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Forced like this, the insect boy had no choice but to summon his courage and step forward to face it. “Sorry to disturb. May I ask if Young Master A Shiheng is in this residence?”
He had wanted to find Yu Qing just a few days after arriving, but when he ran to the Liezhou Guild Hall and asked, he learned that Yu Qing, like his own young master, had already moved out to live elsewhere. So he inquired about the address from the people at the Liezhou Guild Hall. Unfortunately they were too lazy to bother with a lowly servant like him and sent him away on the pretext that it was inappropriate to disclose the candidates’ residence.
He of course knew this was not any secret. It was simply that the minor official at the guild hall looked down on his low status and could not be bothered to deal with him.
As a servant he had seen many such scenes and understood clearly in his heart.
With no other choice he had to return to the Cao residence.
He waited until a couple of days ago when the Cao residence distributed salaries to the servants and included him as well. Moreover they gave him better treatment than the other servants, with the meaning of a reward.
Only after he had some money in hand did he find an opportunity to go out yesterday. He ran to the Liezhou Guild Hall again, used the money to bribe the minor official there, and only then obtained Yu Qing’s address at the Zhong residence.
In fact the Xu family provided him with food and lodging and also gave him some money each month. Although it was not much, by being frugal he had saved up a little, about half a tael of silver, hidden in the luggage for the journey to the capital. In the end the luggage was lost and the bit of money he had saved was gone too.
After getting Yu Qing’s address he inquired and found the road was quite far. He still had daily chores to do on Xu Fei’s side and time was tight, so he had to go back first.
Only today, in the morning, did he hurry to finish his work. After eating lunch he asked Xu Fei for leave. Once Xu Fei granted him the afternoon, he finally had enough time to walk all the way to the outside of the Zhong residence gate.
When the gatekeeper heard he was looking for A Shiheng, the arrogant face of the house guard immediately relaxed. Standing on the steps he asked, “Who are you? Why are you looking for Young Master A?”
When the insect boy heard this he knew the minor official at the Liezhou Guild Hall had not deceived him. Young Master Shiheng really lived here. He immediately made an excuse. “I am the book boy of Young Master A’s good friend Xu Fei. I accompanied Young Master A all the way to the capital for the imperial examination. My young master Xu asked me to bring something for Young Master A. Could you announce me?”
Upon hearing this connection the gatekeeper did not dare to be negligent. He slightly clasped his hands in greeting. “Wait a moment.” Then he turned and walked away quickly.
Yu Qing, who was sitting cross legged in the room practising cultivation, was startled awake by the calls of “Young Master A” from outside the courtyard.
He collected his energy, stood up, deliberately picked up a scroll of books in his hand, then opened the door and went out.
This afternoon happened to be one of Mister Ming’s every other day visits. Although there was only him alone in the small courtyard, he still used the excuse of studying peacefully and did not easily let people disturb him.
The servant who did not dare to enter from outside saw him appear and only then trotted over. He said respectfully, “Young Master A, there is someone outside claiming to be the book boy of your good friend Young Master Xu. He says Young Master Xu asked him to bring something for you. Do you want to see him?”
Xu Fei? Yu Qing’s eyes lit up instantly. What could Xu Fei have someone bring? His first thought was that the money had come. He immediately said joyfully, “Invite him in, quickly invite him in.”
“Very well.” The servant nodded and bowed, then hurried off.
Yu Qing, with the scroll of books held behind his back with both hands, was full of anticipation. He paced back and forth under the corridor eaves, looking quite like a scholar.
Before long the servant led the insect boy to appear outside the courtyard gate.
Yu Qing under the eaves was already laughing heartily and waving. “Insect boy, over here.”
The insect boy’s eyes also brightened. He instantly lost his restraint, directly left the guiding servant behind and ran over happily. He reached the corridor eaves and bowed. “Young Master Shiheng.”
Yu Qing waved the book in his hand. “Come, let us make tea and drink.”
“Yes.” The insect boy, beaming with joy, nodded vigorously.
