Struggle in Ancient Times

“Er-ye come here, let’s eat.” Liao Ming looked at the cold food on table, shouting while he walked to his son’s room.

“Father, I’ll go there.” Liao Tingyu put down the book, rolled up the page to make a mark. He got up and walked out of the room.

He looked at the figures of those people in his memory, trying to place the names and faces.

“Father, mother, sister-in-law, you’ve been back for a long time. I told da-ge to call me when you come back.”

“For what? Your study is more important, your sister-in-law already cook the food. Here, come and eat your egg, you must be tired.” Mother Deng patted the chair next to her, let him sat down and put the steamed egg in front of him. he looked at the food, it was only porridge filled with water. The only bowl of steamed egg was for him.

Liao Tingyu lost his appetite. He knew this steamed egg was considered a good thing in the family. Even mother Deng hadn’t eaten one for a year, so it was all for him.

But he didn’t eat on his own like the original body. He divided the egg into five parts, put each one to everyone’s bowl,

“Da-ge, you worked hard today. Eat the egg little bit, mother you don’t have to take care of me alone like this.”

“Oh, it’s not hard work at all. This egg is for you, reading and writing all day long, you need to nourish your body.” Mother Deng swallowed her saliva while looking at the egg in her bowl. She couldn’t wait to eat it, but restrained herself. She still gave it back to Liao Tingyu.

Liao Tingyu looked at it, his heart was a little hot. His mother was really good to him, he put the egg back to his mother.

“Mother, eat it. I know our family is poor, everyone worked hard for me to study. I already thought a good way to make money. We won’t suffer like this again.”

“What’s the good way to make money?” Wen Xiuer asked, she didn’t dare to look at the egg in her bowl. If she was afraid if she couldn’t control herself and ate the egg before her mother and father-in-law. That would be bad, but the egg smell tempted her so much.

She knew while cooking the egg that was for her brother-in-law, so she wasn’t greedy for it. The topic about making money really caught her attention away from the egg.

Liao Tingyu looked at his sister-in-law and said, “I’m going to write a book. The book about life and strange things are selling well in our town. I want to try it.”

“But, didn’t you say that scholar should pay attention to their reputation? Will this affect your reputation?” Mother Deng asked with concern.

Liao Tingyu thought carefully, it seemed that many students wrote novel even scholar with fame wrote it too. The original body also wrote some but never accepted. He probably got embarrassed and told mother Deng that scholars shouldn’t write that kind of book.

“It’s okay mom. I didn’t know much about it before, so I misunderstood. Days ago, I asked around, it seems that everyone use different names to write. That way no one will knows their identities.” Liao Tingyu explained.

Mother Deng was still worried when she heard it, “The bookshop owner will know the writer, what if he talk a lot and spread the news? If it reaches the examiner… forget it, you better not do it. In half a year, you will take the student exam. No matter how hard we work, it doesn’t matter we are used to it. Our family indeed poor but you don’t have to risk your future.”

Now that mother Deng didn’t agree, Liao Tingyu didn’t say anything. But he could do something behind her back. He still had to make money for the family, he also didn’t know about the town. This original body didn’t pay attention when he walked around the town, in fact, finding a job wasn’t easy. Even though, he knew a lot of things from modern times. He didn’t know what was suitable to use. Especially he came from poor family, he must go to the town and looked around before making decision.

Okay, he will go to the school tomorrow. He only needs to study for three months and he could go home to review his study, then took the exam once it was the time. This was the school tolerance for poor students, while students from rich family could study as long as they like.

But it was rare for poor students to choose going home. After all, studying in the school was better than reading alone. For him, this wasn’t a problem, at home he could do whatever he wants. Thinking about going early to the school every day, he had to study till noon and eat tasteless foods. This was simply a torture for him.

At night, Liao Tingyu looked at the stars on the sky, he suddenly remembered about how to make a trap in a survival show. In this village, the forest and mountain were still rich and undisturbed by human. Except the children who played in the mountain, everyone was busy working in the fields. Every bits of food was precious, no one would use it to make a trap in the mountain.

Liao Tingyu patted his dull head and secretly thought he really was stupid. This was a trick to eat better, but it was getting late, people already fell asleep. It was too dangerous going to the mountain at night, he could only go tomorrow morning and checked the trap in the afternoon.

.

It was almost dawn, so he got up and took some tools walked quietly to the mountain behind the village. Although the sun wasn’t up yet, but the moon and stars shined faintly, helping him to find the way. The back mountain was huge but there were no dangerous animals. Villagers usually went to the mountain to collect firewood, if they saw tiger or wolf, the whole town would be alarmed and the yamen would be sent to capture the animals. It was rare to catch a tiger, but there was wild boar, when villagers catch it, they would divide the meat. 

He found a place when the light didn’t penetrate much and quiet surrounding. Looking around, Liao Tingyu cheered himself then he dug the soil vigorously with a shovel. He never done any farm work; his hand quickly turned red. Once done, he made a mark so other hunter wouldn’t take his things.

It was finally dawn; he heard the birds chirping slowly. He patted his clothes and went home. At this time, there were only few families awake. They should be rushing to work in the town while others still asleep.