There is an irrigation ditch outside the Yihe City of Youzhou. In autumn, the large reed marsh is like snow.

Several Linhe villages were scattered among them. A carriage turned from the official road to the small road, and it was bumpy. The groom was a young man wearing strange clothes with a dull expression.

Behind the groom was a man in a clean cotton coat, leaning against the wall of the carriage, hanging his legs outside the carriage, swaying gently along with the undulating carriage.

On the road in the evening, the carriage caught up with an old farmer who had finished his work. When the carriage passed by the old farmer, the man in the cotton-padded clothes turned his head and looked at the old man who was just looking at him. The old man had a very unsightly face, with a ravine, but although his figure was hunched, he was still half a head taller than those southern elderly people and his footsteps were quite agile, which shows that the old man must have been in a good position when he was young.

The man in the cotton coat called out softly, and the coachman carried the reins. The carriage slowly stopped. The man jumped out of the carriage and greeted with a smile: "Fourth Grandpa?"

The old farmer looked shocked. He didn't know why this junior who looked very handsome called him the fourth grandfather. Perhaps it was shocked by the momentum of the man in the cotton coat. The old farmer stumbled and was nervous, so he didn't dare to talk to him.

The man in the cotton-padded clothes smiled in the most authentic Youzhou local accent: "I, Chen Wang from the end of the village, the fourth grandfather, can't recognize him?"

The old farmer widened his eyes and looked at the young man who claimed to be living at the end of the village. Then he suddenly woke up and smiled on his wrinkled vicissitudes of life, "Xiao Wang?"

Chen Wang grinned and said, "Yes."

The old man sighed and then wondered: "Why are you back? Didn't you go to Beijing to take the exam?"

Chen Wang smiled and said, "I have finished the exam a long time ago. I will go home to see you. My fourth grandfather had borrowed me two taels of silver, but I dare not forget it."

The old man waved his hand and asked curiously: "How was the exam?"

Chen Wang whispered: "It's okay."

The old man said oh, perhaps because he was worried that he would hurt the young man's face and didn't ask the bottom line. Besides, the old man who has been dealing with the yellow soil all his life can't find out why, just sighed, "What a pity."

Chen Wang's face was calm, as if he didn't understand the regret in the old man's words.

Chen Wang and the old farmer walked back to the village side by side, talking about the harvest of the crops this year, the marriage of peers, and whether the elders in the village are still alive.

Through chatting, Chen Wang learned that his ancestral home of yellow mud was already dilapidated and a wall collapsed. This is reasonable. How can a house that has not been returned to the hometown for ten years to repair and is extremely simple? Chen Wang's parents passed away one after another before taking the exam. The ownerless house is not the seemingly weak reeds, and it will grow again next spring. The old farmer didn't say something. In fact, after Xiao Wang entered Beijing, there was a woman in the village who would have gone to clean it often.

, tidy up, just like her own home. Year after year, many young people who secretly like her also gave up and got married and had children, and the yellow daughter gradually became an old girl. But now she is gone, so what's the use of telling Chen Wang about these things, let alone Chen Wang has been in the capital for so many years, maybe she can't remember her, right? Otherwise, if she really wanted to, even if she couldn't go home for so many years, why didn't she even send a letter back?

As she was approaching the village, the old man raised his head and looked at the village where smoke was curling. He couldn't help but sigh. The daughter's home was at the village. She was a virtuous child who was a hundred miles away. In her early years, the matchmaker almost broke through the threshold of her family, but she refused to agree. Her parents had no choice but to happen. No one expected that the tragic incident would happen in the end. The people all accepted their fate, but they were not good and could not blame anyone. This was like getting sick. If they could survive, they could survive. If they could not bear it, they would be considered as a tragic person.

Chen Wang did not enter the village, but suddenly stopped and asked, "Second Grandpa, where is her grave?"

The old man was stunned for a moment, lowered his voice and said, "How do you know her..."

The old man did not continue talking, and Chen Wang did not speak either.

The old man pointed to the ferry and said, "It's there, although the grave is small, it's easy to find."

Chen Wang took out a heavy bag of money and a letter paper, "Second Grandpa, please help me repay the village's account and hand it over to the private school teacher or the nearby private school teacher. It has been written clearly on it."

The old man hesitated for a moment, but finally did not refuse. He carefully took the letter paper money bag and asked, "Don't you go back to the village to take a look?"

Chen Wang shook his head and said, "I won't go. I'll go to the grave for my parents and I'll set off to go back to the capital immediately."

The old man sighed: "This is too urgent."

Chen Wang smiled.

The old man walked out a few steps and suddenly turned around and asked, "Xiao Wang, are you really a high-ranking official in the capital?"

Chen Wang seemed to have no idea how to answer. The high-ranking official of Tai'an City, Huang Zi, was ranked at the center, and once the prime minister was in charge.

