Qingyun Prefecture of Xuanyang Continent and the Central Plains, Linhai Prefecture across the river, this river is called the same river, it originates in the vast mountains of Donglin Prefecture, through countless tributaries to nourish the land on both sides, but also benefit many creatures along the river, but the people living in the villages and towns along the coast love and fear it, and sometimes hate it to death.

There are times when the seemingly slow-flowing water of the same river is angry, and about every 1,000 years or so, a huge overflow of the river will burst, so that the places near the river have become water towns, and it will take a long time for the flood to recede. And every few decades or a hundred years or so, there will also be medium-scale floods, because the time of the outbreak is difficult to predict accurately, whenever it happens, there will be mourning all over the wilderness, villagers along the river are displaced, if the flood breaks out at night, the drowned corpses will be everywhere on the water, very sad and miserable.

Although the various government offices along the river have been repairing and reinforcing the embankments every year, the river still has little effect when the river water comes. Whenever the flood occurs, the towns close to the Tongjiang River will send people to collect the victims and help them as much as possible, because the two sides of the Tongjiang River are the main grain producing areas, so they cannot completely give up, before the water has receded, adults are arranged to work near the town, and children go to the nearest Xuanyang School or Xuanyang College branch to learn literacy and literature.

Most of the people in the Xuanyang Continent are literate, and almost everyone can go to school, but because of the difference in their family status, the length of study is different. Such a high literacy rate is due to the Xuanyang Academy, the tuition they charge is very low, and the reading atmosphere in the Xuanyang Continent is relatively good, if there is no accident, most children will enter the school to study.

The weather was fine that afternoon, and the sun was shining on the earth from time to time through the clouds, which made people feel very comfortable. But in Linjiang Town, Central Plains Prefecture, the situation in the school of the Xuanyang Academy branch is a little not good, two groups of schoolchildren about ten years old are arguing fiercely with each other about something, on one side are three little boys, wearing satin clothes, chubby, at first glance are children from well-off families; on the other side are five, wearing cloth clothes, some clothes have a lot of patches, they are all orphans displaced by the flooding of the river, these three men and two women are from Nandi Village, this village has been flooded by the same river many times in history, this time they are lucky to escape in a big wooden barrel, but their families have disappeared in the boiling river, not only five of them escaped from the same villageThe rest of the villagers were arranged in the nearby villages, the children entered the village school, and the adults did what they could in the village, and several of them were orphans who had lost their relatives, and they were taken care of by the town lord of Linjiang Town until they were twelve years old, and they had to go out to work as apprentices to earn a living after the age.

The quarrel was caused by the three little fat men, because Mr. Liu checked the schoolwork, they did not pass, and were punished to copy the words that they had not memorized a thousand times, when the three of them were at home, the schoolwork had their own servants to do the work, and they could not write a few words, but today they were asked to finish writing before the end of class in the afternoon, and they were not allowed to go home if they did not finish writing, obviously Mr. Liu was very angry this time, and two or three schoolchildren who were punished with them were writing hard.

After the three of them were tired of writing for a while, they didn't want to write anymore, so they took advantage of the time when Mr. went to rest, and after muttering and discussing for a while, he walked to the table of the two little girls among the five, and the one standing in the middle put the paper in his hand on the table and said, "Give us a copy of it, copy it well, and I will reward you." As he spoke, he took out a string of copper coins from his arms and shook them in front of the girls, "See, eighty, when the time comes, you can also change into a new set of clothes, beautiful, and pleasing to the eye, don't wear these tattered clothes anymore, follow the three of us in the future, do things for us, and make sure you don't suffer." When he said this, his eyes twinkled a little, and when he had finished speaking, he put the copper coin into his bosom, and the two girls saw his cunning eyes and said in unison, "We will not copy it!" ”

"What? Don't copy it!" He took out the string of copper coins from his bosom and jingled them around, "If you don't make any money, you won't make money?"

"Our future work will be arranged by the town lord's mansion, you don't count. ”

"That's right, you don't count what you said, do you want to bully people?"

"When the water recedes, we will go back to the village, who rarely works here. One of the three boys spoke, and the other two followed.

"Hehe, it's only been more than ten days and I don't know, I'll introduce you to you, this" The boy on the left stretched his fat hand forward slightly, pointing to the middle who just led the speech, "It is the third son of President Wei of the Linjiang Town Chamber of Commerce: Wei Jucai Wei Gongzi", and his hand pointed to the right "That is the son of Vice President Zhang: Zhang Yunjie Zhang Gongzi" and then pointed to himself and said, "The contemptible person is the son of Vice President Qian, Qian Gang is also, you work ......"

"What's the matter? You can still have the final say on whether you work or not, and what kind of ghost show do you want to play. Said a boy who was clearly strong in the back seat.

"Wang Haitao, you dare to help them!"

"Fat Wei, do you want to do it again..."The stout boy had already stretched out his hand and gestured in the posture of a ring ruler beater.

The three of them shrunk their necks slightly, and stepped back, as if they had been beaten before, Wei Jucai didn't say anything, turned around and approached the other two, and then they whispered and didn't know what to say, and then he turned around and glared at the five people fiercely, then returned to their respective desks and began to write, the five schoolchildren also looked angrily when Wei Fat Man stared back, and did not show weakness, and when they saw that they were no longer looking for things, they also returned to their respective places to sit and read books.

After more than half an hour, Mr. Liu came back and said, "If you haven't finished writing, stay behind, and go home after school." ”。 At this time, the boy who led the speech among the five people beckoned to the other four, they quickly packed up the pen, ink and paper and walked out of the school, and the five of them were waiting at the gate of the courtyard, and after a while, they saw Wang Haitao come out, and they greeted them.

