Lin Yu’s voice echoed in Su Ming’s mind, “No! Absolutely not! We need to lay low! We must lay low! The nail that sticks out gets hammered down! The bird that takes the lead gets shot first! Have you forgotten the survival principles I taught you?”

“But, Master…” Su Ming silently retorted in his heart, “This is an opportunity.”

“An opportunity? This is a fishhook! Dangling delicious bait while hiding a deadly net underwater!” Lin Yu spoke with heartfelt distress, “What kind of place is Qingshi Town? Crowded with people and prying eyes, filled with all sorts of characters! Going there would be like delivering ourselves to the enemy! What if we encounter a sharp-eyed cultivator who sees through my existence? We’d both be instantly refined into a pair of tragic lovebirds with our souls scattered to the winds!”

Su Ming was momentarily stunned by his outburst.

“Then… should we forget about it?”

“Forget about it?” Lin Yu’s tone suddenly shifted, becoming conflicted, “Just giving up like that seems… not quite right either.”

He fell into an internal struggle.

“Maintaining the status quo keeps risks controllable. Disadvantages: trapped in this dead-end situation, resources drying up, slowly dying. This is called the ‘conservative waiting-for-death strategy.'”

“Breaking the stalemate might bring contact with new resources, new information, and obtaining the ‘Child Scholar’ title as a low-level social identity for camouflage. This is ‘risky strategic investment.’ Disadvantages: unknown risks multiply dramatically, could lead to instant death.”

Lin Yu’s soul drifted restlessly within the ring.

“Damn it, my choice paralysis is acting up.”

He suddenly stopped: “I’ve got it! Our goal isn’t to become the most dazzling genius, but to become the ‘most reliable, most obedient, most trustworthy’ one in Teacher Zhou’s eyes! We need to make him feel that choosing you won’t bring brilliance, but will absolutely never bring mistakes!”

“Master, what should I do?”

“From now on, you need to show ‘eagerness’ for this opportunity, but also display ‘lack of confidence’ in your own abilities.” Lin Yu began his directorial career, “You need to work harder than before, but when asking Teacher Zhou questions, focus on the more basic ones. You need to make everyone, including Teacher Zhou, see you as a ‘clumsy uncut jade’ that needs a master’s guidance to shine!”

“Understand? What we want isn’t stunning talent, but the highest evaluation of ‘proper attitude’!”

That evening, the atmosphere at the Su family dinner table was unprecedentedly tense.

The news that Teacher Zhou was selecting people to go to town had already spread throughout the entire village.

“Little Ming, do you want to go?” The first to speak was Second Brother Su Yang.

Su Ming nodded, then shook his head, keeping his head down while eating.

“If you want to go, then fight for it!” Eldest Brother Su Feng, who had been silent until now, suddenly spoke with a steady, powerful voice, “Our Su family has never produced a scholar!”

Wang Chuntao didn’t speak, but placed a large portion of vegetables into Su Ming’s bowl.

Su Shan put down his wine cup, his cloudy eyes looking at his youngest son: “Don’t worry about the money.”

After dinner, Su Feng pulled Su Yang to a corner of the yard.

“Second brother, empty words are useless. A round trip to town, plus necessary expenses, will cost at least one tael of silver. Father’s savings can’t cover that.” Su Feng looked toward the dark mountains in the distance, lowering his voice.

Su Yang nodded: “I know. I’ve saved three hundred copper coins over the years, but that’s far from enough.”

“Tomorrow, come into the mountains with me.” Su Feng’s eyes turned sharp, “We’ll go deeper. With good luck, if we hunt a musk deer or dig up some valuable medicinal herbs, that should be enough.”

“Eldest brother, the deep mountains are dangerous.”

“Dangerous or not, we have to go!” Su Feng patted his younger brother’s shoulder, his tone leaving no room for argument, “For Little Ming, it’s worth it!”

Their conversation was very quiet, but every word clearly reached Su Ming’s ears as he stepped out of the house.

He leaned against the doorframe, his body feeling somewhat cold.

So those two spots weren’t just about academic competition—they carried the weight of one tael of silver behind them.

That was something his two brothers were going to risk their lives to obtain from the mountains.

He returned to his room, closed the door, and stood in the darkness for a long time.

“Master.”

Lin Yu’s voice lacked its usual laziness, carrying a rare seriousness, “Foolish, so foolish! This is typical high-risk, low-return primitive capital accumulation! Gambling with their lives—if they fail inside those mountains, any future prospects become worthless!”

He drifted restlessly within the ring space, his soul form becoming somewhat unstable.

“I want to get that spot.” Su Ming’s voice was soft, but each word felt carved in stone.

Lin Yu fell silent.

He could feel that something within this kid had been ignited.

“Ah, damn family warmth, it always interferes with my ‘Heartless Great Dao’ teaching.” He sighed inwardly, “Forget it, forget it, consider this an additional emotional investment in my retirement insurance project.”

Su Ming lay on the cold earthen bed, eyes wide open, completely sleepless.

“Right now, there’s nothing you can do.” Lin Yu’s voice grew heavy, “The only thing you can do is turn their ‘investment’ into tenfold, hundredfold returns. Sleep now, conserve your energy for tomorrow, and play your part well.”

Su Ming closed his eyes, but the words “For Little Ming, it’s worth it” echoed repeatedly in his mind like a brand.

As dawn barely broke, movement could be heard in the yard.

Su Ming dressed and went out to see Eldest Brother Su Feng already carrying his bow and arrows, with a firewood knife at his waist. Second Brother Su Yang was checking a cloth bag containing dry rations and a water pouch.

Mrs. Chen, her eyes red-rimmed, stuffed two boiled eggs into Su Feng and Su Yang’s bags: “Be careful on the road, don’t go too deep, come back early if you can’t find anything.”

Wang Chuntao stood by the door, her lips moving slightly, finally only saying: “Husband, come back soon.”

Su Shan squatted on the doorstep, smoking his pipe one puff at a time, his face obscured by swirling smoke.

Su Feng said to his parents in a deep voice: “Father, Mother, don’t worry.”

The brothers’ figures soon disappeared into the morning mist.

Su Ming stood in the yard, his fists clenched so tightly that his nails dug into his palms.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep