Ch 215 (Extra 26): The Farmer Ger in the Apocalypse

Lin Ning Side Story: Catching a Husband

Chen Kang had that familiar dream again.

Three years ago, not long after his father died, he had the dream for the first time.

In the dream, he was a little older, seemingly going to the prefectural city to take the examination. But at the entrance of an inn, someone stole his money pouch.

Without money, he could not stay at the inn. He crouched blankly in a corner and nearly had his luggage stolen by a blind-eyed beggar.

While they were arguing, a fairy-like ge’er helped him.

That fairy-like ge’er was beautiful, covered in an air of wealth and nobility, yet unlike other wealthy ge’er, he did not carry any prideful distance. Instead, he was approachable, even carrying a little warmth and kindness.

Chen Kang heard him mutter softly,

“Tsk, he’s strangely good-looking. I’ll just count this as me rescuing a beauty.”

The fairy-like ge’er found him an inn, paid his room fees until the exam ended, left him some silver for food, and then left.

Only after finishing the exam did Chen Kang unexpectedly discover that the ge’er was from the magistrate’s household.

Magistrate Lin had brought several servants and was watching every student who had passed the exam, seemingly considering catching a son-in-law beneath the榜 list. But that had nothing to do with Chen Kang.

He had failed.

Holding the small amount of silver the fairy-like ge’er had given him, he returned to the village in disgrace.

Then the dream ended.

After waking, Chen Kang thought to himself that he was becoming like those sour scholars who loved dreaming. His learning was not particularly good, but every day he fantasized about being favored by some rich young lady, beautiful fox spirit, or alluring ghost.

His own dream was even more useless. He did not even dare dream of interacting more with the fairy-like ge’er. Once he failed the exam, he simply returned home in shame.

He sighed, went out to carry water, and on the road met the village matchmaker.

When the matchmaker saw him, her eyes shifted guiltily, and she pretended not to see him before quickly leaving.

Before his father died, he had asked the matchmaker to arrange a marriage for him. But just as things were nearly settled, his father fell gravely ill. The illness not only drained all the family’s money, but his father could not be saved either.

After that, the other family never sent word again.

Seeing the matchmaker act this way now, Chen Kang understood even more clearly. Originally, he felt a little bitter about it, but when he remembered last night’s dream, that bitterness somehow faded away.

Unexpectedly, the next night, he had the exact same dream again.

By the third time, Chen Kang sensed something was wrong.

In front of the inn, he clenched his money pouch tightly. At the same time, he felt another force tugging it outward. He turned his head and came face-to-face with the thief.

The thief had not expected to be caught red-handed. He pulled out a knife and viciously stabbed at him.

Chen Kang woke with a start in the middle of the night.

This time, he had not even seen the fairy-like ge’er.

Had he been stabbed to death by that thief in the dream?

Still shaken, Chen Kang touched his chest and abdomen. They did not hurt.

When he fell asleep again, he had no more dreams that night.

Several days later, he had the familiar dream again.

This time, Chen Kang decisively changed inns. As a result, he was not robbed and safely settled in. But because he had not been robbed, the fairy-like ge’er naturally did not come rescue him either.

Standing by the road, he watched the fairy-like ge’er walk past with several friends, chatting and laughing. But perhaps it was his imagination, Chen Kang felt the fairy-like ge’er’s gaze quickly sweep across his face.

Chen Kang touched his face and suddenly remembered that in his first dream, the fairy-like ge’er had said he was strangely good-looking.

During the exam, the questions were exactly the same.

He failed again.

After the exam results were posted, he secretly followed Magistrate Lin from a distance. He saw Magistrate Lin happily patting a young man on the shoulder, unable to hide the smile on his face. Perhaps he had caught a satisfactory ge’er-son-in-law.

Chen Kang felt a little sour inside.

At dawn, he lay in bed and listened to the increasingly loud rooster calls outside. Then he turned over, got up, and wrote down the examination questions from the dream.

He did not know whether repeatedly having this dream meant he had become entangled with some beautiful ghost or spirit.

But if…

If he could change the fate of his money pouch being stolen, could he also change the outcome of the imperial examination?

If he passed, would he have a chance to be caught as a son-in-law by Magistrate Lin?

He knew very well that in reality, he absolutely did not have the fortune to marry into the magistrate’s household.

But in a dream, could he not at least try once?

…

There were three hundred sixty-five days in a year, and Chen Kang dreamed that dream for three hundred of them.

He studied bitterly, took the questions, and visited nearby xiucai scholars. He also went to the county school to ask teachers for guidance.

Finally, at the end of the second year, he barely passed in the dream.

Excited, he raised both arms and shouted,

“I passed! I passed!”

Then he quietly edged toward Magistrate Lin and his servants.

But Magistrate Lin did not look at him.

Before long, he was caught by some merchant family and even had a large red flower hung around his neck.

