In February, the late winter chill was biting.

Xiliu Village was perpetually shrouded in a thin mist during winter, with a constant, drizzling rain. He Shuba was walking home along a small path, carrying a fresh perch.

Just as he reached the bare pear tree, the door creaked open, and a small, furry head poked out from behind the doorframe.

Upon seeing him, Jiang Shi’s large, dark eyes instantly lit up. His voice, like his mother’s, had a slightly sticky quality between his lips and teeth. Even at eight years old, it still had a milky, childish tone.

“Dad, what did you bring back?”

He Shuba shook the fish in his hand. “A perch. Your uncle caught it from the reservoir this morning. I’ll make steamed perch for you tonight.”

A hand reached out from the doorframe, grabbed the tiger-head hat on Jiang Shi’s head, and pulled him back inside. “What are you doing peeking at the door? You’ll let all the warm air we’ve painstakingly built up escape.”

The little child wasn’t afraid of the cold, but Jiang Xuesheng was terrified he would catch a chill. She had wrapped him in three inner layers and three outer layers. He was wearing the new clothes bought for the New Year, bright red, making him look like a walking red lantern.

Jiang Shi’s small hands and feet were stuffed inside the thick clothes. Faced with Jiang Xue’s demonic claws, he wanted to struggle, but could only manage to stick his hands out with difficulty. He kicked his legs. “Mom, Dad’s back! He brought back a huge fish.”

“Back, so what…” Jiang Xue said irritably. “He might as well just live at your uncle’s house, playing cards all day. I don’t know how many of their peanuts he’s eaten.”

He Shuba, who had just stepped over the threshold, heard this and guiltily touched his nose. “Well, it’s boring, isn’t it? It’s so cold, and there’s nothing else to do.”

Jiang Xue rolled her eyes. “Then you can’t just go to someone else’s house every day. Even if you’re not tired of it, they are. If you like playing so much, tell Jiang Shi’s uncle to have people come to our house. I’ve braised a pot of edamame, it’ll be perfect as a side dish for your drinks.”

So, He Shuba stood obediently at the door and listened to her.

Jiang Xue used tongs to poke at the firewood. “Are you hungry? I roasted some potatoes. You can eat…”

Before she could finish, the door, not properly closed, was blown open with a gust of wind.

“He Shuba, you’re going to be the death of me, you can’t even close a door properly…”

Jiang Shi came running from the main hall, wobbling as he carried a bucket. He placed it in front of He Shuba with a thud. “Dad, put the fish in here, or it’ll die.”

Jiang Xue said, “Your son has a lot more sense than you do.”

He Shuba closed the door, put the fish in the bucket, and ruffled Jiang Shi’s head. “Little Xue, I’ve told you before, you need to speak more gently. Shi is still so young, what if he picks up your bad habits?”

“Nonsense,” Jiang Xue said. “Look at my son, isn’t he perfectly well-behaved? Where has he learned any bad habits? I think you’re just using your son as a shield.”

Jiang Shi went to tug on Jiang Xue’s clothes. “Mom, am I well-behaved?”

“You are. Mom will peel a big potato for you.”

Jiang Shi said, “Then can I go out to play? Gao Xinhe keeps asking me to go out and play with him.”

He had just recovered from a cold two days ago, and fearing he’d be exposed to the wind, Jiang Xue hadn’t let him go out. Jiang Shi felt like a little caged bird, peering through the crack in the door every day, longing for the free world outside.

Jiang Xue was still reluctant. “It’s still raining. What’s so fun about playing outside when it’s all wet? Be good and stay home by the fire.”

Jiang Shi blinked, his large, watery eyes welling up with tears. “The day before yesterday, you clearly told me that as long as I wasn’t coughing, you’d let me go out to play. You lied to me.”

“Aiya…” Jiang Xue scratched her face. “I was just…”

The little radish boy threw himself into He Shuba’s arms and burst into tears.

The only educated person in the family, He Shuba, said helplessly, “Little Xue, as parents, we can’t go back on our word. Shi is still young, what if he picks up bad habits?”

Jiang Xue pinched him. “Always with the ‘picking up bad habits.’ It’s not that easy to pick up bad habits. Look around the whole village, who doesn’t praise our little treasure for being handsome and polite?”

She glanced outside. Seeing that the rain had stopped, she began to waver. Before she could say anything, she heard a loud voice shouting at the door.

“Jiang Shi! Jiang Shi! Let’s go out and play!”

Gao Xinhe, with snot on his face, pushed the door open. Seeing the fair and tender Jiang Shi, he sniffled and wiped his face with a grimy sleeve.

“Auntie, I came to ask Jiang Shi to come out and play.”

Jiang Shi looked at her pitifully. Jiang Xue found it hard to refuse. “Xinhe, have you eaten? Would you like a potato to take with you?”

Gao Xinhe sniffled. “Okay.”

The two little radishes sat by the fire. Gao Xinhe said to Jiang Shi, “I begged my dad to buy me a really pretty marble. It’s colorful. When I was playing with it yesterday, Liu Sheng snatched it.”

Jiang Shi’s eyes widened. “He snatched your things?”

Speaking of this, Gao Xinhe wanted to cry again. “Yes. It rolled over to his side at the time. Cheng Zong saw it too. Liu Sheng clearly picked it up, but he denied it, and Cheng Zong also said he didn’t see it. It makes me so mad.”

Jiang Xue gave them a large potato. “What are you two whispering about?”

She instructed, “Jiang Shi, you’re the older brother, don’t bully him. Also, you two, don’t go playing in the water.”

Jiang Shi held the potato. “Got it, got it…”

He dragged Gao Xinhe out the door.

It was chilly outside. He gnawed on the potato, getting several streaks of ash on his face. “Jiang Shi, I heard them say they’re going over there to play.”

“I told you, what are you supposed to call me when we’re outside?”

Gao Xinhe was reluctant. “Our teacher said, in the new China, everyone is equal…”

Jiang Shi held the potato in one hand and reached into his clothes with the other, fumbling around until he pulled out a piece of candy that He Shuba had given him for the New Year. “Look what this is.”

Gao Xinhe’s eyes instantly lit up. “Where did you get candy?”

“Never mind where. Just tell me if you want it or not.”

“King Jiang Shi…” Gao Xinhe said pitifully, “Can you give me a piece of candy…”

“Your heart isn’t sincere at all…” Jiang Shi held the candy up high. “You have to kneel down, like in the TV shows, and say ‘Long live King Jiang Shi, I beg you to give me the candy’.”

Gao Xinhe, who had been long oppressed by the little tyrant Jiang Shi, had no dignity to speak of. He found a relatively clean patch of hay, knelt down with a thud, raised his hands high, and shouted, “Long live King Jiang Shi, I beg you to give me the candy to eat!”

Jiang Shi grunted in satisfaction, placed the candy in Gao Xinhe’s palm, and looked up to see a boy carrying a basket climbing up the small road, looking at the two of them with a rather speechless expression.

Gao Xinhe popped the candy into his mouth before getting up. He sidled up to Jiang Shi and said in what he thought was a very quiet voice, “Cheng Ye is here. Let’s run.”

Jiang Shi snorted again. “I’m not afraid of him.”

He stood with his hands on his hips, blocking Cheng Ye’s path. “What are you looking at? This road doesn’t belong to you.”

The boy in front of him lifted his dark eyes, his gaze sweeping over his fair and tender face, then lowered them and turned to walk towards the field beside them.

The ignored Jiang Shi: “…”

“What’s he being so arrogant for?”

Gao Xinhe said, “He’s really good at fighting. Even Liu Sheng can’t beat him, and he has a bad temper. King Jiang Shi, we’re no match for him.”

Jiang Shi said, “He is challenging my authority as the top dog of Xiliu Village.”

Then, he stomped his little leather shoes and followed Cheng Ye into the vegetable patch.

Cheng Ye was younger than him but looked taller. He was just too thin, and his clothes were very flimsy. On such a cold day, a little kid like him was squatting on the ground, cutting the green leaves of radishes to feed the pigs.

Jiang Shi’s spotlessly clean little leather shoes got covered in mud. He stormed over to Cheng Ye. The boy cutting pig feed paused and turned his head up.

“What do you want?”

Jiang Shi’s heart skipped a beat when he saw his dark green eyes. “What do you mean what do I want… I’m just walking my own path. Does this land belong to you, not even letting people walk on it?”

Gao Xinhe said, “This land really is his family’s.”

Jiang Shi grabbed a handful of radish leaves and threw them at him. “Whose little brother are you, anyway?”

Gao Xinhe was also afraid of Cheng Ye. If Cheng Ye suddenly attacked and beat Jiang Shi black and blue, his mother would beat him black and blue when he got home.

