Walking the Path of a Workaholic in Cliché Novels (QT) Chapter 62

“Sir, look.”

    Small fish that had been raised for more than half a year in the shallow, wide-mouthed porcelain pot and were only a few months away from maturity. They were born April last year. An Yinong carefully fed the fry with egg yolks and red worms, and then fed the small fish with prepared feed, raising the fry that were originally as big as sesame seeds to five or six centimeters in length.

     At this time, the young fish already displayed the shape and color inherited from their parents.

     With his affinity for aquatic life, coupled with the healing, optimization and fertility auras, in just over two years, An Yinong used local ornamental fish to breed seven species of golden crucian carp with excellent appearance, also known as grass goldfish.

     His affinity for aquatic creatures made him easily recognized by goldfish, his healing aura helped maintain health, and his fertility aura accelerated reproduction. But the most useful thing was to optimize their appearance.

     The optimized halo was an upgraded version of the beauty halo. The latter could only be regarded as medical beauty, while the former was cosmetic surgery at the genetic level. The optimized appearance could be stably passed onto future generations. This was why he was able to cultivate wild colorful crucian carp into grass goldfish in just two years.

     “Is this the lionfish you’re talking about?” Gu Zhengzhong raised one side of his hem and squatted down. The newly cultivated little goldfish in the porcelain basin all had silver-white scales. Except for the sarcoma on the top of their heads, only the tip of their tails has a gradual orange-red color.

     From Gu Zhengzhong’s perspective, although the quality of these fish was not as good as the ornamental fish exclusively provided by the royal family, they were already very rare among the people.

     But An Yinong shook his head: “Then it would have to be shorter and fatter, with a bigger head and bigger sarcoma. This one is closer to the red goose head. You can see that its tail is long, like a phoenix tail, very elegant. But white wind fish don’t have dorsal fins. How about calling it snow wind?”

     “It sounds nice, and it’s very vivid.” Gu Zhengzhong only praised the good points.

     “This is called the ink mark.” An Yinong pointed to a pot of black grass goldfish with a long and translucent tail. It had a long and narrow body, smooth lines, and a black body. It swam as if ink was dispersing in the water, and there was also the taste of a painting.

     “Okay.” Gu Zhengzhong said again.

     One of them introduced and the other praised, and in a short while they finished naming the several newly cultivated goldfish.

     The fishes that had been named were put together in the yard behind the house, where he built several pools with stones. There were many aquatic plants in the pools, and the water flowing there was from springs drawn from the mountains. There were also trees planted next to the pool for shade.

     These small fish hadn’t entered the breeding season yet, so it didn’t matter if they were mixed. When the breeding season starts and the fish mature, they will be raised separately.

     Gu Zhengzhong sat on the bamboo chair and watched An Yinong roll up his sleeves and carefully put the goldfish into the pools.

     The little goldfish swam under the lotus leaves almost as soon as they entered the water. The spring water from the top of the pool passed through a small water wheel and flowed into the pool, making a refreshing and bright sound.

     The deer that had been rescued before came over and leaned over to lick the spring water on the rocks. There were also uninvited birds playing by the pool.

     If it had been summer, it would be a pleasure to sit in a place like this and enjoy the cool breeze while watching the sun scattering over the pool with various flowers and plants. Unfortunately, it was early spring and the weather was still a bit cold.

     They had settled in this village for more than two years, and An Yinong was about to turn seventeen. Now when everyone talked about him, they called him ‘the best at raising fish’. People from ten miles away came here to buy his ornamental fish.

     An Yinong could raise fish, was good-looking, and went to school, attracting many families with unmarried women. However, he had often been sick in recent years, and the outside world said that he was weak. The parents of those girls were worried and did not take any real action.

     “It’s best for them to have worries all the time.” Gu Zhengzhong thought, “I have been teaching for several years, and I have watched him go from holding a pen incorrectly to being able to write well now, and from being confused when hearing allusions to being able to speak casually. Could it be that the story behind the poem was meant to suit these village girls who don’t know a single word?”