Chen Kang woke up in anger on the spot.

Why didn’t they catch him?!

Was his exam result still not good enough??

In the middle of the night, Chen Kang lit the oil lamp and started studying again.

By the third year, his ranking was already quite good, but Magistrate Lin still did not come catch him.

So this time, Chen Kang did not take the examination. Instead, he went all over the prefectural city asking around, only to learn that Magistrate Lin was not catching a son-in-law at all.

Magistrate Lin was concerned about how his clan nephew had done in the exam.

In another dream, Chen Kang decided to recommend himself.

…

Yet when his three-year mourning period finally ended and he truly set out for the exam, he discovered that Haozhou Prefecture was exactly the same as in his dream.

From far away, Chen Kang looked at the familiar thief lingering sneakily near the inn entrance, as well as the obvious shape of the knife in his pocket. Shocked, he turned and ran.

This dream…

It was not merely a dream?

And after entering Haozhou Prefecture, he never had that dream again.

At the place where he had first been robbed in the dream, he saw the fairy-like ge’er he had long yearned for walking past with friends, chatting and laughing.

Chen Kang took a deep breath and bought himself an outfit perfectly suited to that fairy-like ge’er’s tastes.

Before leaving home, he had already caught Magistrate Lin’s eye in the dream and had met the fairy-like ge’er several times. Through daily accumulation, he had more or less learned what the fairy-like ge’er liked.

If he had known all of this could become real, he should have asked Magistrate Lin for more scholarly guidance in the dream…

When the exam began, he opened the test paper and saw the familiar questions. He let out a deep breath of relief.

…

Magistrate Lin chased after Lin Ning while nagging him.

“Just go meet him. Your father already caught him and brought him here… Besides, do you think I don’t know you? You’ll most likely be satisfied with this boy. He’s handsome!”

Magistrate Lin had noticed that boy in the examination hall.

He had not paid much attention to the exam paper, but the young man truly had an excellent appearance. More importantly, he looked clean and energetic.

The examination cubicles had terrible conditions, cramped and stuffy. Even a healthy person would wilt after staying there for a day. Yet this boy was one of the few who still looked pale, clean, and fresh when handing in his paper.

Everyone in the Lin family valued appearances.

Magistrate Lin had looked at him several extra times then and thought that if Lin Ning saw him, he might very well take a liking to him.

Only, the boy did not look especially young. With a tongsheng title and such good looks, he probably already had an engagement.

Magistrate Lin was not the sort of person who would make his ge’er fight another person for a husband or become a co-wife. So he merely looked a few more times and sighed inwardly, without actually trying to catch him.

Who would have expected that after the results were posted, this boy did not go look at the list and instead came over to Magistrate Lin himself.

“This boy is named Chen Kang. He’s one year younger than you. His family is from a village below, farmers for generations, so he won’t look down on us for being newly rich from poor origins…”

“He was once being discussed for marriage, but it happened to coincide with the death of an elder in his family, requiring him to observe mourning, so it was dropped. The marriage had never been formally settled.”

But Magistrate Lin did not simply believe one-sided words.

“I checked his household registration. He truly has not married. If you take a liking to him, I’ll send someone to his village to investigate further. I doubt he’d dare deceive me…”

“This time he passed the examination, twenty-sixth in Haozhou Prefecture, ranked even higher than Xiao Song. I’ve read his essay. Though not brilliantly talented, it is practical, cautious, and thorough.”

“The key point is, his appearance will definitely suit your tastes!”

“Why do you make me sound so lustful?”

Lin Ning pretended to be annoyed, but inwardly he had already begun to stir with interest.

This person’s conditions really did sound quite good. Most importantly, even his father said he was handsome. Just how handsome was he?

Lin Ning cleared his throat and said somewhat coyly,

“Since you already caught him and brought him here, we shouldn’t make him come for nothing. I’ll first look at him from behind the screen. If he truly is good-looking, we can talk about meeting. If not, send him back.”

Unexpectedly, he really was very handsome.

His father had not deceived him.

Lin Ning sneakily hid behind the screen and peeked out.

Who would have thought that the man seemed to know he would be there watching? Chen Kang raised his head and smiled brightly at him.

Lin Ning sucked in a sharp breath and abruptly retreated three large steps.

Handsome.

Truly handsome.

Those peach blossom eyes, that high straight nose, that smooth jawline, and that outfit, not luxurious but clean, simple, and elegant.

Every detail struck Lin Ning’s heart perfectly.

He could not resist and peeked out again.

As a result, Chen Kang once again seemed to know he would look back. He obediently sat there watching him, waiting for him to come look.

Lin Ning did not know that Chen Kang had already experienced this scene more than thirty times in his dreams…

When Lin Ning would turn back to look at him, what appearance of his would make Lin Ning smile, every move had long been carved into Chen Kang’s heart.

“How was he?”

