Chapter 180: Wishes Fulfilled
This novel is translated and hosted only on Bcatranslation
Miss Wei, Madam Zhang of the Li Clan, and the constables filling the courtyard wore expressions of confusion.
His family was here?
Where?
They scanned their surroundings but found no one else present. Yet both Official Yu and Li Qing Miao seemed to see people invisible to everyone else.
Miss Wei couldn’t help but hug her arms tightly. “Why do I feel… a bit cold?”
Madam Zhang and the constables nodded in agreement. “Indeed, it is cold.”
No one answered their question.
At that moment, Li Qing Miao was unleashing his fury.
“Why hate them? Of course, it’s because they’re hateful!”
He abruptly turned to Madam Chen of the Li Clan, his biological mother. “You! A hen that does nothing but lay eggs! You can’t fly yourself, yet you hope I can soar as a dragon and phoenix, leading you to wealth and glory? Have you ever looked at yourself? Do you deserve it?”
“From childhood to adulthood, I never slept in even once! The villagers got up at dawn for farm work, but you made me rise at the early hours of the tiger to study!”
“Those concoctions you forced me to drink daily—they made me want to vomit just at the sight of them!”
Madam Chen’s vacant white eyes filled with bewilderment. “Those were nourishing tonics; I worried about your health. Besides, the early bird catches the worm. Studying early helps you remember better. Didn’t you feel that way too?”
“I wanted to sleep! I wanted to rest! I wanted to play like everyone else!”
Then he turned to his grandmother. “And you! A snobbish old hag who despises the poor and loves the rich! Cui Hua and I were deeply in love, but you claimed she wasn’t good enough for me. You insisted she wanted our family’s money, breaking us apart. Cui Hua ended up marrying a butcher—a violent man who beat her every day.”
“That day, she came to me just to pour out her sorrows. That butcher beat her to death because of it! You caused Cui Hua’s death, and for that, I wanted you dead too!”
His finger now pointed at Li Da Niu and the rest of his siblings. “And you! Incapable, lazy fools, just like that greedy, useless woman! You all expected me to give you a better life! Yes, you worked on the farm every day, and yes, you paid for my education, but did any of you ask if I even wanted to study?”
“You thought once I achieved success, you’d all live comfortably off my efforts. But I wanted to shatter those dreams! To make you realize how ridiculous you all are! Hahaha…”
By the end, he was like a madman.
The Li family’s spirits—wounded and enraged—churned with resentment so heavy it manifested. The sight of their appearance terrified everyone in the courtyard.
Official Yu flicked her fingers, and a sliver of golden light shattered the darkness.
The Li family spirits instantly regained their senses.
She spoke calmly. “Rest assured, I will ensure he turns over a new leaf.”
As she spoke, she tossed a Dream-Entering Talisman at Li Qing Miao. The talisman adhered to his forehead, and he suddenly froze in place as though immobilized. His eyes closed, and he appeared to fall asleep.
Miss Wei and Madam Zhang asked nervously, “Official, what happened to him?”
“Hmm, let’s just say… he got exactly what he wanted.”
The talisman’s power resembled the Hundred-Dreams Trap used by the evil cultivator earlier. However, unlike the deadly technique, this one didn’t harm its target. Instead, it created a dream that reflected the deepest desires of the person’s heart—but in their most genuine form.
And so, Li Qing Miao became a mediocrity.
With his memories intact, he returned to the Li family. Back then, everyone in the family was still alive.
When Li Qing Miao turned three and began his early studies, the teacher quickly deemed him lacking the aptitude for academics. Instead, his elder brother was declared a prodigy. This pronouncement led to a rather welcome outcome for Li Qing Miao: he was promptly dismissed from the school.
Although the Li family was relatively well-off, as a farming household, their resources were only sufficient to support one child’s education. If they had lived in Sheng’s Capital, they could have sent their children to Joseph Academy for free. However, the Li family resided thousands of miles away from Sheng’s Capital. Moreover, Joseph Academy of today was not the same as it had been a century ago.
A hundred years prior, Joseph Academy struggled to gain acceptance among the aristocracy due to its progressive ideals, leaving it accessible only to children from impoverished families. Most of these children had to assist with farm work and could not spare the time for formal education. Back then, while there was a desire for learning, the tangible promise of food far outweighed the distant dream of scholarly success. As a result, the academy initially struggled to enroll students, with fewer than a hundred in its inaugural class.
Now, however, everyone from noble elites to commoners competed fiercely for spots in the academy, making admission unattainable for most.
Having achieved his wish of avoiding school, Li Qing Miao should have been delighted. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, he felt a twinge of unhappiness. He quickly dismissed the feeling, reasoning that he had long desired this outcome. With these thoughts, he happily returned home.
His parents, upon learning of his lack of aptitude, did not reprimand him. Instead, their joy shifted to his elder brother, the newly recognized prodigy. Their delight mirrored the day they had once celebrated Li Qing Miao as a budding scholar. That evening, they prepared a feast, slaughtering two chickens and buying a pound of pork for the occasion.
Meanwhile, his elder brother basked in the praise of others, his face nearly glowing from the constant compliments. Li Qing Miao observed the scene coldly, inwardly thinking, “Just wait a few years; you’ll see how tough it really is.”
Ironically, it was not his elder brother but Li Qing Miao himself who first realized the meaning of hardship. Farming life was grueling.
At three, while he was spared from heavy labor, he still had his share of chores. In a farming household, as soon as a child could walk, they were expected to contribute. Those too young for strenuous tasks were put to work pulling weeds, catching bugs, feeding chickens, or foraging for wild vegetables on the nearby hills.
Each day at dawn, he and his siblings climbed the hills to gather greens and hunt for insects. Occasionally, he joined the adults in weeding fields. During the busy harvest season, when every hand was needed, even he, a little sprout, was brought along to glean fallen grains.
The first year passed in a haze of hard work and routine. Li Qing Miao felt some regret, though not overwhelmingly so. The tasks were manageable once he adapted. Still, he couldn’t help but keep an eye on his elder brother, hoping to catch a glimpse of his struggles.
To his dismay, his brother never complained. On the contrary, after returning from school, he often taught their siblings how to write and do arithmetic. The younger ones admired him greatly, their eyes sparkling with reverence.
Watching this, Li Qing Miao felt a pang of jealousy. Why did everyone’s attitude toward him consist of incessant demands to “work hard, study diligently, and achieve scholarly success to bring prosperity to the family”? Yet, when it came to his elder brother, it was all, “Wow, Big Brother, you’re amazing!”
But soon enough, Li Qing Miao had no time to dwell on jealousy. As he grew older, the workload increased. By the age of twelve or thirteen, children in the village were expected to take on the heavier responsibilities of farming. Tasks included composting, clearing new plots, planting crops, harvesting, and even trekking to larger villages to trade goods while carrying burdens on a shoulder pole.
Each chore was grueling in its own way, leaving Li Qing Miao utterly exhausted by the end of every day.