Li Guangzong said he was fourteen, but he was fifteen after the New Year, so he was actually two months away from turning fourteen. In modern times, he would still be in the third grade of junior high school. However, the men in the Li family had good genes and were all tall. Li Da, Li Er, and Gu Zhao were between 1.83 and 1.85 meters tall, not to mention Zhou Zhou from his family.

　　Li Guangzong, who is not even fourteen yet, is about the same height as Zhou Zhou, probably about 1.8 meters.

　　But no matter how tall he was, like an adult boy, he was not a real adult after all. He walked back from the prefecture and county in the severe cold and snow. According to Li Guangzong, he opened the back door before daybreak and sneaked out with the night incense cart.

　　Because my uncle said, ‘If it doesn’t work, just use a board to straighten it out.’

　　Li Guangzong was frightened and gestured to his mother, “I’ve seen that board before, it’s this thick and this wide, and they’re going to use it to hit me.”

　　”Li Zhengren, you’re the one who will have no descendants. Li Er, take a good look at this. This is your good brother. Ugh!” Liu Huaxiang cursed loudly after hearing this. She felt sorry for her son. “Good job for running. Guangzong was smart. Otherwise, he would have died in that wolf’s den with a rotten belly.”

　　Liu Huaxiang cursed again and again, and touched the wound on her son’s face with heartache. As soon as she touched it, Li Guangzong said it hurt. Liu Huaxiang knew that it was Li Zhengren’s wife who did it, and her teeth were chattering, “Damn it! A rotten-hearted and black-bellied bitch, she was so cruel, Li Er, look at what our Guangzong’s face has become after being beaten by that rotten-bellied bitch!”

　　”Tomorrow I’ll hitch a bullock cart to the prefecture and county, and I’ll go there in person to scratch that bitch’s face.”

　　The cursing was deafening in the main room, but Li Er didn’t refute and just listened. He knew that they should be cursed.

　　Li Zhouzhou lit the stove and boiled a pot of brown sugar ginger water. It was ready now. He filled a large jar and brought it over, saying, “Guangzong, drink some ginger tea first to get rid of the cold. Don’t catch a cold.”

　　”Yes, yes, yes, drink it first, my son.” Liu Huaxiang took the cup and saw that the liquid was still boiled with sugar and ginger slices. She felt grateful to Li Zhouzhou in her heart.

　　Li Guangzong took a sip of water in his arms, not caring that it was hot. Liu Huaxiang was frightened and said it was too hot and asked him to drink slowly. Li Guangzong started crying while drinking and said, “Mother, sweet ones are better. I can’t eat enough and I’m hungry all day long, and I still have to work. When I’m hungry, my aunt says I eat too much and asks me to drink more water to fill my stomach…”

　　Liu Huaxiang was about to cry when she heard this, and she kept repeating to herself, “My poor son, what a vicious woman!”

　　”Li Er, listen carefully. How much food did our family give Li Zhengren every year? What happened? Guangzong couldn’t even fill his stomach. What did Li Zhengren promise? What did the old lady say? We sent food there for the sake of eight cents per liter of rice. I smiled and offered my ox cart, and said I would settle accounts with Guangzong and give him a job in the prefecture and county in the future. What happened now?”

　　”For so many years, we have produced so many bags of rice every year, pounding them cleanly, and yet our Guangzong is short of food?”

　　Liu Huaxiang felt a lump in her chest and couldn’t let it out.

　　The more Li Er listened, the more his face turned pale.

　　Gu Zhao looked at Li Guangzong’s appearance and thought that it might be true that he was punished and went hungry, but there must be a trigger for him to run back before dawn this time, right?

　　”Guangzong, why did you get beaten?”

　　Li Guangzong shrank back and buried his head in drinking the brown sugar ginger tea in the jar.

　　”If you don’t explain clearly, your parents will find out when they go to the prefecture and county tomorrow.”

　　Li Guangzong raised his face from the jar, sobbing and crying, “I didn’t mean it. I was so hungry. They eat meat at home, and grandma gave all the meat to my cousins. I was beaten for picking up meat. I was really hungry, so I wanted to… steal money.”

　　Li Guangzong didn’t dare to make up this story.

　　During the slack farming season in November, Li Er and his family delivered grain. Not only was the journey tiring, but they also had to sleep outside the city gate at night. They were afraid that strong men from the nearby villages would steal the grain, so they didn’t dare to sleep too deeply. The soldier guarding the city gate opened the gate early in the morning and let them in after paying the money.

　　Li Zhengren didn’t come to pick him up either. Li Er was clearly here to deliver food, but every year he looked like a poor relative who went to Li Zhengren’s house to beg for money, and he was always looked down upon and ridiculed. The whole family had a sense of superiority in their words and deeds, and looked down on Li Er and Liu Huaxiang, who were just country folk.

　　In the past, they had said that Li Guangzong was too young to learn anything, and that they would send him back in a few years. This year, Li Er and Liu Huaxiang did not want to wait any longer. They were not stupid. Guangzong was already fourteen years old, and it was the fifteenth day of the lunar year. If he did not learn, would he marry a wife and go to the prefecture and county? So they took Li Guangzong with them.

　　Li Zhengren from the prefecture and county was also a smart man. When he saw his second brother and his wife bringing Guangzong here, he took the initiative to offer to stay and teach him first. The couple was very grateful and asked for a hundred less coins when they paid the grain money. They hoped that Li Zhengren could teach Guangzong well and not hide anything, so that Guangzong could live a good life here.