The beginning of "Ru Lin Wai Shi" is the story of two poor shows who are first sad and then happy, and lucky counterattack. Zhou Jin, who was in his 60s, and Fan Jin, who was only a 54-year-old who had only passed the middle talent examination, finally soared into the sky after most of his life's sloppiness and ridicule, and became a noble person who everyone rushed to please and climb. Neither of them had children (Zhou Jin seemed to be wifeless and childless, Fan Jin only had his wife and mother), and the first half of his life was already so sad. So what kind of story do those poor talents with many children have?
Ni Shuangfeng is a native of Nanjing, originally a teenager who was successful and was admitted to Xiucai at the age of 20. Helplessly, good luck ended here, and for the next 37 years, he was always a talent, and he could not pass the examination. Seeing that the fame is hopeless, as a reader, he "can't take the light, bear the weight", and has to barely rely on the cultivation of musical instruments to make a living. This craft did not make much money at all, and the days went on and on. He gave birth to 6 sons, except for one who died, and sold 4 sons to other places, not knowing whether he would live or die, and there was no way to see each other. When I was almost 60 years old, there was only a 16-year-old son left around, and I could only sell it... It was all tears and sorrow.
Fortunately, at this time, he met a drama class leader Bao Wenqing who asked him to help repair the musical instrument. Bao Wenqing was gentle and kind, and when he first met, he invited Ni Shuangfeng to eat half a kilogram of porridge cake. The next day, after practicing the instrument, he went to the restaurant to invite him to dinner, and when he learned of his tragic experience, he was deeply sympathetic. He told Ni Shuangfeng that he had no son and was willing to pass on Ni Shuangfeng's younger son as an adopted son.
"I still gave twenty-two pieces of silver to my father, and I raised him as an adult. On weekdays, when there is a festival, you can come to Daddy's house; after Daddy is well, he still sends him back to Daddy. Can this be made? ”
Ni Shuangfeng had originally planned to sell his son, but when he encountered such a good thing, he was simply overjoyed, of course, he agreed. Subsequently, Bao Wenqing specially prepared a table of wine to invite Ni Shuangfeng, and the two of them made a formal succession document, and Ni Tingxi, the youngest son of the Ni family, was renamed Bao Tingxi. In the years that followed, Bao Wenqing regarded his adopted son as his own, sent him to study, and helped himself to run the family. Two years later, when Ni Shuangfeng died, Bao Wenqing took out dozens of taels of silver to help him take care of the aftermath, and let his adopted son wear ma dai filial piety, fulfilling their father-son relationship.
In that era, the singers belonged to the "lower nine streams", and even the long shirt and turban were not eligible to wear. And those who already have the reputation of "Xiu Cai" are considered to be scholars, but Ni Shuangfeng is so poor that he sells his son, and he also needs Bao Wenqing's righteous help to avoid the pain of selling his son in the end. Xiu Cai is with the drama, even if it is a few pieces of Poria cake, it must be invited by Bao Wenqing...
Coincidentally, the children of Huizhou Xiucai Wang Yuhui are equally sad. Wang Yuhui's name is Wang Yun, the character Yuhui, and he was already more than sixty years old when he appeared, but he still went to see Mr. Yu Da, a local scholar, with the etiquette of "protégé", and regarded himself as a junior. Wang Yuhui is also a talent for more than thirty years, he is still a person with academic ideals, in order to write three books, he does not go to the library (as a tutor) to make a living, and his life is also stretched. He gave birth to a son and four daughters, all of whom were married, and the eldest daughter returned to her mother's house to observe the festival because of the widow.
Mr. Yu Da is also a kind and generous person, he is not respected by Wang Yuhui, and is only willing to talk to him as a brother. He knew that Wang Yuhui was in a bad situation, so when he asked his younger brother Mr. Yu Er to pay homage back and forth, he deliberately "led a door fight and carried a stone of rice" and gave him one or two pieces of silver - they did not have much money, only this little heart.
Soon after, Wang Yuhui's third daughter and husband died, and they had just been married for a year, and it was the young third girl Wang Who had cried and calmly said to her father:
"My father is on top, my eldest sister has died of her husband, and I am tired of my father at home to support me; and now that I have died my husband, can I not support my father?" The father is a cold man, and he can't feed these many daughters! "Now I bid farewell to my in-laws and father, and I will find a way to die and follow my husband!"
After that, the third lady of Wang ignored the bitter persuasion of her in-laws and mother and decided to die. After the death of Wang San, she was awarded the "Martyr Woman" and was solemnly sent to the local filial piety shrine. Wang Yuhui supported his daughter's martyrdom, saying that this was a matter of "leaving a name in qingshi". However, Wang San girl herself did not think so, she chose to die, neither with her husband deep love, nor for the sake of martyrdom, in a short paragraph, she said three "feed" - it is really not easy to live, it is too difficult to feed. Her father is so poor, her mother already has a sister in the festival, she is unwilling and unwilling to add a burden to her father who is poor and clean, so she must die - if Wang Yuhui can be well-off even if she has enough to eat, she probably does not have to choose this path of sorrow, right?
It is not easy to be poor, and it is even more difficult for the children of poor talents. They grew up in hardship and poverty, and their father had the identity of a "show talent", but he had neither the ability to make a living nor the good luck of Zhou Jin Fanjin. Ni Shuangfeng's sons could only bear the fate of being sold one by one, and Wang San's daughter decided to choose death after the widow. It is better to be the son of a lowly "lower nine-stream" drama than to be a poor student' child!
The poria cake that Bao Wenqing bought for Ni Shuangfeng, and the stone of rice picked by Mr. Yu Er, witnessed the downfall of the poor talents - behind their sloppiness and despair, there is even more desolate sorrow of the children, in addition to taking the initiative to die, they have no way to choose their own destiny life...