Transmigration: Space-Aided Rise to Power and Prosperity-Chapter 153 - 78: 2 Years Later

Time flies like a fleeting shadow; this is the winter of the sixtieth year of Dayan.

Silver sat in the ox cart driven by Gu Chengli, swaying along the road back to Shangling Village.

Today is already the third day of the twelfth lunar month, the last day of school for this year. Although there are still some days until the New Year, as the saying goes: after the Laba Festival, it’s the New Year. Plus, being in the north, it snows early, making the roads difficult to travel to school again.

The hooves of the ox tapped on the snow that had been firmly trodden, making "creak, creak" sounds. Silver lifted the curtain and saw a mountain forest and wilderness covered in white snow. A bit further, the village of Shangling would come into view.

Breathing in the cold air of the mountain forest made one’s forehead ache from the chill.

"Big brother! Are you cold? If you are, come inside and rest for a while, it’s really cold today!" Silver lifted the front curtain and spoke to Gu Chengli, who was driving the cart.

"Haha! How can this be considered cold? You little kids just can’t handle the cold. The last time you bought me fur gloves and clothes and knee pads, they were so warm; I don’t feel cold at all." Gu Chengli turned back and laughed heartily to Silver.

The fur clothes, knee pads, and gloves were items he took out from his space, just with some style modifications. Mr. Gu, after all, was older, and the winter commute had become too much for him, so it was changed to Gu Chengli.

Silver recalled the pelts he saw in town a few days ago. With his current inner strength and martial arts moves, he should be able to venture further into the mountain. He decided to stay at home for this period and take his third brother hunting together. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Yes, his third brother. Two years ago, Silver had taken out the martial arts heart method, only to find that no one in the Gu Family had the aptitude. Either they were too old, or their bone structure wasn’t suitable, so Silver had to put away the Internal Cultivation Methods and let them learn a few external martial arts moves.

Even so, only his third brother was interested and put in extra effort; the other boys just wanted to study because they couldn’t make progress in martial arts and didn’t want to spend time on it.

But the third brother didn’t like studying. Firstly, he was not young enough to sit and study with a group of kids, and secondly, he was only interested in martial arts, so he didn’t attend the private school. He only learned some characters from the Gu Family boys when they returned.

Gu Chengli drove the ox cart quickly and steadily, and soon they passed through the forest, with the village ahead faintly visible.

Winter’s early dusk enveloped the village in a silvery-gray haze by the time the cart entered. The ox cart went a little further inside, reaching the Gu Family’s courtyard gate.

The Gu Family is now the only household, besides Landlord Zhao’s, with a blue brick tile-roofed house in the village. Two courtyards, not as large as those in towns and counties, but not small either.

The roof was covered with gray-black tiles, the walls built with blue bricks, appearing out of place beside the clay houses. The courtyard walls were piled with large stones, two meters high, and looking in from the open gate, you could see the flat stone road.

Originally, Silver wanted to build the walls with blue bricks, but Mr. Gu and the others disagreed. The yard was large, and using all blue bricks would take too many bricks, and those cost money! So Silver had to compromise. In hindsight, the stone-piled walls weren’t ugly, just not nice-looking. In a couple of years, he’d still let his father rebuild them with blue bricks.

The current layout of the Gu Family has Mr. Gu and the others living in the main house of the second courtyard, which consists of two rooms with one room on each side. Gu Wan lived in the east room, and the other was for Silver, with the kitchen in the south.

The first and second branches still lived in the east and west wings respectively. His third brother got married last year, and considering Gu Family had many brothers, they each built an extra wing room. Originally, each wing had two larger rooms, so after the third and fourth brothers got married, they could each have a room. The west added a firewood room and a livestock shed.

There wasn’t any empty space on the sides of the Gu Family, but the back could extend, so it was lengthened significantly. This made the first courtyard smaller, with just one study room, a guest room, and a room for receiving guests.

This layout was a bit small, but luckily there was still plenty of open space behind the house; so, when the grandchildren got married, it could still be extended further back.

When the ox cart passed by the study, Silver first took down the book bag and some food he bought for the family. After Silver got off, Gu Chengli drove the cart to the inner courtyard’s livestock shed.

Gu Family’s Da Lang and others studied in Xiasang Village. The private school in Xiasang Village was run by an old scholar. Although Teacher Qian wasn’t as famous as Mr. Wen, passing the scholar exam meant he had some knowledge.

Back then, under his persuasion, Mr. Gu agreed to the second son of the Gu Family going to school but with one condition, that it would only be for three years. If they believed their knowledge was sufficient, they would take the exams; if they thought they couldn’t pass, then they’d learn a skill or find work in town.

In reality, three years was quite short, and many knowledgeable people couldn’t pass the scholar exam within three years.

Silver felt it was somewhat unfair, but Mr. Gu was determined, saying the family couldn’t support so many people studying forever. The cost of studying was high, and supporting one was already burdensome, let alone many.

Later, Mr. Gu privately told him that saying so was also to motivate everyone to study hard, and how they fared would be evident in time; those who learned well could continue, while those who didn’t couldn’t be supported further.

In over two years, Silver had grown considerably taller, and the Gu Family’s life improved significantly, with good food, not just for him but also Da Lang and others who had also put on some weight.

Silver casually placed the plum cake and pine nut candy he brought back from town in the study and headed straight to the back courtyard.

Mrs. Lv had already set the table with Mrs. Fang and others, just waiting for Silver to sit down. Xiasang Village had announced a holiday five days ago, so Silver was the last to arrive.

"Xiao Bao! Come in quickly, you’re cold, right? Your teacher is really something; other private schools had long released students, why are you still attending until today? Getting up so early and with such thick snow on the road, isn’t it dangerous?" As soon as Mrs. Lv saw Silver enter the main house, she hurriedly pulled him over to sit on a warm kang.

"Mom! I’m not cold at all. I’m wearing a lot! Today is the last day of school for this year; from tomorrow, no more private school, just review at home." Silver smiled at Mrs. Lv, saying.

Mrs. Lv was wearing a narrow-sleeved jacket of lake blue fine cotton fabric, paired with a sapphire blue pleated skirt; the lake blue complemented her fair and smooth skin. Moreover, she had two silver hairpins inserted into her hair.

"Oh? Mom! Is there some special occasion today?"