Ch 53: Reborn to Raise My Husband

“Xiao Bao, I’m home.”

Qi Beinan called out before he even reached the courtyard gate. He stepped inside, but there was no response.

After circling around the house, he realized not a single person was home.

It was nearly midday—Xiao Hu and Tian Ken might be out working in the fields, but why wasn’t Xiao Yuanbao home either?

Qi Beinan went to put away his things first, and just as he gently pushed open the door, a commotion sounded from outside.

“Why’s the courtyard door open? I remember closing it when we left!”

Xiao Yuanbao stormed back from outside, flushed and annoyed from the scorching sun and a sour mood, fidgety and restless all over.

He walked ahead to open the gate but noticed the latch hadn’t been fastened. His guard immediately went up.

“Father, come look at this!”

Xiao Hu and Tian Ken quickly rushed over. Before they could even check the latch, they heard the creak of a door from inside the house.

Xiao Yuanbao’s lips were pressed tight in frustration, nostrils flaring with heat.

“Well, well, those little thieves aren’t just stealing our vegetables—they even dared to sneak into the house in broad daylight! I’m dragging them to the village head for sure!”

Xiao Hu narrowed his eyes and silently crept into the courtyard. He picked up a long sickle near the base of the wall, and Tian Ken grabbed a hoe.

The two of them slowly made their way toward the house.

Xiao Yuanbao held his breath and shut the gate behind him. He didn’t go in but stood guard outside instead.

If the thief bolted out, he’d be able to get a good look and identify them later.

Just as the group tensed up and focused on the door, someone strolled out casually.

“Uncle Xiao, Xiao Tian—what are you two doing?”

Qi Beinan walked out and found Xiao Hu and Tian Ken each holding tools, closing in on the house.

And Xiao Yuanbao? He looked like a lookout.

“Beinan.”

Xiao Hu lowered his sickle. “That was you in there?”

Qi Beinan laughed, “Who else could it be?”

Tian Ken let out a long breath and leaned the hoe under the eaves. “Young master, you nearly scared me to death.”

“You two were the scary ones!” Qi Beinan replied. Then he looked at the one still standing frozen in the yard. “Xiao Bao, don’t you recognize me?”

Xiao Yuanbao finally snapped to attention and rushed over, still unsure. “When did you get back?”

“Just now. I thought it’d take three days to get back, but the cart driver was good, so I got home earlier.”

Qi Beinan noticed that Xiao Yuanbao’s face was red from the sun, his forehead dripping sweat, fine bangs stuck to his skin. He reached out and wiped the sweat from his face.

“What’s going on? Did something happen at home?”

He remembered when they used to leave the house, the gate would be left open, and only the inner rooms would be locked.

One, because the family often came and went, and even if no one was home briefly, it wasn’t a big deal.

Two, because in a small village, everyone had a reputation to maintain—no one would go rummaging through someone else’s home.

Judging from the tension, something was clearly wrong.

Xiao Yuanbao exhaled sharply, maturely saying, “You wouldn’t know, brother. Someone’s been stealing vegetables from our field.”

Qi Beinan’s brow furrowed. “That didn’t happen in past years.”

“Exactly. The weather’s bad this year, and people’s hearts are going bad with it.”

A few days ago, Tian Ken noticed while watering the eggplants that some of the fruits were missing.

It wasn’t easy to keep count in a half-acre patch full of eggplants, but after seeing them every day, one naturally had a feel for how many were there.

He was certain several familiar eggplants had vanished.

He went home to ask Xiao Yuanbao and Xiao Hu, and neither of them had picked anything.

They figured maybe someone had swiped a few and let it go.

But from that day on, vegetables kept disappearing—bok choy today, loofah tomorrow, even green onions were being picked.

They were farmers too—tolerant people—but even they had a limit.

And it wasn’t even the far field by Zao’er Dam that was being hit—it was the patch near their home, away from the main road.

That clearly meant someone was deliberately stealing, likely someone familiar.

Qi Beinan said, “When I left, I noticed our crops were doing well. Compared to others in the village, ours were outstanding.”

“Did you take the vegetables to the city to sell?”

Xiao Yuanbao nodded. “How’d you know?”

“Bad weather means prices go up. If you have quality produce at home, there’s no reason not to sell it.”

Qi Beinan continued, “Carting vegetables into the city and returning with empty carts… Once the villagers realize how expensive produce is this year and see how good our crops are, how can they not get envious?”

“So what, just let them steal from us because our crops are better?!”

Xiao Yuanbao huffed. “We already reported it to the village head today. He said he’d call a meeting and scold everyone—this kind of behavior can’t continue. If folks from other villages hear that even vegetables get stolen here, it’ll ruin our reputation. Marriages, business—none of it will go well.”

Xiao Hu added, “Thankfully the village head is fair-minded.”

Qi Beinan said, “Let’s see how things go first. Catching the thief directly isn’t easy. If things don’t change after the meeting, then we’ll take further action.”

“Mm.”

When the family saw Qi Beinan return after more than half a month, they were overjoyed and quickly left behind all the previous unpleasantness.

They asked him and Zhao Guangzong how the trip to Linzhou went—whether the exams went smoothly, if the coachman was reliable, and whether the accommodations were comfortable, and so on.

Qi Beinan answered each question patiently.

This time, Qi Beinan brought gifts back from Linzhou.

He bought Xiao Hu a compact dagger from the iron shop.

For Xiao Yuanbao, he brought three hair ribbons, a pair of teacups, and a cookbook from Jiangnan.

Tian Ken wasn’t left out either—Qi Beinan brought back some rare vegetable seeds not easily found in the county: a packet of bottle gourd seeds, a packet of ginger shoot seeds, some mushroom spores, and two packets of flower seeds.

The three of them were all smiles when they received their gifts—each item was thoughtful and well suited to their interests.

That night, Qi Beinan had a relaxing bath. After two days of travel, he was already sticky with sweat.

He used up several soapberries, scrubbing his hair and body thoroughly until he felt completely refreshed.

“Brother, come here.”

Qi Beinan, drying his hair, heard Xiao Yuanbao calling from his door, sneakily waving at him.

“What’s going on?”

Qi Beinan followed him in and saw him dragging out a red-lacquered wooden box from the wardrobe.

Xiao Yuanbao placed the box on the table, patted it, and motioned for him to look.

“What is it?”

Qi Beinan set down his towel, opened the box, and saw it was full of copper coins.

“Over eight strings of cash.”

Xiao Yuanbao said proudly, “Father said I’ll be managing the household money from now on.”

Qi Beinan saw how smug he was and played along: “Steward Xiao has been promoted. I hope you’ll look kindly upon this humble servant in the future.”

Xiao Yuanbao grinned and proudly patted Qi Beinan’s shoulder. “Little Qi, just do your job well in this household, and the steward will surely look after you.”

The two laughed heartily.

Then Qi Beinan asked, “All of this came from selling vegetables?”

“Yeah.”

Xiao Yuanbao said, “Impressive, right? Big Brother Tian says we can still harvest several more rounds from the fields and make a nice profit. I’ve already arranged with a few prominent city households—we’ll deliver to them as soon as the vegetables are ready.”

“Big households have many mouths to feed and use a lot more produce than normal families. Delivering directly to them means we can move the bulk quickly and reduce how much we have to sell at the market—it’s much easier.”

Qi Beinan said, “I didn’t expect our Xiao Bao to be such a natural businessman.”

“Of course.”

Xiao Yuanbao explained, “Right now, our radish and bok choy plots are already more than half empty. Those two crops are one plant per spot, so once it’s harvested, the land is free. This year’s prices are good, and Big Brother Tian wants to buy more leafy greens to plant.”

Leafy greens mature quickly, unlike gourds, which take time to fruit and even longer to ripen.

Though greens don’t fetch as much as gourds, in the time it takes to grow and harvest one round of gourds, greens can be planted and harvested twice.

Now that they had spare land and a good supply of compost, they could take advantage of the drought year to grow more crops and make more money—while also feeding more people good food.

Qi Beinan nodded. “Uncle Xiao and Tian Ken have a good plan.”

Xiao Yuanbao added, “I went to the Ming household recently, and Xin Ge’er told me their household servants get monthly allowances. He said even though they’re fed and clothed by the household, they still have personal expenses.”

“I was thinking, Big Brother Tian has been with our family for a long time. He’s always worked hard and kept our fields in great shape. Shouldn’t we give him a monthly allowance, too? That way, he can spend a bit freely.”

“You know, he’s not that young anymore. Even if he doesn’t spend money on himself, if he meets someone he likes, he should at least be able to buy her a little trinket or treat her to a snack, right?”

Xiao Yuanbao said seriously, “A man shouldn’t be too stingy. But if you’ve got no money on you, what good is generosity?”

Qi Beinan found it amusing how serious he was, but didn’t interrupt and nodded instead. “You’re very thoughtful. That’s exactly how it should be.”

