short series

Starting as a Mud-Legged Peasant: Making Money and Chasing the Imperial Exam

share time: 2025-12-03 00:33:34

Chen Erniu, a mud-legged peasant, lost his father young and lived with his widowed mother by renting land. He harbored a secret dream of passing the imperial exam—practicing calligraphy on the ground with burnt branches at night, until his childhood sweetheart A Tao found out and gave him eggs saved for half a year to buy ink. But the greedy landlord Zhao Bopi tried to ruin him: raising rent by 20% and trampling his off-season radishes (his exam travel fund). Erniu tricked Zhao into paying ten taels for a “luck-turning secret” (teaching him to mix moldy grain) by drawing a “God of Wealth” with kitchen ash, then reported Zhao to the magistrate. When he left for the exam, A Tao chased him with quilted shoes: “When you pass, I’ll manage your accounts and be your wife!” But just at the exam hall, guards stopped him: “Someone accused you of forging documents!” It turned out to be Zhao’s nephew’s trick…

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