dognovel Chapter 5 Clarifying One's Identity
Chapter 5 Clarifying One's Identity
"Master Lin, here is today's tea and snacks."
A pageboy with a pigtail placed snacks and hot tea on Lin Fan's table.
Lin Fan has been copying the book for two days now.
The academy gave him a clean side room. The wooden room had a faint musty smell, but compared to his house in Bailin Village, it was like the difference between a dog shed and a villa.
"Don't call me Master, or the other masters will get angry. Just call me Lin Fan, Young Master Duanmu."
The child always called Lin Fan "Master," and Lin Fan had corrected him several times. Even Lin Fan knew that if the extremely proud teachers of the academy heard this, they would definitely be unhappy.
"Master Lin's calligraphy is even better than Master Yang's. Can't you be the master?"
The innocent little boy tilted his head and looked at Lin Fan, completely bewildered as to why Lin Fan wouldn't let him call him that.
He was the child of a relative of Dean Duanmu, and he worked part-time while studying at the academy. Children this young were not usually called by their full names, so everyone at the academy called him Little Mu.
Lin Fan respectfully addressed him as Young Master.
Mu Xiaotong liked watching Lin Fan write. Lin Fan didn't look old and ugly like other teachers, and his handwriting had a delicate charm that made people want to look at it more.
"Young Master Duanmu, if you have nothing else to do, could you please read these words I wrote again for me?" Lin Fan said softly to Mu Xiaotong.
"Why doesn't Master Lin read it himself?" the little boy asked, blinking his eyes in confusion.
"I can't read," Lin Fan answered honestly.
Mu Xiaotong's little head was full of questions. How could Master Lin, who writes so well, not know how to read?
However, he would read it himself when the Master told him to. He always listened to the Masters.
"At the beginning of life, human nature is not good..."
Lin Fan wrote one down, and Mu Xiaotong read it aloud. Lin Fan copied and tried his best to memorize it until Mu Xiaotong got impatient and left.
Lin Fan watched the child leave, and after confirming that he was far away, he carefully picked up a piece of pastry and put it in his mouth.
The sweet taste of the pastry instantly filled my mouth.
The pastries weren't very tasty; in fact, they were quite rough.
But for Lin Fan, this was the first food he had ever eaten that tasted like human food since he came into this world.
Lin Fan picked up the tea again and took a sip. This green tea really did taste like green tea. It really was green tea!
If it weren't for time travel, Lin Fan probably would never have understood how delicious every bite of food he ate in modern society, even the food he threw in the trash, was.
Lin Fan's eyes welled up with tears. Now was not the time for sadness. He needed to work harder and get through this hurdle. If he could get through this, perhaps he would still have the chance to pursue a 'normal' life.
Lin Fan took out the dry food his mother had brought him—a few cornbread cakes—grabbed them with his left hand, and drank them with hot tea.
Lin Fan quickly finished his lunch and then reached for his pen with his right hand.
hiss-
Lin Fan felt a sharp pain in his hand, and the calligraphy brush fell to the ground.
His right hand was red and swollen from writing for dozens of hours straight, and now it hurts to even hold a pen.
"This won't do. I wonder if the academy has any medicine for bruises and sprains. What if I'm in so much pain that I can't write?"
For the past two days, Lin Fan has only slept for one or two hours each day. Apart from eating some dry rations, he has been copying non-stop, and there's no limit to the number of candles available at night anyway.
On the first day, he handed in 6 books, and Master Chen readily agreed, carefully checking them before handing over all 120 coins to Lin Fan.
The next day, 8 books, 160 words.
However, Lin Fan was still anxious, not because he was running out of time, but because his two tutors, Chen and Yang, had been busy and had taken over a lot of his work. The faster he copied, the more he could earn.
In contrast, the two teachers each copied 3 books on the first day, but only 4 books together on the second day.
After all, the two tutors were only copying the books out of a sense of duty, while Lin Fan was working himself to the bone. The difference was enormous.
While calculating how much money he could get, Lin Fan went out and found Mu Xiaotong.
Mu Xiaotong was simmering medicine in a room, with rows of medicine cabinets behind him filled with drawers of medicinal herbs.
This was the first time Lin Fan had ever seen an academy with its own pharmacy. He was delighted and greeted the academy, saying, "Young Master Duanmu, I wonder if the academy has any medicine for bruises and sprains? My hand has been a little sore from copying books these past few days."
