Chapter 299: Chapter 300: Street Parade

Gu Benluo stared at the people below, shouting "Daddy!" nonstop, and Ancient Wen Heng actually heard him.

Ancient Wen Heng reined in his horse, stopped, and looked up, waving at them.

Gu Benluo spread his arms and tried to lunge down, which scared Li Qiu so much that she quickly grabbed him and pulled him back. To her surprise, the little guy actually started to cry.

Jin Qianqian had also been startled. She quickly took the boy, set him on the floor, and gave his bottom a pat. "This is the second floor! You could have gotten hurt."

"Daddy! I want Daddy! I want to ride the horse!" Gu Benluo tried to run toward the window again, but Jin Qianqian grabbed him by the back of his collar.

"If you want to ride a horse like your daddy, you’ll have to earn that yourself." Jin Qianqian chuckled. "When that day comes, Mommy will come here to watch Luo Luo looking so majestic."

"Today, Daddy will let you have a taste of that majesty," Ancient Wen Heng said as he pushed the door open, his eyes crinkling with a smile as he looked at mother and son.

"What are you doing up here? Isn’t the parade still going on downstairs?" Seeing Ancient Wen Heng up close in his Champion Scholar Robe, Jin Qianqian’s eyes practically turned into stars.

Ancient Wen Heng walked over and picked up Gu Benluo. "I’ll take Luo Luo with me. Have someone wait for us at the palace gate later."

Because he had a palace banquet to attend that night, Ancient Wen Heng couldn’t take the child straight home.

Jin Qianqian asked worriedly, "Will it be okay to take him?"

Ancient Wen Heng gave her a meaningful look. "Truthfully, I’d rather be taking you."

Jin Qianqian’s cheeks flushed. Flustered, she forgot all her earlier concerns and pushed both him and the child toward the door. "Just watch this little one, he’s always fidgeting."

"And never mind waiting at the palace gate. I’ll have Lin Dapeng and the others follow you. If he gets tired of it, just hand him over."

Ancient Wen Heng knew the procession was waiting for him downstairs and didn’t dare to delay. He agreed, then ran downstairs with the child in his arms.

When the crowd saw the Champion Scholar, who had suddenly vanished, reappear with a small boy in his arms, they finally believed the rumors. It was true—the Champion Scholar already had a wife and son, and the child was already so big!

Ancient Wen Heng settled Luo Luo onto the horse with him, then looked up and waved at Jin Qianqian, who was watching from the window.

"It’s a good thing you’re still so little," Jin Qianqian said, gently poking her sleeping younger son. "Just you wait. Your brother is going to brag about this to you forever."

Soon, Ancient Wen Heng’s official appointment was announced. He was to be an editor in the Hanlin Academy, a position of the Secondary Sixth Rank.

The runner-up and third-place scholar were also appointed to the Hanlin Academy as compilers, holding the Standard Seventh Rank.

Hua Shunming was not stingy with their well-deserved leave, granting them permission to return to their hometowns in glory and visit their families.

"All you three, father and sons, know how to do is work. Shangjing was so lively the past two days, and we missed everything." Thanks to the silver taels they had received from Miss Xu as compensation, their lives had improved a little, and Wang Caiyue was now in the mood to go around gossiping.

"If we don’t work, are we supposed to just wait to starve?" Gu Yuanmu gulped down a large mouthful of water. The weather was getting hotter, and he had to drink his fill every time he got home. ’This woman is so lazy,’ he thought, ’she even waits for us to get back to fetch the water.’

"Tsk, that’s because you don’t know. This year’s Champion Scholar is also named Gu. Tell me, how can your fates be so different? He’s a Champion Scholar with a limitless future, and here you are, working yourselves to death for a few copper coins."

Gu Yuanmu found himself increasingly annoyed by Wang Caiyue. ’This woman gets lazier by the day,’ he thought. "Gu? Plenty of people in the world have that surname. Besides, if my lot in life were any different, I probably wouldn’t have married a wife like you."

"What’s wrong with a wife like me? It’s because you’re incompetent! Our two sons are grown, and now they can’t even find a family to marry into as a live-in son-in-law."

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Hearing his mother harping on the same old subject again, Gu Lehuan didn’t even wait for the meal. He just got up and walked out the door.

Wang Caiyue snapped, "What’s with him? Is he giving me attitude now...?"

Gu Yuanmu shot back, "Can you just drop it? ’Live-in son-in-law, live-in son-in-law’ is all you ever say. Is that how a mother should talk?"

"I told you, that business is in the past. Let it go! No one is to bring it up again."

Wang Caiyue muttered under her breath, "I was just talking... Besides, he’s not getting any younger. Aren’t you in a hurry to have grandchildren?"

Gu Yuanmu glared at her. "Shut up! If you keep making a scene like this, then our family might as well not stay here. We can just buy some dry rations and walk all the way back home."

Wang Caiyue snorted and tossed more wood into the stove. "You always use that to threaten me. If you were actually related to the Champion Scholar, we wouldn’t be cooped up here."

"But I remember your family’s Seventh passed the child student exam, right? I wonder if he’s made any more progress. Even becoming a Scholar would be something."

"Seventh?" Gu Yuanmu frowned. "You think studying is that easy? If Seventh hadn’t run into that old scholar who kindly taught him for a few years, how would he have ever even passed the child student exam?"

"Just the cost of brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones, not to mention tuition... even if all the brothers in the family pooled their resources, we couldn’t have afforded it."

"True enough. Your family just isn’t destined for it."

"..."

Gu Lehuan ran all the way to the bank of the moat. Seeing a row of weeping willows, he leaned against one and sat down.

He was finally in Shangjing, a city everyone dreamed of visiting, yet these past few days had felt even more suffocating than their time on the road as refugees.

Every day brought endless work, and on top of that, he had to endure being ostracized by the others.

But what he couldn’t understand most of all was his mother. For some reason, she was like a different person now, sharp-tongued and mean.

"Don’t be ungrateful, little lady," a lewd voice suddenly drifted to his ears. "You’re the only one left in your family anyway. Come with me. It’s better than living in fear every night."

"Get lost! I’m warning you, my family’s servants will be here any second. You’ll be in more trouble than you can handle," a vaguely familiar voice replied, reaching Gu Lehuan’s ears.

"So what? By the time they get here, they’ll see us in an embrace. They’ll have no choice but to call me their young master," the man said, laughing smugly.

"You... you’re shameless!"

Gu Lehuan could now clearly identify the speaker. No wonder her voice sounded familiar—it was Miss Xu.

"Bah! My mother came to your house to propose marriage before the New Year, and that old hag of yours put on such airs, saying she wouldn’t even consider someone like me for a live-in son-in-law. I’d love for her to see this now. In the end, you still fell into my hands, didn’t you?" The voice grew more brazen, and, likely thinking no one was nearby, the man let out a couple of gloating chuckles.

"Li Laizi, you stop right there! Even if I’m the only one left in my family, I’m telling you, I’m not someone to be trifled with."

"If you push me too far, I’ll sacrifice my reputation and report you to the government!"

Xu Nuo hadn’t expected him to keep pressing forward even after her threat. She was being backed toward the edge of the moat, and beads of anxious sweat broke out on her forehead.

Seeing her distress only made Li Laizi more excited. "Go on, report me! That’s a perfect opportunity for me to tell everyone how we were so in love we were about to discuss marriage, but then you decided to despise the poor and chase after the rich."

"So, you tell me. How does that sound? Who do you think people will believe? You, or me?"

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