Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 33 Third Uncle Fan Tieniu

"Ning'er, where's your box?" Fan Tiezhou rubbed his hair and asked with a smile.

I haven't seen him for a few days, and he really misses his son.

"I only have one day off, and I have to rush back tomorrow night."

"There's still time to leave early the morning after tomorrow. Daddy has a boat, so I promise you won't be late."

Fan Ning stepped onto the boat and found that the boat was actually not small. There was a canopy in the middle, which was clean and comfortable inside, and there was a small window on the canopy.

Fanning went into the cabin to lay down his baggage, and looked around.

"Daddy, is this boat new?"

"Fortunately, it is [-]% new. I repainted it with tung oil and it looks like new."

"How's business?"

"It's just started, but there are seventy or eighty Wen a day, which is more profitable than fishing. In the future, there will be more regular customers, and I will earn at least two hundred Wen a day."

Fan Tiezhou is in a good mood. There are more than a dozen acres of land in the family. One mu of land can earn two yuan a year, and farming can earn twenty or thirty yuan a year. Including passenger transport, land tax and exemption money, the average is one month. Earn four to five yuan steadily, which is also an upper-middle income in the village.

"How is mother?" Fanning asked again.

"Your mother is well, she has cooked a table of good dishes, and she is waiting for you to go back!"

Fan Tiezhou laughed again: "Your fourth uncle is not bad either. He teaches in a primary school. Everyone says he teaches better than Mr. Gu. Your grandfather praises you for your ability!"

"He didn't say I was stupid?"

Fan Ning was really not interested in his eccentric grandfather, but for his father's sake, he responded casually.

"I won't talk about it anymore. He also plans to reward you with five pennies. I don't know what happened. Your grandfather went to Wuxi and suddenly figured it out."

Speaking of rewards, Fan Tiezhou remembered something, and said to his son: "Yesterday, the patriarch of the Fan clan in the town came to me and gave our family ten pennies."

"Why do you have to give ten pennies?"

"This is the rule set by your third grandfather a few years ago. He donated all his property and set up Fan's Charity Fund. All Fan's children who are admitted to the school will be rewarded with five coins each. If they are admitted to the Four Universities If you don’t live in the hall, you will be rewarded with ten strings to help your children study.”

In history, Fan Zhongyan did donate most of his property to support the family's children to study.

Fan Ning was lying in the cabin with his head resting on his hands, looking at the white clouds in the sky, wondering how Fan Zhongyan was doing now?
． ． ． ． ． ． ． ．
Back home, Zhang Sanniang hugged him and cried hard as if she hadn't seen her son for many years. When eating, she found that her son had lost weight, and she was so distressed that she burst into tears.

She sat with her son and kept picking up vegetables for him, "Ning'er, this piece of meat is good, mother specially saved it for you."

With a glance, she suddenly roared, "Fan Tiezhou, that chicken leg is for my son, who let you eat it?"

Fan Tiezhou held a chicken leg with a bite in his hand, he didn't want to let it go or eat it, he just stayed there.

． ． ． ． ． ． ． ．
After dinner, Fan Tiezhou took the initiative to clean up the dishes, and Zhang Sanniang took out two sheepskin jackets from the box, which she asked someone to buy in Zangshu Town, and they were made of high-quality Hu sheepskin.

"Dalang, Ning'er, you two come over and try it first, one piece for each person, hey! Last year, seven hundred Wen was enough, but this year it has been raised to the usual amount. These days, the money is getting more and more useless."

"My lady is right, I wish I had known we bought it last year." Fan Tiezhou smiled flatteringly.

Zhang Sanniang glared at him, "What's the point of saying that, did our family have money to buy it last year?"

She threw the sheepskin jacket to her husband, "Go and sew the buttons yourself, I won't bother with you."

She turned around and said to Fan Ning with a smile on her face, "My dear son, try it on for your mother to see if the size is right for you?"

Fan Ning put on a close-fitting sheepskin jacket and a straight jacket over it, which made him feel much warmer.

"Mom, what's going on today?"

As soon as Fan Ning came home, he felt that his mother was not in a good mood, and of course it was not for himself.

