Chapter Seventy-Nine: The Unemployed Youth and the Yinyi Association

The outcome was that Chun was overly optimistic. He had indeed received several invitations, but upon arriving for interviews, he encountered the same issue everywhere—he was simply too young. No one wanted to hire a teacher not yet eighteen! Reliability aside, how could he possibly keep those unruly boys in check?

Two places, out of respect for his third-place county exam ranking, offered him a trial period for a few months, but Chun refused outright. The agreement had been to hire him as a teacher, so why was it suddenly a probation? A scholar serves those who recognize his worth, not those who doubt him!

After making the rounds, he ended up with nothing. His aunt didn’t want him to go too far from home... and so, he stayed put, idle at home.

His uncle inquired everywhere for suitable opportunities, but who knew when news would come. Though Chun disliked eating idle bread, finding a position couldn’t be rushed. After years of diligent study, he was mentally and physically exhausted; a period of rest at home was, in truth, necessary.

Yet Chun was not one to sit idle. Every day, he fed pigs and watched the children, herded cattle and tended the fields, picking up all the chores Qiu had once performed...

The problem was, he’d never so much as dipped a finger in household work. When he fed pigs, they ran away; when he watched the children, they toppled over; when he herded cattle, they grazed on others’ crops; when he cut grass in the fields, he managed to slice his own ankle...

His family soon dared not let him work. His aunt said, “Son, just rest. Watching you work makes my heart race.”

He thought, if he couldn’t manage chores, he’d help Qiu with his studies at night. Yet Su Lu’s schedule was packed to the brim, leaving no room for him—essays from the teacher, prose from the headmaster, rhyme schemes from Su Talent, not one of which Chun could substitute.

Chun finally understood the saying, “A scholar is of no practical use,” and why scholars either enter officialdom or teach; they truly can do nothing else.

Proud and fiercely self-respecting, the third-place county exam scholar now found himself an unemployed youth living on idle food, his days bitter and stifling.

He was always taciturn, and now hardly spoke a word all day...

~~

On the fourth day of the fifth month, the next day was the fifth ten-day break—also the Dragon Boat Festival—and Su Lu was on holiday.

He realized then that the teacher who instituted “every fifth ten-day break” was quite the genius. Not only did the monthly holidays overlap with both the Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival, but the academy did not compensate with alternate days off! Two holidays became one—a real headache!

Fortunately, Mr. Zhang was humane enough not to assign homework that day. As soon as the cloud gong sounded, he let them go home.

It was the time of year with the longest daylight; Su Lu arrived home with the sun still high in the sky.

He saw his older brother standing in the chicken coop on the first floor, holding a feeding bowl, reluctant to set it down. The hungry chickens circled him, flapping their wings and leaping for the bowl.

Chun paid them no mind, instead uttering a series of “chirp-chirp-chirp...” in various tones.

Su Lu felt unsettled watching him; was Chun already showing signs of strain after just a few days of idleness? Was he really so driven?

“Brother,” Su Lu called softly, afraid to startle Chun, who seemed to be “acting up.”

“Oh, you’re back?” Chun turned with delight at the sound, only to bang his head on the low ceiling with a thud.

The first floor was so low that even their little aunt had to bend to feed the chickens; Chun stood straight, so a bump was inevitable.

“Oh!” Chun groaned, clutching his head as the feeding bowl dropped. The famished chickens immediately dove in, finally getting their supper.

“Brother, are you alright?” Su Lu asked quietly.

“I’m fine, good thing I have a topknot,” Chun replied, rubbing his head as he ducked out of the coop.

“I meant not just the bump—are you alright in general?” Su Lu held the door frame, lest his brother stumble again.

“I’m fine,” Chun said, puzzled. “Is something wrong with me?”

“What were you just doing?” Su Lu asked.

“Feeding the chickens.”

Page (1/3)

“But you should use ‘cluck-cluck-cluck,’ not ‘chirp-chirp-chirp,’” Su Lu said. “And only in a level tone, no need for all four tones.”

“Oh.” Chun realized Qiu misunderstood and chuckled. “I was trying to compose a mono-syllabic couplet but couldn’t think of a matching line. Why don’t you try matching it?”

“What’s a mono-syllabic couplet?” Su Lu asked.

“It’s a couplet where every word sounds the same but is written differently,” Chun explained. “Listen carefully.”

He recited the upper line, which, to Su Lu, sounded like, “chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp, chirp-chirp-chirp. Chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp, chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp, chirp-chirp, chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp.”

Su Lu thought for a moment, then smiled and replied, “I’ve got it, here’s my lower line…”

To Chun’s ear, it was, “shi-shi-shi-shi-shi, shi-shi-shi. Shi-shi-shi-shi, shi-shi-shi-shi, shi-shi, shi-shi-shi-shi.”

“Don’t try to fool me. Mine isn’t just same-sound, different characters—the whole passage is a complete story,” Chun laughed.

“Coincidentally, so is mine,” Su Lu replied.

“I’ll write out the upper line and see what you have to say then.” They went upstairs to the younger uncle’s room, where Chun took up the brush and wrote:

“Ji Ji gathers thorny chickens, chickens hungry aid. Chickens anxious climb satchels, Ji forbids striking chickens, chickens die, records ‘Chicken Striking Chronicle.’”

