Chapter 57: Fighting

This young man was an apprentice in the shop. Li Si knew him, his name was Zhang Shaocong, and he was also Zhang Jingcheng’s son.

Zhang Shaocong was about fifteen or sixteen years old, with somewhat dark skin. On his face were three scars, running from his nose across his cheek to his neck, which could be considered disfiguring.

From the original owner’s memories, Li Si knew these scars were from when he was young and teased a cat, cornering it in a room. The cat, driven to desperation, angrily scratched his face hard, leaving these three scars.

At his age, he should be preparing for marriage, but many girls in town knew Zhang Shaocong was disfigured and were unwilling to marry him.

Of course, another reason was that the Zhang family could only be considered moderately well-off, not a wealthy family. Because Zhang Jingcheng’s family had run a pharmacy for generations with affordable prices, they earned less money, only living slightly better than ordinary families.

This was also why Li Si had only smiled and shaken his head at Zhang Jingcheng’s earlier lie, without making an issue of it. Although Zhang Jingcheng had some minor cleverness and a gossipy nature, he was absolutely a good person.

At this time, Zhang Jingcheng came over, smiling at Li Si and saying, “Young Master Li, I’ve packed the medicine for you. There are nine doses in total, one dose per day. If you feel much better, stop using it. This small jar contains blood-clotting ointment, just apply it to the wounds. Remember, it’s best not to get the wounds wet today.”

“Thank you very much,” Li Si smiled in gratitude, took the medicine, and walked out the door towards his home.

He looked at the sky. It was just noon, so he planned to go to a restaurant to eat some dishes. He was already feeling quite hungry.

As Li Si was walking towards the restaurant, he suddenly heard noisy sounds.

“Fight!!!”

“Yu Hu, use more strength!!!”

“Put more effort into it!!!”

“…”

Li Si raised his eyebrows slightly. The voices sounded quite young and childish.

Curiosity aroused, he followed the sound and finally found the source in a secluded alley.

He saw a group of children surrounding the area, constantly shouting, while in the middle, a chubby boy and a thin, weak child were fighting.

However, the two children were now at a stalemate, as they both had their arms tightly locked around each other’s throats. The chubby boy was clearly stronger, and the thin child’s face had turned red.

Li Si knew both of these children. The chubby one was Yu San’s son, Yu Hu, the one who had fought with Xiao Duan before. True to his name (which means “tiger”), he was very fierce and often caused trouble.

As for the other one, named Sun Zhi, he was a child from a nearby farmer’s family and had also studied at Li Si’s house.

At this moment, some children had already noticed Li Si, and they immediately exchanged glances and fell silent together.

Unfortunately, Yu Hu and Sun Zhi were still grappling fiercely and hadn’t noticed anything unusual.

It wasn’t until two hands grabbed their ears that they realized what was happening.

“Oh, fighting quite intensely, aren’t we? Why don’t you two separate and start over? It’s no fun grappling like this!” Li Si said in a teasing tone, pinching both their ears.

Hearing Li Si’s voice, the two boys were startled and quickly let go of each other, standing up, not daring to struggle against Li Si’s fingers.

“Not going to fight anymore?” Li Si asked, looking between the two.

“We won’t fight anymore,” the two boys glared at each other and said in unison.

Li Si chuckled and released them, then found a stone to sit on.

After sitting down, he beckoned the two to come over, then asked Yu Hu, “Tell me, why were you fighting? Yu Hu, you go first.”

Hearing Li Si ask this, Yu Hu immediately became indignant, pointing at Sun Zhi angrily and saying, “He said my family’s pork is sold too expensive! My family has been selling pork for decades, how could it be overpriced!”

“Oh?” Li Si listened, then turned to Sun Zhi and asked gently, “Did you say that?”

Seeing Li Si question him, Sun Zhi became nervous and stammered, “I… did say that.”

But Sun Zhi quickly added, “It’s what my father said.”

Li Si stood up, patted Sun Zhi’s head, and said with a smile, “Sometimes you shouldn’t just believe what others say is right. You need to have your own thoughts too. You can compare the price of pork at Yu Hu’s family with the prices of nearby pork sellers yourself, and then draw your own conclusion.”

Then Li Si turned to Yu Hu, glared at him, and said coldly, “Is fighting so great? Do you want to try fighting with me?”

Being scolded by Li Si, Yu Hu immediately became timid and didn’t dare to respond.

“Take this,” Li Si handed the medicine to Yu Hu and said, “Help me carry it home.”

He had just felt some pain in his internal organs again, so he simply found someone to help carry his things.

Yu Hu immediately took the medicine, his face beaming with joy.

Li Si then said to all the children, “Don’t come to my house for these few days. I need to rest well. Let each other know.”

After saying this, he left with Yu Hu, leaving the other children looking at each other in bewilderment.

On the way, Yu Hu kept talking to Li Si.

“Teacher, my father’s pork really isn’t expensive.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Teacher, do you want to buy pork from my family?”

“No, I don’t feel like eating it now.”

“Teacher, I can give it to you for free.”

Li Si paused his steps and turned to look at Yu Hu.

At the same time, Yu Hu looked at Li Si, his eyes revealing a joyful expression. He thought to himself, “Could it be that the teacher wants to accept our pork? Does that mean I can become the teacher’s disciple?”

The more he thought about it, the more excited he became, even fantasizing about the admiring looks his companions would give him after becoming the teacher’s disciple.

“I don’t need pork. If I want to eat pork, I’ll buy it myself,” Li Si’s eyes revealed a helpless expression. This Yu Hu acted like a little tyrant among his peers, so why was he so slick when with him? Just like his father.

And he was even better than his father, more talkative than him.

“Do you like fighting?” Li Si asked quickly before Yu Hu could continue speaking.

Hearing Li Si ask this, Yu Hu was suddenly at a loss for words and stammered, “I… don’t… like it.”

“You don’t like it?” Li Si looked into Yu Hu’s eyes, revealing a half-smiling expression.

Seeing Li Si’s expression, Yu Hu became even more flustered and immediately changed his words, saying, “I quite like it.”

After saying this, he secretly glanced at Li Si with his eyes, an expression that looked somewhat comical on this chubby boy’s face.

“Then why do you like fighting?” Li Si smiled, patted Yu Hu’s head, and walked towards his home.

“Because I want to be a hero. A hero can fight ten people at once,” Yu Hu, seeing Li Si pat his head, seemed encouraged and said excitedly.

“So you often fight because of this?” Li Si heard Yu Hu say this and couldn’t help but laugh. This child liked fighting for such a reason.

“Yes, teacher. Now I can fight two people at once,” Yu Hu said excitedly, as if feeling very honored.

“Do you know what hero means?” Li Si continued to ask.

Yu Hu was stunned and asked Li Si, “What does hero mean?”

Then the two continued walking towards Li Si’s home, while Li Si explained to him what hero meant, also telling him ideas like “The greatest hero serves the country and the people.”