Chapter 8: Secret Stash (Please bookmark and follow)

However, the prerequisite for participating in the military examinations was that he first had to shed his slave status in Qingmu County.

But shedding slave status was rarely an easy task.

First, one had to have enough money for redemption to buy back the contract of indenture from the master’s family.

Second, one had to carry the master’s letter and the contract to the household registration office at the yamen to process the de-registration procedures.

The yamen would not hinder such a good thing as an increase in taxable subjects, so the real difficulty lay solely in dealing with the master who held the contract.

"After eating and drinking at the Li residence for so many years, and having learned the craft of horse-tending, the market price to redeem my contract would be at least ten taels of silver..."

Thinking of this, Wei Tu’s expression turned somewhat grim.

He had struggled from a mere tenant farmer to a groom at the Li residence, and the treatment he enjoyed there had improved significantly; he had wages, meat, and status in front of his masters.

The master had even arranged his marriage for him...

If he didn't redeem himself, all of this was good.

But to redeem himself...

Everything he had eaten, drunk, and used would have to be paid back.

His status as a groom also inflated the value of his contract.

Besides that.

Skilled workers were like gold nuggets.

When the yamen conscripted labor, he, as a groom, could serve in the master's stead, saving the master a large sum of substitute-service silver.

Under these conditions, even if he saved up the ten taels of silver for his redemption, the Li residence would not let him go easily, especially since Master Li was a "sharp" man.

Stingy and skin-flinting.

He would instruct his servants to light only one wick when lighting lamps, for fear of wasting his own oil.

"When my father sold me back then, he only got five mace of silver and two dou of wheat."

Wei Tu sighed to himself.

In just six years, his value had increased twenty-fold, which was unimaginable.

However, life was cheap during the famine years; that he could sell himself to survive was, at the time, a stroke of good fortune.

"How much money do you have on hand..." That night, when Xinghua returned to their room, Wei Tu asked about the private savings she kept.

Although the two of them were married, according to custom, the private savings Xinghua had accumulated before were her own dowry, and he, as her husband, could not touch a single cent without her consent.

"Why are you asking about this?" A look of wariness appeared on Xinghua’s face.

The private savings she had accumulated from working at the Li residence over the years were the foundation of her security.

Even though Wei Tu was her husband, she wouldn't take out a single cent without a valid reason.

"I... I intend to shed my status and take the military examinations, but I'm short a lot of money..." Wei Tu did not hesitate and stated his intentions.

Now that he and Xinghua were married, they were the closest people to each other, relying on one another for survival.

Using Xinghua’s dowry, although he felt a bit uneasy, but... the matter of shedding his status concerned his future, so it should be done as quickly as possible.

He would not be hypocritical about this.

Whatever he owed Xinghua today, he would repay it a hundred or a thousand times over tomorrow.

Husband and wife were meant to shoulder hardships together and enjoy blessings together.

"Shed your status? Brother Wei, what kind of shock did you receive? Have you gone mad?" Hearing Wei Tu’s words, Xinghua stood up with a start, her face full of lingering fear. She lowered her voice and scolded, "If you leave the Li residence, where else can you find such a good job? After the autumn harvest this year, I will go and test the Eldest Mistress's attitude again; perhaps we can rent some fields this year..."

"Once we rent fields, life will get better, and we can move out of this main room."

After Xinghua muttered a few words, tears streamed from the corners of her eyes, and she wiped them gently with a handkerchief.

She had originally thought she had married a steady man with a promising life, but now it seemed that Wei Tu was "unsettled" to his core.

Military examinations?

Were military examinations something a servant could take?

When ordinary people saw someone who had passed the military examinations, they had to bow their bodies and call them "Master Military Graduate."

"Look." Seeing Xinghua like this, Wei Tu didn't go over to comfort her, but instead walked out of the main room, picked up the two-hundred-jin stone lock in the corner of the courtyard, and carried it back into the room.

He performed a routine in front of Xinghua.

Facts were the best proof.

He had the capital to take the military examinations!

"This isn't fake, is it?" Xinghua wiped her tears with her handkerchief, walked to Wei Tu’s side, and tried to lift the stone lock.

Soon, a look of disbelief appeared on her face, her eyes brighter and more crystalline than the light of the oil lamp in the room.

The weight of the two-hundred-jin stone lock made it so she couldn't even lift it, yet her husband had the ability to wield it.

She was no weak woman who couldn't carry or lift anything.

Xinghua stepped closer and touched Wei Tu’s chest, quickly feeling the firm, bulging pectoral muscles through his summer clothes, as well as his sturdy arms, thick as rafters.

"Brother Wei, do you really intend to take the military examinations?" Xinghua began to believe Wei Tu’s words.

At this moment, she not only began to hope for the next generation to succeed in their studies, but also hoped for her own husband to get ahead in this generation.

"As long as I practice archery well, there shouldn't be much of a problem in passing the military examination to become a military xiucai." Although Wei Tu wasn't certain himself, he still gave Xinghua his word.

There was still more than a year until the military examination in Qingfeng Prefecture, and in that time, his physique would definitely be stronger than it was now.

Furthermore, without slave status, it would be more convenient for him to do things. Even if he couldn't make a fortune relying on the modern knowledge in his mind, earning a few small sums would be more than enough.

Now, with superior strength, he could also protect the property he deserved.

He wouldn't have to fear the covetousness of petty people.

"My private savings... are three taels and seven mace. This is from years of wages, plus the usual rewards from the residence..." Xinghua hesitated for a moment, took her private savings out of the rosewood box in the corner of the room, placed them on the bed, and counted them once.

She had entered the Li residence two years before Wei Tu and was a maid, so she received more rewards, not to mention that she later became a cook for the Li residence; by skimming a little, she had a decent income.

Of course, she was timid and didn't dare to skim much, only daring to take a little from the price differences when buying groceries and meat.

The masters generally knew that servants were greedy for money, and as long as they didn't go too far, they wouldn't ask too many questions.

Otherwise, given the shrewdness of Madam Li, Xinghua wouldn't have been a cook for so long.

"I only have a little over one tael on hand, plus the money my father gave me, it adds up to three taels."

"We are still three taels and three mace short of ten taels..."

Wei Tu calculated the combined amount and said.

"Three taels and three mace... If I can persuade the Eldest Mistress this year to rent three or four mu of land, after deducting the rent, we could earn five or six mace."

"I'll ask Chunlan and Caixia to borrow some, and with our future wages, the shortfall shouldn't be too large."

"If it really comes to it..."

Xinghua gritted her teeth, planning to use her position to skim a large sum of money.

"That won't do." Wei Tu saw Xinghua’s intention and stopped her in time.

Skimming small amounts from price differences was acting within the rules; Madam Li would turn a blind eye if she found out.

But if she harbored crooked thoughts, substituting inferior goods for good ones, or using a rigged scale, Madam Li would not be so easy to talk to then.

If she beat Xinghua to death, the yamen wouldn't pursue it too much, just fining her a sum of silver to settle the matter.

"If you succeed, I don't mind becoming a prostitute..." Seeing the worry on Wei Tu’s face, Xinghua was moved and said this as if making a vow.

"Pah, pah, pah."

"That’s not something to say."

"What do you take your husband for?"

Wei Tu frowned and scolded her.