"Brother Haitao, thank you this time. ”

"Chengru, don't be so polite, Wei Jucai and they will bully the newcomers, Zhao Lan and Zhou Juan refused, that's right, even if you copy it, those people will find all kinds of reasons not to give money, and if they copy it for them, they will also attract the punishment of Mr. I also made such a scene when I first came, hehe, guess what happened in the end?"

"What's the matter?" said the five children, in unison.

"It's too coincidental to say, when they asked me to write on my behalf, they were heard by Inspector Chu who was passing by outside the door, and then they were called out directly by Lord Chu, and when the school was about to end, the Inspector, Mr. Liu, the others, and their president's father came to Mr. Liu's desk, and Inspector Chu told the ins and outs of the matter, and announced in public that whoever made such a mistake as them in the future would be given twenty rulers, and then in front of all of us, each of them was beaten twenty rulers as punishment, and after the beating, he said to the others: ' If you repeat it, the punishment will be even more severe: you will be expelled from the school. When their father heard this, he repeatedly promised that he would not do it again. ”

"It's really a lot of teaching. ”

"I think the last time I played was still too little. ”

"It's just that the skin is itching again......

Everyone was talking, Feng Chengru interrupted them and said: "Let's wait a while, Brother Haitao, before coming here, the people from the town lord's mansion told us that after we reach the age of twelve, we will no longer care about our food, clothing, and accommodation, and we will decide whether to work, return to the village, or go to school in the future, if we work in the town..."

"Yes, Brother Haitao, if they work in the town, will they..."

Wang Haitao said: "You don't have to worry too much about this, their parents are indeed the presidents of the Chamber of Commerce, but that is only the president of the Carriage Dealers Chamber of Commerce, as long as you don't go to work in the carriage shop, it is not a big problem." ”

"Fortunately, it's just a carriage shop, but if it's a grain shop, it's terrible, because the family went to the city to sell grain, and they were saddened by the grain merchants. Sun Dashan, whose complexion was a little dark, said,

"Yes, Brother Dashan, I have also encountered difficulties at home. Zhou Juan, who was slightly thin, echoed,

"No one in our village has ever encountered this. Li Xing'an next to him also interjected,

"There's another thing that made the couple almost forget, my father said last night that everyone will come to my house for lunch at noon tomorrow and fight tooth sacrifices. ”

"Brother Haitao, this..."Feng Chengru just said half a sentence,

"Don't say anything, you must come, tomorrow is a day off and there are no classes, I will come to the academy in the morning to pick you up." ”

"Okay, I'm causing trouble for you and Uncle. ”

"It's not troublesome, in fact, my dad really wants to see you. ”

"Uncle, you really want to see us?"

"You'll know when you go, let's go first. ”

"Okay, Brother Haitao will see you tomorrow. ”

After Wang Haitao walked away, Feng Chengru said: "Let's go, let's go to the canteen to eat first." ”，

"Well, go," the rest responded.

When they entered the kitchen, "Aunt Zheng", "Aunt Zheng", "Aunt Zheng", a few little guys scrambled to shout, "Hey, hey" Aunt Zheng, who was brushing the pot by the water table, wiped the water on her hand with a cloth, turned around and came to the stove, took out a large bowl of vegetables and a number of miscellaneous grains from the cage drawer, and brought it to the dining hall and put it on the table, "It's still hot, come and eat" beckoned to them while talking, and then went busy with their own business, and the five took chopsticks and sat down at the table to eat.

"Brother Chengru, that's all they did about bullying Sister Juan and Sister Lan? Didn't Brother Haitao say that if they commit it again, they will be punished more severely? Let's tell the inspector. Sun Dashan said angrily while eating,

"Yes, why don't we tell the inspector!" Zhou Juan and Zhao Lan also said angrily,

Li Xing'an said: "We can't just say it. ”

"Can't you find Brother Haitao to testify?" Zhao Lan answered,

Li Xingan said again: "What happened to him last time, this time it is not easy for the inspector to believe it by letting Brother Haitao testify." ”

"Then other people's words can always be believed by adults!" Sun Dashan seemed to be very unwilling and continued,

"Brother Chengru, you have to say something!" Zhou Juan said,

Feng Chengru was silent for a while and then said: "Think about it, at that time, Brother Haitao spoke for us alone, except for the other classmates who bowed their heads to write and read, none of them stepped forward to speak, and I want them to testify for us, I don't think it will be possible, I think this will be written down in advance, if they dare to provoke Sister Juan and Sister Lan again, let's find a way to treat them, what do you think?"

"Okay, listen to Brother Chengru" Everyone seemed to have pondered the taste and agreed together.

After they finished eating, they went back to the men's and women's halls, and after the three boys entered the door, they said, "I'm really holding my breath today! "Sun Dashan is still a little unrelenting,

"I think it's true that you want to teach them a lesson for Sister Juan, right?" Li Xingan joked,

"You kid has a mouth, don't you? I can suffocate you if I don't speak!" Sun Dashan didn't show weakness,

"Brother Chengru, what are you thinking?" Xing'an asked Feng Chengru without taking care of the mountain,

"I'm wondering why Uncle Wang invited us to dinner, but I don't have a clue right now. ”

"If you don't have a clue, don't think about it, you'll know tomorrow anyway. "The mountains are open to see,

"Okay, I don't want to, review my homework for a while, and rest early. Feng Chengru said helplessly.

"Well, well, let's read a book for a while," the two responded.