si-mexico Chapter 170 Kun Gang Has a Remaining Gold from Yu Pu (9)
Chapter 170 Kun Gang Has a Remaining Gold from Yu Pu (9)
Li Tingyun never thought that admitting mistakes was useful.
Not to mention that in that situation, his father didn't even recognize him, so how could he possibly listen to what he said?
However, he was used to admitting his mistakes in front of his father.
Whenever his father beats him, he habitually shouts: "Dad, I was wrong! I will never curse, hit, play, eat, play with fire, tease cats and dogs, or go around causing trouble again!"
Such phrases are what he often uses and can say without thinking.
He always says he's learned his lesson and won't do this or that anymore, but in reality, he's done every naughty and mischievous thing in the world and still hasn't learned his lesson.
Li Tingyun's personality meant that he was often "beaten" since childhood.
He's so naughty, so incredibly naughty.
There are many reasons for being beaten: bullying other children, not paying attention to homework, having ugly handwriting, etc., especially not memorizing texts, not practicing calligraphy, not studying hard, and not striving for improvement every day.
His father was not only his father, but also his mentor. He was very strict in encouraging him to study. From the age of three, he taught him to read and write, and to practice calligraphy. There was always a ruler on his desk. Whenever he was absent-minded, lost his temper, or dared to talk back, he would hit his left palm with the ruler.
Seeing the chubby boy sobbing while holding his own hands, Ji Cizhang couldn't bear it. He was heartless at his desk, but once he left the study, he carried his son to the market.
Li Tingyun was also resilient; as long as there was good food, he would forget everything else.
Later, the family fell into poverty and moved out of Huangliang City to Lingxi Village. The Yuan clan jointly funded the construction of a school. Out of respect for the magistrate Yuan, who was also a relative, the village headman hired Ji Cizhang to teach at the private school. Naturally, Ji Yuanbao also went there to study.
But Yuanbao doesn't have the surname Yuan. As an outsider with a different surname, he is not well-liked. In addition, he is aloof and arrogant, offends people with his words, and acts recklessly. However, he excels in his studies, leaving no one behind. Such "uniqueness" makes him destined to be ostracized and isolated.
Don't underestimate the power struggles and conflicts between children.
Children's evil deeds are often the most chilling because they are young, do not have to bear responsibility, and have not been fully disciplined by worldly rules. The more ignorant they are, the more terrifying they are—pure evil, innocent wickedness.
In a child's eyes, everything has a spirit, so he talks and chats with stones, trees, flowers, and grass, which is full of childlike fun. But conversely, he may also see a living person as no different from a blade of grass or a flower, trampling on it or pulling it up at will.
He dared to set fire to the straw pile for fun, and he dared to push a living person into the fire pit to burn to death!
Li Tingyun was almost burned to death in the fire.
The fire was started by someone else, and he happened to witness it on his way home from buying soy sauce. Inadvertently, he got caught in the crossfire.
It's like bad luck has opened the door for bad luck; bad luck has reached its peak!
He happened to see the village's leader of the kids leading a group of his underlings playing with fire outside the ancestral hall's wall. These good sons and grandsons of the Yuan family had personally set the ancestral hall on fire!
The ancestral hall is constructed with wooden mortise and tenon joints in many places, making it extremely vulnerable to fire.
They dared not make a sound. Looking around, they saw Ji Yuanbao passing by carrying a jar of soy sauce. After a quick discussion, they rushed forward, grabbed the unfortunate boy, dragged him into the burning ancestral hall, locked the door, and scattered like birds and beasts.
Anyway, his surname is Ji, not Yuan. People can't always side with outsiders, right? As long as they all say the same thing, they can force him to be the culprit!
Li Tingyun kicked a soy sauce jar that had been smashed.
He smiled amidst the flames.
A bunch of noobs were able to catch him not because of their numbers, but because he never even considered resisting.