"Hmph! My son deserves the ten guan money. It's his business if he's not happy. Why should we return it to the family?"

Seeing his father's embarrassment, Fan Ning asked, "Daddy, what's going on?"

Fan Tiezhou sat aside with a wry smile and said, "Your fourth uncle was admitted to the school attached to the county school, and the family didn't give him any rewards. Two days ago your grandfather heard that you had won ten guan coins, and he was upset, so he ran to the family to ask for money.

But the family refused, your grandfather was very angry, and asked us to return the ten pennies to the family, of course your mother refused, so your mother has been blaming me. "

"It was!"

While sewing buttons, Zhang Sanniang said to her son: "Don't think your mother is a money-minded person. I do things in my own way. Yesterday your grandfather sent five pennies. I don't mind rewarding my grandson. Well, it’s compensation for splitting up, and I confiscated it in a fit of anger.”

Fan Tiezhou was threading a needle, and he quickly put down the needle and thread to explain, "Since he mentioned compensation for family separation, it means that he still feels guilty about it. Besides, it's normal for people to say wrong things when they are old. I believe his original intention is to give Ning'er's reward has no other meaning."

"Anyway, I don't want the five pennies. I don't want to owe him favors."

Zhang Sanniang has a knife mouth and a bean curd heart. Although she was angry with her husband and asked him to sew buttons by himself, she saw him picking up a needle and threading, so she stepped forward and snatched back the sheepskin jacket.

"Forget it, let me sew it for you! To save someone from saying that I bullied his son."

Fan Tiezhou heaved a long sigh of relief, and the lady finally calmed down.

． ． ． ． ． ． ． ．
Early the next morning, Fan Tiezhou took Fan Ning to his grandfather's house.

On the way, Fan Tiezhou said: "Your fourth uncle was really a child prodigy when he was young. He could speak before he was one year old, he could read and write at three years old, he went to school at five years old, and he was the first in every exam. Your grandfather even took him to the county. Find the most famous fortune teller here, and the fortune teller will give you the eight characters Grandpa."

"Which eight characters?" Fan Ning asked with interest.

"Official business routes are beyond words!"

Fan Tiezhou sighed, "It's these eight words that made your grandfather like a demon, nurturing your fourth uncle at all costs, obedient to him, and doting on him very much."

Fan Ning was silent for a moment, and then asked his father, "Yesterday, mother said that my fourth uncle was admitted to the school affiliated to the county school, and the family did not give any rewards. Why?"

"There are many reasons. On the one hand, the relationship between the old patriarch and your grandfather was very bad. Of course, you can't completely blame the family for being unfair. In fact, there are other reasons."

Fan Tiezhou looked around and said in a low voice, "I can tell you something now. Your fourth uncle was not admitted to the school affiliated to the county school at that time. Your grandfather finally asked a favor to send him to the school."

Fan Ning was taken aback, "Didn't Fourth Uncle pass the exam?"

"no!"

Fan Tiezhou shook his head, "Even the county school costs money. It cost 200 taels of silver to buy a spot for auditors. In order for him to study, it almost emptied your grandpa's old bottom."

Fan Ning suddenly understood his grandfather's almost pathological obsession. He wanted his fourth uncle to be admitted to fame because he spent a lot of money on his fourth uncle. If his fourth uncle failed the exam, the money would be wasted.

When I came to my grandfather's house, I saw my grandmother Yang was scolding a young man who was squatting on the ground, and my grandmother looked much better.

"Grandma!"

Fanning shouted and ran over.

Immediately, Yang frowned and smiled, pulling Fan Ning to look up and down, and said with a smile: "My son has become a scholar!"

People rely on clothes and horses rely on saddles. In the past, Fan Ning wore shorts and shorts, and was barefoot. No matter how you looked at him, he was a country herding boy.

Now he is wearing a scholar's straight gown, a square scarf on his head, and thick-soled cloth boots on his feet. He really looks like a young scholar.

"This is the chilblain medicine I bought for grandma in the town!"

Fanning stuffed a bottle of ointment into his grandmother's hand, which he had noticed last time had a crack.

Yang stroked her grandson's head affectionately, "Be good, and buy medicine for grandma."

At this time, Fan Tiezhou walked in and looked at the young man squatting on the ground in surprise, "Tie Niu, why are you here?"

Only then did Fan Ning know that this young man in black was his third uncle, Fan Tieniu.

Of the four Fan family brothers, the best at the moment is the second eldest, Fan Tiege, who runs a grocery store in Changqiao Town, Wu County.

The worst performer was the youngest, Fan Tieniu, who stepped in and became his son-in-law.

There is a saying in the countryside of Wu County, "It is better not to have a penny than to get one in the wrong way." '

That is to say, I would rather be penniless than being a door-to-door son-in-law,
The fate of the door-to-door son-in-law is rather tragic. He lives under the eaves of the woman's house and has no status at all.

Walking on the road, people will point and laugh behind them.

If the woman's family is kinder, she can still raise her son-in-law as half a son, but if she meets an unscrupulous family, the son-in-law is worse than a servant, and beating and scolding is commonplace.

As for what Fan Tieniu did and what his family's son-in-law did, the Fan family kept secret about it and never mentioned it.

Fanning only heard his mother mention a sentence when complaining about his grandfather, "If he hadn't been so partial to the fourth child, the third child would not have come to that point."

However, it was the first time Fan Ning saw his third uncle. He had thick lips, a wide nose bridge, and an honest and honest face. He was wearing a black coarse cloth jacket and a round turban, and his body was very strong.

At this time, I only heard my grandfather yelling in the room: "The unpromising guy, did he escape from being beaten again?"

Fan Tieniu covered his head and muttered: "This time I won't give me food!"

Fan Dachuan came out of the room, he glanced at Fan Ning, but there was still no smile on his face.

He glared at Fan Tieniu and said, "Why didn't I give you food?"

Fan Tieniu's body is extremely strong, even stronger than his elder brother Tie Zhou.

He was very afraid of his father, and whispered: "Last year my father-in-law promised me that as long as I planted [-] acres of land this year, he would give me my surname Niuniu.

I planted [-] mu of land this year, and it was easy to harvest in autumn. When I brought up Niuniu's matter, he denied it, saying that there was no such thing. There was no food in the cowshed, and I was so hungry that I escaped through the window. "

At this time, the fourth son, Fan Tongzhong, also came back. Hearing this, he said angrily: "The Lu family has treated the third brother as a slave, Daddy, this marriage is fine!"

Fan Dachuan gave him a hard look, "Are you going to pay back the 200 taels of silver?"

Fan Tongzhong suddenly wilted.

Only then did Fan Ning understand that the 200 taels of silver that the fourth uncle went to the county school was the betrothal gift of the third uncle who stepped in the door. He wondered just now, how could it be possible to get 200 taels of silver at a time with the income of his grandfather's [-] mu of land?
Fan Dachuan turned his head and said to his eldest son, Fan Tiezhou: "Send the third child back, and tell Yuanwai Lu that my son is not a slave or an animal. If he dares to abuse my son again, I will report it to the police!"

"Yes! Report to the officer." Fan Tieniu jumped up.

"shut up!"

Fan Dachuan scolded him angrily: "Go back and live an honest life, don't have extravagant thoughts, when your son grows up, you will naturally have a bright future, do you hear me?"

Fan Tieniu nodded silently.

Fan Ning really couldn't stand it anymore, this wonderful grandfather, for 200 taels of silver, actually asked his son to pawn in the door.

He said to his father: "Daddy, I have something to do with Mr. Zhou, so let's go first."

Fan Tiezhou nodded, "Say hello to your grandfather before leaving!"

Fan Dachuan's ears were very good. When he heard that he was looking for Zhou Yuanwai, he immediately laughed and said, "Go! Say hello to Zhou Yuanwai for me."

Fan Ning nodded, and then bowed to his grandmother, "Grandma, am I leaving?"

Yang quickly took out a hot boiled egg from the kitchen, smiled and stuffed it to his grandson, and patted his head.

Fanning greeted the two uncles again, then turned and left.

Inspector Fan Tieniu watched Fan Ning go away with a long neck, his eyes were full of disappointment, Dumb forgot himself.

(End of this chapter)