won't notice?!

Soon, Xiao Yan understood why others felt that nothing was wrong.

I saw Mr. Chu frowning, his lips trembling, as if he wanted to say something but was thinking about the wording.

Before he could think clearly, his lackey immediately said sarcastically, "Oh, who was it? It turned out to be the young master of the Xu family? Why aren't you acting so delicate and pretentious like a girl today?"

Another lackey took over the conversation: "You may not know this, but our Xu family's young master loves red makeup. Look at his feminine and gentle appearance, he is even more feminine than the eunuchs in the palace!"

The lackeys laughed loudly, but they didn't see that Master Chu, whom they wanted to please, suddenly slapped them in the face.

"Get out, get out! Get out of here! You are a bunch of clueless bastards. How can you possibly offend the young master of the Xu family?"

After saying that, Master Chu looked back and forth between Mu Feng and the young master of the Xu family, as if he was speculating about something, his face was a little gloomy.

"I, Chu, didn't know that Brother Xu actually knew him."

The Xu family's young master rolled his eyes and retorted directly, "There are so many things you don't know! You're not my parents, so why are you so nosy? You have so much free time, do you want to taste the saltiness of every night-scented barrel you pass by?"

At this time, others also realized that the two people must know each other, otherwise they would not speak like this.

I just don't know what kind of relationship they have. This young master of the Xu family would actually be so rude to Mr. Chu. And looking at Mr. Chu's expression, although he was angry, he didn't lose his temper on the spot.

There must be a reason for this!