The fact that two daughters of the Lin family had their engagements broken off one after another frightened Lin Shi: "Other clansmen, hurry up and get the arranged marriages done. We don't care about any grand gestures, as long as they get married and brought in as soon as possible."
Even so, two boys were rejected by their brides. These two were the sons of Lin Mingcai's cousins.
So, the two children's grandmother and mother cried and begged Lin Niu Shi to take responsibility at Lin Mingcai's house.
Lin Niu Shi: "How am I supposed to resolve this? We don't want Donkey Egg and Cow Egg to be unable to find wives either!"
Madam Fan: "That's right, it's not like we made the girl break off the engagement. If you want to blame someone, blame that bitch Yang Cui."
"If you hadn't caused all this trouble, how could my grandson have been jilted? What will we do if he can't find a wife and our family line ends? My God!"
The child's grandmother, Yan, sat at the door of Lin Niu's house, slapping her thigh and crying loudly, wishing the whole village would know.
"In short, we won't rest until we get a satisfactory explanation for what happened today!" the child's mother said.
"An explanation? What explanation? Let me tell you, being jilted is his bad luck! And he's asking me for an explanation! It wasn't me who made the girl break off the engagement!" Madam Lin Niu said irritably. "If you're so capable, go find Yang Cui!"
"You troublemaker! If your son and father-in-law hadn't caused trouble for Yang Cui, would all this have happened? Your family must take responsibility!"
Before long, the clan elders Lin Sanjin and Lin Qi arrived.
They've been dealing with these things for the past two days, and they're quite annoyed.
"Stop arguing," Lin Sanjin scolded. "The engagement has already been broken off, what's the point of arguing?"
Seeing the Zhou family making money enthusiastically with Yang Cui, while the Lin family only knew how to quarrel every day, Lin Sanjin and Lin Qi were very angry.
Fang, the mother of Donkey Egg, wiped away her tears and said, "The clan elders have come at the right time. Please judge this matter! My son can't find a wife, what should I do?"
"What do you want to do?" Lin Sanjin asked her.
"Either bring two girls in as compensation, or... when Shikang comes back, have him arrange jobs for my two sons, preferably in the yamen, otherwise how will they find wives in the future?"
Lin Niu scoffed, "So this is what you really wanted after all this time."
“Auntie, you can’t say that. If you hadn’t made things like this, my two sons wouldn’t have been jilted. As their mother, I have to think about their future.”
Madam Fan said, "What kind of pipe dream are you having of getting your son into the yamen?"
If you're going to get someone into the government office, you should get someone closer to them. Lin Shikang has several nephews and nieces! That's what Madam Fan was thinking.
"Go to the yamen? Fang Xiaodan, what do you think the yamen is? You think you can just walk in like that?" Lin Sanjin said.
"I don't care, either get my son a job or settle his marriage!"
"We'll talk about this when Shikang comes back. No one is allowed to cause trouble now!" Lin Sanjin also lost his temper. Now that Lin Rongguang has been removed from his position as clan leader, Lin Sanjin and Lin Qi are in charge of clan affairs. When Lin Sanjin got angry, Fang Shi and Yan Shi didn't dare to make too much of a fuss.
Fang softened her tone: "Alright then, let's wait for Shikang to come back before we talk about it."
"The rest of you should behave yourselves recently, especially you, Fan Shi and Lin Niu Shi."
The two people whose names were mentioned asked in unison, "What happened to us?"
"Behave yourselves, mind your own business and your families' business, and don't provoke Yang Cui, otherwise our situation will be even more difficult than it is now!"
Lin Niu and Fan Shi remained silent, but their faces were full of resentment.
Lin Sanjin didn't care whether they listened or not; he had given them all the reminders he needed to.
Lin Sanjin returned home, and Lin Qi followed him shortly after.
"Third Brother, things are having such a big impact now, I'm a little worried," Lin Qi said. "I'm worried it will affect Shikang."
Lin Sanjin looked up at Lin Qi and said, "It won't affect Shikang. He's so far away. If it really did have an impact, his new father-in-law, who's such a high-ranking official, surely he could handle it. Seventh Brother, you're overthinking it."
"It should be. Shi Kang is such a smart and capable person, and he has such a powerful father-in-law. I must be overthinking it."
——
Kyoto.
Lin Shikang is currently riding high. Before he turned thirty, he achieved the third-highest rank in the imperial examination and is in love with the Wang family's daughter. They are discussing marriage, and his career prospects are bright.
But unexpectedly...
"Hey, hey, have you heard? That poor scholar who went on to take the imperial examination is actually a heartless, ungrateful wretch!"
“I’ve heard that he not only abandoned his wife and children, but also instigated his mother and clansmen to force his wife to her death so that he could marry Miss Wang.”
"It's said that the money for Lin Shikang's imperial examination was raised by the Yang family! Madam Yang was eagerly waiting for her husband to return, but who knew... she'd raised a thankless wretch, tsk tsk..."
"He always seemed so gentle and polite, who would have thought he was such a person? He's a disgrace to being a scholar!"
"This is a disgrace to us scholars!"
………
Soon, the story of Yang Cui and the Lin family was spread throughout the capital with exaggerated embellishments.
Lin Shikang nearly fainted upon hearing this news!
He never expected things to turn out this way!
In the evening, Vice Minister Wang summoned Lin Shikang to his residence.
"You've heard the rumors outside, haven't you? The vacancy for the position of Junior Compiler in the Hanlin Academy was originally yours, but now it's questionable whether you can even get the position."
The position of Shujishi was a short-term position within the Hanlin Academy. Although the official rank was not high, the Shujishi was responsible for drafting imperial edicts and explaining classics to the emperor. They were close advisors to the emperor and one of the important sources of the Grand Secretary.
My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