Yu Qing walked into the study with his hands behind his back. The insect boy ran up the steps and followed. Once inside he looked around at the study environment and felt even more surprised.
When they first met, Xu Fei had already concluded with him that Yu Qing was the son of a poor family. Now looking at this, the grand mansion was not inferior to the Cao residence at all.
Earlier he had not seen that Young Master Shiheng had excellent martial arts skills. Now he had misjudged again. The insect boy felt that this Young Master Shiheng was really very low key.
Yu Qing sat down behind the desk, threw the book in his hand onto the desk, and pointed from afar at the metal jar.
When the insect boy saw the jar he immediately became familiar with the routine. He walked over quickly, rinsed the teapot with clear water, added more water, then unscrewed the metal jar, pulled out the fire cricket that looked like a hanged ghost by its string, lifted it in front of his eyes and laughed playfully. “Big head, big head, we meet again.”
Yu Qing casually picked up a folding fan, opened it, propped both feet on the desk, leaned against the back of the chair and gently waved the paper fan.
The insect boy looked up. “Young master, has Big Head been obedient these days?”
Yu Qing chuckled. “Not bad. As long as it is fed on time and has a full stomach, it is still quite honest.”
So the insect boy very skilfully sank the fire cricket into the water in the teapot.
Soon the teapot was bubbling with hot steam.
The insect boy lifted the fire cricket and rinsed it in the boiling water a couple of times, then poured out the water, added clean water again, and then sank the fire cricket back into the teapot water. After the water boiled he lifted out the fire cricket, threw it into the metal jar, screwed the lid on tightly, then grabbed a pinch of tea leaves from the tea jar and steeped them in the boiling water.
His movements from beginning to end were smooth like flowing water. The technique of using the fire cricket to boil water and make tea did not feel out of place at all.
There was no choice. In fact during most of the journey to the capital earlier it was the insect boy who did this task. His technique was definitely more practised than Yu Qing’s.
The first cup of fragrant tea was offered to Yu Qing with both hands by the insect boy. At Yu Qing’s signal he placed it on the desk, then turned back to sit beside the tea set, held a small cup and took a shallow sip. He looked up and found Yu Qing smiling and staring at him, so he responded with a shallow smile that showed his dimples.
Yu Qing thought that after this journey he understood the insect boy fairly well. The insect boy never dragged things out when he had something to say, so he was not in a hurry to “collect the debt” either. However this time the insect boy seemed a bit abnormal. He sipped the tea in small mouthfuls for nearly half the cup but still did not open his mouth to get to the main topic. Yu Qing could not hold back first and chuckled. “Insect boy, I heard the servants in the residence say that you said Xu Fei asked you to bring something for me. Bring it out for me first. There is no harm in drinking the tea slowly later.”
The insect boy was obedient. He slowly put down the tea cup, but his expression clearly became uneasy. His ten fingers twisted restlessly under the table.
What was going on? Yu Qing lowered both feet that were propped on the desk, sat properly and asked, “What is wrong, insect boy? Where is the thing? Do not tell me you dropped it.”
The insect boy immediately shook his head. He was clearly very conflicted, but in the end he took a deep breath, steeled himself, stood up, walked to the front of the desk, took out a folded note from his sleeve and handed it to Yu Qing.
Yu Qing stared at the note with a face full of suspicion. This was not a silver note. Even with his eyes closed he could tell it was not a banknote. He did not know what trick this kid insect boy was playing. He slowly took it in his hand to see what it was.
He unfolded the note and saw several lines of words written on it. He muttered a few words while reading. “The state scholar receives the sage’s grace, fortune carries the mandate of heaven…” He quickly scanned the content below. It was headless and senseless, some kind of nonsense. He raised his head again and asked, “Insect boy, what is this?”
The insect boy almost bit through his lip with his silver teeth before he laboriously revealed the truth. “It is the exam questions for this metropolitan examination.”
“Exam questions? What metropolitan examination questions? Uh…” Yu Qing’s eyes widened. He asked again, “What did you say?”
