Bai Chun groggily wakes up before dawn the next morning to Tao Chun snuggling up to him, her long hair spread out on the bed and hanging slightly off onto the floor. He carefully climbs out of bed without waking her since he kept her up late the previous night. He pulls on a white cross collar hanfu and pulls on a somewhat elegant blue jacket. He then fixes his hair up in a simple bun, then after grabbing the most recent books they are studying walks out the room.
Standing at the door waiting Tao Fang and Li Bai were waiting on him. Tao Fang smiled at him and handed over one silver and twelve copper.
"Good morning Zhangfu this is for school fees and food." She said
"Zhangfu." Li Bai said softly bowing to him.
Bai Chun smiled while putting the money away. He gives the two a kiss before leaving. Tao Fang and Li Bai wave him off.
While walking up there Bai Chun read his scroll to study more. At the gate he hands over the two copper fee and walks to the school. Outside the gate a carriage pulls to a stop and a elegantly dress boy steps out. He had on a soft white hanfu with a blue jacket over the top. His hair sat in a high bun with a hat on top covering his face from the sun.
The boy stepped to the ground and looked up after gazing around his eyes locked onto Bai Chun and he smiled as he approached him.
"Brother Bai." He said with a smile. Bai Chun gave him a polite bow.
"Brother Huang."
Huang Hao is his friend who is from the Huang family a merchant family. Huang Hao is the eldest son and on track to take over the family business but he wants more out of life. So he is studying to become an official and will use his family as his backing due to the money coming in.
"Where have you been? You've been out for like two weeks now." Huang Hao asked curiously.
"You know Min Qiang has been saying its because you didn't have enough money to pay tuition." Huang Hao said with a frown.
"Oh that's not it my village head arranged for me to marry his second daughter as my Qizi." Bai Chun explained. Huang Hao raised his eyebrow as they entered the school.
"Oh? You haven't even passed the exam yet and they are already scheming?"
Bai Chun chucked
"Don't even ask I even brought two concubines in the next day after my wedding."
Huang Hao opened his eyes wide.
"What? The next day? That's three women before you even start earning a salary." He said shocked. Bai Chun sighed tired and Huang Hao patted his shoulder consoling him.
"You don't even know the half of it." Bai Chun said sounding tired just from thinking about it.
"What happened?" Huang Hao asked.
"One of my concubines is the elder sister of my Qizi." Bai Chun said watching as Huang Hao's face froze before shock was shown.
"What? How? She wasn't married yet?" He asked him. Bai Chun shook his head.
"No, but I don't know why but she seduced me and her parents were involved." Bai Chun said said. Huang Hao opened his eyes wide in shock.
"Wow, your in-laws were involved?" He asked. Bai Chun nodded his head as they stopped in front of the teacher.
"Bai Chun your back." He said with a frown. Bai Chun frowned at his words since he knew this teacher felt like anyone poor will never pass the exam, so it's a waste of time to teach them.
"Teacher I was out to get married but here is the school fees." Bai Chun said bowing while handing over a silver. He grabbed the money with a hum and put it away.
"Off to class it will start soon." He waved them off with a huff. Bai Chun and Huang Hao glanced at each other and walked off after bowing to him.
"Ugh I can't wait for the exam so we can rank then he won't be able to be so rude." Huang Hao said quietly. Bai Chun shushed him and glanced back.
"Be careful with your words." Bai Chun said softly as they entered the classroom.
"What's that smell?" A boy with a orange hanfu with his hair up tied with a orange cloth sat with a smirk. Bai Chun's face darkened at the sound of his face. This boy is Min Qiang the fifth son of the Min family, a low ranking noble family. Because unless at least two or three of his older brothers die it's unlikely for him to inherit he is studying at the school to get a rank of his own.
"Oh it's the blood smell from our little hunter." Min Qiang said with a cold smirk. Next to him sat Huang Hao's thirteen year old brother Huang Fu who started laughing at his words. Huang Hao frowned.
"Second brother mind your manners." He said which made Huang Fu frown.
"Well why hasn't he left school yet? He is stinking up the room with blood and poverty." Huang Fu said with a haughty smile while glancing at Min Qiang to make sure he liked what he said. Min Qiang smirked at his words while raising his eyebrows at Bai Chun.
Even though he wants to say something Min Qiang is still a noble at the end of the day so he keeps his mouth shut. Bai Chun gives him a bow and walks to sit down. Huang Hao annoyed also bows and follows him to sit.
Not long later the teacher enters the room with a frosty expression.
"Today we will review popular poetry and with the exam coming in about two and a half weeks I hope you all have been practicing your calligraphy." He said glancing at the poor students in class making Min Qiang and Huang Fu chuckle. With that classed started and went on for the whole morning.
As they walked out Bai Chun's shoulder was bumped by Min Qiang and Huang Fu as they walked past laughing.
"Ugh, I will talk to our Fuqin when I get back home about how he is acting." Huang Hao said with a eye roll. Bai Chun chuckled.
"No need I just need to work hard and I will quickly out rank him especially since he doesn't actually study."