Xiao Yuanbao said, “In the village, hardly anyone has live-in servants. I always thought only hired hands got paid. I didn’t realize house servants needed allowances, too. But thinking it over, it really wouldn’t be right not to give them any. We just weren’t used to managing such things.”

“You’ve got it right. So, how much were you thinking to give him?”

Xiao Yuanbao said, “Brother, what do you think? I’m not sure what’s appropriate.”

“We’re still getting on our feet, so let’s start with fifty copper a month. Once things improve, we can raise it later.”

Xiao Yuanbao nodded and took fifty coins from the box, setting them aside for Tian Ken.

A few days passed, and the whole household was waiting for the results of the academy exam.

Results for the academy exam took longer than the first two tests.

The local county tests were graded and posted on-site, so results came quickly.

But the academy exam was held in the prefectural capital. Once the exams were graded, the list of successful candidates had to be sent back to the counties, adding even more delay—at least half a month before results would be posted locally.

Life was hard while waiting—Zhao’s family even went to the temple twice.

Once to donate oil money, and another time to ask a spirit medium for a divination.

But before the academy exam results came out, someone from the Ming household arrived first to invite Qi Beinan to visit as a guest.

Qi Beinan declined, saying he wished to wait for the results, that he had no heart to entertain visitors, and would only call on them after the list was posted.

Unexpectedly, the Ming family sent someone again, this time bringing him fifty strings of cash.

“Young Master Qi foresaw this year’s drought and suggested to our master that he stockpile ice—it couldn’t have been a better idea. Our master is most grateful, and hopes you will kindly accept this small token.”

The man from the Ming family said, “Young Master Qi, please accept this humble sum. You are a man of principle—this silver is rightfully earned.”

Qi Beinan smiled and accepted the money without fuss.

Giving counsel to a wealthy household and receiving reward when the advice bears fruit was nothing unusual.

Plenty of scholars made their way in the world this way.

He hadn’t harmed anyone, nor leveraged power for personal gain—so accepting money for merit was proper.

And the Ming family had tact—sending the money before the results were posted.

Had they done so after, it would’ve implied something else entirely.

…

On the eleventh day of the seventh month, the county results were finally posted.

Before dawn, Qi Beinan, Xiao Yuanbao, and Zhao Guangzong set off together for town to view the announcement, with Tian Ken driving the ox cart.

Along the way, Zhao Guangzong was too nervous to speak.

Though he’d felt this round of exams went smoother than the last—he’d even compared answers with Qi Beinan after the test and found their approaches aligned—now that the results were upon them, his nerves were entirely different.

Seeing this, Qi Beinan tried to console him: “In the future, when you pass the provincial exam, you won’t even have to go see the list yourself. An officer will come beating drums to deliver the good news.”

Zhao Guangzong blushed and chuckled, “If that day ever comes, I’ll truly be ‘Guangzong Yaozu.’”

(T/N: The phrase “Guangzong Yaozu”（光宗耀祖） is a classical Chinese idiom that means:

“To bring honor and glory to one’s ancestors and family.”

So Zhao Guangzong’s saying, “If I ever pass the higher-level exams and truly succeed, I’ll be living up to my own name—I’ll really be someone who brings honor to my ancestors.”)

Xiao Yuanbao burst into laughter.

He patted the vegetables in the cart and said, “I told father this morning—if both my brothers make the list, we’ll sell these vegetables for half price today.”

“Bao Ge’er, you’re too generous.”

Zhao Guangzong said, “Let’s hope I can help bring a bit of blessing to those who come to buy them.”

When the three of them arrived at the government notice board outside the academy, they could see from a distance that the results had already been posted.

“Who said there’d be fewer people watching the academy list? Look how packed it is—it’s even worse than last time.”

“Could it be the results came out earlier than expected?”

The three quickened their pace. Just as they reached the front, they heard the loud beat of a gong.

“Announcement! The county proudly presents a Triple-First scholar!”

The yamen officer’s voice boomed across the square, drawing a growing crowd of onlookers. Literate or not, everyone came to hear the news—a Triple-First wasn’t something seen every year.

There were always top scorers, but someone placing first in all three levels of the children’s exams? That was rare indeed.

The crowd surged forward, eager to catch a glimpse of this extraordinary scholar.

And with so many students still lingering after viewing the list, the scene was livelier than any county or prefectural result day.

The three paused on the outskirts of the crowd when they heard the announcement.

A Triple-First—meaning first place in all three exams of the children’s imperial track.

Qi Beinan had already taken first in the county and prefectural rounds.

So there was no doubt—he must have been the top scorer again in the academy exam.

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