Playing with fire, huh? Once the crowd disperses, he'll dare to play even bigger! Let's see who's more evil, more cruel, and more despicable—who can be his match?
The fire created by the incompetents was not fierce at all; it only burned down a corner of the main hall roof before it was over.
Li Tingyun felt it wasn't enough.
He simply activated his spiritual power, causing the embers to reignite and the fire to spread.
Still not enough.
He yanked off the mountain spirit coin he was wearing, meant to ward off evil spirits and suppress malevolent forces.
This thing affects his performance; once he harbors thoughts of harming others, his magic will no longer work.
The wind blows! The fire ignites! The wind adds fuel to the fire!
The raging flames shot straight into the sky.
Thick smoke billowed, obscuring the sky and the sun.
The entire ancestral hall was burned down!
Not a single ancestral tablet was left; the family genealogy turned to ashes in an instant.
Li Tingyun was finally satisfied.
Before everyone arrived, he had already kicked open the door and run away in a flash. But instead of running home or anywhere else, he took the opportunity to run to the auspicious spot behind the ancestral hall.
Several graves were emptied in succession!
He couldn't possibly do this by himself, but luckily he had a skilled digger by his side.
Wangcai: That's right, it's me!
The stray yellow dog that everyone at the village entrance wanted to kill had been taken under Li Tingyun's wing after eating a few meals and being beaten a few times. He became Li Tingyun's trusted general through a combination of kindness and coercion, and followed him to climb trees to steal birds' nests, go into the water to catch fish, destroy ant nests, and break up a flock of mandarin ducks.
They were "utterly wicked".
Within a radius of a hundred miles, all birds and beasts trembled with fear at the mere mention of his name.
A man and his dog jumped on someone else's ancestral grave and ran wild, destroying the coffin and whipping the corpse, stealing gold and silver, and even taking a straight thigh bone to use as a stick. They then each urinated on the grave and made a bet on whose marked territory would grow mushrooms first.
Li Tingyun was born with a penchant for wasting things. He didn't use the stolen gold and silver jewelry for anything else; he used pearls to shoot sparrows and gold ingots to hunt birds, squandering it all in just one afternoon.
The leg bone of the person who used it as a stick was broken into three pieces. Wangcai disliked that it was not fresh and refused to eat it no matter what, so he had to throw it into the river.
He only remembered to go home after he had had enough fun.
He slapped his forehead – oh no! He'd forgotten to get another bottle of soy sauce.
So I bought some soy sauce, and it was already completely dark.
His house, however, was brightly lit.
A group of people carrying torches formed three layers of encirclement.
Everyone's waiting to settle accounts with him!
Upon seeing him, they were like tigers seeing pheasants, baring their teeth and brandishing their claws, their ranks more imposing than heavenly soldiers and generals. The clan leader, surrounded in the middle, was like the Jade Emperor, with two generals standing beside him: the one with bulging eyes was Guangmu, and the one with a fat head and big ears was Duowen…
Pshaw, a bunch of noobs.
Li Tingyun swaggered through the path deliberately left for him in the crowd.
If sharp gazes were like arrows shot from a bow, he would probably be riddled with holes.
But he didn't care at all.
When he reached the end, he saw his father and handed him the jar.
"Dad, the soy sauce is ready. I want to eat soy sauce chicken. You said you would make it for me."
Ji Cizhang asked him only one question: "Did you do it?"
Li Tingyun asked blankly, "What did I do?"
"The Yuan family ancestral hall was destroyed by fire, and even the ancestral graves were..."
Wow, this is amazing news!
Li Tingyun was initially surprised, then asked, "But what does this have to do with me?"
"Are you really not involved? You didn't do it?!"
"Really, no."
Seeing that he was clean and didn't look like he had set a fire or dug up a grave, Ji Cizhang reluctantly decided to believe him.
It would be a miracle if he could find any traces. Li Tingyun had already washed himself in the river and rubbed his clothes by hand; they weren't completely dry yet.
