The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

When leaving Yan's house, Jing was still distracted and looked back frequently.

"Are you still thinking about Yan's Yushu?" Heifu saw all this and teased his brother.

"No way!"

Jing's face suddenly turned red, like a monkey's butt, but then he said obsessively: "Brother Zhong, tell me, they are all women, why are the girls in our neighboring families all dark and rough skin, dirty hair, and mud in the nails, while Yan's Yushu is like this, so..."

He couldn't find words to describe it for a while.

"Hands like lotus roots, skin like solidified fat, teeth like gourds, delicate eyebrows, and a charming smile, which captured your soul?"

"Yes, yes, yes! Brother Zhong said it very well!"

Jing looked at Heifu, his eyes full of "you understand me". At last, he turned back and sighed: "If you want to marry a wife, you should marry a daughter of the Yan family."

"My brother, you are not even as old as me, but you are already thinking about marrying a wife."

Heifu smiled and shook his head. When he was copying the law just now, Yan Zheng's granddaughter was curious about their identities and peeked outside the door, but was discovered by Jing. From then on, Jing began to wander.

Obviously, this young man who was about to turn 16, like the acne blooming all over his face, burst into an emotion called love in his heart and was fascinated by the 14-year-old girl.

Although, in Heifu's eyes, the little girl, in the future, is just an ordinary female high school student.

But think about it, it is different from him who is knowledgeable and has countless beauties in his hard drive. Jing has rarely left the area of Sunset for more than ten years, and all he has seen are farm girls. Suddenly, he saw a young lady who was well-maintained, clean, with neat teeth and wearing a beautiful dress. He was shocked.

"They are both girls, but why are they so different? It's like..."

Jing was at a loss for words again. He pointed to the dirty mud on the ground and the white clouds in the sky: "It's like this mud compared to the clouds!"

"I'll tell you why."

Hei Fu patted Jing's shoulder and shattered his dream with a slap.

"It's because she didn't have to go to the fields under the scorching sun to deliver food to her father and brothers since she was a child; it's because she had everything she wanted, and she didn't have to pound the grain and blow the stove herself; it's because she can eat rich food every day, and she doesn't have to chew coarse rice bran like you and my sisters and aunts; it's because she was born in a family with a surname, and is the daughter of an official, and is naturally different from us, who have been poor farmers for generations."

When Jing heard this, he nodded at first, but slowly froze, until he didn't say a word.

He suddenly felt the gap in status with the girl from the Yan family. Should he marry a girl from the Yan family? Haha, the little yearning that had just ignited in his heart was extinguished just like that.

"Brother Zhong, you are so boring."

Jing muttered, took the bamboo basket from Heifu's hand, put it on his shoulder, and walked forward silently.

Heifu stopped talking, and the two of them walked out of the plaque one after the other, and walked along the hillside towards the sunset. As he walked, Jing looked back at the plaque. The sun was setting, and there were patches of sunset glow on the top of the Yan family mansion. It looked close, but it was actually far away, like the girl he could never reach.

For the first time, this half-grown child who seemed to never grow up under the protection of his brother had sorrow in his eyes.

"Jing."

Seeing that there was no one else around, Hei Fu called his brother and said, "Have you figured out what I wanted you to remember before?"

Jing looked back blankly, "What's the matter?"

"Why did that man treat us rudely at first and then respectfully, and why did Mr. Yan treat me coldly and then warmly?"

"Why..." Jing pondered for a moment and blurted out, "Because they know that my brother is going to be a pavilion chief!"

"That's right!" Hei Fu patted Jing, who suddenly realized, and asked him to sit down on the side of the road.

"Let me tell you another story about Su Qin, called "Arrogant at First, Respectful Later"!"

...

"After experiencing these things, Su Qin said with emotion, I am the same person, but when I am rich, my relatives respect me, and when I am poor, they look down on me. What about ordinary people..."

After a moment, after telling the story of Su Qin, Hei Fu said to Jing: "Now you understand, a person's status in the eyes of others is completely different when he is rich or poor. Today, your and my experience is very similar to Su Qin's. If we hadn't known that I was going to be a pavilion chief, let alone recognize me as a disciple, we would probably have stood outside Yan Zhang's study all the time!"

Jing nodded heavily, but said a little dejectedly: "Brother Zhong, you have the ability, you have made meritorious deeds and been awarded a title, and you have the opportunity to be a pavilion chief. Naturally, you will be looked up to like Su Qin, but I... I can only continue to be a small soldier who is nothing, and I don't have any extraordinary skills. I will always be looked down upon."

The more he talked, the more inferior he felt.

"Who said that?"

Hei Fu encouraged him, "Although my brother seems naughty, I know you are clever and smart! Now, there is an opportunity for you to become an official, and you can enter the official career like me and be respected by others!"

Jing's eyes suddenly lit up: "What opportunity?"