"Yes, I'll brew one for you right away," Mu Xiaotong replied obediently.
"Does this academy also function as a pharmacy?" Lin Fan asked curiously.
"Some classmates are mischievous, and it's inevitable that they'll get bruises and sprains, so the most common medicine we make here is liniment for bruises and sprains. The dean studied medicine for a few years before, but I heard that he only gave it up and went into literature when he was thirty."
"Is the dean's surname Zhou?"
"Master Lin is joking. Grandpa Dean and I are from the same clan, so of course we share the same surname, Duanmu."
This little incident passed quickly, and Lin Fan felt much better after applying the liniment.
Although Mu Xiaotong told him that he should not write after applying the medicine and should rest for a few days, otherwise it would worsen the condition of his hand.
But Lin Fan couldn't care less about that at the moment. As long as he could stop the pain, he would write desperately even if it meant ruining his hand.
When the night watchman called out from outside, "It's the hour of Chou (1-3 AM), and the weather is freezing cold," Lin Fan put down his brush, rubbed his sore right hand, and prepared to rest for a while.
He took out the bedding he had brought and spread it on the ground.
Although there was only one elegant little bed in the room, covered with a new cotton quilt wrapped in soft silk, Lin Fan knew his place and knew he wasn't entitled to sleep on it.
Lin Fan lay on the ground, exhausted but unable to fall asleep.
After thinking about it, I wondered if I was the most miserable transmigrator ever? I had no cheat codes, no background.
There were no extraordinary encounters, nor any special opportunities.
He recalled the strange voice in his mind saying that the original owner had three wishes that he needed to fulfill, but he still didn't know what those wishes were.
Even if I have all of his memories, I am not him.
Memories are memories, and thoughts are thoughts. I know his past, but I can't talk to him. I both understand him and don't understand him.
By the way, before I leave, I might ask Master Chen if I could find a job at the academy.
Even if you do odd jobs, you can learn some knowledge and occasionally earn some extra money.
The teachers at the academy receive five taels of silver a month.
He has a basic education; not to mention anything else, he has already learned most of the characters in the "Enlightenment Classic" in just a few days.
They are all Chinese characters, so they are not difficult to remember once you know their pronunciation.
Imagining a bright future, Lin Fan quickly fell asleep.
On the morning of the fourth day, Lin Fan handed in the 10 copies he had made on the third day.
By the fourth day, Lin Fan wasn't sleeping at night either, because his hands were hurting so much that he was writing slower. However, he couldn't rest, because he estimated that he only needed the last nine books.
Regardless of how many books he submits tomorrow morning, my work is estimated to be finished by tomorrow morning, so it would be best if he could write 9 books. For every 20 more books, I would feel more at ease.
……
“That’s amazing, young friend Lin. We originally planned to copy the book for 10 days, but with your help, we finished in just 4 days.”
Master Chen praised Lin Fan with a beaming face.
Copying books was more tedious than he had imagined. Although he had only copied six books in total, his hands were so sore that he didn't even want to lift his hand to pick up a teacup to drink tea.
Lin Fan solemnly accepted the last 180 coins.
In this way, he earned a total of 660 coins in 4 days. He borrowed some more from his neighbors and sold some of his stored grain, and that was how he got through this trouble.
Lin Fan, of course, did not forget his other plan, and he took the opportunity to ask Master Chen if he could work at the academy in the future.
"Young man, perhaps I've been too polite to you, causing some misunderstanding?" Master Chen's kind expression suddenly turned cold.
This fat man with a fleshy face is usually all smiles, but when he gets serious, his face with its menacing features can be quite frightening.
"Please enlighten me, Master." Lin Fan clasped his hands in a fist and asked for guidance, his knuckles turning white from clenching them.
"You don't actually think that just being able to write a few broken characters makes you a scholar, do you?" Master Chen narrowed his eyes, his small eyes resembling those of a venomous snake flicking its tongue.
"Master, the sage said that education should be provided to all without discrimination. Aren't all those who read the books of sages and worthies scholars?" Lin Fan couldn't help but ask back.
Master Chen picked up his teacup with his left hand, took a sip, and said coldly, "Boy, you think you can discuss philosophy with me after learning a few lines of the 'Enlightenment Classic'? I think you've lost your sense of identity these past few days."