In years of famine and drought, their village even rejected fatty meat.

Chapter 612 Life-Changing Opportunities

"Delicious! The chicken leg smells so good!"

"Really delicious!"

The two children, who were gnawing on chicken legs, also expressed their heartfelt admiration.

Children don't have much of a concept of the price of meat; they just follow their instincts and want to eat meat. The plump yellow-feathered chicken was undoubtedly a favorite of the two children. In no time, they had finished the chicken leg and then continued to eat the rest of the chicken on the plate with great relish.

Seeing this, Li Xiang couldn't help but smile. Both children, like him, loved to eat meat. Seeing the children enjoying their meal made him especially happy.

"This chicken is really good!"

Li Xiang's wife said with a smile, "It's fatter and tastes better than a gray-feathered chicken, but the price is only half that of a gray-feathered chicken. Husband, you've really bought a good thing today."

"of course!"

Li Xiang said with no small amount of pride, "The stall owner originally planned to sell them for 300 coins each, but I had to put in a lot of effort to bargain down the price to 250 coins."

"Speaking of which, if that stall owner sells them so cheaply, how can he still make a profit?"

"There should be, right?"

Li Xiang said uncertainly, "In my experience, there are no merchants who don't make money. So I think the stall owner must be making a profit, it's just a matter of how much."

"Who cares? We've made a profit anyway."

Li Xiang quickly put the question out of his mind and said with a smile, "This chicken is so plump and delicious, the duck must be just as good. Let's kill a duck and eat it tomorrow!"

"Great!"

The two children cheered, and Li Xiang's wife also smiled. The small kitchen seemed to be filled with the aroma of happiness.

…………

…………

"Lord Tang, look what I bought!"

Just as Li Xiang's family was enjoying a delicious meat feast, Qin Le arrived at a two-courtyard house carrying two yellow-feathered chickens and met the owner of the house: Tang Qing.

Tang Qing is the current magistrate of Yongliang County. He has taken off his official robes after finishing his shift and is resting in the main hall in his everyday clothes.

"Xiao Le, what brings you here?"

Tang Qing was surprised to see Qin Le rushing over and asked him a question. Although he was a scholar, he was not as arrogant as other scholars in Xia Kingdom. He never looked down on soldiers like Qin Le. On the contrary, he was quite approachable and got along very well with constables and policemen like Qin Le who came from the Yang family army.

This is also related to Tang Qing's background. Although Tang Qing was a scholar, his background was not good.

Although Tang Qing, born into a wealthy peasant family, could afford to study, that was all he could do. As for hiring renowned teachers and Confucian scholars to tutor him...

Given Tang Qing's family's circumstances, that was impossible.

All his parents could do was buy him some books and let him read them and understand the knowledge in them.

Fortunately, Tang Qing was a person who loved reading, so even without a teacher, he was still able to become self-taught.

In his youth, Tang Qing was rather naive, believing that his knowledge would lead to success and advancement in his social class by passing the imperial examinations.

Unfortunately... this was just Tang Qing's unrealistic fantasy.

At the age of 20, Tang Qing successfully passed the county and prefectural examinations, earning the title of Xiucai (a scholar who passed the county-level imperial examinations) and joining the ranks of scholars.

However, when the scholar Tang Qing ambitiously participated in the provincial examination, intending to pass it and become a successful candidate for officialdom, he began to encounter setbacks.

He failed the provincial examination on his first attempt.

He failed the provincial examination on his second attempt.

He failed the provincial examination for the third time!

The provincial examination was held every three years, and failing it three times meant that Tang Qing had wasted nine years.

When Tang Qing first failed the exam, he thought it was because he hadn't worked hard enough or wasn't knowledgeable enough. Later, he realized that the reason he failed wasn't because he lacked knowledge, but because...

He has no connections!

The provincial examination had a chief examiner, who often came from a prominent family. As a chief examiner from a prominent family, he would naturally be more inclined to favor his family members.

Scholars like Tang Qing, who came from wealthy peasant families, were no different from peasants in the eyes of powerful clans, and naturally could not win the favor of the examiners.

This is the real reason why Tang Qing repeatedly failed the exams.

Realizing this, Tang Qing was immediately disheartened and lost all her former high spirits.

Having achieved the title of Xiucai at the young age of 20, he thought he could change his fate through the imperial examination. However, reality is often cruel. He had the talent to study and the spirit of hard work, but his ordinary background became his fatal flaw.

Without a good background, he would never have been able to obtain the title of Juren (a successful candidate in the imperial examinations), let alone become an official.

Disheartened, Tang Qing gave up on the imperial examinations and returned home to farm with his parents. In his spare time, Tang Qing did not give up his studies. Whenever he had free time, he would take out books to read and enrich his knowledge.

Tang Qing, who returned home to farm, was ridiculed by many people.

"Hey, isn't this Scholar Tang? You haven't become an official yet?"

"Scholar Tang, when will you pass the imperial examination and become a scholar?"

"Scholar Tang, when you become an official, don't forget your fellow villagers!"

"..."

Some of the neighbors' words were mocking Tang Qing, while others were good-natured teasing.

But Tang Qing didn't care about the ridicule or teasing, because he knew in his heart that his failure to pass the imperial examination was never because he was incapable, but because the officialdom was corrupt and could not tolerate a poor scholar like him!

Therefore, no matter how harsh the laughter from his neighbors was, Tang Qing just smiled faintly and didn't care much.

only……

Every time Tang Qing lay in bed late at night, she couldn't help but feel a little sad.

He studied for decades, hoping to pass the imperial examinations and become an official to govern a region. Unfortunately, the corrupt officialdom and the dark world left no way for a poor scholar like him to rise in society.

That year, Tang Qing was thirty years old. At thirty, he could be considered a representative of someone who had accomplished nothing. Although he had ambitions, he had no opportunity to realize them. He could only be like an old farmer, working in the fields with his parents, tending to the crops.

This care lasted for ten years.

Tang Qing, now forty, has become increasingly knowledgeable because he has never given up reading, and his farming skills have become more and more proficient.

Tang Qing embodies both the identities of a scholar and an old farmer. At forty years old, he possesses both rich farming experience and profound knowledge, making him a rather contradictory person.

However, in that same year, Tang Qing encountered an opportunity that would change his life.

In the year Tang Qing turned forty, a massive rebellion broke out in Liangzhou due to a severe cold and the court's repeated tax increases.