"No, no, I will tell my Fuqin so he can get punished it will put him in a bad light with Fuqin even more." Huang Hao said smirking. Bai Chun laughed and stopped before his carriage.
"Well I will see you tomorrow." Bai Chun said smiling and bowing. Huang Hao smiled and waved him off casually.
"See you then." He climbed into his carriage and it drove off.
Bai Chun then walked over to the food street and bought a meat bun for ten copper and left town to home. While walking he ate his bun and read the scroll.
When he entered the gate he saw Li Bai kneeling in the dirt.
"Zhangfu!" She called out surprised. Bai Chun walked over and kissed her cheek avoiding the dirt on her face. She blushed a bit at the feeling his lips.
"What are you over here doing in the dirt?" He asked.
"Zhangfu, sister Qizi told me to prepare the ground for the garden." She said softly her face dropping as she spoke. Bai Chun noticed but didn't say anything.
"Hmm well I will go inside." He said patting her head in comfort. As he left her eyes flashed with happiness and slight obsession. Before Bai Chun could enter the house Tao Fang and Tao Chun peek their heads out.
"Zhangfu!"
"Zhangfu!" They call excitedly rushing over hovering around him. He smiled at the giving them a kiss on the cheek. Li Bai saw this and smiled at the small movement knowing what he was doing.
With a huff Bai Chun sat down looking at the two girls. They immediately got worried.
"Zhangfu what happened?" Tao Fang asked. Bai Chun sighed again at her words as everything that happened at school flashed through his mind.
"How much money do we have?" He asked instead.
"Five silver and eighty-six copper." She said, while looking at him questioningly.
"I need the five silver for school fees." He said quickly after another sigh. Tao Fang opened her eyes wide in shock at his words. Tao Chun just frowned before speaking.
"Excuse your servant Zhangfu, your servant can embroider to help bring in some money besides Zhangfu's hunting income." She said offering to help tied them over. Bai Chun smiled and nodded in approval. Listening to them Tao Fang started to calm down from her shock.
"Sorry Zhangfu your servant just panicked." She said sadly. Bai Chun patted her head to soothe her.
"It's fine you are still young like me we have no elders so we must learn alone and as fast as possible." He said. With a sniffle she hid her face by wiping her eyes forcing them to be red before looking up with a pouting face.
"Well Zhangfu the fowls you caught should start laying eggs soon so we can sell those for more money." She said softly while looking down a calculating glint flashing through her eyes. Bai Chun smile dotingly and kisses her forehead.
"We can do that."
At that moment Li Bai walked in wiping her wet hands and face with a course cloth looking confused seeing Tao Fang's red eyes and Tao Chun glaring at her.
"I will go hunting and sell what I get." Bai Chun announced while going to get changed. He quickly left not long later.
"What happened?" Li Bai asked confused.
"Ugh, our beautiful sister Qizi here was crying about being too young." Tao Chun said sounding annoyed. Tao Fang smirks at them and lightly touch's her hair.
"Oh? I have no clue what Sister Tao Chun means." She said happily. Li Bai watched them feeling annoyed since they always argue like this but she doesn't bother to say anything because they always gang up on her.
"Anyways our Zhangfu is taking five silver for the exam leaving us with only eighty-six copper, so we were working on ways to increase the amount of money coming in." Tao Fang explained annoyed. Li Bai immediately looked worried.
"If this servant hadn't run away this servant could have brought money in when this servant married and even sold my dowery." She said sadly remembering what happened with her parents. Hearing what she said Tao Chun huffed.
"Sister Li Bai is right your a burden on this family, just an extra mouth to feed." Tao Fang also huffed and frowned looking at Li Bai. Li Bai just looked down sadly without saying anything. Lately she's been feeling sad everyday with such a big change in her life, with running away from being a concubine to be a concubine.
A flash of anger goes through her eyes hidden from view. She hates these two siblings that always suppress her. She thought of how they always give her all the harder tasks and pick up the easy jobs when Bai Chun was coming back. She quickly hid her expression before looking up thinking she will find a chance to get back at them.
It was dark when Bai Chun came back home adding twenty-five copper to the pouch leaving them at six silver and nine copper. He quickly changes and sits at the set table to eat.
"Well with our current struggle to make sure we have money in the house this servant won't hand out any allowances." Tao Fang said proudly. Li Bai subtly rolled her eyes since there wasn't much going on allowance wise anyway. Tao Chun frowned but didn't say anything since she thought of the plan with her to suppress Li Bai more. She noticed that Bai Chun seemed to start favoring her so they needed to stop that.
Hearing her words Bai Chun gave her an approving gaze, thinking he was gonna sleep with Li Bai but changed his mind and decided to go with Tao Fang. Everyone slowly finished eating. Once done and everyone stood up Bai Chun glanced at Li Bai before wrapping his arm around Tao Fang's shoulder's.
Seeing them leave Tao Chun looked even though this was the plan.
"Sister Li Bai you got the clean up after dinner right?" She said angrily and left before she could say anything. Li Bai slowly cleaned up with a dark look in her eyes questioning why she is treated like a maid. Then her mother flashed through her mind and she wondered if she would give her advise before quickly waving the thought away.