Hei Fu said: "If I can pass the assessment and become the head of Huyang Pavilion, the first year is just a trial period, and in the second year, I will be a formal official. When I was in the county, I asked an official I knew, and he said that I could recommend one of my own children to study law in the school! Once you enter the school, you will be a disciple!"

It turned out that although Qin banned poetry and books, it also had its own set of education methods of the Legalists. The counties generally had official schools-schools. Students in the school were called "disciples", and the source of disciples was limited to certain restrictions, and it was stipulated that they must be at least the children of "historians". The so-called "historians" were low-level civil servants such as clerks, secretaries, and archivists in government agencies at all levels. Although the head of the pavilion was a military official, he was also among them.

In the academy, the disciples had to learn writing, driving, fencing, archery, etc., which were actually variations of the Confucian "Six Arts of a Gentleman". However, because the purpose of learning was to become an official, the Qin Dynasty advocated the rule of law, and the most important learning content was to learn the laws. The disciples had to hold the laws copied by Heifu and recite them until they were familiar with them and became a part of their lives.

After successful graduation, the disciples from the academy were generally assigned jobs by the state and appointed as low-level civil servants to enter the official career. They did not have to hit the jackpot like Heifu, or like others, who cut off their heads on the battlefield in exchange for merit and titles as officials.

"The old man Yan is well-known and well-off, but you know that he was just a disciple in the school back then, and he accumulated achievements step by step to get to where he is today."

After talking about the benefits of being a disciple in the school, Hei Fu asked seriously: "Jing, are you willing to be a disciple in the school, spend two or three years in it, and seek a better future than now? A higher status?"

"I am willing!" Jing was so excited that tears welled up in his eyes, but he was also hesitant.

He lowered his head and whispered: "But I can't even recognize the characters, how can I be a disciple?"

"Isn't there still a year?"

Hei Fu encouraged him: "I asked you to come with me to the plaque today, just to entrust you to Mr. Yan. I heard that Mr. Yan's second son opened a school in the village to teach people to read and understand the law. You can enroll by paying some money and silk. You might as well go and listen..."

Qin State not only had official schools, but also some temporary classrooms that taught the children of wealthy and noble families in the village to read. Living in Qin, if there is no one in the family who can read and count, they might break the law and be implicated one day.

"But..." Jing's face was tangled. When facing unfamiliar things, it is always the most difficult to take the first step. With his monkeyish personality, can he sit down and study quietly? Hei Fu himself was a little unsure.

So Heifu stretched out his tone: "I heard that Yan Zhang's second son is the father of the lady you saw today! If you can learn to read well, enter the school as a disciple, and become a minor official in the future, then you will be considered a good match. Maybe Yan Zhang will marry his granddaughter to you!"

"Are you serious?"

Tiannai Jing was overjoyed, and the flame of love that had just been extinguished was rekindled. He bowed to Heifu and said: "I understand what Zhongxiong means! Everything is up to Zhongxiong!"

On the way home, the carefree Jing returned again. He walked erratically all the way, thinking about his suddenly bright future and the girl who made him fall in love at first sight, and couldn't help laughing.

Little did he know that Heifu behind him shook his head secretly.

"My stupid brother, how can you understand my good intentions?"

The reason why Heifu deceived Jing into entering the school room was to change his future, let him and Yan family become equals, so that he could marry a beautiful girl... all of which were empty words!

The most important thing was something Heifu found out:

The first thing that the disciples of the school room had to do was to change their household registration from ordinary place of origin to "disciple registration".

And the Qin law also stipulated that people on the disciple registration list did not need to serve during the study period!

Not only the service, but also the military service and garrison soldiers could be exempted!

This was one of the few legal loopholes in the strict and harsh Qin law.

Becoming a disciple in the school room was the only way Heifu could think hard about to let his brother escape the war three years later.

If history did not change, in the war where Wang Jian led an army of 600,000 to attack Chu, the two brothers would all die in battle, their bodies would not be left, and their souls would not return home, leaving only a letter for their family to miss.

Now, Heifu has the confidence to survive the war, but he can't guarantee whether he can keep his brother safe in the chaotic and complicated battlefield.

So, he can only resort to this last resort.

In front of Zhong, Heifu is a younger brother, and the elder brother is like a father. Zhong will consider many things for him in detail.

In front of Jing, Heifu becomes an elder brother, and it is his turn to think about the future for his younger brother.

Of course, the real purpose of all this does not need to be spoken out, just arrange it silently to keep him safe.

The flowers of the Tangdi tree are not bright, and all people today are better than brothers.

The power of death and mourning, brothers are worried, the plains and marshes are full of hope, and brothers are seeking.

Brother, isn't that what it should be like?

"I don't just want to survive by myself."

Looking at his brother humming a ballad in front of him, Hei Fu thought silently: "I want to survive, so that all of our family members can survive in this ever-changing world, and live better and better!"

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