After leaving the main hall, Magistrate Lin hurriedly grabbed his ge’er and asked.

Lin Ning coughed lightly.

“He’s alright… He is quite good-looking.”

His scholarly title was good too. His family members were simple. It seemed he had no reason to refuse.

Lin Ning turned his head and glanced back again.

“Why do I feel like… I’ve seen him somewhere before?”

Magistrate Lin himself had grown up with his fulang in the same village as childhood sweethearts, so he did not want his own ge’er to have a blind marriage.

He frequently invited Chen Kang over and also called Song Kaiji along. On the surface, it seemed like he intended to take Chen Kang as a student and discuss scholarship together, but in reality, he was creating more opportunities for Chen Kang and Lin Ning to spend time together.

Yet after meeting a few times, Lin Ning felt increasingly strange.

Chen Kang was very good. Everything about him seemed perfectly suited to Lin Ning’s heart.

But some of that goodness was a little too coincidental.

The moment Lin Ning was about to drink water, Chen Kang had already handed the cup to him.

Before a flower falling from the tree could land in his hair, Chen Kang had already raised his hand, ready to brush it away.

Every time Lin Ning looked toward him, Chen Kang always happened to turn back at exactly the right moment.

Lin Ning was confused.

But Chen Kang was anxious.

Because he was about to “show his true form.”

Before coming to Haozhou Prefecture, his dream had stopped on this day.

Magistrate Lin invited him to the estate, and he chatted about scholarship with Magistrate Lin’s clan nephew. Magistrate Lin had not been very satisfied, neither with Chen Kang nor with his nephew. He thought Chen Kang’s learning was too rigid and his nephew too unmotivated.

Afterward, in the little garden, Chen Kang met Lin Ning, who had brought a group of maids and attendants along.

Of course, they could not possibly be allowed to be alone, one unmarried man and one unmarried ge’er.

They spoke for a while beneath an osmanthus tree by the pond, and then the dream ended.

Now Chen Kang suspected that his beautiful dream was about to end too.

From this point forward, he would know nothing about the future. Reality was not like a dream, where he could try again the next night.

He was afraid the fairy-like ge’er would not like the real him at all.

“You… you really don’t seem like a farm boy. How do you do everything so thoughtfully?”

Looking at the stone Chen Kang had kicked aside in advance, Lin Ning tugged at his fingers.

But his father had indeed sent people to Chen Kang’s village to investigate. Chen Kang had grown up in that village from childhood to adulthood. Before this, the farthest place he had ever gone was the county town to study.

Chen Kang scratched his head, not knowing how to answer.

In the dream, Lin Ning had never said this to him.

Lin Ning bit his lip.

He felt some things should be said clearly first.

He seemed to like Chen Kang a little.

Or at least, Chen Kang’s face.

Fortunately, only a little.

He did not want things to become like his little uncle, with such problems exploding only after marriage.

While he only liked him a little, it was better to say it now.

“Our family also used to live in the village. I was already fairly grown when my father passed the juren exam. All told, I’ve only been an official-family ge’er for a few years.”

“There are some things I may not do as thoroughly or properly as you…”

Chen Kang snapped back to himself and hurriedly waved his hands, shaking his head.

“No, no, no. In my heart, you are the best fairy-like ge’er!”

He showed a rare moment of panic, even seeming a little silly. But the words he spoke were sincere, and that made Lin Ning’s face feel even hotter than Chen Kang’s usual thoughtfulness.

Chen Kang took a deep breath and quietly tugged at Lin Ning’s sleeve.

“Actually, I’m not clever either. Passing the xiucai exam was purely luck. In the future… I probably won’t be able to pass higher exams.”

He knew in his heart that he had only passed, and even ranked decently, largely because Heaven had revealed the questions to him. In the first dream, he had failed completely.

“I’m very stupid. The reason you think I’m thoughtful is… because I secretly practiced it dozens or even hundreds of times…”

But he did not want to give up.

“But I want to beg you to give me a chance. In the future, I’ll keep learning, keep practicing. I… I…”

“I truly like you.”

He looked into Lin Ning’s eyes, wanting to hold his hand but not daring to.

He truly wanted to beg Lin Ning.

Please save me, alright?

Could you “rescue the beauty” one more time?

At this moment, although Chen Kang had become clumsy, he seemed to have broken free from a shell of excessive thoughtfulness. He appeared much more alive, and the faint unease in Lin Ning’s heart dispersed considerably.

This time, flowers from the tree were blown down by the wind, rustling as they fell onto Lin Ning’s head.

Chen Kang failed to brush them away in advance. Instead, he hurriedly and carefully helped him remove them.

Lin Ning turned his head aside and smoothed the slightly disheveled hair at his temples.

Then he said softly,

“Then… then let’s try.”

Finding a perfectly flawless, thoughtful marriage and partner was not easy.

But if there was a great deal of sincerity and love, then it was worth trying.

Full Text End

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