Chapter 21
Recovering Reputation
There were four books that could only be taught by two old scholars in the county school.
The other elementary scholar was Elementary Scholar Huang from the neighboring village. He did not have any money-making jobs and was preparing to take the imperial examination like Chu Heng. However, he had a fierce wife at home and looked a little shabby.
After calculating, was Chu Heng and those young students the only ones who were better off?
Before this, the Tang family wanted to have a good relationship and find a suitable opportunity to marry Tang Rou to a scholar.
Until four days ago, when Tang Rou suddenly proposed to marry Chu Heng and analyzed the benefits to Madam Wang and her father, Tang Xueren.
Tang Rou had said, “Father, Mother, I think marrying Chu Heng will have a better future. Firstly, Chu Heng has already passed the scholar examination. Those students might be digging for food in the fields for their entire lives. Father, could it be that you want to wait until I give birth to a son and hope that he will be clever?”
“By then, you’ll be close to sixty… Besides, it’s hard to say if my first child will be a son. Even if it’s a son, it’s hard to say if he can study.”
When Tang Xueren heard this, he felt uncomfortable. His two sons were not good at studying. He would never admit that it was because he was not smart. Therefore, when he heard this, he was instantly dissatisfied with the children he had thought highly of.
Even though there were some who were not older than 20, people like Chu Heng, who was said to be the top scorer in the annual examinations, still failed to become a high scholar despite being so outstanding.
The chances of those children with average rankings getting higher grades would probably be even lower.
Moreover, Chu Heng did not become a high scholar because of various accidents. In Tang Xueren’s opinion, as long as he could go to the examination hall to take the examination, getting into the title was only a matter of time.
He also tacitly agreed to Tang Rou wanting to marry Chu Heng.
Of course, she had to be the only wife.
As an elder, he definitely could not do the scheming. So, he let his wife, Madam Wang, and Tang Rou go alone. Even if something happened, he would not lose face.
Tang Xueren had a good idea, but he did not know that people often rose or fell together. If Madam Wang and Tang Rou’s reputation were ruined, how could he be praised?
It could only be said that the benefits had blinded his eyes.
Back to Madam Liu…
Madam Liu was shocked. “Tell me again, how did my third daughter-in-law do it?”
“It was she who said that on account of the fact that we’re all fellow villagers, she didn’t want to cause trouble for her husband, so she agreed to provide embroidery thread.”
“I was thinking, who would normally bother with Madam Wang? That person is obviously someone who doesn’t care about money. Whoever gets involved with her will be in trouble, so I thought that your daughter-in-law has a good relationship with Tang Rou that she was willing to help her.”
Madam Liu could not laugh anymore. She felt that Madam Ye had made a mistake this time. Everyone in the village knew Madam Wang’s personality. Madam Ye should not have had anything to do with Tang Rou. She could have just rejected her. Even if she rejected Tang Rou, the villagers would only say that she was arrogant.
However, what about it? Her son was the only scholar in the village for twenty years. With his fame, he didn’t even need to kneel down to greet the magistrate. So what if he was a little arrogant in the village?
However, she had no choice but to cover up for her daughter-in-law. She covered her mouth and laughed. “You guys don’t know. Madam Ye heard from my Ah Heng that the emperor of the imperial court loves the commoners. He is now a scholar and all the honor is given by the emperor. Naturally, he has to look up to the emperor and treat the commoners well.”