Su Lu took the brush and wrote the lower line:

“Shi Shi loves eating lions, lions just arrived at market. Relying on arrows to chase lions, collects lion corpses in stone chamber, eats lions, thus ‘Lion Eating History.’”

“Hahaha!” Chun burst out laughing, giving a thumbs up. “My brother, you truly have quick wit!”

“I just read a similar mono-syllabic text and cobbled it together,” Su Lu admitted with a smile. “And the tones aren’t quite right.”

“With word games like these, strict prosody isn’t necessary—matching them is already excellent,” Chun replied.

“Yes, if it brings you a laugh, it’s worthwhile,” Su Lu said.

“Am I a beauty needing your amusement?” Chun touched his stiff cheeks; it had indeed been a while since he smiled.

“No need to smile, brother was always the cool type,” Su Lu hurried to reassure him.

“I’m left with only the cold,” Chun resumed his habitual stern expression. “By the way, Summer asked me to tell you to visit your godmother’s house when you’re back.”

“Oh?” Su Lu immediately guessed the reason and eagerly said, “Let’s go, let’s attend the ceremony together.”

“What ceremony?” Chun asked, puzzled.

“You’ll see when we get there,” Su Lu insisted, dragging Chun along. “Consider it a change of scenery.”

~~

They passed through winding streets to the He family estate nestled in a mountain hollow.

For half a year, godmother and her family had mostly lived in town, and the once grand courtyard had grown wild through spring. When Su Lu last visited, weeds choked the entrance, green moss climbed the white walls, wild mugwort flourished atop the wall—perfect for a ghost film.

Now, the gate was spotless, all cobwebs and weeds gone, the peeling wall freshly plastered.

“Second Brother is truly a good man,” Su Lu sighed softly; this was surely Summer’s doing.

“Of course, and he’s given you at least eight points of goodness,” Chun replied, his first visit here and thus unaware of Su Lu’s sentiment. “Isn’t the door locked?”

Su Lu slipped his hand into the doorframe, skillfully retrieved a key, and unlocked the gate.

Just like coming home...

He led his brother in, relocked the door, and hung the key back.

At that moment, Su Tai heard the commotion and greeted them with a cheerful, “Big Brother, Qiu, you’re here?”

Page (2/3)

“Mm,” Chun nodded.

Su Lu smiled and asked, “Second Brother, are you opening the cellar?”

“Yes,” Su Tai nodded. “I think it’s just about ready.”

“Opening the cellar? You’re brewing wine?” Chun, being from Erlang Beach, was familiar with the term.

“Yes.” Su Tai nodded. “We’ll only know if it worked after steaming the wine on the pot today.”

“I wondered why you were being so secretive,” Chun said, then suddenly paused. “Wait, you only met this family at New Year, right? Even if you started brewing on day one, it’s nowhere near time for steaming!”

“We’re not that extreme,” Su Lu laughed. “Second Brother started the brew last month.”

“Mm,” Su Tai added. “Started brewing on the seventeenth, cellared on the eighteenth.”

“That’s not even twenty days!” Chun couldn’t help but protest. “There should be a limit to recklessness!”

He knew, even without having made wine himself, that the family distillery’s sorghum wine required “nine rounds of steaming, eight rounds of fermentation,” a complex process. Each fermentation took about a month, and the entire process lasted eight months before entering the “seven rounds of extraction” phase.

Twenty days isn’t even enough for one fermentation round—what kind of wine could you possibly extract?

“Brother’s talking about the fine wine from our family distillery; we’re making mid-to-low grade wine, which doesn’t need such a complicated process—one fermentation is enough,” Su Lu explained with a wave.

“Whether it’s enough remains to be seen; we’ll only know after opening the cellar,” Su Tai said seriously.

“Alright, I’ll watch your performance,” Chun said, falling silent.

~~

Before opening the cellar, Su Tai and Su Lu went to the main hall, where the He family’s ancestral tablets rested.

The newest two black wooden plaques belonged to Da He and Xiao He, who had perished at Da Bing Beach.

Su Tai had already laid out offerings, lit incense, and bowed deeply four times, praying as he did so:

“I prayed to you before, promising your Erlang wine would see the light of day again. Today is the day we open the cellar; I pray anew: my brother and I will care for godmother in her old age, raise Tian Tian to adulthood, and carry on Erlang wine’s legacy!”

He placed the incense in the burner, intoning, “If you approve, grant us good fortune as we open the cellar!”

Then he and Su Lu stepped back and bowed four times again.

A sudden breeze swept through the hall, swirling the curling incense smoke...

~~

After honoring the departed, Su Tai, accompanied by his brothers, went to the cellar jar in the backyard and solemnly removed the seal.

As the jar was opened, a rush of warmth mixed with the scent of yeast and fermentation spilled forth.

Once the cellar mud was cleared, deep brown-yellow grains were revealed.

Su Tai washed his hands, scooped up a handful of moist grain, and gently squeezed; countless clear droplets seeped out.

He sniffed closely—the aroma wasn’t strong, but the fermented malt’s sweetness was evident, quite unlike the grain of Kunsha wine.

However, the scent was clean and direct, with no trace of spoilage, proving the fermentation had at least succeeded. Whether the wine would be any good, they would only know after steaming.

ps. This chapter is dedicated to last month’s alliance leader “Just an Ordinary Person Ha,” an old friend.

Today, four updates total twelve thousand words—equivalent to six updates before!

See, the monk truly burns with passion; please vote and subscribe!!!

Page (3/3)