Red Mansion Reader

Chapter 9 Lin Ruhai

Wang Xianming was not at home today, so Mrs. Liu had no choice but to personally receive the guests.Fortunately, when this Lin Xiucai was studying in Liu's father's home, the two were still young, and Liu's was a little older, so they often referred to each other as siblings.This precious experience, after decades, has actually made the relationship more sincere.

Mrs. Liu led Lin Xiucai to sit down, and the two had just sat down when several servants who were driving brought gifts into the house.The more Liu looked at it, the more something was wrong, and she couldn't help complaining: "Why did you bring so many things, how can I ask my senior sister to return the gift."

The teacher is really talented, Liu's family is already in their forties, and they can still say such innocent words.Lin Xiucai put the smile in his eyes, and smiled to himself: "Not too much, not too much. When I passed the Tongsheng exam, didn't my senior sister tell me that if I was in high school in the future, can't I forget to buy you candies?"

Liu's expression was awkward, and she waved her hands in embarrassment, "I didn't expect you to remember the little things in my childhood."

"Senior Sister treated me like a brother back then, how could I forget that?"

Lin Xiucai sighed, his family background is actually very good, even in Gusu City where literati are everywhere, he can be called a scholarly family.It's just that his father was in poor health and his mother passed away when he was born, which made him experience the warmth and coldness of the world at a young age, and vowed to make achievements in the imperial examination.

At that time, Liu's father was already well-known, and when Liu's father was young, he often went to Lin's house to borrow books.Only then did Father Lin entrust Lin Xiucai to study at Father Liu's home. (Note 1)

The things in the world of scholars in ancient times are like this, you help me and I help you, so that you can support each other and go on for a long time.

When Lin Xiucai first entered Liu's family, she was still young, only seven or eight years old.Liu Shi, who was already 14 years old at the time, was the youngest and only daughter in the family, and Liu's father liked her very much.

The Liu family treated Lin Xiucai as his younger brother, so naturally he often took his articles privately to Liu's father to comment on. At that time, Liu's father had many students, and in the end he was able to single out Lin Xiucai, which may be due to Liu's credit.

Later, Lin Xiucai was out of control in the imperial examination. By the time Liu married, he had already passed the examination of Xiucai.Later, when Lin Xiucai went north to take part in the examination several times, Liu had already married Wang Xianming and came to Yangzhou. In a blink of an eye, more than [-] years passed.

Now that the two meet again, talking about the past, they can't help but feel a lot of emotion.When Liu Shi heard that Lin Xiucai was married and had a daughter and a son under her knees, she was very happy.

"Uncle Lin would be very happy to know that you are now married and established." Liu comforted Lin Xiucai's sentimentality, she knew Lin Xiucai's thoughts.The Lin family didn't know why, their offspring were not prosperous and their lives were short, father Lin was like this, and so was their grandfather.

Liu asked again, "Did you come to Yangzhou this time to live or pass by?"

"Senior Sister, I was transferred by the imperial court, and I will work in Yangzhou for the next few years. If you are free, you can write a letter to me, and I will arrange a carriage to pick you up."

Hearing Lin Xiucai's tone of voice, Liu couldn't help laughing and said: "Okay, I'm going to visit your children. I don't know if they look like you, Lin Xiucai, or if they look more like their mother."

"Senior sister still calls me Lin Xiucai?" Lin Xiucai made an angry gesture, and couldn't help laughing, "It's still the same as before, call me Ruhai."

"Okay." Mrs. Liu nodded in agreement, and complained, "It's not that you just passed the Tongsheng exam at that time, so you told me to call you a scholar in private, and urged you to continue working hard."

When Lin Ruhai heard the embarrassing things in the past, he laughed again.

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Wang Xianming didn't know that there was a distinguished guest at home, and he was still bargaining with the boss in the bookstore.This is really tiring for the disciples. Chen Heng is learning so fast, and there are fewer things to buy, which may not be enough for him to study in the future.

"Sir, sir, I really can't do less. The total is five or twenty-two dollars. This "Collection of Worthy Works" has Gu Gong's own annotations, and the collection is all first-class excellent essays. There are also a few of them in Gu Gong's private collection. This time, willing to take them out this time is also for the benefit of scholars in the world. If it is less, it will be insulting."

Hearing the shopkeeper's complaint, Wang Xianming was also a little unhappy, "If it weren't for these few articles that I couldn't find elsewhere, I wouldn't have bought it. Either way..."

Wang Xianming knew that the money could not be saved, so he had to reluctantly pay for it.After he paid the money, he hurriedly stuffed the book into his pocket, for fear that it would be lost.

This is the way of the world. Although the Four Books and Five Classics are all over the street, many articles written by the sages are hidden in their own library by each family, waiting for idlers to see them.

The so-called scholarly family is to rely on this stupid method of collecting books to pass on knowledge from generation to generation, so that future generations can read more and be a step ahead in the examination field in the future.

After returning home, I have to ask Heng'er to turn over all these books, or I will beat him severely.Wang Xianming gritted his teeth, bid farewell to the shopkeeper of the bookstore, and left.

