Chapter 12: Eldest Xu Who Was a Professional at Setting Up His Brothers

The Xu residence was full of joyous chatter and harmony that day.

Because Youngest Xu brought back money and food, Mrs. Xu unprecedentedly allowed Mr. Xu to drink two cups of aged wine. The old man was elated by this indulgence; the smile on his face seemed to be never-fading.

Even if his two elder sons seized the opportunity to drink half of his aged wine, this did not affect his pleasant mood.

After the family had lunch, Mr. Xu hummed a little tune and went out to find his friends for a chat.

Eldest and Second Xu took Youngest Xu out together and went fishing by the river.

As for the three daughters-in-law of the Xu family, they busied themselves in making white flour steamed buns, which would be taken by Youngest Xu to the city.

Although Youngest Xu was studying in the county school, he had to rely on himself for the meals. If the weather was too hot, they would only prepare him flour and millet to bring with him to the city. If the weather was cooler, they would make the steamed buns for him to take away so that he would only have to heat them up on the stove for meals.

It could save a lot of firewood this way.

Going to the city to study costed money for everything.

The Xu family was not considered poor, but nor were they the kind that could spend money lavishly.

　　...

The three Xu brothers lined up by the river.

Each of them had on a bamboo hat, held a fishing rod in their hands, and sat on the big green stone by the river.

Youngest Xu was a student, but his physical strength wasn't too bad.

This was the difference between a part-farming, part-studying family and a pure scholarly family.

Although the scholarly families also paid attention to the family training their children received for their bodies, the children were still lacking in strength.

In this era, it was useless if someone could only study, because after going to the examination cell, the whole examination process was completely closed off. The test duration might last either three or five days, and the candidates had to bring their own dried food for meals.

If the student was not sufficiently fit, he might not even be able to persist through the entire imperial exam.

"Big brother, second brother, did you two really catch that fish from here?"

After having sat on the rock for half an hour and still detecting no movement at all in the river, Youngest Xu wondered if he had been fooled by his elder brother and the second brother again.

Second Xu rolled his eyes at Youngest Xu and said, "How long has it been? If you want to catch a big fish, you must be patient!"

"Second brother is right!" Eldest Xu sat there motionless, speaking without even turning his head.

Youngest Xu smiled and said, "Big brother, second brother, I hope you're not fooling me! It isn't easy for me to take a half-day leave and come back home, so if I'm squandering time doing nothing here, it would be such a waste!"

He still suspected that his two brothers might be fooling him.

In his opinion, instead of wasting time here, he would rather go back home and spend time with his wife.

He could only come back home a few times a month. In that case, wasn't it better to spend the time embracing his beautiful wife?

"Rest assured, we might deceive anyone else, but we'd never deceive you!" Eldest Xu waved his hand calmly. "Over the years, how many times has Eldest Brother fooled you?"

"Then we should give it a good count!" Youngest Xu returned an eye-roll back at Eldest Xu. "When I was six years old, you told me that you were bringing me to buy sweets, but you bought the sweets with the New Year's money that mother gave me and then ate them all by yourself, without even leaving a single one to me!

"Then, when I was seven years old, you said that you were taking me to pluck some grapes to eat. In the end, you ate the grapes and left me to be caught by Uncle Yue! And when I was seven and a half years old..."

"Stop, stop, stop!" Eldest Xu glared fiercely at Youngest Xu. "Those are all petty and stale matters. Besides, after those events, didn't I compensate you?"

"But brother, was it really you who compensated me? No, it was mother!" Youngest Xu was indignant.

Eldest Xu rolled his eyes at his stupid brother and said, "If I hadn't done those things, do you honestly think mother would have bought those delicious foods?"