     Okay, Gu Zhengzhong didn’t appreciate the simple and healthy beauty of the village girls at all. As for why…

     “What are you thinking about?” An Yinong wiped his hands and walked over. He put his hands on the back of Gu Zhengzhong’s hands and asked with a smile, “Is it cold? Is it cold?”

     Looking down at the cold hand on the back of his hand, Gu Zhengzhong unfolded his fan and said slowly: “Cold, as cold as yesterday’s jelly.”

     An Yinong thought he wanted to eat jelly, so he smiled and said: “I made it today too. I poured sugar juice on it and sprinkled some chopped walnuts. In addition to this, there is tea. Do you want it with honey or cream?”

     “Do not want any.”

     An Yinong laughed, with a narrow look on his face, and was lightly tapped on the forehead by Gu Zhengzhong with a fan.

     He raised a cow, one that had just given birth. After the calf ate, there was still a lot of milk, so An Yinong used it to make snacks or whip into cream. This cream was not the modern kind, he couldn’t make it. It was a cream-like substance made from egg whites, sugar and milk, and it tasted equally delicious.

     An Yinong liked it very much, and even added honey, red beans and other things to the tea bowl.

     He especially likes this food in the cold season, making a cup of hot milk tea with a creamy sweet aroma, holding it in his hands to warm it, and drinking it sip after sip.

     This was a combination that Gu Zhengzhong, who only drank tea, couldn’t stand, but An Yinong insisted on teasing him like this, even covering his eyes and coaxing him with tea with honey.

     In fact, he don’t have to look at the tea with honey, he can tell by smelling it, but Gu Zhengzhong still cooperated with him, showing a dumbfounded expression, and pretending to be angry, punishing him to copy books or stand on horseback – Gu Zhengzhong also taught him swordsmanship.

     At this time, An Yinong would accept the punishment obediently, but he would dare to do it next time. This was how people’s bottom line was decreased step by step.

     An Yinong lived a leisurely life, raising fish, going to school, and listening to Gu Zhengzhong’s lectures on ancient times, but in fact the war was not over yet. The original royal family was steadily retreating, and the capital was moved to the south. The north almost became the empress’s world. The nobles in the south often wrote articles and called her Si Chen, but this could not affect the power of the north becoming stronger day by day.

     The two regimes now ruled across the river and seemed peaceful, but they both knew that this calm would not last long. Now the empress was fighting with the foreign tribes in the northwest, and the fight was causing people to cry for their parents and retreat for thirty miles. When she recovered, the southern court would be in danger.

     But all this has nothing to do with An Yinong and others. Because Pingjiang Prefecture was blocked by many mountains and relatively poor, it had not been affected too much by the war.

     “Dong dong dong, dong dong dong.” Suddenly there was the sound of lively gongs and drums outside the house. This was a sound that only appeared when there was a big event in the village.

     An Yinong was curious, and Gu Zhengzhong tilted his head slightly and waved the fan in his hand: “Huang Meisheng has been admitted to the scholar examination. It’s not a big deal. There is no need to go there.”

     It was such a cold day and it would be easy to catch a cold if one sweated during the trip back and forth.

     “That’s right, he has some strength.” March happened to be the month when the scholar rankings were released.

     Without the hard work of the original owner, Huang Meisheng quickly joined a wealthy family in the village, married the family’s daughter, and was supported by that family. He devoted himself to studying, hoping to change his destiny through the imperial examination.

     It was not so easy to be admitted as a scholar in ancient times. Huang Meisheng, who was admitted as a boy student last year, was admitted as a scholar this year. Like An Yinong, he was sixteen almost seventeen years old, so he was a proper young scholar.

     After experiencing family changes and running away from home, he could still pass the exam, which already showed his talent. Although half of this was thanks to his wife for taking care of the chores and his father-in-law for his support.

     After a while, as expected, a villager came over to tell him the good news. No one in the village had been admitted as a scholar for a long time. In the evening, he heard that the Huang family was going to hold a banquet, so An Yinong followed the crowd and picked up a basket of eggs to give as gifts.

