When Liu's father was two or three years old, Hu Jiayuan took a large sum of silver and servants gifted by the Liu family to take the imperial examination. Unexpectedly, he never returned. The Liu family sent many people to search for him in vain.
Everyone believed Hu Jiayuan was dead and advised her to remarry, or to take in another husband. However, Miss Liu refused to give up. While raising Liu Qing, she continued to search for him.
After about two or three years, Hu Jiayuan suddenly returned.
Initially, people thought Miss Liu's hardship was finally over. But what followed was a document arranging for her to become a concubine to a primary wife.
It turned out that Hu Jiayuan had met the daughter of a high-ranking official in the prefectural city by chance. Because of his good looks and refined demeanor, the young lady took a liking to him. When asked if he was married, he lied, saying he was not yet married, and bribed his servant to keep silent.
Thus, he successfully married the lady and, after passing the imperial examination, secured a good position with the help of his father-in-law's connections.
Originally, his father-in-law would not have approved of a poor scholar. But his wife, Miss Zhang, due to two previous engagements where her fiancés died before marriage, was rumored to be a jinx. She had trouble finding a good match. She went to her relatives in the prefectural city to resolve her marriage prospects, fearing that if she married someone who heard the rumors, they would dislike her. Therefore, she sought a lower-status marriage. After assessing him and confirming his genuine talent and potential to pass the imperial examination, Mr. Zhang finally agreed.
A year later, she gave birth to a son. Hu Jiayuan walked with a spring in his step. Looking at those who flattered him, he deeply felt his choice was right. If he hadn't married the official's daughter, he might have ended up like his classmates, passing the imperial examination only to be assigned to a remote small county, becoming a minor magistrate with no backing, having his achievements stolen, and finding promotion difficult.
The difference between having support and not having it was stark. He became a sixth-rank official in just two years, a position many only reached by retirement.
He thought his life would continue smoothly. Unexpectedly, the Liu family never gave up. He had been gone for so long, yet they were still searching. While the Liu family's servants were inquiring at a restaurant, they were overheard by a servant of Miss Zhang, who returned with her suspicions.
Upon hearing this, Miss Zhang did not make a scene. She decided to investigate the matter first and sent people to Hu Jiayuan's ancestral hometown. The investigation revealed more than they expected. Not only was he already married with children, but his parents, whom he claimed were deceased, were still alive. This was a significant matter that Miss Zhang could not handle alone. She quickly wrote to her father.
Mr. Zhang was furious. However, the situation was already set. Despite his anger, he tried to cover for Hu Jiayuan, but he no longer dared to promote him. A person who could abandon his own parents and siblings could never truly be loyal, no matter how much one tried to win his heart.
At that time, Liu's father was six years old and remembered everything clearly. He clearly recalled his mother weeping daily and his maternal grandparents losing sleep for many nights.
The elders urged his mother to divorce. But she was unwilling to give up on Hu Jiayuan. She felt her husband was forced into circumstances beyond his control. As a merchant's daughter, she couldn't help him, and it was her fault. Moreover, their son was already so old; if not for her sake, surely he would take better care of her for their child's sake.
Her maternal grandparents strongly disagreed, but her mother was determined to follow him. This greatly angered her paternal grandparents, making them ill.
However, love conquered all, or rather, Miss Liu's unrequited love conquered all. She kowtowed to the elders of the Liu family several times and then returned to Hu's household with Liu Qing.
Being their only daughter, the Liu couple doted on her. Even though she had a child, she remained as innocent as ever. Before entering Hu's household, she thought she would at most be unfavored, but as long as she could be by Hu Jiayuan's side and see him every day, it would be enough.
To her surprise, upon entering Hu's household, she was thrown into a secluded small courtyard without even seeing Hu Jiayuan. Only her personal maidservant who accompanied her was there to attend to them. A matron guarded the courtyard entrance, effectively placing her under house arrest.
Initially, their meals were delivered on time. But due to the madam's displeasure, the master's indifference, and the servants' neglect, the food quality deteriorated, deliveries became later, and sometimes the food was even cold.
Miss Liu argued and protested, but once inside the inner quarters, it was the madam's domain. She cried out to no avail. After each outburst, her food and clothing provisions worsened.
It was then that Miss Liu began to regret her decision. She couldn't see her husband, her movements were restricted, she lacked food and clothing, and she couldn't even see her parents. Two years later, she died of melancholy.
What she didn't know was that not long after she entered Hu's household, the Liu couple also fell ill and passed away. Hu Jiayuan, as their only son-in-law, naturally took over the Liu family's assets, truly a case of devouring without spitting out the bones.
After Miss Liu's death, only Liu Qing and his personal maidservant were left to fend for themselves. With no vegetables to eat, they cultivated a patch of land in the courtyard and bribed the matron for vegetable seeds to grow their own. Without grain, they would secretly crawl through dog holes to buy grain with the items Miss Liu brought when she entered Hu's household. Many times, he suffered from high fevers at night with no doctor or medicine. He thought he wouldn't survive, but he stubbornly lived on. Life was difficult, and after a few years, the maidservant also passed away from an illness.
He thought he would be confined to this small courtyard for his entire life, living from meal to meal. When he was twelve years old, the small courtyard gate was opened. The man he had only seen once in his memory looked him up and down expressionlessly before leaving without a word.
Not long after, he was sent to an academy to study, accompanied only by a newly bought pageboy, a package containing a few dozen taels of silver, and a few sets of clothes.
Liu Qing cherished this hard-won opportunity. Although he was the oldest in his class and started his education late, he was the most diligent. His efforts paid off, and in just three years, he passed the Xiucai examination.
For the first time, he entered Hu's household through the main gate. The madam's indifference, his younger brother's hostility, his grandmother's pity, Hu Jiayuan's lack of concern, and the servants' perfunctory service all indicated his unwelcome status. But at least his freedom was no longer restricted.
Just as he thought life would continue this way, he suddenly learned he had a fiancée. In his dreams, he had once imagined finding a harmonious partner to spend his life with, never taking concubines, and as long as she respected him, he would protect her for life.
Of course, this was just wishful thinking. He knew he couldn't control his marriage arrangements, and he held no expectations for the marriage his father and the madam had arranged.
Life went on. He prepared for the imperial examinations three years later, which was his only chance to turn his fortunes around. Wasn't it precisely because his father passed the imperial examination that he failed his mother? Since ancient times, officials held more power than commoners. Only by becoming an official could one avoid being bullied.
When Liu's father was seventeen, Liu's mother entered the household. When her veil was lifted, Liu's father saw a plain-looking, shy, and introverted woman. He breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't mind if Liu's mother was plain-looking or timid; as long as she was well-mannered.
In reality, he worried unnecessarily. The reason the madam didn't arrange for him to marry a shrewish or rude woman was that she didn't want to bring trouble to the Hu family, didn't want the concubine's daughter-in-law to oppose her, and didn't want her to compete with her son for family inheritance.
After Liu's mother entered the household, the madam found ways to torment her. Regardless of the wind or rain, the severe cold, she would stand at the courtyard gate for an hour without fail before being allowed to attend to her grooming.
Liu's mother was exhausted and sore every day. Liu's father watched with a heavy heart and comforted Liu's mother each day, telling her to endure a little longer, and once he passed the imperial examinations, no one would dare bully her.
Looking at her husband studying even more diligently, Liu's mother felt that hope lay at the end of their suffering.
But life is not as simple as one wishes. The series of blows that followed shattered Liu's father's fighting spirit.