So he had no choice but to laugh, "It's not big."

The old man said with relief: "That's very promising, and the fourth grandpa knew very early on that you must be fine!"

Chen Wang smiled calmly.

The old man didn't forget to glance at the young man standing beside Chen Wang. When he turned around and left, he was full of suspicion. His clothes looked strange.

Chen Wang and the "young eunuch" who was the same age as the country moved forward slowly, and his parents' grave was not far outside the village.

Chen Wang raised his hand and brushed the reeds.

When he was studying hard, he didn't dare to think about the Jinshi and the Golden List. His parents had no extravagant hope. They just thought that it was already a great thing that would shine with their sons. Beiliang was so cold that it was great that one family could produce a scholar. It was very different from the Central Plains, especially the rich Jiangnan. It likes to pay attention to farming and reading. In Beiliang, it is very common for young and strong people to join the army, but they are very rare. He just entered Beijing to participate in the imperial examination, and Beiliang was the only one in Tai'an City.

The person who set up the examination hall was not familiar with the place, and there was no care of his fellow imperial examination fellows, so he had to stay in a small temple. Beiliang's accent made him hit a wall everywhere. The same ancient book was much more expensive when the store sold it to him. Even though he participated in the palace examination later, he still had no friendship with the same age in the officialdom, and Beiliang was considered the only one. Jinlanting's success in Tai'an City was that Yan Jiexi became a royal relative. The two of them deliberately did not change this out of personal grudges. Even if Yao Baifeng served as the left priest of the Imperial College, he was still willing but not capable enough.

And Chen Wang, Chen Shaobao, who was in the eyes of all the civil and military officials of the court, was a noble servant of the Zuo Sanqi. He was the most important future chief assistant whom he relied on today, was determined and powerful, but he could not do it.

Chen Wang walked slowly, with reeds on both sides higher than the top of the man. The huge and soft reed flowers rose up with the autumn wind, and I don’t know where they fell.

Chen looked at the grave, pulled out the weeds, then straightened his clothes, knelt down and kowtowed three times.

The son wants to support him but the parents are not waiting.

The old man who was honored as the fourth grandfather by this cotton-padded man may never know in his life. The two things handed over to him by his younger generation, the money bag and letter paper, and the latter is worth a thousand gold by just the last name "Chen Wang".

In the past twenty years of Beiliang, there were only a few people in Liyang's officialdom. Among them, Lanting of Jin was appointed as the Minister of Rites, Yan Jiexi was named the Grand Secretary, and Yao Baifeng, the Grandmaster of Neo-Confucianism, was in charge of the Imperial College, but these three people may not be as important as Chen Wang.

It can even be said that in a large sense, it was this scholar who left his hometown in Beiliang. His two secret letters changed the pattern of Beiliang.

On the way back, Chen Wang met a man of his age who was strong and of a strong man. When he saw him, the man looked complicated, angry, awe, surprised, and puzzled.

The man took a deep breath, then handed Chen Wang a coarse cloth bag with a stern face, "The things left by my sister are all books you left back then, and I will return them to you."

Chen Wang took the cloth bag and was stunned.

The man turned around and strode away, stopped, and his voice hoarse, "I hope, although my sister... don't think she's dead unclear or not! She's cleaner than anyone else!"

Chen Wang covered his mouth, looked at the back of the back that he often hooked his back with him in his early years and shouted at his brother-in-law, and said vaguely: "I'm sorry."

The man murmured, "You tell her this."

Chen Wang was silent, and scarlet oozed out between his fingers.

I haven't moved for a long time.

———

Chen Wang held the cloth bag and came to the ferry to find the small tomb.

The eunuch disappeared.

Chen Wang sat cross-legged in front of the grave.

Sitting opposite the small grave.

An illiterate woman would find a clean place in the sun, spread out her books, and put them away one by one.

A woman who is not married will go to the small ferry when there is no one, wait for others, look away again and again, and turn around again and again.

Chen Wang gently opened the cloth bag and looked down at him. There were the familiar "Book of Rites" and "The Great Learning", as well as the 300,000 elementary school books that were older.

Back then, he often wrote to her for work in the fields, pounding clothes at the ferry, snowing, or picking reeds.

This year is ten years away from that year.

He and her are already separated by yin and yang.

Chen Wang closed his eyes and said softly: "There are troubles in the country, the king dies in the country, the doctor dies in the ancestral temple, and the people die in the countryside..."

"A gentleman said, 'Great virtues do not have official positions, great powers do not have tools, great faith does not agree, great time does not match.' If you observe these four things, you can have the ambition to learn..."

"Let the people in the world all be polite and garments to serve as sacrifices. It is as if it is above it, as if it is on it..."

In the twilight, scholars read.
Chapter completed!