So the insect boy laboriously repeated it again. The panic in his heart was hard to describe.
Yu Qing suddenly could not sit still. Even if he did not understand he knew what it meant for the metropolitan examination questions to be leaked in advance. Moreover after contacting someone as knowledgeable as Mister Ming for nearly half a month he had also learned some things. The examiners who set the questions had not even been decided yet. Where would the exam questions come from?
He closed the fan in his hand, stood up, used the fan to lift the insect boy’s lowered chin, and looked him in the eyes. “Insect boy, do you know what you are saying?”
The insect boy’s face was full of embarrassment. He did not know how to answer.
In fact he himself could not fully understand why he had done such a thing. This time he had really acted completely on feeling.
Yu Qing knocked the fan in his hand on the insect boy’s shoulder again and asked suspiciously, “Did Xu Fei ask you to deliver this thing to me?”
The insect boy shook his head and spoke the plain truth. “I am just a servant. The Zhong residence gatekeeper would not let me enter easily, so I had to use my young master as an excuse. The exam questions… the exam questions were stolen by me from my young master’s study.”
Stolen? Yu Qing’s heart was already filled with layer upon layer of doubts. His heart was full of suspicion. He asked, “How do you know this is the metropolitan examination questions? How could there be metropolitan examination questions in Xu Fei’s study?”
The insect boy lowered his head again. He did not know how to answer. He felt he had done something wrong, but he could not help doing it according to his own feeling.
Yu Qing saw something was off from his reaction. He sat back in the chair, waited calmly, and gave a light remark. “Insect boy, this matter is no small thing. If you do not explain it clearly, then I can only escort you to the authorities.”
He first tested with words. Even harsher threatening words had not been spoken yet.
The insect boy stared at him blankly, his eyes reddened, and large teardrops rolled down his cheeks one by one.
“Uh…” Yu Qing was thrown into confusion by his sudden action. He opened the fan and fanned air towards his face. “Stop, stop. Why is a big man crying? Like a woman.”
The insect boy did not follow his rhythm. He directly spoke the truth.
“That day I was wiping the floor behind the bookshelf in the study. My young master’s uncle suddenly entered the study with my young master. The young master should have seen me carry water into the study to clean. I did not expect the young master would still discuss confidential matters with his uncle in the study…”
He rambled through the whole process in a somewhat incoherent way. By the end the insect boy was already in tears, sobbing, lifting his sleeve to wipe his tears nonstop.
Yu Qing roughly understood as well. Xu Fei’s uncle had connected with some big shot in the capital. In order to pave the way for his nephew’s future he had used connections to obtain the exam questions.
He also felt quite shocked listening to this. They did not even know who the person setting the questions was, yet they could know the exam questions. He had not expected some people could play it this way. He had really overestimated the integrity of certain people.
But he was confused again. He fanned air towards the face of the insect boy who kept wiping his tears. “Stop crying. Insect boy, let me ask you. Why did you tell me about this matter? Why did you give me the exam questions?” He really could not figure it out.
The insect boy looked at him with tearful eyes. “Young master saved insect boy’s life several times along the way. Insect boy is just a servant and has nothing to offer, nor any ability. I did not know how to repay young master’s life saving grace…” As he spoke he slowly squatted on the ground, hugged his knees, buried his head and sobbed. He cried sadly, as if he knew he had done something terribly wrong. In the end he cried heart wrenchingly, wailing and sobbing, with intermittent tearful voice. “Insect boy is sorry to the Xu family. Insect boy will work like an ox or horse for the Xu family in this life to repay them.”
It felt eerie to hear the crying? Yu Qing felt a bit of toothache. So it was that so called repaying the life saving grace. He scratched his head. Did this kid not know that it was Xu Fei who agreed to pay the money, which was why he had protected the two of them out of the demon realm?
Xu Fei actually did not tell the insect boy? Yu Qing was a little worried now, worried that Xu Fei not saying this meant he did not want too many people to know about owing money and wanted to renege on the debt.
That was four thousand taels!