So, faced with such a straightforward grandfather at home, Chad Sullivan naturally spoke frankly: “Grandfather, I’m not used to people around me being changed. Besides, Luoxia is only sixteen; let her stay for two more years, and let her marry at eighteen. By then, I’ll be older too, and I can personally pick a good man for her, marrying her off as if she were my own daughter.”

“You’re still so young, talking about marrying off a daughter—if she were a few years older, she could be your mother!” Old Master Sullivan laughed so hard he bent over, his large fan-like hand ruffling Chad Sullivan’s head several times, and then, rarely, he started quoting literature.

“When there are few people, one admires one’s parents; when one knows desire, one admires the young and beautiful; with a wife, one admires the wife; as an official, one admires the ruler; if one cannot please the ruler, one becomes restless.”

Seeing Chad Sullivan blinking his eyes, Old Master Sullivan smiled and asked, “Do you know what that means?”

The old man was rarely in the mood to talk about the classics, so Chad Sullivan naturally wouldn’t spoil the mood. He cooperatively shook his head: “I don’t know.”

“When a person is still young, he reveres his parents; when he grows up, he learns to pursue young and beautiful girls; after having a wife and children, he becomes infatuated with them; after becoming an official, he tries to please the ruler; if he can’t win the ruler’s favor, he becomes anxious inside.”

As Old Master Sullivan spoke, he slapped his thigh and shouted, “I’ve never liked Mencius. There’s another half to this saying, about how Shun among the Five Emperors was so loyal and filial. In my opinion, that’s pure nonsense. But just the first few lines—those are words of true wisdom!”

“So, you brat, the fact that you can speak up to me today about keeping someone means you’ve barely grown up.”

Old Master Sullivan let out a long sigh, then suddenly asked an entirely unrelated question: “What do you think about what your aunt just mentioned?”

Chapter 8: Grandfather and Grandson

Chad Sullivan glanced at Ethan Sullivan, who stood by Old Master Sullivan’s side like a shadow, and said without hesitation, “I’m not going. I want Uncle Ying to teach me.”

Old Master Sullivan was momentarily stunned, then burst out laughing, pointing at Ethan Sullivan: “You want Xiao Ying to teach you? Do you know how many characters he can recognize?”

“I know Uncle Ying can help Grandfather organize the bookshelves, copy book lists, put books back in order when they’re mixed up, and buy identical new copies to replace damaged ones. If he can do all that, Uncle Ying must be able to read and write. As long as I can read and write, that’s enough. There are so many books in Hè Míng Pavilion—if I finish them all, I’ll be better than Grandfather was back in the day, right?”

After three years of flipping through books in Hè Míng Pavilion to pass the time, and from eavesdropping on the old man and Ethan Sullivan talking, Chad Sullivan had at least caught a glimpse of what the world was like these days.

The current emperor has been on the throne for forty years. In the first twenty years, his edicts were often pushed back by officials, he had to look to ministers’ faces to promote his concubines, and no one would cook what he wanted to eat—he had to endure everything.

The most tragic part was that, of his two empresses, the first was chosen by the empress dowager. After much difficulty, both the empress dowager and the empress died, but when it came time to choose another, the ministers still made the decision. As a result, the consorts gave birth to four princesses, but none of the sons survived, so he had to adopt a son from the imperial clan as his own.

But in the next twenty years, after losing another empress, the emperor fought the aristocratic families and the scholar-officials on one hand, and painstakingly cultivated grassroots talents like Old Master Sullivan on the other, all while working hard in the palace. He finally managed to have a son of his own, now just seven years old, just like he was.

However, the world did not become peaceful and prosperous just because the emperor regained some power and finally had a son. Banditry and unrest continued everywhere, and there were even incidents of rebels seizing county seats. The aristocratic families and the scholar-officials despised each other, their conflicts deepening. There was even a shocking case where an entire county magistrate’s family was wiped out, a case still unsolved to this day.

The old man’s official rank grew higher, but his job became ever more difficult. Rather than hoping to become an official through study, starting at the lowest ranks, it would be better to first learn martial arts from Ethan Sullivan for self-protection!

If the world really falls into chaos, what use is a scholar who can’t even truss a chicken?

At first, Old Master Sullivan was all smiles, but as he listened to Chad Sullivan’s words, his smile gradually faded.

Looking closely at the little one he had watched grow up, he suddenly felt that, without him noticing, the child who used to tug at his beard when held in his arms had already grown up.

After a moment of silence, this old man, who stood at the top of the Sullivan household and was a decisive figure in court, suddenly slapped the armrest and said, “Good boy, you’ve got some ambition—actually want to compete with me!”

Just as Chad Sullivan thought the old man would most likely agree, Old Master Sullivan’s next words were not what he expected.

“That day I let it slip, and now there’s a crowd outside laughing at me for having a house full of children and grandchildren, yet bringing home a grandson to raise. If I hand you over to Xiao Ying to teach, am I raising a grandson or a bodyguard? I’m not like those military generals who claim to adopt a bunch of sons, but they’re really just recruiting personal guards!”

Old Master Sullivan ignored Chad Sullivan’s dumbfounded expression and said with some emotion, “Back when I was just a shop assistant, I was lucky enough to learn to read from my father-in-law, Mr. Baker. Later, he not only married his daughter to me, but also got me a job as a treasury clerk. I was lucky to catch my teacher’s eye, and that’s when I really started studying. My teacher spent twenty years before finally passing the imperial exam as a jinshi, and died as nothing more than a county bailiff, but in my eyes back then, he was already a remarkable man.”