"What did you do this afternoon?"
"Catching fish in the stream."
"Not a single one caught?"
"We didn't catch a single one." Li Tingyun was a little frustrated.
"It's okay, I'll take you fishing next time!"
Ji Cizhang's eyes lit up, and he began to speak eloquently: "Fishing is a skill. You have to first use fish bait to create a feeding area, and then use earthworms and small insects as bait. The fish you catch can be steamed, braised, stir-fried with vinegar, or deep-fried! By the way, pickled fish is your mother's specialty..."
Someone tugged at him, "Husband, now doesn't seem like the time to 'list the dishes'."
"Hahaha... I forgot, thank you for reminding me." Ji Cizhang pinched his earlobe, looking rather embarrassed.
The clan chief and all the clan members looked at him with resentment: Seriously, aren't you a little too carefree? The conversation had veered off course and somehow ended up on a plate of pickled fish!
Ji Cizhang had no choice but to apologize to them.
"I'm sorry, but compared to that, the fact that your ancestral hall was burned down and your ancestral graves were dug up is more important."
"Husband, you're likely to get beaten up if you talk like that."
"No way? I'm just stating the facts..."
The clan chief couldn't take it anymore. "Your family must give us an explanation today!"
Ji Cizhang stroked his son's head. "An explanation? What kind of explanation do you want? You heard it yourself, this kind of immoral thing wasn't done by my chubby son."
Although his son can be quite impulsive at times, he just likes to try new things and doesn't want to tire himself out.
Digging up graves is too tiring, and given his "laziness," I'm sure he wouldn't do it.
If you really asked him to dig so many deep pits, he'd probably throw down his shovel and curse halfway through!
No one knows a son better than his father.
If Li Tingyun could hear his father's true feelings, even if he didn't want to admit it, he would have to:
His father's description of his thoughts was absolutely accurate!
If he hadn't been driven by a strong motive of "revenge," he wouldn't have bothered digging up the grave and whipping the corpse. He would have run home early that morning with a jar of soy sauce to help kill the chickens—his father was too useless; he couldn't even kill a chicken.
Last time he said he wanted to eat soy sauce chicken, his dad grabbed the chicken by the neck and slashed at it with a knife for a long time. If you didn't know better, you would think he was learning to play the pipa!
Finally, the chicken stopped moving. Just as we were about to pluck its feathers from the boiling water, it suddenly flapped its wings and jumped up, scalding itself and crawling all over the place.
Li Tingyun was dumbfounded.
I can't believe it! Is killing a chicken really that difficult?!
He stepped on the chicken's head, swiftly brought down the knife, and blood splattered everywhere.
He picked up the decapitated chicken, blood still gushing from its neck.
He handed it to his father with a "here".
Ji Cizhang jumped up and down, screaming, "Take it away! Take it away! It's too cruel! It's too cruel!"
Li Tingyun didn't think so. Compared to scalding a live chicken, he was clearly "merciful" to kill it with one cut.
He felt his father was useless.
But his father wasn't entirely without merit.
In some aspects, once he gets going, he can be quite formidable.
For example, eloquence.
Ji Cizhang firmly believed that Li Tingyun had been "framed." Facing the aggressive Yuan clan members, he remained calm and debated with them.
That day, dozens of mouths and tongues were all defeated by his sharp tongue alone.
Scholars are known for using words, not fists. Even if they don't swear, they can still talk a man to death with their reasoning.
Unlike Li Tingyun, who was known for his foul language, Ji Cizhang, when sober, was incredibly eloquent. Whether he was reasoning or sophistry, he could cite classical texts and speak with great clarity and logic.
The words that come out of his mouth can be written down verbatim without adding, deleting, or changing a single word or phrase, and it becomes a wonderfully written article that will leave you amazed. It has a beginning and an end that echo each other, hidden secrets and is worth savoring repeatedly.