Struggle in Ancient Times

Liao Tingyu calmed down and said, “It’s okay. I’m not an unreasonable person. In my eyes, parents must love their children so they would honour their parents. These are mutual thing. Both of you have good value of friendship and kindness. You can send your children to my house after I settle down in the town. As for the salary, we will talk about later, okay?”
It was normal for a teacher of Qingshan Academy to accept students outside the school. This habit was formed from the past where the merchant family would send their children with gifts to the teacher’s house and let them taught by the teacher. Later, people were more invested in the Qingshan Academy and the teacher only accepted if they needed extra money.
The two friends looked at each other and felt this matter was done.

Yang Shu took the tea he prepared for Liao Tingyu to bring back, “These are the new tea. They taste very good, Liao-xiucai could drink it on his free time.”
Not to be left, Zhang Yi took a small box; inside was a clear jade pendant, “Liao-xiucai, I prepared this, please don’t dislike it.”
Liao Tingyu looked at the things, as a small people, he couldn’t hold himself back. He didn’t the hobby of drinking tea, but this tea seemed to be expensive and the aroma was really good. He glanced at the jade pendant, it was a crystal clear in colour and must cost a bit of money. So, he calmly accepted the gifts.

Liao Tingyu thought these people were really good. In this era, where filial piety could blind everyone, they still had righteousness and didn’t mourn in self-pity. Instead, the fought back to live better life.
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On the way back, Liao Tingyu thought a lot. Although everything here was very similar with the ancient China; there was a little different. He felt like a freshwater fish trying to swim inside the ocean. He felt lonely and suffocated.

Sometimes, he remembered Mother Deng and Liao Ming worked so hard for him and he thought of his own parents in his own modern world. His mother was a strong and wise woman and his father was indecisive person. They were different people but they both loved him.
Every time Mother Deng was nice to him, he couldn’t accept it and wanted to pay her back ten times. He felt it must be ignorant of him to refuse Mother Deng’s love and kindness, but he couldn’t ignore the pain in his heart.
When Mother Deng brought all the good things for him, he wanted to tell her that he wasn’t her son and she shouldn’t be so kind to him. But he couldn’t say it. He knew the consequences; he might destroy this family and someone might want him dead for occupying this body.

He kept telling himself to ignore that feeling, but he was suffocated; there was a hole inside his chest, that woman wasn’t his real mother. It would be good if he was a person without father or mother, he wouldn’t have to pretend every day like this.
He must work hard to be rich and paid back all the loves from Liao family that didn’t belong to him. He wanted to have his own path, he couldn’t go back to the future so he wanted to have a wife and children who loved him.
People were always dissatisfied with life and wanted to have more and more. But they should take things slowly as they come, there was nothing good in rushing.

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At night, Liao Tingyu hugged his quilt and cried silently. He looked at the bright moon outside his window, he felt really sad.
This moon wasn’t the same like in his hometown. The moon like back there wasn’t bright and white, it was pale yellow from the pollution.

“I miss you, Mom.” With a sudden sadness and nostalgia, Liao Tingyu whispered lowly.
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The sun would rise the next day and chased away the moon. Just like a sadness, it would come someday but it would leave our mind in no time.