“My king…” He went to pull Jiang Shi. “Let’s go. It’s not fun here at all. Let’s go play hopscotch.”

Jiang Shi’s eyes darted around. In what he thought was a very quiet voice, he said, “Didn’t Liu Sheng snatch your marble? Let’s get him, the three of us can definitely beat Liu Sheng.”

Gao Xinhe said, “His little brother follows Liu Sheng around like a shadow. How could he possibly help us?”

Unexpectedly, Cheng Ye spoke up. “I can help you.” He said, “But you have to wait until I finish cutting the pig feed.”

“See…” Jiang Shi said, “He has been awed by my kingly aura.”

He held his potato and waited for Cheng Ye to finish cutting the pig feed. As he waited, he became fascinated by the large radishes buried in the ground.

The little tyrant Jiang Shi was used to being imperious. He opened his mouth and shouted at Cheng Ye, “Pull me up a radish to eat.”

Cheng Ye ignored him.

“Gao Xinhe, you go hit him.”

Gao Xinhe: “…”

Jiang Shi circled the large radish he had his eye on, holding the potato in one hand and grabbing the radish leaves with the other. He pulled, and pulled harder… his tender little hands were stained green by the leaves, but the radish didn’t budge.

He looked at Cheng Ye, who was beside him putting a bundle of radishes into a basket, and said, “Cheng Ye, I’ll give you a potato if you pull up a radish for me.”

The potato in his hand was really big, and it was still radiating heat after all this time. Jiang Shi’s small hands could barely hold it from the bottom.

“My mom just roasted it. It’s super fluffy. If you pull up a radish for me, I’ll give you this.”

He had always been bathed in his parents’ love and never knew there was other suffering in the world. He only knew that after he said this, the little boy in front of him stared at the potato in his hand for a long time without moving.

“Really?”

Anyway, Jiang Shi didn’t want to eat it.

“Why would I lie to you?”

So Cheng Ye bent down and pulled it out for him. The radish was plump and watery, large and covered in mud.

“Use your sickle to peel it.”

Cheng Ye peeled it for him again.

Jiang Shi gave him the large potato and reached out to take the peeled radish.

As soon as Cheng Ye got it, he stuffed a bite into his mouth.

Jiang Shi dragged Gao Xinhe to go find weapons.

Eventually, he found a large stick on the side of the road, about as thick as his arm. “We’ll use this. I guarantee we’ll beat Liu Sheng until he pees his pants.”

Gao Xinhe just thought Jiang Shi was really brutal.

After Cheng Ye finished his potato and cut the pig feed, the three of them went to the big banyan tree.

From a distance, they saw a group of people playing hopscotch. Jiang Shi held the radish in one hand and dragged the wooden stick in the other. As he walked on the stone slabs, the stick scraped along with a clattering sound.

Gao Xinhe walked beside him. “Maybe we should just forget it. There are so many of them.”

Jiang Shi gave him a shove. “Can’t you have some guts? Do you want your marble back or not?”

Gao Xinhe sniffled. “I do…”

Jiang Shi stuffed the radish into his arms. “Later, I’ll use the stick to sweep his legs out from under him. Then you rush over and pin him down. Cheng Ye… Cheng Ye, you go and strip his clothes off and get the marble back.”

Cheng Ye, who was following behind them, didn’t say anything. It was unclear if he had heard.

Jiang Shi didn’t care. He dragged the stick and charged.

He ran over in a flash and started shouting before he even got there, “Liu Sheng, you shameless little thief!”

The few little radish-heads were only in the first grade, but Liu Sheng was a third-grader, a big kid. No one dared to mess with him.

As soon as Jiang Shi spoke, he immediately drew everyone’s attention.

From the day he was born, Jiang Shi had always been the prettiest kid in Xiliu Village. With his red lips and white teeth, and Jiang Xue keeping him clean every day, when he stood there, he looked like a child deity from a TV show.

Jiang Shi was used to acting cute. In front of adults, he was incredibly well-behaved. But behind their backs, he was a real little tyrant.

The person everyone dared not provoke the most was Liu Sheng. The second was Jiang Shi.

They genuinely didn’t dare to provoke Liu Sheng. As for Jiang Shi, it was unknown how much of it was due to his face.

Because of his cold, Jiang Shi hadn’t been out to play for a long time. Now, standing there in his bright red new clothes, he looked even more like a New Year’s doll hanging on a door.

Several girls gathered around.

“Jiang Shi, Jiang Shi… is your cold better? Your mom is letting you out now?”

“Jiang Shi, Jiang Shi… we’re going to play house later. Do you want to be the dad?”

“Jiang Shi, Jiang Shi…”

Jiang Shi put on a straight face. “Can’t you see I’m busy with important matters?”

Liu Sheng pushed a few girls aside. “What do you want?”

You still have the nerve to ask what I want?

Jiang Shi brandished the large wooden stick and pointed it at him. “Tell me, did you steal Gao Xinhe’s marble?”

Liu Sheng said, “Which eye of yours saw me steal his stuff? Besides, I have plenty of marbles. Why would I steal his?”

Gao Xinhe hid behind Jiang Shi. “You clearly stole it. I begged my dad to buy that marble for me. It’s colorful. I looked, nobody else has a colorful marble, only me.”

A girl said, “I just saw Liu Sheng playing with a colorful glass marble. Is that yours?”

Liu Sheng’s expression finally changed. He said shamelessly, “How is it that I stole it? I clearly found it. I didn’t take it from his person. How is finding something on the ground called stealing? If Gao Xinhe treasured it so much, why did he drop it on the ground?”

Jiang Shi had never met such a shameless person. He swung the stick at him then and there.

Liu Sheng was knocked to the ground by the stick, landing hard on his bottom. Before he could get up, Jiang Shi threw the stick aside and lunged at him with open arms.

When Gao Xinhe saw this, he also lunged.

When the girls who wanted to play house with Jiang Shi saw this, they also lunged.

Cheng Ye, who had just rolled up his sleeves: “…”

The scene became chaotic. In the confusion, Jiang Shi reached out and grabbed Liu Sheng’s hair. “Give back the marble!”

Liu Sheng opened his mouth and spat at him. “Ptooey!”

Jiang Shi was stunned, then his eyes widened in anger. “Liu Sheng! You’re dead today!”

Liu Sheng truly was the strongest king of the kids in Xiliu Village. With so many people pinning him down, he actually managed to flip them off. He looked at Jiang Shi. There were too many of them for him to fight, so he turned and ran.

Jiang Shi grabbed a handful of mud from the ground and threw it at him.

Liu Sheng was also stunned, then he grabbed a handful of mud from the ground and threw it back at Jiang Shi.

Jiang Shi’s clean clothes were already dirty from rolling on the ground. After being hit with mud, they were a complete mess.

He got up angrily to grab more mud, even balling it up in a small puddle nearby to make a mud pie. “Liu Sheng, eat my Dragon-Subduing Eighteen Palms!”

Liu Sheng also grabbed mud. “I, Mountain-Toppling Sea-Overturning!”

“Striking the Cow Across the Mountain.”

“Lingbo Weibu.”

“…”

Cheng Ye: “…”

The few of them got into a mud fight. It’s not known which girl started crying first, but soon there was a chorus of crying.

Cheng Ye walked over, grabbed Jiang Shi by the collar, and pulled him out of the crowd. Jiang Shi was still flailing. “My Six-Meridian Divine Sword, my One-Yang Finger, I poke, poke, poke…”

Then a shriek: “An adult is coming!”

Jiang Shi turned his head to look. “Gao Xinhe, your dad is here!”

Gao Xinhe burst into tears with a “wah.”

Jiang Shi hurriedly went to pick up his greatsword from the ground. “What are you standing there for? Run, or we’re both dead.”

Saying this, he grabbed his stick with one hand and Cheng Ye with the other, with a crying, open-mouthed Gao Xinhe following behind.

They only stopped when they had run to a riverbank where no one could be seen.

His hat was gone, revealing the spiky short hair that He Shuba had cut for him. His face was dirty, and his whole body was too dirty to look at.

Gao Xinhe finished crying and was sniffling on the side. “My king, what do we do? My dad will beat me to death when we get home.”

Jiang Shi said nonchalantly, “He didn’t see us. Just say you never went to the big banyan tree.”

Gao Xinhe: “Oh right, boss, you’re so smart.”

Cheng Ye looked at him as if he were an idiot.

It was Jiang Shi who squatted by the river, looking at his reflection with some worry. “My clothes and pants are all dirty. What if my mom sees when I get home?”

Cheng Ye thought to himself, you don’t even need to go home. Jiang Shi’s mom probably already knows what he did.

