FIELD OF GOLDS VOLUME 1

CHAPTER 26-30

Chapter 26 – Reputation

Old Yu took another serving of the eggplants sauteed with garlic. Because his teeth had started to fall out of his mouth, he liked eating soft and tender foods like the stir-fried eggplants. Unconsciously, he devoured about half the plate of eggplants by himself.

After hearing Yu Hai’s opinion, the old man, satisfied by the meal, naturally didn’t stint on his praise. “Yes, yes! The taste is indeed very good! Our family’s Xiaocao has talent, her hand at cooking is better than her mother’s. Xiaocao’s mother did a good job raising her. There’s a well known saying——the student has surpassed the master. Third Son, is that how it goes?”

Old Yu was quite proud of the phrase he remembered and thought quite highly of himself. He held his beard out of the way as he sipped a mouthful of wine and smacked his lips in pleasure. Our Yu Family is quite cultured!

“Father, you said it perfectly. However, Xiaocao’s dishes were all stir fried with oil. Our family usually only boils vegetables with some salt. There’s no fat added, so of course it’s not as delicious as vegetables stir fried with oil. In the future, our family should continue cooking vegetables this way!”

After finally eating a satisfactory meal at his family’s house, the third son, Yu Bo, was in a good mood and topped off his father’s glass.

Old Yu shook his head after he heard what his son said, “You should know your mother’s personality. If we bought pork every day to make lard, it would hurt her stingy heart more than cutting her flesh directly would!”

At this point, Yu Hai interjected, “We don’t need to use lard, vegetable oil could be used instead. Didn’t our family save some dried soybeans from last year? We could bring them to the oil mill in exchange for some soybean oil for cooking. The food cooked with the oil should still taste good.”

If they used soybeans as the trade instead of money, maybe his wife would be more willing? Old Yu carefully calculated the possibility of his wife agreeing to this.

When Yu Bo saw how happily everyone at home was eating the food cooked with oil, he considered their circumstances again. Choked with emotion, he couldn’t help but set down his chopsticks and urged his father quietly, “Father, if other people found out that our family found it too much of a burden to even get a bottle of soybean oil for the sake of my education, can I still in the academy anymore? Would no one actually expose this? Father, please advise mother to not be so stingy. There are already people at school who are gossiping behind my back...”

Scholars valued their reputations the most. Yu Bo had already heard bad rumors about himself, such as: ‘He lives in a large manor in town, eating and drinking good food, while his parents and siblings back home have to count how many pancakes made with coarse grains they could eat for each meal...’. His main goal in coming back this time was to persuade his mother to stop being a miser for the sake of his reputation and to stop the rumormongers from discrediting him. However, as her son, he was very familiar with Madam Zhang’s temperament. Therefore, he could only talk about it with his father and have him discuss the situation with his mother.

The old woman always wished she could spend half a copper coin for something that cost one. She was stingy to everyone in the family, including herself, and always restricted how much food people could eat. His second son’s children were all on the brink of starvation with their bone-thin frames and their unsteady gaits...but, for the sake of his youngest son’s education, Old Yu usually turned a blind eye towards his wife’s miserly ways.

However, if her thriftiness was starting to impact their son’s reputation, then it could no longer go on! Their youngest son had the fate to become an official, and it would be a disaster if his wife’s penny-pinching ways caused his son to lose that chance. Old Yu came to a resolution and decided he needed to talk to his wife about the situation.