Who Said a Study Servant Can't Win the Imperial Exam? - Chapter 9 - The Steward Pays a Visit

Old Madam Cui was carried home by her two sons.

Overwhelmed with grief and anger, she had fainted in front of the Red List at the County Yamen.

On the way back, the words she heard most often were: “Accept it.”

When they arrived home, villagers came to visit her, offering their condolences and advice, “Just accept it.”

“We’re all mud legs born to work the fields. Why bother struggling for something as far-fetched as studying?”

Old Madam Cui sat there, her face expressionless, letting them talk without uttering a single word.

When the visitors finally left, she gathered the entire family. Her voice was calm, but her words carried a weight that silenced the room. “The Cui family was not mud legs before, and we will never be mud legs in the future.”

Before anyone could respond, she pointed outside, tears streaming from her clouded eyes. “I know. Over the years, you’ve all resented me. You don’t want to study anymore. You just want to farm and live a quiet life.”

“But step outside and look at those fields. That soil that grows crops is the most insidious trap of all. Once you step into it, you’ll be stuck for generations, unable to escape!”

Her voice rose, sharp and piercing.

Cui Xian listened, stunned, as her words struck him like thunder.

This was an elderly woman from the countryside, someone who had never even begun formal studies. How much suffering, how many years of hardship must she have endured to say something so profound?

People often spoke of the “Ten Thousand Mountains” as a nightmare prison that trapped countless lives.

But for the poor, wasn’t the flat, endless farmland of Henan just another kind of “Ten Thousand Mountains”?

“Now everyone mocks me, Old Cui, calling me delusional, a mud leg dreaming of making the list. But just twenty years ago, they seem to have forgotten that the Cui family once produced a Provincial Graduate Lord and a Scholar Candidate.”

“How dare they call the Cui family mud legs! The Cui Mansion’s gates once bore a plaque proclaiming us the home of a Provincial Graduate!”

“Boshan, Zhongyuan,” she called her two sons by name, her voice trembling, “I’ve often wondered over the years-your grandfather was a Provincial Graduate Lord, respected by all the scholars in Nanyang Prefecture. Your father, too, passed the exams to become a Scholar Candidate at a young age.”

“So how is it that when it comes to you two, you fail every single time?”

Her voice broke as she wept, her question hanging in the air like a blade.

Cui Boshan and Cui Zhongyuan felt a lump in their throats, unable to respond.

It wasn’t as if they hadn’t tried. They had studied diligently, but no matter how hard they worked, they couldn’t seem to succeed.

Only Cui Xian understood the truth.

His eldest uncle and father were of average talent at best. They only knew how to memorize books without truly understanding them. They knew the “what” but not the “why.”

Without a teacher to guide them, how could they ever hope to make the list?

The saying “It’s hard for the poor to rise” existed for a reason.

Old Madam Cui’s gaze turned to her two sons, filled with disappointment.

After a long silence, her voice softened, trembling with emotion. “Of course, it’s not entirely your fault. I know you’ve both suffered over the years. Your grandfather once traveled to the south to serve as a County Magistrate. But when the coastal raiders attacked, he and your grandmother gave their lives defending the city and its people.”

“At the time, you two were still young. Your father… your father went south to attend their funeral. When he returned, he was a broken man.”

“Then, after the mourning period, he ignored his frail health and insisted on going to Kaifeng to take the Provincial Exam. And then… then his body gave out.”

“After the Provincial Exam began, the doors of the Examination Hall were closed and would not open, even if the exam hall flooded or a student died on the spot. There was absolutely no reason to open the doors. Yet, those nine days and six nights of examination could truly exhaust someone to death!”

“At that time, knowing his health was failing, your father desperately pleaded with the chief examiner to throw him over the wall out of the exam hall.”

“Since your grandfather died in battle against the coastal raiders, the chief examiner that year made an exception and granted your father’s request.”

“I rushed over when I heard the news, and didn’t even have time to cry before I found your father lying outside the exam hall, his face contorted, clutching my hand tightly, saying… saying…”

At this point, Old Cui choked up and lost her voice.

Cui Boshan cried out, “Mother, stop talking, please don’t say any more!”

“Your father said that even if it meant spending all our wealth, he wanted Boshan and Zhongyuan to make something of themselves, otherwise he would not rest in peace! That damned man, he was so determined; he really just closed his eyes and left us.”

“His words still echo in my mind, never ceasing for a moment all these years.”

