Chapter 132 Anxiety
For several days in a row, Shu Tong took Shi Er to Dongshan, either to help rent a place or to deliver the Su family's previous belongings to Wenshan Street. Only when everything was ready did Shi Miao leave Su's to sell breakfast on Wenshan Street.
March 3rd came again. The Su family went out in a mule cart as in previous years, but they were not going for a spring outing, but to the suburbs to welcome the arrival of the Su family.
The Su family's letter had been sent to the capital a long time ago, but Su Yanli had kept it secret and had not told his wife and children. It was not until the old steward of the Su family came to the door that Su Ruojin learned that the grandparents from Pingjiang Prefecture had come to the capital.
"Dad, where's your mother?"
"I have never seen my biological mother." Su Yanli's biological mother was also a maidservant like Ding. In order to consolidate her position, her stepmother had the maidservant operated on to give birth to a son. At that time, there were three maidservants, but only Su Yanli's biological mother gave birth to a son.
Su Yanli fell ill and died when he was less than one year old. As he showed his talent in studying, the other two aunts who gave birth to maids secretly told him that his biological mother was abused to death by his stepmother.
Everyone misses their mother, but even if Su Yanli heard the whispers of his two concubines, he did not deliberately look for evidence. It was not because he was cold-blooded, but because of the difference in status between his stepmother and a maid. Even if he had ironclad evidence and took it to the government, it was not certain that his biological mother's death would receive a fair trial.
But no matter whether the two concubines' words were true or false, Su Yanli was still affected. That year, he put everything aside, packed his bags, and traveled all over the Dayin Dynasty under the guise of studying abroad, missing his biological mother while looking for a way out in life as a legitimate son of a bastard.
Perhaps God took pity on him for never having enjoyed his biological mother's love, and allowed him to have smooth sailing in the imperial examinations and eventually become a Jinshi on two lists. In his most proud years, he met Ah Zhen, and established a family with her and had children.
No matter what others think, for him, the position of an eighth-rank doctor in the Imperial College was just right for him. It allowed him to support his family and did not require him to work hard to maintain his original intention as a scholar.
But when he thought about his father and stepmother going to the capital, Su Yanli always felt that his peaceful life was about to be disrupted, and he fell into unreasonable anxiety.
Su Ruojin was either having fun in the alley or checking the accounts in the shop. Even when he had some free time, he would cook some delicious food. He had not noticed his father's recent mood changes.
It was not until the family took a mule cart to the suburbs to pick up their grandparents that she felt something was wrong. The steward of the Su family who came last night said that although the Su family had not come to the capital, they had sent special people to buy a house in the capital last year. When Su Yanli was still living in a rented house, the Su family had already bought a large courtyard with three entrances and three exits in the capital.
"Dad, are you not used to living with them, or are you afraid that they won't let us move in?"
“Neither.”
Su Ruojin thought for a moment, "Are you afraid that your grandfather, as your elder, will use you to force your uncle into the Imperial College?"
Su Yanli said nothing, which was considered as his agreement with his daughter's guess.
"Is my uncle a juren now?"
If he could pass the imperial examination, Su Yanli would not have any worries, but his younger brother had failed the imperial examination for nine years since he passed the examination for a scholar at the age of eleven. The purpose of his trip to Beijing this time was to enter the Imperial College.
Ever since Su Ruojin traveled to the Dayin Dynasty, apart from his father's promotion assessment and the mention of the Su family in his father's life experience written in the study, he never talked about the Su family in Pingjiang Prefecture. In a society based on clans, there were almost no young couples like Su Yanli who lived their own lives behind closed doors.
Although the Imperial College was the highest institution of learning in the Dayin Dynasty, this institution was not intended to guarantee that everyone who entered would pass the imperial examination. It was true that it cultivated talents, but that was for the royal aristocracy and officials. Only a few were recommended by the prefectures every year, and even if they were, most of them were children of prefecture officials, and there were almost no students from poor families.
(End of this chapter)
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