     Huang Meisheng, who was wearing a green shirt, was busy with business. He thanked the villagers, but his smile did not reach his eyes, especially when he saw his father-in-law who entertained guests for him like a master.

     “Congratulations.” An Yinong put down the eggs in his hand.

     Huang Meisheng turned around and saw him, his eyes lit up: “Yinong.” He came up to him directly and said in a friendly tone: “Sir, I’m sorry. If Yinong had gone to school earlier, he would have ended up passing this time.”

     Yinong was the “nickname” that An Yinong declared to the outside world. Huang Meisheng especially liked to call him that, as if they had some special feelings.

     “When will Yinong come off the field and give the test a try? Brother, there are a few posts here…” Huang Meisheng said as he wanted to make a move, but An Yinong sidestepped him in avoidance.

     “Thank you so much, Brother Huang. Ahem, since Brother Huang is busy here, I’ll take my leave first.” An Yinong left with an excuse, but Huang Meisheng couldn’t keep him.

     “Yan Gou, bah.” The system scorned him on the way back, “Looking at his squinty eyes, you don’t think you can do anything to the host just because you are a scholar, do you?”

     Huang Meisheng didn’t mean to hide his “interest” at all. In other words, the people in this era were simple. Everyone thought it was because they were classmates in the same school, so they were particularly close and didn’t think much about it.

     “Even if he wants to, he doesn’t dare. A scholar has only half-stepped into the ranks of the ‘gentry’ clan. If he wants to intimidate and induce me, he has to pass the exam, right?”

     An Yinong shook his head and analyzed objectively: “However, I heard from those people that he was admitted at the tail end of the rankings. If he wants to pass the exam, he will have to wait for two years.”

     “If Yinong really passes, he will not be happy, even if he talks nicely.” Gu Zhengzhong put his fan away and put the tip of the fan against his chin, “I just don’t know when you are going to go.”

     “Wait a little longer,” An Yinong smiled slightly, “I’m waiting for an opportunity.”

     Last year, Gu Zhengzhong felt that he could test, but An Yinong said that the time had not come yet, and no one knew what the ‘opportunity’ he meant. However, Gu Zhengzhong didn’t say much. He believed in An Yinong and all the decisions he made.

     In the spring of the following year, An Yinong was about to turn eighteen, and he still had not taken the exam. The teacher in the private school advised him: “With your current level, even if you don’t answer well, you will always be a good candidate for admission. Why not try?”

     An Yinong just shook his head and turned to teach several children in the village how to raise goldfish. Knowing that he was going to teach this skill to others, many people in the village came to learn it, and they all knew how to make money by doing it.

     “Isn’t this a stupid person to pass on skills that can be passed down to future generations without charging a penny?” the villagers muttered.

     “You don’t care if he is stupid or not, we will benefit after all.”

     “That’s true.”

     The villagers said that he was stupid, and some well-meaning people persuaded him to accept some money. These days, where can any apprentice learn a craft without spending any money?

     An Yinong just smiled and said that he had received a lot of care from the village and now he was repaying the favor. After that, he taught those children without hiding anything, and he wanted to pour everything in his mind into their brains.

     People who came to learn fish farming felt embarrassed. When they showed up, they had to bring home-grown vegetables and fish. When they left, they cleaned the yard, carried water, and chopped firewood.

     It was also this year that the northern empress crippled the northwestern foreign tribes and finally had her hands free to entertain the old court in the south. The empress personally led the army across the river, and was invincible along the way. People in the southern provinces were panicked, and food prices skyrocketed.

     Only An Yinong was in a good mood. He stirred some cream and added it to the freshly brewed tea. He added red beans to the tea and sprinkled chopped walnuts on the cream. He stirred and drank it. It was sweet and greasy.

     Gu Zhengzhong held the tea cup in his hand and looked at An Yinong’s slender neck when he lowered his head. He suddenly understood the opportunity he was waiting for – he was waiting for the empress to unify the north and south then officially ascend the throne.

     “It tastes good. Sir, do you want to try it?” An Yinong raised his head and put some cream on his lips.

     Gu Zhengzhong sipped the tea in his cup: “It’s too sweet.”