Old Cui ignored her son and continued in a trembling voice, “I was so young when I became a widow, already heartbroken. But your good uncle, owing a huge debt, insisted on splitting the family assets. You two were too young, and I, a widow, could only let him bully us.”

“In front of the clan elders, I paid off his debts and, gritting my teeth, agreed to the division of the household. We sold the Cui Family’s large mansion, paintings, furniture, and hundreds of acres of good farmland. He took seventy percent, and we kept thirty percent.”

“In the years since, we moved back to Hexi Village. To provide for your education and marriages, I sold everything I could, even things I shouldn’t have.”

“Every shopkeeper in every pawnshop in the County Town knows me, they’ve all laughed at me.”

“Even in Nanyang County Town, Old Cui with her hysteria became a topic of conversation.”

Old Cui gave a bitter smile and asked, “Boshan, Zhongyuan, what should your mother do? What can I do? If you two stop studying, what face will I have to meet your father, your grandparents, when I pass away?”

Hearing his grandmother recount the past, Cui Xian thought, it turns out the Cui family had its days of glory.

Sadly, the ending is lamentable.

Brothers Cui Boshan and Cui Zhongyuan both knelt down together.

Cui Zhongyuan cried, “Mother, we’ll study, we’ll continue! My brother and I will surely pass the exams!”

Both daughters-in-law silently shed tears.

Cui Yu and Cui Xuan, brother and sister, also cried along.

The misfortunes of the past had riddled this family with grief and pain.

Cui Xian felt a lump in his throat.

He thought, it’s been over ten days, and there’s still no word from Rich Boy.

Maybe, he should bring up the idea of going to study in the County Town with his family.

If things continued this way, their family would be ruined.

But before Cui Xian could speak up.

He heard his grandmother say, “You must study. Boshan, Zhongyuan, you must continue. I think, since Yu-Ge’er is nine this year, it’s time he began his formal studies, let’s send him to study as well.”

Upon these words, the room fell silent.

Cui Xian was also taken aback.

It turned out, Old Cui had said so much, laid out so much groundwork, all to get Yu-Ge’er to study.

Cui Yu quickly glanced at Cui Xian next to him, ready to refuse.

Aunt Lin was the first to react, crying out, “Mother, the family is already in such dire straits, we simply can’t afford it anymore!”

Chen added, “Eldest sister-in-law is right. Nowadays, we rarely see any meat on the table. If we have to support another, how will we survive?”

Cui Zhongyuan opened his mouth to persuade.

Cui Boshan placed a hand on his brother’s shoulder, uncharacteristically refusing their mother’s decision, “Mother, life must go on. If you insist on letting Yu-Ge’er begin formal studies, then I won’t continue mine-”

Old Madam Cui abruptly shifted from her previous sorrow, cutting off her eldest son sharply, “No! You must study, the second must study, and Yu-Ge’er must study too! Even if I have to skip a meal a day, I will ensure Yu-Ge’er can study!”

Her words left the entire family in despair.

It was at this moment that the Family Steward from the Pei Mansion arrived at their door.

“May I ask if this is the Cui Family? I am the steward of the Pei Mansion. I have come on behalf of my master to request that young Cui Xian join our Young Master as a study servant.”

The steward stood at the entrance, his voice sincere and courteous as he explained his purpose.

To avoid misunderstanding, the steward further clarified, “Our master’s intention is for young Cui Xian to join as a study servant in name, but in reality, he is to be a companion for our Young Master.”

Study servant?

Upon hearing this, the rest of the Cui Family was still bewildered.

Cui Yu was the first to panic.

He immediately recalled his grandmother asking him a few days ago if he wanted to study, and he had asked what would happen to Xian-Ge’er.

His grandmother had remained silent.

Could it be…

The family didn’t have enough money, and to allow him to study, his grandmother had sold Xian-Ge’er to be a study servant for the Pei Mansion’s Young Master in exchange for silver?

Now the Pei Mansion’s steward had come to take Xian-Ge’er away!

The more Cui Yu thought about it, the more he believed this was the case.

He burst into tears, crying out to his grandmother, “Grandmother, did you sell Xian-Ge’er? I don’t agree! If someone must be sold, sell me and let my brother study!”

Cui Zhongyuan and Chen’s faces changed drastically upon hearing this, hurriedly shielding their son.

Did the old madam sell Xian-Ge’er?!

The rest of the Cui Family were equally shocked.