Quick Transmigration: The Love Rescue Plan

Chapter 142 Dragon Travels the World (1)

Li Family Village was notoriously poor in the surrounding area, and nothing much ever happened there. The only major event was a few years ago when Old Man Li returned with a child.

You know, nowadays, very few people who have the ability to make it abroad come back.

You should know that Lijia Village has nothing. If the children in the village want to go to school, they have to walk several miles to a nearby big village.

There was an old scholar who ran a village school; he was the only one in the surrounding area. Although the tuition wasn't much, it wasn't something ordinary families could afford.

In Lijia Village, apart from the village chief's child, no one else can go to school.

Speaking of Old Man Li who came back this time, he was once a prominent figure in Li Family Village.

It is said that when he was young, he went to the city to make a living and became a steward for a wealthy family. Unfortunately, the family later fell into decline, so Old Man Li took his young master back to the village.

So what if he was once a glamorous young master, living a life of luxury? Now he's no different from these poor kids, unable to even go to school.

There aren't many entertainment options in the village. After finishing their farm work, the village women like to sit under the big tree at the village entrance and chat about this and that.

When Old Li brought his young master back, the village women talked about him behind his back a lot.

Old Li was too lazy to care. After all, once the news got out of hand, no one would say anything anymore.

Today, when Old Man Li returned to the village entrance from the fields with his hoe on his back, he vaguely heard the women talking about their own homes again, which he found rather strange.

Hadn't things calmed down? Why bring it up again?

"What's wrong with my family?" Old Man Li asked, frowning.

"Oh my, old man Li, this is quite something!" One of the women said with a cheerful smile as soon as she saw old man Li, "You have a beautiful young wife visiting your family today."

Another woman tossed aside the pumpkin seed shells in her hand, waved her hand, and said, "Indeed, she looks like an angel."

"Tsk t ...

"Girl? She's already got her hair in a bun! She's married long ago, you can't even think about her."

"Look at what you're saying, auntie. How could we possibly remember you if we wanted to?"

"..."

Old Li listened for a long time but still couldn't figure out what was going on. He only knew that someone had come to his house, and that they were from the city.

Worried that those scoundrels from the Yang family had come to bully them, Old Man Li quickly went back.

When Old Man Li returned home, he had just pushed open the wooden gate of the courtyard when he saw his young master facing him and the two men.

Old Li quickly called out, "Young Master," and then stepped in front of Yang Linxin.

The young master didn't speak, and neither did Old Man Li.

The situation had already been explained to Yang Linxin by Dong Xiaoli before Old Man Li arrived. Don't underestimate the boy just because he's only seven; he's quite shrewd.

To put it bluntly, it boils down to two words: "disbelief".

The three of them remained in a standoff until Old Man Li returned.

Dong Xiaoli had said everything she needed to say, and Yang Linxin didn't believe that no matter how much she said, it would be useless.

Dong Xiaoli sat down directly on the stone bench in the courtyard, raised her right hand and pulled out the silver hairpin inlaid with pearls from her hair.

As Dong Xiaoli played with the silver hairpin in her hand, she smiled and looked at Yang Linxin, saying, "What are you afraid I'm after?"

As Dong Xiaoli spoke, she glanced around the dilapidated courtyard and put the silver hairpin back into her hair: "What do you have that I could possibly want?"

"So...why would I need to lie to you?"

"Young Master." Old Man Li was completely baffled as to what was going on.

Dong Xiaoli didn't say anything more, but quietly looked at Yang Linxin with a smile.

Yang Linxin is a smart man, otherwise he wouldn't have disbelieved Dong Xiaoli's words.

In fact, Dong Xiaoli and Liu Menglong had thought about it for a long time and finally came up with an identity that would allow them to get close to Yang Linxin and help him achieve his wish.

But a lie is still a lie; it's impossible to be flawless and without any loopholes. It might fool an ordinary seven-year-old, but Yang Linxin is no ordinary child.

The intelligence of someone who could become a great general and then abandon military affairs to become the chief minister of the court is evident.

Dong Xiaoli and Liu Menglong studied the situations of the Yang and Lin families, and in the end, they felt that the breakthrough point was still the Lin family.

Even if Yang Linxin doesn't know all of Yang's relatives, he should still know Old Li, the former housekeeper. It's unlikely he could even claim to be a distant relative.

Firstly, it's because those awful relatives of the Yang family had already revealed their true colors and seized everything the Yang family owned. At that time, not to mention the collateral relatives, quite a few distant relatives had already emerged.

"When you're poor, no one knows you in the bustling city; when you're rich, even distant relatives come to visit you in the deep mountains." This is a profound truth.

Secondly, even distant relatives of the Yang family would not be able to find Yang Linxin's current location.

In those days when transportation was underdeveloped, finding someone was no easy task.

The village where Yang Linxin and Old Man Li live now is in a different prefecture than the Yang family's. And who in the Yang family would care about the whereabouts of a seven-year-old child?

Even if they did find out that Old Man Li had taken Yang Linxin back to his hometown, who would care where an old housekeeper's hometown was?

What a distant relative would know about something that even the main and collateral branches of the Yang family don't care about?

In order not to give themselves away, Dong Xiaoli and Liu Menglong carefully studied the Lin family.

The Lin family was a scholarly family, with many members having studied and passed the imperial examinations to become officials. Even if a member was only a Xiucai (a scholar who passed the lowest level of the imperial examinations), he was still considered a member of the lowest gentry class.

Don't assume that just because you come from a family of scholars, you're poor. Which family that is a family of scholars is poor?

You think you can afford to go to school if you don't have money? Do you think this is a modern society with nine years of compulsory education?

In ancient times, those who could afford to study were mostly wealthy people; the remaining few had to sell their possessions and grit their teeth to make ends meet.

Normally, if a village produces even one scholar, it's considered incredibly lucky. It's not that the other children in the village are stupid, but rather that it's related to money.

The first hurdle is tuition, the second is stipends, and the third is exam expenses.

Take the Su family, which consisted of three members, as an example. The three Su brothers were originally a well-off family in Meishan County, Sichuan. In the first year of the Jiayou era, Su Xun took his son to the capital to take the imperial examination. Although Su Shi and his brother passed the examination with flying colors, their family's wealth had been almost depleted.

The following year, Su Xun's wife died of illness in Meishan. When the father and his two sons returned to their hometown for the funeral, their home was in a state of disrepair, with "the house collapsed and the fences leaking, like a home for fugitives."

This only covers the expenses incurred by the three Su father and sons on their journey to the capital for the imperial examinations, and does not include the costs of their ten years of studying without engaging in any productive work.

This shows that people from humble backgrounds would never dare to participate in such an imperial examination.

The Lin family's wealth, which enabled them to become a family of scholars, is evident.

Even being a mere student or a scholar is already quite remarkable; to become a successful candidate in the provincial examinations would bring immense honor to one's family.

Didn't you see how overjoyed Fan Jin was when he passed the imperial examination?