Do you know the long song of laughter?

Chapter 8 Persuasion
  At dinner, Li An was not able to eat the mushrooms he had collected, which made him feel even more confident that it was right to hide the matter about Huang Jing.

While sleeping, he heard his mother entering the door. Li An got out of bed and came to his mother's room.

"Why are you walking silently?"

Mrs. Liu was making the bed when Li An came in and startled him.

"Mom, I want to study." Li An said looking at his mother.

"read?"

Ms. Liu was stunned for a moment and said angrily: "Don't give me a day to think about it. If you want to study, please ask your grandfather. I don't have money to study for you."

Although their family was not divided, like his father and uncle who worked at the dock, they only had to give part of it to their grandparents, and each house kept the rest.

Although Mr. Liu has some savings, the cost of studying is too high, and the results cannot be seen in a few years.

There are many scholars who have not passed the exam until middle age.

Moreover, the treatment of scholars in the Song Dynasty was very different from that in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

In the Ming Dynasty, fame was lifelong, and you would be exempt from tax if you passed the exam.

For this reason, many common people would put their own fields in the name of the juren and hand over the tax revenue originally given to the court to the juren.

Many people may find it a little strange. Since it seems to be no different if it is handed over to the juren and the court, and if the fields are attached to the juren's name, the fields will nominally belong to the juren. Wouldn't it be a great loss to the people?

In fact, this is not the case. Before the people put their fields under the name of a juren, they will sign an agreement in advance. The general meaning is that these fields will be under the name of that juren.

The imperial court also prohibited this kind of thing from happening, so no one dared to devour the fields of those people.

In addition, if the land is attached to Ju Ren's name, the people who lose their land will be the tenants of Ju Ren in name, and they can be exempted from corvee service.

Juren can also get a large amount of land for free. Although it cannot be bought or sold, the rent received is real.

It can be said that if you pass the exam, you will be able to live in peace. The family can live a very good life just by relying on the farm.

However, there was no tax exemption in the Song Dynasty, and the honors in the Song Dynasty were not lifelong. If you failed the examination and wanted to take the examination next time, you would need to retake the provincial examination to maintain the qualifications for the examination.

Therefore, although ordinary people also let their children study, they are not as enthusiastic as during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Of course, as a parent, Mrs. Liu is also willing to let her son study, but the conditions are limited.

The financial power of the family is in the hands of her father-in-law and mother-in-law. Although she has some savings, she cannot use it all to study with Li An. After all, her eldest son Li Ping is already twelve years old and will get married in a few years.

Moreover, the little money she had could only support Li An's studies for two or three years, which was of no practical significance at all.

"Mom, I have money." Li An said.

"Where did you get the money?"

Mrs. Liu's expression changed when she heard this. She tried her best to suppress her voice and said, "Did you steal someone else's money?"

"Mom, it's not what you think." Li An said with a bitter smile: "Today..."

Li An told the story of today's discovery of Huang Jing, which is worth dozens of taels of silver.

Of course, Li An did not say that he discovered it. After all, the same rhetoric he used to deceive Shi Lin could not deceive the Liu family.

He only said that he heard that Shi Lin was going into the mountains and wanted to go with him to collect some mushrooms. He accidentally dug up Polygonatum japonica, but Shi Lin recognized it and wanted to share half of it with him.

"Is it really worth that much?" Liu said excitedly.

"Mom, this is just a rough estimate, but it should be no problem to sell it for twenty taels. If you divide it half, you can get ten taels." Li An said.

"That's quite a lot."

After saving for so many years, Mrs. Liu only had three or four taels of silver in her hands. These were all saved by Li Nan when he went to the dock to unload goods during his free time.

She was happy for a while, hesitated, and said, "Why don't we take half of it? Why don't you talk to Goudan's father and just give him five taels?" "Mom, I told you, but Uncle Shi won't I promise, I must give you half, and I will repay this favor in the future. Mom, with this money, can you let me go to school?" Li An asked.

Liu was a little hesitant when he heard this. Ten taels of silver seemed like a lot, but it was too little to spend on studying.

Not to mention anything else, studying for a year requires one tael of silver, plus accommodation fees, food and drink, even if you bring food from home, it still costs 2 taels of silver a year.

And you have to spend money to buy pens, inks, paper and inkstones.

But looking at her son's expectant look, Mrs. Liu gritted her teeth and said, "If I can really get ten taels of silver, I can let you study."

She thought that with those ten taels of silver, she could last for two or three years. If Li An went to study, she would go to the city to see if she could find some work. She could supply it for a few years even if she gritted her teeth. The next thing she could do was to Look again.

"Mom, will my grandfather agree?"

Li An was very happy when his mother agreed, but he was a little worried that his grandfather would not agree.

"I'll tell your grandfather about this tomorrow. We pay for it ourselves and it doesn't cost the family money. Why shouldn't we agree?" Mrs. Liu said.

"But what if your grandfather asks you where you got the money?" Li An said.

"I just said that I borrowed it from your uncles' homes. Can they still ask?" Mrs. Liu said.

"Mom, thank you. When I become successful in the future, I will definitely honor you." Li An hugged his mother excitedly.

"Don't be so sweet." Mrs. Liu nodded his head and said, "Since you want to study, study hard. Your father and I have nothing to do. If you become successful in the future, don't forget to give your brother a hand. ."

"Mom, don't worry. I will not only honor you and dad, but also help my brother. By the way, there is also grandma." The kind old lady who stuffed eggs for him appeared in Li An's mind.

In fact, his grandmother is not that old, she is only nearly fifty years old this year.

However, due to overwork and malnutrition, she looked a bit older than some old ladies in their early sixties in later generations.

Hearing this, Mrs. Liu looked at her son and said seriously: "Aniu, mother tells you that no matter how partial your grandfather is, he is still your grandfather, and you should still be filial to those who should be filial. Do you understand?"

She could tell from Li An's words just now that Li An was a little resentful towards the old man, and quickly corrected his misconception.

Li An was startled when he heard this, nodded and said, "Mom, I understand."

In fact, Liu knew even if he didn't like Li An, even if he didn't like his grandfather, he couldn't be unfilial to him.

There is no way, in ancient times when the country was governed by filial piety, a word of filial piety could crush someone to death.

In ancient times, the early selection of officials was called promoting filial piety and integrity.

What does it mean? It means being filial to relatives and elders, honest and upright.

To put it simply, well-known people in the local area can recommend filial and upright people to the court. After the court inspects them, if there are indeed no problems, they can become officials.

Even if the way to select officials now becomes the imperial examination, filial piety is still very important.

If you are labeled as unfilial, you will not only be dismissed from office, but you will also be scorned by others.

"By the way, Mom, Uncle Shi is going to Yangzhou City tomorrow to sell Huangjing. Let me go with him." Li An said.

"Then go ahead, but remember to listen to Goudan's father and not run around, you know?" Ms. Liu warned.

"My son knows." Li An nodded.

"Okay, it's getting late. Go back to bed early. If you don't turn off the lights, your aunt will start talking about it again." Mrs. Liu said.

"Mom, I'll go back to sleep."

Li An said and left his mother's room.

(End of this chapter)