novelraw Chapter 67: Taking Liu Po as a Godmother
Chapter 67: Taking Liu Po as a Godmother
"As they say, strangers the first time, friends the second. I won't hide anything from you."
"I imagine you've probably already guessed something about my family's situation. Back in the day, my father was also something of an official in the county seat, eating the emperor's grain and wearing official boots. Later he offended a noble he shouldn't have, fled with a murder charge hanging over him, and took me and my mother into hiding in the mountains."
"Although this matter happened many years ago, the authorities never rescinded the wanted notice. My father doesn't dare show his face in public, afraid of being recognized by someone who knew him. That's why he had me come out to sell medicine on his behalf."
"This time when I went back, my father said I was old enough and couldn't keep wandering in the mountains. I need to find some way to get a clean identity, go study at the county academy for a few years, absorb some culture, and maybe in the future I could even marry a girl from a respectable family..."
"Your father is a man of insight. What he says is very reasonable."
Li Qiuchen spoke with convincing reason. The old shopkeeper nodded repeatedly, his inner suspicions completely gone.
He had previously suspected Li Qiuchen wasn't from any proper background. It wasn't as if Blue Stone Platform had no mountain guests coming and going. Why would his family send a child out to show his face? Moreover, looking at this manner of speaking and courage, this wasn't a child that ordinary families could cultivate.
Now hearing Li Qiuchen's explanation, he finally understood.
That's right. Ordinary families couldn't say things like this.
Only people who had seen the great world knew the importance of nurturing the next generation through education.To study, there was a private school in town, but the school's teacher had been taken away a while back along with everyone else. Rounded off, it was equivalent to having nothing.
Going to the county to study, a clean identity was indeed a threshold.
This threshold wasn't particularly high, but if you tried to falsify things and later caused trouble outside, when the authorities investigated and traced back, you'd face being implicated.
Squire Zhao and the various local worthies of Blue Stone Platform were taken away exactly like that.
Regardless of whatever connection they had with those evil practitioners, the evil person making such a big scene in town without anyone promptly reporting it was already a crime.
If it had been anyone else asking, this kind of favor the old shopkeeper absolutely would not help with no matter what.
His own ass wasn't clean yet. Could he afford to care about others?
But this child... he was giving too much.
A child in his teens who wanted to study and improve himself, what was wrong with that?
The old shopkeeper sucked on his pipe for a long time thinking, then lowered his voice, "The Zhao family has a large population, but also many eyes and ears. It's also right in the middle of troubled times. It's easy to get you in, but once you're in, it might give some people all kinds of ideas."
"I heard you're currently staying at Liu Po's place. Liu Po has a fierce personality and is also protective of her own. How about you take her as a godmother?"
Li Qiuchen hadn't not considered this direction. Liu Po's side was easy to handle. Actually, Liu Po had a hundred percent favorable impression of him and had long had this idea in her heart. It was just that Li Qiuchen was someone who didn't lack money and had his own ability to support himself, so she found it a bit hard to bring up herself, afraid outsiders would think an old woman was coveting a child's money.
After Liu Da returned, drinking at the dinner table, he also wanted to pull Li Qiuchen into a sworn brotherhood, but was politely declined by Li Qiuchen.
Taking a godmother was no great difficulty but what Li Qiuchen wanted was a clean, flawless legal identity that no one could find fault with.
Just the Liu Po side wasn't enough. At least the old shopkeeper here knew his real background and needed to be brought into the loop.
"Can a godparent relationship count as family? Will the county recognize it?"
"Taking a godmother now would definitely not count, but it can be framed differently."
The old shopkeeper knocked out the ash and leaned forward to say quietly, "Liu Po has now emerged as a spirit medium and has a bit of a reputation. We can tell outsiders that when your mother was pregnant with you, the family was haunted by evil spirits and couldn't find peace. Later they invited Liu Po over, and while you were still in the womb she took you as a godchild, using her name to suppress the evil spirits. Now you've grown up and come back to repay her kindness, paying respects to her... doesn't this all hold together perfectly?"
Li Qiuchen was overjoyed, "I think this works!"
The Great Chu's official legal system was very well-developed and strict, but it also respected local traditional customs in matters of sentiment and reason.
For example, betrothal before birth. If both parents agreed and it was widely known, then when deciding cases the authorities would by default recognize the two parties as husband and wife.
Another example was adopting godparents, taking godfathers and godmothers.
If the relationship was formed after coming of age, it could only count as a private relationship and the authorities wouldn't recognize it but if the child was quite young, or even still in the womb, the authorities would recognize the familial relationship when deciding cases.
In the north, there wasn't actually a widespread custom of finding godmothers for children, but it couldn't be said to be completely nonexistent either.
One particularly special situation was when children in their early years were disturbed by evil spirits for various reasons and took an immortal family as a godparent. The immortal family would protect them through a safe childhood, and after growing up they would in turn pay respects to the immortal family.
The reason the old shopkeeper raised this idea was because many years ago, Yun County had truly seen such a case of ingratitude.
The person who took a godmother was surnamed He. As a child, he had taken a Spirit Elder Sister Hu as his godmother. After growing up, studying, and becoming an official, he turned his back and refused to acknowledge her. Not only did he not pay respects to Elder Sister Hu, he even stomped the memorial tablet his family had erected for her to pieces.
Elder Sister Hu was also a fierce one. She filed a lawsuit with the authorities, saying he was unfilial and ungrateful. After the authorities investigated and found the situation to be true, they stripped this person of his academic credentials and sentenced him to three years in prison.
This case was later adapted into a yangge opera, sung and spread across the land.
The case itself didn't matter. What mattered was that for Li Qiuchen, he could use this method of taking a godmother to reasonably and legitimately obtain a legal identity that the authorities wouldn't care about or investigate further.
In the old shopkeeper's view, there was absolutely no need for this. You were going to study, not to raid the place... you really weren't going to raid the place, were you?
Li Qiuchen, however, was single-mindedly pursuing stability.
Daily self-examination three times: stable? Not stable? Be even more stable?
The Great Chu Empire's social order was quite stable, running smoothly for several thousand years. At least up until now, Li Qiuchen hadn't seen any signs of a dynasty in its final dark and corrupt days.
With the overall environment this stable, you still wanted to seek excitement... were you trying to be the one to disrupt the overall environment?
Taking Liu Po as a godmother wouldn't cost five hundred taels of silver.
Li Qiuchen returned home and explained the matter. Liu Po was overjoyed.
In these times, who would mind having more men in the family? Moreover, this child had been living in the household for these days and she had seen his character plainly. Besides spending money freely, he had no other faults. Crucially, the person had his own abilities, so that wasn't a problem at all.
The old shopkeeper had a point. The Liu family was simple in its members, nothing like the complex Zhao family.
If you went to establish kinship with the Zhao family at this time, in the Zhao family's eyes you'd be someone coming to divide the inheritance.
Waves would be stirred up even without wind.
The Liu family had none of these complications. Liu Po was satisfied, and Liu Da was also very happy. He wasn't one to mind having more brothers in the family. He only wished his own father hadn't died so young. Struggling alone outside without even a helper, and his second brother was a useless wimp who couldn't be put to any use.
Of course, with matters like this, Second Brother had to be found and informed.
Liu Er was the type whose three whacks couldn't produce a single fart. Since his mother agreed and his older brother and sister-in-law agreed, he just nodded along with everyone.
The family ate a warm and lively meal together, and just like that, the matter was settled.
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