Gao Xinhe suggested, “My king, why don’t you take off your clothes? We can wash them by the river, and then wear them back after they’re dry.”

Jiang Shi: “Good idea!”

Cheng Ye opened his mouth. “Wait, you…”

Before he could finish his sentence, Jiang Shi had swiftly pulled off his jacket and thrown it into the river with a “swoosh.”

“…”

The jacket caught on some water weeds and swayed for a moment. Just as it was about to be carried away by the water, Cheng Ye bent down and picked it up.

He said helplessly, “It’s the middle of winter. How is it going to dry?”

Jiang Shi said, “We can just start a fire and roast it dry.”

Cheng Ye: “…”

What else could he say?

Jiang Shi said again, “Gao Xinhe, I helped you fight Liu Sheng just now. You wash my clothes for me.”

Gao Xinhe was unwilling. “But that water is too cold.”

So, the little tyrant Jiang Shi put his hands on his hips and glared at him. “Are you washing it or not?”

Gao Xinhe resignedly went to wash Jiang Shi’s clothes.

Jiang Shi then said to Cheng Ye, “You go start the fire.”

Cheng Ye: “…”

In the end, the fire was lit, and the clothes were rinsed in the water. The three little kids squatted by the river, warming themselves by the fire.

The firelight reflected on Gao Xinhe’s red little face. “My king, let’s go steal some sweet potatoes to roast.”

Jiang Shi was tempted, but he restrained himself. “The teacher said we can’t steal things. If you steal, wouldn’t you be the same as Liu Sheng?”

“Oh…” After thinking for a while, Gao Xinhe said, “Then I’ll go get them from my family’s field. That’s where my family grows sweet potatoes. I saw my mom dig a pit there to store them.”

King Jiang agreed.

King Jiang’s greatsword became the tool for digging the pit. Unfortunately, his and Gao Xinhe’s strength was too little. In the end, it was Cheng Ye who couldn’t stand it anymore. “Let me do it.”

He looked thin, but he was very strong. In just a few tries, he had dug them out. The three of them returned to the riverbank with a pile of sweet potatoes.

The job of roasting the sweet potatoes naturally fell to Cheng Ye.

As the sky grew dark, Jiang Shi squatted by Cheng Ye’s side, anxiously pacing. “Is it ready yet, is it ready yet?”

Cheng Ye used a small wooden stick to poke one out and pressed it. “Not yet, wait a little longer.”

Jiang Shi said, “It’s already black.”

“It’s not cooked even if it’s black.”

Five minutes later, “Is it cooked yet?”

Cheng Ye: “…”

“No.”

Another five minutes, “I’m going to starve to death. I can smell the sweet scent. It must be cooked.”

Cheng Ye poked out the smallest one and pressed it. The outside was soft, but the core was still hard.

He said, “Do you want it half-cooked? You’ll fart after eating it.”

Jiang Shi: “Hahahaha… I want to eat the one that makes me fart, so I can fart and stink you all to death!”

Gao Xinhe: “I want to eat the one that makes me fart too!”

Cheng Ye: “…”

The Jiang family’s child was the most delicately raised in all of Xiliu Village. Most kids of a few years old were like Gao Xinhe, with snot flying from their faces, but Jiang Shi was different. He was always fair and clean wherever he went. In the middle of winter, he didn’t even have the high-altitude blush from the cold, just a natural pink flush from his own skin tone.

Perhaps his delicate upbringing was deeply ingrained. Cheng Ye thought for a moment, then peeled the sweet potato in his hand and handed it to him.

Jiang Shi held the sweet potato, hissing from the heat.

Only when it wasn’t so hot did he open his mouth and take a big bite, and then…

His expression froze.

Cheng Ye looked over at him.

He saw the little glutinous rice ball with a dirty face, his eyes welling up with tears. Suddenly, he spat out the mouthful of sweet potato.

Cheng Ye looked down and saw that the sweet potato was stained with blood.

His heart jumped. Seeing Jiang Shi open his mouth as if to vomit, he panicked and reached out to catch it. “What’s wrong?”

Jiang Shi spat out a bloody tooth. It was a tiny little one, lying quietly in the palm of Cheng Ye’s hand.

Cheng Ye was stunned.

Jiang Shi was also stunned, and then he burst into tears with a “wah.”

“Waaah!!! Dad!! Mom!! The sweet potato bit my tooth off!!!”