I don't know if he was lucky or not.After he left, a servant came out from the depths of the bookstore. The shopkeeper also knew him, and greeted him happily when he saw him.

"Guard Li, you're here to buy books for Mr. Xiucai again."

The servant's expression was very arrogant, he just nodded, looked at Wang Xianming's leaving back, and asked, "Isn't that the old boy from Taixing County?"

When the shopkeeper heard this, the corner of his mouth twitched, feeling bored.Your contemptuous tone is because there is a scholar above me, but I don't have one.Besides, you are just a domestic servant, dare to call a scholar like that, hehe.

But the other party is a big family after all, so the shopkeeper had no choice but to smile, "It is indeed him. He said before that he closed the school and thought he would no longer teach others. In the past few months, he suddenly came to my bookstore to buy books. I don't know whose family he is teaching."

"What did he buy? Tell me what he bought."

The shopkeeper announced the title of the book like bamboo shoots after a rain, and the servant who heard it was taken aback for a while, and hurriedly took his leave and prepared to go home to report to the master.His patriarch is naturally Li Gongming who pushed Wang Xianming away earlier.

After listening to the servant's narration, Li Gongming smiled and shook his head: "It's lucky for him to receive so many students after leaving Taixing County."

"My lord, how can I see that." The servant was in a timely manner.

"I want you to read more books on weekdays." Li Gongming leaned back on the chair and commented, "The first time he bought "Four Books Chapters and Sentences Collection" should be for students who have just entered school. This book is a thing of Neo-Confucianism, which is not liked by this court, but the content in the book is really exquisite, so the court did not ban it.

What I bought in the second month should be "Linchuan Collection" and "Su Zhe Collection", which are suitable for reading materials, so that students will not be trapped in the Four Books and Five Classics and only know how to read.

It's just that the "Spring and Autumn Annals" is ahead of the "Collection of Xianwen", presumably because some disciples in his school have begun to study the Five Classics.This person, after a few years of hard work, can be dismissed from the examination room.When the time comes, we will know who his students are. "

The domestic servant waved his folding fan and asked cleverly, "Master, why can't you be alone?"

"Confused." Li Gongming turned his head and cursed, "Do you think that Wang Xianming is some kind of sycamore tree, who practiced the magic of summoning phoenixes and attracting phoenixes? He can find a disciple who has learned the Four Books in a remote village, which is enough for their old Wang family's ancestral grave to smoke."

"Yes, yes, the master is right."

"You go back and collect the students' articles. I have to check them carefully. Don't let Wang Xianming's disciples get ahead of me."

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When Wang Xianming got home, Lin Ruhai had already left.When he saw that the house was full of gifts, he couldn't help arguing with Mrs. Liu, and after knowing that the visitor was Lin Xiucai, he couldn't help but sigh, "Fate is so ingenious."

"Who says it's not." Liu Shi packed up his belongings according to the gift list, "I see that he should be promising now, and his gestures and gestures are not like ordinary petty officials."

Wang Xianming helped clean up together, and when he heard this, he just smiled: "Is there something that the female Zhuge doesn't know? Didn't Madam ask carefully?"

"Why ask about this!" While Liu was busy, she still did not forget to show her girlish posture, "You say we know this, he is a high-ranking official. Should we be cautious in words and deeds? Or should we seek relationships?"

"It's better if I don't know. I can feel more comfortable talking to him. Otherwise, before speaking, I have to think about what kind of official he is. I can't appear unfamiliar, and I can't be too close. Then there is nothing to talk about."

"Friendship between gentlemen is as light as water, and that's what Madam is saying." Wang Xianming nodded, bowing to Liu Shi in admiration, which aroused the latter's annoyance, grabbed his arm and twisted and beat him, until Wang Xianming begged for mercy repeatedly before he would give up.

　Note 1: The ancestors of Lin Ruhai's family were quite rich. The arrangement here is because there is a saying in the original text that the Lin family should have passed on the throne for three generations, and under the favor of the Supreme Emperor, it was passed on to another generation, which ended with Lin Ruhai's father.

　　But if Lin Ruhai's family members were all there, why did Lin Daiyu go to Jia's mansion?You must know that her surname is Lin after all. The ancients paid attention to the unity of the family and the unity of the clan.Even if it is mother Jia who walks ahead.Mrs. Inja likes to take it.After Lin's father passed away, the Lin family had to take the child back anyway. After all, he was Lin Ruhai's only flesh and blood.Personal feeling is unreasonable.

　　So I set the assumption that Lin Ruhai didn't have many relatives in his family, and his father died early.It is only for this reason that Lin Ruhai devoted himself to the imperial examinations in his early years, and when Lin Daiyu was five years old, Lin Ruhai was already forty, and Lin Daiyu's younger brother also passed away.

　　If the Lin family didn't decline, it would be unreasonable to marry so late in ancient times.Therefore, Lin Ruhai should have been selected by Mrs. Jia after she was in high school and only thought about starting a family after she was in her 20s.

　　It can't be according to what some people said on the Internet, Lin Ruhai is still a second marriage, and the first wife has to die before Lin Ruhai's high school, that would be even more outrageous.

　　PS: Let me ask, are we going to make a cover?
　　
　
(End of this chapter)